Showing posts with label Fear. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fear. Show all posts

Wednesday 24 February 2021

Can't Get You Out Of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World

"What Happens to People when they are acted-upon by Powerful Ideas from Outside Them?"

AND...

"What Then Happens to Those Powerful Ideas, when They get inside Those People's Heads..?"
 

Adam Curtis interviewed by Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode

Simon Mayo & Mark Kermode talk to director Adam Curtis about his new series of documentary films,
 Can't Get You Out Of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World.



"What Happens to People when they are acted-upon by Powerful Ideas from Outside Them?"

A : “I Have a Bad Feeling About This...”

AND...

"What Then Happens to Those Powerful Ideas, when They get inside Those People's Heads..?"

A : The Force Awakens.

Saturday 20 June 2020

Not Exactly a Love Song, Spock....

Star Trek Into Darkness - Uhura and Spock Argue HD]


SPOCK: 
We will arrive at Harrison's location in three minutes.

Captain. it is unlikely that he will come willingly. 

I calculate the odds of him attempting to kill us at 91 .6%.


KIRK: 
Fantastic.


UHURA: 
Good thing you don't care about dying.


SPOCK: 
I am sorry, Lieutenant. 
I could not hear what you said.


UHURA: 
Oh, I didn't say anything. 

Actually, I'd be happy to speak if you're willing to listen to me.


KIRK: 
Guys.

SPOCK: 
Lieutenant, I would prefer to discuss this in private.

UHURA: 
You'd prefer not to discuss this at all, that's —

SPOCK: 
Our current circumstances...

KIRK: 
Are you, are you really gonna do this right now?

UHURA: 
What never seems to require your undivided focus. 

I'm sorry, Captain, just two seconds. Okay, its us. 


At that volcano, you didn't give a thought to us. 

What it would do to me if you died, Spock. 

You didn't feel anything. 

You didn't care. 

And I'm not the only one who's upset with you. 

The Captain is too.


KIRK: 
No. No, no...,

Don't drag •me• into this....

She •is• right, though.


SPOCK: 
Your suggestion that I do not care about dying is incorrect. 

A sentient being's optimal chance at maximising their utility is a long and prosperous life.

UHURA: 
Great.

KIRK: 
Not exactly a love song, Spock.

SPOCK: 
You misunderstand. 

It is True, I chose not to feel anything upon realising that my own life was ending. 

As Admiral Pike was dying, I joined with his consciousness and experienced what he felt at the moment of his passing. 

Anger. Confusion. 
Loneliness. Fear. 

I had experienced those feelings before, multiplied exponentially on the day my planet was destroyed. 

Such a feeling is something I choose never to experience again. 

Nyota, you mistake my choice •not• to feel as a reflection of my not caring. 

Well, I assure you, 
The Truth is precisely The Opposite.




Friday 15 March 2019

The Power of Fear




Falcone :
You're taller than you look in the tabloids, Mr. Wayne.
No gun? l'm insulted.

You could've just sent a thank-you note.

Millionaire Playboy Bruce Wayne : I didn't come here to thank you.
l came to show you that not everyone in Gotham's afraid of you.
 
Falcone :
Only those who know me, kid.
Look around you.
You'll see two councilmen, a union official,couple off-duty cops... and a judge.



l wouldn't have a second's hesitation of blowing your head off in front of them.



Now, that's power you can't buy.
That's The Power of Fear.



Millionaire Playboy Bruce Wayne :
I'm not afraid of you.
 

Falcone :
Because you think you got nothing to lose.

[ Because he Does Not KNOW Any Better... ]

But you haven't thought it through.


You haven't thought about your lady friend in the DA's office.
 

You haven't thought about your Old Butler. 
Bang!

People from Your World have so much to lose.


Now, you think because your mommy and your daddy got shot, you know about The Ugly Side of Life, but you don't
.

You've never tasted desperate.

You're... You're Bruce Wayne,
The Prince of Gotham.

You'd have to go 1000 miles to meet someone who didn't know your name.
So don't come here with your anger, trying to prove something to yourself.
This is a World you'll never understand.
And you always fear...

....what you don't understand.


All right.
Yeah, you got spirit, kid.
l'll give you that.

More than your old man anyway.

In the joint, Chill told me about the night he killed your parents.




He said your father begged for mercy.

Begged.

[ Like a typical Liberal, he most certainly did do that, yes — but what Joe Chill was incapable of comprehending is that Thomas Wayne was not (or rather, not only) pleading for Mercy on behalf of himself  (and his wife, and only son) — but also, for Mercy for  his own murderer... ] 



POWER


HABRIS: 
Lord Aukon himself is here.

(Aukon enters and inspects the line.)

AUKON: 
Interesting -

(He goes back to Adric.)

Lord AUKON : 
A mind that shields itself.
 One who pretends to be a dull and stupid peasant, 
but who is different.
ADRIC: 
Who, me?

Lord AUKON : 

You. 

You. 

Come with me.

ADRIC: 
Why?

Lord AUKON : 
Spirit too, I see. 
Excellent.

ADRIC: 
Come with you? 

What's in it for me?

Lord AUKON: 
Wealth.

Power.

Dominion over This World.... 

....and over Many Others. 





