basest horn of his hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes.

Orl. He's of the colour of the nutmeg.

Dau. And of the heat of the ginger. It is a beast for Perfeus; he is pure air and fire; and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in him, but only in patient ftillness while his rider mounts him he is indeed a horfe; 7 and all other jades you may call beafts.

Con. Indeed, my Lord, it is a moft abfolute and excellent horse.

Dau. It is the prince of palfrey's; his neigh is like the bidding of a monarch, and his countenance enforces homage.

Orl. No more, coufin.

Dau. Nay, the man hath no wit, that cannot, from the rifing of the lark to the lodging of the lamb, vary deferved praise on my palfry; it is a theme as fluent as the fea; turn the fands into eloquent tongues, and my horfe is argument for them all; 'tis a fubject for a Sovereign to reafon 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 fonnet in his praise, and began thus, Wonder of nature.

8

Orl. I have heard a fonnet begin fo to one's mistress. Dau. Then did they imitate that, which I compos'd to my courfer; for my horfe is my mistress.

Orl. Your mistress bears well.

Dau. Me, well;

which is the prefcript praife,

and perfection, of a good and particular mistress.

Con. Methought, yesterday your mistress fhrewdly fhook your back.

Dau. So, perhaps, did yours.

Con. Mine was not bridled.

Dau. O, then, belike, fhe was old and gentle; and you rode, like a Kerne of Ireland, your French hofe off, and in your ftrait Troffers. 9

Con. You have good judgment in horsemanship.

Dau. Be warn'd by me then; they that ride fo and ride not warily, fall into foul bogs; I had rather have my horfe to my mistress.

Con. I had as lieve have my mistress a jade.

Dau. I tell thee, Conftable, my mistress wears her own hair.

Con. I could make as true a boast as that, if I had a Sow to my mistress.

Dau. Le chein eft retourne à fon proper vomiffement, & la truie lavée au bourbier; thou mak'ft ufe of any thing.

Con. Yet do I not use my horse for my mistress; or any fuch proverb, fo little kin to the purpose. Ram. My Lord Conftable, the armour, that I faw in your tent to-night, are those stars, or funs upon it? Con. Stars, my Lord. Dau. Some of them will fall to-morrow, I hope. Con. And yet my sky shall not want.

Dau. That may be, for you bear many fuperfluoufly; and 'twere more honour, fome were away.

Con. Ev'n as your horse bears your praises, who would trot as well, were fome of your brags dif

mounted.

Dau. Would I were able to load him with his defert. Will it never be day? I will trot to morrow a mile, and my way shall be paved with English faces.

9 Like a Kerne of Ireland, your French bofe off, and in your Arait Stroffers.] Thus all the

Editions have mistaken this
Word, which should be Treffers;
and fignifies, a pair of Breeches.
THEOBALD.

Con

of

Con. I will not fay fo, for fear I should be fac'd out my way; but I would it were morning, for I would fain be about the ears of the English.

Ram. Who will go to hazard with me for twenty English prifoners?

Con. You must first go yourself to hazard ere you

have them.

Dau. 'Tis mid-night, I'll go arm myfelf. [Exit:
Orl. The Dauphin longs for morning.
Ram. He longs to eat the English.

Con. I think, he will eat all he kills.

Orl. By the white hand of my lady, he's a gallant Prince.

Con. Swear by her foot, that she oath.

may tread out the

Orl. He is fimply the most active gentleman of -France.

Orl. Doing is activity, and he will still be doing. Orl. He never did harm, that I heard of.

Con. Nor will do none to-morrow: he will keep that good name still.

Orl. I know him to be valiant.

Con. I was told that, by one that knows him better than you.

Orl. What's he?

Con. Marry, he told me fo himself; and he faid, he car'd not who knew it.

Orl. He needs not, it is no hidden virtue in him.

Con. By my faith, Sir, but it is; never any body saw it, but his lacquey; 'tis a hooded valour, and when it appears, it will bate.

Orl. Ill-will never faid well.

bis lacquey;] He has beaten no body yet but his foot-boy.

'Tis a hooded valour, and when it appears, it will bait.] This is faid with allufion to falcons which are kept hooded when they are not to fly at game, and

as foon as the hood is off bait or flap the wing. The meaning is, the dauphin's valour has never been let loose upon an enemy, yet, when he makes his firft effay, we fhall fee how he will flutter.

2

Con. I will cap that proverb with, There is flattery in friendship.

Orl. And I will take up that with, Give the devil bis due.

Con. Well plac'd; there ftands your friend for the devil; have at the very eye of that proverb with, Apox on the devil!

Orl. You are the better at proverbs, by how much a fool's bolt is foon shot.

Con. You have shot over.

Orl. 'Tis not the first time you were over-fhot.

SCENE X.

Enter a Meffenger.

Mef. My Lord high Conftable, the English lie within fifteen hundred paces of your tents. Con. Who hath meafur'd the ground?

Me. The Lord Grandpree.

Con. A valiant and moft expert gentleman.-'Would it were day!--Alas, poor Harry of England! he longs not for the dawning as we do.

Örl. What a wretched and peevish fellow is this King of England, to mope with his fat-brain'd followers fo far out of his knowledge?

Con. If the English had any apprehenfion they would

run away.

Orl. That they lack; for if their heads had any intellectual armour, they could never wear such heavy head-pieces.

Ram. That Ifland of England breeds very valiant creatures their maftiffs are of unmatchable courage.

Orl. Foolish curs, that run winking into the mouth of a Ruffian Bear, and have their heads crufh'd like

2 I will cap that proverb.] Alluding to the practice of capping

verfes.

rotten

rotten apples. You may as well fay, that's a valiant Flea, that dares eat his breakfast on the lip of a Lion.

Con. Juft, juft; and the men do fympathize with maftiffs in robuftious 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.

Orl. Ay; but these English are fhrewdly out of beef. Con. Then shall we find to-morrow, they have only ftomachs to eat, and none to fight. Now is it time to arm; come, fhall we about it?

Orl. 'Tis two o'clock; but (let me fee) by ten, We shall have each a hundred Englishmen.

ACT IV.

SCENE I.

Chorus.

Enter CHORUS.

NOW

OW entertain conjecture of a time, When creeping murmur, and the poring dark,

3 Fills the wide veffel of the universe.

3 Fills the wide vffel of the univerfe.] Univerfe for borizon for we are not to think Shakefpear fo ignorant as to imagine it was night over the whole globe at once. He intimates he knew otherwife, by that fine line in Midsummer Night's Dream.

following darkness like a dream.

Befides, the image he employs fhews he meant but half the globe; the horizon round, which has the fhape of a veffel or goblet. WARBURTON. There is a better proof that

Shakespeare knew the order of
night and day in Macbeth.

Now o'er one half the world
Nature feems dead.

But there was no great need of
any juftification. The universe, in
its original fenfe, no more means
this globe fingly than the circuit
of the horizon; but,however large
in its philofophical fenfe, it may
be poetically used for as much of
the world as falls under observa-
tion. Let me remark further,
that ignorance cannot be certain-
ly inferred from inaccuracy.
Knowledge is not always prefent.

From