Exeunt Hostess and Boy BARDOLPH Come, shall I make you two friends? We must to France together: why the devil should we keep knives to cut one another's throats? PISTOL Let floods o'erswell, and fiends for food howl on! NYM You'll pay me the eight shillings I won of you at betting? PISTOL Base is the slave that pays. NYM That now I will have: that's the humour of it. PISTOL As manhood shall compound: push home.
They draw BARDOLPH By this sword, he that makes the first thrust, I'll kill him; by this sword, I will. PISTOL Sword is an oath, and oaths must have their course. BARDOLPH Corporal Nym, an thou wilt be friends, be friends:
an thou wilt not, why, then, be enemies with me too.
Prithee, put up. NYM I shall have my eight shillings I won of you at betting? PISTOL A noble shalt thou have, and present pay;And liquor likewise will I give to thee, And friendship shall combine, and brotherhood:
I'll live by Nym, and Nym shall live by me;Is not this just? for I shall sutler be Unto the camp, and profits will accrue.
Give me thy hand. NYM I shall have my noble? PISTOL In cash most justly paid. NYM Well, then, that's the humour of't.
Re-enter Hostess Hostess As ever you came of women, come in quickly to Sir John. Ah, poor heart! he is so shaked of a burning quotidian tertian, that it is most lamentable to behold. Sweet men, come to him. NYM The king hath run bad humours on the knight; that's the even of it. PISTOL Nym, thou hast spoke the right;His heart is fracted and corroborate. NYM The king is a good king: but it must be as it may;he passes some humours and careers. PISTOL Let us condole the knight; for, lambkins we will live. SCENE II. Southampton. A council-chamber. Enter EXETER, BEDFORD, and WESTMORELAND BEDFORD 'Fore God, his grace is bold, to trust these traitors. EXETER They shall be apprehended by and by. WESTMORELAND How smooth and even they do bear themselves!
As if allegiance in their bosoms sat, Crowned with faith and constant loyalty. BEDFORD The king hath note of all that they intend, By interception which they dream not of. EXETER Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow, Whom he hath dull'd and cloy'd with gracious favours, That he should, for a foreign purse, so sell His sovereign's life to death and treachery.
Trumpets sound. Enter KING HENRY V, SCROOP, CAMBRIDGE, GREY, and Attendants KING HENRY V Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard.
My Lord of Cambridge, and my kind Lord of Masham, And you, my gentle knight, give me your thoughts:
Think you not that the powers we bear with us Will cut their passage through the force of France, Doing the execution and the act For which we have in head assembled them? SCROOP No doubt, my liege, if each man do his best. KING HENRY V I doubt not that; since we are well persuaded We carry not a heart with us from hence That grows not in a fair consent with ours, Nor leave not one behind that doth not wish Success and conquest to attend on us. CAMBRIDGE Never was monarch better fear'd and loved Than is your majesty: there's not, I think, a subject That sits in heart-grief and uneasiness Under the sweet shade of your government. GREY True: those that were your father's enemies Have steep'd their galls in honey and do serve you With hearts create of duty and of zeal. KING HENRY V We therefore have great cause of thankfulness;And shall forget the office of our hand, Sooner than quittance of desert and merit According to the weight and worthiness. SCROOP So service shall with steeled sinews toil, And labour shall refresh itself with hope, To do your grace incessant services. KING HENRY V We judge no less. Uncle of Exeter, Enlarge the man committed yesterday, That rail'd against our person: we consider it was excess of wine that set him on;And on his more advice we pardon him. SCROOP That's mercy, but too much security:
Let him be punish'd, sovereign, lest example Breed, by his sufferance, more of such a kind. KING HENRY V O, let us yet be merciful. CAMBRIDGE So may your highness, and yet punish too. GREY Sir, You show great mercy, if you give him life, After the taste of much correction. KING HENRY V Alas, your too much love and care of me Are heavy orisons 'gainst this poor wretch!
If little faults, proceeding on distemper, Shall not be wink'd at, how shall we stretch our eye When capital crimes, chew'd, swallow'd and digested, Appear before us? We'll yet enlarge that man, Though Cambridge, Scroop and Grey, in their dear care And tender preservation of our person, Would have him punished. And now to our French causes:
Who are the late commissioners? CAMBRIDGE I one, my lord:
Your highness bade me ask for it to-day. SCROOP So did you me, my liege. GREY And I, my royal sovereign. KING HENRY V Then, Richard Earl of Cambridge, there is yours;There yours, Lord Scroop of Masham; and, sir knight, Grey of Northumberland, this same is yours:
Read them; and know, I know your worthiness.
My Lord of Westmoreland, and uncle Exeter, We will aboard to night. Why, how now, gentlemen!
What see you in those papers that you lose So much complexion? Look ye, how they change!
Their cheeks are paper. Why, what read you there That hath so cowarded and chased your blood Out of appearance? CAMBRIDGE I do confess my fault;And do submit me to your highness' mercy. GREY SCROOP To which we all appeal. KING HENRY V The mercy that was quick in us but late, By your own counsel is suppress'd and kill'd:
You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy;For your own reasons turn into your bosoms, As dogs upon their masters, worrying you.
See you, my princes, and my noble peers, These English monsters! My Lord of Cambridge here, You know how apt our love was to accord To furnish him with all appertinents Belonging to his honour; and this man Hath, for a few light crowns, lightly conspired, And sworn unto the practises of France, To kill us here in Hampton: to the which This knight, no less for bounty bound to us Than Cambridge is, hath likewise sworn. But, O, What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop? thou cruel, Ingrateful, savage and inhuman creature!