EXT. BALCONY - GOETH'S VILLA - NIGHT
 Distant music, Brahms' lullaby, from the Rosner Brothers way down by the women's barracks calming the inhabitants. Up here on the balcony, Schindler and Goeth, the latter so drunk he can barely stand up, stare out over Goeth's dark kingdom.


 SCHINDLER 

They don't fear us because we have the power to kill, they fear us because we have the power to kill arbitrarily. 




A man commits a crime, he should know better.



We have him killed, we feel pretty good about it.



Or we kill him ourselves and we feel even better. 

 
That's not Power, though, that's Justice. 


That's different than Power. 

 
Power is when we have every justification to kill -- and we don't. 


That's Power.



That's what The Emperors had. 

A man stole something, he's brought in before the emperor, he throws himself down on the floor, he begs for mercy, he knows he's going to die... 






And The Emperor pardons him. 

This worthless man. 

He lets him go. 




That's Power. 

That's Power.
 It seems almost as though this temptation toward restraint, this image Schindler has brush-stroked of the merciful emperor, holds some appeal to Goeth. 


Perhaps, as he stares out over his camp, he imagines himself in the role, wondering what the power Schindler describes might feel like.

 Eventually, he glances over drunkenly, and almost smiles.


 SCHINDLER 

Amon the Good.

 EXT. STABLES - PLASZOW - DAY

 A stable boy works to ready Goeth's horse before he arrives.

 He sticks a bridle into its mouth, throws a riding blanket onto its back, drags out the saddle Schindler bought Goeth.

 Before he can finish, though, Goeth is there. The boy tries to hide his panic; he knows others have been shot for less.
 STABLE BOY 

I'm sorry, sir, I'm almost done.

 GOETH 

Oh, that's all right.

 As Goeth waits, patiently it seems, whistling to himself, the stable boy tries to mask his confusion.

 EXT. PLASZOW - DAY

 Goeth gallops around his great domain holding himself high in the saddle. But everywhere he looks, it seems, he's confronted with stoop-shouldered sloth. He forces himself to smile benevolently.

 INT. GOETH'S VILLA - DAY

 Goeth comes into his bedroom sweating from his ride. A worker with a pail and cloth appears in the bathroom doorway.

 MORE TO THE FLOOR --

 WORKER 

I have to report, sir, I've been unable to remove the stains from your bathtub.

 Goeth steps past him to take a look. The worker is almost shaking, he's so terrified of the violent reprisal he expects to receive.

 GOETH 

What are you using?

 WORKER 

Soap, sir.

 GOETH 

(incredulous) 
Soap? Not lye?

 The worker hasn't a defense for himself. 


Goeth's hand drifts down as if by instinct to the gun in his holster. 

He stares at the worker. 

He so wants to shoot him he can hardly stand it, right here, right in the bathroom, put some more stains on the porcelain. 

He takes a deep breath to calm himself.

 Then gestures grandly.

 
 GOETH 
Go ahead, go on, leave. 

I pardon you.
 The worker hurries out with his pail and cloth. Goeth just stands there for several moments -- trying to feel the power of emperors he's supposed to be feeling. 


But he doesn't feel it. 

All he feels is stupid.

 EXT. GOETH'S VILLA - MOMENTS LATER - DAY


 The worker hurries across the dying lawn outside the villa.

 He dares a glance back, and at that moment, a hand with a gun appears out the bathroom window and fires.





(Habris enters.)

HABRIS: 
My Lord, it is time.

ZARGO: 
How dare you interrupt us!

HABRIS: 
Aukon has seen The Sign. 
The Arising is at hand.

CAMILLA: 
The Arising? Leave us.

(Habris leaves.)

ZARGO: 
We must go to him.

CAMILLA: 
We shall resume this later. 
If you need anything, there are guards outside the door. 

Many guards.








The Great 1 :
You took the one, last 
PERFECT Crystal of POWER. 

I searched all Time, and all Space for it....!!!

I MUST have it! 

The Established Dandy : 
No! No, never. 

GREAT ONE [OC]: 
You are PROUD, Little Man. 

I see that I shall have to teach you to have respect! 

Round you go, Doctor. 

DOCTOR: 
No. No! 
No, I will not! 

(Against his will, the Doctor turns left, stepping high, as the Great One laughs.) 

DOCTOR: 
No! No, I will not! No! 
(The Doctor has turned right round and back to where he started.) 


GREAT ONE [OC]: 
Is that FEAR I can feel in your mind...? 

You are not ACCUSTOMED to feeling FRIGHTENED, are you, Doctor? 

You are very WISE to be afraid of ME...!!!. 

Go now. You must hurry back and fetch the crystal. 

I MUST have it, don't you understand? 

I must have it! I must! 
I must! I must! 

Go now. Go! 
Go! Go NOW! 






K'ANPO: 
We are all apt to surrender ourselves to domination. 
Even the strongest of us. 

DOCTOR: 
...Do you mean me? 

K'ANPO: 
Not all spiders sit on the back. 

SARAH: 
Oh, I don't understand. You're not saying they've taken over The Doctor, are you? 

DOCTOR: 
Oh no, Sarah, no. 
No, he's talking about my GREED. 

SARAH: 
Greed? You? 

DOCTOR: 
Yes, my Greed for KNOWLEDGE , for INFORMATION. 

