Enter Gower and Williams. WILLIAMS I warrant it is to knight you, captain. Enter Fluellen, wearing Williams’s glove. FLUELLEN, to Gower God’s will and His pleasure,
captain, I beseech you now, come apace to the
King. There is more good toward you peradventure
than is in your knowledge to dream of. 5 WILLIAMS, to Fluellen, pointing to the glove in his own
hat Sir, know you this glove? FLUELLEN Know the glove? I know the glove is a glove. WILLIAMS I know this, and thus I challenge it. Strikes him. | When Williams returns and sees his glove in Fluellen's hat, he slaps Fluellen. |
FLUELLEN ’Sblood, an arrant traitor as any ’s in the
universal world, or in France, or in England! 10 GOWER, to Williams How now, sir? You villain! WILLIAMS Do you think I’ll be forsworn? FLUELLEN Stand away, Captain Gower. I will give treason
his payment into plows, I warrant you. WILLIAMS I am no traitor. 15 FLUELLEN That’s a lie in thy throat.—I charge you in
his Majesty’s name, apprehend him. He’s a friend
of the Duke Alençon’s. Enter Warwick and Gloucester. WARWICK How now, how now, what’s the matter? | Fluellen accuses Williams of being a traitor and says that Williams should be arrested. |
FLUELLEN My Lord of Warwick, here is, praised be 20
God for it, a most contagious treason come to
light, look you, as you shall desire in a summer’s
day. Enter King of England and Exeter. Here is his Majesty. KING HENRY How now, what’s the matter? 25 FLUELLEN My liege, here is a villain and a traitor, that,
look your Grace, has struck the glove which your
Majesty is take out of the helmet of Alençon. WILLIAMS My liege, this was my glove; here is the fellow
of it. And he that I gave it to in change promised to 30
wear it in his cap. I promised to strike him if he did.
I met this man with my glove in his cap, and I have
been as good as my word. FLUELLEN Your Majesty, hear now, saving your Majesty’s
manhood, what an arrant, rascally, beggarly, 35
lousy knave it is. I hope your Majesty is pear me
testimony and witness and will avouchment that
this is the glove of Alençon that your Majesty is give
me, in your conscience now. KING HENRY, to Williams Give me thy glove, soldier. 40
Look, here is the fellow of it.
’Twas I indeed thou promised’st to strike,
And thou hast given me most bitter terms. FLUELLEN An please your Majesty, let his neck answer
for it, if there is any martial law in the world. 45 KING HENRY, to Williams How canst thou make me
satisfaction? WILLIAMS All offenses, my lord, come from the heart.
Never came any from mine that might offend your
Majesty. 50 KING HENRY It was ourself thou didst abuse. WILLIAMS Your Majesty came not like yourself. You
appeared to me but as a common man; witness the
night, your garments, your lowliness. And what
your Highness suffered under that shape, I beseech 55
you take it for your own fault and not mine, for, had
you been as I took you for, I made no offense.
Therefore, I beseech your Highness pardon me. | The two men scream at each other until King Henry steps forward and confesses that he's playing a joke on them. He admits that he's the one who exchanged gloves with Williams when the two bickered back at camp the night before. Williams is shocked, but he defends himself and says that he didn't know he was arguing with the king, since Henry was disguised as a commoner. |
KING HENRY
Here, uncle Exeter, fill this glove with crowns
And give it to this fellow.—Keep it, fellow, 60
And wear it for an honor in thy cap
Till I do challenge it.—Give him the crowns.—
And, captain, you must needs be friends with him. FLUELLEN By this day and this light, the fellow has
mettle enough in his belly.—Hold, there is twelvepence 65
for you, and I pray you to serve God and keep
you out of prawls and prabbles and quarrels and
dissensions, and I warrant you it is the better for
you. WILLIAMS I will none of your money. 70 FLUELLEN It is with a good will. I can tell you it will
serve you to mend your shoes. Come, wherefore
should you be so pashful? Your shoes is not so
good. ’Tis a good silling, I warrant you, or I will
change it. 75 | Henry fills the glove with some coins and gives it to Williams, who is pretty ticked off that he's been punked. When Fluellen tries to give Williams some more money so he can go out and buy a new pair of shoes (seriously), Williams feels insulted. |
Enter an English Herald. KING HENRY Now, herald, are the dead numbered? HERALD, giving the King a paper
Here is the number of the slaughtered French. KING HENRY, to Exeter
What prisoners of good sort are taken, uncle? EXETER
Charles, Duke of Orléans, nephew to the King;
John, Duke of Bourbon, and Lord Bouciqualt. 80
Of other lords and barons, knights and squires,
Full fifteen hundred, besides common men. KING HENRY
This note doth tell me of ten thousand French
That in the field lie slain. Of princes in this number
And nobles bearing banners, there lie dead 85
One hundred twenty-six. Added to these,
Of knights, esquires, and gallant gentlemen,
Eight thousand and four hundred, of the which
Five hundred were but yesterday dubbed knights.
So that in these ten thousand they have lost, 90
There are but sixteen hundred mercenaries.
The rest are princes, barons, lords, knights, squires,
And gentlemen of blood and quality.
The names of those their nobles that lie dead:
Charles Delabreth, High Constable of France; 95
Jacques of Chatillon, Admiral of France;
The Master of the Crossbows, Lord Rambures;
Great Master of France, the brave Sir Guichard
Dauphin;
John, Duke of Alençon; Anthony, Duke of Brabant, 100
The brother to the Duke of Burgundy;
And Edward, Duke of Bar. Of lusty earls:
Grandpré and Roussi, Faulconbridge and Foix,
Beaumont and Marle, Vaudemont and Lestrale.
Here was a royal fellowship of death. 105
Where is the number of our English dead?
Herald gives him another paper.
Edward the Duke of York, the Earl of Suffolk,
Sir Richard Ketly, Davy Gam, esquire;
None else of name, and of all other men
But five and twenty. O God, thy arm was here, 110
And not to us, but to thy arm alone
Ascribe we all! When, without stratagem,
But in plain shock and even play of battle,
Was ever known so great and little loss
On one part and on th’ other? Take it, God, 115
For it is none but thine. EXETER ’Tis wonderful. | An unnamed English Herald shows up and we learn about the casualties of war: Ten thousand French soldiers have been counted dead (many of whom were princes and noblemen). Miraculously, only four English nobles and twenty-five commoners have been killed in battle. |
KING HENRY
Come, go we in procession to the village,
And be it death proclaimèd through our host
To boast of this or take that praise from God 120
Which is His only. FLUELLEN Is it not lawful, an please your Majesty, to
tell how many is killed? KING HENRY
Yes, captain, but with this acknowledgment:
That God fought for us. 125 FLUELLEN Yes, my conscience, He did us great good. KING HENRY Do we all holy rites.
Let there be sung Non nobis, and Te Deum,
The dead with charity enclosed in clay,
And then to Calais, and to England then, 130
Where ne’er from France arrived more happy men. They exit. | Henry orders a procession through the local village and says anyone who
doesn't give God props for the English victory will be put to death. |