Act 3, Scene 2

The same.

[Enter Nym, Bardolph, Pistol, and Boy.]
Bardolph
1073 On, on, on, on, on! To the breach, to the breach!
Corporal Nym
1074 Pray thee, corporal, stay. The knocks are too hot; and, for
1075 mine own part, I have not a case of lives. The humour of it is
1076 too hot; that is the very plain-song of it.
Pistol
1077 The plain-song is most just, for humours do abound.
1078 "Knocks go and come; God's vassals drop and die;
1079 And sword and shield,
1080 In bloody field,
1081 Doth win immortal fame."
Boy
1082 Would I were in an alehouse in London! I would give all my
1083 fame for a pot of ale and safety.
Pistol
1084 And I.
1085 "If wishes would prevail with me,
1086 My purpose should not fail with me,
1087 But thither would I hie."
Boy
1088 "As duly, but not as truly,
1089 As bird doth sing on bough."
[Enter Fluellen.]
Fluellen
1090 Up to the breach, you dogs! Avaunt, you cullions!
[Driving them forward.]
Pistol
1091 Be merciful, great Duke, to men of mould.
1092 Abate thy rage, abate thy manly rage,
1093 Abate thy rage, great Duke!
1094 Good bawcock, bate thy rage; use lenity, sweet chuck!
Corporal Nym
1095 These be good humours! Your honour wins bad humours.
[Exeunt [all but Boy.]
Boy
1096 As young as I am, I have observ'd these three swashers. I am
1097 boy to them all three; but all they three, though they would
1098 serve me, could not be man to me; for indeed three such antics
1099 do not amount to a man. For Bardolph, he is white-liver'd and
1100 red-fac'd; by the means whereof 'a faces it out, but fights not.
1101 For Pistol, he hath a killing tongue and a quiet sword; by the
1102 means whereof 'a breaks words, and keeps whole weapons. For
1103 Nym, he hath heard that men of few words are the best men; and
1104 therefore he scorns to say his prayers, lest 'a should be thought
1105 a coward. But his few bad words are match'd with as few good
1106 deeds; for 'a never broke any man's head but his own, and that
1107 was against a post when he was drunk. They will steal anything,
1108 and call it purchase. Bardolph stole a lute-case, bore it twelve
1109 leagues, and sold it for three half-pence. Nym and Bardolph are
1110 sworn brothers in filching, and in Calais they stole a
1111 fire-shovel.
1112 I knew by that piece of service the men would carry coals. They
1113 would have me as familiar with men's pockets as their gloves or
1114 their handkerchers; which makes much against my manhood, if I
1115 should take from another's pocket to put into mine; for it is
1116 plain pocketing up of wrongs. I must leave them, and seek some
1117 better service. Their villainy goes against my weak stomach,
1118 and therefore I must cast it up.
[Exit.]
[Enter Gower [and Fluellen.]
Gower
1119 Captain Fluellen, you must come presently to the mines.
1120 The Duke of Gloucester would speak with you.
Fluellen
1121 To the mines! Tell you the Duke, it is not so good to come
1122 to the mines; for, look you, the mines is not according to the
1123 disciplines of the war. The concavities of it is not sufficient;
1124 for, look you, the athversary, you may discuss unto the Duke,
1125 look you, is digt himself four yard under the countermines. By
1126 Cheshu, I think 'a will plow up all, if there is not better
1127 directions.
Gower
1128 The Duke of Gloucester, to whom the order of the siege is
1129 given, is altogether directed by an Irishman, a very valiant
1130 gentleman, i' faith.
Fluellen
1131 It is Captain Macmorris, is it not?
Gower
1132 I think it be.
Fluellen
1133 By Cheshu, he is an ass, as in the world. I will verify as
1134 much in his beard. He has no more directions in the true
1135 disciplines of the wars, look you, of the Roman disciplines,
1136 than is a puppy-dog.
[Enter Macmorris and Captain Jamy.]