He's saying that all this is basically My Fault. 

If I hadn't taken the crystal in the first place.....

I know who you are now!

K'ANPO: 
You were always a little slow on the uptake, my boy. 


GREAT ONE [OC]: 
Stop! Have you brought the crystal to me? 
DOCTOR: 
Well if I had not, why should I have returned? 
GREAT ONE [OC]: 
Very well. Very well, advance. 
(The Doctor walks around a corner and sees the universes biggest spider.) 

DOCTOR: 
I've brought you the crystal. 
Now why don't you just take it and leave the humans in peace, both here and on Earth? 

GREAT ONE: 
You think I care for the puny plans of my subjects? Earth? 

One paltry planet among millions? 
Give me the crystal. 
I thirst for it! 
I ache for it! 

DOCTOR: 
Well, why is it so important to you? 

GREAT ONE: 
You see this web of crystal above my head? 
It reproduces the pattern of my brain. 
One perfect crystal and it will be complete. 
That is the perfect crystal I need. 

DOCTOR: 
And then? 

GREAT ONE: 
My every thought will resonate within the web, and grow in power until, until, until....!!!

DOCTOR: 
But you've built a positive feedback circuit. You're trying to increase your mental powers to infinity. 

GREAT ONE: 
Exactly! 
I shall be the ruler of the entire universe! 

DOCTOR: 
Now listen to me. Listen. 
I haven't got much time left. 

What you're trying to do is impossible. 

If you complete that circuit, the energy will build up and up until it cannot be contained. 
You will destroy yourself. 

GREAT ONE:
 You waste the little time remaining to you. 
Even now the cave of crystal is destroying the cells of your body. 
I will grant you one last favour. 

You may watch the completion of my triumph before you die! 

(The crystal flies out of the Doctor's hand and becomes the keystone of the web lattice.) 

GREAT ONE: 
I am complete! 
Now I am total power! 
All praise to the Great One! 

DOCTOR: 
Stop. Stop! 
Don't you see what's happened to you? 

GREAT ONE: 
All praise to the Great One! 
All praise to me! Bow down before me, planets! 
Bow down, stars! 
Bow down, all galaxies and worship the Great One! 
The me! The Great, all-powerful me! 

Argh! 

(The giant spider starts to glow red.) 

GREAT ONE: 
I hurt! Help me! 
I am burning! My brain is on fire! 

(The Doctor runs out of the cave.) 

GREAT ONE: 
Help me!




DOCTOR: 
Compressed information, streaming into her. Reports from every city, every country, every planet, and they all get packaged inside her head. She becomes part of the software. Her brain is the computer. 

ROSE:
 If it all goes through her, she must be a genius. 
DOCTOR: 
Nah, she wouldn't remember any of it. There's too much. Her head'd blow up. 
The brain's the processor. As soon as it closes, she forgets. 

ROSE: 
So, what about all these people round the edge? 

DOCTOR: 
They've all got tiny little chips in their head, connecting them to her and they transmit six hundred channels. 
Every single fact in the Empire beams out of this place. 
Now that's what I call power. 




EDITOR: 
I started without you. 
This is fascinating. 
Satellite Five contains every piece of information within the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. 
Birth certificates, shopping habits, bank statements, but you two, you don't exist. 
Not a trace. No birth, no job, not the slightest kiss. 
How can you walk through the world and not leave a single footprint? 

ROSE: 
Suki. Suki! Hello? 
Can you hear me? Suki? 
What have you done to her? 

DOCTOR: 
I think she's dead. 

ROSE: 
She's working. 

DOCTOR: 
They've all got chips in their head, and the chips keep going, like puppets. 

EDITOR: 
Oh! You're full of information. But it's only fair we get some information back, because apparently, you're no one. It's so rare not to know something. Who are you? 

DOCTOR: 
It doesn't matter, because we're off. 
Nice to meet you. Come on. 

(Suki grabs Rose's arm. Two other zombies grab the Doctor.) 

EDITOR: Tell me who you are. 

DOCTOR: Since that information's keeping us alive, I'm hardly going to say, am I. 

EDITOR: Well, perhaps my Editor in Chief can convince you otherwise. 

DOCTOR: And who's that? 

EDITOR: 
It may interest you to know that this is not the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. In fact, it's not actually human at all. It's merely a place where humans happen to live. 

(Growl, snarl.) 

