SCENE VI. The English camp in Picardy. The Life of King Henry the Fifth  Shakespeare homepage  |  Henry V  | Act 3, Scene 6 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE VI. The English camp in Picardy. 

 Enter GOWER and FLUELLEN, meeting  GOWER  How now, Captain Fluellen! come you from the bridge? 

 FLUELLEN  I assure you, there is very excellent services 

 committed at the bridge. 

 GOWER  Is the Duke of Exeter safe? 

 FLUELLEN  The Duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as Agamemnon; 

 and a man that I love and honour with my soul, and my 

 heart, and my duty, and my life, and my living, and 

 my uttermost power: he is not-God be praised and 

 blessed!--any hurt in the world; but keeps the 

 bridge most valiantly, with excellent discipline. 

 There is an aunchient lieutenant there at the 

 pridge, I think in my very conscience he is as 

 valiant a man as Mark Antony; and he is a man of no 

 estimation in the world; but did see him do as 

 gallant service. 

 GOWER  What do you call him? 

 FLUELLEN  He is called Aunchient Pistol. 

 GOWER  I know him not. 



 Enter PISTOL  FLUELLEN  Here is the man. 

 PISTOL  Captain, I thee beseech to do me favours: 

 The Duke of Exeter doth love thee well. 

 FLUELLEN  Ay, I praise God; and I have merited some love at 

 his hands. 

 PISTOL  Bardolph, a soldier, firm and sound of heart, 

 And of buxom valour, hath, by cruel fate, 

 And giddy Fortune's furious fickle wheel, 

 That goddess blind, 

 That stands upon the rolling restless stone-- 

 FLUELLEN  By your patience, Aunchient Pistol. Fortune is 

 painted blind, with a muffler afore her eyes, to 

 signify to you that Fortune is blind; and she is 

 painted also with a wheel, to signify to you, which 

 is the moral of it, that she is turning, and 

 inconstant, and mutability, and variation: and her 

 foot, look you, is fixed upon a spherical stone, 

 which rolls, and rolls, and rolls: in good truth, 

 the poet makes a most excellent description of it: 

 Fortune is an excellent moral. 

 PISTOL  Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him; 

 For he hath stolen a pax, 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: 

 And let not Bardolph's vital thread be cut 

 With edge of penny cord and vile reproach: 

 Speak, captain, for his life, and I will thee requite. 

 FLUELLEN  Aunchient Pistol, I do partly understand your meaning. 

 PISTOL  Why then, rejoice therefore. 

 FLUELLEN  Certainly, aunchient, it is not a thing to rejoice 

 at: for if, look you, 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 figo for thy friendship! 

 FLUELLEN  It is well. 

 PISTOL  The fig of Spain! 



 Exit  FLUELLEN  Very good. 

 GOWER  Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal; I 

 remember him now; a bawd, a cutpurse. 

 FLUELLEN  I'll assure you, a' uttered as brave words at the 

 bridge as you shall see in a summer's day. But it 

 is very well; what he has spoke to me, that is well, 

 I warrant you, when time is serve. 

 GOWER  Why, 'tis a gull, a fool, a rogue, that now and then 

 goes to the wars, to grace himself at his return 

 into London under the form of a soldier. And such 

 fellows are perfect in the great commanders' names: 

 and they will learn you by rote where services were 

 done; at such and such a sconce, at such a breach, 

 at such a convoy; who came off bravely, who was 

 shot, who disgraced, what terms the enemy stood on; 

 and this they con perfectly in the phrase of war, 

 which they trick up with new-tuned oaths: and what 

 a beard of the general's cut and a horrid suit of 

 the camp will do among foaming bottles and 

 ale-washed wits, is wonderful to be thought on. But 

 you must learn to know such slanders of the age, or 

 else you may be marvellously mistook. 

 FLUELLEN  I tell you what, Captain Gower; I do perceive he is 

 not the man that he would gladly make show to the 

 world he is: if I find a hole in his coat, I will 

 tell him my mind. 



 Drum heard  Hark you, the king is coming, and I must speak with 

 him from the pridge. 



 Drum and colours. Enter KING HENRY, GLOUCESTER, and Soldiers  God pless your majesty! 

 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: the French is 

 gone off, look you; and there is gallant and most 

 prave passages; marry, th' athversary was have 

 possession of the pridge; but he is enforced to 

 retire, and the Duke of Exeter is master of the 

 pridge: I can tell your majesty, the duke is a 

 prave man. 

 KING HENRY V  What men have you lost, Fluellen? 

 FLUELLEN  The perdition of th' athversary hath been very 

 great, reasonable great: marry, for my part, I 

 think the duke hath lost never a man, but one that 

 is like to be executed for robbing a church, 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. 

 KING HENRY V  Unfold it. 

 MONTJOY  Thus says my king: Say thou to Harry of England: 

 Though we seemed dead, we did but sleep: advantage 

 is a better soldier than rashness. Tell him we 

 could have rebuked him at Harfleur, but that we 

 thought not good to bruise an injury till it were 

 full ripe: now we speak upon our cue, and our voice 

 is imperial: England shall repent his folly, see 

 his weakness, and admire our sufferance. 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; which in 

 weight to re-answer, his pettiness would bow under. 

 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. To this add defiance: and 

 tell him, for conclusion, he hath betrayed his 

 followers, whose condemnation is pronounced. So far 

 my king and master; so much my office. 

 KING HENRY V  What is thy name? I know thy quality. 

 MONTJOY  Montjoy. 

 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 lessened, and those few I have 

 Almost no better than so many French; 

 Who when they were in health, I tell thee, herald, 

 I thought upon one pair of English legs 

 Did march three Frenchmen. Yet, forgive me, God, 

 That I do brag thus! This your air of France 

 Hath blown that vice in me: I must repent. 

 Go therefore, tell thy master here I am; 

 My ransom is this frail and worthless trunk, 

 My army but a weak and sickly guard; 

 Yet, God before, tell him we will come on, 

 Though France himself and such another neighbour 

 Stand in our way. There's for thy labour, Montjoy. 

 Go bid thy master well advise himself: 

 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. 

 MONTJOY  I shall deliver so. Thanks to your highness. 



 Exit  GLOUCESTER  I hope they will not come upon us now. 

 KING HENRY V  We are in God's hand, brother, not in theirs. 

 March to the bridge; it now draws toward night: 

 Beyond the river we'll encamp ourselves, 

 And on to-morrow, bid them march away. 



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