Bar Harry England, that sweeps through our land
With pennons painted in the blood of Harfleur:
Rush on his host, as doth the melted snow
Upon the valleys, whose low vassal seat

The Alps doth spit and void his rheum upon.
Go, down upon him,-you have power enough,—
And in a captive chariot into Rouen

Bring him our prisoner.

Con.

This becomes the great.

Sorry am I, his numbers are so few,

His soldiers sick, and famish'd in their march,
For, I am sure, when he shall see our army,

He'll drop his heart into the sink of fear,

And for achievement offer us his ransom.

Fr. King. Therefore, lord constable, haste on Montjoy,

And let him say to England, that we send

To know what willing ransom he will give.-
Prince Dauphin, you shall stay with us in Rouen.
Dau. Not so, I do beseech your majesty.

Fr. King. Be patient, for you shall remain with

Now, forth, lord constable, and princes all,
And quickly bring us word of England's fall.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI.

The English Camp in Picardy.

Enter GOWER and FLUELLEN.

Gow. How now, captain Fluellen? come you from the bridge?

Flu. I assure you, there is very excellent services committed at the pridge.

Gow. Is the duke of Exeter safe?

Flu. The duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as Aga

memnon; 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 plessed!) any hurt in the world; but keeps the pridge most valiantly, with excellent discipline. There is an ancient, 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 I did see him do as gallant service. Gow. What do you call him?

Flu. He is called ancient Pistol.

Gow. I know him not.

Enter PISTOL.

Flu. Here is the man".

Pist. Captain, I thee beseech to do me favours: The duke of Exeter doth love thee well.

Flu. Ay, I praise Got; and I have merited some love at his hands.

Pist. 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,

Flu. By your patience, ancient Pistol. Fortune is painted plind, with a muffler afore her eyes, to signify to you that fortune is plind; 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.

Here is the man.] The quarto, 1600, reads, "Do you not know him? here comes the man." Malone injudiciously made up his text from the two editions, quarto and folio, often without giving notice of the variations from the one or the other. Of this play, as before remarked, the folio, 1623, is the only authentic copy.

Pist. Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him;
For he hath stol'n a pax', and hanged must 'a be.
A damned death!

Let gallows gape for dog, let man go free,
And let not hemp his wine-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.
Flu. Ancient Pistol, I do partly understand your
meaning.

Pist. Why then, rejoice therefore.

Flu. Certainly, ancient, it is not a thing to rejoice at; for if, look you, he were my brother, I would desire the duke to use his goot pleasure, and put him to execution, for discipline ought to be used.

Pist. Die and be damn'd; and fico for thy friendship!

Flu. It is well.

Pist. The fig of Spain !

Flu. Very good3.

[Exit PISTOL.

Gow. Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal: I remember him now; a bawd; a cutpurse.

Flu. I'll assure you, 'a utter'd as prave words at the pridge, as you shall see in a summer's day. But it is very well, what he has spoke to me; that warrant you,

when time is serve.

7 a PAX,] The ".
"pax

is well, I

was a small image of the Saviour, on which the kiss of

peace was bestowed by the congregation.

8 Very good.] It may be worth while to quote this part of the scene from the quarto, 1600, with which the other editions in the same form agree.

"Pist. Die and be damn'd: a fico for thy friendship.

"Flu. That is good.

"Pist. The fig of Spain within thy jaw.

"Flu. That is very well.

"Pist. I say a fig within thy bowels and thy dirty maw.

[Exit PISTOL.

"Flu. Captain Gower, cannot you hear it lighten and thunder?" It is very possible that this enlargement was made by the actors.

Gow. 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.

Flu. 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.

Enter King HENRY, GLOSTER, and Soldiers'.

Flu. Got pless your majesty!

K. Hen. How now, Fluellen? cam'st thou from the bridge?

Flu. 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.

9 and Soldiers.] The stage-direction in the folio deserves to be quoted, as proving the appearance that the sick and enfeebled soldiers of Henry V. were intended to bear upon the stage, "Drum and colours. Enter the King and his poor soldiers." The quarto, 1600, has, "Enter King, Clarence, Gloster, and others;" but Clarence was not present.

K. Hen. What men have you lost, Fluellen?

Flu. 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 of fire; and his lips plows 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.

K. Hen. 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.

Mont. You know me by my habit.

K. Hen. Well then, I know thee: what shall I know of thee?

Mont. My master's mind.

K. Hen. Unfold it.

Mont. 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

1 - when LENITY and cruelty play for a kingdom,] The folio, 1623, by the turning of the letter n, has leuity instead of "lenity." The later folios repeat the error.