The horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks,'
With torch-staves in their hand: and their poor
jades

Lob down their heads, dropping the hides and hips;
The gum down-roping from their pale-dead eyes;
And in their pale dull mouths the gimmal2 bit
Lies foul with chew'd grass, still and motionless;
And their executors, the knavish crows,
Fly o'er them all, impatient for their hour.
Description cannot suit itself in words,
To demonstrate the life of such a battle.
In life so lifeless as it shows itself.

Con. They have said their prayers, and they stay
for death.

It yearns me not, if men my garments wear; Such outward things dwell not in my desires : But, if it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive. No, 'faith, my coz, wish not a man from England: God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour, As one man more, methinks, would share from me, For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more. Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host, That he, which hath no stomach to this fight, Let him depart; his passport shall be made, And crowns for convoy put into his purse: We would not die in that man's company That fears his fellowship to die with us. This day is call'd-the feast of Crispian He, that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd, And rouse him at the name of Crispian. Con. I stay but for my guard;3 On, to the field: He, that shall live this day, and see old age, I will the banner from a trumpet take, And use it for my haste. Come, come, away! Will yearly on the vigil feast his friends, And say-to morrow is Saint Crispian : The sun is high, and we outwear the day. [Exeunt. Then will he strip his sleeve, and show his scars, SCENE III. The English Camp. Enter the Eng-And say, these wounds I had on Crispin's day. lish Host; GLOSTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, SALISBURY, and WESTMOREland. Glo. Where is the king?

Dau. Shall we go send them dinners, and fresh.
suits,

And give their fasting horses provender,
And after fight with them?

Bed. The king himself is rode to view their

battle.

West. Of fighting men they have full threescore

thousand.

Exe. There's five to one; besides, they all are

fresh,

Sal. God's arm strike with us! 'tis a fearful odds.
God be with you, princes all; I'll to my charge;
If we no more meet, till we meet in heaven,
Then, joyfully, my noble lord of Bedford,-
My dear lord Gloster,-and my good lord Exeter,
And my kind kinsman,4-warriors all, adieu!

Bed. Farewell, good Salisbury; and good luck
go with thee!

Exe. Farewell, kind lord; fight valiantly to-day:
And yet I do thee wrong, to mind thee of it,
For thou art fram'd of the firm truth of valour.
[Exit SALISBURY.
Bed. He is as full of valour, as of kindness;
Princely in both.

West.

O that we now had here
Enter KING HENRY.

But one ten thousand of those men in England,
That do no work to-day!

K. Hen.

What's he, that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland ?5-No, my fair cousin :
If we are mark'd to die, we are enough
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold;
Nor care I, who doth feed upon my cost;

1 Ancient candlesticks were often in the form of human figures, holding the socket for the lights, in their extended hands.

Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day; Then shall our nanies,
Familiar in their mouths as household words

Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd:
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloster,
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
This story shall the good man teach his son;
But we in it shall be remembered:
From this day to the ending of the world,"
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers,
For he, to-day that sheds his blood with
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile
This day shall gentle his condition :10
Shall think themselves accurs'd, they were not
And gentlemen in England, now a bed,

here:

me,

And hold their manhoods cheap, while any speaks,
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
Enter SALISBURY.

Sal. My sovereign lord, bestow yourself wil
speed;

The French are bravely11 in their battles set,
And will with all expedience12 charge on us.

