The Shakespeare Code

 HENRY  V

THE MAKING OF A KING

Adapted from the Anonymous Elizabethan play The Famous Victories of Henry V and William Shakespeare’s Henry IV Parts One and Two and Henry V

by

Stewart Trotter.

 © Stewart Trotter March 2015

THE CONCEPT

The Making of a King is based on four plays – the anonymous Elizabethan play ‘The Famous Victories of Henry V’ and William Shakespeare’s ‘Henry IV Parts One and Two’ and ‘King Henry V’.‘The Famous Victories of Henry V’ was performed by the Queen’s Players – a group set up by Queen Elizabeth I and her spymaster, Francis Walsingham, to disseminate Tudor propaganda. No-one knows who wrote the play but it is clear Shakespeare saw it and may even have worked on it with Thomas Kyd.

When Shakespeare re-wrote old plays, he always enriched their language and deepened their characterisation – but he often destroyed their structure. ‘The Famous Victories of Henry V’ deals with the transformation of dissolute Prince Harry to heroic King Henry V in a single play. By stretching the story over three plays, Shakespeare is in danger of blurring this theme.

So, The Making of a King tries to restore the original play’s clarity of structure with the complexity of Shakespeare’s genius. It offers an explanation for Prince Harry’s affection for Sir John Falstaff: Harry believes his father, King Henry IV, loves his younger brother, Prince John, more than he loves him – so he craves a surrogate father.

All the plays show how war can test, deepen or break the bonds between men. But where Shakespeare’s play differs from the Queen’s Men version is its ambivalence towards Kingship. To be a good King, Hal has to become a bad friend. ‘The Making of a King’ focuses on the strain of leadership – particularly in battle – and the play asks the same question that the King finally asks himself…..

…..‘Is Power worth it?’.

 

The Making of a King is to be given its premiere in the Great Barn, Titchfield , 24th June – 4th July, 2015.

http://titchfieldshakespearefestival.weebly.com/

THE CHARACTER OF FALSTAFF AND HIS REJECTION BY PRINCE HAL.

The most fascinating thing about Falstaff is the contrast between his outside and his inside. On the outside he is a fat, lumbering man in his sixties – but in his inside he is a romantic, poetic youth who adores adventure and excitement. He has devoted his entire life to the pursuit of fun and pleasure. The only activity in life he takes seriously is robbery – and that’s because it funds that pursuit. He comes from an old, distinguished, literary family that had fallen on hard times – and his excesses have made them harder. Physically he is painfully slow – but mentally he has a mercurial swiftness which delights in games and conundrums. He is a natural actor and a brilliant mimic who will naturally turn life into art. He lies all the time – but these lies take on a reality of their own: they convince him and delight other people. He can be opportunistic, ruthless and cowardly – but he loves life with all his heart. And that is why we love him.

His rejection by King Henry is the play’s most complex moment. Hal has always known that he must give up the companionship of Falstaff when he becomes King: but he has NOT planned the way he will do it. When Falstaff, at the Coronation Procession, spontaneously cries out to him:

‘My King, my love, I speak to thee my heart…’

…..it is is an act of familiarity that Hal has not anticipated. We see Hal thinking on his feet when, echoing Peter’s betrayal of Christ, he says:

‘I know thee not old man….’

One spontaneous act follows another – and we have a genuine tragedy. Both men are in the right.

THE SCRIPT

(As the audience come into the Barn, they see a banner stretching across the upper balcony:

 

THE MAKING OF A KING

Flourish. CHORUS enters – looking a bit like William Shakespeare – bows and begins the play. )

CHORUS (1)

Tonight we play The Making of a King

And tell the tale of dissolute Prince Harry

Who, more in love with taverns than with courts,

And constant comrade to a gross fat knight,

Transformed, upon his father Henry’s death,

Into the star of England. We’ll see how guilt

At usurpation of King Richard’s throne

Wore down his father’s soul: and how brave Hal

Redeemed it to a new and dazzling glory

By acts of valour in the fields of France.

But gentles, that is half a play away…

Admit me Chorus to this history;

Who prologue-like your humble patience pray,

Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.

 (CHORUS bows and exits)

SCENE ONE

(Doll Tearsheet’s tavern – the Sow’s Head – is revealed in full late night swing. The Clientelle are drunkenly singing the Chorus to ‘Greensleeves’.)

CLIENTS

Greensleeves was all my joy

Greensleeves was my delight

Greensleeves was my heart of gold

And who but my Lady Greensleeves…

(DOLL TEARSHEET and FRANCIS enter – and try to clear the bar. DOLL is a warm-hearted attractive, sexy woman in her late 30’s who not only owns the tavern but also works there as a prostitute. She loves sex and loves men. FRANCIS – aged around 10 or 11 – is an orphan and works and lives in ‘The Sow’s Head’. He is DOLL’S surrogate son and she is very fond of him.)

DOLL

Time, Gentlemen please! Haven’t you got any homes to go to. Time! Time’.

(DOLL and FRANCIS push the clients out the door who begin the verse, try to kiss and fondle her, then trail off drunkenly into the night…)

CLIENTS

Alas my love you do me wrong

To cast me off discourteously

For I have loved you well and long

Delighting in your company……

 (DOLL sees that SIR JOHN FALSTAFF has passed out in a chair – and PRINCE HAL at the table. DOLL shakes SIR JOHN)

DOLL

Sir John! Sir John!

(SIR JOHN FALSTAFF snorts and snores. DOLL gives up and shakes PRINCE HARRY.)

DOLL

Prince Harry! Prince Harry!

(HARRY is dead to the world. DOLL gives a gesture of despair – and exits with FRANCIS. A pause, a change of light and the crowing of a cock as dawn comes up. The light hits FALSTAFF – and he snorts and awakes, blinking in the light. He goes over and shakes PRINCE HARRY into life….)

FALSTAFF

Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?

 

[Note: FALSTAFF has become a substitute ‘father’ for PRINCE HARRY who believes his real father, KING HENRTY IV, loves his younger brother, PRINCE JOHN, more than he loves him.]

PRINCE HARRY (waking and blinking)

What a devil hast thou to do with the time of the day?

 (PRINCE HARRY gestures to DOLL offstage – indicating he wants a drink.)

 

FALSTAFF

Indeed, you come near me now, Hal; for we that take purses go by the moon and the seven stars, and not by the sun. I prithee, sweet wag, when thou art king let not us that are squires of the night’s body be called thieves of the day’s beauty: let us be Diana’s foresters, gentlemen of the shade and minions of the moon.

 

(FALSTAFF is redeemed by his poetry, his imagination, his invention and his humour. He even treats robbery as an honourable and romantic profession.

 DOLL enters. FRANCIS follows behind, bearing a tray with two huge tankards of sack on it.

DOLL serves a tankard to FALSTAFF whom she treats as a complete equal.)

 

DOLL

Sir John….

 

FALSTAFF (to PRINCE HARRY)

Is not Doll a most sweet wench?

 

(FALSTAFF kisses DOLL. She is pleased with the compliment. She then gives the second tankard to PRINCE HARRY whom she also treats as a complete equal.)

 

DOLL

Prince Harry….

 

PRINCE HARRY

As sweet as the honey of Hybla.

 

(PRINCE HARRY also kisses DOLL and DOLL is pleased all over again. She exits into the tavern.)

 PRINCE HARRY (tossing a coin into Francis’s tray)

Here boy!

FRANCIS (delighted, bowing)

Thanks, Your Majesty….

 PRINCE HARRY (correcting him)

Your Royal Highness. But you can call me Harry. (Delighted, FRANCIS starts to go.) If you’ll let me call you Francis….

FRANCIS (exploding with pride)

Mistress Doll! Mistress Doll! Harry Highness knows my name….

 Exit FRANCIS

FALSTAFF

I prithee, sweet wag, shall there be gallows standing in England when thou art king? Do not thou, when thou art king, hang a thief.

 

PRINCE HARRY

No; thou shalt.

 

FALSTAFF (completely changing his tune)

Shall I? O rare! By the Lord, I’ll be a brave judge.

 

(FALSTAFF genuinely believes PRINCE HARRY will raise him to high office when he becomes KING – but it’s a delusion on his part. PRINCE HARRY – to his credit – never encourages these delusions. Quite the opposite.)

 

PRINCE HARRY

I mean, thou shalt have the hanging of the thieves and so become a rare hangman.

 

FALSTAFF (drinking)

Thou hast done much harm upon me, Hal; God forgive thee for it! I must give over this life, and I will give it over: by the Lord, and I do not, I am a villain:

(FALSTAFF, despite all the evidence, genuinely believes he can reform himself – and that he is the victim of others’ misdeeds.)

PRINCE HARRY

Where shall we take a purse tomorrow, Jack?

 

FALSTAFF (choking on his sack with excitement))

‘Zounds, where thou wilt, lad; I’ll make one; an I do not, call me villain and burn my coat of arms.

 

PRINCE HENRY

I see a good amendment of life in thee; from praying to purse-taking.

 

FALSTAFF (arguing seriously)

Why, Hal, ’tis my vocation, Hal; ’tis no sin for a man to labour in his vocation.

 

(Enter POINS. POINS is the same age as PRINCE HENRY – and though a cockney wide-boy – is the PRINCE’s intellectual equal. He wears violently loud and stylish clothes and carries two big bags. He has a massive drink problem which rules out success in the ‘straight’ world.)

 

Poins! Now shall we know if Bardolph has a robbery in hand.

 

PRINCE HARRY (embracing POINS for whom he has a genuine admiration and affection)

Good morrow, Ned.

 

POINS

Good morrow, sweet Hal. Good morrow Sir John Sack and Sugar. (POINS hugs FALSTAFF as well and takes a swig from his tankard) To-morrow morning, by four o’clock, early at Gads Hill, there are traders riding to London with fat purses: (emptying out his sacks – which contains masks) I have vizards for you all; you have horses for yourselves: we may do it as secure as sleep.

 

FALSTAFF (trying on a mask – and offering one to PRINCE HARRY.)

Hal, wilt thou make one?

 

PRINCE HARRY (suddenly sanctimonious and refusing the mask)

Who, I rob? I a thief? Not I, by my faith.

 

FALSTAFF (equally sanctimonious)

There’s neither honesty, manhood, nor good fellowship in thee, nor thou camest not of the blood royal, if thou darest not stand up for ten shillings.

(FALSTAFF genuinely believes robbery to be an honourable calling.)

PRINCE HARRY (returning to drinking)

Well, come what will, I’ll tarry at home.

 

POINS (aside to FALSTAFF)

Sir John, I prithee, leave the Prince and me alone: I will lay him down such reasons for this adventure that he shall go.

 

FALSTAFF (taking up his tankard because he knows POINS will drain it)

Well, God give thee the spirit of persuasion. (TO PRINCE HARRY, LOOKING OFF and waving). I think Doll Tearsheet has need of me…Adieu, Hal.

 

PRINCE HARRY

Adieu, thou latter spring!

 

POINS

Adieu, thou Indian summer!

 

(Exit FALSTAFF, smiling in anticipation of his session with DOLL.)

 

 

POINS (taking a swig from PRINCE HARRY’S tankard)

Now, my good, sweet, honey lord, ride with us to-morrow: I have a jest to execute that I cannot manage alone. Falstaff, Bardolph and Peto shall rob those men: yourself and I will not be there; and when they have the booty, if you and I do not rob them, cut this head off from my shoulders.

 

PRINCE HARRY

Yea, but ’tis like that they will know us by our horses, by our habits and by every other appointment, to be ourselves.

 

POINS

Tut! our horses they shall not see: I’ll tie them in the wood; our vizards we will change after we leave them: and, sirrah, I have cases of buckram for the nonce, to hide our noted outward garments. (POINS gets out a buckram coat from his second bag – both he and PRINCE HARRY are flash dressers.) The virtue of this jest will be the incomprehensible lies that this same fat rogue will tell us when we meet at supper.

(POINS and PRINCE HARRY relish FALSTAFF’s powers of invention – which rise to an art-form).

PRINCE HARRY

Well, I’ll go with thee: provide us all things necessary and meet me to-morrow at the tennis courts….

POINS (miming an underarm tennis stroke) I will, my liege.

(He takes one last swig from PRINCE HARRY’s tankard, and packs up his bags) Farewell, sweet lord.

(POINS bows and exits. PRINCE HARRY left alone, moves downstage and starts to mime tennis strokes. He is isolated with light. During this soliloquy, ‘The Sow’s Head’ exterior is struck, leaving a bare stage. The tennis strokes become more and more violent and we start to see another, steely, side to charming PRINCE HARRY – the side that will win the Battle of Agincourt. Then he stops and speaks.)

PRINCE HARRY

I know you all, and will awhile uphold

The unyoked humour of your idleness:

Yet herein will I imitate the sun,

Who doth permit the base contagious clouds

To smother up his beauty from the world,

That, when he please again to be himself,

Being wanted, he may be more wonder’d at,

By breaking through the foul and ugly mists

Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.

So, when this loose behaviour I throw off

And pay the debt I never promised,

By how much better than my word I am,

By so much shall I falsify men’s hopes;

And like bright metal on a sullen ground,

My reformation, glittering o’er my fault,

Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes

Than that which hath no foil to set it off.

I’ll so offend, to make offence a skill;

Redeeming time when men think least I will.

 

Exit PRINCE HARRY

 

[NOTE: Beneath all this is a desperate need in PRINCE HARRY to gain KING HENRY IV’s admiration and love]

CHORUS (2)

To Westminster to meet King Henry Four

Prince Harry’s sire – who longs for Holy War:

In part to honour sacred Jesu’s name,

But mostly to prop up his dubious reign….

