The Life of King Henry the Fifth

by
William Shakespeare

Abridged for the Shakespeare Schools Festival

by

Arnold Wesker
Re-abridged April 2010

30 MINUTE VERSION

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LIST OF ROLES

CHORUS
KING Henry the Fifth1 also known as Harry

Duke of GLOUCESTER, his brother

Duke of EXETER, his uncle

Earl of WESTMORELAND, his cousin
Duke of YORK
Earl of SALISBURY

Archbishop of CANTERBURY
Bishop of ELY

Sir Thomas ERPINGHAM

Captain FLUELLEN / Officers in the King’s army
Captain GOWER

John BATES
Michael WILLIAMS / Soldiers in the King’s army

An English HERALD

Lieutenant BARDLOPH2
Corporal NYM3 / low-life characters masquerading as soldiers4
Sergeant PISTOL
A BOY5
HOSTESS Nell Quickly, hostess of an Eastcheap tavern
now married to Pistol.

Continued…

Charles the Sixth, the FRENCH KING

1 Prince Hal in earlier plays by Shakespeare. As a prince, he was known to be pleasure-loving. This
new responsible king is a shock to both the English and French courts
2 Also in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Parts One and Two, and The Merry Wives of Windsor
3 Also in Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor.
4 Associates of Sir John Falstaff. For economy Falstaff has been cut from this version.
5 In the original, Falstaff’s page.
2
QUEEN ISABEL, the French Queen
Louis the DAUPHIN, their son
Princess KATHERINE, their daughter
ALICE, a lady attending on Princess Katherine

Duke of BOURBON
Duke of ORLEANS
Duke of BRETAGNE
Charles Delabreth, the CONSTABLE of France
Earl of GRANDPRÉ
Lord RAMBURES
GOVERNOR of Harfleur
MONTJOY, the French herald
French Ambassador to the King of England
Attendants; Lords; Soldiers.

Suggested doubling:
Canterbury/Bourbon
Ely/Orleans
Bates/Rambures
Williams/Bretagne
English Herald/Dauphin

3
 CHORUS6

O, for a muse of fire that would ascend

The brightest heaven of invention;
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
Assume the port of Mars.
Suppose, within the girdle of these walls
Are now confined two monarchies – England and France7.
Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them.
And let me be the Chorus to this history who
Prologue-like your humble patience pray,
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.

Scene one

London. An antechamber in the King’s

Palace.

Enter ARCHBISHOP OF
CANTEBURY, and BISHOP OF ELY.

CANTERBURY My Lord, Ely, have you noted how the king is full of grace and
fair regard?

ELY And a true lover of the Church.

CANTERBURY The courses of his youth promised it not.

ELY We are blessed in the change.

CANTERBURY A wonder! since his addiction was to courses vain; his

companies unletter’d, rude, and shallow; his hours fill’d up
with riots, banquets, sports. And never was there noted in him
any study.

ELY Wholesome berries ripen best neighboured by fruit of baser

quality.

CANTERBURY It must be so, for miracles are ceased.

Exit

6 Or Narrator
7 England and France added for this version
4
 Scene two

London, The King’s Chamber.

KING HENRY, GLOUCESTER,

WARWICK, WESTMORELAND,
EXETER & ATTENDANTS.

Enter CANTERBURY and ELY.

CANTERBURY God and his angels guard your sacred throne.

HENRY We thank you, my Lord Canterbury. Pray, proceed and justly

tell what bars our claims to France. And God forbid that you
should miscreate the truth; for God doth know how many now
in health shall drop their blood because of what your reverence
shall incite us to. Therefore take heed how you awake our
sleeping sword of war and that your conscience be as pure as
sin with baptism.

CANTERBURY Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers. There is no
bar to make against your highness’ claim to France. Your
forebears hold in right your title through the female line, and
falsely do the kings of France unto this day deny your highness
claim.

HENRY And I with right and conscience clear can make this claim?

CANTERBURY The sin upon my head if not, dread sovereign!

HENRY Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin.

Exit some attendants.

Enter AMBASSADOR of France with
Casket.

Now are we well prepared to know the pleasure of our fair

cousin Dauphin, for we hear your greeting is from him, not
from the king.

AMBASSADOR Your highness, lately sending into France, did claim some
certain dukedoms, in the right of your great predecessor, King
Edward the Third. In answer of which claim, the prince our
master bids you be advised: there’s nought in France that can,
with merely nimble dance be won. He therefore sends this tun
of treasure, and desires you let the dukedoms that you claim
hear no more of you.
5
HENRY What treasure, uncle?