K. Hen. All things are ready, if our minds be so.
West. Perish the man, whose mind is backward
now!

K. Hen. Thou dost not wish more help from Eng land, cousin?

West. God's will, my liege, 'would you and I
alone,

Without more help, might fight this battle out!
K. Hen. Why, now thou hast unwish'd five thou

sand men 13

Johnson has a

natural forgetfulness of old age, shall remember their 8. With advantages.' Old men, notwithstanding the feats of this day, and remember to tell them with ad! 2 The gimmal bit was probably a bit in which two magnify past acts and past times. vantage. Age is commonly boastful and inclined parts or links were united, as in the gimmal ring, so 9 From this day to the ending,' & called because they were double linked, from gemel-note on this passage, which concluus by saying that lus, Lat. the civil wars have left in the nation scarcely any tra. 3I stay but for my gund. Dr. Johnson and Mr.dition of more ancient history.' Steevens were of opinion that guard here means rather 10 i. e. shall advance him to the rank of a gentleman something of ornament, than an attendant or attendants. King Henry V. inhibited any person but such as had a And my kind kinsman. This is addressed to rght by inheritance or grant, from bearing coats of arms, Westmoreland by the speaker, who was Thomas Mon-except those who fought with him at the battle of Agintacute, earl of Salisbury: he was not in point of fact related to Westmoreland, there was only a kind of connection by marriage between their families.

feasts and public meetings.
ourt; and these last were allowed the chief seats at all

11 i. e. in a braving manner.

12 i. e. expedition.

By

5 In the quarto this speech is addressed to Warwick. look aloft; and to go gaily, desiring to have the preTo go bravely is to The incongruity of praying like a Christian and swear-eminence: Speciose ingredi; faire le brave.' ing like a heathen, which Johnson objects against, arose from the necessary conformation to the statute 3 James I. c xxi. against introducing the sacred name on the stage. The players omitted it where they could, and where the metre would not allow of the omission they substituted some other word in its place.

6 To yearn is to grieve or vex.

13- thou hast unwished five thousand men' wishing only thyself and me, thou hast wished five thou sand men away. The poet, inattentive to numbers, puts five thousand, but in the last scene the French are said to be full three score thousand, which Exeter declares to be five to one; the numbers of the English are vari

7 'The feast of Crispian.' The battle of Agincourt ously stated; Holinshed makes them fifteen thousand, was fought upon the 25th of October, 1415

others but nine thousand.

Which likes me better, than to wish us one.-
You know your places: God be with you all!

Tucket. Enter MONTJOY.

Mont. Once more I come to know of thee, King
Harry,

If for thy ransom thou wilt now compound,
Before thy most assured overthrow:
For, certainly, thou art so near the gulf,
Thou needs must be englutted. Besides, in mercy,
The Constable desires thee-thou wilt mind1
Thy followers of repentance; that their souls
May make a peaceful and a sweet retire
From off these fields, where (wretches) their poor
bodies

Must lie and fester.

K. Hen.

Who hath sent thee now? Mont. The Constable of France.

K. Hen. I pray thee, bear my former answer
back;

Bid them achieve me, and then sell my bones.
Good God! why should they mock poor fellows

thus ?

The man, that once did sell the lion's skin
While the beast liv'd, was kill'd with hunting him.
A many of our bodies shall, no doubt,
Find native graves; upon the which, I trust,
Shall witness live in brass2 of this day's work:
And those that leave their valiant bones in France,
Dying like men, though buried in your dunghills,
They shall be fam'd; for there the sun shall greet
them,

And draw their honours reeking up to heaven;
Leaving their earthly parts to choke your clime,
The smell whereof shall breed a plague in France.
Mark then abounding valour in our English ;3
That, being dead, like to the bullet's grazing,
Break out into a second course of mischief,
Killing in relapse of mortality.

Let me speak proudly;-Tell the Constable,
We are but warriors for the working-day :
Our gayness, and our gilt,4 are all besmirch'd
With rainy marching in the painful field;
There's not a piece of feather in our host,
(Good argument, I hope, we shall not fly,)
And time hath worn us into slovenry:
But, by the mass, our hearts are in the trim:
And my poor soldiers tell me-yet ere night
They'll be in fresher robes; or they will pluck
The gay Lew coats o'er the French soldiers' heads,
And turn them out of service. If they do this
(As, if God please, they shall,) my ransom then
Will soon be levied. Herald, save thou thy labour
Come thou no more for ransom, gentle herald;
They shall have none, I swear, but these my joints;

2 i. e. in brazen plates, anciently let into tombstones.
3 Mark then abounding valour in our English;
That being dead, like to the bullet's grazing,
Break out into a second course of mischief,
Killing in relapse of mortality."

