ACT III SCENE VII

Henry V

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?	5
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.	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.	55
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	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?	65
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.	70
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.	75
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.	80
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.	85
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.	90
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	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.	100
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	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.	110
	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	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!	120
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	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.	130
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.	135
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	140
	We shall have each a hundred Englishmen.
	Exeunt

Henry V, Act 4, Scene 1