 

SCENE TWO

 

(A corridor in the Palace of Whitehall in London. Enter KING HENRY IV with WESTMORELAND. KING HENRY IV is worn out with guilt and stress at his usurpation of the throne from Richard II. He leans on the arm of the EARL of WESTMORELAND – a friend whom he trusts with his life.)

 

KING HENRY IV

So shaken as we are, so wan with care,

Find we a time for frighted peace to pant,

Before it chokes itself upon new broils

To be commenced in strands afar remote.

Therefore, dearest Earl of Westmoreland,

As far as to the sepulchre of Christ,

Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross

We are conscripted and engaged to fight,

Forthwith a power of English shall we levy;

Whose arms were moulded in their mothers’ womb

To chase these pagans in those holy fields

Over whose acres walk’d those blessed feet.

(Both men cross themselves. England was still deeply Roman Catholic at this time.)

What did our council yesterday decree

In forwarding this cherished enterprise?

 

WESTMORELAND

My liege, this plan was hot in question

When came there from the North the sudden news

That Harry Hotspur spent a bloody hour

In clash of arms with Douglas: and then took

The Scottish rebel’s son a prisoner.

 

KING HENRY IV

Is not this an honourable spoil? A gallant prize? ha, cousin, is it not?

WESTMORELAND (implying a criticism of PRINCE HARRY)

In faith, It is a conquest for a prince to boast of.

KING HENRY IV

Yea, there thou makest me sad and makest me sin

In envy that my Lord Northumberland

Should be the father to so blest a son.

O that it could be proved

That some night-tripping fairy had exchanged

In cradle-clothes our children where they lay,

And call’d mine Hotspur, and his the Prince of Wales!

Then would I have his Harry, and he mine.

So, for this rebel cause we must neglect

Our holy purpose to Jerusalem.

Cousin, on Wednesday next our council we

Will hold at Windsor; so inform the lords:

WESTMORELAND

I will, my liege….

 

(Exeunt. Enter Chorus)

CHORUS

Gad’s Hill in Kent – where travellers are nobbed.

But not tonight – we’ll see the robbers robbed….

SCENE THREE

 (Gadshill – an area notorious for its robberies. Enter PRINCE HARRY and POINS separately, with masks round their necks.)

POINS

Come, shelter, shelter: I have removed Falstaff’s horse, and he frets like a rutting pig.

(FALSTAFF is desperately dependent on his horse for any movement whatsoever.)

 

PRINCE HARRY

Stand close.

 

(Enter FALSTAFF, sweating and exhausted, sword and buckler in hand, mask round his neck.)

 

FALSTAFF

Poins! Poins, and be hanged! Poins!

 

PRINCE HARRY

Peace, ye fat-kidneyed rascal! what a brawling dost thou keep!

 

FALSTAFF

Where’s Poins, Hal?

 

PRINCE HARRY

He is walked up to the top of the hill: I’ll go seek him.

 

FALSTAFF

The rascal hath removed my horse, and tied him I know not where. If I travel but four foot further, I shall break my wind. Eight yards of uneven ground is threescore and ten miles afoot with me; and the stony-hearted villain knows it well enough: a plague upon it when thieves cannot be true one to another. Whew! A plague upon you all! Give me my horse, you rogues; give me my horse, and be hanged!

 

PRINCE HARRY

Peace, ye fat-guts! lie down; lay thine ear close to the ground and list if thou canst hear the tread of travellers.

 

FALSTAFF

Have you any levers to lift me up again, being down?

 

PRINCE HARRY

How long is it Jack since thou saw’st thine own knee?

 

FALSTAFF

My own knee! When I was about thy years, Hal, I was not an eagle’s talon in the waist; I could have crept into any alderman’s thumb-ring. I prithee, good Prince Hal, help me to my horse, good king’s son.

 

PRINCE HENRY

Out, ye rogue! shall I be your ostler?

 

FALSTAFF

Go, hang thyself in thine own heir-apparent garters!

(Enter BARDOLPH and PETO with masks round their necks.)

 

POINS

Bardolph, what news?

 

BARDOLPH (who has a bright red face and huge red nose from drinking.)

Case ye, case ye; on with your vizards….

(Everyone masks. Bardolph puts on his – which is bright red and has a huge nose as well.)

…..there ‘s money of the king’s coming down the hill; ’tis going to the king’s exchequer.

 

FALSTAFF

‘Tis going to the king’s tavern.

 

PETO

There’s enough to make us all – that’s the humour of it!

(PETO’s catchphrase that suits every occasion)

 

PRINCE HARRY

Sirs, you three shall front them in the narrow lane; Ned Poins and I will walk lower: if they ‘scape from your encounter, then they light on us.

 

PETO

How many be there of them?

 

BARDOLPH

Some eight or ten.

 

FALSTAFF (terrified)

‘Zounds, will they not rob us?

 

PRINCE HARRY

What, a coward, Sir John Paunch?

 

FALSTAFF

Indeed, I am no coward, Hal.

(But he is)

 

PRINCE HARRY

Well, we leave that to the proof.

 

POINS

Sirrah Jack, thy horse stands behind the hedge: when thou needest him, there thou shalt find him. Farewell, and stand fast.

 

PRINCE HARRY (aside to POINS)

Ned, where are our disguises?

 

POINS

Here, hard by: stand close.

 

(Exeunt PRINCE HARRY and POINS.)

 

FALSTAFF

Now, my masters, every man to his business.

(They take out their swords)

 

FIRST TRAVELLER (offstage)

Come, neighbour: the boy shall lead our horses down the hill; we’ll walk afoot awhile, and ease our legs.

 

(TWO TRAVELLERS enter.)

 

FALSTAFF, BARDOLPH and PETO

Stand!

 

TRAVELLERS

Jesus bless us!

 

FALSTAFF

Strike; down with them; cut the villains’ throats:

 

(BARDOLPH and PETO do the actual work. They rob THE TRAVELLERS and bind them while FALSTAFF makes threatening noises and gestures and bangs on his buckler with his sword.)

 

FALSTAFF (acting the part of a young man – and projecting all his own faults onto the TRAVELLERS)

Ah! whoreson caterpillars! bacon-fed knaves! they hate us youth: down with them: fleece them.

 

FIRST TRAVELLER

O, we are undone!

 

SECOND TRAVELLER

Both we and ours for ever!

 

FALSTAFF

Hang ye, great-paunched knaves, are ye undone? No, ye fat chuffs! On, bacons, on! What, ye knaves! Young men must live.
(BARDOLPH and PETO push THE TRAVELLER S offstage.)

 

FALSTAFF

Come, my masters, let us share, and then to horse before day. An the Prince and Poins be not two arrant cowards, there’s no judgement left in the world.

 

(They are about to divide up the money when PRINCE HARRY and POINS enter, disguised in different masks and buckram coats)

 

PRINCE HARRY (with a cockney accent)

Your money!

 

POINS

Villains!

 (THE PRINCE and POINS set upon FALSTAFF, BARDOLPH and PETO with their swords. BARDOLPH and PETO run away; and FALSTAFF, after a half-hearted blow or two, runs away, screaming with fear and leaving the booty behind.)

 

PRINCE HARRY (unmasking – as does POINS – and snatching up the booty)

Got with much ease. Now merrily to horse:

Away, good Ned. Falstaff sweats to death,

And lards the lean earth as he walks along:

Were ‘t not for laughing, I should pity him.

 

POINS

How the rogue roar’d!

 (Exeunt, laughing their heads off.  Enter CHORUS.)

CHORUS (3)

Our scene now shifts to England’s craggy North

Where Harry Hotspur, Henry’s champion,

Breeds sombre thoughts. Should he stay bondsman

To a devious King? Or pluck bright honour from

The pale-faced moon – and join the rebel camp…..

(Exit CHORUS.)

 

SCENE FOUR

 

(North of England. Enter HARRY HOTSPUR – so nick-named for his volatility – in a troubled mood.)

 

HOTSPUR

Shall it for shame be spoken in these days,

Or fill up chronicles in time to come,

That Harry Hotspur joined with desperate men

To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose,

And plant this thorn, this canker, Henry Four?

No; yet time serves wherein I may redeem

My banish’d honour and restore myself

Into the good thoughts of the world again.

All studies here I solemnly defy,

Save how to gall and pinch this shifting king

And tavern-swilling Hal Plantagenant.

Douglas! I have fought and seized your son:

Now Harry Hotspur will become your man!

 

(LADY PERCY enters. She is young and attractive – and is worried that HOTSPUR, because of his political pre-occupations – has been neglecting her as a woman. She adores him – and his jokes.)

LADY PERCY

O, husband Harry, why are you thus alone?

For what offence have I this fortnight been

A banish’d woman from my Harry’s bed?

Tell me, sweet lord, what is’t that takes from thee

Thy stomach, pleasure and thy golden sleep?

HOTSPUR

How now Kate, I must leave you within these two hours….

 

LADY PERCY

What is it carries you away?

 

HOTSPUR

Why, my horse, my love, my horse.

 

LADY PERCY (laughing)

Out, you mad-headed ape!

A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen

As you are toss’d with.

Come, come, you parakeet, now answer me

Directly unto this question that I ask:

In faith, I’ll break thy little finger, Harry,

An if thou wilt not tell me all things true.

 

HOTSPUR
What say’st thou, Kate? what would’st thou have with me?

 

LADY PERCY

Do you not love me? do you not, indeed?

Well, do not then; for since you love me not,

I will not love myself.

 

HOTSPUR

Come, wilt thou see me ride?

And when I am on horseback, I will swear I love thee infinitely.

But hark you, Kate: Whither I go, thither shall you go too;

To-day will I set forth, to-morrow you.

(He kisses her) Will this content you, Kate?

 

LADY PERCY

It must of force!

 

(She returns his kiss and both exit)

 

SCENE FIVE

 

(The Sow’s Head Tavern. Interior. Enter PRINCE HARRY with a tankard in his hand.)

 

PRINCE HENRY (slightly drunk enters from one downstage door and crosses to knock at the other downstage door.)

 

Ned, prithee, come out and lend me thy hand to laugh a little.

 

(The Players set up the tavern – with tables, benches, chairs and an arras – behind the actors. Door opens and POINS enters dressing. DOLL also emerges in her shift and gives POINS a kiss. POINS gives her a coin at which she smiles. Exit DOLL, shutting the door.)

 

POINS (taking a sip from PRINCE HARRY’s tankard.)

Where hast been, Hal?

PRINCE HARRY

With three or four loggerheads amongst three or four score hogsheads. You have been royally entertained in Doll’s bedchamber and I have been royally entertained in Doll’s cellar. (PRINCE HARRY indicates other downstage door. POINS takes another swig from PRINCE HARRY’s tankard) I am now sworn brother to a trio of tapsters; and can call them all by their christen names, as Tom, Dick, and (forgetting – then remembering) Michael.

 

(PRINCE HARRY laughs his head off.)

 

[NOTE: It’s important to show that PRINCE HARRY completely relishes mixing with London low-life. He’s not going to be able to do this when he becomes a KING.]

 

(Enter FALSTAFF, BARDOLPH, and PETO looking muddy and ragged, their garments covered in blood. They are all ‘acting’ as though they have been in a great, exhausting battle. FALSTAFF’s great skill is to turn Life into Art.)

 

(COSTUME NOTE: Two sets of costumes will be needed for this effect)

 

(FRANCIS follows with a tankard. We see him putting salt into it.)

 

POINS

Welcome, Jack: where hast thou been?

 

FALSTAFF (with complete indignation. As  usual, FALSTAFF projects all his own faults into other people.)

A plague of all cowards, I say, and a vengeance too! Marry, and amen! Give me that cup of sack, Francis. A plague on all cowards!

(FALSTAFF drinks and spits.)

You little rogue, you’ve put salt in it to make me drink the more! Away with you and fetch another!

 (FRANCIS runs off. POINS starts to drink from the rejected cup.)
(Pointedly) Yet a coward is worse than a cup of sack with salt in it. A villanous coward!

 

PRINCE HARRY

How now, wool-sack! what mutter you?

 

FALSTAFF

A king’s son? You Prince of Wales?

 

PRINCE HARRY

Why, you whoreson round man, what’s the matter?

 

FALSTAFF

Are not you a coward? Answer me to that. And Poins there!

 

POINS (taking out his dagger and threatens FALSTAFF by placing a knife at his throat)

‘Zounds, ye fat paunch, an ye call me coward, by the Lord, I’ll stab thee.

(This isn’t completely a joke)

 

FALSTAFF (holding his ground)

I would give a thousand pound I could run as fast as thou canst. (POINS backs off and drinks. FALSTAFF has a stronger character than POINS.) A plague of all cowards, still say I. There’s no more valour in Poins than a wild duck.

 

 

PRINCE HARRY

What’s the matter?

 

FALSTAFF

What’s the matter! There be three of us here have ta’en a thousand pound this day morning.

 

PRINCE HARRY

Where is it, Jack? where is it?

 

FALSTAFF

Where is it! Taken from us it is: a hundred upon poor three of us.

 

PRINCE HARRY

What, a hundred, man?

 

(FRANCIS has returned with a tray of large tankards. He gives tankards to FALSTAFF, BARDOLPH and PETO – and POINS takes one for himself.)

 

FALSTAFF

I am a rogue, if I were not face to face with a dozen of them two hours together. I have ‘scaped by miracle. (FALSTAFF indicates tears in his clothes) I am eight times thrust through the doublet, four through the hose; my buckler cut through and through; my sword hacked like a hand-saw.

 

(FALSTAFF holds up his hacked sword.)

 

Here is the proof!

 

PRINCE HARRY

Speak, sirs; how was it?

 

BARDOLPH (schooled by FALSTAFF.)

We three set upon some dozen–

 

FALSTAFF (correcting his pupil.)

