Act 3 — Scene VI. The English camp in Picardy.

Gow. How now, Captain Fluellen! come you from the bridge? Flu. I assure you, there is very excellent services[4957] committed at the bridge. Gow. Is the Duke of Exeter safe?5 Flu. The Duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as Agamemnon; and a man that I love and honour with my soul, and my heart, and my duty, and my life, and my living,[4958] and my uttermost power: he is not—God be praised and[4959] blessed!—any hurt in the world; but keeps the bridge most[4960]10 valiantly, with excellent discipline. There is an aunchient[4961] lieutenant there at the pridge, I think in my very conscience[4961] 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.[4962]15 Gow. What do you call him? Flu. He is called Aunchient Pistol. Gow. I know him not.

Flu. Here is the man.[4963] Pist. Captain, I thee beseech to do me favours:[4964]20 The Duke of Exeter doth love thee well.[4964] Flu. Ay, I praise God; and I have merited some love at his hands. Pist. Bardolph, a soldier, firm and sound of heart,[4965] And of buxom valour, hath, by cruel fate,[4965][4966]25 And giddy Fortune's furious fickle wheel,[4965] That goddess blind,[4965][4967] That stands upon the rolling restless stone—[4965][4967][4968] Flu. By your patience, Aunchient Pistol. Fortune is painted blind, with a muffler afore her eyes, to signify to[4969]30 you that Fortune is blind; 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[4970] her foot, look you, is fixed upon a spherical stone, which rolls, and rolls, and rolls: in good truth, the poet makes a most[4971]35 excellent description of it: Fortune is an excellent moral.[4971][4972] Pist. Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him;[4973] For he hath stolen a pax, and hanged must a' be:[4973][4974] A damned death![4973][4975] Let gallows gape for dog; let man go free[4973]40 And let not hemp his wind-pipe suffocate:[4973] But Exeter hath given the doom of death[4973] For pax of little price.[4973][4974] Therefore, go speak; the duke will hear thy voice;[4973] And let not Bardolph's vital thread be cut[4973]45 With edge of penny cord and vile reproach:[4973] Speak, captain, for his life, and I will thee requite.[4973] Flu. Aunchient Pistol, I do partly understand your meaning. Pist. Why then, rejoice therefore.50 Flu. Certainly, aunchient, it is not a thing to rejoice at: for if, look you, he were my brother, I would desire the duke to use his good pleasure, and put him to execution;[4976] for discipline ought to be used.[4976] Pist. Die and be damn'd! and figo for thy friendship![4977]55 Flu. It is well. Pist. The fig of Spain! [Exit. Flu. Very good. Gow. Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal; I remember him now; a bawd, a cutpurse.60 Flu. I'll assure you, a' uttered as brave words at the[4978] bridge as you shall see in a summer's day. But it is very well; what he has spoke to me, that is well, I warrant you, when time is serve. Gow. Why, 'tis a gull, a fool, a rogue, that now and65 then goes to the wars, to grace himself at his return into London under the form of a soldier. And such fellows are[4979] perfect in the great commanders' names: and they will learn[4980] you by rote where services were done; at such and such a sconce, at such a breach, at such a convoy; who came off70 bravely, who was shot, who disgraced, what terms the enemy stood on; and this they con perfectly in the phrase of war,[4981] which they trick up with new-tuned oaths: and what a[4982] beard of the general's cut and a horrid suit of the camp[4983] will do among foaming bottles and ale-washed wits, is wonderful75 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 him80 my mind. [Drum heard.] Hark you, the king is coming,[4984] and I must speak with him from the pridge.[4985]

God pless your majesty! K. Hen. How now, Fluellen! camest thou from the[4987] bridge? Flu. Ay, so please your majesty. The Duke of Exeter85 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.90 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[4988] duke hath lost never a man, but one that is like to be[4989] executed for robbing a church, one Bardolph, if your majesty95 know the man: his face is all bubukles, and whelks, and[4990] knobs, and flames o' fire: and his lips blows at his nose,[4991] 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:[4992]100 and we give express charge, that in our marches through[4992] the country, there be nothing compelled from the villages,[4992] nothing taken but paid for, none of the French upbraided[4992] or abused in disdainful language; for when lenity and[4992][4993] cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentler gamester is the[4992]105 soonest winner.[4992]

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.110 Mont. Thus says my king: Say thou to Harry of[4994] England: Though we seemed dead, we did but sleep:[4994][4995] advantage is a better soldier than rashness. Tell him we could[4994] have rebuked him at Harfleur, but that we thought not[4994] good to bruise an injury till it were full ripe: now we[4994]115 speak upon our cue, and our voice is imperial: England[4994][4996] shall repent his folly, see his weakness, and admire our[4994] sufferance. Bid him therefore consider of his ransom;[4994] which must proportion the losses we have borne, the[4994] subjects we have lost, the disgrace we have digested; which[4994]120 in weight to re-answer, his pettiness would bow under.[4994] For our losses, his exchequer is too poor; for the effusion[4994] of our blood, the muster of his kingdom too faint a[4994] number; and for our disgrace, his own person, kneeling at our[4994] feet, but a weak and worthless satisfaction. To this add[4994]125 defiance: and tell him, for conclusion, he hath betrayed his[4994] followers, whose condemnation is pronounced. So far my[4994] king and master; so much my office.[4994] K. Hen. What is thy name? I know thy quality. Mont. Montjoy.130 K. Hen. Thou dost thy office fairly. Turn thee back, And tell thy king I do not seek him now; But could be willing to march on to Calais Without impeachment: for, to say the sooth, Though 'tis no wisdom to confess so much135 Unto an enemy of craft and vantage, My people are with sickness much enfeebled, My numbers lessened, and those few I have Almost no better than so many French; Who when they were in health, I tell thee, herald,[4997]140 I thought upon one pair of English legs Did march three Frenchmen. Yet, forgive me, God, That I do brag thus! This your air of France Hath blown that vice in me; I must repent. Go therefore, tell thy master here I am;145 My ransom is this frail and worthless trunk, My army but a weak and sickly guard; Yet, God before, tell him we will come on, Though France himself and such another neighbour Stand in our way. There's for thy labour, Montjoy.[4998]150 Go, bid thy master well advise himself: If we may pass, we will; if we be hinder'd, We shall your tawny ground with your red blood Discolour: and so, Montjoy, fare you well. The sum of all our answer is but this:155 We would not seek a battle, as we are; Nor, as we are, we say we will not shun it:[4999] So tell your master. Mont. I shall deliver so. Thanks to your highness.

Glou. I hope they will not come upon us now.160 K. Hen. We are in God's hand, brother, not in theirs. March to the bridge; it now draws toward night: Beyond the river we'll encamp ourselves, And on to-morrow bid them march away. [Exeunt.