Which if they have, as I willave 'em to them,
Shall yield them little, tell the Constable.
Mart. I shall, King Harry. And so fare thes
well:

Thou never shalt hear herald any more. [Exu.
K. Hen. I fear, thou'lt once more coms again
for ransom.

Enter the Duke of York."
The leading of the vaward.6
York. My lord, most humbly on my knee I beg

K. Hen. Take it, brave York.-Now, soldiers,
march away :-

And how thou pleasest, God, dispose the day!
[Exeunt.
SCENE IV. The Field of Battle. Alarums : Ex-
cursions. Enter French Soldier, PISTOL, and
Boy.

Pist. Yield, cur.

Fr. Sol. Je pense, que vous estes le gentilhomme de bonne qualité.

Pist. Quality? Callino, castore me!" art thou a gentleman? What is thy name? discuss.

Fr. Sol. O seigneur Dieu !

Pist. O, signieur Dew should be a gentleman :-
Perpend my words, O signieur Dew, and mark ;—
O signieur Dew, thou diest on point of fox,"
Except, O signieur, thou do give to me
Egregious ransom.

Fr. Sol. O, prennez misericorde! ayez pitié de moy!
Pist. Moy shall not serve, I will have forty moys;
For I will fetch thy rim3 out at throat,

In drops of crimson blood.

Fr. Sol. Est-il impossible d' eschapper la force de ton bras?

Pist. Brass, cur!

Thou damned and luxurious mountain goat,
Offer'st me brass?

Fr. Sol. O pardonnez moy!

Pist. Say'st thou me so? is that a ton of
moys 210

Come hither, boy; Ask me this slave, in French,
What is his name.

Boy. Escoutez; Comment estes-vous appellé ?
Fr. Sol. Monsieur le Fer.

Boy. He says, his name is-master Fer.
Pist. Master Fer! I'll fer him, and firk11 him, and
ferret him :-discuss the same in French unto him.
Boy. I do not know the French for fer, and fer
ret, and firk.

Pist. Bid him prepare, for I will cut his throat.
Fr. Sol. Que dit-il, monsieur ?

Boy. Il me commande de vous dire que vous faiten Boswell discovered that it was an old Irish song, which is printed in Playford's Musical Companion, 1667 or 1673:

'Callino, Callino, Callino, castore me,
Eva ee, eva ee, loo, loo, loo lee.'

The words are said to mean 'Little girl of my heart for ever and ever.' They have, it is true (says Mr. Boswell,) no great connection with the poor Frenchman's supplications, nor were they meant to have any; Pistol, instead of attending to him, contemptuously hums a

Theobald, with over busy zeal for emendation, changed
abounding into a bounding, and found the allusion ex-
ceedingly beautiful, comparing the revival of the Eng-tune.'
lish valour to the rebounding of a cannon ball. There
is, as usual, an idle controversy between Malone and
Steevens, the one preferring the old reading; and the
other, from a spirit of opposition to his rival, which ever
guided him, supporting Theobald's alteration.

4 i. e. golden show, superficial gilding.

5 'The Duke of York. This Edward duke of York has already appeared in King Richard II. under the title of duke of Aumerle. He was the son of Edmond Langley, the duke of York of the same play, who was the ifth son of King Edward III. Richard, earl of Cambridge, who appears in the second act of this play, was younger brother to this Edward duke of York.

6 The vaward is the vanguard.

7 Callino, castore me! The jargon of the old copies where these words are printed Qualitie calmie custure me-was changed by former editors into 'Quality, call you me ? construe me.' Malone found Calen o custure me, mentioned as the burthen of a song In A Handful of Plesant Delites,' 1584 And Mr.

