Whose shouts and claps out-voice the deep-mouth'd sea...
So let him land,
And solemnly see him set on to London.
So swift a pace hath thought that even now
You may imagine him upon Blackheath...
But now behold,
In the quick forge and working-house of thought,
How London doth pour out her citizens!
The mayor and all his brethren in best sort,
Like to the senators of the antique Rome,
With the plebeians swarming at their heels,
Go forth and fetch their conquering Caesar in...
Now in London place him;
As yet the lamentation of the French
Invites the King of England's stay at home;
The emperor's coming in behalf of France,
To order peace between them; and omit
All the occurrences, whatever chanced,
Till Harry's back-return again to France:
There must we bring him; and myself have play'd
The interim, by remembering you 'tis past.
Then brook abridgement, and your eyes advance,
After your thoughts, straight back again to France.
Exit.
Scene 1
France. The English camp. Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER.
Gower
Nay, that's right; but why wear you your leekDefinitionWelsh national emblem, worn on St. David's Day (March 1) to-day?
Saint Davy's day is past.
Fluellen
There is occasions and causes why and wherefore in
all things: I will tell you, asse my friend,
Captain Gower: the rascally, scauld, beggarly,
lousy, pragging knave, Pistol, which you and
yourself and all the world know to be no petter
than a fellow, look you now, of no merits, he is
come to me and prings me pread and salt yesterday,
look you, and bid me eat my leek: it was in a
place where I could not breed no contention with
him; but I will be so bold as to wear it in my cap
till I see him once again, and then I will tell him
a little piece of my desires.
Enter PISTOL.
Gower
Why, here he comes, swelling like a turkey-cock.
Fluellen
'Tis no matter for his swellings nor his
turkey-cocks. God pless you, Aunchient Pistol! you
scurvy, lousy knave, God pless you!
Pistol
Ha! art thou bedlam? dost thou thirst, base Trojan,
To have me fold up Parca's fatal web?
Hence! I am qualmish at the smell of leek.
Fluellen
I peseech you heartily, scurvy, lousy knave, at my
desires, and my requests, and my petitions, to eat,
look you, this leek: because, look you, you do not
love it, nor your affections and your appetites and
your digestions doo not agree with it, I would
desire you to eat it.
Pistol
Not for Cadwallader and all his goats.
Fluellen
There is one goat for you.
[Strikes him.]
Will you be so good, scauld knave, as eat it?
Pistol
Base Trojan, thou shalt die.
Fluellen
You say very true, scauld knave, when God's will
is: I will desire you to live in the mean time, and
eat your victuals: come, there is sauce for it.
[Strikes him.]
You called me yesterday mountain-squire; but I will
make you to-day a squire of low degree. I pray
you, fall to: if you can mock a leek, you can eat a leek.
Gower
Enough, captain: you have astonished him.
Fluellen
I say, I will make him eat some part of my leek, or
I will beat his pate four days. Bite, I pray you;
it is good for your green wound and your ploody coxcomb.
Pistol
Must I bite?
Fluellen
Yes, certainly, and out of doubt and out of
question too, and ambiguities.
Pistol
By this leek, I will most horribly revenge: I eat
and eat, I swear--
Fluellen
Eat, I pray you: will you have some more sauce to
your leek? there is not enough leek to swear by.
Pistol
Quiet thy cudgel; thou dost see I eat.
Fluellen
Much good do it you, scauld knave, heartily. Nay,
pray you, throw none away; the skin is good for
your broken coxcomb. When you take occasions to see
leeks hereafter, I pray you, mock at 'em; that is all.
Pistol
Good.
Fluellen
Ay, leeks is good: hold you, there is a groatDefinitionfour-penny coin to heal your pate.
Pistol
Me a groat!
Fluellen
Yes, verily and in truth, you shall take it; or I
have another leek in my pocket, which you shall eat.
Pistol
I take thy groat in earnest of revenge.
Fluellen
If I owe you any thing, I will pay you in cudgels:
you shall be a woodmonger, and buy nothing of me
but cudgels. God b' wi' you, and keep you, and
heal your pate.
Exit.
Pistol
All hell shall stir for this.
Gower
Go, go; you are a counterfeit cowardly knave.
Will you mock at an ancient tradition, begun upon
an honourable respect, and worn as a memorable
trophy of predeceased valour and dare not avouch in
your deeds any of your words? I have seen you
gleeking and galling at this gentleman twice or
thrice. You thought, because he could not speak
English in the native garb, he could not therefore
handle an English cudgel: you find it otherwise;
and henceforth let a Welsh correction teach you a
good English condition. Fare ye well.
