If your pure maidens fall into the hand
Of hot and forcing violation?

What rein can hold licentious wickedness

When down the hill he holds his fierce career?
We may as bootless spend our vain command
Upon the enraged soldiers in their spoil
As send precepts to the leviathan

To come ashore. Therefore, you men of Harfleur,
Take pity of your town and of your people,
Whiles yet my soldiers are in my command;
Whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace
O'erblows the filthy and contagious clouds
Of heady murder, spoil and villany.

If not, why, in a moment look to see

The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand
Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters;
Your fathers taken by the silver beards,

And their most reverend heads dash'd to the walls,
Your naked infants spitted upon pikes,

Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confused
Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry

At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen.

What say you? will you yield, and this avoid,
Or, guilty in defence, be thus destroy'd?

26 precepts] mandates.

31 O'erblows] Blows away, disperses.

32 heady] headstrong. The First Folio misreading headly is corrected in the later Folios.

35 Defile] Rowe's correction of the Folio reading Desire.

41 Herod's... slaughtermen] Herod's massacre of the innocents was a favourite topic of the old miracle plays.

20

30

40

Gov. Our expectation hath this day an end:
The Dauphin, whom of succours we entreated,
Returns us that his powers are yet not ready
To raise so great a siege. Therefore, great king,
We yield our town and lives to thy soft mercy.
Enter our gates; dispose of us and ours;
For we no longer are defensible.

K. HEN. Open your gates. Come, uncle Exeter,
Go you and enter Harfleur; there remain,
And fortify it strongly 'gainst the French:
Use mercy to them all. For us, dear uncle,
The winter coming on, and sickness growing
Upon our soldiers, we will retire to Calais.
To-night in Harfleur will we be your guest;
To-morrow for the march are we addrest.

[Flourish. The King and his train enter the town.

50

SCENE IV-THE FRENCH KING'S PALACE

Enter KATHARINE and ALICE

KATH. Alice, tu as été en Angleterre, et tu parles bien le langage.

ALICE. Un peu, madame.

KATH. Je te prie, m'enseignez; il faut que j'apprenne à parler. Comment appelez-vous la main en Anglois ?

46 Returns us] Answers us.

50 defensible] capable of defence, of defending ourselves.

58 addrest] prepared. Cf. IV, i, 10, infra.

SCENE IV] Throughout this scene the French is very incorrectly spelt by the Folio. The text is here corrected throughout.

ALICE. La main? elle est appelée de hand.
KATH. De hand. Et les doigts ?

ALICE. Les doigts? ma foi, j'oublie les doigts; mais je me souviendrai. Les doigts? je pense qu'ils sont appelés de fingres; oui, de fingres.

KATH. La main, de hand; les doigts, de fingres. Je pense que je suis le bon écolier; j'ai gagné deux mots d'Anglois vitement. Comment appelez-vous les ongles? ALICE. Les ongles? nous les appelons de nails.

KATH. De nails. Ecoutez; dites-moi, si je parle bien: de hand, de fingres, et de nails.

ALICE. C'est bien dit, madame; il est fort bon Anglois. KATH. Dites-moi l'Anglois pour le bras.

ALICE. De arm, madame.

KATH. Et le coude.

ALICE. De elbow.

KATH. De elbow. Je m'en fais la répétition de tous les mots que vous m'avez appris dès à présent.

ALICE. Il est trop difficile, madame, comme je pense. KATH. Excusez-moi, Alice; écoutez: de hand, de fingres, de nails, de arma, de bilbow.

ALICE. De elbow, madame.

KATH. O Seigneur Dieu, je m'en oublie! de elbow. Comment appelez-vous le col?

ALICE. De neck, madame.

KATH. De nick. Et le menton ?

ALICE. De chin.

KATH. De sin. Le col, de nick; le menton, de sin. ALICE. Oui. Sauf votre honneur, en vérité, vous prononcez les mots aussi droit que les natifs d'Angle

terre.

10

20

80

KATH. Je ne doute point d'apprendre, par la grace de Dieu, et en peu de temps.

ALICE. N'avez vous pas déjà oublié ce que je vous ai enseigné ?

KATH. Non, je reciterai à vous promptement: de 40 hand, de fingres, de mails,

ALICE. De nails, madame.

KATH. De nails, de arm, de ilbow.

ALICE. Sauf votre honneur, de elbow.

KATH. Ainsi dis-je; de elbow, de nick, et de sin. Comment appelez-vous le pied et la robe?

ALICE. De foot, madame; et de coun.

KATH. De foot et de coun! O Seigneur Dieu! ce sont mots de son mauvais, corruptible, gros, et impudique, et non pour les dames d'honneur d'user: je ne 50 voudrais prononcer ces mots devant les seigneurs de France pour tout le monde. Foh! le foot et le coun! Néanmoins, je réciterai une autre fois ma leçon ensemble: de hand, de fingres, de nails, de arm, de elbow, de nick, de sin, de foot, de coun.

ALICE. Excellent, madame!

KATH. C'est assez pour une fois : allons-nous à dîner. [Exeunt.

SCENE V-THE SAME

Enter the KING of FRANCE, the DAUPHIN, the DUKE of BOURBON, the CONSTABLE of FRANCE, and others

FR. KING. 'Tis certain he hath pass'd the river Somme.

CON. And if he be not fought withal, my lord, 47 de coun] coarse quibbling on a mispronunciation of "gown."

Let us not live in France; let us quit all,
And give our vineyards to a barbarous people.
of us,

DAU. O Dieu vivant! shall a few sprays
The emptying of our fathers' luxury,
Our scions, put in wild and savage stock,
Spirt up so suddenly into the clouds,

And overlook their grafters ?

BOUR. Normans, but bastard Normans, Norman bas

tards!

Mort de ma vie! if they march along

Unfought withal, but I will sell my dukedom,

To buy a slobbery and a dirty farm

In that nook-shotten isle of Albion.

CON. Dieu de batailles! where have they this mettle? Is not their climate foggy, raw and dull,

On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale,

Killing their fruit with frowns? Can sodden water,
A drench for sur-rein'd jades, their barley-broth,
Decoct their cold blood to such valiant heat?
And shall our quick blood, spirited with wine,

3 quit all] give up, yield. Cf. M. Wives, IV, vi, 2, "I will give over all."

5 sprays] sprigs or sprouts.

Reference is here made to the fact that

the English raiders are descendants of Frenchmen through William the Conqueror, who was himself a bastard.

6 our fathers' luxury] our ancestors' lust.

7 put in... stock] planted in or grafted on a wild and uncultured race. 13 slobbery] wet, water-logged.

14 nook-shotten] shot with sharp corners, indented by inlets of the sea. 19 A drench for sur-rein'd jades] Liquid medicine for overworked horse.

20 Decoct] Boil, heat. A "decoction" is often used of a tonic medicine.

10

20