8 '-thou diest on point of fox. For is an old cant word for a sword. Generally old for; it was applied to the old English broadsword.

9' For I will fetch thy rim out at thy throat.' Pistol is not very scrupulous in the nicety of his language, he uses rim (rymme) for the intestines generally. It is no very clear what our ancestors meant by it; Bishop Wilkins defines it 'the membrane of the belly; Florio makes it the omentum, a fat pannicle, caule, sewet, rim, or kell, wherein the bowels are lapt.' Holmes, in his Acad. of Armory, calls the peritoneum 'the paunch or rim of the belly. Which is defined by others to be the inner rine of the belly. It was not therefore the diaphragm or midriff, as Steevens supposed.

10 Pistol's moy is probably a vulgar corruption of moydore (itself a corruption of moeda d'oro,) at least we have no better solution to offer. The moydore was current in England for about 27s

11 To firk is to beat or scourge ; fouetter, to yerk and to jerk are words of the same import.

vous prest; car ce soldat icy est disposé tout à cette
heure de couper vostre gorge.

Pist. Ouy, couper gorge, par ma foy, pesant,
Unless thou give me crowns, brave crowns ;
Or mangled shalt thou be by this my sword.

Orl. We are enough, yet living in the field,
To smother up the English in our throngs,
If any order night be thought upon.

Bour. The devil take order now! I'll to the throng;
Let life be short; else, shame will be too long.

Fr. Sol. O, je vous supplie pour l'amour de Dieu, me pardonner! Je suis gentilhomme de bonne maison :\SCENE VI. gardez ma vie, et je vous donneray deux cents escus. Pist. What are his words?

Boy. He prays you to save his life: he is a gentleman of a good house; and, for his ransom, he will give you two hundred crowns.

Pist. Tell him--my fury shall abate, and I The crowns will take.

Fr. Sol. Petit monsieur, que

dit-il ?

Boy. Encore qu'il est contre son jurement, de pardonner aucun prisonnier; neantmoins, pour les escus que vous l'avez promis, il est content de vous donner la liberté, le franchisement.

[Exeunt.

Another Part of the Field. Alarums. Enter KING HENRY and Forces; EXETER, and others.

K. Hen. Well have we done, thrice-valiant countrymen :

But all's not done, yet keep the French the field. Exe. The duke of York commends him to your majesty.

K. Hen. Lives he, good uncle? thrice, within this hour,

saw him down; thrice up again, and fighting; From helmet to the spur, all blood he was.

Fr. Sol. Sur mes genoux, je vous donne mille remerciemens et je m'estime heureux que je suis tombé entre les mains d'un chevalier, je pense, le plus brave, valiant, et très distingué seigneur d'Angle-The noble earl of Suffolk also lies.

terre.

Pist. Expound unto me, boy.

Boy. He gives you, upon his knees, a thousand thanks: and he esteems himself happy that he hath fallen into the hands of (as he thinks) the most brave, valorous, and thrice worthy signieur of England. Pist. As I suck blood, I will some mercy show. Follow me, cur. [Exit PISTOL.

Boy. Suivez-vous le grand capitaine. [Exit French Soldier. I did never know so full a voice issue from so empty a heart: but the saying is true,-The empty vessel makes the greatest sound. Bardolph, and Nym, had ten times more valour than this roaring devil i' the old play, that every one may pare his nails with a wooden dagger; and they are both hanged; and so would this be, if he durst steal any thing adventurously. I must stay with the lackeys, with the luggage of our camp: the French might have a good prey of us, if he knew of it; for there is none to guard it but boys. [Exit. SCENE V. Another Part of the Field of Battle. Alarums. Enter Dauphin, ORLEANS, BOURBON, Constable, RAMBURES, and others.

Con. O diable !