EDITOR: 
Yeah. Yeah, sorry. It's a place where humans are allowed to live by kind permission of my client. 
(Who we finally see is a giant lump hanging from the ceiling, with a very nasty set of teeth in a mouth on the end of a pseudopod.) 
ROSE: What is that? 
DOCTOR: You mean that thing's in charge of Satellite Five? 
EDITOR: That thing, as you put it, is in charge of the human race. For almost a hundred years, mankind has been shaped and guided, his knowledge and ambition strictly controlled by it's broadcast news, edited by my superior, your master, and humanity's guiding light, the mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe. I call him Max. 
(Down on Floor 139 Adam avoids Cathica as she goes to take another look at the schematic that the Doctor called up. Then she goes to the lift and punches in the code for Floor 500. 
Meanwhile, the Doctor and Rose have been placed in hefty sets of manacles.) 
EDITOR: Create a climate of fear and it's easy to keep the borders closed. It's just a matter of emphasis. The right word in the right broadcast repeated often enough can destabilise an economy, invent an enemy, change a vote. 
ROSE: So all the people on Earth are like, slaves. 
EDITOR: Well, now, there's an interesting point. Is a slave a slave if he doesn't know he's enslaved? 
DOCTOR: Yes. 
EDITOR: Oh. I was hoping for a philosophical debate. Is that all I'm going to get? Yes? 
DOCTOR: Yes. 
EDITOR: You're no fun. 
DOCTOR: Let me out of these manacles. You'll find out how much fun I am. 
EDITOR: Oh, he's tough, isn't he. But, come on. Isn't it a great system? You've got to admire it, just a little bit. 
ROSE: You can't hide something on this scale. Somebody must have noticed. 
EDITOR: From time to time, someone, yes, but the computer chip system allows me to see inside their brains. I can see the smallest doubt and crush it. 
(Cathica arrives on Floor 500. Adam goes to the broadcast room on 139.) 
EDITOR: Then they just carry on, living the life, strutting about downstairs and all over the surface of the Earth like they're so individual, when of course, they're not. They're just cattle. In that respect, the Jagrafess hasn't changed a thing. 
(The Doctor and Rose spot Cathica behind the Editor's back.) 
ROSE: What about you? You're not a Jagrabelly 
DOCTOR: Jagrafess. 
ROSE: Jagrafess. You're not a Jagrafess. You're human. 
EDITOR: Yeah, well, simply being human doesn't pay very well. 
ROSE: But you couldn't have done this all on your own. 
EDITOR: No. I represent a consortium of banks. Money prefers a long-term investment. Also, the Jagrafess needed a little hand to install himself. 
DOCTOR: No wonder, a creature that size. What's his life span? 
EDITOR: Three thousand years. 
DOCTOR: That's one hell of a metabolism generating all that heat. That's why Satellite Five's so hot. You pump it out of the creature, channel it downstairs. Jagrafess stays cool, it stays alive. Satellite Five is one great big life support system.

[Adam's home]

(Adam settles in the broadcast chair and opens his portal, then phones home.) 
ADAM [OC]: It's me again. Don't wipe this message. It's just going to sound like white noise, but save it because I can

[Newsroom]

ADAM: Translate it, okay? Three, two, one and spike. 
(Information beams into Adam.)

[Floor 500]

EDITOR: But that's why you're so dangerous. Knowledge is power, but you remain unknown. Who are you? 
(The Editor snaps his fingers and energy surges through the manacles. Back in the now, the little dog watches energy encircling the telephone answering machine.) 
DOCTOR: Leave her alone. I'm the Doctor, she's Rose Tyler. We're nothing, we're just wandering. 
EDITOR: Tell me who you are! 
DOCTOR: I just said! 
EDITOR: Yes, but who do you work for? Who sent you? Who knows about us? Who exactly 
(He stops. The Jagrafess growls.) 
EDITOR: Time Lord. 
DOCTOR: What? 
EDITOR: Oh, yes. The last of the Time Lords in his travelling machine. Oh, with his little human girl from long ago 
DOCTOR: You don't know what you're talking about. 
EDITOR: Time travel.

[Newsroom]

(Adam screams as information is sucked out of his brain.) 
ADAM: Help!

[Floor 500]

DOCTOR: Someone's been telling you lies. 
EDITOR: Young master Adam Mitchell? 
(The Editor calls up the holo-monitor showing Adam in the broadcast chair.) 
ROSE: Oh, my God. His head! 
DOCTOR: What the hell's he done? What the hell's he gone and done? They're reading his mind. He's telling them everything. 
EDITOR: And through him, I know everything about you. Every piece of information in his head is now mine. And you have infinite knowledge, Doctor. The Human Empire is tiny compared to what you've seen in your T A R D I S. Tardis. 
DOCTOR: Well, you'll never get your hands on it. I'll die first. 
EDITOR: Die all you like. I don't need you. I've got the key. 
(The Tardis key rises from Adam's pocket.) 
DOCTOR: You and your boyfriends! 
EDITOR: Today, we are the headlines. We can rewrite history. We could prevent mankind from ever developing. 
DOCTOR: And no one's going to stop you because you've bred a human race that doesn't bother to ask questions. Stupid little slaves, believing every lie. They'll just trot right into the slaughter house if they're told it's made of gold. 
(The Jagrafess snarls, and Cathica leaves.)

Friday 1 March 2019

Y Ddraig Goch















The Lord in heaven bless thee, noble Harry!
     



    Exeunt all but KING HENRY

KING HENRY V

    God-a-mercy, old heart! thou speak'st cheerfully.

    Enter PISTOL

PISTOL

    Qui va la?

KING HENRY V

    A friend.

PISTOL

    Discuss unto me; art thou officer?
    Or art thou base, common and popular?

KING HENRY V

    I am a gentleman of a company.

PISTOL

    Trail'st thou the puissant pike?

KING HENRY V

    Even so. What are you?

PISTOL

    As good a gentleman as the emperor.

KING HENRY V

    Then you are a better than the king.