EXETER (opening the casket) Tennis-balls, my liege.

All but HENRY gasp at the insult.

HENRY We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us. But warn him
when we have matched our rackets to these balls we will in
France, by God’s grace, play a set shall strike his father’s
crown. Tell the pleasant prince this mock of his shall many
widows and their husbands mock. And some are yet unborn
that shall have cause to curse the Dauphin’s scorn. (To his
ATTENDANTS) Convey him with safe conduct. Fare you well.

Exit AMBASSADOR.

EXETER This was a merry message.

HENRY We hope to make the sender blush for it.

Exit all.

CHORUS

The king is set from London; and the scene

Is now transported, gentles, to Southampton.
Now all the youth of England are on fire,
And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies.
Now thrive the armourers, and honours thought
Reigns solely in the breast of every man.

Scene three

Southampton. A street.

Enter NYM8 and BARDOLPH.

BARDLOPH Well met, Corporal Nym.

NYM Good morrow, Lieutenant Bardolph9.

BARDLOPH Well, are Ancient10 Pistol and you friends yet?

8 Also in Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor.

9 Promoted since Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part Two where he was only a corporal. Also appears in
Henry IV, Part One and The Merry Wives of Windsor.
10 An equivalent rank to Sergeant.
6
NYM For my part, I care not

BARDOLPH I will bestow a breakfast to make you friends, and we’ll be all
three sworn brothers to France.

NYM Faith, I will live so long as I may, that’s the certain of it, and
when I cannot live any longer, I will do as I may, that is the
rendezvous of it.

Enter PISTOL and HOSTESS.

NYM draws his sword.

PISTOL O well-a-day, Lady11, if he (meaning NYM) be not here now!

PISTOL draws his sword.

BARDOLPH (trying to stop a fight) Good lieutenant! Good corporal!

NYM I will cut thy throat in fair terms and that’s the humour of it.

PISTOL I thee defy again. O hound of Crete, think’st thou my spouse to

get? Enough! Go to!

BARDOLPH Hear me what I say: he that strikes the first stroke, I’ll run him
to the hilts, as I am a soldier.

BOTH sheath their swords.

BARDOLOPH 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?
They shake.

Enter BOY.

BOY Come, let’s away. The king will be gone soon from
Southampton.

PISTOL My love, give me thy lips. Look to my chattels and my

moveables. Trust no one, for oaths are straws, men’s faiths are
wafer-cakes. (To the OTHERS) Touch her soft mouth, and
march.

BARDOLPH (kissing her) Farewell.

11 Everything was going so well – until he saw his enemy Nym. Nym was engaged to his wife, Nell,
formerly Mistress Quickly in the earlier history plays.
7
NYM I cannot kiss, that is the humour of it, but adieu.

Now, let us to France. Like horses-leeches, my boys, to suck, to

suck, to suck, the very blood to suck.

HOSTESS Farewell. Adieu.

All leave their different ways.

Scene four

Southampton.

KING HENRY with retinue

HENRY Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard. Now, lords, for
France. Cheerily to sea! The signs of war advance – no king of
England if not king of France.

Cheers. Exit all.

CHORUS The well-appointed King at Hampton pier

Embark his royalty, and his brave fleet
Holding due course to Harfluer. Follow, Follow!
Grapple your mind to the sternage of this navy.

Scene five

France. The French King’s Palace.

FRENCH KING, DAUPHIN, DUKES

OF BRETAGNE, CONSTABLE and
OTHERS.

FR. KING Thus come the English with full power upon us.

DAUPHIN My most redoubted father, it is meet we arm us ‘gainst the foe,

and let us do it with no show of fear; for England is so idly
king’d, her sceptre so fantastically borne by a vain, giddy,
shallow, humorous youth that fear attends her not.

CONSTABLE O peace, Prince Dauphin! You are too much mistaken in this
king. Question the late ambassador and you shall find his vanities
forespent.
8
DAUPHIN No matter. ‘Tis best to weigh the enemy more mighty than he
seems.

FR. KING And, princes, be you mighty yet to meet him for he is bred out of
that bloody strain of Edward, Black Prince of Wales. Let us fear
the native mightiness and fate of him.

Enter MESSENGER.

MESSENGER Ambassadors from Harry King of England do crave admittance

to your majesty.

FR. KING We’ll give them present audience.

Exit MESSENGER.
Enter EXETER.

