DAU. Be warn'd by me then: they that ride fo, and ride not warily, fall into foul bogs; I had rather have my horse to my mistress.

CON. I had as lief have my mistress a jade.

DAU. I tell thee, conftable, my mistress wears her own hair.

CON. I could make as true a boaft as that, if I had a fow to my mistress.

DAU. Le chien eft retournè à fon propre vomiffement, et la truie lavée au bourbier: thou makeft ufe of any thing.

CON. Yet do I not use my horfe for my mistress; or any fuch proverb, fo little kin to the purpose. RAM. My lord conftable, the armour, that I faw in your tent to-night, are those stars, or funs, upon it?

CON. Stars, my lord.

DAU. Some of them will fall to-morrow, I hope. CON. And yet my sky fhall not want.

DAU. That may be, for you bear a many fuperfluoufly; and 'twere more honour, fome were away.

CON. Even as your horfe bears your praifes; who would trot as well, were fome of your brags difmounted.

When Sir John Perrot, Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1585, infifted on the Irish nobility wearing the English drefs, and appearing in parliament in robes, one of them, being very loth to change his old habit, requested that the deputy would order his chaplain to walk through the streets with him in trowfers," for then, (faid he,) the boys will laugh at him as well as me."

See alfo Ware's Antiquities and Hiftory of Ireland, ch. ii. edit. 1705: "Of the other garments of the Irish, namely of their little coats and ftrait breeches, called troufes, I have little worth notice to deliver." MALONE,

DAU. 'Would, I were able to load him with his defert! Will it never be day? I will trot tomorrow a mile, and my way fhall be paved with English faces.

CON. I will not fay fo, for fear I fhould be faced out of my way: But I would it were morning, for I would fain be about the ears of the English.

RAM. Who will go to hazard with me for twenty English prifoners ?8

CON. You must first go yourself to hazard, ere you have them.

DAU. 'Tis midnight, I'll go arm myself. [Exit.
ORL. The Dauphin longs for morning.
RAM. He longs to eat the English.

CON. I think, he will eat all he kills.

ORL. By the white hand of my lady, he's a gallant prince.

CON. Swear by her foot, that she may tread out the oath.

ORL. He is, fimply, the most active gentleman of France.

CON. Doing is activity: and he will still be doing. ORL. He never did harm, that I heard of.

CON. Nor will do none to-morrow; he will keep that good name ftill.

8 Who will go to hazard with me for twenty English prisoners?] So, in the old anonymous Henry V:

66

fife."

Come and you see what me tro at the king's drummer and

"Faith, me will tro at the earl of Northumberland; and now I will tro at the king himself," &c.

This incident, however, might have been furnished by the chro nicle. STEEVENS.

See p. 399, n. 9. MALONE.

ORL. I know him to be valiant.

CON. I was told that, by one that knows him better than you.

ORL. What's he?

CON. Marry, he told me fo himself; and he said, he cared not who knew it.

ORL. He needs not, it is no hidden virtue in him.

CON. By my faith, fir, but it is; never any body faw it, but his lacquey: 'tis a hooded valour; and, when it appears, it will bate.*

ORL. Ill will never faid well.

CON. I will cap that proverb' with-There is flattery in friendship.

2

his lacquey:] He has beaten nobody but his footboy.

JOHNSON.

'tis a hooded valour; and, when it appears, it will bate.] This is faid with allufion to falcons which are kept hooded when they are not to fly at game, and, as foon as the hood is off, bait or flap the wing. The meaning is, the Dauphin's valour has never been let loose upon an enemy, yet, when he makes his first essay, we shall see how he will flutter. JOHNSON.

See Vol. VI. p. 502, n. 4. MALONE.

"This is a poor pun, taken from the terms ufed in falconry. The whole fenfe and farcafm depends upon the equivoque of one word, viz. bate, in found, but not in orthography, anfwering to the term bait in falconry. When the hawk is unhooded, her first action is baiting, that is flapping her wings, as a preparation to her flying at the game. The hawk wants no courage, but invariably baits upon taking off the hood. The Conftable of France farcaftically fays of the Dauphin's courage, 'Tis a hooded valour (i. e. it is hid from every body but his lacquey), and when it appears (by preparing to engage the enemy), it will bate' (i. e. fall off, evaporate); and not, as Dr. Johnfon fuppofes, blufter or flutter the wings, in allufion to the metaphor." Suppl. to the Gent. Mag. 1789, p. 1199. STEEVENS.

3 I will cap that proverb-] ping verfes. JOHNSON.

Alluding to the practice of cap.

ORL. And I will take up that with-Give the devil his due.

CON. Well placed; there ftands your friend for the devil: have at the very eye of that proverb, with-A pox of the devil."

ORL. You are the better at proverbs, by how much-A fool's bolt is foon fhot.

CON. You have fhot over.

ORL. 'Tis not the first time you were overfhot.

Enter a Meffenger.

MESS. My lord high conftable, the English lie within fifteen hundred paces of your tent.

CON. Who hath measured the ground?

MESS. The lord Grandpré.

CON. A valiant and most expert gentleman.Would it were day!5-Alas, poor Harry of England! he longs not for the dawning, as we do.

ORL. What a wretched and peevish fellow is this king of England, to mope with his fat-brain'd followers fo far out of his knowledge!

CON. If the English had any apprehenfion, they would run away.

with-A pox of the devil.] The quartos, 1600 and 1608, read-with, a jogge of the devil. STEEVENS.

5 'Would it were day!] Inftead of this and the fucceeding fpeeches, the quartos, 1600 and 1608, conclude this scene with a couplet :

6

66

Come, come away;

"The fun is high, and we wear out the day." STEEVENS.

peevish] in ancient language, fignified-foolish, filly. Many examples of this are given in a note on Cymbeline, Act I. fc. vii :-"He's ftrange and peevish." STEEVENS.

ORL. That they lack; for if their heads had any intellectual armour, they could never wear fuch heavy head-pieces.

RAM. That ifland of England breeds very valiant creatures; their maftiffs are of unmatchable courage.

ORL. Foolish curs! that run winking into the mouth of a Ruffian bear, and have their heads crufh'd like rotten apples: You may as well fay, —that's a valiant flea, that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion.

CON. Juft, juft; and the men do fympathize with the maftiffs, in robuftious 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. ORL. Ay, but these English are fhrewdly out of beef.

CON. Then we shall find to-morrow-they have only ftomachs to eat, and none to fight. Now is it time to arm; Come, fhall we about it?

ORL. It is now two o'clock: but, let me see,—

by ten,

We fhall have each a hundred Englishmen.

[Exeunt.

7 give them great meals of beef,] So, in King Edward III.

1596:

but fcant them of their chines of beef,
"And take away their downy featherbeds," &c.

STEEVENS.

- keep an

Our author had the chronicle in his thoughts: English man one month from his warm bed, fat beef, itale drink," &c.

So alfo, in the old King Henry V:

Why, take an Englishman out of his warm bed, "And his ftale drink, but one moneth,

And, alas, what will become of him?" MALONE.