King Henry the Fifth

By William Shakespeare
Act 1 Scene 1
Chorus: 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. Can this
cockpit hold the vasty fields of France? Or may we cram within this wooden O the very
casques that did affright the air at Agincourt? Admit me, Chorus like, your humble
patience pray: Gently to hear, kindly to judge our play.

Fade in to two clergymen speaking in low tones just outside the throne room of the king.

Canterbury: The king is full of grace and fair regard.

Ely: And a true lover of the holy Church.

Canterbury: The courses of his youth promised it not. The breath no sooner left his
father’s body but that his wildness, mortified in him, seemed to die too.

Ely: We are blessed in the change.

Canterbury: But, my good lord, how was our offer received?

Ely: With good acceptance, save there was not time enough to hear.

Canterbury: What was the impediment that broke this off?

Ely: The French ambassador craved audience. The hour is come to give him hearing.

Canterbury: Then go we in, for I long to hear it.

Scene Two

We follow them in to the throne room. There sits the king, with his men to attend him on
either side.

King: Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin.

Ambassador enters with servants carrying a trunk

King: We are well prepared to know the pleasure of our fair cousin Dauphin.
Messenger begins his message with a smirk on his face. It is evident he has no respect
for the king.
Montjoy: Your Highness claims some dukedoms in France. In answer to your claim, the
Prince says that you savor too much of your youth. Smirk He sends you this ton of
treasure, and desires you to let the dukedoms hear no more of you.

King: What treasure, Uncle?

Exeter leaves the king’s side and opens the trunk.
 King Henry the Fifth
By William Shakespeare

Exeter: Tennis balls, my liege.

Exeter steps back and joins the king, facing the messenger
King: His present and your pains, we thank you for. Pauses, thinking When we have
matched our rackets to these balls, switch from close up of king to close up of the
messenger we will in France play a set shall strike his father’s crown into the hazard.
And we understand him well, how he comes o’er us with our wilder days, not measuring
what use we made of them. Messenger listens, growing more and more embarrassed and
ashamed.
Tell the pleasant prince this mock of his hath turned these balls to gun stones, for
this mock shall mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down. And some yet
ungotten and unborn shall have cause to curse the Dauphin’s scorn. So get you hence in
peace. Return to close up of king Tell the Dauphin, his jest will savor but a shallow wit,
when thousands weep more than did laugh at it. Fare you well.
Messenger looks startled, bows sheepishly, and leaves quickly

Exeter: This was a merry message.

King: We hope to make the sender blush at it.

Messenger leaves, the king appears to ponder the present situation.

Scene Three
Insert scenes of blacksmiths making weapons, men polishing their chain mail, sparring
together, readying them selves for war, hugging family goodbye while Chorus speaks.

Chorus: Now all the youth of England are on fire, now thrives the armorers, and honor’s
thought reigns solely in the breast of man. For now sits expectation in the air.
The French, advised by good intelligence of this most dreadful preparation shake in their
fear.
The king and his men are planning their attack on France around the table.
They plan quietly while Chorus speaks

Chorus: O England, model to thy inward greatness, like little body with a mighty heart.
But see, thy fault France hath in thee found out, a nest of hollow bosoms, which he fills
with treacherous crowns. These three, have for the gilt of France, o guilt indeed. They
have confirmed conspiracy with fearful France, ere he take ship, by their hands, this
grace of kings must die.
Exeter calls the king aside, and shows him a paper, whispers and points to the three
traitors where they can not see. The king looks at them a long time, and shows first hurt
and disappointment, then resolve. Exeter returns to his seat.

King: smiling to the three traitors, Therefore, let every man now task his thought, that
this fair action may on foot be brought.
Bedford: whispering to Exeter, His grace is bold to trust these traitors.
Exeter: They shall be apprehended by and by.
 King Henry the Fifth
By William Shakespeare
Bedford: How smooth and even they do bear themselves, as if allegiance in their bosoms
sat!
King rises, while the rest of the court is still involved in planning around the table. The
king walks around, observing them working.

King: to traitor one 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?

Traitor One: No doubt my liege, if each man do his best.

Traitor two: Never was a monarch better feared and loved than is your Majesty.

Traitor three: True.

King clears his throat, glances significantly at Exeter, and pulls from his pocket three
sealed papers.

