TPTT The Life of Henry the Fifth: ACT III
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
PROLOGUE.
SCENE I. France. Before Harfleur.
SCENE II. The same.
SCENE III. The same. Before the gates.
SCENE IV. The FRENCH KING's palace.
SCENE V. The same.
SCENE VI. The English camp in Picardy.
SCENE VII. The French camp, near Agincourt:
ACT IV
ACT V
About the Play
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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
5     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.
10    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
15    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
20    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
25    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
30    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
35    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
40    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
45    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
50    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
55    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
60    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
65    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
70    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
75    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
80    '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
85    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
90    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
95    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
100   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
105   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
110   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
115   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
120   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
125   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
130   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
135   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
140   We shall have each a hundred Englishmen.
Exeunt
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