Gower
1137 Here 'a comes; and the Scots captain, Captain Jamy, with him.
Fluellen
1138 Captain Jamy is a marvellous falorous gentleman, that is
1139 certain; and of great expedition and knowledge in the aunchient
1140 wars, upon my particular knowledge of his directions. By Cheshu,
1141 he will maintain his argument as well as any military man in the
1142 world, in the disciplines of the pristine wars of the Romans.
Captain Jamy
1143 I say gud-day, Captain Fluellen.
Fluellen
1144 God-den to your worship, good Captain James.
Gower
1145 How now, Captain Macmorris! have you quit the mines?
1146 Have the pioneers given o'er?
Captain Macmorris
1147 By Chrish, la! 'tish ill done! The work ish give over, the
1148 trompet sound the retreat. By my hand I swear, and my
1149 father's soul, the work ish ill done; it ish give over. I would
1150 have blowed up the town, so Chrish save me, la! in an hour.
1151 O, 'tish ill done, 'tish ill done; by my hand, 'tish ill done!
Fluellen
1152 Captain Macmorris, I beseech you now, will you voutsafe me,
1153 look you, a few disputations with you, as partly touching or
1154 concerning the disciplines of the war, the Roman wars, in the way
1155 of argument, look you, and friendly communication; partly to
1156 satisfy my opinion, and partly for the satisfaction, look you, of
1157 my mind, as touching the direction of the military discipline;
1158 that is the point.
Captain Jamy
1159 It sall be vary gud, gud feith, gud captains bath: and I sall
1160 quit you with gud leve, as I may pick occasion; that sall I,
1161 marry.
Captain Macmorris
1162 It is no time to discourse, so Chrish save me. The day is hot,
1163 and the weather, and the wars, and the King, and the Dukes. It
1164 is no time to discourse. The town is beseech'd, and the trumpet
1165 call us to the breach, and we talk, and, be Chrish, do nothing.
1166 'Tis shame for us all. So God sa' me, 'tis shame to stand still;
1167 it is shame, by my hand; and there is throats to be cut, and works
1168 to be done; and there ish nothing done, so Chrish sa' me, la!
Captain Jamy
1169 By the mess, ere theise eyes of mine take themselves to slomber,
1170 I'll de gud service, or I'll lig i' the grund for it; ay, or go to
1171 death; and I'll pay't as valorously as I may, that sall I suerly do,
1172 that is the breff and the long. Marry, I wad full fain heard some
1173 question 'tween you tway.
Fluellen
1174 Captain Macmorris, I think, look you, under your correction, there
1175 is not many of your nation—
Captain Macmorris
1176 Of my nation! What ish my nation? Ish a villain, and a bastard,
1177 and a knave, and a rascal? What ish my nation? Who talks of my
1178 nation?
Fluellen
1179 Look you, if you take the matter otherwise than is meant, Captain
1180 Macmorris, peradventure I shall think you do not use me with that
1181 affability as in discretion you ought to use me, look you, being
1182 as good a man as yourself, both in the disciplines of war, and in
1183 the derivation of my birth, and in other particularities.
Captain Macmorris
1184 I do not know you so good a man as myself. So Chrish save me,
1185 I will cut off your head.
Gower
1186 Gentlemen both, you will mistake each other.
Captain Jamy
1187 Ah! that's a foul fault.
[A parley [sounded.]
Gower
1188 The town sounds a parley.
Fluellen
1189 Captain Macmorris, when there is more better opportunity to be
1190 required, look you, I will be so bold as to tell you I know the
1191 disciplines of war; and there is an end.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 1076wordplay
“very plain-song of it”
A 'plain-song' (also 'plainsong') is a simple, unadorned melody sung in unison — the most stripped-down form of church music, with no harmony or ornamentation. Nym means the plain, unembellished truth: the fighting is too hot, and that is simply that. Pistol then picks up the same word earnestly in the next line, turning the low-comic exchange into a tiny musical pun.
TLN 1078rhetorical device
“Knocks go and come; God's vassals drop and die”
Pistol speaks in scraps of old-fashioned, high-flown verse — rhyming couplets and short lines — parodying the martial bombast of popular Elizabethan plays. 'God's vassals drop and die' is not courage; it is Pistol dressing up his cowardice in theatrical language to avoid going to the breach. The Boy later punctures him with his own deflating couplet.
