Henry V
| ACT IV 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. | 5 |
| ORLEANS | 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. | 15 |
| Constable | 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? | 60 | |
| Constable | 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 |
Henry V, Act 4, Scene 3