SCENE III.
Before the gates of Harfleur.
Enter King Henry and his train.
K. Henry.
How yet resolves the governor of the town?
This is the latest parle we will admit:
Therefore, to our best mercy give yourselves;
-- 75 --
Or, like to men proud of destruction,
Defy us to our worst: for, as I am a soldier,
(A name, that, in my thoughts, becomes me best)
If I begin the battery once again,
I will not leave the half-atchieved Harfleur,
'Till in her ashes she lie buried.
The gates of mercy shall be all shut up2 note
; 9Q0784
And the flesh'd soldier,—rough and hard of heart,—
In liberty of bloody hand, shall range
With conscience wide as hell; mowing like grass
Your fresh fair virgins, and your flowering infants.
What is it then to me, if impious war,—
Array'd in flames, like to the prince of fiends,—
Do, with his smirch'd complexion, all 3 note
fell feats
Enlink'd to waste and desolation?
What is't to me, when you yourselves are cause,
If your pure maidens fall into the hand
Of hot and forcing violation?
What rein can hold licentious wickedness,
When down the hill he holds his fierce career?
We may as bootless spend our vain command
Upon the enraged soldiers in their spoil,
As send precepts to the Leviathan
To come ashore. Therefore, you men of Harfleur,
Take pity of your town, and of your people,
Whiles yet my soldiers are in my command;
4 note
Whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace
O'er-blows the filthy and contagious clouds
-- 76 --
Of heady murder, spoil, and villainy.
If not, why, in a moment, look to see
The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand
5 note
Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters;
Your fathers taken by the silver beards,
And their most reverend heads dash'd to the walls;
Your naked infants spitted upon pikes;
Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confus'd
Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry
At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen.
What say you? will you yield, and this avoid?
Or, guilty in defence, be thus destroy'd?
Enter Governor, upon the walls.
Gov.
Our expectation hath this day an end:
The Dauphin, whom of succour we entreated,
Returns us—that his powers are not yet ready
To raise so great a siege. Therefore, dread 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.
K. Henry.
Open your gates.—Come, uncle Exeter,
Go you and enter Harfleur; there remain,
And fortify it strongly 'gainst the French:
Use mercy to them all. For us, dear uncle,—
The winter coming on, and sickness growing
Upon our soldiers,—we'll retire to Calais.
To-night in Harfleur will we be your guest;
To-morrow for the march are we addrest6 note
.
[Flourish, and enter the town.
-- 77 --
7 note
SCENE IV.
The French camp.
Enter Katharine, and an old gentlewoman.
8 note
Kath.
Alice, tu as esté en Angleterre, & tu parles
bien le language.
-- 78 --
Alice.
Un peu, madame.
Kath.
Je te prie, m'enseignez; il faut que j'apprenne
à parler. Comment appellez vous la main, en Anglois?
Alice.
La main? elle est appellée, de hand.
Kath.
De hand. Et les doigts?
Alice.
Les doigts? may foy, je oublie les doigts; mais je
me souviendray. Les doigts? je pense, qu'ils sont appellé de
fingres; ouy, de fingers; oui de fingers.
Kath.
La main, de hand; les doigts, de fingres. Je
pense, que je suis le bon escolier. J'ay gagnée deux mots
d'Anglois vistement. Comment appellez vous les ongles?
Alice.
Les ongles? les appellons, de nails.
-- 79 --
Kath.
De nails. Escoutez: dites moy, si je parle
bien: de hand, de fingres, de nails.
Alice.
C'est bien dit, madame; il est fort bon Anglois.
Kath.
Dites moy en Anglois, le bras.
Alice.
De arm, madame.
Kath.
Et le coude.
Alice.
De elbow.
Kath.
De elbow. Je m'en faitz la repetition de tous
les mots, que vous m'avez appris dès a present.
Alice.
Il est trop difficile, madame, comme je pense.
Kath.
Excusez moy, Alice; escoutez: De hand, de
fingre, de nails, de arm, de bilbow.
Alice.
De elbow, madame.
Kath.
O Seigneur Dieu! je m'en oublie; De elbow.
Comment appellez vous le col?
Alice.
De neck, madame.
Kath.
De neck: Et le menton?
Alice.
De chin.
Kath.
De sin. Le col, de neck: le menton, de sin.
Alice.
Ouy. Sauf vostre honneur; en verité, vous prononcez
les mots aussi droict que les natifs d' Angleterre.
Kath.
Je ne doute point d'apprendre par la grace de
Dieu; & en peu de temps.
Alice.
N'avez vous pas deja oublié ce que je vous ay
enseignée?
Kath.
Non, je reciteray à vous promptement. De hand,
de fingre, de mails8 note.
Alice.
De nails, madame.
Kath.
De nails, de arme, de ilbow.
Alice.
Sauf, vostre honneur, de elbow.
Kath.
Ainsi dis je; de elbow, de neck, et de sin:
Comment appellez vous les pieds, & la robe?
Alice.
De foot, madame; & de con. 9Q0785
Kath.
De foot, & de con? O Seigneur Dieu! ces
-- 80 --
sont mots de son mauvais, corruptible, grosse, et impudique, &
non pour les dames d'honneur d'user: Je ne voudrois prononcer
ces mots devant les Seigneurs de France, pour tout le
monde. Il faut de foot, & de con, neant-moins. Je reciterai
une autre fois ma leçon ensemble: De hand, de9 note fingre,
de nails, de arm, de elbow, de neck, de sin,
de foot, de con.
Alice.
Excellent, madame!
Kath.
C'est assez pour une fois; allons nous a disner.
[Exeunt.
Samuel Johnson [1778], The plays of William Shakspeare. In ten volumes. With the corrections and illustrations of various commentators; to which are added notes by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. The second edition, Revised and Augmented (Printed for C. Bathurst [and] W. Strahan [etc.], London) [word count] [S10901].