King: he asks the group Who are the late commissioners?

All look up from what they are doing.

Traitor One: I am, Lord, your highness bid me ask for it today.

Traitor Two: So did you me, my liege.

Traitor Three: And I, my royal sovereign.

King hands a paper to each in turn. They break the seal, their pleased faces turn to looks
that are stricken and fearful.

King: There yours, and yours, and yours. Read them, and know I know your worthiness.
Why, how now gentleman? Look ye, how they change! Their cheeks are paper. What
read you there?

Traitor One: I do confess my fault and do submit me to your Highness’ mercy.

Traitor Two: To which we all appeal.

Exeter and two others come behind them and yank them from their chairs, holding them
securely from behind, while the King paces in front of them. Record king saying this
separately, and splice in parts where we see them together.

King: You must not dare, for shame, talk of mercy! Pan to traitor’s faces, they flinch as
they hear is accusations What shall I say to thee, thou cruel, ingrateful, savage and
inhuman creatures? Thou that didst bear the key of all my counsels, that knewst the very
bottom of my soul! May it be possible that foreign hire could out of thee extract one
spark of evil? ‘Tis so strange- that though the truth of it stands off as gross as black and
 King Henry the Fifth
By William Shakespeare
white, my eye will scarcely see it. I will weep for thee…For this revolt of thine,
methinks, is like another fall of man.
He turns away, shaking his head in pain and anguish.

Exeter: stepping up to each traitor in turn, ripping off the gold necklace of each, slapping
the final traitor in the face. Saying to each: I arrest you of high treason.

King: God quit you in his mercy! Hear your sentence: You have conspired against our
royal person, joined with an enemy, and from his coffers received the golden earnest of
his death wherein you have sold your king to slaughter, his princes and peers to servitude
his subjects to oppression and contempt, and his whole kingdom into desolation! Get you
therefore hence to your death, the taste whereof God of his mercy give you patience to
endure. Bear them Hence.
Three traitors are taken away under guard. The king turns, looks off in the distance.

King: Now lords, cheerly to sea; the signs of war advance. No king of England, if not
king of France!
Act 2 Scene 1
The French Palace, enter French king, Dauphin, Dukes of Berri and Britaine

Fr. King: Thus comes the English with full power upon us, and more than carefully it us
concerns to answer royally in our defenses. You all shall make forth with swift dispatch
to line and new repair our towns of war.

Dauphin: My most redoubted father, it is most meet that we arm us ‘gainst the foe, but let
us do it with no show of fear. For she is so idly kinged by a vain, giddy, shallow,
humorous youth, that fear attends her not.

Berri: O peace, Prince Dauphin! You are too much mistaken in this king.

Britaine: Consider with what state he heard their embassy, how terrible in constant
resolution.

Dauphin: Well, ‘tis not so, my lord. But though we think it so, it is no matter.

Berri: No matter?

Dauphin: In cases of defense ‘tis best to weigh the enemy more mighty than he seems.

Fr King: Think we King Harry strong; and princes, look you strongly arm to meet him.
For he is bred out of that bloody strain that haunted us in our familiar paths; insert a
blurry view of a strong man fighting as he speaks witness to our too much memorable
shame, and all our princes captived by the hand of that black name, Edward, Black Prince
of Wales. This is a stem out of that victorious stock; and let us fear the native mightiness
and fate of him.
Enter a messenger
 King Henry the Fifth
By William Shakespeare
Messenger: Ambassadors from Harry King of England do crave admittance to your
majesty.

King: Go, and bring them in.

Messenger leaves

You see this chase is hotly followed, friends.

Dauphin: Take up the English short, let them know of what a monarchy you are the head.

Enter Exeter with train

Fr King: From our brother England?

Exeter: From him. And thus he greets your majesty. He wills you to divest yourself of
what belongs to him and his heirs- namely, the crown.

Fr. King: Or else what follows?

Exeter: Bloody constraint; for if you hide the crown, even in your hearts, there he will
rake for it. This is his claim, his threatening, and my message; Unless the Dauphin be in
presence here, to whom I expressly bring greeting too.

Fr. King: Tomorrow you shall know our full intent.

Dauphin: For the Dauphin, I stand here for him. What to him from England?

Exeter: Scorn and defiance, slight regard, contempt, and anything that may not
misbecome the mighty sender doth he prize you at.

