Act 3, Scene 7

The French camp, near Agincourt.

[Enter the Constable of France, the Lord Rambures, Orleans, Dauphin, with others.]
Constable of France
1529 Tut! I have the best armour of the world.
1530 Would it were day!
Duke of Orleans
1531 You have an excellent armour; but let my horse have his due.
Constable of France
1532 It is the best horse of Europe.
Duke of Orleans
1533 Will it never be morning?
The Dauphin
1534 My Lord of Orleans, and my Lord High Constable, you talk of
1535 horse and armour?
Duke of Orleans
1536 You are as well provided of both as any prince in the world.
The Dauphin
1537 What a long night is this! I will not change my horse with
1538 any that treads but on four pasterns. Ca, ha! he bounds from the
1539 earth, as if his entrails were hairs; le cheval volant, the
1540 Pegasus, chez les narines de feu! When I bestride him, I soar, I
1541 am a hawk. he trots the air; the earth sings when he touches it;
1542 the basest horn of his hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes.
Duke of Orleans
1543 He's of the colour of the nutmeg.
The Dauphin
1544 And of the heat of the ginger. It is a beast for Perseus. He is
1545 pure air and fire; and the dull elements of earth and water never
1546 appear in him, but only in patient stillness while his rider mounts
1547 him. He is indeed a horse, and all other jades you may call beasts.
Constable of France
1548 Indeed, my lord, it is a most absolute and excellent horse.
The Dauphin
1549 It is the prince of palfreys; his neigh is like the bidding of a
1550 monarch, and his countenance enforces homage.
Duke of Orleans
1551 No more, cousin.
The Dauphin
1552 Nay, the man hath no wit that cannot, from the rising of the
1553 lark to the lodging of the lamb, vary deserved praise on my
1554 palfrey. It is a theme as fluent as the sea; turn the sands into
1555 eloquent tongues, and my horse is argument for them all. 'Tis
1556 a subject for a sovereign to reason on, and for a sovereign's
1557 sovereign to ride on; and for the world, familiar to us and
1558 unknown, to lay apart their particular functions and wonder at
1559 him. I once writ a sonnet in his praise and began thus: "Wonder
1560 of nature,"—
Duke of Orleans
1561 I have heard a sonnet begin so to one's mistress.
The Dauphin
1562 Then did they imitate that which I compos'd to my courser,
1563 for my horse is my mistress.
Duke of Orleans
1564 Your mistress bears well.
The Dauphin
1565 Me well; which is the prescript praise and perfection of a
1566 good and particular mistress.
Constable of France
1567 Nay, for methought yesterday your mistress shrewdly shook
1568 your back.
The Dauphin
1569 So perhaps did yours.
Constable of France
1570 Mine was not bridled.
The Dauphin
1571 O then belike she was old and gentle; and you rode, like a
1572 kern of Ireland, your French hose off, and in your strait
1573 strossers.
Constable of France
1574 You have good judgment in horsemanship.
The Dauphin
1575 Be warn'd by me, then; they that ride so and ride not warily,
1576 fall into foul bogs. I had rather have my horse to my mistress.
Constable of France
1577 I had as lief have my mistress a jade.
The Dauphin
1578 I tell thee, Constable, my mistress wears his own hair.
Constable of France
1579 I could make as true a boast as that, if I had a sow to
1580 my mistress.
The Dauphin
1581 "Le chien est retourne a son propre vomissement, et la
1582 truie lavee au bourbier." Thou mak'st use of anything.
Constable of France
1583 Yet do I not use my horse for my mistress, or any such
1584 proverb so little kin to the purpose.
Rambures
1585 My Lord Constable, the armour that I saw in your tent
1586 to-night, are those stars or suns upon it?
Constable of France
1587 Stars, my lord.
The Dauphin
1588 Some of them will fall to-morrow, I hope.
Constable of France
1589 And yet my sky shall not want.
The Dauphin
1590 That may be, for you bear a many superfluously, and 'twere
1591 more honour some were away.
Constable of France
1592 Even as your horse bears your praises; who would trot as
1593 well, were some of your brags dismounted.
