Henry V (1989)

Kenneth Branagh: King Henry V

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Quotes 

• [Addressing the troops] 

  King Henry V : And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by from this day until the ending of the world but we in it shall be remembered. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers, For he today who sheds his blood with me shall be my brother, Be he ne'er so vile, this day shall gentle his condition, and gentlemen in England now abed shall think themselves acursed they were not here, and hold their manhoods cheap whilst any speaks, that fought with us upon St. Crispin's day!

• King Henry V : We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.

• King Henry V : Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; or close the wall up with our English dead!

• King Henry V : Canst thou love me?

  Princess Katherine : I cannot tell.

  King Henry V : Can any of your neighbors tell, Kate? I'll ask them.

• King Henry V : Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, Or close up the wall with our English dead!

• King Henry V : We would not seek a battle as we are, yet as we are, we say we will not shun it.

• Montjoy : Give us leave, great king, to view the field in safety and dispose of their dead bodies.

  King Henry V : I tell thee truly, herald, I know not if the day be ours or no.

  Montjoy : The day is yours.

  King Henry V : Praised be God and not our strength for it! What is this castle called 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.

• [charging his troops to attack the gates of Harfluer] 

  King Henry V : For there is none of you so mean and base, That hath not noble lustre in your eyes. I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, Straining upon the start. The game's afoot: Follow your spirit, and upon this charge Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'

• King Henry V : If little faults proceeding on distemper shall not be winked at, how shall we stretch our eye, when capital crimes, chewed, swallowed and digested appear before us?

• King Henry V : Customs curtsy to great kings. We are the makers of manners, Kate.

• King Henry V : [after kissing Princess Katherine]  You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate. There is more eloquence in a sugar-touch of them than in the tongues of the French Council.

• King Henry V : Fair Katherine, if you will love me soundly with your French heart, I will be glad to hear you confess it brokenly with your English tongue. Do you like me, Kate?

  Princess Katherine : [unable to understand his English]  Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell what is 'like me'.

  King Henry V : An angel is like you, Kate.

• King Henry V : Thou hast me, if thou hast me, at the worst; and thou shalt wear me, if thou wear me, better and better.

• Exeter : This was a merry message.

  King Henry V : We hope to make the sender blush at it.

• King Henry V : How yet resolves the governor of the town? This is the latest parle we will admit. Therefore to our best mercy give yourselves, or like to men proud of destruction defy us to our worst. For as I am a soldier, if I begin the batt'ry once again, I will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur, till in her ashes she lie burièd. Therefore, ye men of Harfleur, take pity of your town and of your people, whiles yet my soldiers are in my command, whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace o'er blows the filthy and contagious clouds of heady murder, spoil, and villainy! If not... why, in a MOMENT!- look to see the blind and bloody soldier with foul hand defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters, your fathers taken by the silver beards and their most reverend heads dashed to the walls, your naked infants spitted upon PIKES!- whiles the mad mothers with their howls confused do break the CLOUDS! WHAT SAY YOU? Will you yield, and this avoid? Or, guilty in defense, be thus destroyed?

• King Henry V : [to Montjoy]  I pray thee take my former answer back. Bid them achieve me than sell my bones!"

• King Henry V : I was not angry since I came to France, until this instant!

• King Henry V : 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. Oh, hard condition. Twin-born with greatness, subject to the breath of every fool. What infinite heart's ease must kings neglect that private men enjoy? And what have kings that privates have not too save ceremony? And what art thou, thou idle ceremony? What drink'st thou oft instead of homage sweet but poison'd flattery? Oh, be sick, great greatness, and bid thy ceremony give thee cure. Canst thou, when thou commandest the beggar's knee, command the health of it? No, thou proud dream that playest 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 filled and vacant mind, gets him to rest, crammed with distressful bread, never sees horrid night, the child of hell, but like a lackey from the rise to the 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 forehand and vantage... of a king.