ACT III SCENE VII

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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