With torch-staves in their hand; 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 bit2
Lies foul with chew'd grass, still and motionless;
And their executors, the knavish crows,
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.

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,

2

the GIMMAL bit] i. e. the double bit, from the Latin gemellus: it seems to have meant a bit composed of two links.

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 valour3.

[Exit SALISBURY. Bed. He is as full of valour, as of kindness; Princely in both.

West.

O! that we now had here

Enter King HENRY.

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 not 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,

3 - thou art fram'd of the firm truth of valour.] This part of the dialogue is given according to Theobald's distribution of it, supported in part by the quarto editions. In the folio, 1623, the line "Farewell, kind lord. Fight valiantly today," is assigned to Bedford, and follows the two next lines, which it evidently ought to precede. The later folios adopt the error of the first. It YEARNS me not,] i. e. It grieves me not. We have had "yearn " in this sense earlier in the play, Act. ii. sc. 3, where Pistol "yearns" for the death of Falstaff.

2

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,
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 Crispian3:
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 live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his friends,
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. Then shall our names,
Familiar in their mouths 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 Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers:

For he, to-day that sheds his blood with me,

5

of CRISPIAN :] The battle of Agincourt was fought upon the 25th of October [1415], St. Crispin's day.

6 He, that shall LIVE this day, and SEE old age,] The folio reads,

"He that shall see this day and lice old age."

The transposition was corrected by Pope.

7 Then will he strip his sleeve, and show his scars.] To this line Malone added another, found in the quartos,

"And say, these wounds I had on Crispin's day."

It is quite unnecessary to the completeness of the sense, the defectiveness of which could form the only excuse for such an insertion.

Shall be my brother: be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his conditionR:

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 Saint Crispin's day.

Enter SALISBURY.

Sal. My sovereign lord, bestow yourself 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! K. Hen. Thou dost not wish more help from England, cousin?

West. God's will! my liege, would you and I alone, Without more help, might fight this royal battle.

K. Hen. Why, now thou hast unwish'd five thousand

men,

Which likes me better than to wish us one.

You know your places: God be with you all!

Tucket. Enter MONTJOY.

Mont. Once more I come to know of thee, king Harry,

If for thy ransom thou wilt now compound,

Before thy most assured overthrow?

For, certainly, thou art so near the gulf,

Thou needs must be englutted. Besides, in mercy,
The Constable desires thee thou wilt mind

Thy followers of repentance; that their souls.

May make a peaceful and a sweet retire

From off these fields, where, wretches, their poor bodies Must lie and fester.

- gentle his condition :] This day shall advance him to the rank of a gentleman. Tollet informs us, that king Henry V. inhibited any person, but such as had a right by inheritance or grant, to assume coats of arms, except those who fought with him at the battle of Agincourt.

K. Hen.

Who hath sent thee now?

Mont. The Constable of France.

K. Hen. I pray thee, bear my former answer back : Bid them achieve me, and then sell my bones.

Good God! why should they mock poor fellows thus?
The man, that once did sell the lion's skin

While the beast liv'd, was kill'd with hunting him.
A many of our bodies shall, no doubt,

Find native graves, upon the which, I trust,
Shall witness live in brass of this day's work;

And those that leave their valiant bones in France,
Dying like men, though buried in your dunghills,
They shall be fam'd: for there the sun shall greet
them,

And draw their honours reeking up to heaven,
Leaving their earthly parts to choke your clime,
The smell whereof shall breed a plague in France.
Mark, then, abounding valour in our English;
That, being dead, like to the bullet's grazing,
Break out into a second course of mischief,
Killing in relapse of mortality.

Let me speak proudly:-Tell the Constable,
We are but warriors for the working-day;
Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirch'd'
With rainy marching in the painful field;
There's not a piece of feather in our host,
(Good argument, I hope, we will not fly)
And time hath worn us into slovenry:
But, by the mass', our hearts are in the trim ;
And my poor soldiers tell me, yet ere night
They'll be in fresher robes, or they will pluck

9 Our gayness and our GILT, are all BESMIRCH'D] "Gilt" is gilding; and we find it used in the same sense in "Timon of Athens," as well as in "TwelfthNight." "Besmirch'd" is smirched, sullied, dirtied, of the use of which instances may be found in Vol. ii. pp. 235. 246, and in Vol. iii. p. 26.

1 But, by the mass,] Here, and elsewhere in this play, this asseveration was not objected to, though we have seen it carefully erased, probably at the instance of the Master of the Revels, who had carefully purged the copies of some preceding dramas.