Page images
PDF
EPUB

The gay new coats o'er the French soldiers' heads,
And turn them out of service. If they do this,
As, if God please, they shall, my ransom then
Will soon be levied. Herald, save thou thy labour;
Come thou no more for ransom, gentle herald:
They shall have none, I swear, but these my joints,
Which, if they have as I will leave 'em them,
Shall yield them little, tell the Constable.

Mont. I shall, king Harry: and so fare thee well.
Thou never shalt hear herald any more.

[Exit. K. Hen. I fear, thou wilt once more come again for

a ransom.

Enter the Duke of YORK.

York. My lord, most humbly on my knee I beg The leading of the vaward'.

K. Hen. Take it, brave York.-Now, soldiers, march

away:

And how thou pleasest, God, dispose the day!

SCENE IV.

[Exeunt.

The Field of Battle.

Alarums: Excursions. Enter French Soldier, PISTOL, and Boy.

Pist. Yield, cur.

Fr. Sol. Je pense, que vous estes le gentilhomme de bonne qualité.

Pist. Quality? Callino, castore me! art thou a gentleman? What is thy name? discuss.

2 The leading of the VAWARD.] i. e. the ranward, or advanced body of the army. See "Midsummer-Night's Dream," Vol. ii. p. 447.

3 Quality? Callino, castore me!] This is an old tune, to which a song was sung, printed in Clement Robinson's "Handful of Pleasant Delights," 1584. The notes are preserved in Playford's " Musical Companion," 1673. There can be no doubt that this is what is meant, though the words put into Pistol's mouth

Fr. Sol. O seigneur Dieu!

Pist. O! signieur Dew should be a gentleman.
Perpend my words, O signieur Dew, and mark :-
O signieur Dew, thou diest on point of fox1,
Except, O signieur, thou do give to me
Egregious ransom.

Fr. Sol. O, prenez misericorde! ayez pitié de moy! Pist. Moy shall not serve, I will have forty moys; For I will fetch thy rim out at thy throat,

In drops of crimson blood.

Fr. Sol. Est il impossible d'eschapper la force de ton bras?

Pist. Brass, cur?

Thou damned and luxurious mountain goat,

Offer'st me brass?

Fr. Sol. O pardonnez moy!

Pist. Say'st thou me so? is that a ton of moys?—
Come hither, boy: ask me this slave in French,
What is his name.

Boy. Escoutez: comment estes vous appellé?
Fr. Sol. Monsieur le Fer.

Boy. He says his name is master Fer.

Pist. Master Fer! I'll fer him, and firk him, and ferret him.-Discuss the same in French unto him.

in the old copy are "Calmie custure me." He heard the French soldier speak a foreign jargon, and he replied by the first foreign words that occurred to him, being the Irish burden of an old ballad. Boswell pointed out the air, and the true reading, and thus put an end to the doubt as to an expression which had puzzled the commentators.

[ocr errors]

thou diest on point of Fox,] "Fox was a very common word for a sword in the time of Shakespeare, and long afterwards. Webster, in his "White Devil," 1612, (edit. Dyce, i. 62,) makes one of his characters ask, “ () ! what blade is it a Toledo, or an English fox?" Why it was called a for, has not been explained,―possibly because a person of that name, like Andrea Ferrara, was once a celebrated sword cutler.

5 For I will fetch thy RIM out at thy throat,] Malone has shown, from the authority of Coles's Dictionary, 1677, that "rim" is "the caul in which the bowels are wrapped." Pistol means merely that he will drag the Frenchman's vitals out through his throat. We find rim used in this sense by Chapman, Philemon Holland, and others, and we need not therefore conjecture, with Warburton, that we ought to read ransom, or with Monck Mason, that the true word is ryno.

Boy. I do not know the French for fer, and ferret, and firk.

Pist. Bid him prepare, for I will cut his throat.
Fr. Sol. Que dit-il, monsieur?

Boy. Il me commande à vous dire que vous faites vous prest; car ce soldat icy est disposé tout à cette heure de couper vostre gorge.

Pist. Ouy, couper le gorge, par ma foy, peasant,
Unless thou give me crowns, brave crowns;
Or mangled shalt thou be by this my sword.

Fr. Sol. O! je vous supplie pour l'amour de Dieu, me pardonner. Je suis le gentilhomme de bonne maison : gardez ma vie, et je vous donneray deux cents escus. Pist. What are his words?