TLN 1090archaic vocab
“Avaunt, you cullions”
'Avaunt' means 'get away' or 'begone' — a sharp command to leave. 'Cullions' is an Elizabethan insult meaning scoundrels or base, worthless fellows, derived from the French 'couillon.' Fluellen is calling Pistol, Nym, and Bardolph cowardly trash and driving them forward to the breach.
TLN 1091archaic vocab
“Be merciful, great Duke, to men of mould”
'Men of mould' means mortals — human beings made of earth (mould = soil, the stuff of the grave). Pistol is begging Fluellen to spare them because they are only flesh and blood, not immortal heroes. The phrase echoes the Book of Common Prayer's burial service: 'earth to earth, dust to dust.'
TLN 1094archaic vocab
“Good bawcock, bate thy rage; use lenity, sweet chuck”
'Bawcock' is an affectionate Elizabethan term from the French 'beau coq' (fine cock, i.e. fine fellow), used to flatter or cosy up to someone. 'Chuck' is an equally familiar term of endearment — like 'chick' today. 'Lenity' means mildness or gentleness. Pistol is trying every trick — wheedling, flattering, softening Fluellen with pet-names — to avoid going to the breach.
TLN 1098archaic vocab
“three such antics do not amount to a man. For Bardolph, he is white-liver'd and red-fac'd”
'Antics' means clowns or buffoons — people who make a spectacle of themselves without substance. A 'white-liver'd' person is a coward: Elizabethan medicine held that courage resided in the liver, and that a pale, bloodless liver showed a lack of vital heat. Bardolph's face is red (from drinking), but his liver is white — the opposite of a brave man, all bluster and no fight.
TLN 1107archaic vocab
“They will steal anything, and call it purchase”
'Purchase' in soldiers' and thieves' cant meant plunder or loot — anything seized by force or guile, rather than bought honestly. The Boy is noting the trio's self-serving euphemism: they call theft 'purchase' to make it sound like legitimate military prize-taking. 'Leagues' in the same passage means units of distance (roughly three miles each), so Bardolph trudged nearly forty miles for a lute-case worth three half-pence.
TLN 1112archaic vocab
“the men would carry coals”
To 'carry coals' was an Elizabethan idiom meaning to put up with insults or do the most degrading work without protest — the coal-carrier was the lowest, dirtiest laborer. The Boy is saying that the men who stole a fire-shovel are exactly the sort who will submit to any humiliation. In Romeo and Juliet, Sampson opens the play by bragging he will 'not carry coals,' meaning he refuses to be shamed.
TLN 1116wordplay
“plain pocketing up of wrongs. I must leave them, and seek some better service”
To 'pocket up' wrongs means to put up with insults without protest — to swallow an affront. The phrase is barbed in context: the men want the Boy to put his hand in other men's pockets and steal for them, so the dishonour he is being asked to 'pocket up' is itself a matter of picking pockets. He decides he has outgrown their service.
TLN 1134historical topical
“no more directions in the true disciplines of the wars, look you, of the Roman disciplines”
Fluellen's obsessive standard for all military conduct is ancient Roman practice as described by classical authors — above all the Latin military treatise by Vegetius, 'De Re Militari' (c. 400 CE), which was the standard handbook of Elizabethan military thinking. Fluellen judges Macmorris's mining operations (and everything else) against this idealized Roman model. To Fluellen, a soldier who departs from it is worse than a puppy-dog.
TLN 1176historical topical
“What ish my nation? Ish a villain, and a bastard, and a knave, and a rascal?”
When Fluellen begins a sentence about 'your nation,' Macmorris explodes: to be identified as belonging to 'a nation' implies being categorized — and in the context of Elizabethan Ireland, where English conquest was ongoing and violent, the question of Irish identity was raw and contested. Macmorris's outburst — 'What ish my nation?' — resists being reduced to an ethnic label, especially a dismissive one.
historical Holinshed's Chronicles