Sixteen at least, my lord.

 

BARDOLPH

And bound them. As we were sharing, some six or seven fresh men set upon us…

 

PRINCE HARRY

What, fought you with them all?

 

 

FALSTAFF

All! I know not what you call all; but if I fought not with fifty of them, I am a shrivelled radish: if there were not two or three and fifty upon poor old Jack, then am I no two-legged creature.

(FALSTAFF starts to believe his own lies.)

 

PRINCE HARRY

Pray God you have not murdered some of them!

 

FALSTAFF (filled with ‘remorse’)

Nay, that’s past praying for: I have peppered two of them. Two rogues in buckram let drive at me–

 

PRINCE HARRY

Dressed in buckram say you?

 

FALSTAFF

Aye, Hal, buckram. These four in buckram came all a-front, and mainly thrust at me.

 

PRINCE HARRY (aside to POINS.)

Two have grown to four!

 

FALSTAFF

I made me no more ado but took all their seven points in my buckler, thus.

 

(FALSTAFF holds up his hacked buckler.)

 

PRINCE HARRY (to FALSTAFF)

Seven? Why, there were but four just now.

 

POINS (to FALSTAFF)

Aye, four in buckram.

 

FALSTAFF (indicating his damaged buckler)

Seven, by these holes, or I am a villain else.

 

PRINCE HARRY (to POINS who is about to challenge FALSTAFF.)

Prithee, let him alone; we shall have more anon.

FALSTAFF

Dost thou hear me, Hal?

 

PRINCE HARRY

Ay, and mark thee too, Jack.

 

FALSTAFF

Do so, for it is worth the listening to. These nine in buckram that I told thee of–

 

PRINCE HARRY (to POINS)

See, two more already.

 

FALSTAFF

Began to give me ground: but I followed me close, came in foot and hand; and, quick as thought, seven of the eleven I paid.

 

PRINCE HARRY (to POINS)

O monstrous! eleven buckram men grown out of two!

 

FALSTAFF

But, as the devil would have it, three misbegotten knaves in Kendal green came at my back and let drive at me; for it was so dark, Hal, that thou couldst not see thy hand.

 

PRINCE HARRY

Why, how couldst thou know these men in Kendal green ?

 

POINS

Come, your reason, Jack, your reason.

 

FALSTAFF (seeing a way out by attacking PRINCE HARRY and POINS.)

What, upon compulsion? If reasons were as plentiful as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion.

 

PRINCE HARRY

I’ll be no longer guilty of this sin; this sanguine coward, this bed-presser, this horseback-breaker, this huge hill of flesh….

 

FALSTAFF

‘Sblood, you starveling, you elf-skin, you dried ox’s tongue, you bull’s pizzle, you cod-fish, you tailor’s-yard, you sheath, you bowcase, you vile rusty rapier….

 

 

PRINCE HARRY

We two saw you three set on two and bound them, and were masters of their wealth. Then did we two set on you three; and, with a word, out-faced you from your prize, and have it; yea, and could show it to you if we chose: and, Falstaff, you carried your guts away as nimbly, with as quick dexterity, and roared for mercy and still run and roared, as ever I heard bull-calf.

 

POINS

Come, let’s hear, Jack; what trick hast thou now?

 

FALSTAFF (Looks for a moment as though he is stuck….but then says)

Was it for me to kill the heir-apparent? Should I turn upon the true prince? Why, thou knowest I am as valiant as Hercules: but beware instinct; the lion will not touch the true prince. Instinct is a great matter; I was now a coward on instinct.

(Although he is physically slow FALSTAFF has a nimble, brilliant brain.)

 

(DOLL rushes in in dressing gown.)

 DOLL

O Jesu, my lord the prince!

 

PRINCE HARRY

How now, my lady Doll! What sayest thou to me?

 

DOLL

Marry, my lord, there is a nobleman of the court at door would speak with you: he says he comes from your father the King!

 

FALSTAFF

Shall I give him his answer?

 

 

PRINCE HARRY

Prithee, do, Jack.

 

FALSTAFF (loving the power that his friendship with PRINCE HARRY gives him) ‘Faith, and I’ll send him packing.

 

(Exit FALSTAFF.)

 

PRINCE HARRY

Doll, as you’re up betimes, sack for these gallants!

 

(DOLL exits.)

 

Now, sirs: by’r lady, you fought fair; so did you, Peto? So did you, Bardolph? you are lions too, you ran away upon instinct, you will not touch the true prince; no, fie!

(Both men, unlike FALSTAFF, are over-awed by the power and authority of PRINCE HARRY.)

 

BARDOLPH

‘Faith, I ran when I saw others run.

 

PRINCE HARRY

‘Faith, tell me now in earnest, how came Falstaff’s sword so hacked?

 

PETO (betraying FALSTAFF without hesitation.)

Why, he hacked it with his dagger, and said he would swear truth out of England but he would make you believe it was done in fight, and persuaded us to do the like. And that’s the humour of it.

BARDOLPH

Yea, and to tickle our noses with couch-grass to make them bleed, and then to beslubber our garments with it and swear it was the blood of true men.

 

PRINCE HARRY

O villain Bardolph, thou stolest a cup of sack eighteen years ago, and wert convicted, and ever since thou hast blushed extempore.

 

(Re-enter FALSTAFF.)

 

FALSTAFF

You must to the court in the morning. That same mad fellow of the north, Harry Hotspur, is turned traitor. Thy father’s hair is turned white. Tell me, Hal, art not thou horrible afeard?

 

PRINCE HARRY (genuinely and naturally courageous)

Not a whit, i’ faith; I lack some of thy ‘instinct’.

 

FALSTAFF

Well, thou wert be horribly chid tomorrow when thou comest to thy father: if thou love me, practise an answer.

 

(DOLL enters with FRANCIS – dressed in his nightshirt – with trays of sack and distributes them. POINS takes two tankards.)

 

 

PRINCE HARRY

Do thou stand for my father, and examine me upon the particulars of my life.

 

FALSTAFF (a natural actor)

Shall I? Content: this chair shall be my state, this dagger my sceptre, and this cushion my crown. Give me a cup of sack, Doll, to make my eyes look red, that it may be thought I have wept.

 

(DOLL, genuinely amused, gives FALSTAFF a cup of sack.)

 

DOLL

O Jesu, this is excellent sport, i’ faith!

 

FALSTAFF (using DOLL as an actress – and hamming it up)

Weep not, sweet queen; for trickling tears are vain.

 

 DOLL

O, the father, how he holds his countenance!

 

FALSTAFF

For God’s sake, lords, convey my tristful queen;

For tears do stop the flood-gates of her eyes.

 

(POINS pretends to be a courtier – and leads DOLL to a chair. He sits next to her and drinks from both his tankards as he watches the ‘play’. FRANCIS sits and watches the play as well as he tucks into a capon’s leg.)

 

DOLL (to POINS)

O Jesu, he doth it as like one of these harlotry players as ever I see!

 

FALSTAFF (imitating world-weary voice and manner of actor playing KING HENRY IV. FALSTAFF is a brilliant mimic)

Harry, I do not only marvel where thou spendest thy time, but also how thou art accompanied. That thou art my son, I have partly thy mother’s word, partly my own opinion, but chiefly a villainous trick of thine eye and a foolish-hanging of thy nether lip, that doth warrant me. There is a thing, Harry, which thou hast often heard of and it is known to many in our land by the name of pitch: this pitch, doth defile; so doth the company thou keepest: for, Harry, now I do not speak to thee in drink but in tears, not in pleasure but in passion, not in words only, but in woes also: and yet there is a virtuous man whom I have often noted in thy company, but I know not his name.

 

PRINCE HARRY

What manner of man, an it like your majesty?

 

FALSTAFF (half-believing this to be true)

A goodly portly man, i’ faith, and a corpulent; of a cheerful look, a pleasing eye and a most noble carriage; and, as I think, his age some fifty, or, by’r lady, inclining to three score; and now I remember me, his name is Falstaff; I see virtue in his looks. Him keep with, the rest banish.

 

(PETO, BARDOLPH and POINS boo and throw things at FALSTAFF)

 

PRINCE HARRY

Dost thou speak like a king? Do thou stand for me, and I’ll play my father.

 

FALSTAFF  (with a genuine belief in his own dramatic abilities)

Depose me? if thou dost it half so gravely, so majestically, both in word and matter, hang me up by the heels for a baby rabbit or a poulter’s hare.

 

PRINCE HARRY (Imitating his father)

Now, Harry, whence come you?

 

FALSTAFF (bowing – and imitating PRINCE HARRY’s walk and actions. He becomes a young man.)

My noble lord, from Eastcheap.

 (He takes a few tennis swings)

PRINCE HARRY

The complaints I hear of thee are grievous.

 

FALSTAFF (violently)

‘Sblood, my lord, they are false.

 

PRINCE HARRY (a dark edge coming in to his description of FALSTAFF)

Swearest thou, ungracious boy? henceforth ne’er look on me. Thou art violently carried away from grace: there is a devil haunts thee in the likeness of an old fat man; a tun of man is thy companion. (Relishing the insults) Why dost thou converse with that trunk of humours, that sifting-bin of beastliness, that swollen parcel of dropsies, that huge barrel of sack, that stuffed cloak-bag of guts? Wherein is he cunning, but in craft? Wherein crafty, but in villany? Wherein villainous, but in all things? Wherein worthy, but in nothing?

 

FALSTAFF (looking round)

Whom means your grace?

 

 

PRINCE HARRY

That villanous abominable misleader of youth, Falstaff, that old white-bearded Satan.

 

FALSTAFF

My lord, the man I know.

 

PRINCE HARRY

I know thou dost.

 

FALSTAFF (vehemently – rejection by PRINCE HARRY is what FALSTAFF fears most of all. HARRY has touched a raw nerve)

That he is old, the more the pity; but that he is, saving your reverence, a whoremaster, that I utterly deny. If sack and sugar be a fault, God help the wicked! If to be old and merry be a sin, then many an old host that I know is damned. Banish Peto,(PETO protests) banish Bardolph,(BARDOLPH protests) banish Poins: (POINS gets up to protest – but he is so drunk he is about to throw up and rushes out of the room) Poins seems to have banished himself. But for sweet Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff, valiant Jack Falstaff, and therefore more valiant, being, as he is, old Jack Falstaff, banish not him thy Harry’s company: banish plump Jack, and banish all the world.

 

PRINCE HARRY (making his intentions crystal clear)

I do, I will.

 

(A chill fills the air and a silence – then a violent knocking offstage is heard. Exeunt DOLL and FRANCIS. Re-enter FRANCIS running.)

 

FRANCIS

O your Highness! Your Highness! The Sheriff with a most monstrous watch is at the door!

 

(Re-enter DOLL terrified.)

 

DOLL (looking to PRINCE HARRY for protection)

O Jesu, my lord, my lord!

 

PRINCE HARRY

What’s the matter?

DOLL

They are come to search the house! (DOLL is terrified of what they might find) Shall I let them in?

PRINCE HARRY (to FALSTAFF)

Go, hide thee behind the arras: the rest walk up above. (TO DOLL) Call in the sheriff.

 

(PRINCE HARRY grabs PETO) Peto – the chess board!

 

(Exeunt all except PRINCE HARRY and PETO, who sit pretending to play chess. A scene of studied tranquillity. PRINCE HARRY has his back to the door. The thug of a SHERIFF bursts in, brandishing a truncheon. He is not expecting royalty – and cannot see who PRINCE HARRY is.)

 

SHERIFF (throwing his weight around)

Now then, now then, now then!

 

PRINCE HARRY (rising from his chair, turning and pulling rank)

Now, master sheriff, what’s your will with me?

 

The SHERIFF recognises PRINCE HARRY – and immediately kneels and becomes obsequious.

 

SHERIFF

Pardon me, my lord. A hue and cry

Hath follow’d certain men unto this house.

 

PRINCE HARRY

What men?

 

SHERIFF

One of them is well known, my gracious lord,

A gross fat man. As fat as butter.

 

(A muttering behind the arras. The SHERIFF looks round. PRINCE HARRY speaks loudly to hide it.)

 

PRINCE HARRY

The man, I do assure you, is not here;

(The SHERIFF knows he is – but is obliged to take PRINCE HARRY’s word)

For I myself at this time have employ’d him.

And, sheriff, I will engage my word to thee

That I will, by to-morrow dinner-time,

Send him to answer thee, or any man,

For any thing he shall be charged withal:

And so let me entreat you leave the house.

 

SHERIFF

I will, my lord. There are two gentlemen

Have in this robbery lost three hundred marks.

 

PRINCE HARRY

If he have robb’d these men, He shall be answerable; and so farewell.

 

SHERIFF (bowing)

Good night, my noble lord.

 

PRINCE HARRY (playing with the SHERIFF)

I think it is good morrow, is it not?

 

SHERIFF (bowing again)

Indeed, my lord, I think it be two o’clock.

 

(Exit SHERIFF, bowing all the way to the door.)

 

PRINCE HARRY

Go, call Falstaff forth.

 

PETO (pulling back the arras)

Falstaff! Fast asleep. (FALSTAFF snorts.) And snorting like a horse.

 

PRINCE HARRY

There let him sleep till day. I’ll to the court in the morning. We must all to the wars. I’ll procure this fat rogue a charge of foot; and I know his death will be a march of twelve-score. (Taking the bag of stolen money from his doublet) The money he stole shall be paid back again with advantage.(Puts a small purse of his own in with the booty – and the bag back into his doublet) Be with me betimes in the morning; and so, good morrow, Peto.

 

PETO (bowing)

Good morrow, good my lord.

 

(PRINCE HARRY exits.)

 

And that’s the humour of it.

