Henry V (The Play, Historical Background and Analysis of the Character in the Play). William HazlittЧитать онлайн книгу.
My army but a weak and sickly guard;
Yet, God before, tell him we will come on,
Though France himself and such another neighbour
Stand in our way. There’s for thy labour, Montjoy.
Go, bid thy master well advise himself.
If we may pass, we will; if we be hind’red,
We shall your tawny ground with your red blood
Discolour; and so, Montjoy, fare you well.
The sum of all our answer is but this:
We would not seek a battle, as we are;
Nor, as we are, we say we will not shun it.
So tell your master.
MONTJOY.
I shall deliver so. Thanks to your Highness.
[Exit.]
GLOUCESTER.
I hope they will not come upon us now.
KING HENRY.
We are in God’s hands, brother, not in theirs.
March to the bridge; it now draws toward night.
Beyond the river we’ll encamp ourselves,
And on tomorrow bid them march away.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE VII.
The French camp, near Agincourt.
[Enter the Constable of France, the Lord Rambures,
Orleans, Dauphin, with others.]
CONSTABLE.
Tut! I have the best armour of the world.
Would it were day!
ORLEANS.
You have an excellent armour; but let my horse have his due.
CONSTABLE.
It is the best horse of Europe.
ORLEANS.
Will it never be morning?
DAUPHIN. My Lord of Orleans, and my Lord High Constable, you talk of horse and armour?
ORLEANS.
You are as well provided of both as any prince in the world.
DAUPHIN. What a long night is this! I will not change my horse with any that treads but on four pasterns. Ca, ha! he bounds from the earth, as if his entrails were hairs; le cheval volant, the Pegasus, chez 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; the basest horn of his hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes.
ORLEANS.
He’s of the colour of the nutmeg.
DAUPHIN. 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.
CONSTABLE.
Indeed, my lord, it is a most absolute and excellent horse.
DAUPHIN. It is the prince of palfreys; his neigh is like the bidding of a monarch, and his countenance enforces homage.
ORLEANS.
No more, cousin.
DAUPHIN. 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,”—
ORLEANS.
I have heard a sonnet begin so to one’s mistress.
DAUPHIN. Then did they imitate that which I compos’d to my courser, for my horse is my mistress.
ORLEANS.
Your mistress bears well.
DAUPHIN. Me well; which is the prescript praise and perfection of a good and particular mistress.
CONSTABLE. Nay, for methought yesterday your mistress shrewdly shook your back.
DAUPHIN.
So perhaps did yours.
CONSTABLE.
Mine was not bridled.
DAUPHIN. O then belike she was old and gentle; and you rode, like a kern of Ireland, your French hose off, and in your strait strossers.
CONSTABLE.
You have good judgment in horsemanship.
DAUPHIN. Be warn’d by me, then; they that ride so and ride not warily, fall into foul bogs. I had rather have my horse to my mistress.
CONSTABLE.
I had as lief have my mistress a jade.
DAUPHIN.
I tell thee, Constable, my mistress wears his own hair.
CONSTABLE. I could make as true a boast as that, if I had a sow to my mistress.
DAUPHIN. “Le chien est retourne a son propre vomissement, et la truie lavee au bourbier.” Thou mak’st use of anything.
CONSTABLE. Yet do I not use my horse for my mistress, or any such proverb so little kin to the purpose.
RAMBURES. My Lord Constable, the armour that I saw in your tent tonight, are those stars or suns upon it?
CONSTABLE.
Stars, my lord.
DAUPHIN.
Some of them will fall tomorrow, I hope.
CONSTABLE.
And yet my sky shall not want.
DAUPHIN. That may be, for you bear a many superfluously, and ‘twere more honour some were away.
CONSTABLE. Even as your horse bears your praises; who would trot as well, were some of your brags dismounted.
DAUPHIN. Would I were able to load him with his desert! Will it never be day? I will trot tomorrow a mile, and my way shall be paved with English faces.
CONSTABLE.
I will not say so, for fear I should be fac’d out of my way.
But I would it were morning; for I would fain be about
the ears of the English.
RAMBURES.
Who will go to hazard with me for twenty prisoners?
CONSTABLE.
You must first go yourself to hazard, ere you have them.
DAUPHIN.
‘Tis midnight; I’ll go arm myself.
[Exit.]
ORLEANS.
The Dauphin longs for morning.
RAMBURES.
He longs to eat the English.
CONSTABLE.
I think he will eat all he kills.
ORLEANS.
By the white hand of my lady, he’s a gallant prince.
CONSTABLE.
Swear by her foot that she may