With silken streamers the young Phoebus fanning...
Work, work your thoughts, and therein see a siege;
Behold the ordnanceDefinitioncannons / artillery on their carriages,
With fatal mouths gaping on girded Harfleur.
Suppose the ambassador from the French comes back;
Tells Harry that the king doth offer him
Katharine his daughter, and with her, to dowry,
Some petty and unprofitable dukedoms.
The offer likes not: and the nimble gunner
With linstockDefinitionstick holding the match to fire the cannon now the devilish cannon touches,
[Alarum, and chambers go off.]
And down goes all before them. Still be kind,
And eke out our performance with your mind.
Exit.
Scene 1
Alarum. Enter KING HENRY, EXETER, BEDFORD, GLOUCESTER, and Soldiers, with scaling-ladders.
King Henry V
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once moreFamous LineHenry urges his men to charge back into the gap in the city wall ("the breach").;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect...
On, on, you noblest English...
And you, good yeomen,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not...
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'
Exeunt. Alarum, and chambers go off.
Scene 2
Enter NYM, BARDOLPH, PISTOL, and Boy.
Bardolph
On, on, on, on, on! to the breach, to the breach!
Nym
Pray thee, corporal, stay: the knocks are too hot...
Pistol
Knocks go and come; God's vassals drop and die;
And sword and shield,
In bloody field,
Doth win immortal fame.
Boy
Would I were in an alehouse in London! I would give
all my fame for a pot of ale and safety.
Enter FLUELLEN.
Fluellen
Up to the breach, you dogs! avaunt, you cullions!
Driving them forward.
Pistol
Be merciful, great duke, to men of mould.
Abate thy rage, abate thy manly rage...
Exeunt ALL except Boy.
Boy
As young as I am, I have observed these three
swashers. I am boy to them all three: but all they
three, though they wait upon me, could not be man to
me; for indeed three such antics do not amount to a
man... They will steal any thing, and call it purchase.
Exit.
Enter GOWER and FLUELLEN.
Gower
Captain Fluellen, you must come presently to the
mines; the Duke of Gloucester would speak with you.
Fluellen
To the mines! tell you the duke, it is not so good
to come to the mines; for, look you, the mines is
not according to the disciplines of the war...
Enter MACMORRIS and Captain JAMY.
Gower
Here a' comes; and the Scots captain, Captain Jamy,
with him.
Fluellen
Captain Jamy is a marvellous falorous gentleman...
Macmorris
By Chrish, la! tish ill done: the work ish give
over, the trompet sound the retreat. By my hand, I
swear, and my father's soul, the work ish ill done;
it ish give over: I would have blowed up the town,
so Chrish save me, la! in an hour...
Fluellen
Captain Macmorris, I beseech you now, will you
vouchsafe me, look you, a few disputations with you,
as partly touching or concerning the disciplines of
the war, the Roman wars...
Macmorris
It is no time to discourse... the day is hot, and
the weather, and the wars, and the king, and the
dukes: it is no time to discourse.
A parley sounded.
Scene 3
Enter the KING and all his train before the gates.
King Henry V
How yet resolves the governor of the town?
This is the latest parle we will admit...
If I begin the battery once again,
I will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur
Till in her ashes she lie buried.
The gates of mercy shall be all shut up,
And the flesh'd soldier, rough and hard of heart,
In liberty of bloody hand shall range
With conscience wide as hell, mowing like grass
Your fresh-fair virgins and your flowering infants...
What say you? will you yield, and this avoid,
Or, guilty in defence, be thus destroy'd?
Governor
Our expectation hath this day an end:
The Dauphin, whom of succors we entreated,
Returns us that his powers are yet not ready
To raise so great a siege. Therefore, great king,
We yield our town and lives to thy soft mercy.
Enter our gates; dispose of us and ours;
For we no longer are defensible.
King Henry V
Open your gates. Come, uncle Exeter,
Go you and enter Harfleur; there remain,
And fortify it strongly 'gainst the French:
Use mercy to them all. For us, dear uncle,
The winter coming on and sickness growing
Upon our soldiers, we will retire to Calais.
