'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 straight strossers. Constable You have good judgment 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 retourne a son propre vomissement, et la truie lavee au bourbier;' thou makest use of any thing. 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 to-night, are those stars or suns upon it? Constable Stars, my lord. DAUPHIN Some of them will fall to-morrow, 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 to-morrow 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 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 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 to-morrow: 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 any body 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 'Apox of the devil.' ORLEANS You are the better at proverbs, by how much 'Afool'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 Grandpre. 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 head-pieces. 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 to-morrow 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.