 

(Exit PETO.)

 

(Crowing of cock.)

 

SCENE SIX

 

(Palace. Throne room. Enter KING HENRY IV, reading a letter, with WESTMORELAND enter downstage as the interior of the ‘The Sow’s Head’ is struck and a throne put in its place.)

 

KING HENRY IV

Hotspur, now, has joined with Scottish Douglas.

He freed his son and rode with him to war.

 

(SERVANT enters.)

 

SERVANT (kneeling)

The Prince of Wales is without, my lord.

 

KING HENRY IV

Admit him.

 

(SERVANT exits.)

 

WESTMORELAND (who believes PRINCE HARRY will reform)

Hotspur’s revolt perchance will stir young Harry

To bridge the gap that this betrayal brings.

 

KING HENRY IV (smiling)

The same day, ‘cos, the mighty Thames runs dry!

Pray give us leave now, noble Westmorland.

We’ll meet again in Shrewsbury.

 

(KING HENRY IV and WESTMORELAND embrace. WESTMORELAND bows and exits. KING HENRY IV sits on his throne and PRINCE HARRY enters and bows.)

 

KING HENRY IV

I know not whether God will have it so,

For some displeasing service I have done,

That, in his secret doom, out of my blood

He’ll breed revenges and a scourge for me;

But thou dost in thy passages of life

Make me believe that thou art only mark’d

For the hot vengeance and the rod of heaven

To punish my (pause) ‘mistreadings’.

(KING HENRY IV is using language politically)

 

PRINCE HARRY

So please your majesty, I would I could

Quit all offences with as clear excuse

As well as I am doubtless I can purge

Myself of many I am charged withal.

KING HENRY IV

God pardon thee! yet let me wonder, Harry,

At thy behaviour, which does hold a wing

Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors.

Thy place in council thou hast rudely lost,

Which by Prince John thy brother is supplied,

 (KING HENRY IV is deliberately winding up PRINCE HARRY who is furious at the mention of PRINCE JOHN. HARRY believes his much-younger brother has supplanted him in the KING’s affections)

 

PRINCE HARRY

Prince John! A lily-livered, beardless, sackless boy!

 

KING HENRY IV (ignoring him)

Thou art almost an alien to the hearts

Of all the court and princes of my blood:

The hope and expectation of thy time

Is ruin’d, and the soul of every man

Prophetically doth forethink thy fall.

Had I so lavish of my presence been,

So common-hackney’d in the eyes of men,

So stale and cheap to vulgar company,

Opinion, that did help me to the crown,

Had still kept loyal to the status quo

And left me in neglected banishment,

A fellow of no mark nor likelihood.

By being seldom seen, I seemed more rare,

And like a comet I was wonder’d at;

And then I stole all courtesy from heaven,

And dress’d myself in such humility

That I did pluck allegiance from men’s hearts,

Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths,

Even in the presence of the King.

The skipping Richard, ambling up and down

Soon kindled and soon burnt; spoilt his state,

Mingled his royalty with capering fools,

Had his great name profaned with their scorns.

And in that very line, Harry, standest thou;

For thou has lost thy princely privilege

With base companionship: and not an eye

But is a-weary of thy common sight,

Save mine, which hath desired to see thee more;

Which now doth that I would not have it do,

Make blind itself with foolish tenderness.

 

(KING HENRY IV turns his head away from PRINCE HARRY and weeps.)

 

PRINCE HARRY (moved by his father’s display of emotion: he knows now that he really loves him)

I shall hereafter, my thrice gracious lord,

Be more myself. (He kneels)

 

KING HENRY IV

Why, Harry, do I tell thee of my foes,

Which art my near’st and dearest enemy?

Thou that art like enough, through vassal fear,

To fight against me under Hotspur’s pay.

PRINCE HARRY (rising with fury)

Do not think so; you shall not find it so:

And God forgive them that so much have sway’d

Your majesty’s good thoughts away from me!

I will redeem all this on Hotspur’s head

And in the closing of some glorious day

Be bold to tell you that I am your son;

This, in the name of God, I promise here:

(He kneels and crosses himself) The which if He be pleased I shall perform,

I do beseech your majesty may heal

The long-grown wounds of my intemperance.

KING HENRY IV (Rising from his throne and raising PRINCE HARRY to his feet, convinced of his son’s sincerity)

A hundred thousand rebels die in this!

Thou shalt have charge and sovereign trust herein!

 

(PRINCE HARRY is thrilled by his father’s words.)

 

Scots’ Douglas and the English rebels met

The eleventh of this month at Shrewsbury.

A mighty and a fearful head they are.

Noble Westmoreland sets forth to-day;

With your brother, John of Lancaster;

(PRINCE HARRY tries to mask his dislike of his brother)

On Wednesday next yourself shall forward set;

On Thursday next ourselves will join you all.

Our hands are full of business: let’s away;

Advantage feeds him fat, while men delay.

 

(KING HENRY IV and PRINCE HARRY exit, bonded together in action.)

 

SCENE SEVEN

 

(The throne is struck. Drumming. Shrewsbury. FALSTAFF leads on a ragged army of conscripts. He marches them up and down (‘Left, right, left, right’ etc. etc) then orders them off.)

 

FALSTAFF (Solus)

I have misused the king’s press damnably. (He is delighted about this. He is much more interested in making money than winning the battle.) I have got, in exchange of a hundred and fifty soldiers, three hundred and odd pounds. I press me none but good house-holders and yeomen’s sons; inquire me out contracted bachelors, such as had been asked twice on the marriage banns. They have bought their way out; and now my whole charge consists of such as indeed were never soldiers, but discarded serving-men, runaway tapsters and out of work ostlers.

 

(Enter PRINCE HARRY.)

 

PRINCE HARRY

Sirrah, make haste. Hotspur is already in the field

 

FALSTAFF

I would ’twere bed-time, Hal, and all well.

 

PRINCE HARRY

Why, we owe God a death.

(Exit PRINCE HARRY.)

 

FALSTAFF

‘Tis not due yet; I would be loathe to pay him before his day. (FALSTAFF loves life.) Honour spurs me on. (Makes to go) Yea, but how if honour spur me off when I come on? Can honour set to a leg? no: or an arm? no: or take away the grief of a wound? no. Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? no. What is honour? a word. What is in that word honour? Air. Who hath it? He that died o’ Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. Therefore I’ll none of it. Honour is a cofffin-crest: and so ends my catechism. (H blesses the audience like a Priest.)

 (Sounds of cries and battle. FALSTAFF stands stock-still. Enter PRINCE HARRY who has clearly been fighting hard.)

 

PRINCE HARRY (breathing hard)

What, stand’st thou idle here? Lend me thy sword:

Many a nobleman lies stark and stiff

Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies.

I prithee, lend me thy sword.

 

FALSTAFF (pretending to be exhausted)

O Hal, give me leave to breathe awhile. I have killed Hotspur.

 

PRINCE HARRY

He is living and plans to kill thee. I prithee, lend me thy sword.

 

FALSTAFF (terrified)

Nay, before God, Hal, if Hotspur be alive, thou get’st not my sword; but take my pistol, if thou wilt.

 

PRINCE HARRY

Give it to me: what, is it in the case?

 

FALSTAFF

Ay, Hal; ’tis hot, ’tis hot; there’s that will sack a city.

 

(PRINCE HARRY draws it out, and finds it to be a bottle of sherry.)

 

PRINCE HARRY

What, is it a time to jest and dally now?

 

(PRINCE HARRY throws the bottle to FALSTAFF and exits. KING HENRY IV enters, engaged in a swordfight with DOUGLAS – the Scottish rebel – who is winning. FALSTAFF exits. KING HENRY IV, exhausted, falls to the ground and DOUGLAS is about to kill him. But PRINCE HARRY enters.)

 

PRINCE HARRY

Hold up thy head, vile Scot!

 

(DOUGLAS looks round and stops fighting with KING HENRY IV and takes on PRINCE HARRY instead. PRINCE HARRY finally overcomes DOUGLAS and DOUGLAS flees. PRINCE HARRY is about to run after him, but his father stops him.)

 

KING HENRY IV (breathing heavily and clutching his heart)

Stay, son, and breathe awhile:

Thou hast redeem’d thy lost opinion.

PRINCE HARRY (helping his father to his feet)

O God! they did me too much injury

That ever said I hearken’d for your death.

KING HENRY IV (as a final test of his son)

Support Prince John: (PRINCE HARRY starts) I’ll to noble Westmoreland.

 (KING HENRY IV exits. Movement is clearly painful to him. Enter HOTSPUR.)

 

HOTSPUR

If I mistake not, thou art Prince Harry.

 

PRINCE HARRY

Thou speak’st as if I would deny my name.

 

HOTSPUR

My name is Harry Hotspur.

 

PRINCE HARRY

I am the Prince of Wales; and think not, Hotspur,

To share with me in glory any more:

Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere;

Nor can one England brook a double reign,

Of Harry Percy and the Prince of Wales.

 

HOTSPUR

Nor shall it, Harry; for the hour is come

To end the one of us; and would to God

Thy name in arms were now as great as mine!

 (Enter FALSTAFF)

 

PRINCE HARRY

I’ll make it greater ere I part from thee;

And all the budding honours on thy crest

I’ll crop, to make a garland for my head.

 

HOTSPUR

I can no longer brook thy vanities.

 

(They fight.)

 

FALSTAFF

Well said, Hal! to it Hal!

 

(Re-enter DOUGLAS; he turns FALSTAFF round and fights with him. FALSTAFF falls down and we must think he is dead. DOUGLAS exits. After a tremendous fight between the two champions, HOTSPUR is wounded by PRINCE HARRY and falls to the ground.)

 

HOTSPUR

O, Harry, thou hast robb’d me of my youth!

I better brook the loss of brittle life

Than those proud titles thou hast won of me.

Say good-night, now, unto my loving Kate….

For Hotspur, thou art dust and food for–

(Dies.)

 

PRINCE HARRY

For worms, brave Hotspur: fare thee well, great heart!

When that this body did contain a spirit,

A kingdom for it was too small a bound;

But now two paces of the vilest earth

Is room enough.

 

(He sees FALSTAFF on the ground.)

 

What, old acquaintance! could not all this flesh

Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell!

Embowelled will I see thee by and by:

Till then in blood by noble Hotspur lie.

 

(Exit PRINCE HARRY.)

 

 

FALSTAFF

(Jumping up. It should be a genuine surprise to the audience that FALSTAFF is alive) Embowelled! if thou embowel me to-day, I’ll give you leave to preserve me and eat me too to-morrow. ‘Zounds, I am afraid of this Hotspur, though he be dead: how, if he rise? Therefore I’ll make him sure. Therefore, sirrah,…..

(Stabbing him.)

……with a new wound in your thigh, come you along with me.

 

(Takes up HOTSPUR on his back. Re-enter PRINCE HARRY with PRINCE JOHN. This is PRINCE JOHN’s first battle – and PRINCE HARRY is genuinely impressed with how bravely his younger brother has fought. The two men become closer and closer in the course of the play.)

 

PRINCE HARRY

Come, brother John; full bravely hast thou flesh’d

Thy maiden sword.

 

PRINCE JOHN

But, soft! whom have we here? Did you not tell me the fat man was dead?

 

PRINCE HARRY (astonished)

I did; I saw him dead,

 

Breathless and bleeding on the ground.

Art thou alive? Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyes?

FALSTAFF

No, that’s certain; I am Jack Falstaff. There is Hotspur.

 

(Throwing the body down.)

 

(Opportunist as ever) If your father will do me any honour, I look to be either earl or duke.

 

PRINCE HARRY

Why, Hotspur I killed myself and saw thee dead.

 

FALSTAFF (projecting, as ever, his own faults into everyone else)

Didst thou? Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying! I grant you I was down and out of breath; and so was he: but we rose both at an instant and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock. (Putting one hand on his heart and raising the other – almost convinced of the truth he is speaking) I’ll take it upon my death, I gave him this wound in the thigh.

 

PRINCE JOHN

This is the strangest tale that ever I heard.

 

PRINCE HARRY (laughing)

This is the strangest fellow, brother John.

Come, bring your luggage nobly on your back:

For my part, if a lie may do thee grace,

I’ll gild it with the happiest terms I have.

(An example of PRINCE HARRY’s massive generosity of spirit)

 

(A retreat is sounded.)

 

Their trumpet sounds retreat;

Come, brother, let us to the highest of the field,

To see what friends are living, who are dead.

 

(Exeunt PRINCE HARRY and PRINCE JOHN.)

 

FALSTAFF

I’ll follow, as they say, for reward. He that rewards me, God reward him! If I do grow great, I’ll grow less; for I’ll purge, and leave sack, and live cleanly as a nobleman should do.

 

(Exit FALSTAFF with body of HOTSPUR. Enter HENRY IV and WESTMORELAND on one side, PRINCE HARRY AND PRINCE JOHN the other.)

 

KING HENRY IV (breathing heavily)

How goes the field?

 

PRINCE HARRY

The rebel Scot, Lord Douglas, when he saw

The fortune of the day quite turn’d from him,

The noble Hotspur slain, and all his men

Upon the foot of fear, fled with his son;

(FALSTAFF returns drinking his bottle of sherry.)

 

KING HENRY IV

The day, thank God, is ours!

 

KING HENRY IV gives a great cry, seizes his heart and collapses.

 

WESTMORELAND

He faints! My lord! My lord!

 

(PRINCE HARRY and PRINCE JOHN rush to support KING HENRY IV. FALSTAFF kneels and offers his bottle to the KING.)

 

FALSTAFF

Some sherry wine, my liege?

 

PRINCE JOHN (furiously)

Away, gross knight….Come, father..