Dauphin: I want nothing but odds with England. To that end, I did present him with the
Paris balls.

Exeter: He’ll make your Paris Louvre shake for it.

King: Tomorrow shall you know our minds in full.

Act 2 Scene 2
While chorus is speaking, we see the English in the canoe, and embarking on the French
shore. We see them moving through the countryside and attacking the French village,
Harfleur.
Chorus: Thus with imagined wing our swift scene flies, in motion no less than a thought.
Suppose you have seen the king and his brave fleet embark with silken streamers. Hear
the whistle shrill, behold the threaden sails borne on the invisible and creeping wind.
Behold this fleet majestical, holding due course to Harfleur. Show a siege scene at night,
 King Henry the Fifth
By William Shakespeare
with people running around with torches, cannon fire, flashes of explosions, confusion, as
Chorus reads the rest.
Work, work your thoughts, and therein see a siege.
Behold the ordinance on their carriages, with fatal mouths gaping on girded Harfleur.
Suppose the ambassador from the French comes back, show the king sitting on his
throne, with his messenger leaving with packets of paper in his hand, tells Harry that the
king doth offer him Katherine his daughter, cut to a shot of Katherine, with her maid
dressing her hair in front of a mirror and with her dowry some petty and unprofitable
dukedoms. The offer likes him not, and the nimble gunner now the devilish cannon
touches, and down go all before them.
Harry calls out, beckoning his men, they gather at the base of the wall.

King: Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, or close up the wall 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 a tiger;
stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide.
On, on you noblest England, for there is none of you so mean and base that hath not
noble luster 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!”
All repeat the battle cry, they charge with more explosions and confusion. After a while
of fighting, we hear a horn, and see a figure waving a white flag from the city wall. Harry
halts the fighting, and steps before the man on the wall.

King: How yet resolves the governor of the town? If I begin the battery once again, I
will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur till in her ashes she lies buried. Therefore, you
men of Harfleur, take pity of your town and of your people whiles yet my soldiers are in
my command. While the cool and temperate wind of peace O’erblows the filthy clouds
of heady murder! What say you? Will you yield and this avoid? Or, guilty in defense,
be thus destroyed?

Governor: The Dauphin’s powers are not yet ready to raise so great a siege. Therefore,
great king, we yield our town, for we no longer are defensible.

King: Come, Uncle Exeter, go you and enter. Use mercy to them all. For us, winter is
coming on, and sickness is growing upon our soldiers. Tonight in Harfleur we will be
your guest.
Exeter nods and escorts the king into the city.
Act 2 Scene 3
The French Palace
King: ‘Tis certain he hath passed the river Somme.
Dauphin: And if he be not fought withal, let us not live in France.
Brit: They bid us to the English dancing schools, saying our grace is only in our heels,
and that we are most lofty runaways.
 King Henry the Fifth
By William Shakespeare
King: Where is Montjoy the herald? Speed him hence. Let him greet England with our
sharp defiance. You dukes, great princes, lords and knights go down upon him- you have
power enough and in a captive chariot bring him our prisoner.

Brit: This becomes the great. Sorry I am his numbers are so few, his soldiers sick and
famished. I am sure, when he shall see our army, he shall offer us his ransom.

Act 2 Scene 4
The British camp, the soldiers are sick, bedraggled and dirty. The weather is rainy and
cold. Enter the King and Bedford, walking through groups of soldiers huddled around
fires.

King: How now, Bedford, Camest thou from the bridge?

Bedford: Ay, the duke of Exeter has gallantly maintained the bridge.

King: What men have you lost?

Bedford: The loss of the adversary hath been great. I think the duke hath never lost a
man but one, executed for robbing a church.

King: We would have all such offenders so cut off, for when lenity and cruelty play for a
kingdom, the gentler gamester is the soonest winner.

Enter Montjoy

Montjoy: You know me by my habit. Gestures to his clothing

King: Well then, I know thee. What shall I know of thee?

Montjoy: My master’s mind.

King: Unfold it.

Montjoy: Thus says my king: Say thou to Harry of England: Though we seemed dead,
we did but sleep. Now we speak, and our voice is imperial. England shall repent his
folly and consider his ransom.

King: What is thy name? I know thy quality.

Montjoy: Montjoy.