Exit.
Pistol
Doth Fortune play the huswife with me now?
News have I, that my Nell is dead i' the spital
Of malady of France;
And there my rendezvous is quite cut off.
Old I do wax; and from my weary limbs
Honour is cudgelled. Well, bawd I'll turn,
And something lean to cutpurse of quick hand.
To England will I steal, and there I'll steal:
And patches will I get unto these cudgell'd scars,
And swear I got them in the Gallia wars.
Exit.
Scene 2
France. A royal palace. Enter, at one door, KING HENRY, EXETER, BEDFORD, GLOUCESTER, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and other Lords; at another, the FRENCH KING, QUEEN ISABEL, the PRINCESS KATHARINE, ALICE and other Ladies; the DUKE OF BURGUNDY, and his train.
King Henry V
Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are met!
Unto our brother France, and to our sister,
Health and fair time of day; joy and good wishes
To our most fair and princely cousin Katharine...
French King
Right joyous are we to behold your face,
Most worthy brother England; fairly met...
Burgundy
My duty to you both, on equal love,
Great Kings of France and England! That I have labour'd,
With all my wits, my pains and strong endeavors,
To bring your most imperial majesties
Unto this bar and royal interview,
Your mightiness on both parts best can witness...
...Why that the naked, poor and mangled Peace,
Dear nurse of arts, plenties and joyful births,
Should not in this best garden of the world,
Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage?
Alas, she hath from France too long been chased,
And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps,
Corrupting in its own fertility.
King Henry V
If, Duke of Burgundy, you would the peace,
Whose want gives growth to the imperfections
Which you have cited, you must buy that peace
With full accord to all our just demands...
French King
I have but with a cursoraryDefinitioncursory / hasty eye
O'erglanced the articles...
King Henry V
Brother, we shall.
...Yet leave our cousin Katharine here with us:
She is our capital demand, comprised
Within the fore-rank of our articles.
Exeunt all except HENRY, KATHARINE, and ALICE.
King Henry V
Fair Katharine, and most fair,
Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms
Such as will enter at a lady's ear
And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart?
Katharine
Your majesty shall mock at me; I cannot speak your England.
King Henry V
O fair Katharine, if you will love me soundly with
your French heart, I will be glad to hear you
confess it brokenly with your English tongue. Do
you like me, Kate?
Katharine
Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell vat is 'like me'.
King Henry V
An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like an angel.
Katharine
Que dit-il? que je suis semblable à les anges?
Alice
Oui, vraiment, sauf votre grâce, ainsi dit-il.
King Henry V
I said so, dear Katharine; and I must not blush to
affirm it.
Katharine
O bon Dieu! les langues des hommes sont pleines de
tromperies.
King Henry V
What says she, fair one? that the tongues of men
are full of deceits?
Alice
Oui, dat de tongues of de mans is be full of
deceits: dat is de princess.
King Henry V
The princess is the better Englishwoman. I' faith,
Kate, my wooing is fit for thy understanding: I am
glad thou canst speak no better English; for, if
thou couldst, thou wouldst find me such a plain kingDefinitionsimple / unadorned (Henry claims to lack rhetorical skill, which is ironic)
that thou wouldst think I had sold my farm to buy
my crown. I know no ways to mince it in love, but
directly to say 'I love you'...
If thou wouldst have such a one, take me; if not,
to say to thee that I shall die, is true; but for
thy love, by the Lord, no; yet I love thee too.
...Come, I know thou lovest me: and at night, when
you come into your closet, you'll question this
gentlewoman about me; and I know, Kate, you will to
her dispraise those parts in me that you love with
your heart...
But, Kate, dost thou understand thus much English?
Canst thou love me?
Katharine
I cannot tell.
King Henry V
Can any of your neighbors tell, Kate? I'll ask
them. Come, I know thou lovest me...
Shall not thou and I, between Saint Denis and Saint
George, compound a boy, half French, half English,
that shall go to Constantinople and take the Turk
by the beard? shall we not?
Katharine
I do not know dat.
King Henry V
No; 'tis hereafter to know, but now to promise...
How answer you, la plus belle Katharine du monde,
mon très cher et devin déesse?
Katharine
Your majestee ave fausse French enough to deceive
de most sage demoiselle dat is en France.
King Henry V
Now, fie upon my false French! By mine honor, in
true English, I love thee, Kate...
Put off your maiden blushes; avouch the thoughts of
your heart with the looks of an empress; take me
by the hand, and say 'Harry of England, I am thine':
which word thou shalt no sooner bless mine ear
withal, but I will tell thee aloud 'England is
thine, Ireland is thine, France is thine, and
Henry Plantagenet is thine'...
