TPTT The Life of Henry the Fifth: ACT IV
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
PROLOGUE.
SCENE I. The English camp at Agincourt.
SCENE II. The French camp.
SCENE III. The English camp.
SCENE IV. The field of battle.
SCENE V. Another part of the field.
SCENE VI. Another part of the field.
SCENE VII. Another part of the field.
SCENE VIII. Before KING HENRY'S pavilion.
ACT V
About the Play
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SCENE II. The French camp.
Enter the DAUPHIN, ORLEANS, RAMBURES, and others
ORLEANS
      The sun doth gild our armour; up, my lords!
DAUPHIN
      Montez A cheval! My horse! varlet! laquais! ha!
ORLEANS
      O brave spirit!
DAUPHIN
      Via! les eaux et la terre.
ORLEANS
5     Rien puis? L'air et la feu.
DAUPHIN
      Ciel, cousin Orleans.

Enter Constable

      Now, my lord constable!
Constable
      Hark, how our steeds for present service neigh!
DAUPHIN
      Mount them, and make incision in their hides,
10    That their hot blood may spin in English eyes,
      And dout them with superfluous courage, ha!
RAMBURES
      What, will you have them weep our horses' blood?
      How shall we, then, behold their natural tears?
Enter Messenger
Messenger
      The English are embattled, you French peers.
Constable
15    To horse, you gallant princes! straight to horse!
      Do but behold yon poor and starved band,
      And your fair show shall suck away their souls,
      Leaving them but the shales and husks of men.
      There is not work enough for all our hands;
20    Scarce blood enough in all their sickly veins
      To give each naked curtle-axe a stain,
      That our French gallants shall to-day draw out,
      And sheathe for lack of sport: let us but blow on them,
      The vapour of our valour will o'erturn them.
25    'Tis positive 'gainst all exceptions, lords,
      That our superfluous lackeys and our peasants,
      Who in unnecessary action swarm
      About our squares of battle, were enow
      To purge this field of such a hilding foe,
30    Though we upon this mountain's basis by
      Took stand for idle speculation:
      But that our honours must not. What's to say?
      A very little little let us do.
      And all is done. Then let the trumpets sound
35    The tucket sonance and the note to mount;
      For our approach shall so much dare the field
      That England shall couch down in fear and yield.
Enter GRANDPRE
GRANDPRE
      Why do you stay so long, my lords of France?
      Yon island carrions, desperate of their bones,
40    Ill-favouredly become the morning field:
      Their ragged curtains poorly are let loose,
      And our air shakes them passing scornfully:
      Big Mars seems bankrupt in their beggar'd host
      And faintly through a rusty beaver peeps:
45    The horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks,
      With torch-staves in their hand; and their poor jades
      Lob down their heads, dropping the hides and hips,
      The gum down-roping from their pale-dead eyes
      And in their pale dull mouths the gimmal bit
50    Lies foul with chew'd grass, still and motionless;
      And their executors, the knavish crows,
      Fly o'er them, all impatient for their hour.
      Description cannot suit itself in words
      To demonstrate the life of such a battle
55    In life so lifeless as it shows itself.
Constable
      They have said their prayers, and they stay for death.
DAUPHIN
      Shall we go send them dinners and fresh suits
      And give their fasting horses provender,
      And after fight with them?
Constable
60    I stay but for my guidon: to the field!
      I will the banner from a trumpet take,
      And use it for my haste. Come, come, away!
      The sun is high, and we outwear the day.
Exeunt
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