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the great pelly-doublet: he was full of jests, and gypes, and knaveries, and mocks; I am forget his name. Gow. Sir John Falstaff.

Flu. That is he: I can tell you, there is goot men born at Monmouth.

Gow. Here comes his majesty.

Alarum.

Enter King HENRY, with a Part of the English
Forces; WARWICK,3 GLOSTER, EXETER, and Others.
K. Hen. I was not angry since I came to France,
Until this instant.-Take a trumpet, herald;
Ride thou unto the horsemen on yon hill;
If they will fight with us, bid them come down,
Or void the field; they do offend our sight:
If they 'll do neither, we will come to them;
And make them skir away, as swift as stones
Enforced from the old Assyrian slings:

Besides, we 'll cut the throats of those we have;
And not a man of them, that we shall take,
Shall taste our mercy:-Go, and tell them so.
Enter MONTJOY.

Exe. Here comes the herald of the French, my liege,
Glo. His eyes are humbler than they us'd to be.
K. Hen. How now! what means this, herald? know'st

thou not,

That I have fin'd these bones of mine for ransome?
Com'st thou again for ransome?

Mont.

No, great king:

I come to thee for charitable license,

That we may wander o'er this bloody field,

3

Warwick,] Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. He did not, however, obtain that title till 1417, two years after the era of this play.

Malone.

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* And make them skir away,] I meet with this word in Ben Jonson's News from the Moon, a masque: " blow him afore him as far as he can see him; or skir over him with his bat's wings," Again, in Arthur Hall's translation of the 4th Iliad, 4to.

&c.

1581:

"It thee becomes with piersing girde to cause thy arrow skirre

"To wound the sturdie Menelau: -."

The word has already occurred in Macbeth. See Vol. VII, p. 222, n. 6.

Steevens.

To"book"our dead, and then to bury them; look
To sort our nobles from our common men;
For many of our princes (woe the while!)
Lie drown'd and soak'd in mercenary blood;
(So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs
In blood of princes) and their wounded steeds
Fret fetlock deep in gore, and with wild rage,
Yerk out their armed heels at their dead masters,
Killing them twice. O, give us leave, great king,
To view the field in safety, and dispose

Of their dead bodies.

K. Hen.

I tell thee truly, herald,

I know not, if the day be ours, or no;
For yet a many of your horsemen peer,
And gallop o'er the field.

Mont.

The day is yours.

K. Hen. Praised be God, and not our strength, for it!What is this castle call'd, that stands hard by? Mont. They call it-Agincourt.

K. Hen. Then call we this-the field of Agincourt, Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus.

Flu. Your grandfather of famous memory, an 't please your majesty, and your great-uncle Edward the plack prince of Wales, as I have read in the chronicles, fought a most prave pattle here in France.

K. Hen. They did, Fluellen.

Flu. Your majesty says very true: If your majesties is remembered of it, the Welshmen did goot service in a garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps; which, your majesty knows, to this

5 and their wounded steeds-] The old copy reads-And with their &c. the compositor's eye having probably glanced on the line beneath. Mr. Pope unnecessarily rejected both words, reading-while their wounded steeds, in which he was followed by the subsequent editors. Malone.

6

- Yerk out their armed heels -] So, in The Weakest goeth to the Wall, 1600:

7

"Their neighing gennets, armed to the field,

"Do yerk and fling, and beat the sullen ground." Steevens.

worn.

Monmouth caps;] Monmouth caps were formerly much From the following stanza in an old ballad of The Caps, printed in The Antidote against Melancholy, 1661, p. 31, it appears they were particularly worn by soldiers:

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hour is an honourable padge of the service: and, I do believe, your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek upon Saint Tavy's day.

K. Hen. I wear it for a memorable honour:

For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman.

Flu. All the water in Wye cannot wash your majesty's Welsh plood out of your pody, I can tell you that: Got pless it and preserve it, as long as it pleases his grace, and his majesty too!

K. Hen. Thanks, good my countryman.

Flu. By Cheshu, I am your majesty's countryman, I care not who know it; I will confess it to all the 'orld: I need not be ashamed of your majesty, praised be God, so long as your majesty is an houest man.

K. Hen. God keep me so !—Our heralds go with him; Bring me just notice of the numbers dead

On both our parts -Call yonder fellow hither.

[Points to WILL. Exeunt MONT. and Others.

Exe. Soldier, you must come to the king.

K. Hen. Soldier, why wear'st thou that glove in thy cap?

Will. An 't please your majesty, 'tis the gage of one that I should fight withal, if he be alive.