PISTOL

    The king's a bawcock, and a heart of gold,
    A lad of life, an imp of fame;
    Of parents good, of fist most valiant.
    I kiss his dirty shoe, and from heart-string
    I love the lovely bully. What is thy name?

KING HENRY V

    Harry le Roy.

PISTOL

    Le Roy! a Cornish name: art thou of Cornish crew?

KING HENRY V

    No, I am a Welshman.

PISTOL

    Know'st thou Fluellen?

KING HENRY V

    Yes.

PISTOL

    Tell him, I'll knock his leek about his pate
    Upon Saint Davy's day.

KING HENRY V

    Do not you wear your dagger in your cap that day,
    lest he knock that about yours.

PISTOL

    Art thou his friend?

KING HENRY V

    And his kinsman too.

PISTOL

    The figo for thee, then!

KING HENRY V

    I thank you: God be with you!

PISTOL

    My name is Pistol call'd.

    Exit

KING HENRY V

    It sorts well with your fierceness.

    Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER

GOWER

    Captain Fluellen!

FLUELLEN

    So! in the name of Jesu Christ, speak lower. It is
    the greatest admiration of the universal world, when
    the true and aunchient prerogatifes and laws of the
    wars is not kept: if you would take the pains but to
    examine the wars of Pompey the Great, you shall
    find, I warrant you, that there is no tiddle toddle
    nor pibble pabble in Pompey's camp; I warrant you,
    you shall find the ceremonies of the wars, and the
    cares of it, and the forms of it, and the sobriety
    of it, and the modesty of it, to be otherwise.

GOWER

    Why, the enemy is loud; you hear him all night.

FLUELLEN

    If the enemy is an ass and a fool and a prating
    coxcomb, is it meet, think you, that we should also,
    look you, be an ass and a fool and a prating
    coxcomb? in your own conscience, now?

GOWER

    I will speak lower.

FLUELLEN

    I pray you and beseech you that you will.

    Exeunt GOWER and FLUELLEN

KING HENRY V

    Though it appear a little out of fashion,
    There is much care and valour in this Welshman.

    Enter three soldiers, JOHN BATES, ALEXANDER COURT, and MICHAEL WILLIAMS

COURT

    Brother John Bates, is not that the morning which
    breaks yonder?

BATES

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

WILLIAMS

    We see yonder the beginning of the day, but I think
    we shall never see the end of it. Who goes there?

KING HENRY V

    A friend.

WILLIAMS

    Under what captain serve you?

KING HENRY V

    Under Sir Thomas Erpingham.

WILLIAMS

    A good old commander and a most kind gentleman: I
    pray you, what thinks he of our estate?

KING HENRY V

    Even as men wrecked upon a sand, that look to be
    washed off the next tide.

BATES

    He hath not told his thought to the king?

KING HENRY V

    No; nor it is not meet he should. For, though I
    speak it to you, I think the king is but a man, as I
    am: the violet smells to him as it doth to me: the
    element shows to him as it doth to me; all his
    senses have but human conditions: his ceremonies
    laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man; and
    though his affections are higher mounted than ours,
    yet, when they stoop, they stoop with the like
    wing. Therefore when he sees reason of fears, as we
    do, his fears, out of doubt, be of the same relish
    as ours are: yet, in reason, no man should possess
    him with any appearance of fear, lest he, by showing
    it, should dishearten his army.

BATES

    He may show what outward courage he will; but I
    believe, as cold a night as 'tis, he could wish
    himself in Thames up to the neck; and so I would he
    were, and I by him, at all adventures, so we were quit here.

KING HENRY V

    By my troth, I will speak my conscience of the king:
    I think he would not wish himself any where but
    where he is.

BATES

    Then I would he were here alone; so should he be
    sure to be ransomed, and a many poor men's lives saved.

KING HENRY V

    I dare say you love him not so ill, to wish him here
    alone, howsoever you speak this to feel other men's
    minds: methinks I could not die any where so
    contented as in the king's company; his cause being
    just and his quarrel honourable.

WILLIAMS

    That's more than we know.

BATES

    Ay, or more than we should seek after; for we know
    enough, if we know we are the kings subjects: if
    his cause be wrong, our obedience to the king wipes
    the crime of it out of us.

WILLIAMS

    But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath
    a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs and
    arms and heads, chopped off in battle, shall join
    together at the latter day and cry all 'We died at
    such a place;' some swearing, some crying for a
    surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind
    them, some upon the debts they owe, some upon their
    children rawly left. I am afeard there are few die
    well that die in a battle; for how can they
    charitably dispose of any thing, when blood is their
    argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it
    will be a black matter for the king that led them to
    it; whom to disobey were against all proportion of
    subjection.

