SCENE VII. Another part of the field. The Life of King Henry the Fifth  Shakespeare homepage  |  Henry V  | Act 4, Scene 7 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE VII. Another part of the field. 

 Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER  FLUELLEN  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 offer't; in your 

 conscience, now, is it not? 

 GOWER  'Tis certain there's not a boy left alive; and the 

 cowardly rascals that ran from the battle ha' 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 

 gallant king! 

 FLUELLEN  Ay, he was porn at Monmouth, Captain Gower. What 

 call you the town's name where Alexander the Pig was born! 

 GOWER  Alexander the Great. 

 FLUELLEN  Why, I pray you, is not pig great? the pig, or the 

 great, or the mighty, or the huge, or the 

 magnanimous, are all one reckonings, save the phrase 

 is a little variations. 

 GOWER  I think Alexander the Great was born in Macedon; his 

 father was called Philip of Macedon, as I take it. 

 FLUELLEN  I think it is in Macedon where Alexander is porn. I 

 tell you, captain, if you look in the maps of the 

 'orld, I warrant you sall find, in the comparisons 

 between Macedon and Monmouth, that the situations, 

 look you, is both alike. There is a river in 

 Macedon; and there is also moreover a river at 

 Monmouth: it is called Wye at Monmouth; but it is 

 out of my prains what is the name of the other 

 river; but 'tis all one, 'tis alike as my fingers is 

 to my fingers, and there is salmons in both. If you 

 mark Alexander's life well, Harry of Monmouth's life 

 is come after it indifferent well; for there is 

 figures in all things. Alexander, God knows, and 

 you know, in his rages, and his furies, and his 

 wraths, and his cholers, and his moods, and his 

 displeasures, and his indignations, and also being a 

 little intoxicates in his prains, did, in his ales and 

 his angers, look you, kill his best friend, Cleitus. 

 GOWER  Our king is not like him in that: he never killed 

 any of his friends. 

 FLUELLEN  It is not well done, mark you now take the tales out 

 of my mouth, ere it is made and finished. I speak 

 but in the figures and comparisons of it: as 

 Alexander killed his friend Cleitus, being in his 

 ales and his cups; so also Harry Monmouth, being in 

 his right wits and his good judgments, turned away 

 the fat knight with the great belly-doublet: he 

 was full of jests, and gipes, and knaveries, and 

 mocks; I have forgot his name. 

 GOWER  Sir John Falstaff. 

 FLUELLEN  That is he: I'll tell you there is good men porn at Monmouth. 

 GOWER  Here comes his majesty. 



 Alarum. Enter KING HENRY, and forces; WARWICK, GLOUCESTER, EXETER, and others  KING HENRY V  I was not angry since I came to France 

 Until this instant. Take a trumpet, herald; 

 Ride thou unto the horsemen on yon hill: 

 If they will fight with us, bid them come down, 

 Or void the field; they do offend our sight: 

 If they'll do neither, we will come to them, 

 And make them skirr away, as swift as stones 

 Enforced from the old Assyrian slings: 

 Besides, we'll cut the throats of those we have, 

 And not a man of them that we shall take 

 Shall taste our mercy. Go and tell them so. 



 Enter MONTJOY  EXETER  Here comes the herald of the French, my liege. 

 GLOUCESTER  His eyes are humbler than they used to be. 

 KING HENRY V  How now! what means this, herald? know'st thou not 

 That I have  fined these bones of mine for ransom? 

 Comest thou again for ransom? 

 MONTJOY  No, great king: 

 I come to thee for charitable licence, 

 That we may wander o'er this bloody field 

 To look our dead, and then to bury them; 

 To sort our nobles from our common men. 

 For many of our princes--woe the while!-- 

 Lie drown'd and soak'd in mercenary blood; 

 So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs 

 In blood of princes; and their wounded steeds 

 Fret fetlock deep in gore and with wild rage 

 Yerk out their armed heels at their dead masters, 

 Killing them twice. O, give us leave, great king, 

 To view the field in safety and dispose 

 Of their dead bodies! 

 KING HENRY V  I tell thee truly, herald, 

 I know not if the day be ours or no; 

 For yet a many of your horsemen peer 

 And gallop o'er the field. 

 MONTJOY  The day is yours. 

 KING HENRY V  Praised be God, and not our strength, for it! 

 What is this castle call'd that stands hard by? 

 MONTJOY  They call it Agincourt. 

 KING HENRY V  Then call we this the field of Agincourt, 

 Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus. 