K. Hen. An Englishman?

Will. An't please your majesty, a rascal, that swaggered with me last night: who, if 'a live, and ever dare to challenge this glove, I have sworn to take him a box o' the ear: or, if I can see my glove in his cap, (which he swore, as he was a soldier, he would wear, if alive,) I will strike it out soundly.

K. Hen. What think you, captain Fluellen? is it fit this soldier keep his oath?

Flu. He is a craven and a villain else, an 't please your majesty, in my conscience.

"The soldiers that the Monmouth wear,
"On castle's tops their ensigns rear.
"The seaman with the thrumb doth stand

"On higher parts than all the land." Reed.

"Ti best caps, (says Fuller, in his Worthies of Wales, p. 50,) were formerly made at Monmouth, where the Capper's chapel doth still remain.-If (he adds) at this day [1660] the phrase of wearing a Monmouth cap be taken in a bad acception, I hope the inhabitants of that town will endeavour to disprove the occasion thereof." Malone.

K. Hen. It may be, his enemy is a gentleman of great sort, quite from the answer of his degree."

8

Flu. Though he be as goot a gentleman as the tevil is, as Lucifer and Belzebub himself, it is necessary, look your grace, that he keep his vow and his oath: if he be perjured, see you now, his reputation is as arrant a villain, and a Jack-sauce,1 as ever his plack shoe trod upon Got's ground and his earth, in my conscience, la.

K. Hen. Then keep thy vow, sirrah, when thou meet'st the fellow.

Will. So I will, my liege, as I live.

K. Hen. Who servest thou under?
Will. Under captain Gower, my liege.

Flu. Gower is a goot captain; and is good knowledge and literature in the wars.

K. Hen. Call him hither to me, soldier.
Will. I will, my liege.

2

[Exit.

K. Hen. Here, Fluellen; wear thou this favour for me, and stick it in thy cap: When Alençon and myself were down together, I plucked this glove from his helm: if any man challenge this, he is a friend to Alençon and an enemy to our person; if thou encounter any such, apprehend him, an thou dost love me.

Flu. Your grace does me as great honcurs, as can be desired in the hearts of his subjects: I would fain see the man, that has but two legs, that shall find himself aggriefed at this glove, that is all; but I would fain see it once; an please Got of his grace, that I might see it. K. Hen. Know'st thou Gower?

Flu. He is my dear friend, an please you.

8 great sort,] High rank. So, in the ballad of Jane Shore: "Lords and ladies of great sort." Johnson.

9

quite from the answer of his degree.] A man of such station as is not bound to hazard his person to answer to a challenge from one of the soldier's low degree. Johnson.

1

2

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Fack-sauce,] i. e. saucy Jack. Malone.

When Alencon and myself were down together,] This circumstance is not an invention of Shakspeare's. Henry was felled to the ground at the battle of Agincourt, by the Duke of Alencon, but recovered and slew two of the Duke's attendants. Afterwards Alencon was killed by the King's guard, contrary to Henry's intention, who wished to have saved him. Malone.

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K. Hen. Pray thee, go seek him, and bring him to my

tent.

Flu. I will fetch him.

[Exit.

K. Hen. My lord of Warwick,-and my brother Glos

ter,

Follow Fluellen closely at the heels:

The glove, which I have given him for a favour,
May, haply, purchase him a box o' the ear;
It is the soldier's; I, by bargain, should
Wear it myself. Follow, good cousin Warwick:
If that the soldier strike him, (as, I judge
By his blunt bearing, he will keep his word,)
Some sudden mischief may arise of it;

For I do know Fluellen valiant,

1

And, touch'd with choler, hot as gunpowder,
And quickly will return an injury:

Follow, and see there be no harm between them.

Go you with me,

uncle of Exeter.

SCENE VIII.

[Exeunt.

Before King Henry's Pavilion.

Enter GoWER and WILLIAMS.

Will. I warrant, it is to knight you, captain.
Enter FLUELLEN.

Flu. Got's will and his pleasure, captain, I peseech you now, come apace to the king: there is more goot toward you, peradventure, than is in your knowledge to dream of.

Will. Sir, know you this glove?

Flu. Know the glove? I know, the glove is a glove. Will, I know this; and thus I challenge it.

[Strikes him. Flu. 'Sblud, an arrant traitor, as any 's in the univer

sal 'orld, or in France, or in England.

Gow. How now, sir? you villain!

Will. Do you think I'll be forsworn?

Flu. Stand away, captain Gower; I will give treason his payment into plows,3 I warrant you.

3 into plows,] Mr. Heath very plausibly reads-in two plows.

Johnson. The quarto reads-I will give treason his due presently. We

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