With treacherous crownsDefinitioncoins (money); and three corrupted men,
One, Richard Earl of Cambridge, and the second,
Henry Lord Scroop of Masham, and the third,
Sir Thomas Grey, knight, of Northumberland,
Have, for the giltDefinitiongold / money (pun on 'guilt') of France, O guilt indeed!
Confirm'd conspiracy with fearful France;
And by their hands this grace of kings must die,
If hell and treason hold their promises,
Ere he take ship for France, and in Southampton.
Linger your patience on; and we'll digest
The abuse of distance; force a play:
The sum is paid; the traitors are agreed;
The king is set from London; and the scene
Is now transported, gentles, to Southampton;
There is the playhouse now, there must you sit:
And thence to France shall we convey you safe,
And bring you back, charming the narrow seas
To give you gentle pass; for, if we may,
We'll not offend one stomach with our play.
But, till the king come forth, and not till then,
Unto Southampton do we shift our scene.
Exit.
Scene 1
London. A street. Enter Corporal Nym and Lieutenant Bardolph.
Bardolph
Well met, Corporal Nym.
Nym
Good morrow, Lieutenant Bardolph.
Bardolph
What, are Ancient Pistol and you friends yet?
Nym
For my part, I care not: I say little; but when
time shall serve, there shall be smiles; but that
shall be as it may. I dare not fight; but I will
wink and hold out mine iron: it is a simple one;
but what though? it will toast cheese, and it will
endure cold as another man's sword will: and
there's an end.
Enter Pistol and Hostess.
Bardolph
Here comes AncientDefinitionEnsign (standard-bearer) Pistol and his wife: good corporal, be patient here.
Pistol
Base tike, call'st thou me host?
Now, by this hand, I swear, I scorn the term;
Nor shall my Nell keep lodgers.
Hostess
No, by my troth, not long...
Nym
I will cut thy throat, one time or other,
in fair terms: that is the humor of it.
Pistol
"Couple a gorge!"
That is the word. I thee defy again.
O hound of Crete, think'st thou my spouse to get?
No; to the spitalDefinitionhospital (usually for venereal diseases) go,
And from the powdering-tub of infamy
Fetch forth the lazar kiteDefinitiondiseased bird of prey (insult) of Cressid's kind,
Doll Tearsheet she by name, and her espouse:
I have, and I will hold, the quondam Quickly
For the only she; and--Pauca, there's enough. Go to.
Enter the Boy.
Boy
Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master,
and you, hostess: he is very sick, and would to bed.
Good Bardolph, put thy face between his sheets, and
do the office of a warming-pan. Faith, he's very ill.
Hostess
The king has killed his heart. Good husband, come home presently.
Exeunt Hostess and Boy.
Bardolph
Come, shall I make you two friends? We must to
France together: why the devil should we keep
knives to cut one another's throats?
Pistol
Let floods o'erswell, and fiends for food howl on!
Nym
You'll pay me the eight shillings I won of you at betting?
Pistol
Base is the slave that pays.
Nym
That now I will have: that's the humor of it.
Draws.
Pistol
As manhood shall compound: push home.
They draw.
Bardolph
By this sword, he that makes the first thrust,
I'll kill him; by this sword, I will.
Pistol
Sword is an oath, and oaths must have their course.
Enter Hostess.
Hostess
As ever you came of women, come in quickly to Sir
John. Ah, poor heart! he is so shaked of a burning
quotidian tertian, that it is most lamentable to
behold. Sweet men, come to him.
Nym
The king hath run bad humors on the knight; that's the even of it.
Pistol
Nym, thou hast spoke the right;
His heart is fracted and corroborateLinguistic ComedyPistol uses big words incorrectly. "Fracted" means broken, but "corroborate" means strengthened. He likely means "corrupted" or "broken.".
Nym
The king is a good king: but it must be as it may;
he passes some humors and careers.
Pistol
Let us condole the knight; for, lambkins, we will live.
Exeunt.
Scene 2
Southampton. A council-chamber. Enter EXETER, BEDFORD, and WESTMORELAND.
Bedford
His grace is bold, to trust these traitors so.
Exeter
They shall be apprehended by and by.
Enter KING HENRY V, SCROOP, CAMBRIDGE, GREY, and Attendants.
King Henry V
Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard...
Uncle of Exeter,
Enlarge the man committed yesterday,
That rail'd against our person: we consider
It was excess of wine that set him on;
And on his more advice we pardon him.
Scroop
That's mercy, but too much security:
Let him be punish'd, sovereign, lest example
Breed, by his sufferance, more of such a kind.
King Henry V
O, let us yet be merciful.
Cambridge
So may your highness, and yet punish too.
Grey
Sir,
You show great mercy, if you give him life,
After the taste of much correction.
King Henry V
Alas, your too much love and care of me
Are heavy orisons 'gainst this poor wretch!
If little faults, proceeding on distemper,
Shall not be wink'd at, how shall we stretch our eye
When capital crimesDefinitioncrimes punishable by death, chew'd, swallow'd and digested,
Appear before us? We'll yet enlarge that man.
...Read them, and know, I know your worthiness.
My Lord of Westmoreland, and uncle Exeter,
We will aboard to night. Why, how now, gentlemen!
What see you in those papers that you lose
So much complexion? Look ye, how they change!
Their cheeks are paper. Why, what read you there,
That hath so cowarded and chased your blood
Out of appearance?
Cambridge
I do confess my fault;
And do submit me to your highness' mercy.
Grey & Scroop
To which we all appeal.
King Henry V
The mercy that was quick in us but late,
By your own counsel is suppress'd and kill'd:
You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy;
For your own reasons turn into your bosoms,
As dogs upon their masters, worrying you.