FR. KING From our brother of England?

EXETER From him. And thus he greets your majesty. He wills you, in the
name of God Almighty to resign the crown of France withheld
from him the native and true challenger.

FR. KING Or else what follows?

EXETER Bloody constraint. In fierce tempest is he coming, in thunder and

in earthquake so that, if appealing fail, upon your head the
widows’ tears, the orphans’ cries, the dead men’s blood, the
bereft maidens’ groans. This is his claim and my message –
unless the Dauphin be in presence here to whom expressly I bring
greeting too.

DAUPHIN I stand here for him. What to him from England?

EXETER Scorn and defiance, slight regard, contempt for the bitter mock
you sent his majesty.

DAUPHIN I desire nothing but odds with England. To that end, as matching
to his youth and vanity I did present him with the Paris-balls.

EXETER He’ll make your Paris Louvre shake for it. And be assured,
you’ll find a difference between the promise of his greener days
and these he masters now, a difference that you shall read in your
losses if he stay in France.

FR. KING To-morrow shall you know our mind at full.

9
 All exit.

CHORUS.

Thus with imagined wing our swift scene flies.

Suppose that ambassadors from France return
To tell Harry that the king doth offer him
Katherine his daughter, and with her, for dowry,
Some petty and unprofitable dukedoms.
The offer is not liked.

Work, work your thoughts,

And therein see a siege. Behold the nimble gunner
Touches cannon. Down goes all.
Cannon fire. Bugles.

Scene six

France. Before Harfleur12.

HENRY, EXETER, GLOUCESTER,

and SOLDIERS with scaling-ladders.

HENRY Once more unto the breach13, 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, conjure up the blood, disguise fair nature with
hard-favoured rage. On, on, you noblest English! Dishonour not
your mothers. The game’s afoot. Follow your spirit, and upon
the charge cry “God for Harry, England, and Saint George.”

Exit.

Cannon fire. Bugles.

Scene seven

The same.

12 Henry V landed at Harfleur and besieged the garrisoned town. The length of the siege threatened
the health of his army and he chose instead to storm the town. Rape and loot was traditionally promised
to the soldiers to encourage them in the dangerous task of storming a garrisoned town.
13 The cannon fire had opened up a section of wall into which Henry was urging his men.
10
 Enter NYM, BARDOLPH, PISTOL and
BOY.

BARDOLPH On, on, on, on, on! to the breach, to the breach!

NYM (keen to avoid fighting) Pray thee, corporal, stay. The knocks are
too hot, and for mine own part, I have not a case of lives.

PISTOL Would I were in an alehouse in London! I would give all my

fame for a pot of ale, and safety.14

Enter FLUELLEN15.

FLUELLEN Up to the breach, you dogs! Avaunt, you scullions!

Drives them forward.

PISTOL Be merciful, great duke! Abate thy rage, abate thy manly rage.

Exit all but BOY.

BOY As young as I am, I have observed these three swashers. I am

boy to them all three, but they could not be man to me. For
Bardolph he is white-livered and red-faced. For Pistol he hath a
killing tongue and quiet sword. For Nym ‘a never broke any
man’s head but his own, and that was against a post when he was
drunk. I must leave them. Their villany goes against my weak
stomach, and therefore I must cast it up.

Scene eight

Before Harfleur, under siege.

Citizens on the walls above the gates.

Enter KING HENRY and his TRAIN.

HENRY How yet resolves the governor of the town? To our best mercy
give yourselves. Therefore you men of Harfleur, take pity on
your town while yet the soldiers are in my command. If not, why
see the bloody soldier with foul hand defile the locks of your
shrill-shrieking daughters, your fathers most reverend heads
dashed to walls, your naked infants spitted upon pikes whiles the

14 In the original this line belongs to Boy. It is given to Pistol here for clarity.
15 A Welshman. In the original there are four honest, brave captains: Gower, an Englishman; Fluellen,
a Welshman; Jamy, a Scotsman; and Macmorris, an Irishman in order to show the British Isles united
under the hero-king. Good Anglo-Welsh relations reflect Shakespeare’s time. By contrast, during the
reign of Henry V, the Welsh had lately been in rebellion and the memory of Glendower was fresh.
11
 mad mothers howl. What say you? Will you yield, and this
avoid? Or, guilty in defence, be thus destroyed?16

Enter GOVERNOR and

ATTENDANTS.

