Orleans, Dauphin, and Others.
Con.
Tut! I have the best armour of the world.—
'Would it were day!
Orl.
You have an excellent armour; but let my
horse have his due.
Con.
It is the best horse of Europe.
Orl.
Will it never be morning?
Dau.
My lord of Orleans, and my lord high constable,
you talk of horse 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 horse with any that treads but on four
pasterns. Ca, ha! He bounds from the earth, as
if his entrails were hairs1 note; le cheval volant, the
Pegasus, qui a les narines de feu! When I bestride
him, I soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the
-- 374 --
earth sings when he touches it; the basest horn of
his hoof is more musical 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
beast for Perseus: he is pure air and fire; and the
dull elements of earth and water never appear in
him2 note
, but only in patient stillness, while his rider
mounts him: he is, indeed, a horse; and all other
jades you may call—beasts3 note
.
-- 375 --
Con.
Indeed, my lord, it is a most absolute and
excellent horse.
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 rising of the lark to the lodging of the
lamb, vary deserved praise on my palfrey: it is a
theme as fluent as the sea; turn the sands into
-- 376 --
eloquent tongues, and my horse is argument for
them all: 'tis a subject 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 sonnet in his praise, and began thus:
Wonder of Nature4 note
,—
Orl.
I have heard a sonnet begin so to one's
mistress.
Dau.
Then did they imitate that which I composed
to my courser; for my horse is my mistress.
Orl.
Your mistress bears well.
Dau.
Me well; which is the prescript praise and
perfection of a good and particular mistress.
Con.
Ma foy! the other day, methought, your
mistress shrewdly shook your back.
Dau.
So, perhaps, did yours.
Con.
Mine was not bridled.
Dau.
O! then, belike, she was old and gentle;
and you rode, like a Kerne of Ireland, your French
hose off, and in your strait trossers5 note
.
-- 377 --
Con.
You have good judgment in horsemanship.
Dau.
Be warned by me then: they that ride
-- 378 --
so, 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, constable, 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 est retournè à son propre vomissement,
et la truie lavée au bourbier: thou makest
use of any thing.
Con.
Yet do I not use my horse for my mistress;
or any such proverb, so little kin to the purpose.
Ram.
My lord constable, the armour, that I saw
in your tent to-night, are those stars6 note
, or suns,
upon it?
Con.
Stars, my lord.
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 a many superfluously;
and, 'twere more honour, some were away.
Con.
Even as your horse bears your praises: who
would trot as well, were some of your brags dismounted.
Dau.
'Would, I were able to load him with his
desert! Will it never be day? I will trot to-morrow
-- 379 --
a mile, and my way shall be paved with English
faces.
Con.
I will not say so, for fear I should 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 prisoners7 note
?
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, simply, 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 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 so himself; and he said,
he cared not who knew it.
-- 380 --
Orl.
He needs not, it is no hidden virtue in
him.
Con.
By my faith, sir, but it is; never any body
saw it, but his lackey8 note: 'tis a hooded valour; and,
when it appears, it will bate9 note
.
Orl.
Ill will never said well.
Con.
I will cap that proverb1 note with—There is
flattery in friendship.
Orl.
And I will take up that with—Give the
devil his due.
Con.
Well placed: there stands your friend for
the devil: have at the very eye of that proverb,
with—A pox of the devil2 note
.
-- 381 --
Orl.
You are the better at proverbs, by how
much—A fool's bolt is soon shot.
Con.
You have shot over.
Orl.
'Tis not the first time your were overshot.
Enter a Messenger.
Mess.
My lord high constable, 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 day3 note
!—Alas, poor Harry of England!
he longs not for the dawning, as we do.
Orl.
What a wretched and peevish4 note fellow is
this king of England, to mope with his fat-brained
followers so far out of his knowledge!
Con.
If the English had any apprehension, they
would run away5 note.
Orl.
That they lack; for if their heads had any
intellectual armour, they could never wear such
heavy head-pieces.
Ram.
That Island of England breeds very valiant
creatures; their mastiffs are of unmatchable courage.
-- 382 --
Orl.
Foolish curs! that run winking into the
mouth of a Russian bear, and have their heads
crushed like rotten apples: You may as well say,—
that's a valiant flea, that dare eat his breakfast on
the lip of a lion.
Con.
Just, just; and the men do sympathize
with the mastiffs, in robustious and rough coming on,
leaving their wits with their wives: and then give
them great meals of beef5 note
, and iron and steel, they
will eat like wolves, and fight like devils.
Orl.
Ay, but these English are shrewdly out of
beef.
Con.
Then we shall find to-morrow—they have
only stomachs to eat, and none to fight. Now is
it time to arm: Come, shall we about it?
Orl.
It is now two o'clock: but, let me see,—by ten,
We shall have each a hundred Englishmen.
[Exeunt.
-- 383 --
James Boswell [1821], The plays and poems of William Shakspeare, with the corrections and illustrations of various commentators: comprehending A Life of the Poet, and an enlarged history of the stage, by the late Edmond Malone. With a new glossarial index (J. Deighton and Sons, Cambridge) [word count] [S10201].