With profitable labour, to his grave:
And, but for ceremony, such a wretch,

Winding up days with toil, and nights with sleep,
Had the fore-hand and vantage of a king.
The slave, a member of the country's peace,
Enjoys it; but in gross brain little wots

What watch the king keeps to maintain the peace,
Whose hour the peasant best advantages.

Enter ERPINGHAM.

Erp. My lord, your nobles, jealous of your absence,
Seek through your camp to find you.

K. Hen.
Collect them altogether at my tent:
I'll be before thee.

Erp.

Good old knight,

I shall do 't, my lord.

K. Hen. O God of battles! steel my soldiers' hearts!
Possess them not with fear! Take from them now
The sense of reckoning of the opposed numbers!
Pluck their hearts from them not to-day, O Lord,
O not to-day! Think not upon the fault
My father made in compassing the crown!1
I Richard's body have interred new ;

And on it have bestow'd more contrite tears
Than from it issued forced drops of blood.
Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay,
Who twice a-day their wither'd hands hold up
Toward heaven, to pardon blood; and I have built
Two chantries, where the sad and solemn priests
Sing still for Richard's soul. More will I do,
Though all that I can do is nothing worth;
Since that my penitence comes after all,
Imploring pardon.

Glo. My liege!

Enter GLOSTER.

K. Hen. My brother Gloster's voice?—Ay; I know thy errand, I will go with thee :

The day, my friends, and all things stay for me.

(1)

Think not upon the fault

My father made in compassing the crown.

[Exit.

[Exeunt.

Henry IV. dethroned Richard II. and caused him to be murdered. It is to this "fault," for which he fears God will now be avenged, that Henry V. refers.

(2) And I have built two chantries. These monasteries, which Henry V. here refers to, were situated near the royal manor of Sheen, now called Richmond, in Surrey, on opposite sides of the Thames. One was for Carthusian monks, and was named Bethlehem; the other was for religious men and women of the order of St. Bridget, and was named Sion. The latter is now in the possession of the Duke of Northumberland, and is known as Sion House.

SCENE II.-The French Camp.

Enter DAUPHIN, ORLEANS, RAMBURES, and others.

Orl. The sun doth gild our armour; up, my lords.
Dau. Montez à cheval:-My horse! valet! lacquay! ha!
Orl. O brave spirit!

Dau. Via!-les eaux et la terre—

Orl. Rien puis? l'air et le feu

Dau. Ciel! cousin Orleans.

Enter CONSTABLE.

Now, my lord constable !

Con. Hark, how our steeds for present service neigh.
Dau. Mount them, and make incision in their hides;
That their hot blood may spin in English eyes,
And doubt them with superfluous courage: Ha!

Ram. What, will you have them weep our horses' blood? How shall we then behold their natural tears?

Enter a Messenger.

Mess. The English are embattled, you French peers.
Con. To horse, you gallant princes! straight to horse!
Do but behold yon poor and starved band,

And your fair show shall suck away their souls,
Leaving them but the shales and husks of men.
There is not work enough for all our hands;
Scarce blood enough in all their sickly veins,
To give each naked curtle-axe a stain,

That our French gallants shall to-day draw out,

And sheathe for lack of sport: let us but blow on them,
The vapour of our valour will o'erturn them.

'Tis positive 'gainst all exceptions, lords,

That our superfluous lackeys, and our peasants,—
Who, in unnecessary action, swarm

About our squares of battle,- -were enow
To purge this field of such a hilding foe :3
Though we upon this mountain's basis by
Took stand for idle speculation:

But that our honours must not. What's to say?
A very little little let us do,

And all is done. Then let the trumpets sound

The tucket-sonaunce1 and the note to mount:

(1) Via. This is an old hortatory exclamation, like the French "allons," or our "now then, come on."

(2) And doubt them; i. e. awe them, daunt them.

(3) Hilding foe. A hilding, or hinderling, is a low, mean wretch. (4) The tucket-sonaunce; a flourish of trumpets here is intended.

For our approach shall so much dare the field,1
That England shall couch down in fear, and yield.

Enter GRANdpré.

Grand. Why do you stay so long, my lords of France?
Yon island carrions, desperate of their bones,
Ill-favour'dly become the morning field:
Their ragged curtains poorly are let loose,
And our air shakes them passing scornfully.
Big Mars seems bankrout in their beggar'd host,
And faintly through a rusty beaver

peeps.

The horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks,

With torch-staves in their hand;3 and their poor jades
Lob down their heads, dropping the hides and hips;
The gum down-roping from their pale-dead eyes;
And in their pale dull mouths the gimmal bit1
Lies foul with chaw'd grass, still and motionless;
And their executors, the knavish crows,5
Fly o'er them all, impatient for their hour.
Description cannot suit itself in words,

To demonstrate the life of such a battle
In life so lifeless as it shows itself.

Con. They have said their prayers, and they stay for death.

Dau. Shall we go send them dinners, and fresh suits, And give their fasting horses provender,

And after fight with them?

Con. I stay but for my guard. On to the field :

I will the banner from a trumpet take,

And use it for my haste. Come, come away,

The sun is high, and we outwear the day.

[Exeunt.

(1) Dare the field. To dare the field is a term in falconry; the meaning is, that the French should frighten the English as falcons small birds.

(2) Their ragged curtains; i. e. their miserable standards.

(3)

The horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks,
With torch-staves in their hands.

The candlesticks of the rich and noble amongst our ancestors represented men in armour, made of silver or gold, with outstretched hands, and the sockets for the lights were set in each. This was also a classical custom, and one of the highest antiquity; Homer, in the seventh book of the Odyssey, says:—

"Youths forged of gold at every table there
Stood holding flaming torches, that in night

Gave through the house each honour'd guest his light."

(4) The gimmal-bit ; i. e. a double bit; or perhaps a bit something like the curb used at present. A gimmal means a ring; therefore a gimmal-bit may mean one made of rings or chains.

(5) Their executors, the knavish crows; i. e. the crows who will dispose of all they will leave, which will only be their hides and flesh.

SCENE III.-The English Camp.

Enter the English Host; GLOSTER, Bedford, Exeter, SalisBURY, and WESTMORELAND.

Glo. Where is the king?

Bed. The king himself is rode to view their battle.

West. Of fighting men they have full threescore thousand. Exe. There's five to one; besides, they all are fresh.

Sal. God's arm strike with us! 'tis a fearful odds.

God be wi' you, princes all; I'll to my charge:
If we no more meet till we meet in heaven,
Then, joyfully ;—my noble lord of Bedford,
My dear lord Gloster, and my good lord Exeter,
And my kind kinsman, warriors all—adieu!

Bed. Farewell, good Salisbury; and good luck go with thee!
Exe. Farewell, kind lord, fight valiantly to-day ;

And yet I do thee wrong to mind thee of it,
For thou art fram'd of the firm truth of valour.

Bed. He is as full of valour as of kindness; Princely in both.

West.

O that we now had here

Enter KING HENRY.

[Exit SALISBURY,

But one ten thousand of those men in England
That do no work to-day!

K. Hen.

What's he that wishes so?

My cousin Westmoreland?—No, my fair cousin :
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow

To do our country loss; and if to live,

The fewer men the greater share of honour.

God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold;

Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;

It yearns me not1 if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires:
But if it be a sin to covet honour

I am the most offending soul alive.

No, 'faith, my coz, wish not a man from England:
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour,
As one man more, methinks, would share from me,
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more:
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,

(1) It yearns me not; i. e. it does not vex me.

Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call'd the feast of Crispian : 1
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall see this day, and live old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say, To-morrow is saint Crispian :

Then will he strip his sleeve, and show his scars:
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,

But he'll remember, with advantages,

What feats he did that day:2 Then shall our names
Familiar in his mouth as household words,-
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,

Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloster,—
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd:
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian3 shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd:

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition :1

And gentlemen in England, now a-bed,

Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here;
And hold their manhoods cheap, whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon St. Crispin's day.

Enter SALISBURY.

Sal. My sovereign lord, bestow yourelf with speed: The French are bravely in their battles set,

And will with all expedience charge on us.

K. Hen. All things are ready, if our minds be so.
West. Perish the man whose mind is backward now.

(1) The feast of Crispian. The battle of Agincourt was fought on St. Crispin's day, viz. October 25th.

(2)

But he'll remember, with advantages
What feats he did that day.

Notwithstanding old men's natural forgetfulness, yet this day the old man, who now fights with us, shall ever remember, and that, too, with the advantages of a little boasting; he shall

"Shoulder his crutch and show how fields were won."

(3) And Crispin Crispian. S. S. Crispin and Crispianus were brothers, and both martyred on October 25th.

(4) Gentle his condition; i. e. this day shall advance him to the condition of a gentleman.