GOVERNOR The Dauphin tells us that his powers are yet not ready to raise so
great a siege. Therefore, great king, we yield our town and lives
to thy soft mercy. Enter our gates, dispose of us and ours for we
no longer are defensible.

HENRY Open your gates! Come, uncle Exeter, go you and enter Harfleur.
Fortify it strong ‘gainst the French. Use mercy to them all.
Tonight in Harfleur your hospitality is shared. Tomorrow for
Calais we are prepared.17

Scene nine

France. The French King’s Palace.

KING of FRANCE, DAUPHIN,

BRETAGNE, CONSTABLE and others.

FR. KING ‘Tis certain he hath passed the river Somme18.

CONSTABLE Dieu de batailles19! Where have they this mettle? Is not their
climate foggy, raw and dull on whom the sun looks pale? And
shall our quick blood, spirited with wine, seem frosty?

DAUPHIN 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.

BRETAGNE They bid us to teach dancing, 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! Hie to the field.
Bar Harry England, you have sufficient power, and bring him
prisoner to Rouen.

16 War is something which makes even a king such as Henry V speak in such abominable terms.
17 The aim was to march north to take the other major port of Calais. To do this they had to cross the
River Somme. The French, based at Agincourt, on the north side of the river, destroyed bridges and
hoped the English would run out of food, sicken and die without a fight.
18 They’d finally crossed via a marshy area, dismantling houses to form rough wooden flooring. The
French could have destroyed them as they crossed but had been “caught napping.”
19 God of battles!
12
CONSTABLE Sorry am I his numbers are so few, his soldiers sick and famished
in their march, for I am sure when he shall see our army that he’ll
drop his heart into the sink of fear, and for achievement offer us
his ransom.

FR. KING Therefore haste on Montjoy, and let him say to England that we
send to know what willing ransom he will give. Forth! Forth!
Lord Constable and princes all, and quickly bring us word of
England’s fall.
Scene ten

The English camp at Picardy.

Enter GOWER and FLUELLEN.

GOWER How now, Captain Fluellen! Come you from the bridge20?

FLUELLEN I assure you there is very excellent services committed at the

pridge.

GOWER Is the Duke of Exeter safe?

FLUELLEN Safe! He keeps the pridge most valiantly and with excellent
discipline. Safe, God be praised.

Enter PISTOL.

PISTOL Captain, I thee beseech to do me favours. The Duke of Exeter

doth love thee well.

FLUELLEN I have merited some love at his hands.

PISTOL Bardolph, a soldier firm and sound of heart, hath, by cruel

Fortune’s fickle wheel, stolen from the church and hanged must
be. Exeter hath given the doom of death for an article of little
worth, therefore go speak. The Duke will hear thy voice.

FLUELLEN I do partly understand your meaning.

PISTOL Why then, rejoice therefore.

FLUELLEN It is not a thing to rejoice at, for if, look you, he were my prother,
I would desire the duke to put him to execution, for discipline
ought to pe used.

20 Across the river Ternoise. They are now 40 miles from Calais.
13
PISTOL (incredulous pause) Die and be damned, and the fig of Spain21 for
thy friendship.

Exit.

GOWER Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal. I remember him – a

bawd, a cut-purse, a fool, a rogue; one that now and then goes to
the wars to grace himself at his return into London under the
form of a soldier.

FLUELLEN If I find a hole in his coat I will tell him my mind.

Drumming.

Enter HENRY, GLOUCESTER, and his

poor soldiers.

God pless your majesty.

HENRY How now, Fluellen! cam’st thou from the bridge?

FLUELLEN Ay, so please your majesty. The French is gone off, look you,
and the Duke of Exeter is master.

HENRY What men have you lost, Fluellen?

FLUELLEN T’adversary hath lost many put the Duke hath lost never a man
put one that is like to be executed for ropping a church, one
Pardolph.

HENRY We would have all such offenders so cut off, for we gave express
charge that in our marches through the country there be nothing
compelled from the villages, nothing taken but paid for, none of
the French abused in disdainful language.

Trumpet. Enter MONTJOY.

MONTJOY You know me by my habit.

HENRY But what shall I know of thee?

MONTJOY Thus says my king: Say thou to Harry of England: though we

seemed dead, we did but sleep. Bid him therefore consider of his
ransom.

21 He makes a rude gesture here

14
HENRY Turn thee back and tell thy master here I am. My ransom is this
frail and worthless trunk, my army but a weak and sickly guard.
Yet, God before, tell him we will come on. So tell your master.