King : Thou dost thy office fairly. Turn thee back and tell thy king my ransom is this
frail and worthless trunk; my army but a weak and sickly guard. Yet, before God, we will
come on. There’s for thy labor, Montjoy. Throws him a purse
 King Henry the Fifth
By William Shakespeare
The sum of my answer is this: We would not seek a battle as we are, nor as we are, we
will not shun it.
Montjoy: I shall deliver so. Thanks to your Highness.
Exit Montjoy

Bedford: I hope they will not come upon us now.

King: We are in God’s hands, brother, not in theirs.

Act 2 Scene 5
The army camps near Agincourt. Dauphin, Berri, Britaine sit in their tent and polish
their armor. As Chorus speaks, we see scenes of French boasting, arming themselves,
playing at dice, eagerly awaiting the day.
Chorus: Now entertain conjecture of a time when from camp to camp the hum of either
army stilly sounds. That the fixed sentinels almost receive the secret whispers of each
other’s watch. Fire answers fire, and through their flames, each battle sees the other’s
umbered faces. Proud of their numbers, the confident and over lusty French play at dice.

Dauphin: I have the best armor in the world. Would it were day!

Berri: You have an excellent armor; but let my horse have his due.

Britaine: It is the best horse of Europe.

Dauphin: Will it never be day? I will trot tomorrow a mile, and my way shall be paved
with English faces. Exit Dauphin

Berri: ironically He’s a gallant prince.

Britaine: He never did harm that I heard of. Still with dry humor

Berri: Nor will he do none tomorrow.

Enter Montjoy

Montjoy: My lords, the English lie within fifteen hundred paces of your tents.

Britaine: Would it were day! Alas, poor Harry of England! He longs not for the
dawning as we do.

Berri: If the English had any apprehension, they would run away.

Britaine: Now is the time to arm. Come, shall we about it?

Berri: It is now two o’clock; but let me see- by ten we shall have each a hundred
Englishmen!
 King Henry the Fifth
By William Shakespeare

Act 3 Scene 1
On the English side, we see them quietly sitting by their fires, looking somber.

Chorus: The poor condemned English, like sacrifices, by their watchful fires sit patiently
and inly ruminate the morning’s danger. We now see Harry walking among his troops
stopping to pat a shoulder or give a quiet word here and there. O now, who will behold
the royal captain of this ruined band walking from watch to watch, tent to tent. Forth he
goes and visits all his host. Bids them good morrow with a modest smile and calls them
brothers, friends, countrymen. Thawing cold fear, that all behold, a little touch of Harry
in the night.

King: Good Morrow Sir Bedford, a good soft pillow for that good brave head were better
than a churlish turf of France.

Bedford: Not so, my liege. This lodging likes me better, since I may say “Now I lie like a
king”.

King: Good sir knight, lend me thy cloak.

Bedford: Shall I attend thy grace?

King: No, my good knight. I and my bosom must debate a while, and then I would no
other company.
Exit all but the king. The king comes upon a group of men by a fire and listens to them
speak.

Court: Is that the morning that breaks yonder?

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

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

Court: Who goes there?

King: A friend

Bates: Under what captain serve you?

King: The duke of Bedford.

Will: A good old commander. I pray you, what thinks he of our estate?
 King Henry the Fifth
By William Shakespeare
King: Even as men wracked upon a sand, that look to be washed off the next tide.

Bates: He hath not told his thought to the king?

King: No, nor is it meet he should. I think the king is but a man, as I am. When he sees
reason of fears, his fears be the same relish as ours.

Court: He may show what outward courage he will, but he is sure to be ransomed.

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

Court: Aye, he said so, but when our throats be cut, he may be ransomed, and we ne’er
the wiser.

King: If I live to see it, I would never trust his word again.

Court: You pay him then! You’ll never trust his word after, ‘tis a foolish saying!

King: Your reproof is something too round. I should be angry with you if time were
convenient.

Court: Let it be a quarrel between us if you live.

King: I embrace it! Court takes off his glove and smacks the king with it, they exit,
leaving the king alone again. He kneels, as if in prayer.

King: Upon the king! Their lives, wives, souls, lay on the king! We must bear all. O
hard condition! O God of battles, steel my soldier’s hearts, possess them not with fear.
Take from them now their sense of reckoning, if the opposed numbers pluck their hearts
from them.