To-night in Harfleur will we be your guest;
To-morrow for the march are we addrest.
Flourish. The King enters the town.
Scene 4
The FRENCH KING'S palace. Enter KATHARINE and ALICE.
Katharine
Alice, tu as été en Angleterre, et tu parles bien le langage.
Alice
Un peu, madame.
Katharine
Je te prie, m'enseignez; il faut que j'apprenne à
parler. Comment appelez-vous la main en Anglais?
Alice
La main? elle est appelée de hand.
Katharine
De hand. Et les doigts?
Alice
Les doigts? ma foi, j'oublie les doigts; mais je me
souviendrai. Les doigts? je pense qu'ils sont
appelés de fingres; oui, de fingres.
[...The lesson continues with nails, arm, elbow, neck, and chin...]
Katharine
De foot et de coun! O Seigneur Dieu! ce sont mots
de son mauvais, corruptible, gros, et impudique,
et non pour les dames d'honneur d'user: je ne
voudrais prononcer ces mots devant les seigneurs
de France pour tout le monde. Foh! le foot et le
coun! Néanmoins, je réciterai une autre fois ma
leçon ensemble: d'hand, de fingres, de nails,
d'arm, d'elbow, de neck, de sin, de foot, de coun.
Alice
Excellent, madame!
Katharine
C'est assez pour une fois: allons-nous à dîner.
Exeunt.
Scene 5
The same. Enter the KING OF FRANCE, the DAUPHIN, the DUKE OF BOURBON, the CONSTABLE OF FRANCE, and others.
French King
'Tis certain he hath pass'd the river Somme.
Constable
And if he be not fought withal, my lord,
Let us not live in France; let us quit all
And give our vineyards to a barbarous people.
Dauphin
O Dieu vivant! shall a few sprays of us,
The emptying of our fathers' luxury,
Our scionsDefinitionshoots / grafts (descendants), put in wild and savage stock,
Spurt up so suddenly into the clouds,
And overlook their grafters?
French King
Where is Montjoy the herald? speed him hence:
Let him greet England with our sharp defiance.
Up, princes! and, with spirit of honour edged
More sharper than your swords, hie to the field...
For Harry England, that sweeps through our land
With pennons painted in the blood of Harfleur:
Rush on his host, as doth the melted snow
Upon the valleys, whose low vassal seat
The Alps doth spit and void his rheum upon:
Go down upon him, you have power enough,
And in a captive chariot into Rouen
Bring him our prisoner.
Exeunt.
Scene 6
The English camp in Picardy. Enter GOWER and FLUELLEN.
Gower
How now, Captain Fluellen! come you from the bridge?
Fluellen
I assure you, there is very excellent services
committed at the bridge... The Duke of Exeter has
very gallantly maintained the pridge...
Enter PISTOL.
Pistol
Captain, I thee beseech to do me favours:
The Duke of Exeter doth love thee well.
Bardolph, a soldier, firm and sound of heart,
And of buxomDefinitionlively / brisk valor, hath, by cruel fate,
And giddy Fortune's furious fickle wheel,
That goddess blind,
That stands upon the rolling restless stone...
For he hath stolen a paxHistorical NoteA pax is a tablet stamped with a sacred image used in Mass. Stealing it was a sacrilege. In real history (Holinshed), a soldier stole a pyx (box for the Host). Shakespeare changes it to a pax, possibly for the pun on "peace.", and hanged must a' be:
A damned death!
Let gallows gape for dog; let man go free
And let not hemp his wind-pipe suffocate:
But Exeter hath given the doom of death
For pax of little price.
Therefore, go speak: the duke will hear thy voice.
Fluellen
If he were my brother, I would desire the duke to
use his good pleasure, and put him to execution;
for discipline ought to be used.
Pistol
Die and be damn'd! and figoDefinitionan obscene gesture (the fig) for thy friendship!
Fluellen
It is well.
