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Home  »  The Oxford Shakespeare  »  The Life of King Henry the Fifth

William Shakespeare (1564–1616). The Oxford Shakespeare. 1914.

Act IV. Scene V.

The Life of King Henry the Fifth

Another Part of the Field.

Alarums.Enter DAUPHIN, ORLEANS, BOURBON, CONSTABLE, RAMBURES, and Others.

Con.O diable!

Orl.O seigneur! le jour est perdu! tout est perdu!

Dau.Mort de ma vie! all is confounded, all!

Reproach and everlasting shame

Sit mocking in our plumes. O meschante fortune!

Do not run away.[A short alarum.

Con.Why, all our ranks are broke.

Dau.O perdurable shame! let’s stab ourselves.

Be these the wretches that we play’d at dice for?

Orl.Is this the king we sent to for his ransom?

Bour.Shame, and eternal shame, nothing but shame!

Let’s die in honour! once more back again;

And he that will not follow Bourbon now,

Let him go hence, and with his cap in hand,

Like a base pander, hold the chamber-door

Whilst by a slave, no gentler than my dog,

His fairest daughter is contaminated.

Con.Disorder, that hath spoil’d us, friend us now!

Let us on heaps go offer up our lives.

Orl.We are enough yet living in the field

To smother up the English in our throngs,

If any order might be thought upon.

Bour.The devil take order now! I’ll to the throng:

Let life be short, else shame will be too long.[Exeunt.