MONTJOY I shall deliver so. Thanks to your highness.

Exit.

GLOUCESTER I hope they will not come upon us now.

HENRY We are in God’s hand, brother, not in theirs. March to the bridge.
It now draws towards night. Beyond the river we’ll encamp
ourselves.

Scene eleven

The French camp near Agincourt. Night.

Enter CONSTABLE, RAMBURES,

ORLEANS, DAUPHIN and OTHERS.

CONSTABLE O, but I have the best armour in the world22. Would it were day!

ORLEANS You have an excellent armour, but let my horse have his due.

CONSTABLE It is the best horse of Europe.

DAUPHIN I will not change my horse with any! When I bestride him, I
soar, I am like a hawk.

CONSTABLE Indeed, my lord, it is a most absolute and excellent horse.

DAUPHIN I had rather my horse than my mistress. What a long night is

this. Will it never be day! ‘Tis midnight; I’ll go arm myself.
Exits.

ORLEANS The Dauphin longs for morning.23

RAMBURES He longs to eat the English.

CONSTABLE I think he will eat all he kills.24

ORLEANS He’s a gallant prince who never did harm, that I heard of.

22 The French were medieval knights on horseback. The English were mainly infantry and archers.
23 All French Dukes, with the exception of Rambures, are well aware that the Dauphin is ineffectual.
He’s all talk.
24 i.e Constable does not think Dauphin will kill any English person.
15
CONSTABLE Nor will do none tomorrow.

Enter a MESSENGER.

MESSENGER My lord high constable, the English lie within fifteen hundred
paces of your tents.

Exit MESSENGER.

CONSTABLE O, would it were day! If the English had any apprehension, they
would run away.

ORLEANS Foolish curs!

CONSTABLE They eat great meals of beef and iron and steel; I warrant you –
they’ll eat like wolves and fight like devils.

ORLEANS Ay, but these English are shrewdly out of beef.

CONSTABLE Then shall we find tomorrow they have only stomachs to eat and
none to fight.

ORLEANS By ten tomorrow we shall have each a hundred Englishmen.

CONSTABLE produces some DICE.

CHORUS.

Proud of their numbers

The confident and over-lusty French
Do the low-rated English play at dice
While the condemned English, like sacrifices,
Inly ruminate the morning’s danger.

Scene twelve

The English camp at Agincourt.

KING HENRY and GLOUCESTER.

HENRY Gloucester, ‘tis true that we are in great danger25, the greater
therefore should our courage be.

25 Despite being outnumbered 5 to 1, Henry had reasons for being optimistic. The French army had
placed itself squarely across Henry’s path to Calais, on a front of no more than a thousand yards wide,
with either flank blocked off by dense woods. The French front line was therefore no wider than the
English, although deeper. The ground - a quagmire after heavy rain – was unsuited to the heavy French
horses. Henry’s archers could pierce armour, and he’d surrounded them with stakes to impale charging
horses.
16
 Enter Sir Thomas ERPINGHAM.

HENRY Lend me thy cloak, Sir Thomas. (putting on Sir Thomas’s cloak)
(to GLOUCESTER) Commend me to the princes in our camp and
desire them all to my pavilion26.

Exit GLOUCESTER. KING HENRY

prepares to leave.

ERPINGHAM Shall I attend your grace?

HENRY No, my good knight. I and my bosom must debate awhile, and
then I would no other company.

ERPINGHAM The Lord in heaven bless thee, noble Harry!

Exit all but the KING.

HENRY God-a-mercy, old heart! Thou speakest cheerfully.

Exit.

CHORUS

And now, behold the royal captain

Of this ruined band walking from watch to watch,
From tent to tent. And every wretch, pining
And pale before, beholding him, plucks
Comfort from his looks.

Scene thirteen

Enter HENRY incognito.

Enter two soldiers, JOHN BATES, and

MICHAEL WILLIAMS.

WILLIAMS We see yonder the beginning of the day, but I think we shall
never see the end of it. Who goes there?

HENRY A friend.

WILLIAMS Under what Captain serve you?

26 Tent
17
HENRY Under Sir Thomas Erpingham.

WILLIAMS A good commander and a most kind gentleman. I pray you, what
thinks he of our estate?

HENRY Even as men wracked upon a sand, that look to be washed off the
next tide.

BATES He hath not told his thought to the king?

HENRY No, nor is it meet he should. I think the king is a man like us and
that his fears are of the same relish as ours.