The Dauphin
1594 Would I were able to load him with his desert! Will it never
1595 be day? I will trot to-morrow a mile, and my way shall be
1596 paved with English faces.
Constable of France
1597 I will not say so, for fear I should be fac'd out of my way.
1598 But I would it were morning; for I would fain be about
1599 the ears of the English.
Rambures
1600 Who will go to hazard with me for twenty prisoners?
Constable of France
1601 You must first go yourself to hazard, ere you have them.
The Dauphin
1602 'Tis midnight; I'll go arm myself.
[Exit.]
Duke of Orleans
1603 The Dauphin longs for morning.
Rambures
1604 He longs to eat the English.
Constable of France
1605 I think he will eat all he kills.
Duke of Orleans
1606 By the white hand of my lady, he's a gallant prince.
Constable of France
1607 Swear by her foot that she may tread out the oath.
Duke of Orleans
1608 He is simply the most active gentleman of France.
Constable of France
1609 Doing is activity; and he will still be doing.
Duke of Orleans
1610 He never did harm, that I heard of.
Constable of France
1611 Nor will do none to-morrow. He will keep that good
1612 name still.
Duke of Orleans
1613 I know him to be valiant.
Constable of France
1614 I was told that by one that knows him better than you.
Duke of Orleans
1615 What's he?
Constable of France
1616 Marry, he told me so himself; and he said he car'd not
1617 who knew it.
Duke of Orleans
1618 He needs not; it is no hidden virtue in him.
Constable of France
1619 By my faith, sir, but it is; never anybody saw it but his
1620 lackey. 'Tis a hooded valour; and when it appears, it will
1621 bate.
Duke of Orleans
1622 "Ill will never said well."
Constable of France
1623 I will cap that proverb with "There is flattery in friendship."
Duke of Orleans
1624 And I will take up that with "Give the devil his due."
Constable of France
1625 Well plac'd. There stands your friend for the devil; have at
1626 the very eye of that proverb with "A pox of the devil."
Duke of Orleans
1627 You are the better at proverbs, by how much "A fool's
1628 bolt is soon shot."
Constable of France
1629 You have shot over.
Duke of Orleans
1630 'Tis not the first time you were overshot.
[Enter a Messenger.]
Messenger
1631 My Lord High Constable, the English lie within fifteen
1632 hundred paces of your tents.
Constable of France
1633 Who hath measur'd the ground?
Messenger
1634 The Lord Grandpre.
Constable of France
1635 A valiant and most expert gentleman. Would it were day!
1636 Alas, poor Harry of England, he longs not for the dawning as
1637 we do.
Duke of Orleans
1638 What a wretched and peevish fellow is this King of England,
1639 to mope with his fat-brain'd followers so far out of his
1640 knowledge!
Constable of France
1641 If the English had any apprehension, they would run away.
Duke of Orleans
1642 That they lack; for if their heads had any intellectual armour,
1643 they could never wear such heavy head-pieces.
Rambures
1644 That island of England breeds very valiant creatures. Their
1645 mastiffs are of unmatchable courage.
Duke of Orleans
1646 Foolish curs, that run winking into the mouth of a Russian bear
1647 and have their heads crush'd like rotten apples! You may as well
1648 say, that's a valiant flea that dare eat his breakfast on the lip
1649 of a lion.
Constable of France
1650 Just, just; and the men do sympathize with the mastiffs in
1651 robustious and rough coming on, leaving their wits with their wives;
1652 and then, give them great meals of beef and iron and steel, they
1653 will eat like wolves and fight like devils.
Duke of Orleans
1654 Ay, but these English are shrewdly out of beef.
Constable of France
1655 Then shall we find to-morrow they have only stomachs to
1656 eat and none to fight. Now is it time to arm. Come, shall we
1657 about it?
Duke of Orleans
1658 It is now two o'clock; but, let me see, by ten
1659 We shall have each a hundred Englishmen.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 1539cultural context
“le cheval volant, the Pegasus, chez les narines de feu”
The Dauphin switches into French: 'le cheval volant' means 'the flying horse,' and 'chez les narines de feu' means 'with nostrils of fire.' He is comparing his horse to Pegasus, the winged horse of classical myth. Translation: 'the flying horse, the Pegasus, with nostrils of fire.'
