Act 3, Scene 5

The same.

[Enter the King of France, the Dauphin, [the Duke of Bourbon,]
King Charles VI
1305 'Tis certain he hath pass'd the river Somme.
Constable of France
1306 And if he be not fought withal, my lord,
1307 Let us not live in France; let us quit all
1308 And give our vineyards to a barbarous people.
The Dauphin
1309 O Dieu vivant! shall a few sprays of us,
1310 The emptying of our fathers' luxury,
1311 Our scions put in wild and savage stock,
1312 Spirt up so suddenly into the clouds,
1313 And overlook their grafters?
Duke of Bourbon
1314 Normans, but bastard Normans, Norman bastards!
1315 Mort de ma vie! if they march along
1316 Unfought withal, but I will sell my dukedom,
1317 To buy a slobbery and a dirty farm
1318 In that nook-shotten isle of Albion.
Constable of France
1319 Dieu de batailles! where have they this mettle?
1320 Is not their climate foggy, raw, and dull,
1321 On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale,
1322 Killing their fruit with frowns? Can sodden water,
1323 A drench for sur-rein'd jades, their barley-broth,
1324 Decoct their cold blood to such valiant heat?
1325 And shall our quick blood, spirited with wine,
1326 Seem frosty? O, for honour of our land,
1327 Let us not hang like roping icicles
1328 Upon our houses' thatch, whiles a more frosty people
1329 Sweat drops of gallant youth in our rich fields!
1330 Poor we may call them in their native lords.
The Dauphin
1331 By faith and honour,
1332 Our madams mock at us, and plainly say
1333 Our mettle is bred out, and they will give
1334 Their bodies to the lust of English youth
1335 To new-store France with bastard warriors.
Duke of Bourbon
1336 They bid us to the English dancing-schools,
1337 And teach lavoltas high, and swift corantos;
1338 Saying our grace is only in our heels,
1339 And that we are most lofty runaways.
King Charles VI
1340 Where is Montjoy the herald? Speed him hence.
1341 Let him greet England with our sharp defiance.
1342 Up, princes! and, with spirit of honour edged
1343 More sharper than your swords, hie to the field!
1344 Charles Delabreth, High Constable of France;
1345 You Dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and of Berri,
1346 Alencon, Brabant, Bar, and Burgundy;
1347 Jacques Chatillon, Rambures, Vaudemont,
1348 Beaumont, Grandpre, Roussi, and Fauconberg,
1349 Foix, Lestrale, Bouciqualt, and Charolois;
1350 High dukes, great princes, barons, lords, and knights,
1351 For your great seats now quit you of great shames.
1352 Bar Harry England, that sweeps through our land
1353 With pennons painted in the blood of Harfleur.
1354 Rush on his host, as doth the melted snow
1355 Upon the valleys, whose low vassal seat
1356 The Alps doth spit and void his rheum upon.
1357 Go down upon him, you have power enough,
1358 And in a captive chariot into Rouen
1359 Bring him our prisoner.
Constable of France
1360 This becomes the great.
1361 Sorry am I his numbers are so few,
1362 His soldiers sick and famish'd in their march;
1363 For I am sure, when he shall see our army,
1364 He'll drop his heart into the sink of fear
1365 And for achievement offer us his ransom.
King Charles VI
1366 Therefore, Lord Constable, haste on Montjoy,
King Charles VI
1367 And let him say to England that we send
1368 To know what willing ransom he will give.
1369 Prince Dauphin, you shall stay with us in Rouen.
The Dauphin
1370 Not so, I do beseech your Majesty.
King Charles VI
1371 Be patient, for you shall remain with us.
1372 Now forth, Lord Constable and princes all,
1373 And quickly bring us word of England's fall.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 1309cultural context
“O Dieu vivant!”
'O Dieu vivant!' is French for 'O living God!' — a religious oath of shock and indignation. The Dauphin is crying out in disbelief that a small English army has crossed the Somme and penetrated deep into France.
TLN 1309rhetorical device
“sprays of us, The emptying of our fathers' luxury, Our scions put in wild and savage stock, Spirt up so suddenly into the clouds, And overlook their grafters”
The Dauphin uses the language of horticulture to sneer at the English. 'Sprays' are small shoots or twigs; 'scions' are young offshoots grafted onto older rootstock; 'grafters' are those who do the grafting — by extension, the French stock that produced the English graft. He is saying: we French are the ancient stock, the English are merely wild, inferior shoots taken from us — yet those shoots are now outgrowing us. The insult is aimed at the Normans who colonized England: the English are France's own degenerate offshoots.
TLN 1315cultural context
“Mort de ma vie!”
'Mort de ma vie!' is a French oath meaning 'Death of my life!' — an expression of furious outrage, equivalent in force to a strong English curse. The Duke of Bourbon is swearing he would sell his entire dukedom rather than let the English march through France unchallenged.
TLN 1318archaic vocab
“nook-shotten isle of Albion”
'Nook-shotten' is a contemptuous coinage meaning riddled with corners and notches — the phrase mocks England's jagged, irregular coastline as the shape of a second-rate, cramped little island. 'Albion' is the oldest recorded name for Britain, here used disdainfully to make England sound ancient and provincial.
TLN 1319cultural context
“Dieu de batailles!”
'Dieu de batailles!' is French for 'God of battles!' — an oath of astonishment, here launching the Constable's furious question: how can foggy, cold England have produced soldiers of such spirit?
TLN 1322historical topical
“Can sodden water, A drench for sur-rein'd jades, their barley-broth, Decoct their cold blood to such valiant heat?”
The Constable is mocking English ale (barley-broth) as 'sodden' (boiled, watery, flat) — mere horse medicine ('a drench for sur-rein'd jades'; a drench is a forced medicinal drink given to exhausted horses). He uses the language of Galenic medicine: 'cold blood' means a phlegmatic, slow, cowardly temperament, and to 'decoct' means to heat and concentrate by boiling. He cannot believe watery English beer can 'cook' cold English blood up to the heat needed for valor.
TLN 1337historical topical
“teach lavoltas high, and swift corantos; Saying our grace is only in our heels, And that we are most lofty runaways”
Bourbon says French noblewomen are mocking them by suggesting they should go to English dancing schools to learn 'lavoltas' and 'corantos' — two fashionable court dances — since the French show spirit only in their heels, i.e. by running away. A lavolta was a dance with high leaps; a coranto was a fast, running dance. The gibe is that the French are fit only for leaping and sprinting — as they do when they flee.
TLN 1354rhetorical device
“doth the melted snow Upon the valleys, whose low vassal seat The Alps doth spit and void his rheum upon”
King Charles tells his nobles to rush on Henry's army as meltwater from the Alps crashes down onto the valleys below, which sit as 'vassal seats' — low, subordinate positions — while the mountains above them 'spit and void their rheum' (discharge their phlegm, their runoff) upon them. The Alps are imagined as great lords looking down in contempt on the lowly valleys. It is a simile designed to flatter the French by casting them as towering mountains and the English as mere valleys below.