BATES The king may show what outward courage he will, but I believe,
as cold a night as ‘tis, he could wish himself in Thames up to the
neck, and so I would he were, and I by him so we were quit here.

HENRY I think the king would not wish himself anywhere but where he
is.

BATES Then I would he were here alone, so should he be sure to be

ransomed, and many poor men’s lives saved.

HENRY Methinks I could not die anywhere so contented as in the king’s

company, his cause being just and his quarrel honourable.

WILLIAMS That’s more than we know.

BATES Ay, or more than we should seek after.

WILLIAMS But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath a heavy
reckoning to make. It will be a black matter for the king that led
them to it.

Exit SOLDIERS.

HENRY Upon the king! Let us our lives, our souls, our debts, our careful
wives, our children, and our sins lay on the king! We must bear
all. O hard condition!

Enter ERPINGHAM.

ERPINGHAM My lord, your nobles seek through your camp to find you.

HENRY Good old knight, collect them altogether at my tent. I’ll be

before thee.

ERPINGHAM I shall do’t, my lord.

18
 Exit ERPINGHAM

HENRY O God of battles! Steel my soldiers’ hearts. Possess them not

with fear, take from them now the sense of reck’ning.
Enter GLOUCESTER.

GLOUCESTER My liege!

HENRY My brother Gloucester’s voice! Ay, I know thy errand, I will go

with thee. The day, my friends, and all things stay for me.

Exit both.

Scene fourteen

The French camp.

DAUPHIN, ORLEANS, RAMURES,

CONSTABLE and BEAUMONT after a
heavy night’s gambling.

ORLEANS The sun doth gild our armour. Up, my lords!

DAUPHIN Monte à cheval! My horse, varlet! Lacquais! Ha!

ORLEANS O brave spirit!

Enter GRANDPRÉ, exasperated that the

French are not going on the offensive.

GRANDPRÉ The English are embattailed, you French peers. They have said
their prayers, and they stay for death.

CONSTABLE To horse, you gallant princes! Do but behold yon poor and
starved band. There is not work enough for all our hands, scarce
blood enough in all their sickly veins. Come, come, away! The
sun is high, and we outwear the day.

Exit all.

Scene fifteen

19
 The English Camp.

GLOUCESTER, EXETER,
ERPINGHAM and WESTMORELAND.

GLOUCESTER Where is the king?

EXETER27 The king himself is rode to view their battle.

WEST Of fighting men they have full threescore thousand.

EXETER That’s five to one. And all their men are fresh.

Enter KING HENRY.

WEST O that we now had here but one ten thousand of those men in
England that do no work today.

HENRY (to WESTMORELAND) No, my fair cousin. O do not wish one

more! Rather proclaim it, that he which hath no stomach to this
fight, let him depart. We would not die in that man’s company.

This day is called the feast of Crispian. He that outlives this day,
and comes safe home, will stand a tip-toe when this day is
named. Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars, and say,
“These wounds I had on Crispin’s day”. (pointing to them all)
And all our names, familiar in his mouth as household words, be
in their flowing cups freshly remembered. We few, we happy
few, we band of brothers. And gentlemen in England now a-bed
shall think themselves accursed they were not here to fight with
us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

Enter YORK.

YORK My sovereign lord, bestow yourself with speed. The French are
bravely in their battles set, and will with all expedience charge on
us.

HENRY All things are ready, if our minds be so.

WEST Perish the man whose mind is backward now!

HENRY Thou dost not wish more help from England, coz?

WEST God’s will, my liege, would you and I alone, without more help,
could fight this royal battle!

27 In the original, Henry’s brother the Duke of Bedford.

20
HENRY Which likes me better! Now, you know your careful places.
Surprise and God be with you all!

YORK My lord, most humbly on my knee I beg the leading of the

vanguard.

HENRY Take it, brave York. Now, soldiers, march away; and how thou
pleasest, God, dispose the day.

Exit.

Scene sixteen

Another part of the field.

Sounds of battle. Death cries. Screams.

The hiss of arrows through the air.

CONSTABLE, ORLEANS, and

DAUPHIN.

CONSTABLE O diable28! All our ranks are broke.

ORLEANS O Seigneur29! The day is lost! All is lost30!

DAUPHIN Mort Dieu31! Be these the wretches that we played at dice for?

ORLEANS Is this the king we sent to for his ransom?

CONSTABLE Shame, and eternal shame, nothing but shame! Disorder, that hath
spoiled us, friend us now!

Exit all.

Scene seventeen

Another part of the field.