 

(Exeunt PRINCE HENRY, PRINCE JOHN and WESTMORELAND – bearing KING HENRY IV.)

 

SCENE EIGHT

 

FALSTAFF (referring to PRINCE JOHN)

There’s never none of these demure boys come to any proof; they drink no wine! (FALSTAFF goes to walk away – but decides to come back and speak to the audience and sits on the edge of the stage. FALSTAFF’s speech should be like a serious, scientific lecture. FALSTAFF genuinely believes that alcohol is God’s gift to man – and the stronger it is, the better it is.) A good sherry wine hath a two-fold operation in it. It ascends me into the brain; dries me there all the foolish and dull and curdy vapours which environ it; makes it apprehensive, quick, creative, full of nimble, fiery and delectable shapes, which, delivered o’er to the voice, the tongue, becomes excellent wit. The second property of your excellent sherry wine is, the warming of the blood; which, before cold and settled, left the liver white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity and cowardice; but the sherry warms it and makes it course from the inwards to the extremities: it illumineth the face, which as a beacon gives warning to all the rest of this little kingdom, man, to arm; and then the heart, who, great and puffed up with this retinue, doth any deed of courage. Hereof comes it that Prince Harry is valiant; for the cold blood he did naturally inherit of his father, he hath, like lean, sterile and bare land, manured, husbanded and tilled with excellent endeavour of drinking good and good store of fertile sherry, that he is become very hot and valiant. If I had a thousand sons, the first humane principle I would teach them should be, to forswear thin potations and to addict themselves to sherry wine…..

 

(FALSTAFF exits.)

 

SCENE NINE

 

(A bed is wheeled on from the back. A chair is placed by the bed. WESTMORELAND, PRINCE HARRY and PRINCE JOHN bear on KING HENRY IV. All have changed out of their battle dress to denote the passage of time and place. PRINCE HARRY takes off the KING’S crown and the others lie him down in the bed.)

 

KING HENRY IV

Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends;

Unless some dull and favourable hand

Will whisper music to my weary spirit.

 

PRINCE HARRY (to WESTMORELAND)

Call for the music in the other room.

 

(WESTMORELAND exits through a downstage door.)

 

KING HENRY IV

Set me the crown upon my pillow here.

 

(PRINCE HARRY does so)

 

PRINCE JOHN (to PRINCE HARRY)

His eye is hollow, and he changes much.

 

(Music starts up offstage – and WESTMORELAND re-enters.)

 

Let us withdraw into the other room.

 

WESTMORELAND (to PRINCE HARRY)

Will’t please your grace to go along with us?

 

PRINCE HARRY

No; I will sit and watch here by the king.

 

(Exeunt all but PRINCE HENRY who sits in the chair by the bed.)

 

Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow,

Being so troublesome a bedfellow?

O polish’d perturbation! golden care!

That keep’st the doors of slumber open wide

To many a watchful night! sleep with it now!

(PRINCE HARRY looks at his father – and starts to grow alarmed)

By his gates of breath

There lies a downy feather which stirs not:

 (PRINCE HARRY gently shakes THE KING)

My gracious lord! My father!

(PRINCE HARRY believes his father is dead. He is horrified – and from his reaction we see the truth of his love.)

This sleep is sound indeed, this is a sleep

That from this golden circle hath divorced

So many English kings. Thy due from me

Is tears and heavy sorrows of the blood,

Which nature, love, and filial tenderness,

Shall, O dear father, pay thee plenteously:

My due from thee is this imperial crown,

Which, as immediate as thy place and blood,

Derives itself to me.

 

(PRINCE HARRY puts the crown upon his head.)

 

Lo, here it sits,

Which God shall guard: and put the world’s whole strength

Into one giant arm, it shall not force

This lineal honour from me:

 

(Making a solemn vow.)

 

…..this from thee

Will I to mine leave, as ’tis left to me.

 

(Exit PRINCE HARRY through a door.)

 

KING HENRY IV (waking)

Westmoreland! Prince John….

 

(Re-enter WESTMORELAND and PRINCE JOHN.)

 

PRINCE JOHN

What would your majesty? How fares your grace?

 

KING HENRY IV

Why did you leave me here alone, my lords?

 

PRINCE JOHN

We left the Prince my brother here, my liege,

Who undertook to sit and watch by you.

 

KING HENRY IV

The Prince of Wales! He is not here.

 

PRINCE JOHN (indicating downstage door)

This door is open; he is gone this way.

 

WESTMORELAND

He came not through the chamber where we stay’d.

 

KING HENRY IV

Where is the crown? Who took it from my pillow?

 

PRINCE JOHN

When we withdrew, my liege, we left it here.

 

KING HENRY IV

The prince hath ta’en it hence: go, seek him out.

Is he so hasty that he doth suppose My sleep my death?

Find him, my Lord of Westmoreland; chide him hither.

 (Exit WESTMORELAND through door.)

How quickly nature falls into revolt

When gold becomes her object!

For this the foolish over-careful fathers

Have broke their sleep with thoughts, their brains with care.

(Re-enter WESTMORELAND.)

WESTMORELAND

My lord, I found the prince in the next room,

Washing with kindly tears his gentle cheeks,

In a deep demeanor of great sorrow.

KING HENRY IV

But wherefore did he take away the crown?

 

(Re-enter PRINCE HARRY holding the crown.)

 

Come hither to me, Harry. (To WESTMORELAND and PRINCE JOHN)

Depart the chamber, leave us here alone.

 

(Exeunt except PRINCE HARRY and THE KING.)

 

PRINCE HARRY

I never thought to hear you speak again.

 

KING HENRY IV

Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought:

I stay too long by thee, I weary thee.

Dost thou so hunger for mine empty chair

That thou wilt needs invest thee with my honours

Before thy hour be ripe?

Thou hast stolen that which after some few hours

Were thine without offence.

What! canst thou not forbear me half an hour?

Then get thee gone and dig my grave thyself,

And bid the merry bells ring to thine ear

That thou art crowned, not that I am dead.

PRINCE HARRY (kneeling)

There is your crown;

(looking up to heaven) And He that wears the crown immortally

Long guard it yours! God witness with me, when I here came in,

And found no course of breath within your majesty,

How cold it struck my heart! If I do feign,

O, let me in my present wildness die

And never live to show th’ incredulous world

The noble change that I have purposed!

I spake unto this crown as having sense,

And thus upbraided it: ‘The care on thee depending

Hath fed upon the body of my father;

Therefore, thou best of gold art worst of gold’.

Thus, my most royal liege,

Accusing it, I put it on my head,

To try with it, as with an enemy

That had before my face murder’d my father.

But if it did infect my blood with joy,

Or swell my thoughts to any strain of pride;

Let God for ever keep it from my head

And make me as the poorest vassal is

That doth with awe and terror kneel to it!

 

KING HENRY IV (melting)

O my son, God put it in thy mind to take it hence,

That thou mightst win the more thy father’s love,

Pleading so wisely in excuse of it!

Come hither, Harry, sit thou by my bed;

And hear, I think, the very latest counsel

That ever I shall breathe. God knows, my son,

By what by-paths and indirect crook’d ways

I met this crown; and I myself know well

How troublesome it sat upon my head.

To thee it shall descend with better quiet,

Better opinion, better confirmation;

For all the stain of the achievement goes

With me into the earth.

Thou the garland wear’st successively.

Yet, though thou stand’st more sure than I could do,

Thou art not firm enough, since griefs are green;

And all my friends, which thou must make thy friends,

Have but their stings and teeth newly ta’en out;

I cut them off; and had a purpose now

To lead out many to the Holy Land,

Lest rest and lying still might make them look

Too near unto my throne. Therefore, my Harry,

Be it thy course to busy giddy minds

With foreign quarrels; that action, hence borne out,

May wipe the memory of the former days.

More would I, but my lungs are wasted so

That strength of speech is utterly denied me.

How I came by the crown, O God forgive;

And grant it may with thee in true peace live!

 

PRINCE HARRY

My gracious liege,

You won it, wore it, kept it, gave it me;

Then plain and right must my possession be:

Which I with more than with a common pain

‘Gainst all the world will rightfully maintain.

 

KING HENRY IV

Bid John and Westmoreland approach….

 

PRINCE HARRY (going to the door)

Brother and Cousin Westmoreland

The King would speak with you.

 

(Enter PRINCE JOHN and WESTMORELAND.)

 

KING HENRY IV

Doth any name particular belong

Unto this lodging where I do faint and swoon?

 

WESTMORELAND

‘Tis call’d Jerusalem, my noble lord.

 

KING HENRY IV (immediately celebrating the irony)

Laud be to God! even here my life must end.

It hath been prophesied to me many years,

I should not die but in Jerusalem;

Which vainly I supposed the Holy Land:

And so I meet my end where I do lie;

In this Jerusalem doth Harry die……

 

(KING HENRY IV dies with his eyes wide open…..WESTMORELAND feels KING HENRY IV’s pulse. Then closes his eyelids.)

 

WESTMORELAND (overcome with grief)

The King is dead! (Kneeling to KING HENRY V) Long live the King!

 

PRINCE JOHN (looking apprehensive at this turn of events – he is worried that the new KING HENRY V will have him killed.)

 

The King is dead! Long live the King’.(Kneels to KING HENRY V)

 

(Music. KING HENRY IV is wheeled off in his bed. THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE and his ASSISTANT enter with the royal cloak. They wrap it round KING HENRY V and THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE puts the crown on HENRY V’s head.)

 

KING HENRY V

(Raising PRINCE JOHN) Brother, you mix your sadness with some fear:

This is the English, not the Turkish court;

’Tis not a fratricide succeeds the King.

But Harry, Harry. Love to you I bring.

 

(KING HENRY V smiles and embraces his brother PRINCE JOHN who smiles as well. KING HENRY V then raises up the grief-stricken WESTMORELAND)

 

Westmoreland, your grief is plain to see.

As you were to my father, be to me.

 

(KING HENRY V and WESTMORELAND embrace. KING HENRY V then addresses THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE.

 

My Lord Chief Justice…..

My father is gone wild into his grave,

For in his tomb lies all my waywardness:

And with his spirit sadly I survive,

To mock the expectation of the world.

The tide of blood in me

Hath proudly flow’d in vanity till now:

Now doth it turn and ebb back to the sea,

Where it shall mingle with the state of floods

And flow henceforth in formal majesty.

Our coronation done, I’ll call a parliament.

No prince nor peer shall have just cause to say,

‘God shorten Harry’s happy life one day!’

 

(Exeunt.)

 

SCENE TEN

(A London Street. Procession bunting set up in gallery. Enter FALSTAFF, DOLL, BARDOLPH, PETO and FRANCIS. FALSTAFF is carrying a celebratory bottle of sherry in his hand  from which he takes swigs. He is slightly drunk – the first time in the play we have seen him so.)

 

FALSTAFF (his arms round DOLL.)

Stand by me, Doll. The King passes here in procession to the Abbey. I will look upon him as a’ comes by; and do but mark the countenance that he will give me. (Drinks)

 

DOLL

God bless thy lungs, good knight!

(DOLL kisses FALSTAFF)

FALSTAFF

I would have bought you a new robe, Doll, had I the time! Come stand behind me, Bardolph, Peto, Francis (Pulling his supposed new rank) I would have ordered footman liveries for you too!

 

BARDOLPH (not certain he wants to be FALSTAFF’s footman) Footman liveries!

 

FALSTAFF

Tis no matter; this poor show doth better: this doth infer the zeal we had to see him. (Drinks.)

 

DOLL

It doth so!

 

FALSTAFF (squeezing DOLL)

It shows my earnestness of affection,–

 

DOLL (getting more and more excited)

It doth so!!

FALSTAFF (Drinks – then squeezes DOLL even tighter.)

My devotion,–

DOLL

It doth, it doth, it doth!!!

 

FALSTAFF

But to stand stained and sweating with desire to see him; thinking of nothing else, putting all affairs else in oblivion, as if there were nothing else to be done but to see him! (Drinks)

 

(Enter KING HENRY V and his train, PRINCE JOHN and WESTMORELAND and THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE among them. FALSTAFF and his followers wave and cheer.)

 

FALSTAFF (pushing forward in front of KING HENRY V in an ecstasy of genuine joy. FALSTAFF’s back is to the audience)

God save thy grace, King Hal! My royal Hal! God save thee, my sweet boy! My king! My Love! I speak to thee, my heart!

(FALSTAFF offers KING HENRY a drink from his sherry bottle. KING HENRY nods to the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE who snatches the bottle away.)

KING HENRY V (forced into making an instant decision by FALSTAFF’s behaviour.)

I know thee not, old man: fall to thy prayers;

How ill white hairs become a fool and jester!

I have long dream’d of such a kind of man,

So surfeit-swell’d, so old and so profane;

But, being awaked, I do despise my dream.

Make less thy body hence, and more thy grace;

Leave gormandizing; know the grave doth gape

For thee thrice wider than for other men.

Reply not to me with a fool-born jest:

Presume not that I am the thing I was;

For God doth know, so shall the world perceive,

That I have turn’d away my former self;

So will I those that kept me company.

When thou dost hear I am as I have been,

Approach me, and thou shalt be as thou wast,

The tutor and the feeder of my riots:

Till then, I banish thee, on pain of death,

As I have done the rest of my (political pause – just like his father) ‘misleaders’,

Not to come near our person by ten mile.

Be it your charge, my lord,

To see perform’d the tenor of our word.

 (For a moment KING HENRY’s face is hidden from the crowd – and we see the anguish he is suffering at his rejection of FALSTAFF)

Set on!

(Exeunt KING HENRY V, & his train. FALSTAFF turns to face us. We see that his heart is broken. DOLL bursts into tears.)

 

FALSTAFF (comforting DOLL and trying to convince himself.)

