K. Hen.

Good old knight,

[Exit.

Collect them all together at my tent;
I'll be before thee.

I shall do't, my lord.

Erp. K. Hen. O, God of battles! steel my soldiers' hearts! Possess them not with fear; take from them now1 The sense of reckoning of the opposed numbers: Pluck their hearts from them not to-day, O Lord! O, not to-day! Think not upon the fault My father made in compassing the crown! I Richard's body have interred new; And on it have bestowed more contrite tears, Than from it issued forced drops of blood. Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay, Who twice a day their withered hands hold up Toward heaven to pardon blood; and I have built Two chantries, where the sad and solemn priests Sing still for Richard's soul. More will I do: Though all that I can do, is nothing worth; Since that my penitence comes after all, Imploring pardon.

Glo. My liege!

K. Hen.

Enter GLOSter.

My brother Gloster's voice?-Ay;

I know thy errand; I will go with thee.—
The day, my friends, and all things stay for me.

The sense of reckoning, if the opposed numbers

Pluck their hearts from them!-Not to-day, O Lord,

O, not to-day, think not upon," &c.

2 «Two chantries." One of these was for Carthusian monks, and was called Bethlehem; the other was for religious men and women of the order of saint Bridget, and was named Sion. They were on opposite sides of the Thames, and adjoined the royal manor of Sheen, now called Richmond.

SCENE II. The French Camp.

Enter Dauphin, ORLEANS, RAMBURES, and others. Orl. The sun doth gild our armor; up, my lords. Dau. Montez a cheval:-My horse! valet! lacquay? ha!

Orl. O brave spirit!

Dau. Via!-les eaux et la terre

Orl. Rien puis? l'air et le feu

Dau. Ciel! cousin Orleans.

Enter Constable.

Now, my lord constable.

Con. Hark, how our steeds for present service neigh. Dau. Mount them, and make incision in their hides; That their hot blood may spin in English eyes, And doubt them with superfluous courage. Ha! Ram. What, will you have them weep our horses' blood?

How shall we then behold their natural tears?

Enter a Messenger.

Mess. The English are embattled, you French peers. Con. 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;
Scarce blood enough in all their sickly veins,
To give each naked curtle-ax a stain,

1 Via, an exclamation of encouragement-on, away; of Italian origin.
2 "That their hot blood may spin in English eyes,
And doubt them with superfluous courage."

This is the reading of the folio, which Malone has altered to dout, i. e. do out, in provincial language.

That our French gallants shall to-day draw out,
And sheath for lack of sport: let us but blow on them,
The vapor of our valor will o'erturn them.

'Tis positive 'gainst all exceptions, lords,

That our superfluous lackeys, and our peasants,-
Who in unnecessary action swarm

About our squares of battle,—were enough
To purge this field of such a hilding foe;
Though we, upon this mountain's basis by,
Took stand for idle speculation:

What's to say?

But that our honors must not.
A very little little let us do,
And all is done. Then let the trumpets sound
The tucket-sonuance,' and the note to mount;
For our approach shall so much dare the field,
That England shall crouch down in fear, and yield.

Enter GRANdpre.

Grand. Why do you stay so long, my lords of France?

Yon island carrions, desperate of their bones,

Ill-favoredly become the morning field.

Their ragged curtains poorly are let loose,
And our air shakes them passing scornfully.
Big Mars seems bankrupt in their beggared host,
And faintly through a rusty beaver peeps.

Their horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks,1

1 The tucket-sonuance was a flourish on the trumpet as a signal to prepare to march. The phrase is derived from the Italian toccata, a prelude or flourish, and suonanza, a sound, a resounding. Thus in the Devil's Law Case, 1623, two tuckets by two several trumpets.

2 "Yon island carrions." The description of the English is founded on Holinshed's melancholy account, speaking of the march from Harfleur to Agincourt:-"The Englishmen were brought into great misery in this journey; their victual was in a manner all spent, and now could they get none:-rest none could they take, for their enemies were ever at hand to give them allarmes: daily it rained, and nightly it freezed; of fewel there was great scarcity, but of fluxes great plenty; money they had enough, but wares to bestow it upon, for their releife or comforte, had they little or none."

3 Their ragged curtains are their colors.

4 Ancient candlesticks were often in the form of human figures, holding the socket for the lights in their extended hands.

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 gimmal1 bit
Lies foul with chewed 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 démonstrate the life of such a battle,
In life so lifeless as it shows itself.

Con. They have said their prayers, and they stay for death.

Dau. Shall we go send them dinners, and fresh

suits,

And give their fasting horses provender,

And after fight with them?

Con. I stay but for my guard.

2

I will the banner from a trumpet take,

On, to the field;

[Exeunt.

And use it for my haste. Come, come, away!
The sun is high, and we outwear the day.

SCENE III. The English Camp.

Enter the English Host; GLOSTER, Bedford, ExeTER, SALISBURY, and WESTMORELAND.

Glo. Where is the king?

Bed. The king himself is rode to view their battle. West. Of fighting men they have full threescore thousand.

Exe. There's five to one; besides, they all are fresh. Sal. God's arm strike with us! 'tis a fearful odds. God be with you, princes all; I'll to my charge. If we no more meet, till we meet in heaven,

1 The gimmal bit was probably a bit in which two parts or links were united, as in the gimmal ring, so called because they were double linked; from gemellus, Lat.

2 "I stay but for my guard." Dr. Johnson and Mr. Steevens were of opinion that guard here means rather something of ornament, than an attendant or attendants.

'Then, joyfully, my noble lord of Bedford,-
My dear lord Gloster,-and my good lord Exeter,
And my kind kinsman,'-warriors all, adieu!

Bed. Farewell, good Salisbury; and good luck go with thee!

Exe. Farewell, kind lord; fight valiantly to-day.
And yet I do thee wrong, to mind thee of it,
For thou art framed of the firm truth of valor.

[Exit SALISBURY. Bed. He is as full of valor, as of kindness; Princely in both.

West.

O that we now had here

Enter KING HENRY.

But one ten thousand of those men in England,
That do no work to-day!

K. Hen.

What's he that wishes so?

My cousin Westmoreland ?2-Nu, my fair cousin.
If we are marked to die, we are enough

To do our country loss; and if to live,

The fewer men, the greater share of honor.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold;

Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns3 me not, if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires:
But, if it be a sin to covet honor,

I am the most offending soul alive.

No, 'faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honor,
As one man more, methinks, would share from me,
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more.
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,

1 " And my kind kinsman." This is addressed to Westmoreland by the speaker, who was Thomas Montacute, earl of Salisbury: he was not, in point of fact, related to Westmoreland; there was only a kind of connection by marriage between their families.

2 In the quarto this speech is addressed to Warwick. 3 To yearn is to grieve or vex.