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.

Enter GLOUCESTER.

Glou. My liege !

K. Hen. My brother Gloucester's voice?

Ay;

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

SCENE II. The French camp.

[Exeunt.

Enter the DAUPHIN, ORLEANS, Rambures,
and others.

Orl. The sun doth gild our armour; up, my lords!

Dau. Montez à cheval! My horse! varlet ! laquais ! 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!

321. 'Since after all my acts of atonement it remains needful for my pardon that I should repent.'

4. Via, an exclamation of encouragement, current in English. The incoherent French scraps are in any case meant

300

to suggest ostentatious valour, probably somewhat to this effect: 'Water and earth I will ride through; to which Orleans replies ironically: Anything further? Air and fire?'-' Ay, and heaven, cousin Orleans.'

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 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 sheathe 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 enow
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

II. dout, put out, extinguish.

18. shales, shells.

29. hilding, base, mean.

ΤΟ

20

30

31. for idle speculation, as idle lookers-on.

VOL. VII

97

H

The tucket sonance and the note to mount;

For our approach shall so much dare the field
That England shall couch down in fear and yield.

Enter GRANDPRÉ.

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

Yon island carrions, desperate of their bones,
Ill-favouredly 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:
The horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks,

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 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.
Description cannot suit itself in words

To demonstrate 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.

35. The tucket sonance, etc., the flourish of trumpets which gives the signal to mount.

36. dare (technical term of fowling), frighten and cause to crouch on the earth, -as birds do when the hawk hovers over them.

40. Ill-favouredly become, make a poor show upon.、

40

50

45. like fixed candlesticks; candlesticks were often made in the form of a figure holding a torch; sometimes the figure was a mailed warrior.

47. Lob, droop.

49. gimmal bit; probably a bit made of intertwisted rings like chain armour.

56. prayers (two syllables).

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 guidon: 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.

60

SCENE III. The English camp.

Enter GLOUCESTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, ERPINGHAM, with all his host: SALISBURY and WESTMORELAND.

Glou. Where is the king?

Bed. The king himself is rode to view their battle.

West. Of fighting men they have full three score 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 Gloucester, 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 valour.
[Exit Salisbury.
Bed. He is as full of valour as of kindness;
Princely in both.

ΤΟ

West.

Enter the KING.

O that we now had here

But one ten thousand of those men in England

That do no work to-day!

K. Hen.

What's he that wishes so?

No, my fair cousin :

If we are mark'd to die, we are enow

20

My cousin Westmoreland?

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,

IO.

my kind kinsman, i.e. Westmoreland.

In Ff vv. 13, 14 are II-14. given to Bedford, and placed before v. 12. The present arrangement is due to Thirlby.

16. O that we now had here, etc. Shakespeare had no authority for assigning this wish

who (as

to Westmoreland,
stated) was not present at
Agincourt at all. In Qq it is
attributed to Warwick, who was
also absent, being Governor of
Calais. Holinshed merely re-
ports that Henry 'heard one of
the host utter his wish' thus.
is known from the Gesta to have
been Sir Walter Hungerford.

It