ACT III
SCENE VII The French camp, near Agincourt:


 [Enter the Constable of France, the LORD RAMBURES,
 ORLEANS, DAUPHIN, with others]

Constable Tut! I have the best armour of the world. Would it were day!

ORLEANS You have an excellent armour; but let my horse have his due.

Constable It is the best horse of Europe.

ORLEANS Will it never be morning?

DAUPHIN My lord of Orleans, and my lord high constable, you
 talk of horse and armour?

ORLEANS You are as well provided of both as any prince in the world.

DAUPHIN What a long night is this! I will not change my
 horse with any that treads but on four pasterns.
 Ca, ha! he bounds from the earth, as if his
 entrails were hairs; le cheval volant, the Pegasus,
 chez les narines de feu! When I bestride him, I
 soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the earth
 sings when he touches it; the basest horn of his
 hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes.

ORLEANS He's of the colour of the nutmeg.

DAUPHIN And of the heat of the ginger. It is a beast for
 Perseus: he is pure air and fire; and the dull
 elements of earth and water never appear in him, but
 only in Patient stillness while his rider mounts
 him: he is indeed a horse; and all other jades you
 may call beasts.

Constable Indeed, my lord, it is a most absolute and excellent horse.

DAUPHIN It is the prince of palfreys; his neigh is like the
 bidding of a monarch and his countenance enforces homage.

ORLEANS No more, cousin.

DAUPHIN Nay, the man hath no wit that cannot, from the
 rising of the lark to the lodging of the lamb, vary
 deserved praise on my palfrey: it is a theme as
 fluent as the sea: turn the sands into eloquent
 tongues, and my horse is argument for them all:
 'tis a subject for a sovereign to reason on, and for
 a sovereign's sovereign to ride on; and for the
 world, familiar to us and unknown to lay apart
 their particular functions and wonder at him. I
 once writ a sonnet in his praise and began thus:
 'Wonder of nature,'--

ORLEANS I have heard a sonnet begin so to one's mistress.

DAUPHIN Then did they imitate that which I composed to my
 courser, for my horse is my mistress.

ORLEANS Your mistress bears well.

DAUPHIN Me well; which is the prescript praise and
 perfection of a good and particular mistress.

Constable Nay, for methought yesterday your mistress shrewdly
 shook your back.

DAUPHIN So perhaps did yours.

Constable Mine was not bridled.

DAUPHIN O then belike she was old and gentle; and you rode,
 like a kern of Ireland, your French hose off, and in
 your straight strossers.

Constable You have good judgment in horsemanship.

DAUPHIN Be warned by me, then: they that ride so and ride
 not warily, fall into foul bogs. I had rather have
 my horse to my mistress.

Constable I had as lief have my mistress a jade.

DAUPHIN I tell thee, constable, my mistress wears his own hair.

Constable I could make as true a boast as that, if I had a sow
 to my mistress.

DAUPHIN 'Le chien est retourne a son propre vomissement, et
 la truie lavee au bourbier;' thou makest use of any thing.

Constable Yet do I not use my horse for my mistress, or any
 such proverb so little kin to the purpose.

RAMBURES My lord constable, the armour that I saw in your tent
 to-night, are those stars or suns upon it?

Constable Stars, my lord.

DAUPHIN Some of them will fall to-morrow, I hope.

Constable And yet my sky shall not want.

DAUPHIN That may be, for you bear a many superfluously, and
 'twere more honour some were away.

Constable Even as your horse bears your praises; who would
 trot as well, were some of your brags dismounted.

DAUPHIN Would I were able to load him with his desert! Will
 it never be day? I will trot to-morrow a mile, and
 my way shall be paved with English faces.

Constable I will not say so, for fear I should be faced out of
 my way: but I would it were morning; for I would
 fain be about the ears of the English.

RAMBURES Who will go to hazard with me for twenty prisoners?

Constable You must first go yourself to hazard, ere you have them.

DAUPHIN 'Tis midnight; I'll go arm myself.

 [Exit]

ORLEANS The Dauphin longs for morning.

RAMBURES He longs to eat the English.

Constable I think he will eat all he kills.

ORLEANS By the white hand of my lady, he's a gallant prince.

Constable Swear by her foot, that she may tread out the oath.

ORLEANS He is simply the most active gentleman of France.

Constable Doing is activity; and he will still be doing.

ORLEANS He never did harm, that I heard of.

Constable Nor will do none to-morrow: he will keep that good name still.

ORLEANS I know him to be valiant.

Constable I was told that by one that knows him better than
 you.