Soldier: My liege!

King: My brother’s voice. To the soldier I will go with thee. The day, my friends, all
things stay for me.

Act 3 Scene 2
The French camp. Dauphin, Berri, Britaine are armed with other French soldiers
around them

Enter Montjoy
Montjoy: The English are arrayed for battle, you French peers!

Berri: Behold yond poor starved band.

 King Henry the Fifth
By William Shakespeare
Dauphin: What’s to say? There is not work enough for all our hands. A very little let us
do. Let the trumpets sound; that all England shall crouch down in fear and yield.

Montjoy: Why do you stay so long, my lords of France?

Dauphin: To the field! Come, come away!

Act 2 Scene 3

All the English are on the field, prepared for battle. They are in the attitude of waiting
nervously.

Bedford: Where’s the king?

Exeter: The king himself is rode to view their battle.

Bedford: Of fighting men they have full three-score thousand.

Exeter: That’s five to one; besides, they all are fresh.

Enter king

Bedford: O that we now had here but one ten thousand of those men in England that do
no work today!

King: What’s he that wishes so? No, my fair cousin, if we are marked to die, we are
enough to do our country loss; and if to live, the fewer men, the greater share of honor. I
pray thee, wish not one man more. Rather, proclaim it through my host, that he which
hath no stomach for this fight let him depart. His passport shall be made, and crowns for
convoy put into his purse. We would not die in that man’s fellowship that fears his
fellowship to die with us. This day is called the Feast of Crispian. He that outlives this
day, and comes safe home, will stand a-tiptoe when this 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 neighbors and say “tomorrow 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; yet
all shall be forgot but he’ll remember, with advantages, what feats he did that day. 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. And gentlemen in England now abed 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.

They all kneel in prayer

Enter a Soldier
 King Henry the Fifth
By William Shakespeare
Soldier: My sovereign lord, bestow yourself with speed. The French are set, and will
with all expedience charge on us.

King: All things are ready if our minds be so. You know your places. God be with you
all!

Enter Montjoy

Montjoy: Once more I come to know of thee, King Harry, if thou wilt be ransomed.

King: Who hath sent thee now?

Montjoy: My lord, the Dauphin.

King: I pray thee, send my former answer back. Bid them achieve me, and sell my
bones. Why should they mock poor fellows thus? Let me speak proudly, we are but
warriors for the working day, but by the mass, our hearts are in the trim. Come thou no
more for ransom, gentle herald, they shall have none, I swear, but these my joints!

Montjoy: I shall, King Harry. And so fare thee well. Thou shalt never hear herald any
more.

Enter York

York: My lord, most humbly on my knee I beg the leading of the vanguard.

King: Take it, brave York.

They all wait, tense. We see the innumerable French coming on them, and they feel the
ground shake. They look at each other in fear, turning to determination. The king holds
aloft his sword, then calls the charge. York leads, then the others follow. Pitched battle
ensues. York is surrounded by French soldiers and killed.

Act 3 Scene 4
We see the Dauphin, Berri and Britaine lying in a crumpled heap, dirty, and panting for
breath.

Dauphin: The day is lost, all is lost.

Berri: All our ranks are broke.

Britaine: Is this the king we sent to for his ransom?

Dauphin: Shame, and eternal shame, nothing but shame!

 King Henry the Fifth
By William Shakespeare
Berri: We are enough yet living in the field to smother up the English if any order might
be thought upon.

Dauphin: I’ll to the throng. Let life be short; else shame will be too long

Act 3 Scene 5

Amidst the noise and clamor of battle, we hear the screams and cries of little boys. All of
the English fighting look up at the sound, and run to the scene. There they find all the
boys in the luggage killed by the French

Enter English soldiers, and the King

Exeter: Kill the boys and the luggage? ‘Tis expressly against the law of arms!

Bedford: ‘Tis certain, there’s not a boy left alive.

Enter Montjoy, the king grabs Montjoy and yells at him

King: I was not angry since I came to France! Comest thou again for ransom?

Montjoy: No, great king, o give us leave to view the field in safety, to book our dead and
bury them.

King: I tell thee truly Herald, I know not if the day be ours or no.

Montjoy: The day is yours.

King: Praised be to God and not our strength for it! What is that castle that stands hard
by?

Montjoy: The call it Agincourt.