Doll, do not grieve at this; I shall be sent for in private to him: look you, he must seem thus to the world: fear not your advancements; Bardolph, I will be the man yet that shall make you great.

 

BARDOLPH

I cannot well perceive how, unless you should give me your doublet and stuff me out with straw.

 

FALSTAFF

Sir, I will be as good as my word: this that you heard was but a colour.

 

PETO

A colour that I fear you will die in, Sir John. And that’s the humour of it.

 

FALSTAFF (putting up a cheerful front)

Come with me to dinner: come. I shall be sent for soon.

 

Re-enter PRINCE JOHN and the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE ; Officers with them.

 

 PRINCE JOHN

Lord Chief-Justice Go, carry Sir John Falstaff to the Fleet: Take all his company along with him.

 

FALSTAFF (indignant)

My lord, my lord,–

LORD CHIEF JUSTICE

I cannot now speak: I will hear you soon. Take them away.

 

The OFFICERS bear off FALSTAFF, BARDOLPH, PETO, DOLL and FRANCIS, kicking and screaming.

 

PRINCE JOHN (warming to his brother’s rule)

I like this fair proceeding of the king’s:

He hath intent his wonted followers

Shall all be very well provided for;

But all are banish’d till their conversations

Appear more wise and modest to the world.

LORD CHIEF JUSTICE (with some relief)

And so they are.

PRINCE JOHN

The king hath call’d his parliament, my lord.

LORD CHIEF JUSTICE

He hath.

PRINCE JOHN

I will lay odds that, ere this year expire,

We bear our civil swords and native fire

As far as France:

(LORD CHIEF JUSTICE gives an inquiring look: how does PRINCE JOHN know?)

I beard a bird so sing,

Whose music, to my thinking, pleased the king.

(PRINCE JOHN is clearly becoming KING HENRY V’s confidante. Exeunt. CHORUS enters.)

CHORUS (4)

We’re half-way through our story – so we’ll break

Before the players tell us any more.

Let’s drink an English toast for Harry’s sake……

And then return for Agincourt and war!

(CHORUS bows and exits.)

INTERVAL

 

 

‘The Making of a King’ banner is rehung

THE MAKING OF A KING

PART TWO

 

(Flourish.  CHORUS enters and bows. The banner is removed – and the Westminster throne room set up as the CHORUS speaks.)

 

CHORUS (5)

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; and at his heels,

Leash’d in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire

Crouch for employment. (Pause) But pardon, gentles all,

The flat unraised spirits that have dared

On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth

So great an object. Can these oak-beams hold

The vasty fields of France? Or may we cram

Within this wooden – rectangle – the very casques

That did affright the air at Agincourt?

Oh let us, nothing to these great events,

On your imaginary forces work.

Suppose within the girdle of these walls

Are now confined two mighty monarchies,

Whose high upreared and abutting fronts

The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder:

Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;

Into a thousand parts divide on man,

And make imaginary warfare now.

Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them

Printing their proud hoofs i’ the receiving earth;

For ’tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,

Carry them here and there; jumping o’er times,

Turning the accomplishment of many years

Into an hour-glass….

We’re  still in England, gents, but not for long.

It’s time for France to hear King Harry’s song.

(CHORUS bows and exits.)

 

SCENE ELEVEN

(Westminster. Throne room.. Enter KING HENRY V, PRINCE JOHN, WESTMORELAND, LORD CHIEF JUSTICE and COURTIERS.)

 

KING HENRY V (sitting on the throne)

Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury?

 

WESTMORELND

Not here in presence.

 

KING HENRY V

Send for him, good uncle.

 

(WESTMORELAND exits.)

 

PRINCE JOHN

Shall we call in the Herald from France, my liege?

 

KING HENRY V

Not yet, good brother: we would be resolved,

Before we hear him, of some things of weight

That task our thoughts, concerning us and France.

 

(Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY with WESTMORELAND.)

 

CANTERBURY (bowing)

God and his angels guard your sacred throne

And make you long become it!

 

KING HENRY V

Sure, we thank you. My learned lord, we pray you to proceed

And justly and religiously unfold

Why the law Salique that they have in France

Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim:

And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,

That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading,

Or jeopardise your understanding soul.

For God doth know how many now in health

Shall drop their blood in approbation

Of what your reverence shall incite us to.
 

 CANTERBURY

Your right to the French Crown of France,

Came by your great grandmother Isabel,

Wife to King Edward the third,

And sister to Charles the King of France.

KING HENRY V

May I with right and conscience make this claim?

CANTERBURY

In the book of Numbers is it writ,

When the man dies, let the inheritance

Descend unto the daughter.

PRINCE JOHN (now fiercely loyal to his brother)

Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth

Do all expect that you should rouse yourself,

As did the former lions of your blood.

They know your grace hath cause and means and might.

KING HENRY V

Call in the Herald sent from the Dauphin.

 

(WESTMORELAND exits.)

 

Now are we well resolved; and, by God’s help,

And yours, (to PRINCE JOHN granting him equality) the noble sinews of our power,

France being ours, we’ll bend it to our awe,

Or break it all to pieces.

 

(HERALD’s ASSISTANTS roll in a wooden barrel then stand it upright. MONTJOY – in a tabard – enters with WESTMORELAND. But unlike WESTMORELAND does not bow to the KING as he is on a diplomatic mission.)

 

KING HENRY V

Now are we well prepared to know the pleasure

Of our fair cousin Dauphin

MONTJOY (confident and brave)

The prince our master

Says that you savour too much of your youth,

And bids you be advised there’s nought in France

That can be with a nimble galliard won;

You cannot revel into dukedoms there.

He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit,

This tun of treasure….

 

(MONTJOY’s ASSISTANT places the present before KING HENRY V)

…..and, in lieu of this,

Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim

Hear no more of you.

 

KING HENRY V

What treasure, cos?

 

(WESTMORELAND opens the lid of the barrel and looks in. He snaps the lid shut.)

 

WESTMORELAND

Tennis-balls, my liege.

 

(A shock round the court. A pause before the storm, then….)

 

KING HENRY V (admiring MONTJOY’s bravery)

What is thy name? I know thy quality.

 

MONTJOY

Montjoy.

 

KING HENRY V (quietly, at first….)

Montjoy:

We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us;

His present and your pains we thank you for:

(KING HENRY V rises from his throne)

When we have match’d our rackets to these balls,

We will, in France, by God’s grace, play a set

(Imitates a tennis player smashing the ball into the corner of his opponent’s court)

Shall strike his father’s crown into the HAZARD!!!.

We understand him well,

How he comes o’er us with our wilder days,

Not measuring what use we made of them.

But tell the Dauphin I will keep my state,

Be like a king and show my sail of greatness

When I do rouse me in my throne of France:

I will rise there with so full a glory

That I will dazzle all the eyes of Gaul,

Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us.

And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his

Hath turn’d his balls to gun-stones; and his soul

Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance

That shall fly with them: for many a thousand widows

Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands;

Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down;

And some are yet ungotten and unborn

That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin’s scorn.

His jest will savour but of shallow wit,

When thousands weep more than did laugh at it.

Convey him with safe conduct. Fare you well.

 

(MONTJOY and ASSISTANTS exeunt. They all turn and look at KING HENRY V. The ASSISTANTS bow to the KING – but MONTJOY does not.)

 

PRINCE JOHN

This was a merry message…

 

KING HENRY V (smiling)

We hope to make the sender blush at it.

Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour

That may give furtherance to our expedition;

For we have now no wish in us but France.

Therefore let every man now task his thought,

That this fair action may on foot be brought.

 

(Exeunt. Flourish. Enter CHORUS. Throne and barrel are removed as the CHORUS speaks.)

 

CHORUS (6)

O England! model to thy inward greatness,

Like little body with a mighty heart,

What might’st thou do, that honour would thee do,

Were all thy children kind and natural!

But see thy fault! France hath in thee found out

A nest of hollow bosoms, which he fills

With treacherous crowns; and three corrupted men,

Have, for the gilt of France, – O guilt indeed!

Confirm’d conspiracy.

The sum is paid; the traitors are agreed;

The king is set from London; and the scene

Is now transported, gentles, to Southampton…..

 

Exit CHORUS

 

SCENE 12

 

(Southampton. Enter PRINCE JOHN, WESTMORELAND and LORD CHIEF JUSTICE. Trumpets sound. Enter KING HENRY V, SCROOP, CAMBRIDGE, GREY and OFFICERS.)

 

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?

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’s.

 

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.
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 Westmoreland,

Enlarge the man committed yesterday,

That rail’d against our person: we consider it was excess of wine that set him on;

He has repented and 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 arguments ‘gainst this poor wretch!

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 (giving scrolls to the traitors)

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 brother Lancaster,

We will aboard to night.

(The traitors read their accusations of treachery – and change colour)

Why, how now, gentlemen!

What see you in those papers that you lose

So much complexion?

 

CAMBRIDGE

I do confess my fault; And do submit me to your highness’ mercy.

 

GREY and 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:

WESTMORELAND

I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Richard Earl of Cambridge. I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Henry Lord Scroop of Masham. I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Thomas Grey, knight, of Northumberland.

 

SCROOP (unconvincing)

Our purposes God justly hath discover’d;

And I repent my fault more than my death.

 

CAMBRIDGE (equally unconvincing)

For me, the gold of France did not seduce;

Although I did admit it as a motive

The sooner to effect what I intended.

GREY (most unconvincing of all)

Never did faithful subject more rejoice

At the discovery of most dangerous treason

Than I do at this hour joy o’er myself.

KING HENRY V

God quit you in his mercy! Hear your sentence.

You have conspired against our royal person,

Join’d with an enemy proclaim’d and from his coffers

Received the golden earnest of our death;

Wherein you would have sold your king to slaughter,

His princes and his peers to servitude,

His subjects to oppression and contempt

And his whole kingdom into desolation.

Get you therefore hence,

Poor miserable wretches, to your death:

The taste whereof, God of his mercy give

You patience to endure, and true repentance

Of all your dear offences! Bear them hence.

 

(Exeunt CAMBRIDGE, SCROOP and GREY, guarded by OFFICERS.)

 

Now, lords, for France; the enterprise whereof

Shall be to you, as us, like glorious.

Cheerly to sea; the signs of war advance:

No king of England, if not king of France.

 

(Exeunt CHORUS enters. The exterior of ‘The Sow’s Head is set up with table and benches as the CHORUS speaks.)

 

CHORUS (7)

Now all the youth of England are on fire,

And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies:

Now thrive the armourers, and honour’s thought

Reigns solely in the breast of every man:

They sell the pasture now to buy the horse,

Following the mirror of all Christian kings,

With winged heels, as English Mercuries……

(CHORUS indicates BARDOLPH and PETO – who plod on, not looking anything like ‘English Mercuries’ – and EXITS.)

(No Scene 13!)

SCENE FOURTEEN

 

(Exterior. The Sow’s Head. Enter BARDOLPH and PETO – with a few bits of luggage.)

 

BARDOLPH (calling to DOLL who is inside)

 

Doll Tearsheet! Mistress Doll! We come to bid farewell. We follow the King to France!

 

(DOLL enters, weeping, leaning on FRANCIS. BARDOLPH suspects the worst.)

How fares Sir John?

DOLL

He departed life at turn of tide….…

 

(All cross themselves. DOLL sits, exhausted at the table.)

 

The King hath killed his heart.

 

BARDOLPH (sitting as well)

Would I were with Jack, (pause) wheresome’er he is…..

 

DOLL (indignant)

Nay, sure, he’s not in hell: he’s in Arthur’s bosom, if ever man went to Arthur’s bosom. A’ made a finer end and went away an it had been any christom child; for after I saw him fumble with the sheets and play with flowers and smile upon his fingers’ ends, I knew there was but one way; for his nose became sharp as a pen, and a’ babbled of green fields. ‘How now, Sir John!’ quoth I ‘What, man! be o’ good cheer.’ So a’ cried out ‘God, God, God!’ three or four times. Now I, to comfort him, bid him a’ should not think of God; I hoped there was no need to trouble himself with any such thoughts yet. So a’ bade me lay more clothes on his feet: I put my hand into the bed and felt them, and they were as cold as any stone; then I felt to his knees, and they were as cold as any stone, and so upward and upward, (All start to stare at her: she is, after all, a courtesan) and all was as cold as any stone.

 

PETO (sitting near DOLL)

Did he cry out for sack?

 

DOLL

Ay, that a’ did.

 

BARDOLPH

And for women?

 

DOLL (embarrassed)

Nay, that a’ did not.

 

FRANCIS (insistent)

Yes, that a’ did; and said they were devils incarnate.

 

DOLL

A’ could never abide carnation; ’twas a colour he never liked.

 

FRANCIS

A’ said once, the devil would have him about women.

 

DOLL (capitulating)

A’ did in some sort, indeed, handle women…..

 

FRANCIS

Do you not remember, a’ saw a flea stick upon Bardolph’s nose, and a’ said it was a black soul burning in hell-fire?

 

BARDOLPH

Well, the fuel is gone that once maintained that fire, that’s all the riches I got in his service.

 

PETO (standing)

Shall we shog? The King will be gone from Southampton.

 

BARDOLPH (standing)

Farewell, sweet hostess.

 

(BARDOLPH kisses DOLL lovingly.)

 

And, Francis, come along with us. Make your fortune in the war. No need to pack. You can steal all you need in France.

 

FRANCIS

Nothing to pack anyway….

(DOLL is about to protest – but FRANCIS pokes his tongue out at her – and she realises he is joking.)

 

PETO

I cannot kiss, Doll, that is the humour of it; but, adieu.

 

(PETO offers his hand to DOLL – who shakes it.)