Boy. He prays you to save his life: he is a gentleman of a good house; and, for his ransom, he will give you two hundred crowns.

Pist. Tell him,—my fury shall abate, and I The crowns will take.

Fr. Sol. Petit monsieur, que dit-il?

Boy. Encore qu'il est contre son jurement, de pardonner aucun prisonnier; neantmoins, pour les escus que vous l'avez promis, il est content à vous donner la liberté, le franchisement.

Fr. Sol. Sur mes genoux, je vous donne mille remerciemens; et je m'estime heureux que je suis tombé entre les mains d'un chevalier, je pense, le plus brave, valiant, et tres distingué seigneur d'Angleterre.

Pist. Expound unto me, boy.

Boy. He gives you, upon his knees, a thousand thanks; and he esteems himself happy that he hath fallen into the hands of one (as he thinks) the most brave, valorous, and thrice-worthy seigneur of England. Pist. As I suck blood, I will some mercy show.— Follow me! [Exit PISTOL. Boy. Suivez vous le grand capitaine. I did never [Exit French Soldier.

VOL. IV.

N n

know so full a voice issue from so empty a heart: but the saying is true, the empty vessel makes the greatest sound. Bardolph, and Nym, had ten times more valour than this roaring devil i' the old play, that every one may pare his nails with a wooden dagger, and they are both hanged; and so would this be, if he durst steal any thing adventurously. I must stay with the lackeys, with the luggage of our camp: the French might have a good prey of us, if he knew of it, for there is none to guard it, but boys. [Exit.

SCENE V.

Another Part of the Field of Battle.

Alarums. Enter DAUPHIN, ORLEANS, BOURBON,
CONSTABLE, RAMBURES, and Others.

Con. O diable!

Orl. O seigneur !-le jour est perdu! tout est perdu! Dau. Mort de ma vie! all is confounded, all! Reproach and everlasting shame

Sit mocking in our plumes.-O meschante fortune !— Do not run away.

Con.

[A short Alarum. Why, all our ranks are broke. Dau. O perdurable shame!—let's stab ourselves. Be these the wretches that we play'd at dice for?

Orl. Is this the king we sent to for his ransom? Bour. Shame, and eternal shame, nothing but shame! Let us die-in!-Once more back again";

6

this roaring devil i' the old play,] An allusion to the introduction of the devil in the old Moralities, who was often made to roar for the amusement of the spectators, sometimes by the Vice, who beat him with his "wooden dagger," also mentioned by the boy.

7 Let us die :-in !-Once more back again ;] Thus the line stands in the folio, and seems to require no alteration. Bourbon is urging his companions to return to the battle, "Let us die: in!" that is, "let us in," and " once more back to the fight." The line consists, it is true, of only nine syllables, but we have many such in Shakespeare; and the time is amply made up by the

And he that will not follow Bourbon now,
Let him go hence, and, with his cap in hand,
Like a base pander, hold the chamber-door,
Whilst by a slave, no gentler than my dog,
His fairest daughter is contaminate.

Con. Disorder, that hath spoil'd us, friend us now! Let us, in heaps, go offer up our lives.

Orl. We are enough, yet living in the field,

To smother up the English in our throngs,

If any order might be thought upon.

Bour. The devil take order now. I'll to the throng: Let life be short, else shame will be too long. [Exeunt.

SCENE VI.

Another Part of the Field.

Alarums. Enter King HENRY and Forces; Exeter, and Others.

K. Hen. Well have we done, thrice-valiant country

men:

But all's not done; yet keep the French the field. Exe. The duke of York commends him to your majesty.

K. Hen. Lives he, good uncle? thrice within this

hour

proper pauses after the exhortations, "Let us die :-in!" Theobald reads very lamely, "Let us die instant;" and Malone very needlessly, "Let us die in fight."

s His fairest daughter is CONTAMINATE.] The folio has contaminated: the quarto, 1600, has contamuracke, which nonsense is repeated in the quartos of 1602 and 1608. In Shakespeare, and other writers of the time, we often meet with " create " for created," consecrate for consecrated, &c. In "The Comedy of Errors," Vol. ii. p. 131, this apposite passage occurs :

دو

"And that this body, consecrate to thee,

By ruffian lust should be contaminate.”

9 Let us, in heaps, go offer up our lives] The quartos here add another line, which may be worth preserving, though it ought not to be inserted in the text, where Malone placed it :

"Unto these English, or else die with fame."

« PreviousContinue »