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.
-- 56 --
Dau.
What a long night is this!—I will not change
my horse with any that treads but on four pasterns. Ha,
ha!14Q0750 he bounds from the earth, as if his entrails were
hairs; le cheval volant, the Pegasus, qui a les narine; de
feu. When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk: he
trots the air; the 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 him, but
only in patient stilness, while his rider mounts him:
he is, indeed, a horse; and all other jades you may
call—beasts. note
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 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
known note) to lay apart their particular functions, and
wonder at him. I once writ a sonnet in his praise; and
began thus, Wonder of nature,—
Orl.
I have heard a sonnet begin so to one's mistress.
-- 57 --
Dau.
Then did they imitate that which I compos'd
to my courser; for my horse is my mistress.
Orl.
Your mistress bears well.
Dau.
Me well note; which is the prescript praise, and
perfection, of a good and particular mistress.
Con.
Nay; for, methought, yesterday your mistress
shrewdly shook your back.
Dau.
So, perhaps, did yours.
Con.
Mine was not bridl'd.
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 trossers note.
Con.
You have good judgment in horsemanship.
Dau.
Be warn'd by me then: they that ride 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 note hair.
Con.
I could make as true a boast as that, if I had
a sow to my mistress.
Dau.
Le chien est retournè a son propre vomissement,
et la truie lavée note au bourbier: thou mak'st use of any
thing.
Con.
Yet I do 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 stars, 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;
-- 58 --
and 'twere more honour, some were away.
Con.
Ev'n 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 a
mile, and my way shall be paved with English faces.
Con.
I will not say so, for fear I should 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
prisoners?
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
car'd not who knew it.
Orl.
He needs not, it is no hidden virtue in him.
-- 59 --
Con.
By my faith, sir, but it is; never any body saw
it, but his lacquey: 'tis a hooded valour; and, when
it appears, it will bate.
Orl.
Ill will never said well.
Con.
I will cap that proverb, with—There is flattery
in friendship.
Orl.
And I will take up that, with—Give the devil his due.
Con.
Well plac'd&dotup; there stands 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 soon shot.
Con.
You have shot over.
Orl.
'Tis not the first time you were over-shot.
Enter a Messenger.
Mes.
My lord high constable, the English lie within
fifteeen hundred paces of your tent.
Con.
Who hath measur'd the ground?
Mes.
The lord Grandprée.
Con.
A valiant and most expert gentleman. 'Would,
it were day! 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 note
so far out of his knowledge!
Con.
If the English had any apprehension, they would
run away.
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.
-- 60 --
Orl.
Foolish curs! that run winking into the mouth
of a Russian bear, and have their heads crush'd like rotten
apples: You may as well say—that's a valiant flea,
that dare note 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 beef, and iron and steal, note they will eat
like wolves, and fight like devils.
Orl.
Ay, but these English are shrewdly note out of beef.
Con.
Then shall we 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.
Edward Capell [1767], Mr William Shakespeare his comedies, histories, and tragedies, set out by himself in quarto, or by the Players his Fellows in folio, and now faithfully republish'd from those Editions in ten Volumes octavo; with an introduction: Whereunto will be added, in some other Volumes, notes, critical and explanatory, and a Body of Various Readings entire (Printed by Dryden Leach, for J. and R. Tonson [etc.], London) [word count] [S10601].
