William Shakespeare: The Life of King Henry V

ACT THIRD. 6. SCENE VI. The English camp in Picardy. (continued)

PISTOL.
Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him;
For he hath stolen a pax, and hanged must 'a be,--
A damned death!
Let gallows gape for dog; let man go free,
And let not hemp his windpipe suffocate.
But Exeter hath given the doom of death
For pax of little price.
Therefore, go speak; the Duke will hear thy voice;
And let not Bardolph's vital thread be cut
With edge of penny cord and vile reproach.

Speak, captain, for his life, and I will thee requite.

FLUELLEN.
Aunchient Pistol, I do partly understand your meaning.

PISTOL.
Why then, rejoice therefore.

FLUELLEN.
Certainly, aunchient, it is not a thing to rejoice at; for if,
look you, he were my brother, I would desire the Duke
to use his good pleasure, and put him to execution; for
discipline ought to be used.

PISTOL.
Die and be damn'd! and figo for thy friendship!

FLUELLEN.
It is well.

PISTOL.
The fig of Spain.

[Exit.]

FLUELLEN.
Very good.

GOWER.
Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal. I remember
him now; a bawd, a cutpurse.

FLUELLEN.
I'll assure you, 'a uttered as prave words at the pridge as you
shall see in a summer's day. But it is very well; what he has
spoke to me, that is well, I warrant you, when time is serve.

GOWER.
Why, 't is a gull, a fool, a rogue, that now and then goes to
the wars, to grace himself at his return into London under the
form of a soldier. And such fellows are perfect in the great
commanders' names; and they will learn you by rote where services
were done; at such and such a sconce, at such a breach, at such a
convoy; who came off bravely, who was shot, who disgrac'd, what
terms the enemy stood on; and this they con perfectly in the
phrase of war, which they trick up with new-tuned oaths: and what
a beard of the general's cut and a horrid suit of the camp will
do among foaming bottles and ale-wash'd wits, is wonderful to be
thought on. But you must learn to know such slanders of the age,
or else you may be marvellously mistook.