For our approach shall so much dare the field, That England shall couch down in fear, and yield. Enter GRANDpre. Grand. Why do you stay so long, my lords of Yon island carrions, desperate of their bones, 6 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." 8 Their ragged curtains are their colours. Their horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks, Ancient candlesticks were often in the form of human figures holding the socket, for the lights, in their extended hands. They are mentioned in Vittoria Corombana, 1612 :-'He showed like a pewter candlestick, fashioned like a man in armour, holding a tilting staff in his hand little bigger than a candle. One of these candlesticks, representing a man in armour, is in the possession of my friend Mr. Douce. A wood cut of it is in the variorum edition of Shakspeare. 9 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. To démonstrate the life of such a battle 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 guard10; 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. 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; 10 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. Malone has successfully combated their opinion. Holinshed, speaking of the French, says: "They thought themselves so sure of victory, that diverse of the noblemen made such haste toward the battle, that they left many of their servants and men of war behind them, and some of them would not once stay for their standards; as amongst other the duke of Brabant, when his standard was not come, caused a banner to be taken from a trumpet, and fastened to a speare, the which he commanded to be borne before him, instead of a standard.' I will add what Malone does not seem to have known, every prince, commander, and chief officer had his attendant guard, or squire of the body, as he was sometimes called; in French garde-du-corps. Even every gendarme, or complete man at arms, had his attendant archer, and they were both persons of distinction. The reader who wishes for proof of this may consult Nicot Thrésor de la Langue Françoise, under the words garde and gendarme. If we no more meet, till we meet in heaven, Exe. Farewell, kind lord; fight valiantly to-day: 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. 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. The incongruity of praying like a Christian and swearing like a heathen, which Johnson objects against, arose from the necessary conformation to the statute 3 James I. c. xxi. against introducing the sacred name on the stage.. The players omitted it where they could, and where the metre would not allow of the omission they substituted some other word in its place. 3 To yearn is to grieve or vex. Thus in The Merry Wives of Windsor: She laments for it that it would yearn your heart to see it.' I am the most offending soul alive. No, 'faith, my coz, wish not a man from England: That he, which hath no stomach to this fight, Then will he strip his sleeve, and show his scars, What feats he did that day; Then shall our names, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloster,- 4 "The feast of Crispian. The battle of Agincourt was fought upon the 25th of October, 1415. The saints who gave name to the day were Crispin and Crispianus, brethren, born at Rome, from whence they travelled to Soissons, in France, about the year 303, to propagate Christianity, but because they would not be chargeable to others for their maintenance, they exercised the trade of shoemakers; the governor of the town discovering them to be Christians, ordered them to be beheaded. Hence they have become the patron saints of shoemakers. The vigil is the evening before the festival. 5 With advantages.' Old men, notwithstanding the natural forgetfulness of old 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. This story shall the good man teach his son; We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; 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. Enter SALISBURY. Sal. My sovereign lord, bestow yourself with speed; The French are bravely in their battles set, 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! 6 From this day to the ending,' &c. Johnson has a note on this passage, which concludes by saying that 'the civil wars have left in the nation scarcely any tradition of more ancient history.' Nothing can be more erroneous, as Mr. Pye observes; "the_battles of Creci and Agincourt are better known than those of Edgehill and Marston-moor. The fact is, that the most popular parts of English history are the historical plays of Shakspeare. i. c. shall advance him to the rank of a gentleman. King Henry V. inhibited any person but such as had a right by inheritance or grant, from bearing coats of arms, except those who fought with him at the battle of Agincourt; and these last were allowed the chief seats at all feasts and public meetings. Vide Anstis's Order of the Garter, vol. ii. p. 108. 8 i. e. in a braving manner. "To go bravely is to look aloft; and to go gaily, desiring to have the preeminence: Speciose ingredi; faire le brave.' 9 i. e. expedition. |