Henry V Page #4

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the native and true challenger.

Or else what follows?

Bloody constraint.

For if you hide the crown,

even in your hearts,

there will he rake for it.

Therefore, in fierce

tempest is he coming,

in thunder and in earthquake,

like a Jove,

that if requiring fail,

he will compel.

This is his claim,

his threatening and my message.

Unless the Dauphin

be in presence here,

to whom expressly

I bring greeting to.

For the Dauphin,

I stand here for him.

What to him from England?

Scorn and defiance,

slight regard, contempt...

and anything that might not

misbecome the mighty sender,

doth he prize you at.

Thus says my king.

Say, if my father render a fair

return, it is against my will,

for I desire nothing

but odds with England.

And to that end, as matching

to his youth and vanity,

I did present him

with the Paris balls!

He'll make your Paris Louvre

shake for it.

And be assured

you'll find a difference,

as we, his subjects,

have in wonder found,

between the promise of his greener

days and these he masters now.

Tomorrow...

Shall you know

our mind at full.

Thus with imagined wing

our swift scene flies,

in motion of no less celerity

than that of thought!

Work, work your thoughts, and

in them see a siege!

Behold the ordinance

on their carriages,

with fatal mouths gaping

on girded harflew.

Suppose the ambassador

from the French comes back,

tells Harry that the king does

offer him Katherine, his daughter,

and with her to dowry, some

petty and unprofitable dukedoms.

The offer likes him not.

And the nimble gunner with linstock

now the devilish cannon touches,

and down goes all before them!

Once more unto the breach,

dear friends!

Once more, or close the wall up

with our English dead!

In peace there's nothing so becomes a

man as modest stillness and humility.

But when the blast of war

blows in our ears,

then imitate the action

of the tiger!

Stiffen the sinews,

summon up the blood,

disguise fair nature

with hard-favored rage.

Then lend the eye

a terrible aspect.

Let it pry through the portage of

the head like the brass cannon.

Let the brow o'erwhelm it as

fearfully as doth a galled rock...

o'erhang and jetty

his confounded base,

swilled with the wild

and wasteful ocean.

Now set the teeth

and stretch the nostril wide,

hold hard the breath and bend up

every spirit to his full height!

On, on, you noblest England!

Now attest that those whom you

called fathers did beget you.

And you, good yeoman, whose

limbs were made in England,

show us here the mettle

of your pasture.

Let us swear that you are worth

your breeding, which I doubt not!

For there is none of you so mean and base

that hath not noble luster in your eyes!

I see you stand like greyhounds in

the slips, straining upon the start.

The game's afoot!

Follow your spirit,

and upon this charge, cry,

"God for Harry,

England and Saint George!"

God for harry,

England and Saint George!

Up to the breach,

you dogs!

Avaunt, you cullions!

Captain Fluellen, you must

come presently to the mines.

The duke of Gloucester

would speak with you.

Tell the duke it is not so good

to come to the mines.

For look you, the mines is not

according to the disciplines of war.

By Cheshu, I think he will

blow up all,

if there is not

better direction.

The duke of Gloucester,

to whom the order...

of the siege is given, is altogether

directed by an Irishman.

It's Captain Macmorris, is it not?

- I think it be.

- By Cheshu, he is an ass in the world.

He has no more directions...

in the true disciplines of the

wars than is a puppy dog.

Here he comes, and the Scots

captain, Captain Jamy, with him.

Oh, no, Captain Jamy is a marvelous,

valorous gentleman, that is certain.

I say... good day,

Captain Fluellen.

Good day to your worship,

good Captain James.

How now, Captain Macmorris?

Have you quit the mines? By Christ, la.

The workish give over.

The trumpets

sound the retreat.

By my hand,

'tis ill done.

Captain Macmorris,

I beseech you now,

a few disputations as partly

touching the disciplines of the war,

partly to satisfy

my opinion...

and partly for

the satisfaction of my mind,

as touching the direction

of the military discipline.

That is the point. It is no time

to discourse, so Christ save me.

The town is besieged, and the

trumpet calls us to the breach.

We talk, and, by Christ,

do nothing.

By the mass, ere these eyes of mine

take themselves to slumber,

I'll do good service, or I'll

lie in the ground for it.

Captain Macmorris,

I think, look you,

under your correction, there

are not many of your nation.

What is my nation?

Who talks of my nation

is a villain...

and a bastard and a knave

and a rascal?

Look you, if you take the matter otherwise

than it is meant, Captain Macmorris,

peradventure I shall think

you do not use me...

with that affability as in discretion

you ought to use me, now look you,

being as good

a man as yourself.

I do not know you

so good a man as myself.

So Christ save me,

I will cut off your head!

How yet resolves

the governor of the town?

This is the latest parle

we will admit.

Therefore, to our best mercy

give yourselves,

or, like to men proud of

destruction, defy us to our worst.

For as I am a soldier, if I

begin the battery once again,

I will not leave

the half-achieved Harflew...

till in her ashes

she lie buried.

Therefore,

you men of Harflew,

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 villainy!

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 their silvered beards...

and their most reverend heads

dashed to the walls,

your naked infants

spitted upon pikes...

whiles the mad mothers

with their howls confused...

do break the clouds!

What say you?

Will you yield and this avoid?

Or, guilty in defense,

be thus destroyed?

The Dauphin, of whose

succor we entreated,

returns us that his powers are not

yet ready to raise so great a siege.

Therefore, dread king,

enter our gates,

dispose of us and ours,

for we no longer

are defensible.

Go you and enter Harflew.

There remain and fortify it

strongly against 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.

Tonight... in Harflew

will we be your guest.

Tomorrow... for the march

are we addressed.

Alice.

Alice,

tu as ete en angleterre,

et tu parles bien le langage.

Un peu, madame.

Je te prie, m'enseignez.

Il faut que j'apprenne

a parler.

Comment appelez-vous

la main en anglais?

La main?

Elle est appelee"de" hand.

"De hand."

Mm-hmm.

Et les doigts?

Les doigts?

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