Alarum. Enter King Henry, Exeter, Bedford, Gloucester, and Soldiers, with scaling-ladders.[4849]
K. Hen. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;[4850][4851]
Or close the wall up with our English dead.[4851]
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,5
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,[4852]
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let it pry through the portage of the head10
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it[4853]
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,[4854]
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,[4855]15
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English,[4856]
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof![4857]
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from morn till even fought20
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,[4858]
And teach them how to war. And you, good yeomen,25
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear[4859]
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.30
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:[4860]
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'
[Exeunt. Alarum, and chambers go off.[4861]
Scene II. The same.
Enter Nym, Bardolph, Pistol, and Boy.[4862]
Bard. On, on, on, on, on! to the breach, to the breach!
Nym. Pray thee, corporal, stay: the knocks are too[4863]
hot; and, for mine own part, I have not a case of lives: the
humour of it is too hot, that is the very plain-song of it.
Pist. The plain-song is most just; for humours do5
abound:[4864]
Knocks go and come; God's vassals drop and die;[4865]
And sword and shield,[4865]
In bloody field,[4865]
Doth win immortal fame.[4865][4866]