KING HENRY and his train with

prisoners; EXETER and others.

HENRY Well have we done, thrice-valiant countrymen. But all’s not

done. The French yet keep the field.

28 O devil!
29 O Lord!
30 “Le jour est perdu, tout est perdu!” in the original.
31 Oh my God!
21
 Bugles.

HENRY What new alarum is this?

Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER, deeply

upset.

FLUELLEN Killed all the poys, my liege! ‘Tis expressly ‘gainst the law of
wars. The poys!

HENRY The boys?

GOWER ‘Tis certain not a boy is left alive.

FLUELLEN And the cowardly rascals that ran from the battle ha’ done this
slaughter.

HENRY 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. We’ll cut the throats of those we have and
not a prisoner we take shall taste our mercy. Go tell them so.

Exit HERALD.

EXETER I see there comes the herald of the French, my liege.

GLOUCESTER His eyes are humbler than they used to be.

Enter MONTJOY

HENRY How now! What means this, herald? Com’st thou again for
ransom.

MOUNTJOY No, great king. I come to thee for charitable licence, that we may
wander ‘oer this bloody field to book our dead, and then to bury
them, to sort our nobles from our common men.

HENRY I tell thee truly, herald, I know not if the day be ours or no.

MOUNTJOY The day is yours.

HENRY Praised be to God, and not our strength, for it! What is this castle
called that stands by?

MONTJOY They call it Agincourt.

22
HENRY Then call we this the field of Agincourt, fought on the day of
Crispin Crispianus.

OPTIONAL
32
FLUELLEN Your grandfather, please your majesty, and your great-uncle
Edward the Plack Prince of Wales, as I have read, fought a most
prave pattle here in France33.

HENRY They did Fluellen.

FLUELLEN If your majesty is remembered of it, the Welshmen did good

service in a garden where leeks did grow34, wearing leeks in their
caps; which, your majesty know, to this hour is an honourable
badge of the service; and I do believe your majesty takes no
scorn to wear the leek upon Saint Tavy’s day.

HENRY I wear it for a memorable honour. For I am Welsh, you know,

good countryman.

FLUELLEN By Jeshu, I am your majesty’s countryman, I care not who know

it. I need not to be ashamed of your majesty, so long as your
majesty is an honest man.

HENRY God keep me so!

Enter ENGLISH HERALD

Now, herald, are the dead numbered?

ENG. HERALD (Presenting a paper) Here is the number of the slaughtered

French.

HENRY (to MONTJOY) Go, herald. Bury your dead.

Exit MONTJOY.

(reading) This note doth tell me of ten thousand French that in

the field lie slain. (scanning the paper) Where is the number of
our English dead?

HERALD shows him another paper.

32 The next 6 speeches, until the entrance of the Herald, are optional but may suit schools in Wales.
33 At Crecy.
34 Shakespeare wrongly attributes the wearing of leeks to distinguish Welsh from the enemy to a
battle against the French, not an earlier one against the Saxons.
23
 Edward the Duke of York, the Earl of Suffolk, Sir Richard Ketly,
Davy Gam, esquire; none else of name. And of all other men but
five and twenty. O God, thy arm was here. And not to us, but to
thy arm alone ascribe we all!

EXETER ‘Tis wonderful!

HENRY Come, go we in procession to the village. And be it death to

boast of this.

FLUELLEN Is it not lawful, an please your majesty, to tell how many is

killed?

HENRY Yes, captain, but with this acknowledgement: that God fought for
us.
Exit all.

Scene eighteen

The English camp.

Enter PISTOL alone.

PISTOL Nym dead of wounds. Bardolph hanged. The boy with all the
boys slaughtered. News have I that my Nell35 is dead. Well, to
England will I steal, and there I’ll steal. And patches will I get
unto these cudgelled scars, and swear I got them in the Gallia
wars.36
Exit.

CHORUS

Now bear we the King toward Calais. See him there.

Where after carnage, suffering and death
The warring sides seek peace with strange fresh breath37.

Scene nineteen

The FRENCH KING’S palace.

35 Doll in the original, but generally thought to be a mistake.
36 The French wars
37 A Weskerian couplet.
24
 Enter at one door KING HENRY,
EXETER, GLOUCESTER, WARWICK,
WESTMORELAND and other LORDS.