Orl. O seigneur !—le jour est perdu, tout est perdu
Dau. Mort de ma vie ! all is confounded, all!
Reproach and everlasting shame
Sits mocking in our plumes.-O meschante fortune!
Do not run away.
[A short Alarum.
Con.
Why, all our ranks are broke.
Dau. O perdurable shame!--let's stab ourselves.
Be these the wretches that we play'd at dice for?
Orl. Is this the king we sent to for his ransom?
Bour. Shame, and eternal shame, nothing but

shame!

Let us die in fight:2 Once more back again;
And he that will not follow Bourbon now,
Let him go hence, and with his cap in hand,
Like a base pander, hold the chamber-door,
Whilst by a slave, no gentler than my dog,3
His fairest daughter is contaminate.

Exe. In which array (brave soldier) doth he lie,
Larding the plain: and by his bloody side,
Yoke-fellow to his honour-owing wounds)
Suffolk first died, and York, all haggled over,
Comes to him, where in gore he lay insteep'd,
And takes him by the beard; kisses the gashes,
That bloodily did yawn upon his face;
And cries aloud,Tarry, dear cousin Suffolk !
My soul shall thine keep company to heaven :
Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly abreast;
As, in this glorious and well-foughten field,
We kept together in our chivalry!
Upon these words I came, and cheer'd him up
And, with a feeble gripe, says,-Dear my lord,
He smil'd me in the face, raught me his hand,

my

service to my sovereign,
So did he turn, and over Suffolk's neck
He threw his wounded arm, and kiss'd his lips.
And so, espous'd to death, with blood he seal'd
A testament of noble-ending love.
The pretty and sweet manner of it forc'd
Those waters from me, which I would have stopp'd.
But I had not so much of man in me,
my mother came into mine eyes,
But all
And gave me up to tears.
K. Hen.

I blame you not;

For, hearing this, I must perforce compound
With mistful eyes, or they will issue too.—

Alarum

! But, hark! what new alarum is this same?
The French have reinforc'd their scatter'd men:
Then every soldier kill his prisoners;
Give the word through.

[Exeunt

SCENE VII. Another Part of the Field. Alar-
ums. Enter FLUELLEN and Gower.
Flu. Kill the poys and the luggage! 'tis expressly
against the law of arms: 'tis as arrant a piece of
knavery, mark you now, as can be offered in the
'orld: In your conscience now, is it not?

Gow. "Tis certain, there's not a boy left alive; and the cowardly rascals, that ran from the battle, have done this slaughter: besides, they have burned and carried away all that was in the king's tent; wherefore the king, most worthily, hath caused every soldier to cut his prisoner's throat." O, 'tis a

Con. Disorder, that hath spoil'd us, friend us now! gallant king!
Let us, in heaps, go offer up our lives
Unto these English, or else die with fame.4

1-this roaring devil i' the old play, that every one may pare his nails with a wooden dagger.' See note on Twelfth Night, Act iv. Sc. 2. In the old play of The Taming of a Shrew, one of the players says, 'My lord, we must have a little vinegar to make our devil roar. Ho! ho! and Ah! ha! seem to have been the exclamations constantly given to the devil, who is, in the old mysteries, as turbulent and vainglorious as Pistol. The Vice or fool, among other indignities, used to threaten to pare his nails with his dagger of lath; the devil being supposed from choice to keep his claws long and sharp. 2 The old copy wants the word fight, which was supplied by Malone. Theobald proposed let us die in stant, which Stevans adopted

Flu. Ay, he was porn at Monmouth, captain Gower: What call you the town's name, where Alexander the pig was born?

3 i. e. who has no more gentility. 4 This line is from the quartos. 5 i. e. reached. 6' But all my mother came into my eyes, And gave me up to tears.' Thus the quarto. The folio reads 'And all,' &c. Bui has here the force of but that.

7 Caused every soldier to cut his prisoner's throat. The king killed his prisoners (says Johnson) because he expected another battle, and he had not sufficient men to guard one army and fight another. Gower's reason is, as we see, different. Shakspeare followed Holinshed, who gives both reasons for Henry's conduct. but has chosen to make the king mention one of them and Gower the other.