TLN 1540classical allusion
“Pegasus, chez les narines de feu! When I bestride him, I soar”
Pegasus was the winged horse of Greek myth, born from the blood of the Gorgon Medusa when Perseus beheaded her. He carried the hero Bellerophon on his battles and was eventually placed among the stars. The Dauphin compares his horse to Pegasus to claim it is not merely a horse but a mythic, sky-borne creature.
TLN 1542classical allusion
“more musical than the pipe of Hermes”
Hermes (Roman Mercury), messenger of the gods, was said to have invented the shepherd's pipe — a set of reed tubes of graduated length, also called the syrinx or 'pipes of Pan' in some traditions. The Dauphin claims that even the lowest part of his horse's hoof produces a more beautiful sound than this divine instrument.
TLN 1544classical allusion
“It is a beast for Perseus. He is pure air and fire”
Perseus was the Greek hero who killed the Gorgon Medusa and rescued Andromeda, flying through the air on the winged sandals the gods had given him. The Dauphin says his horse is fit for a hero of that stature. The next phrase — 'pure air and fire' — invokes the ancient theory that all matter is made of four elements (earth, water, air, fire); the Dauphin claims his horse belongs only to the two highest, lightest elements.
TLN 1572archaic vocab
“kern of Ireland, your French hose off, and in your strait strossers”
A 'kern' was a lightly armed Irish foot-soldier, typically poor, and by extension any low, rough peasant. 'French hose' were the wide, baggy breeches fashionable among Elizabethan gentlemen; 'strossers' (also spelled 'trousers') were the tight leg-coverings worn beneath them. The Dauphin mocks the Constable: he rode his unbridled mistress like a common kern — without proper equipment, wearing only his tight underbreeches.
TLN 1581cultural context
“Le chien est retourne a son propre vomissement, et la truie lavee au bourbier”
The Dauphin quotes a French proverb at the Constable: 'Le chien est retourne a son propre vomissement, et la truie lavee au bourbier' means 'The dog is returned to its own vomit, and the washed sow to the mud-pool.' It is his way of saying the Constable, who made a crude joke about a sow, has wallowed back into filth like an animal.
TLN 1620archaic vocab
“'Tis a hooded valour; and when it appears, it will bate”
The Constable is mocking the Dauphin's alleged courage by comparing it to a hooded falcon. A falconer keeps a hawk 'hooded' — a leather cap over its head — to keep it calm and manageable; when the hood comes off, the bird beats its wings restlessly ('bates'), straining to escape. The Constable's point: the Dauphin's bravery exists only under the hood of ignorance; the moment it is exposed to real battle, it will panic and bolt.
TLN 1622rhetorical device
“Ill will never said well”
Orleans and the Constable trade proverbs in a contest of wit — 'Ill will never said well,' 'There is flattery in friendship,' 'Give the devil his due,' 'A pox of the devil,' and 'A fool's bolt is soon shot.' Each proverb is deployed as a weapon in their sparring, and each is capped or deflected by the next. The exchange is a verbal duel that mirrors the battle to come.
TLN 1644historical topical
“That island of England breeds very valiant creatures. Their mastiffs are of unmatchable courage”
The English mastiff was famous across Europe as the fiercest and most powerful breed of dog, praised by foreign visitors and used in the bear- and bull-baiting arenas that were prominent London entertainments. Rambures' comment that England's very dogs are courageous is a back-handed compliment meant to demean English soldiers as mere brutes — brave but without the wit to recognise danger.
TLN 1652historical topical
“give them great meals of beef and iron and steel, they will eat like wolves and fight like devils”
The Constable invokes the Elizabethan stereotype of English soldiers as heavy beef-eaters: beef was the staple of the English diet, and the English were mocked — and feared — across Europe for the ferocity it supposedly gave them. Orleans immediately deflates this: the English army marching to Agincourt has run out of provisions and is 'shrewdly out of beef,' so they will have no stomach left for fighting.
historical The Battle of Agincourt (1415)