.
He is simply the most active gentleman of France.
CONSTABLE.
Doing is activity; and he will still be doing.
ORLEANS.
He never did harm, that I heard of.
CONSTABLE. Nor will do none tomorrow. He will keep that good name still.
ORLEANS.
I know him to be valiant.
CONSTABLE.
I was told that by one that knows him better than you.
ORLEANS.
What’s he?
CONSTABLE. Marry, he told me so himself; and he said he car’d not who knew it.
ORLEANS.
He needs not; it is no hidden virtue in him.
CONSTABLE. By my faith, sir, but it is; never anybody saw it but his lackey. ‘Tis a hooded valour; and when it appears, it will bate.
ORLEANS.
“Ill will never said well.”
CONSTABLE.
I will cap that proverb with “There is flattery in friendship.”
ORLEANS.
And I will take up that with “Give the devil his due.”
CONSTABLE. Well plac’d. There stands your friend for the devil; have at the very eye of that proverb with “A pox of the devil.”
ORLEANS. You are the better at proverbs, by how much “A fool’s bolt is soon shot.”
CONSTABLE.
You have shot over.
ORLEANS.
‘Tis not the first time you were overshot.
[Enter a Messenger.]
MESSENGER. My Lord High Constable, the English lie within fifteen hundred paces of your tents.
CONSTABLE.
Who hath measur’d the ground?
MESSENGER.
The Lord Grandpre.
CONSTABLE.
A valiant and most expert gentleman. Would it were day!
Alas, poor Harry of England, he longs not for the dawning as
we do.
ORLEANS. What a wretched and peevish fellow is this King of England, to mope with his fat-brain’d followers so far out of his knowledge!
CONSTABLE.
If the English had any apprehension, they would run away.
ORLEANS. That they lack; for if their heads had any intellectual armour, they could never wear such heavy headpieces.
RAMBURES. That island of England breeds very valiant creatures. Their mastiffs are of unmatchable courage.
ORLEANS. 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 eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion.
CONSTABLE. 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 steel, they will eat like wolves and fight like devils.
ORLEANS.
Ay, but these English are shrewdly out of beef.
CONSTABLE. Then shall we find tomorrow they have only stomachs to eat and none to fight. Now is it time to arm. Come, shall we about it?
ORLEANS.
It is now two o’clock; but, let me see, by ten
We shall have each a hundred Englishmen.
[Exeunt.]
ACT FOURTH.
PROLOGUE.
[Enter Chorus.]
CHORUS.
Now entertain conjecture of a time
When creeping murmur and the poring dark
Fills the wide vessel of the universe.
From camp to camp through the foul womb of night
The hum of either army stilly sounds,
That the fix’d sentinels almost receive
The secret whispers of each other’s watch;
Fire answers fire, and through their paly flames
Each battle sees the other’s umber’d face;
Steed threatens steed, in high and boastful neighs
Piercing the night’s dull ear; and from the tents
The armourers, accomplishing the knights,
With busy hammers closing rivets up,
Give dreadful note of preparation.
The country cocks do crow, the clocks do toll,
And the third hour of drowsy morning name.
Proud of their numbers and secure in soul,
The confident and over-lusty French
Do the lowrated English play at dice;
And chide the cripple tardy-gaited Night
Who, like a foul and ugly witch, doth limp
So tediously away. The poor condemned English,
Like sacrifices, by their watchful fires
Sit patiently and inly ruminate
The morning’s danger; and their gesture sad,
Investing lank-lean cheeks and war-worn coats,
Presented them unto the gazing moon
So many horrid ghosts. O now, who will behold
The royal captain of this ruin’d band
Walking from watch to watch, from tent to tent,
Let him cry, “Praise and glory on his head!”
For forth he goes and visits all his host,
Bids them good morrow with a modest smile,
And calls them brothers, friends, and countrymen.
Upon his royal face there is no note
How dread an army hath enrounded him;
Nor doth he dedicate one jot of colour
Unto the weary and all-watched night,
But freshly looks, and overbears attaint
With cheerful semblance and sweet majesty;
That every wretch, pining and pale before,
Beholding him, plucks comfort from his looks.
A largess universal like the sun
His liberal eye doth give to every one,
Thawing cold fear, that mean and gentle all
Behold, as may unworthiness define,
A little touch of Harry in the night.
And so our scene must to the battle fly,
Where—O for pity!—we shall much disgrace