See you, my princes and my noble peers,
These English monsters! My Lord of Cambridge here,
You know how apt our love was to accord
To furnish him with all appertinents...
And this man
Hath, for a few light crowns, lightly conspired,
And sworn unto the practices of France,
To kill us here in Hampton: to the which
This knight, no less for bounty bound to us
Than Cambridge is, hath likewise sworn. But, O,
What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop? thou cruel,
Ingrateful, savage and inhuman creature!
Thou that didst bear the key of all my counsels,
That knew'st the very bottom of my soul,
That almost mightst have coin'd me into gold...
I will weep for thee;
For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like
Another fall of manBiblical AllusionHenry compares Scroop's betrayal to the original sin of Adam. It suggests the betrayal is not just political, but a corruption of the soul..
Get you therefore hence,
Poor miserable wretches, to your death:
The taste whereof, God of his mercy give
You patience to endure, and true repentance
Of all your dear offences! Bear them hence.
Exeunt Cambridge, Scroop and Grey, guarded.
King Henry V
Now, lords, for France; the enterprise whereof
Shall be to you, as us, like glorious.
We doubt not of a fair and lucky war,
Since God so graciously hath brought to light
This dangerous treason lurking in our way
To hinder our beginnings. We doubt not now
But every rub is smoothed on our way.
Then forth, dear countrymen: let us deliver
Our puissance into the hand of God,
Putting it straight in expedition.
Cheerly to sea; the signs of war advance:
No king of England, if not king of France.
Exeunt.
Scene 3
London. Before a tavern. Enter PISTOL, Hostess, NYM, BARDOLPH, and Boy.
Hostess
Prithee, honey-sweet husband, let me bring thee to Staines.
Pistol
No; for my manly heart doth yearn.
Bardolph, be blithe: Nym, rouse thy vaunting veins:
Boy, bristle thy courage up; for Falstaff he is dead,
And we must yearn therefore.
Bardolph
Would I were with him, wheresomever he is, either in
heaven or in hell!
Hostess
Nay, sure, he's not in hell: he's in Arthur's bosomDefinitionMalapropism for "Abraham's Bosom" (Heaven),
if ever man went to Arthur's bosom. A' made
a finer end and went away an it had been any
christom child; a' parted even just between twelve
and one, even at the turning o' the tide: for after
I saw him fumble with the sheets and play with
flowers and smile upon his fingers' ends, I knew
there was but one way; for his nose was as sharp as
a pen, and a' babbled of green fieldsTextual NoteOne of the most famous emendations in Shakespeare. The original text read "a table of green fields," which made no sense. Editor Lewis Theobald changed it to "babbled," creating a poignant image of the dying Falstaff remembering his youth..
"How now, Sir John!" quoth I: "what, man! be o' good
cheer." So a' cried out "God, God, God!" three or
four times. Now I, to comfort him, bid him a' should
not think of God; I hoped there was no need to
trouble himself with any such thoughts yet. So a'
bade me lay more clothes on his feet: I put my
hand into the bed and felt them, and they were as
cold as any stone; then I felt to his knees, and
they were as cold as any stone, and so upward and
upward, and all was as cold as any stone.
Nym
They say he cried out of sack.
Hostess
Ay, that a' did.
Bardolph
And of women.
Hostess
Nay, that a' did not.
Boy
Yes, that a' did; and said they were devils incarnate.
...
Pistol
Come, let's away. My love, give me thy lips.
Look to my chattels and my movables:
Let senses rule; the word is "Pitch and Pay"DefinitionCash only / Pay up front:
Trust none;
For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes,
And hold-fast is the only dog, my duck:
Therefore, CavetoDefinitionBeware (Latin) be thy counsellor.
Go, clear thy crystals. Yoke-fellows in arms,
Let us to France; like horse-leeches, my boys,
To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck!
Exeunt.
Scene 4
France. The KING'S palace. Enter the FRENCH KING, the DAUPHIN, the DUKES OF BERRI and BRETAGNE, the CONSTABLE, and others.
Of that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales.
Enter EXETER.
Exeter
From him; and thus he greets your majesty.
He wills you, in the name of God Almighty,
That you divest yourself, and lay apart
The borrow'd glories that by gift of heaven,
By law of nature and of nations, 'long
To him and to his heirs; namely, the crown...
Scorn you this condition?
He bids you then resign
Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held
From him the native and true challenger.
French King
Or else what follows?
Exeter
Bloody constraintRhetoricExeter uses visceral, violent imagery (widows' tears, orphans' cries) to threaten the French King, contrasting with the diplomatic setting.; for if you hide the crown
Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it:
Therefore in fierce tempest is he coming,
In thunder and in earthquake, like a Jove...
[To the Dauphin] And as for you,
He sends you this most memorable line,
In every branch of his most remarkable pedigree,
And from this insult he will redeem the rest.
French King
To-morrow shall you know our mind at full.
Exeter
Dispatch us with all speed, lest that our king
Come here himself to question our delay;
For he is footed in this land already.
Flourish. Exeunt.
Critical Frameworks & Sources
The analysis notes in this act rely on the following historical and thematic concepts:
The Southampton Plot: The conspiracy of Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey was real (1415). Shakespeare dramatizes it to show Henry's divine protection and his steely resolve, contrasting his "wild" youth with his current "machiavellian" competence.
The Death of Falstaff: Though Falstaff does not appear on stage in Henry V, his death in Scene 3 marks the definitive end of Henry's youth. The King has "killed his heart" by rejecting his former self.
The Dauphin's Hubris: The French court acts as a foil to the English. While Henry is pious and prepared, the Dauphin is arrogant and dismissive, setting up the dramatic irony of the later French defeat.