KING HENRY V

    So, if a son that is by his father sent about
    merchandise do sinfully miscarry upon the sea, the
    imputation of his wickedness by your rule, should be
    imposed upon his father that sent him: or if a
    servant, under his master's command transporting a
    sum of money, be assailed by robbers and die in
    many irreconciled iniquities, you may call the
    business of the master the author of the servant's
    damnation: but this is not so: the king is not
    bound to answer the particular endings of his
    soldiers, the father of his son, nor the master of
    his servant; for they purpose not their death, when
    they purpose their services. Besides, there is no
    king, be his cause never so spotless, if it come to
    the arbitrement of swords, can try it out with all
    unspotted soldiers: some peradventure have on them
    the guilt of premeditated and contrived murder;
    some, of beguiling virgins with the broken seals of
    perjury; some, making the wars their bulwark, that
    have before gored the gentle bosom of peace with
    pillage and robbery. Now, if these men have
    defeated the law and outrun native punishment,
    though they can outstrip men, they have no wings to
    fly from God: war is his beadle, war is vengeance;
    so that here men are punished for before-breach of
    the king's laws in now the king's quarrel: where
    they feared the death, they have borne life away;
    and where they would be safe, they perish: then if
    they die unprovided, no more is the king guilty of
    their damnation than he was before guilty of those
    impieties for the which they are now visited. Every
    subject's duty is the king's; but every subject's
    soul is his own. Therefore should every soldier in
    the wars do as every sick man in his bed, wash every
    mote out of his conscience: and dying so, death
    is to him advantage; or not dying, the time was
    blessedly lost wherein such preparation was gained:
    and in him that escapes, it were not sin to think
    that, making God so free an offer, He let him
    outlive that day to see His greatness and to teach
    others how they should prepare.

WILLIAMS

    'Tis certain, every man that dies ill, the ill upon
    his own head, the king is not to answer it.

BATES

    But I do not desire he should answer for me; and
    yet I determine to fight lustily for him.

KING HENRY V

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

WILLIAMS

    Ay, he said so, to make us fight cheerfully: but
    when our throats are cut, he may be ransomed, and we
    ne'er the wiser.

KING HENRY V

    If I live to see it, I will never trust his word after.

WILLIAMS

    You pay him then. That's a perilous shot out of an
    elder-gun, that a poor and private displeasure can
    do against a monarch! you may as well go about to
    turn the sun to ice with fanning in his face with a
    peacock's feather. You'll never trust his word
    after! come, 'tis a foolish saying.

KING HENRY V

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

WILLIAMS

    Let it be a quarrel between us, if you live.

KING HENRY V

    I embrace it.

WILLIAMS

    How shall I know thee again?

KING HENRY V

    Give me any gage of thine, and I will wear it in my
    bonnet: then, if ever thou darest acknowledge it, I
    will make it my quarrel.

WILLIAMS

    Here's my glove: give me another of thine.

KING HENRY V

    There.

WILLIAMS

    This will I also wear in my cap: if ever thou come
    to me and say, after to-morrow, 'This is my glove,'
    by this hand, I will take thee a box on the ear.

KING HENRY V

    If ever I live to see it, I will challenge it.

WILLIAMS

    Thou darest as well be hanged.

KING HENRY V

    Well. I will do it, though I take thee in the
    king's company.

WILLIAMS

    Keep thy word: fare thee well.

BATES

    Be friends, you English fools, be friends: we have
    French quarrels enow, if you could tell how to reckon.

KING HENRY V

    Indeed, the French may lay twenty French crowns to
    one, they will beat us; for they bear them on their
    shoulders: but it is no English treason to cut
    French crowns, and to-morrow the king himself will
    be a clipper.

    Exeunt soldiers
    Upon the king! let us our lives, our souls,
    Our debts, our careful wives,
    Our children and our sins lay on the king!
    We must bear all. O hard condition,
    Twin-born with greatness, subject to the breath
    Of every fool, whose sense no more can feel
    But his own wringing! What infinite heart's-ease
    Must kings neglect, that private men enjoy!
    And what have kings, that privates have not too,
    Save ceremony, save general ceremony?
    And what art thou, thou idle ceremony?
    What kind of god art thou, that suffer'st more
    Of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers?
    What are thy rents? what are thy comings in?
    O ceremony, show me but thy worth!
    What is thy soul of adoration?
    Art thou aught else but place, degree and form,
    Creating awe and fear in other men?
    Wherein thou art less happy being fear'd
    Than they in fearing.
    What drink'st thou oft, instead of homage sweet,
    But poison'd flattery? O, be sick, great greatness,
    And bid thy ceremony give thee cure!
    Think'st thou the fiery fever will go out
    With titles blown from adulation?
    Will it give place to flexure and low bending?
    Canst thou, when thou command'st the beggar's knee,
    Command the health of it? No, thou proud dream,
    That play'st so subtly with a king's repose;
    I am a king that find thee, and I know
    'Tis not the balm, the sceptre and the ball,
    The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,
    The intertissued robe of gold and pearl,
    The farced title running 'fore the king,
    The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp
    That beats upon the high shore of this world,
    No, not all these, thrice-gorgeous ceremony,
    Not all these, laid in bed majestical,
    Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave,
    Who with a body fill'd and vacant mind
    Gets him to rest, cramm'd with distressful bread;
    Never sees horrid night, the child of hell,
    But, like a lackey, from the rise to set
    Sweats in the eye of Phoebus and all night
    Sleeps in Elysium; next day after dawn,
    Doth rise and help Hyperion to his horse,
    And follows so the ever-running year,
    With profitable labour, to his grave:
    And, but for ceremony, such a wretch,
    Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep,
    Had the fore-hand and vantage of a king.
    The slave, a member of the country's peace,
    Enjoys it; but in gross brain little wots
    What watch the king keeps to maintain the peace,
    Whose hours the peasant best advantages.

