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The Illustrated Works of Shakespeare
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Illustrated Works of Shakespeare, The (1990)(Animated Pixels)[!][CDTV-PC].iso
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03_07
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1991-04-10
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221 lines
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. a, 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 palfry. 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 composed 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 judgement in horsemanship.
Dauphin Be warned 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 retourn son propre vomissement, et la
truie lave 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 E'en 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 faced 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 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 tread out the oath.
Orleans 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 cared 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 placed! - 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 measured the ground?
Messenger The Lord Grandpr.
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-brained 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 crushed 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.