 FLUELLEN  Your grandfather of famous memory, an't please your 

 majesty, and your great-uncle Edward the Plack 

 Prince of Wales, as I have read in the chronicles, 

 fought a most prave pattle here in France. 

 KING HENRY V  They did, Fluellen. 

 FLUELLEN  Your majesty says very true: if your majesties is 

 remembered of it, the Welshmen did good service in a 

 garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their 

 Monmouth caps; which, your majesty know, to this 

 hour is an honourable badge of the service; and I do 

 believe your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek 

 upon Saint Tavy's day. 

 KING HENRY V  I wear it for a memorable honour; 

 For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman. 

 FLUELLEN  All the water in Wye cannot wash your majesty's 

 Welsh plood out of your pody, I can tell you that: 

 God pless it and preserve it, as long as it pleases 

 his grace, and his majesty too! 

 KING HENRY V  Thanks, good my countryman. 

 FLUELLEN  By Jeshu, I am your majesty's countryman, I care not 

 who know it; I will confess it to all the 'orld: I 

 need not to be ashamed of your majesty, praised be 

 God, so long as your majesty is an honest man. 

 KING HENRY V  God keep me so! Our heralds go with him: 

 Bring me just notice of the numbers dead 

 On both our parts. Call yonder fellow hither. 



 Points to WILLIAMS. Exeunt Heralds with Montjoy  EXETER  Soldier, you must come to the king. 

 KING HENRY V  Soldier, why wearest thou that glove in thy cap? 

 WILLIAMS  An't please your majesty, 'tis the gage of one that 

 I should fight withal, if he be alive. 

 KING HENRY V  An Englishman? 

 WILLIAMS  An't please your majesty, a rascal that swaggered 

 with me last night; who, if alive and ever dare to 

 challenge this glove, I have sworn to take him a box 

 o' th' ear: or if I can see my glove in his cap, 

 which he swore, as he was a soldier, he would wear 

 if alive, I will strike it out soundly. 

 KING HENRY V  What think you, Captain Fluellen? is it fit this 

 soldier keep his oath? 

 FLUELLEN  He is a craven and a villain else, an't please your 

 majesty, in my conscience. 

 KING HENRY V  It may be his enemy is a gentleman of great sort, 

 quite from the answer of his degree. 

 FLUELLEN  Though he be as good a gentleman as the devil is, as 

 Lucifer and Belzebub himself, it is necessary, look 

 your grace, that he keep his vow and his oath: if 

 he be perjured, see you now, his reputation is as 

 arrant a villain and a Jacksauce, as ever his black 

 shoe trod upon God's ground and his earth, in my 

 conscience, la! 

 KING HENRY V  Then keep thy vow, sirrah, when thou meetest the fellow. 

 WILLIAMS  So I will, my liege, as I live. 

 KING HENRY V  Who servest thou under? 

 WILLIAMS  Under Captain Gower, my liege. 

 FLUELLEN  Gower is a good captain, and is good knowledge and 

 literatured in the wars. 

 KING HENRY V  Call him hither to me, soldier. 

 WILLIAMS  I will, my liege. 



 Exit  KING HENRY V  Here, Fluellen; wear thou this favour for me and 

 stick it in thy cap: when Alencon and myself were 

 down together, I plucked this glove from his helm: 

 if any man challenge this, he is a friend to 

 Alencon, and an enemy to our person; if thou 

 encounter any such, apprehend him, an thou dost me love. 

 FLUELLEN  Your grace doo's me as great honours as can be 

 desired in the hearts of his subjects: I would fain 

 see the man, that has but two legs, that shall find 

 himself aggrieved at this glove; that is all; but I 

 would fain see it once, an please God of his grace 

 that I might see. 

 KING HENRY V  Knowest thou Gower? 

 FLUELLEN  He is my dear friend, an please you. 

 KING HENRY V  Pray thee, go seek him, and bring him to my tent. 

 FLUELLEN  I will fetch him. 



 Exit  KING HENRY V  My Lord of Warwick, and my brother Gloucester, 

 Follow Fluellen closely at the heels: 

 The glove which I have given him for a favour 

 May haply purchase him a box o' th' ear; 

 It is the soldier's; I by bargain should 

 Wear it myself. Follow, good cousin Warwick: 

 If that the soldier strike him, as I judge 

 By his blunt bearing he will keep his word, 

 Some sudden mischief may arise of it; 

 For I do know Fluellen valiant 

 And, touched with choler, hot as gunpowder, 

 And quickly will return an injury: 

 Follow and see there be no harm between them. 

 Go you with me, uncle of Exeter. 



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