    Enter ERPINGHAM

ERPINGHAM

    My lord, your nobles, jealous of your absence,
    Seek through your camp to find you.

KING HENRY V

    Good old knight,
    Collect them all together at my tent:
    I'll be before thee.

ERPINGHAM

    I shall do't, my lord.

    Exit

KING HENRY V

    O God of battles! steel my soldiers' hearts;
    Possess them not with fear; take from them now
    The sense of reckoning, if the opposed numbers
    Pluck their hearts from them. Not to-day, O Lord,
    O, not to-day, think not upon the fault
    My father made in compassing the crown!
    I Richard's body have interred anew;
    And on it have bestow'd more contrite tears
    Than from it issued forced drops of blood:
    Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay,
    Who twice a-day their wither'd hands hold up
    Toward heaven, to pardon blood; and I have built
    Two chantries, where the sad and solemn priests
    Sing still for Richard's soul. More will I do;
    Though all that I can do is nothing worth,
    Since that my penitence comes after all,
    Imploring pardon.

    Enter GLOUCESTER

GLOUCESTER

    My liege!

KING HENRY V

    My brother Gloucester's voice? Ay;
    I know thy errand, I will go with thee:
    The day, my friends and all things stay for me.

    Exeunt



KING HENRY V

    I tell thee truly, herald,
    I know not if the day be ours or no;
    For yet a many of your horsemen peer
    And gallop o'er the field.

MONTJOY

    The day is yours.

KING HENRY V

    Praised be God, and not our strength, for it!
    What is this castle call'd that stands hard by?

MONTJOY

    They call it Agincourt.

KING HENRY V

    Then call we this the field of Agincourt,
    Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus.

FLUELLEN

    Your grandfather of famous memory, an't please your
    majesty, and your great-uncle Edward the Plack
    Prince of Wales, as I have read in the chronicles,
    fought a most prave pattle here in France.

KING HENRY V

    They did, Fluellen.

FLUELLEN

    Your majesty says very true: if your majesties is
    remembered of it, the Welshmen did good service in a
    garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their
    Monmouth caps; which, your majesty know, to this
    hour is an honourable badge of the service; and I do
    believe your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek
    upon Saint Tavy's day.

KING HENRY V

    I wear it for a memorable honour;
    For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman.

FLUELLEN

    All the water in Wye cannot wash your majesty's
    Welsh plood out of your pody, I can tell you that:
    God pless it and preserve it, as long as it pleases
    his grace, and his majesty too!

KING HENRY V

    Thanks, good my countryman.

FLUELLEN

    By Jeshu, I am your majesty's countryman, I care not
    who know it; I will confess it to all the 'orld: I
    need not to be ashamed of your majesty, praised be
    God, so long as your majesty is an honest man.

KING HENRY V

    God keep me so! Our heralds go with him:
    Bring me just notice of the numbers dead
    On both our parts. Call yonder fellow hither.

    Points to WILLIAMS. Exeunt Heralds with Montjoy

EXETER

    Soldier, you must come to the king.

KING HENRY V

    Soldier, why wearest thou that glove in thy cap?

WILLIAMS

    An't please your majesty, 'tis the gage of one that
    I should fight withal, if he be alive.

KING HENRY V

    An Englishman?

WILLIAMS

    An't please your majesty, a rascal that swaggered
    with me last night; who, if alive and ever dare to
    challenge this glove, I have sworn to take him a box
    o' th' ear: or if I can see my glove in his cap,
    which he swore, as he was a soldier, he would wear
    if alive, I will strike it out soundly.

KING HENRY V

    What think you, Captain Fluellen? is it fit this
    soldier keep his oath?

FLUELLEN

    He is a craven and a villain else, an't please your
    majesty, in my conscience.

KING HENRY V

    It may be his enemy is a gentleman of great sort,
    quite from the answer of his degree.

FLUELLEN

    Though he be as good a gentleman as the devil is, as
    Lucifer and Belzebub himself, it is necessary, look
    your grace, that he keep his vow and his oath: if
    he be perjured, see you now, his reputation is as
    arrant a villain and a Jacksauce, as ever his black
    shoe trod upon God's ground and his earth, in my
    conscience, la!

KING HENRY V

    Then keep thy vow, sirrah, when thou meetest the fellow.

WILLIAMS

    So I will, my liege, as I live.

KING HENRY V

    Who servest thou under?

WILLIAMS

    Under Captain Gower, my liege.

FLUELLEN

    Gower is a good captain, and is good knowledge and
    literatured in the wars.

KING HENRY V

    Call him hither to me, soldier.

WILLIAMS

    I will, my liege.

    Exit

KING HENRY V

    Here, Fluellen; wear thou this favour for me and
    stick it in thy cap: when Alencon and myself were
    down together, I plucked this glove from his helm:
    if any man challenge this, he is a friend to
    Alencon, and an enemy to our person; if thou
    encounter any such, apprehend him, an thou dost me love.

FLUELLEN

    Your grace doo's me as great honours as can be
    desired in the hearts of his subjects: I would fain
    see the man, that has but two legs, that shall find
    himself aggrieved at this glove; that is all; but I
    would fain see it once, an please God of his grace
    that I might see.

KING HENRY V

    Knowest thou Gower?