From another door enter FRENCH

KING, QUEEN ISABEL, PRINCESS
KATHERINE, ALICE and other ladies.
French lords.38

HENRY Peace to this meeting39, wherefore we are met! Unto our brother
France, and to our sister, health and fair time of day; joy and good
wishes to our most fair and princely cousin Katherine. We do salute
you, Princes French, and peers, health to you all!

FR. KING Right joyous are we to behold your face, most worthy brother
England. Fairly met you English princes, every one.

QU. ISABEL Glad are we, Brother England, to behold your eyes which hitherto
have borne in them, against the French, the fatal balls of murdering
basilisks. We hope the venom of such looks have lost their quality,
and that this day shall change all griefs and quarrels into love.

HENRY To cry amen to that, thus we appear.

FR. KING Pleaseth your grace to appoint some of your council presently to sit
with us once more, with better heed to contemplate the articles.

HENRY Brother, we shall. (to EXETER, GLOUCESTER and WARWICK) Go

with the king, and take with you free power to ratify, augment, or
alter, as your wisdoms best shall see advantaged for our dignity.
Will you, fair sister, go with the princes, or stay here with us?

QU. ISABEL Go with them. Haply a woman’s voice may do some good when
articles too nicely urged be stood on.

HENRY Yet leave our cousin Katherine here with us. She is our capital
demand.

QU. ISABEL She hath good leave.

Exit all bar HENRY, KATHERINE, and

ALICE.

38 Orleans had been taken prisoner by the English. Rambures killed. The Dauphin was many miles
away, still pushing for national resistance to the English but was just as ineffectual as ever.
39 Historically this meeting took place 2 years after the battle at Agincourt, with France further
weakened by two years of civil war.
25
HENRY Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms such as will enter a
lady’s ear and plead his love-suit to her gentle heart?

KATHERINE Your majesty shall mock at me. I cannot speak your English.

HENRY O fair Katherine! If you will love me soundly with your French
heart, I will be glad to hear you confess it brokenly with your English
tongue. Do you like me, Kate?

KATHERINE Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell wat is “like me”.

HENRY An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like an angel.

KATHERINE O bon Dieu! les langues des homes sont pleines de trumperies.

HENRY What says she, fair one? That the tongues of men are full of deceits?

ALICE Oui, dat de tongues of de mans is be full of deceits.

HENRY But a good heart on the other hand, Kate, is like the sun – it shines
bright and never changes but keeps its course truly. If thou would
have such a one, take me; and take me, take a soldier; take a soldier,
take a king.

KATHERINE Is it possible dat I sould love de enemy of France?

HENRY No, it is not possible you should love the enemy of France, Kate; but,
in loving me, you should love the friend of France, for I love France
so well that I will not part with a village of it. I will have it all mine.
And Kate, when France is mine and I am yours, then yours is France
and you are mine. Put off your maiden blushes, take me by the hand
and say “Harry of England, I am thine!”

He takes her hand to kiss it. She

withdraws it.

Then I will kiss thy lips.

KATHERINE It is not the fashion for maids in France to kiss before they are
married.

HENRY Kate! Nice customs curtsy to great kings. We are the makers of
manners, Kate. A kiss therefore, patiently and yielding.

They kiss on the lips.

You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate. Here comes your father.

26
 Re-enter FRENCH KING, QUEEN
ISABEL, and French Lords; EXETER,
WESTMORELAND and English Lords.

FR. KING40 Teach you our Princess, English?

HENRY Our tongue is rough, coz, and my condition is not smooth. I ask
simply: shall Kate be my wife?

FR. KING So please you!

HENRY I am content.

FR. KING We have consented to all articles of reason.

HENRY Is’t so, my lords of England?

WEST The king hath granted every article: his daughter first, and then in
sequel all.

FR. KING Take her, fair son, and from her blood raise up issue to me that the
contending kingdoms of France and England may their hatred cease;
that never war advance his bleeding sword ‘twixt England and fair
France.

ALL Amen!

HENRY Now welcome, Kate. Prepare we for our marriage, and may our oaths
well kept and prosperous be!
Triumphant, festive music as all leave.

CHORUS.

Thus far, with rough and all-unable pen,

Our bending author hath pursued the story,
In little room confining mighty men
Mangling by starts the full course of their glory.
Small time41, but in that small most greatly lived
This glorious star of England; and so this day
In your fair minds we beg – accept our play.42

40 Duke of Burgandy in the original

41Despite the contract, the war with France continued and Henry died 2 years after his marriage from
a disease contracted during another expedition there. He was 35 and had reigned almost 10 years.
42 A final Weskerian couplet.
27