 

DOLL

Adieu. Peto.

 

(DOLL then hugs FRANCIS strongly. She has an intimation of danger. She kisses him, trying not to cry.)

 

Farewell, Francis. Be a good, brave boy.

 

FRANCIS (also trying not to cry)

Farewell, kind Mistress Doll.

 

BARDOLPH (assuming military rank)

Shog on! Shog on!

 

DOLL

Farewell, my masters, farewell.

 

(BARDOLPH, PETO and FRANCIS depart. DOLL waves them goodbye. Then, when they have gone she kneels and crosses herself.)

 

And God send you safe back to England…..

 

(Exit DOLL.

 

CHORUS enters. ‘Sow’s Head’ extrerior struck behind him as he speaks.

 

CHORUS (8)

Suppose that you have seen

The well-appointed king at Hampton pier

Embark his royalty; and his brave fleet

With silken streamers the young Phoebus fanning.

Play with your fancies! O, do but think

You stand upon the seashore and behold

A city on th’inconstant billows dancing!

For so appears this fleet majestical,

Holding due course to Harfleur. Follow, follow:

And leave your England, as dead midnight, still,

Guarded with grandsires, babies and old women.

For who is he, whose chin is but enrich’d

With one appearing hair, that will not follow

These picked and choice-drawn cavaliers to France?

Work, work your thoughts – but gentles, still be kind

And eke out our performance with your mind.

 

(Exit CHORUS.)

 

 

SCENE FIFTEEN

 

(Before Harfleur. Alarum. Shouts of battle. Trumpets. Enter KING HENRY V with PRINCE JOHN, WESTMORELAND and the EARL OF EXETER – all with swords in their hands and all exhausted. KING HENRY V attempts to rally their spirits.)

 

KING HENRY V (addressing the audience as though it is his army)

Once more unto the breach, 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, summon up the blood,

Disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage;

Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;

Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,

Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit

To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.

Dishonour not your mothers; now attest

That those whom you call’d fathers did beget you.

And you, good longbowmen,

Whose limbs were made in England, show us here

That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;

For there is none of you so mean and base,

That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,

Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot:

Follow your spirit, and upon this charge

Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’

 

(KING HENRY leads the charge off.)

 

WESTMORELAND, PRINCE JOHN and EXETER (following the KING)

 

God for Harry, England and Saint George.

 

(WESTMORELAND,PRINCE JOHN and EXETER charge off after the KING. Alarum, and chambers go off. Enter BARDOLPH leading PETO and FRANCIS.)

 

BARDOLPH (imitating the KING)

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

 

(BARDOLPH changes his mind – and sits on the ground.)

 

Or not….

 

PETO (shell-shocked, terrified and shaking)

That’s right, corporal, stay: the knocks are too hot up there; that is the h-h-h-humour of it.

 

FRANCIS

Would I were back at Doll’s in Eastcheap! I would give all my fame for a capon leg.

 

(Enter COCKNEY CAPTAIN.)

 

CAPTAIN

Up to the breach, you dogs! avaunt, you cullions!

 

(Driving- and kicking – BARDOLPH and PETO forward. Exeunt all but FRANCIS.)

 

FRANCIS

Young as I am, I have observed these two swaggerers. For Bardolph, he is white-livered and red-faced; by the means whereof a’ faces it out, but fights not. For Peto, he hath heard that men of few words are the best men; and therefore he scorns to say his prayers, lest a’ should be thought a coward: but his few bad words are matched with as few good deeds; for a’ never broke any man’s head but his own, and that was against a post when he was drunk. Bardolph stole a lute-case, bore it twelve leagues and sold it for three happence. Peto and Bardolph would have me as familiar with men’s pockets as their gloves or their handkerchers. I must leave them, and seek some better service. (Thinks for a moment) I’ll serve King Harry! (Proudly) After all, he knows my name!

 

(FRANCIS swaggers off.  Enter one side KING HENRY V and PRINCE JOHN on the other side the CAPTAIN.)

 

KING HENRY V

How now, Captain! Camest thou from the bridge?

 

CAPTAIN

Ay, so please your majesty. The Earl of Westmoreland has very gallantly maintained the bridge.

 

KING HENRY V

What men has he lost?

 

CAPTAIN

I think the Earl hath lost never a man in action; but there’s one that he wants to lose. (Getting out a document from a field-case and reading it) One Bardolph who robbed a Church. His face is all carbuncles, and whelks, and knobs, and flames o’fire: but his fire will soon be out if your Majesty sign the warrant.

 

(CAPTAIN gives KING HENRY V the death warrant and a quill pen from his case – then offers his back in place of a desk for the KING to sign. We see the KING – unobserved – agonise for a moment about killing his old friend. But then signs decisively.)

 

 KING HENRY V (blowing on the warrant)

We would have all such offenders so cut off: and we give 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 upbraided or abused in disdainful language. (Handing the warrant to the CAPTAIN) Give this to the Earl of Westmoreland.

 

CAPTAIN (pleased)

I will, my liege.

 

(CAPTAIN exits. Tucket. Enter MONTJOY. Again, he does not bow to the KING.)

 

KING HENRY V

Montjoy! We meet again in France!

What message from the Dauphin now?

 

MONTJOY

This time from the King: (Remembering) say thou to Harry of England: England shall repent his folly, see his weakness, and admire our strength. Bid him therefore consider of his ransom; which must proportion the losses we have borne, the subjects we have lost and the disgrace we have digested. To this add defiance.

 

KING HENRY V

 

Trust me Montjoy, not so much as a tun of tennis balls,

No, not so much as one poor tennis ball,

Rather shall my body lie dead in the field, to feed crows,

Than ever England shall pay one penny ransom

For my body.

(We can see that MONTJOY is impressed)

Turn thee back. And tell thy king I do not seek him now;

But could be willing to march on to Calais

Without his hindrance: for, to say the sooth,

My people are with sickness much enfeebled,

My numbers lessened, and those few I have

Almost no better than so many French –

(MONTJOY allows himself a smile).

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: and so Montjoy, fare you well.

MONTJOY

I shall deliver so.

(MONTJOY, again without bowing to the KING, turns and goes.)

 

PRINCE JOHN

I hope they will not come upon us now.

 

KING HENRY V

We are in God’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  (Pause) bid them march away!

(PRINCE JOHN smiles at KING HENRY’s joke. Both men know the situation is hopeless. Exeunt. Enter CHORUS.)

 

CHORUS (9)

Now entertain conjecture of a time

When creeping murmur and the poring dark

Fills the wide vessel of the universe.

From camp to camp, through the foul womb of night,

The hum of either army stilly sounds,

That the fixt sentinels almost receive

The secret whispers of each other’s watch:

Fire answers fire, and through their paley flames

Each army sees the other’s amber’d face;

Steed threatens steed, in high and boastful neighs,

Piercing the night’s dull ear; and from the tents

The armourers, accomplishing the knights,

With busy hammers closing rivets up,

Give dreadful note of preparation.

The country cocks do crow, the clocks do toll,

And the third hour of drowsy morning name.

Proud of their numbers and secure in soul,

The confident and over-lusty French

Carouse and one another play at dice,

And chide the cripple, tardy-gaited night,

Who, like a foul and ugly witch, doth limp

So tediously away. The poor condemned English,

Like sacrifices, by their watchful fires,

Sit patiently and inly ruminate

The morning’s danger; and their gesture sad,

Investing lank-lean cheeks and war-worn coats,

Presenteth them unto the gazing moon

So many horrid ghosts. O now, who will behold

The royal captain of this ruin’d band

Walking from watch to watch, from tent to tent,

Let him cry ‘Praise and glory on his head!’

For forth he goes and visits all his host,

Bids them ‘good morrow’ with a modest smile,

And calls them ‘brothers’, ‘friends’ and ‘countrymen’.

Upon his royal face there is no note

How dread an army hath surrounded him;

Nor doth he dedicate one jot of colour

Unto the weary and all-watched night,

But freshly looks and conquers quite exhaustion

With cheerful semblance and sweet majesty,

That every wretch, pining and pale before,

Beholding him, plucks comfort from his looks:

A largess, universal like the sun,

His liberal eye doth give to every one,

Thawing cold fear, to mean and gentle all,

A little touch of Harry in the night.

(Exit CHORUS.)

 

SCENE SIXTEEN

(The English camp. Enter two soldiers, BATES and WILLIAMS.)

 

WILLIAMS

Brother John Bates, is not that the morning which breaks yonder?

 

BATES

I think it be, Brother Michael Williams: but we have no great cause to desire the approach of day.

 

WILLIAMS

We see yonder the beginning of the day, but I think we shall never see the end of it.

 

(Enter KING HENRY V.)

 

BATES

Who goes there?

 

KING HENRY V (muffling himself up in his cloak)

A friend.

 

WILLIAMS

Under what captain serve you?

 

KING HENRY V

The Earl of Exeter.

 

WILLIAMS

I pray you, what thinks he of our estate?

 

KING HENRY V

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

 

BATES

He hath not told his thought to the king?

 

KING HENRY V

No; nor it is not meet he should. For, though I speak it to you, I think the king is but a man, as I am: the violet smells to him as it doth to me.

 

BATES

He 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.

 

KING HENRY V

I think he would not wish himself anywhere but where he is. 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; for we know enough, if we know we are the king’s subjects: if his cause be wrong, our obedience to the king wipes the crime of it out of us.

 

WILLIAMS

But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs and arms and heads, chopped off in battle, shall join together at the latter day and cry all ‘We died at such a place;’ some swearing, some crying for a surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind them, some upon the debts they owe, some upon their children rawly left. I am afeard there are few die well that die in a battle.

 

KING HENRY V

So, if a son that is by his father sent about merchandise do sinfully miscarry upon the sea, the imputation of his wickedness by your rule, should be imposed upon his father that sent him: or if a servant, under his master’s command transporting a sum of money, be assailed by robbers and die in many unatoned iniquities, you may call the business of the master the author of the servant’s damnation: but this is not so: the king is not bound to answer the particular endings of his soldiers, the father of his son, nor the master of his servant

 

WILLIAMS

‘Tis certain, every man that dies ill, the ill is upon his own head. The king is not to answer it.

 

BATES

But I do not desire he should answer for me; and yet I determine to fight lustily for him.

 

KING HENRY V

I myself heard the king say he would not be ransomed.

 

WILLIAMS

Ay, he said so, to make us fight cheerfully: but when our throats are cut, he may be ransomed, and we ne’er the wiser.

 

KING HENRY V

If I live to see it, I will never trust his word after.

 

WILLIAMS

That’s a perilous shot out of a pop-gun, that a poor and private displeasure can do against a monarch! You may as well go about to turn the sun to ice with fanning in his face with a peacock’s feather.

 

KING HENRY V (squaring up for a physical fight)

Your reproof is something too round!

 

BATES (interposing himself between the KING and WILLIAMS)

Be friends, you English fools, be friends. We have French quarrels enough! Off with you, Michael.

 

(BATES pulls WILLIAMS away and looks back at KING HENRY V with utter contempt.

 

Royalist lackey!

 

(The soldiers exeunt.)

 

KING HENRY V (still in a fury – and beginning to think that Kingship might not be worth it, KING HENRY enters his Dark Night of the Soul.)

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, subject to the breath

Of every fool, whose sense no more can feel

But his own belly-ache! What infinite heart’s-ease

Must kings neglect, that private men enjoy!

And what have kings, that privates have not too,

Save ceremony, save general ceremony?

(KING HENRY is contemptuous of the word ‘ceremony’)

I am the King of England and I know

No King can sleep so soundly as a slave,

Who with a body fill’d and vacant mind

Gets him to rest, cramm’d with a well-earn’d crust;

Never sees horrid night, the child of hell,

But, labouring as he does from rise to set

Sweats in the eye of Phoebus and all night

Sleeps in Elysium; next day after dawn,

Doth rise and help the Sun-God to his horse,

And follows so the ever-running year,

With profitable labour, to his grave:

And, but for ceremony, such a wretch,

Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep,

Has the fore-hand and vantage of a king.

(KING HENRY has finally understood that  power is worthless – and that a peasant has a better life than a King. Enter WESTMORELAND.)

 

WESTMORELAND

My lord, your nobles, jealous of your absence,

Seek through your camp to find you.

 

KING HENRY V

Good Westmoreland,

Collect them all together at my tent:

I’ll be before thee.

 

WESTMORELAND

I shall do’t, my lord.

 

(Exit Westmoreland. KING HENRY  now believes the only way forward for him is to become a vessel through which God works.)

KING HENRY V (kneeling)

O God of battles! steel my soldiers’ hearts;

Possess them not with fear; take from them now

The sense of reck’ning, if the opposed numbers

Pluck their hearts from them. Not to-day, O Lord,

O, not to-day, think not upon the fault

My father made in compassing the crown,

Since that my penitence comes after all,

Imploring pardon.

 

(Enter PRINCE JOHN.)

 

PRINCE JOHN

My liege!

 

KING HENRY V

My brother’s voice?

Ay, John, I know thy errand, I will go with thee:

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

 

(Both men exit. CHORUS enters.)

CHORUS (10)

And so our scene must to the battle fly,

Where – O for pity! – we shall much disgrace

(With four or five most vile and ragged foils,

Right ill-dispos’d, in brawl ridiculous)

The name of Agincourt. Yet sit and see,

Minding true things by what their mockeries be.

 

(CHORUS exits.)

 

SCENE SEVENTEEN

 

Enter WESTMORELAND and EXETER

 

WESTMORELAND

Where is the king?

 

EXETER

The king himself is rode to view their battle.

 

WESTMORELAND

Of fighting men they have full three score thousand.

 

EXETER

There’s five to one; besides, they all are fresh.