FLUELLEN

    He is my dear friend, an please you.

KING HENRY V

    Pray thee, go seek him, and bring him to my tent.

FLUELLEN

    I will fetch him.

    Exit

KING HENRY V

    My Lord of Warwick, and my brother Gloucester,
    Follow Fluellen closely at the heels:
    The glove which I have given him for a favour
    May haply purchase him a box o' th' ear;
    It is the soldier's; I by bargain should
    Wear it myself. Follow, good cousin Warwick:
    If that the soldier strike him, as I judge
    By his blunt bearing he will keep his word,
    Some sudden mischief may arise of it;
    For I do know Fluellen valiant
    And, touched with choler, hot as gunpowder,
    And quickly will return an injury:
    Follow and see there be no harm between them.
    Go you with me, uncle of Exeter.

    Exeunt




SCENE I. France. The English camp.

    Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER

GOWER

    Nay, that's right; but why wear you your leek today?
    Saint Davy's day is past.

FLUELLEN

    There is occasions and causes why and wherefore in
    all things: I will tell you, asse my friend,
    Captain Gower: the rascally, scald, beggarly,
    lousy, pragging knave, Pistol, which you and
    yourself and all the world know to be no petter
    than a fellow, look you now, of no merits, he is
    come to me and prings me pread and salt yesterday,
    look you, and bid me eat my leek: it was in place
    where I could not breed no contention with him; but
    I will be so bold as to wear it in my cap till I see
    him once again, and then I will tell him a little
    piece of my desires.

    Enter PISTOL

GOWER

    Why, here he comes, swelling like a turkey-cock.

FLUELLEN

    'Tis no matter for his swellings nor his
    turkey-cocks. God pless you, Aunchient Pistol! you
    scurvy, lousy knave, God pless you!

PISTOL

    Ha! art thou bedlam? dost thou thirst, base Trojan,
    To have me fold up Parca's fatal web?
    Hence! I am qualmish at the smell of leek.

FLUELLEN

    I peseech you heartily, scurvy, lousy knave, at my
    desires, and my requests, and my petitions, to eat,
    look you, this leek: because, look you, you do not
    love it, nor your affections and your appetites and
    your digestions doo's not agree with it, I would
    desire you to eat it.

PISTOL

    Not for Cadwallader and all his goats.

FLUELLEN

    There is one goat for you.

    Strikes him
    Will you be so good, scauld knave, as eat it?

PISTOL

    Base Trojan, thou shalt die.

FLUELLEN

    You say very true, scauld knave, when God's will is:
    I will desire you to live in the mean time, and eat
    your victuals: come, there is sauce for it.

    Strikes him
    You called me yesterday mountain-squire; but I will
    make you to-day a squire of low degree. I pray you,
    fall to: if you can mock a leek, you can eat a leek.

GOWER

    Enough, captain: you have astonished him.

FLUELLEN

    I say, I will make him eat some part of my leek, or
    I will peat his pate four days. Bite, I pray you; it
    is good for your green wound and your ploody coxcomb.

PISTOL

    Must I bite?

FLUELLEN

    Yes, certainly, and out of doubt and out of question
    too, and ambiguities.

PISTOL

    By this leek, I will most horribly revenge: I eat
    and eat, I swear--

FLUELLEN

    Eat, I pray you: will you have some more sauce to
    your leek? there is not enough leek to swear by.

PISTOL

    Quiet thy cudgel; thou dost see I eat.

FLUELLEN

    Much good do you, scauld knave, heartily. Nay, pray
    you, throw none away; the skin is good for your
    broken coxcomb. When you take occasions to see leeks
    hereafter, I pray you, mock at 'em; that is all.

PISTOL

    Good.

FLUELLEN

    Ay, leeks is good: hold you, there is a groat to
    heal your pate.

PISTOL

    Me a groat!

FLUELLEN

    Yes, verily and in truth, you shall take it; or I
    have another leek in my pocket, which you shall eat.

PISTOL

    I take thy groat in earnest of revenge.

FLUELLEN

    If I owe you any thing, I will pay you in cudgels:
    you shall be a woodmonger, and buy nothing of me but
    cudgels. God b' wi' you, and keep you, and heal your pate.

    Exit

PISTOL

    All hell shall stir for this.

GOWER

    Go, go; you are a counterfeit cowardly knave. Will
    you mock at an ancient tradition, begun upon an
    honourable respect, and worn as a memorable trophy of
    predeceased valour and dare not avouch in your deeds
    any of your words? I have seen you gleeking and
    galling at this gentleman twice or thrice. You
    thought, because he could not speak English in the
    native garb, he could not therefore handle an
    English cudgel: you find it otherwise; and
    henceforth let a Welsh correction teach you a good
    English condition. Fare ye well.

    Exit

PISTOL

    Doth Fortune play the huswife with me now?
    News have I, that my Nell is dead i' the spital
    Of malady of France;
    And there my rendezvous is quite cut off.
    Old I do wax; and from my weary limbs
    Honour is cudgelled. Well, bawd I'll turn,
    And something lean to cutpurse of quick hand.
    To England will I steal, and there I'll steal:
    And patches will I get unto these cudgell'd scars,
    And swear I got them in the Gallia wars.

    Exit