Pistol
The fig of SpainDefinitionanother obscene gesture!
Exit.
Drum and colours. Enter KING HENRY, GLOUCESTER, and Soldiers.
King Henry V
How now, Fluellen! camest thou from the bridge?
Fluellen
Ay, so please your majesty. The Duke of Exeter has
very gallantly maintained the pridge... One
Bardolph, if your majesty know the man: his face is
all bubukles, and whelks, and knobs, and flames o'
fire: and his lips blows at his nose, and it is like
a coal of fire, sometimes plue and sometimes red;
but his nose is executed and his fire's out.
King Henry V
We would have all such offenders so cut off: and we
give express charge, that in our marches through the
country, there be nothing compelled from the
villages, nothing taken but paid for, none of the
French upbraided or abused in disdainful language;
for when lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the
gentler gamester is the soonest winner.
Tucket. Enter MONTJOY.
Montjoy
You know me by my habit.
King Henry V
Well then I know thee: what shall I know of thee?
Montjoy
My master's mind...
Thus says my king: Say thou to Harry of England:
Though we seemed dead, we did but sleep...
Bid him therefore consider of his ransom; which must
proportion the losses we have borne, the subjects we
have lost, the disgrace we have digested...
For our losses, his exchequer is too poor; for the
effusion of our blood, the muster of his kingdom too
faint a number; and for our disgrace, his own person,
kneeling at our feet, but a weak and worthless
satisfaction.
King Henry V
Thou dost thy office fairly. Turn thee back.
And tell thy king I do not seek him now;
But could be willing to march on to Calais
Without impeachment: for, to say the sooth,
Though 'tis no wisdom to confess so much
Unto an enemy of craft and vantage,
My people are with sickness much enfeebled,
My numbers lessen'd, and those few I have
Almost no better than so many French...
Go to; say you so.
If we may pass, we will; if we be hinder'd,
We shall your tawny ground with your red blood
Discolour: and so, Montjoy, fare you well.
The sum of all our answer is but this:
We would not seek a battle, as we are;
Nor, as we are, we say we will not shun it:
So tell your master.
Exeunt.
Scene 7
The French camp, near Agincourt. Enter the CONSTABLE OF FRANCE, the LORD RAMBURES, ORLEANS, DAUPHIN, with others.
Constable
Tut! I have the best armour of the world. Would it were day!
Orleans
You have an excellent armour; but let my horse have his due.
Dauphin
Will it never be day? I will trot to-morrow a mile,
and my way shall be paved with English faces.
Constable
I will not say so, for fear I should be faced out
of my way. But I would it were morning; for I would
fain be about the ears of the English.
Rambures
Who will go to hazard with me for twenty prisoners?
Constable
You must first go yourself to hazard, ere you have them.
Dauphin
'Tis midnight; I'll go arm myself.
Exit.
Orleans
The Dauphin longs for morning.
Rambures
He longs to eat the English.
Constable
I think he will eat all he kills.
Orleans
By the white hand of my lady, he's a gallant prince.
Constable
Swear by her foot, that she may tread out the oath.
He is simply the most active gentleman of France.
Orleans
Doing is activity; and he will still be doing.
Constable
He never did harm, that I heard of.
...
Now is it time to arm: come, shall we about it?
Orleans
It is now two o'clock: but, let me see, by ten
We shall have each a hundred Englishmen.
Exeunt.
Critical Frameworks & Sources
The analysis notes in this act rely on the following historical and thematic concepts:
The Rules of War: Henry's strict discipline (hanging Bardolph for theft) and his threat to Harfleur reflect the brutal realities of 15th-century warfare, where "total war" was a valid tactic to force surrender.
The Four Captains: Shakespeare uses Gower, Fluellen, Macmorris, and Jamy to represent the "British Union." Despite their bickering and different dialects, they fight together under one King—a piece of political propaganda for James I (who united the crowns).
Language as Conquest: The scene where Katherine learns English body parts is funny but thematically dark. She is "learning the language of the conqueror," preparing for her role as a political pawn in the peace treaty.