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 diner.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V. The same.

Enter the KING OF FRANCE, the DAUPHIN, the
DUKE OF BOURBON, the CONSTABLE
FRANCE, and others.

OF

Fr. King. 'Tis certain he hath pass'd the river
Somme.

Con. And if he be not fought withal, my lord,
Let us not live in France; let us quit all
And give our vineyards to a barbarous people.
Dau. O Dieu vivant! shall a few sprays of us,
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 bastards!

Mort de ma vië! 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.

ΤΟ

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,
Seem frosty? O, for honour of our land,
Let us not hang like roping icicles

Upon our houses' thatch, whiles a more frosty people

Sweat drops of gallant youth in our rich fields !
Poor we may call them in their native lords.

Dau. By faith and honour,

Our madams mock at us, and plainly say
Our mettle is bred out and they will give
Their bodies to the lust of English youth
To new-store France with bastard warriors.

Bour. They bid us to the English dancing-
schools,

And teach lavoltas high and swift corantos;
Saying our grace is only in our heels,

And that we are most lofty runaways.

Fr. King. Where is Montjoy the herald? speed

him hence:

Let him greet England with our sharp defiance.

Up, princes! and, with spirit of honour edged

and Staunton's spawned or shot into a nook,' though this gives a vigorous sense. The Dauphin's point, moreover, is not that England is remote, but that it is wet and uncomfortable to live in. 'Nook-shotten' aptly contrasts England with the compact, four-square contour of France.

19. drench, physic.

20

30

ib. sur-rein'd, jaded from being over-ridden.

26. in their native lords, in respect of the poor show which their owners make compared with the English.

33. lavoltas and corantos, quick, lively dances.

More sharper than your swords, hie to the field:
Charles Delabreth, high constable of France;
You Dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and of Berri,
Alençon, Brabant, Bar, and Burgundy;
Jaques Chatillon, Rambures, Vaudemont,
Beaumont, Grandpré, Roussi, and Fauconberg,
Foix, Lestrale, Bouciqualt, and Charolois ;
High dukes, great princes, barons, lords and
knights,

For your great seats now quit you of great shames.

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.

40

50

60

40. Delabreth, properly 'Foix. Both forms were reD'Albret; but Shakespeare took stored from Holinshed. the name from Holinshed.

47. seats, signorial castles. 48. England; Henry's title as king, as in v. 37 and elsewhere. 60. for, instead of.

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

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

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

Gow. Is the Duke of Exeter safe?

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, and my uttermost power: he is not-God be praised and 10 blessed!—any hurt in the world; but keeps the bridge most valiantly, with excellent discipline. There is an aunchient 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.

2. the bridge. The importance of the fight at the bridge hardly appears from the play, but is quite clear in Holinshed's narrative. The bridge spanned the little river Ternoise, which lay in the way of Henry's march upon Calais. Henry accordingly 'appointed certain captains with their bands to go thither with all speed before him, and to take possession thereof.' On

their arrival they found the French already at work breaking down the bridge, but 'assailed them so vigorously that they discomfited them' (Hol. iii. 552, ed. Stone).

13. an aunchient lieutenant, ' ensign-lieutenant.' Fluellen's imperfect English betrays him into a counterpart of Mrs. Quickly's 'quotidian tertian.'

Gow. What do you call him?
Flu. He is called Aunchient Pistol.

Gow. I know him not.

Enter PISTOL.

20

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 God; 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, Aunchient Pistol. Fortune is painted blind, with a muffler afore his eyes, to signify to 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 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.

Pist. Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him;

For he hath stolen a pax, and hangèd must a' be:

27. buxom (used with no definite sense).

33. his; so Ff. editions altered to

In most

her.' But

the mistake was no doubt intended, confusions of pronoun gender being constant in WelshEnglish, in part owing to the fact that the Welsh for 'she'

is hi (pronounced 'he ').

30

40

41. Fortune is Bardolph's foe; referring to the ballad

Fortune, my foe, why dost thou frown on me?

42. pax; probably Shakespeare's error for 'pix,' which is given by Holinshed. The