K. Henry. Thou doft thy office fairly. Turn thee

back,

And tell thy King, I do not feek him now;
But could be willing to march on to Calais
Without impeachment; for to fay the footh,
Though 'tis no wifdom to confess so much
Unto an enemy of craft and vantage,
My people are with fickness much enfeebled,
My numbers leffen'd; and those few I have,
Almost no better than fo many French;

Who, when they were in health, I tell thee, herald,
I thought, upon one pair of English legs

Did march three Frenchmen. Yet, forgive me God,
That I do brag thus; this your air of France
Hath blown that vice in me; I must repent.
Go, therefore, tell thy mafter, here I am,
My ranfom is this frail and worthless trunk,
My army but a weak and fickly guard,
Yet, God before, tell him we will come on,
Though France himself, and fuch another neighbour,
Stand in our way. There's for thy labour, Mountjoy,
Go, bid thy mafter well advise himself :

If we may pass, we will; if we be hinder'd,
We fhall your tawny ground with your red blood
Difcolour; and fo, Mountjoy, fare you well.
The fum of all our answer is but this;
We would not feek a battle as we are,
Yet, as we are, we fay, we will not shun it:
So tell your master.

Mount. I fhall deliver fo. Thanks to your High

nefs.

God before.] This was an expreffion in that age for God being my guide, or when used to another, God be thy guide. So in an old dialogue between a herdfman and a maiden going on pilgrimage to Walfingham, the

[Exit.

herdfman takes his leave in these words,

Now go thy ways, and God before.

To prevent was used in the fame sense.

Glou.

Glou. I hope, they will not come upon us now. K. Henry. We are in God's hand, brother, not in theirs.

March to the bridge; it now draws towards night; Beyond the River we'll encamp ourselves;

And on to-morrow bid them march away.

'S CENE

IX.

The French Camp near Agincourt.

[Exeunt.

Euter the Conftable of France, the Lord Rambures, Orleans, Dauphin, with others.

Con. UT, I have the best armour of the world. Would it were day!

T

Orl. You have an excellent armour, but let my horse have his due.

Con. It is the beft horfe of Europe.

Orl. Will it never be morning?

Dau. My Lord of Orleans, and my Lord high Conftable, you talk of horfe and armour,

Orl. You are as well provided of both, as any Prince in the world.

Dau. What a long night is this! I will not change my horfe with any that treads but on four pafterns; ca, ba? le Cheval volant, the Pegafus, chez les Narines de feu"! he bounds from the earth, as if his entrails were hairs; when I beftride him, I foar, I am a Hawk; he trots the air, the earth fings when he touches it; the

5 SCENE IX.] This fcene is Shorter, and I think better, in the first editions of 1600 and 6c8. But as the enlargements appear to be the author's own, I would not omit them. POPE. 6 be bounds from the earth, as

if his entrails were hairs ;] Alluding to the bounding of tennisballs, which were stuffed with hair, as appears from Much ads about Nothing, And the olderna ment of his cheek bath already flufft tennis-balls. WARBURTON.

bafeft

bafeft horn of his hoof is more mufical than the pipe of Hermes.

Orl. He's of the colour of the nutmeg.

Dau. And of the heat of the ginger. It is a beaft for Perfeus; he is pure air and fire; and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in him, but only in patient fillness while his rider mounts him; he is indeed a horfe'; and all other jades you may call beafts.

Con. Indeed, my Lord, it is a moft abfolute and excellent horfe.

Dau. It is the prince of palfreys; his neigh is like the bidding of a monarch, and his countenance enforces homage.

Orl. No more, cousin.

Dau. Nay, the man hath no wit, that cannot, from the rifing of the lark to the lodging of the lamb, vary deferved praise on my palfry; it is a theme as fluent as the fea; turn the fands into eloquent tongues, and my horse is argument for them all; 'tis a fubject 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 their particular functions and wonder at him. I once writ a fonnet in his praife, and began thus, Wonder of nature.

Orl. I have heard a fonnet begin so to one's mistress. Dau. Then did they imitate that, which I compos'd to my courfer; for my horfe is my miftrefs.

Qrl. Your mistress bears well.

Dau. Me, well;

which is the prefcript praise, and perfection, of a good and particular mistress.

And all other jades you may call beats.] It is plain that jades and beafts fhould change places, it being the firft word and not the laft, which is the term of reproach; as afterwards it is faid,

8

I had as lieve have my mistress a jude. WARBURTON. Wonder of nature. Here, I fuppofe, fome foolish poem of our author's time is ridiculed; which indeed partly appears from the answer. WARD,

Con.

Con. Methought, yesterday your mistress fhrewdly fhook your back.

Dau. So, perhaps did yours.

Con. Mine was not bridled.

Dau. O, then, belike, fhe was old and gentle; and you rode, like a Kerne of Ireland, your French hole off, and in your ftrait Troffers ".

Con. You have good judgment in horsemanship.

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 lieve have my mistress a jade.

Dau. I tell thee, Conftable, my mistress wears her

own hair.

Con. I could make as true a boast as that, if I had a Sow to my mistress.

Dau. Le chien eft retourné à son proper vomissement, & la truie lavée au bourbier; thou mak'st use of any thing.

Con. Yet do I not use my horse for my mistress; or any such proverb, fo little kin to the purpose.

Ram. My Lord Conftable, the armour, that I faw in your tent to-night, are thofe ftars, or funs Con. Stars, my Lord.

upon it?

Dau. Some of them will fall to-morrow, I hope.
Con. And yet my sky shall not want.

Dau. That may be, for you bear many superfluously; and 'twere more honour, fome were away.

Con. Ev'n as your horfe bears your praises, who would trot as well, were fome of your brags dif mounted.

Dau. Would I were able to load him with his defert. Will it never be day? I will trot to-morrow a mile, and my way shall be paved with English faces.

9 Like a Kerne of Ireland, your French bofe off, and in your Arait Stroffers.] Thus all the

Editions have mistaken this Word, which fhould be Troffers; and fignifies, a pair of Breeches,

THEOBALD.

Con.

Con. I will not fay fo, for fear I fhould be fac'd 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 prisoners?

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

Dau. 'Tis mid-night, I'll go arm myself.
Orl. The Dauphin longs for morning.
Ram. He longs to eat the English.

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

[Exit.

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 moft 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-morro w :he will keep that good name still.

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 car'd not who knew it.

Orl. He needs not, it is no hidden virtue in him. Con. By my faith, Sir, 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.

bis lacquey ;] He has beaten no body yet but his foot-boy.

'Tis a booded valour, and when it appears, it will bait.] 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 loofe upon an enemy, yet, when he makes his firft effay, we shall see how he will flutter.

Con.