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Home > King Henry V > ACT IV - SCENE II. The French camp.

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ACT IV - SCENE II. The French camp.
Enter the DAUPHIN, ORLEANS, RAMBURES, and others

ORLEANS
1    The sun doth gild our armour; up, my lords!
DAUPHIN
2    Montez A cheval! My horse! varlet! laquais! ha!
ORLEANS
3    O brave spirit!
DAUPHIN
4    Via! les eaux et la terre.
ORLEANS
5    Rien puis? L'air et la feu.
DAUPHIN
6    Ciel, cousin Orleans.
Enter Constable
7    Now, my lord constable!
Constable
8    Hark, how our steeds for present service neigh!
DAUPHIN
9    Mount them, and make incision in their hides,
10   That their hot blood may spin in English eyes,
11   And dout them with superfluous courage, ha!
RAMBURES
12   What, will you have them weep our horses' blood?
13   How shall we, then, behold their natural tears?
Enter Messenger

Messenger
14   The English are embattled, you French peers.
Constable
15   To horse, you gallant princes! straight to horse!
16   Do but behold yon poor and starved band,
17   And your fair show shall suck away their souls,
18   Leaving them but the shales and husks of men.
19   There is not work enough for all our hands;
20   Scarce blood enough in all their sickly veins
21   To give each naked curtle-axe a stain,
22   That our French gallants shall to-day draw out,
23   And sheathe for lack of sport: let us but blow on them,
24   The vapour of our valour will o'erturn them.
25   'Tis positive 'gainst all exceptions, lords,
26   That our superfluous lackeys and our peasants,
27   Who in unnecessary action swarm
28   About our squares of battle, were enow
29   To purge this field of such a hilding foe,
30   Though we upon this mountain's basis by
31   Took stand for idle speculation:
32   But that our honours must not. What's to say?
33   A very little little let us do.
34   And all is done. Then let the trumpets sound
35   The tucket sonance and the note to mount;
36   For our approach shall so much dare the field
37   That England shall couch down in fear and yield.
Enter GRANDPRE

GRANDPRE
38   Why do you stay so long, my lords of France?
39   Yon island carrions, desperate of their bones,
40   Ill-favouredly become the morning field:
41   Their ragged curtains poorly are let loose,
42   And our air shakes them passing scornfully:
43   Big Mars seems bankrupt in their beggar'd host
44   And faintly through a rusty beaver peeps:
45   The horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks,
46   With torch-staves in their hand; and their poor jades
47   Lob down their heads, dropping the hides and hips,
48   The gum down-roping from their pale-dead eyes
49   And in their pale dull mouths the gimmal bit
50   Lies foul with chew'd grass, still and motionless;
51   And their executors, the knavish crows,
52   Fly o'er them, all impatient for their hour.
53   Description cannot suit itself in words
54   To demonstrate the life of such a battle
55   In life so lifeless as it shows itself.
Constable
56   They have said their prayers, and they stay for death.
DAUPHIN
57   Shall we go send them dinners and fresh suits
58   And give their fasting horses provender,
59   And after fight with them?
Constable
60   I stay but for my guidon: to the field!
61   I will the banner from a trumpet take,
62   And use it for my haste. Come, come, away!
63   The sun is high, and we outwear the day.
Exeunt

< (Previous) ACT IV, SCENE IACT IV, III (Next) >
Scene Index
ACT I
  • PROLOGUE
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II


  • ACT II
  • PROLOGUE
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III
  • SCENE IV


  • ACT III
  • PROLOGUE
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III
  • SCENE IV
  • SCENE V
  • SCENE VI
  • SCENE VII


  • ACT IV
  • PROLOGUE
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III
  • SCENE IV
  • SCENE V
  • SCENE VI
  • SCENE VII
  • SCENE VIII


  • ACT V
  • PROLOGUE
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • EPILOGUE

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