 

(KING HENRY V enters behind EXETER, his helmet and gloves held by FRANCIS, now wearing the KING’s livery.)

 

O that we now had here

But one ten thousand of those men in England

That do no work to-day!

 

KING HENRY V

What’s he that wishes so?

(EXETER turns round to face KING HENRY V.)

My cousin Exeter? No, fair cos,

If we are mark’d to die, we are enow

To do our country loss; and if to live,

The fewer men, the greater share of glory.

If it be a sin to covet honour,

I am the most offending soul alive.

This day is called the feast of Crispian:

He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,

Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,

And rouse him at the name of Crispian.

He that shall live this day, and see old age,

Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,

And say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian:’

Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.

And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.’

Old men forget: but he’ll remember with advantages

What feats he did that day: then shall our names,

Familiar in his mouth as household words,

Harry the king, Prince John and Exeter

Westmoreland and (looking at his pageboy) pageboy Francis..

(Everyone laughs affectionately) Be in their flowing cups freshly remember’d.

This story shall the good man teach his son;

And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,

From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be remembered;

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition:

And gentlemen in England now a-bed

Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

 

(Enter PRINCE JOHN.)

 

PRINCE JOHN

My sovereign lord, bestow yourself with speed:

The French are bravely in their battles set,

And will with all expedience charge on us.

 

 

KING HENRY V

All things are ready, if our minds be so.

 

(KING HENRY V takes his helmet and gloves from FRANCIS – who then bows and exits.)

 

EXETER

Perish the man whose mind is backward now!

 

KING HENRY V

Thou dost not wish more help from England, coz?

 

EXETER (completely converted by KING HENRY V’S speech)

God’s will! my liege, would you and I alone,

Without more help, could fight this royal battle!

 

KING HENRY V (laughing)

Why, now thou hast unwish’d five thousand men!

You know your places: God be with you all!

 

PRINCE JOHN (kneeling)

My lord, most humbly on my knee I beg

The leading of the vanguard.

 

KING HENRY V (with complete trust)

Take it, loved brother. Now, soldiers, march away:

And how thou pleasest, God, dispose the day!

(KING HENRY and his army exit. The stage is filled with smoke and frightening cries and clash of arms. It should be impossible to tell what is happening and who is winning. KING HENRY V re-enters with WESTMORELAND and PRINCE JOHN all brandishing swords. They are exhausted with fighting.)

KING HENRY V

Come my Lords, come, by this time our

Swords are almost drunk with French blood.

But does the day belong to them? Or us?

(Alarum.)

But, hark! what new alarum is this?

(Enter EXETER followed by CAPTAIN.)

EXETER (shocked)

My liege, they’ve killed all our boys!

KING HENRY V (incredulous)

All our boys? All our….(cries out) Francis!

 

(KING HENRY V runs off)

 

CAPTAIN

All our little boys! ‘Tis expressly against the law of arms:

‘Tis as arrant a piece of knavery as can be imagined.

 

EXETER

‘Tis certain there’s not a boy left alive; and the cowardly rascals that ran from the battle ha’ done this slaughter.

 

(KING HENRY V enters with FRANCIS dead in his arms followed by an English HERALD.)

 

KING HENRY V (in a cold rage)

I was not angry since I came to France

 

Until this instant. Sleep, sleep, now, good, brave Francis.

 

(KING HENRY V gives the body of FRANCIS to the CAPTAIN who takes it off.)

 

Every soldier kill his prisoners: Give the word through.

 

(Exit English HERALD. Flourish. Enter MONTJOY – again not bowing to the KING. All turn and stare. All believe his appearance means the French have won.)

 

KING HENRY V

Montjoy. Thou know’st I forbad these bones of mine for ransom.

Not so much as a tennis ball.

 

MONTJOY

No ransom, sire.

 

(MONTJOY kneels before KING HENRY V)
The day is yours.

 

KING HENRY V can hardly believe what he hears. Then he kneels and crosses himself.

 

KING HENRY V

Praised be God, and not our strength, for it!

 

All the English NOBLES kneel and cross themselves.

MONTJOY stands.
What is this castle call’d that stands hard by?

 

MONTJOY

They call it Agincourt, great King.

 

MOUNTJOY bows to the KING and exits.

 

KING HENRY V

Then call we this the field of Agincourt,

Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus.

 

Enter the English HERALD.

 

KING HENRY V

Now, herald, are the dead number’d?

 

HERALD

Here is the number of the slaughter’d French.

 

KING HENRY V

This note doth tell me of ten thousand French

That in the field lie slain….

Where is the number of our English dead?

HERALD shews KING HENRY V another paper

Edward the Duke of York, the Earl of Suffolk,

Sir Richard Ketly, Davy Gam, esquire: and of all other men

But five and twenty. (Looking upwards) O God, thy arm was here;

And not to us, but to thy arm alone,

Ascribe we all!

PRINCE JOHN

‘Tis wonderful!

KING HENRY V

Come, go we in procession to the village.

And be it death proclaimed throughout our host

To boast of this or take the praise from God

Which is his only. Do we all holy rites;

Let now be sung ‘Non nobis’ and ‘Te Deum;’

And the dead with charity enclosed in clay:

(ALL slowly process off, singing religious music like monks in an Abbey, KING HENRY V holding up his sword like a crucifix. CHORUS enters.)

 

CHORUS (11)

Now we bear the king

Toward Calais: grant him there; there seen,

Heave him away upon your winged thoughts

Athwart the sea! Behold! the English beach

Pales in the flood with men, with wives and boys,

Whose shouts and claps out-voice the deep mouth’d sea,

Which like a mighty steward ‘fore the king,

Seems to prepare his way: so let him land,

And solemnly see him set on to London.

So swift a pace hath thought that even now

You may imagine him upon Blackheath.

But then behold,

In the quick forge and working-house of thought,

How London doth pour out her citizens!

The mayor and all his brethren in best sort,

Like to the senators of the antique Rome,

With the plebeians swarming at their heels,

Go forth and fetch their conquering Caesar in:

Now in London place triumphant Harry,

Where Burgundy’s wise Duchess seeks him out.

The righteous claims of peace she does advance

And wills King Harry’s back-return to France.

(Exit CHORUS.)

 

SCENE EIGHTEEN

 

(The French Court. Enter one way the French Court, FRENCH KING (in blue) the DUCHESS OF BURGUNDY – in white, dressed like a High Priestess with a crucifix round her neck. KATHARINE the FRENCH KING’S beautiful daughter, ALICE  – KATHARINE’S chaperone – and FRENCH NOBLES Enter the other way KING HENRY V, PRINCE JOHN, WESTMORELAND and EXETER.)

 

KING HENRY V

Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are met,

Unto our brother France (FRENCH KING bows)

And where’s our cousin Kate, ne’er seen before!

 

(KING HENRY V looks around – not knowing who she is. KATHARINE comes forward and curtsies – and the KING is clearly instantly smitten. As is KATHARINE by him. He stares at her – but PRINCE JOHN pulls on his sleeve to remind him to get on with his greeting.)
And, as a branch and member of this royalty,

By whom this great assembly is contrived,

Burgundy’s famed Duchess, I bend my knee to you.

 (KING HENRY V kneels to the DUCHESS OF BURGUNDY – a wise older woman.)

KING OF FRANCE (raising KING HENRY V to his feet and embracing him.)

Right joyous are we to behold your face,

Most worthy brother England; fairly met:

So are you, princes English, every one.

God willed your victory and we submit to it.

 

DUCHESS OF BURGUNDY

My duty to you both, on equal love,

Great Kings of France and England!

That I have labour’d,

With all my wits, my pains and strong endeavours,

To bring your most imperial majesties

Unto this bar and royal interview,

Your mightiness on both parts best can witness.

(She is hinting it took a mammoth effort to get both Kings to the negotiating table)

What rub or what impediment there is,

Why that the naked, poor and mangled Peace,

Dear nurse of arts and joyful births,

Should not in this best garden of the world

Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage?

Alas, she hath from France too long been chased,

And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps,

Corrupting in its own fertility.

Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart,

Unpruned dies; her hedges even-trimmed,

Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair,

Put forth disorder’d twigs; her fertile land

The darnel, hemlock and rank fumitory

Doth root upon, while that the ploughshare rusts

That should deracinate such savagery.

KING HENRY V

If, sage Duchess, you would move the peace,

Whose lack gives growth to the imperfections

Which you have cited, you must buy that peace

With full accord to all our just demands;

Whose tenors and particular effects

You have enlisted briefly in your hands.

 

DUCHESS OF BURGUNDY

The king hath heard them; to the which as yet

There is no answer made.

 

KING HENRY V

Well then the peace,

Which you before so urged, lies in his answer.

 

KING OF FRANCE

I have but with a cursorory eye

O’erglanced the articles: pleaseth your grace

To appoint some of your council presently

To sit with us once more, with better heed

To re-survey them. (Pause) And agree to them.

 

KING HENRY V

Go, brother John and trusty Exeter And cousin Westmoreland, go with the king;

Yet leave our cousin Katharine here with us:

FRENCH KING (smiling)

She hath good leave.

 

(Exeunt all except HENRY, KATHARINE, and her chaperone, ALICE.)

 

KING HENRY V

Fair Katharine, and most fair,

Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms

Such as will enter at a lady’s ear

And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart?

 

KATHARINE

Your majesty shall mock at me; I cannot speak your England.

 

KING HENRY V

O fair Katharine, 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?

 

KATHARINE

Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell vat is ‘like me.’

 

KING HENRY V

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

 

KATHARINE

Que dit-il? que je suis semblable a les anges?

 

ALICE

Oui, vraiment, sauf votre grace, ainsi dit-il.

 

KING HENRY V

I said so, dear Katharine; and I must not blush to affirm it.

 

KATHARINE

O bon Dieu! les langues des hommes sont pleines de tromperies.

 

KING HENRY V

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: dat is de princess.

 

KING HENRY V

I am glad thou canst speak no better English; for, if thou couldst, thou wouldst find me such a plain king that thou wouldst think I had sold my farm to buy my crown. I know no ways to mince it in love, but directly to say ‘I love you’. And so clap hands and a bargain.

 

KATHARINE

Sauf votre honneur, me understand vell.

 

KING HENRY V

If I could win a lady at leap-frog, or by vaulting into my saddle with my armour on my back, I should quickly leap into a wife. If thou canst love me for this, take me: if not, to say to thee that I shall die, is true; but for thy love, by the Lord, no.

 

(KATHARINE stages a sulk. KING HENRY changes tack.)

 

Yet I love thee too. Take a fellow of plain and unadulterated constancy. A good leg will fall; a straight back will stoop; a black beard will turn white; a curled pate will grow bald; a fair face will wither; a full eye will wax hollow: but a good heart, Kate, is the sun and the moon

 

KATHARINE (playing another game)

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

 

KING HENRY V

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!

 

(KATHARINE looks aghast. KING HENRY changes tack again.)

 

KING HENRY V

If you say ‘Harry of England I am thine:’ I will reply ‘England is thine, Ireland is thine, France is thine, and Harry Plantagenet is thine. Wilt thou have me?

 

KATHARINE (clearly interested but still playing hard to get)

Dat is as it sall please de roi mon pere.

 

 

KING HENRY V

Nay, it will please him well, Kate.

 

KATHARINE (frightened, suddenly, that KING HENRY V might run off)

Den it sall also content me.

 

KING HENRY V

Upon that I kiss your hand, and I call you my queen.

 

KATHARINE (pretending to be horrified – and talking at a rate of knots)

Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez: ma foi, je ne veux point que vous abaissiez votre grandeur en baisant la main d’une de votre seigeurie indigne serviteur; excusez-moi, je vous supplie, mon tres-puissant seigneur.

 

KING HENRY V

Then I will kiss your lips, Kate.

 

(Katharine pretends to be even more horrified and gives out a squeal.)

 

KING HENRY V (speaking to Alice)

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

 

ALICE

Oui, vraiment.

 

KING HENRY V

O Kate, nice customs curtsy to great kings!

 

(KING HENRY V grabs KATHARINE and kisses her passionately. She recoils, pauses for a moment, then kisses the KING passionately back! Re-enter the FRENCH KING, DUCHESS OF BURGUNDY, and other French and English LORDS. They see what is happening and applaud.)

 

DUCHESS OF BURGUNDY

My royal cousin, teach you our princess English?

 

KING HENRY V

Nay, faith. She teaches me French!

 

(to French King)

 

So shall Kate be my wife?

 

FRENCH KING

Take her, fair son!

 

KING HENRY V

Now, welcome, Kate: and bear me witness all,

That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen.

 

(KING HENRY V kisses KATHARINE again, but more gently and respectfully.)

 

DUCHESS OF BURGUNDY (pleased)

God, the best maker of all marriages,

Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one!

As man and wife, being two, are one in love,

So English may as French, French Englishmen,

Receive each other. God speak this Amen!

 

ALL

Amen!

 

KING HENRY V

Prepare we for our marriage – on which day, Duchess of Burgundy, we’ll take your oath,

KING OF FRANCE

But when will be your wedding day?

 

KING HENRY V

The first Sunday of the next month, God willing!

 (All laugh.)

Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me;

And may our oaths well kept and prosperous be!

 

(Sennet. Exeunt. Enter CHORUS.)

 

CHORUS (12)

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 time, but in that small most greatly lived

This star of England: Fortune made his sword,

By which the world’s best garden he achieved,

And of it left his son imperial lord, King Henry Six,

Who married Anjou’s Margaret in the Abbey.

All this our barn has seen: and for its sake,

Accept our play – and sweet allowance make.

 

(CHORUS bows and exits.)

 

‘THE MAKLING OF A KING’ banner has been restored.

 

CURTAIN CALLS.

© Stewart  Trotter March 2015.