SCENE II.

The French Camp. Enter Dauphin, ORLEANS, RAMBURES, and others.

Orl. The sun doth gild our armour; up, my lords. Dau. Montez à cheval :-My horse! valet! lacquay! ha!

Orl. O brave spirit!

Dau. Via!-lès eaux & la terre ?-
Orl. Rien puis ? l'air & 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 dout 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-axe a stain,

That our French gallants shall to-day draw out,
And sheath for lack of sport: let us but blow on them,
The vapour of our valour 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 :
But that our honours must not.
A very little little let us do,

What's to say?

And all is done. Then let the trumpets sound
The tucket sonuance, and the note to mount :2

[9] To dout. for do out, is a common phrase in the western counties; where they often say, dout the fire, that is, put out the fire. MAL.

This strong expression did not escape the notice of Dryden and Pope,

who have both made use of it. STEEV.

For our approach shall so much dare the field,3
That England shall couch 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 favour'dly 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.
Their horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks,

With torch-staves in their hand:5 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
Lies foul with chew'd grass, still and motionless ;"
And their executors, the knavish crows,
Fly o'er them all, impatient for their hour.7
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; On, 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.

[2] The tucket-sonuance was, I believe the name of an introductory flourish on the trumpet, as toccata in Italian is the prelude of a sonata on the harps ichord, and toccar la tromba is to blow the trumpet.

STEEV.

[3] He uses the terms of the field as if they were going out to the chace for sport. To dare the field is a phrase in falconry. Birds are dared when by the falcon in the air they are terrified from rising, so that they will be sometimes taken by the hand.Such an easy capture the lords expected to make of the English. JOHNS.

[4] Their colours. M. MASON,The idea seems to have been taken from ragged curtains put in motion by the air, when the windows of mean houses are left open. STEEV.

[5] Grandpre alludes to the form of ancient candlesticks, which frequently represented human figures holding the sockets for the lights in their extended hands. STEEV.

[6] Gimmal is, in the western counties, a ring ; a gimmal bit is therefore a bit of which the parts played one within another. JOHNS.

[7] The crows who are to have the disposal of what they shall leave, their hides and their flesh. JOHNS.

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 wi' you, princes all; I'll to my charge: If we no more meet, till we meet in heaven, 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 fram'd of the firm truth of valour. [Ex.SAL. Bed. He is as full of valour, 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 ?-No, my fair cousin ;
If we are mark'd to die, we are enough

To do our country loss; and if to live,

The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
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 yerns me not, if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires:
But, if it be a sin to covet honour,

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 lionour,
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,

Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse :
We would not die in that man's company,
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call'd-the feast of Crispian :9
He that out-lives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his friends,
And say-to-morrow is Saint Crispian :
Then will he strip his sleeve, and show his scars,
And say, these wounds I had on Crispin's day.
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,

But he'll remember, with advantages,

What feats he did that day: Then shall our names,
Familiar in their mouths as household words,-
Harry the king, Bedford, and Exeter,

Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloster,-
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd !
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered:

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he, to-day that sheds his blood with me,
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition :2

And gentlemen in England, now a-bed,

Shall think themselves accurs'd, they were not here; And hold their manhoods cheap, while any speaks, That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

[9] The battle of Agincourt was fought upon the 25th of October, St. Crispin's day; the legend upon which this is founded, follows: Crispinus and Crisp anus were brethren, born at Rome; from whence they travelled to Soissons in France, about the year 303, to propagate the christian religion; but because they would not be chargeable to others for their maintenance, they exercised the trade of shoemakers; but the governour of the town discovering them to be Christians, ordered them to be beheaded about the year 303. From which time, the shoemakers made choice of them for their tutelar saints." See Hall's Chronicle, fol. 47. GREY.

[1] Old men, notwithstanding the natural forgetfulness of age, shall remember their feats of this day, and remember to tell them with advantage. Age, is commonly boastful, and inclined to magnify past acts and past times. JOH. [2] King Henry V. inhibited any person but such as had a right by inheritance, or grant, to assume coats of arms, except those who fought with him at the battle of Agincourt; and, I think, these last were allowed the chief seats of honour at all feasts and public meetings. TOLLET.

36

VOL. IV.

Enter SALISBURY.

Sal. My sovereign lord, bestow yourself with speed : The French are bravely in their battles set, And will with all expedience charge on us.

K.Hen. All things are ready, if our minds be so. West. Perish the man, whose mind is backward now! K.Hen. Thou dost not wish more help from England, cousin?

West. God's will, my liege, 'would you and I alone, Without more help, might fight this battle out!

K.Hen. Why, now thou hast unwish'd five thousand

men ;

Which likes me better, than to wish us one.-
You know your places: God be with you all!

Tucket. Enter MONTJOY.

Mont. Once more I come to know of thee, king Harry, If for thy ransome thou wilt now compound, Before thy most assured overthrow :

For, certainly, thou art so near the gulf,

Thou needs must be englutted. Besides, in mercy,
The constable desires thee-thou wilt mind

Thy followers of repentance; that their souls
May make a peaceful and a sweet retire

From off these fields, where (wretches) their poor bodies
Must lie and fester.

K.Hen. Who hath sent thee now ?

Mont. The constable of France.

K.Hen. I pray thee, bear my former answer back; Bid them achieve me, and then sell my bones.

Good God! why should they mock poor fellows thus ? The man, that once did sell the lion's skin

While the beast liv'd, was kill'd with hunting him.

A many of our bodies shall, no doubt,

Find native graves; upon the which, I trust,
Shall witness live in brass of this day's work ;5

And those that leave their valiant bones in France,
Dying like men, though buried in your dunghills,

They shall be fam'd; for there the sun shall greet them,
And draw their honours reeking up to heaven;
Leaving their earthly parts to choke your clime,
The smell whereof shall breed a plague in France.

[4] Holinshed makes the English army consist of 15,000, and the French of 60,000 horse, besides foot, &c. in all 100,000; while Walsingham and Harding represent the English as but 9000; and other authors say that the number of the French amouted to 150,000 STEEV.

[5] That is, in brazen plates anciently let into tomb-stones. STEEV.