King: Then we call this the field of Agincourt, fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus.

The king is helping to bury the dead when a messenger comes, and directing his men. The
king walks by Court, who bows respectfully. The king hands him his glove, which he
takes automatically, with thanks, after the king is away, he looks at it in shock. A
messenger approaches bearing parchment rolls.

King: Now herald, how are the dead numbered?

Messenger: Here is the number or the slaughtered French.

He hands him a note.
 King Henry the Fifth
By William Shakespeare
King: This note doth tell me of ten thousand French that lie in the field slain. Five
hundred of which were but yesterday dubbed knights. Here was a royal fellowship of
death!
What is the number of the English slain?
He receives another note.

Edward Duke of York, the Earl of Suffolk, None else of name and of all others but five
and twenty!

Exeter: ‘Tis wonderful!

King: Come, go we in procession to the village, and be it death proclaimed through our
host to boast of this.

Exeter: Is it not lawful to tell how many is killed?

King: Yes, but with this acknowledgment, that God fought for us. Do we all holy rites,
let there be sung “Non nobis” and “Te Deum”. The dead with charity enclosed in clay,
and to England then, where ne’er from France arrived such happy men.

We see someone begin to sing non nobis, and the music from the soundtrack picks up. We
see everyone leaving the field of battle, muddy, exhausted, checking on the dead, and
digging with shovels.

Act 4 Scene 1
The French palace. Enter King Henry, Exeter, Bedford and other lords from one door,
French king, princess Katherine, Alice, Dauphin, Berri, and other French lords from
another.

King Henry: Peace to this meeting, unto our brother France and cousin Katherine, health
to you all.

French King: Brother England, English princes all, I do salute you.

Berri: We are assembled, and my speech entreats that I may know why gentle peace
should not bless us.

King Henry: You must buy that peace with full accord to our just demands.
Harry gestures to a pile of papers on the table in front of the French King
French King: Pleaseth your grace, we will go and resurvey them and pass our answer.
They gather the papers and all prepare to leave.

King Henry: Yet leave our cousin Katherine here with us. She is our capital demand.

French King: She hath good leave.

Exit all but King Henry, Katherine and Alice
 King Henry the Fifth
By William Shakespeare

King Henry: Fair Katherine, and most fair! Will you teach a soldier terms such as will
plead his love suit to her heart?

Katherine: Your majesty shall mock at me. I cannot speak your England.
He sighs exasperatedly

King Henry: Do you like me, Kate?

Katherine: Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell what is like me.

King: grabbing his hair in frustration, and again gathering himself together. An angel is
like you Kate, you are like an angel.
She turns and has a whispered conversation with Alice. Henry leans in to listen.
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 Princesse.

King: My wooing is fit for thy understanding. Give me your answer, and so clap hands
and a bargain, How say you, lady?

She stiffens, not impressed

Kate: Me understand well.

King: If you would put me to verses, or to dance for your sake, why, you undid me. If I
could win a lady at leapfrog, or by vaulting on my saddle with armor on my back, I
should quickly leap into a wife. I speak to thee plain soldier. If thou canst love me for
this, take me. And take me, take a soldier, take a soldier, take a king. And what sayest
thou my love?

Kate: Is it possible that I should love the enemy on France?

King: No, it is not possible that you should love the enemy of France. In loving me, you
should love the friend of France. For I love France so well I will not part with a village
of it. Cans’t thou love me?

Kate: I cannot tell.

King: Can any of your neighbors tell, Kate? I’ll ask them. Wilt thou have me?

Kate: Dat is as it shall please my father.

King: It will please him well, it shall please him.

Kate: Den it shall also content me.

 King Henry the Fifth
By William Shakespeare
King: Upon this, I kiss your hand, and call you my queen.
He moves to kiss her hand and French and English lords enter. As they enter, the king
and Kate quickly move away from each other.

King: Here comes your father.

French King: We have consented to all terms of reason.

Henry: Shall Kate be my wife?

French King: Take her, fair son, and from her blood raise up issue to me. Plant
neighborhood and Christian-like accord, that never war advance his bleeding sword
‘twixt England and fair France.

All: Amen

Chorus: Thus far, our bending author hath pursued the story, in little room confining
mighty men, mangling by starts their full 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. For their sake, in your fair minds
let this acceptance take.