Orleans, the 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 pasterns2 note.
Ça, ha! He bounds from the earth, as if his entrails
were hairs; 11Q0672 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 earth sings when he touches it:
-- 520 --
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 stillness, while his rider mounts him: he
is, indeed, a horse; and all other jades you may call
beasts.
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
unknown) 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.
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.
Nay, for methought yesterday, 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
-- 521 --
you rode, like a kern of Ireland, your French hose off,
and in your strait trossers3 note.
Con.
You have good judgment in horsemanship.
Dau.
Be warned 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 his
own hair4 note.
Con.
I could make as true a boast as that, if I had a
sow to my mistress.
Dau.
Le chien est retourné 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 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,
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
-- 522 --
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 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
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
cared 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 saw
it, but his lackey: 'tis a hooded valour, and when it
appears it will bate5 note.
Orl.
Ill will never said well.
-- 523 --
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 placed: 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 overshot.
Enter a Messenger.
Mess.
My lord high constable, the English lie within
fifteen hundred paces of your tents.
Con.
Who hath measured the ground?
Mess.
The lord Grandpré.
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 fellow6 note 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 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.
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
-- 524 --
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 steel, they will eat like
wolves, and fight like devils.
Orl.
Ay, but these English are shrewdly 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.
J. Payne Collier [1842–1844], The works of William Shakespeare. The text formed from an entirely new collation of the old editions: with the various readings, notes, a life of the poet, and a history of the Early English stage. By J. Payne Collier, Esq. F.S.A. In eight volumes (Whittaker & Co. [etc.], London) [word count] [S10101].