ORLEANS What's he?

Constable Marry, he told me so himself; and he said he cared
 not who knew it

ORLEANS He needs not; it is no hidden virtue in him.

Constable By my faith, sir, but it is; never any body saw it
 but his lackey: 'tis a hooded valour; and when it
 appears, it will bate.

ORLEANS Ill will never said well.

Constable I will cap that proverb with 'There is flattery in friendship.'

ORLEANS And I will take up that with 'Give the devil his due.'

Constable Well placed: there stands your friend for the
 devil: have at the very eye of that proverb with 'A
 pox of the devil.'

ORLEANS You are the better at proverbs, by how much 'A
 fool's bolt is soon shot.'

Constable You have shot over.

ORLEANS 'Tis not the first time you were overshot.

 [Enter a Messenger]

Messenger My lord high constable, the English lie within
 fifteen hundred paces of your tents.

Constable Who hath measured the ground?

Messenger The Lord Grandpre.

Constable A valiant and most expert gentleman. Would it were
 day! Alas, poor Harry of England! he longs not for
 the dawning as we do.

ORLEANS What a wretched and peevish fellow is this king of
 England, to mope with his fat-brained followers so
 far out of his knowledge!

Constable If the English had any apprehension, they would run away.

ORLEANS That they lack; for if their heads had any
 intellectual armour, they could never wear such heavy
 head-pieces.

RAMBURES That island of England breeds very valiant
 creatures; their mastiffs are of unmatchable courage.

ORLEANS Foolish curs, that run winking into the mouth of a
 Russian bear and have their heads crushed like
 rotten apples! You may as well say, that's a
 valiant flea that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion.

Constable Just, just; and the men do sympathize with the
 mastiffs in robustious and rough coming on, leaving
 their wits with their wives: and then give them
 great meals of beef and iron and steel, they will
 eat like wolves and fight like devils.

ORLEANS Ay, but these English are shrewdly out of beef.

Constable Then shall we find to-morrow they have only stomachs
 to eat and none to fight. Now is it time to arm:
 come, shall we about it?

ORLEANS It is now two o'clock: but, let me see, by ten
 We shall have each a hundred Englishmen.

 [Exeunt]




 KING HENRY V


ACT IV


 PROLOGUE.


 [Enter Chorus]

Chorus Now entertain conjecture of a time
 When creeping murmur and the poring dark
 Fills the wide vessel of the universe.
 From camp to camp through the foul womb of night
 The hum of either army stilly sounds,
 That the fixed sentinels almost receive
 The secret whispers of each other's watch:
 Fire answers fire, and through their paly flames
 Each battle sees the other's umber'd face;
 Steed threatens steed, in high and boastful neighs
 Piercing the night's dull ear, and from the tents
 The armourers, accomplishing the knights,
 With busy hammers closing rivets up,
 Give dreadful note of preparation:
 The country cocks do crow, the clocks do toll,
 And the third hour of drowsy morning name.
 Proud of their numbers and secure in soul,
 The confident and over-lusty French
 Do the low-rated English play at dice;
 And chide the cripple tardy-gaited night
 Who, like a foul and ugly witch, doth limp
 So tediously away. The poor condemned English,
 Like sacrifices, by their watchful fires
 Sit patiently and inly ruminate
 The morning's danger, and their gesture sad
 Investing lank-lean; cheeks and war-worn coats
 Presenteth them unto the gazing moon
 So many horrid ghosts. O now, who will behold
 The royal captain of this ruin'd band
 Walking from watch to watch, from tent to tent,
 Let him cry 'Praise and glory on his head!'
 For forth he goes and visits all his host.
 Bids them good morrow with a modest smile
 And calls them brothers, friends and countrymen.
 Upon his royal face there is no note
 How dread an army hath enrounded him;
 Nor doth he dedicate one jot of colour
 Unto the weary and all-watched night,
 But freshly looks and over-bears attaint
 With cheerful semblance and sweet majesty;
 That every wretch, pining and pale before,
 Beholding him, plucks comfort from his looks:
 A largess universal like the sun
 His liberal eye doth give to every one,
 Thawing cold fear, that mean and gentle all,
 Behold, as may unworthiness define,
 A little touch of Harry in the night.
 And so our scene must to the battle fly;
 Where--O for pity!--we shall much disgrace
 With four or five most vile and ragged foils,
 Right ill-disposed in brawl ridiculous,
 The name of Agincourt. Yet sit and see,
 Minding true things by what their mockeries be.

 [Exit]




 KING HENRY V


ACT IV