Katharine
Is it possible dat I sould love de enemy of France?
King Henry V
No; it is not possible you should love the enemy of
France, Kate: but, in loving me, you should love
the friend of France; for I love France so well
that I will not part with a village of it; I will
have it all mine: and, Kate, when France is mine
and I am yours, then yours is France and you are mine.
Katharine
I cannot tell vat is dat.
King Henry V
No, Kate? I will tell thee in French...
Quand j'ai le possession de France, et quand vous
avez le possession de moi,—let me see, what then?
Saint Denis be my speed!—donc votre est France et
vous êtes mienne. It is as easy for me, Kate, to
conquer the kingdom as to speak so much more
French: I shall never move thee in French, unless
it be to laugh at me.
...But, Kate, I will tell thee in French; which I am
sure will hang upon my tongue like a new-married
wife about her husband's neck, hardly to be shook
off. Je quand sur le possession de France, et quand
vous avez le possession de moi...
Now, beshrew my father's ambition! he was thinking
of civil wars when he got me: therefore was I
created with a stubborn outside, with an aspect of
iron...
Katharine
Dat is as it sall please de roi mon père.
King Henry V
Nay, it will please him well, Kate; it shall please
him, Kate.
Katharine
Den it sall also content me.
King Henry V
Upon that I kiss your hand, and I call you my queen.
Katharine
Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez...
Il n'est pas la coutume de France.
King Henry V
It is not the fashion for the maids in France to
kiss before they are married, would she say?
Alice
Oui, vraiment.
King Henry V
O Kate, nice customs curtsy to great kings.
...Therefore, patiently and yielding.
[Kisses her.]
You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate: there is
more eloquence in a sugar touch of them than in the
tongues of the French council; and they should
sooner persuade Harry of England than a general
petition of monarchs.
Re-enter the FRENCH KING and his QUEEN, BURGUNDY, and other Lords.
Burgundy
God save your majesty! my royal cousin, teach you
our princess English?
King Henry V
I would have her learn, my fair cousin, how
perfectly I love her; and that is good English.
Burgundy
Is she not apt?
King Henry V
Our tongue is rough, coz, and my condition is not
smooth; so that, having neither the voice nor the
heart of flattery about me, I cannot so conjure up
the spirit of love in her, that he will appear in
his true likeness.
French King
We have consented to all terms of reason.
King Henry V
Is't so, my lords of England?
Westmoreland
The king hath granted every article:
His daughter first, and then in sequel all,
According to their firm proposed natures.
King Henry V
I pray you then, in love and dear alliance,
Let that one article rank with the rest;
And thereupon give me your daughter.
French King
Take her, fair son, and from her blood raise up
Issue to me; that the contending kingdoms
Of France and England, whose very shores look pale
With envy of each other's happiness,
May cease their hatred...
All
Amen!
King Henry V
Now, welcome, Kate: and bear me witness all,
That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen.
[Flourish.]
Prepare we for our marriage: on which day,
My Lord of Burgundy, we'll take your oath,
And all the peers', for surety of our leagues.
Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me;
And may our oaths well kept and prosperous be!
Sennet. Exeunt.
Epilogue
Enter Chorus.
Chorus
Thus far, with rough and all-unable pen,
Our bending author hath pursued the story,
In little room confining mighty men,
Mangling by starts the full course of their glory.
Small time, but in that small most greatly lived
This star of EnglandDefinitionKing Henry V: Fortune made his sword;
By which the world's best garden he achieved,
And of it left his son imperial lord.
Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crown'd King
Of France and England, did this king succeed;
Whose state so many had the managingHistorical ContextHenry VI was an infant when his father died. His reign was marked by infighting among his regents, leading to the Wars of the Roses and the loss of France.,
That they lost France and made his England bleed:
Which oft our stage hath shown; and, for their sake,
In your fair minds let this acceptance take.
Exit.
Critical Frameworks & Sources
The analysis notes in this act rely on the following historical and thematic concepts:
The Comic Subplot Resolution: The final humiliation of Pistol by the Welshman Fluellen wraps up the "Eastcheap" plot. The rogues are gone; the new England is disciplined and united.
Marriage as Politics: Henry's wooing of Katherine is charming, but fundamentally transactional. She is the "capital demand" of the treaty—a human seal on the document of conquest.
The Epilogue's Irony: Shakespeare ends this patriotic play on a dark note, reminding the audience that Henry's victories were fleeting. This connects Henry V to Shakespeare's earlier plays (the Henry VI trilogy), which depicted the chaos that followed.