EXE. The duke of York commends him to your majesty.
K. HEN. Lives he, good uncle? thrice within this hour
I saw him down; thrice up again, and fighting;
From helmet to the spur, all blood he was.
EXE. In which array (brave soldier!) doth he lie,
Larding the plain: and by his bloody side
(Yoke-fellow to his honour-owing wounds)
The noble earl of Suffolk also lies.

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, my cousin Suffolk!
My soul shall thine keep company to heaven:
Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly a-breast;
As, in this glorious and well-foughten field,
We kept together in our chivalry!"
Upon these words I came, and cheer'd him up:
He smil'd me in the face, raught me his hand,
And with a feeble gripe, says,—“ Dear my lord,
Commend 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,

And all my mother came into mine eyes,
And gave me up to tears.

a Capell thought that this line should be spoken by a messenger in answer to the King's "what new alarum is this same?" The conduct of Henry in giving the fatal order

"Then every soldier kill his prisoners”—

is much more natural and justifiable than if he issued the command upon suspicion only.

SCENE VII.-Another Part of the Field.

Alarums. Enter FLUELLEN and GoWER.

FLU. Kill the poys and the luggage! 't is expressly against the law of arms: 't is as arrant a piece of knavery, mark you now, as can be offered. 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, 't is a gallant king!

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

Gow. Alexander the great.

FLU. 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.

Gow. I think Alexander the great was born in Macedon; his father was called Philip of Macedon, as I take it.

FLU. 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 shall 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 't is all one, 't is 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 pest friend, Clytus. Gow. Our king is not like him in that; he never killed any of his friends. FLU. It is not well done, mark you now, to 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 Clytus, being in his ales and his cups; so also Harry Monmouth, being in his right wits and his goot judgments, turned away the fat knight with the great pelly-doublet: he was full of jests, and gipes, and knaveries, and mocks; I have forgot his name". Gow. Sir John Falstaff.

• We print this speech as in the folio, with the exception of goot for good. The ordinary text is stuffed full of false English, supposed to represent the Welsh mode of expression. Capell very justly says—“ The poet thought it sufficient to mark his (Fluellen's) diction a little, and in some places only; and the man of taste will be of the same opinion."

FLU. That is he: I'll tell you, there is goot men porn 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 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.

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 ransom?

Com'st thou again for ransom?

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;
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

• See Henry's previous address to the French Herald (Scene 3)—

"Come thou no more for ransom, gentle herald;
They shall have none, I swear, but these my joints."

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 remembered of it, the Welshmen did goot service in a garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps; which, your majesty 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: Got 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. Exeunt MONTJOY and others.

EXE. Soldier, you must come to the king.

K. HEN. Soldier, why wearest thou that glove in thy cap?

WILL. An't please your majesty, 't is 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 swaggered 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.

FLU. Though he be as goot a gentleman as the tevil is, as Lucifer and Belze

bub 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, 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 goot 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, 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 me love.

FLU. Your grace does 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 aggriefed at this glove, that is all; but I would fain see it once; an please Got of his grace that I might see it.

K. HEN. Knowest thou Gower?

FLU. He is my dear friend, an please you.

K. HEN. Pray thee, go seek him, and bring him to my tent.

FLU. I will fetch him.

K. HEN. My lord of Warwick, and my brother Gloster,

Follow Fluellen closely at the heels :

The glove which I have given him for a favour

May, haply, purchase him a box o' the 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, touch'd with choler, hot as gunpowder,

[Exit.

And quickly will return an injury:

Follow, and see there be no harm between them.

Go you with me, uncle of Exeter.

SCENE VIII.-Before King Henry's Pavilion.

Enter GOWER and WILLIAMS.

WILL. I warrant it is to knight you, captain.

[Exeunt.