King Henry V · William Shakespeare
SCENE II.--A VIEW IN PICARDY.
_Flu._ By your patience, ancient Pistol. Fortune is painted plind, with a muffler before her eyes,[8] to signify to you that fortune is plind; 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 variations, and mutabilities: 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 fortune: fortune, look you, is an excellent moral. _Pist._ Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him; For he has stolen a _pix_,[9] and hang'd must 'a be.(B) A damned death! Let gallows gape for dog; let man go free, [_Crosses to L.H._ But Exeter hath given the doom of death, For _pix_ of little price. Therefore, go speak, the duke will hear thy voice; And let not Bardolph's vital thread be cut With edge of penny cord and vile reproach: Speak, captain, for his life, and I will thee requite. [_Crosses to R.H._ _Flu._ Ancient Pistol, I do partly understand your meaning. _Pist._ Why, then, rejoice therefore. _Flu._ Certainly, ancient, it is not a thing to rejoice at: for if, look you, he were my prother, I would desire the duke to use his goot pleasure, and put him to executions; for disciplines ought to be used.
_Pist._ _Fico_ for thy friendship![10] _Flu._ It is well. _Pist._ The fig of Spain![11] [_Exit PISTOL, R.H._ _Flu._ Very goot. _Gow._ Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal; a cut-purse; I remember him now. _Flu._ I'll assure you, 'a utter'd as prave 'ords at the pridge as you shall see in a summer's day. _Gow._ Why, 'tis a gull, a fool, a rogue, that now and then goes to the wars, to grace himself, at his return into London, under the form of a soldier. You must learn to know such slanders of the age,[12] 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 'orld he is: if I find a hole in his coat, I will tell him my mind. [_March heard._] Hark you, the king is coming; and I must speak with him from the pridge.[13] _Enter KING HENRY, BEDFORD, GLOSTER, WESTMORELAND, Lords, and Soldiers, L.H.U.E._ _Flu._ (R.) Heaven pless your majesty! _K. Hen._ (C.) How now, Fluellen! cam'st thou from the bridge? _Flu._ Ay, so please your majesty. The duke of Exeter has very gallantly maintained the pridge: the French has 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.
_K. Hen._ What men have you lost, Fluellen? _Flu._ The perdition of th'athversary hath been very great, very reasonable great: marry, for my part, I think the duke hath lost never a man, but one that is like to be executed for robbing a church, one Bardolph, if your majesty knows the man: his face is all bubukles,[14] and whelks,[15] and knobs, and flames of fire: and his lips plows at his nose, and it is like a coal of fire, sometimes plue, and sometimes red; but his nose is executed, and his fire's out.[16] _K. Hen._ We would have all such offenders so cut off. [_Trumpet sounds without, R._ _Enter MONTJOY and Attendants, R.H._ _Mont._ (_uncovers and kneels._) You know me by my habit.[17] _K. Hen._ Well, then, I know thee: What shall I know of thee? _Mont._ My master's mind. _K. Hen._ Unfold it. _Mont._ Thus says my king:--Say thou to Harry of England: Though we seemed dead, we did but sleep. Tell him, he shall repent his folly, see his weakness, and admire our sufferance.[18] Bid him, therefore, consider of his ransom; which must proportion the losses we have borne, the subjects we have lost, the disgrace we have digested. For our losses, his exchequer is too poor; for the effusion of our blood, the muster of his kingdom too faint a number; and for our disgrace, his own person, kneeling at our feet, but a weak and worthless satisfaction. To this add--defiance: and tell him, for conclusion, he hath betrayed his followers, whose condemnation is pronounced. So far my king and master; so much my office.
_K. Hen._What is thy name? I know thy quality. _Mont._ Montjoy. _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:[19] for, to say the sooth (Though 'tis no wisdom to confess so much Unto an enemy of craft and vantage), My people are with sickness much enfeebled; My numbers lessen'd; and those few I have, Almost no better than so many French; Who, when they were in health, I tell thee, herald, I thought, upon one pair of English legs, Did march three Frenchmen.--Forgive me, Heaven, 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; My ransom is this frail and worthless trunk; My army but a weak and sickly guard: Yet, Heaven before,[20] tell him we will come on, Though France himself,[21] and such another neighbour, Stand in our way. There's for thy labour, Montjoy. 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:(C) and so, Montjoy, fare you well. The sum of all our answer is but this: We would not seek a battle, as we are; Nor, as we are, we say, we will not shun it: So tell your master.
_Mont._ I shall deliver so. (_MONTJOY rises from his knee._) Thanks to your highness. [_Exit MONTJOY with Attendants, R.H._ _Glo._ I hope they will not come upon us now. _K. Hen._ We are in Heaven'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, R.H._ _March._ [Footnote III.4: _And, for achievement, offer up his ransom._] i.e., instead of fighting, he will offer to pay ransom.] [Footnote III.5: _----ancient Pistol._] Ancient, a standard or flag; also the ensign bearer, or officer, now called an ensign.] [Footnote III.6: _Of buxom valour,_] i.e., valour under good command, obedient to its superiors. The word is used by Spencer.] [Footnote III.7: _----upon the rolling restless stone,--_] Fortune is described by several ancient authors in the same words.] [Footnote III.8: _----with a muffler before her eyes,_] A muffler was a sort of veil, or wrapper, worn by ladies in Shakespeare's time, chiefly covering the chin and throat.] [Footnote III.9: _For he hath stolen a pix,_] A _pix_, or little chest (from the Latin _pixis_, a box), in which the consecrated _host_ was used to be kept.] [Footnote III.10: _Fico for thy friendship!_] Fico is fig--it was a term of reproach.] [Footnote III.11: _The fig of Spain!_] An expression of contempt or insult, which consisted in thrusting the thumb between two of the closed fingers, or into the mouth; whence _Bite the thumb_. The custom is generally regarded as being originally Spanish. --NARES.]
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.