being in his ales and his cups; so also Harry Monmouth, being in his right wits and his goot judgments, is turn away the fat knight with the great pelly-doublet: he was full of jests, and gipes, and knaveries, and mocks; I am forget his name

Gow. Sir John Falstaff.

3

Flu. That is he: I can tell you, there is goot men born at Monmouth.

Gow. Here comes his majesty.

Alarum. Enter KING HENRY, with a Part of the English Forces; WARWICK, GLOSTER, EXETER, and Others.

K. Hen. 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 skirr5 away, as swift as stones Enforced from the old Assyrian slings:

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

3 Johnson observes that this is the last time Falstaff can make sport. The poet was loath to part with him, and has continued his memory as long as he could.

Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick. He did not, however, obtain that title till 1417, two years after the era of this play.

5 i. e. scour away. To run swiftly in various directions. It has the same meaning in Macbeth, Act v. Sc. iii.' Skirr the country round.'

6. Besides, we'll cut the throats of those we have.' Johnson accuses the poet of having made the king cut the throats of his prisoners twice over. Malone replies that the incongruity, if it be one, is Holinshed's, for thus the matter is stated by him: While the battle was yet going on, about six hundred horsemen, who were the first that fled, hearing that the English tents were a good way distant from the army, without a sufficient guard, entered and pillaged the king's camp. 'When the outcry of the lackies and boys which ran away for fear of the Frenchmen, thus spoiling the camp, came to the king's ears, he doubting lest his

And not a man of them, that we shall take,

Shall taste our mercy :-Go, and tell them so.

Enter MONTJOY.

Exe. Here comes the herald of the French, my liege.

Glo. His eyes are humbler than they us❜d to be. K. Hen. How now, what means this, herald? know'st thou not,

That I have fin'd these bones of mine for ransome? Com'st thou again for ransome?

Mont.

No, great king:

I come to thee for charitable licence,

That we may
wander o'er this bloody field,
To book our dead, and then to bury them;

enemies should gather together again and begin a new fielde, and mistrusting further that the prisoners would either be an aide to his enemies, or very enemies to their takers indeed, if they were suffered to live, contrary to his accustomed gentleness, commanded by sounde of trumpet that every man upon pain of death should incontinently slea his prisoner.' This was the first transaction. Holinshed proceeds, 'When this lamentable slaughter was ended, the Englishmen disposed themselves in order of battayle, ready to abide a new fielde, and also to invade and newly set on their enemies. Some write, that the king perceiving his enemies in one parte to assemble together, as though they meant to give a new battaile for preservation of the prisoners, sent to them a herault, commanding them either to depart out of his sight, or else to come forward at once and give battaile; promising herewith, that, if they did offer to fight agayne, not only those prisoners which his people already had taken, but also so many of them as in this new conflicte, which they thus attempted, should fall into his hands, should die the death without redemption.' The fact is, that notwithstanding the first order concerning the prisoners, they were not all put to death, as appears from a subsequent passage, and the concurrent testimony of various historians, upon whose authority Hume says that Henry, on discovering that his danger was not so great as he at first apprehended from the attack on his camp, stopped the slaughter, and was still able to save a great number.' It was policy in Henry to intimidate the French by threatening to kill his prisoners, and occasioned them, in fact, to lay down their

arms.

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.

K. Hen.

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.

Mont.

The day is yours.

K. Hen. Praised be God, and not our strength

for it!

What is this castle call'd, that stands hard by?
Mont. They call it Agincourt.

K. Hen. Then call we this-the field of Agincourt, Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus.

Flu. 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. K. Hen. They did, Fluellen.

Flu. Your majesty says very true: If your majesties is remember'd of it, the Welshmen did goot service in a garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps7; which, your majesty

7 Monmouth, according to Fuller, was celebrated for its caps, which were particularly worn by soldiers. The best caps were formerly made at Monmouth, where the capper's chapel still remains. He adds, If at this day the phrase of wearing a Monmouth cap be taken in a bad acception, I hope the inhabitants of that town will endeavour to disprove the occasion.' Worthies of England, 1660, p. 50.

knows, to this hour is an honourable padge of the service; and, I do believe, your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek upon Saint Tavy's day.

K. Hen. I wear it for a memorable honour: For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman. Flu. 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!

K. Hen. Thanks, good my countryman.

Flu. By Cheshu, 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.

K. Hen. 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.

and Others.

Exeunt MONTJOY

Exe. Soldier, you must come to the king. K. Hen. Soldier, why wear'st thou that glove in thy cap?

Will. An't please your majesty, 'tis the gage of one that I should fight withal, if he be alive.

K. Hen. An Englishman?

Will. An't please your majesty, a rascal, that swagger'd with me last night: who, if 'a live, and ever dare to challenge this glove, I have sworn to take him a box o'the 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.

K. Hen. What think you, Captain Fluellen? is it fit this soldier keep his oath?

Flu. He is a craven and a villain else, an't please your majesty, in my conscience.

K. Hen. It may be his enemy is a gentleman of great sort, quite from the answer of his degree 9.

Flu. Though he be as goot a gentleman as the tevil 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 Jack-sauce 10, as ever his plack shoe trod upon Got's ground and his earth, in my conscience, la.

K. Hen. Then keep thy vow, sirrah, when thou meet'st the fellow.

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

K. Hen. Who servest thou under?
Will. Under Captain Gower, my liege.

Flu. Gower is a goot captain; and is good knowledge and literature in the wars.

K. Hen. Call him hither to me, soldier.
Will. I will, my liege.

[Exit. K. Hen. Here, Fluellen: wear thou this favour for me, and stick it in thy cap: When Alençon and myself were down together 11, I plucked this glove from his helm: if any man challenge this, he is a friend to Alençon and an enemy to our person; if thou encounter any such, apprehend him, an thou dost love me.

Flu. Your grace does me as great honours, as can be desired in the hearts of his subjects: I would 8 Craven. See Hamlet, Act iv. Sc. 4, p. 209.

9 Of great sort, quite from the answer of his degree.' Great sort is high rank. A man of such rank is not bound to answer to the challenge from one of the soldier's low degree.

10 Jack-sauce for saucy Jack.

11 Henry was felled to the ground by the duke of Alençon, but recovered and slew two of the duke's attendants. Alençon was afterwards killed by the king's guard, contrary to Henry's intention, who wished to have saved him.