Sweats in the eye of Phoebus, and all night
Sleeps in Elysium; next day, after dawn,
Doth rise, and help Hyperion to his horse;
And follows so the ever-running year
With profitable labour, to his grave :9
And, but for ceremony, such a wretch,

Winding up days with toil, and nights with sleep,
Had the forehand 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 hours the peasant best advantages.

Enter ERPINGHAM.

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

K. Hen. Good old knight,

Collect them all together at my tent:

I'll be before thee.

Erp. I shall do't, my lord.

[Exit.

K.Hen. O God of battles! steel my soldiers' hearts! Possess them not with fear; take from them now The sense of reckoning, if 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!

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.

[Exeunt.

[9] These lines are exquisitely pleasing. To sweat in the eye of Phabus: and to sleep in Elysium, are expressions very poetical. JOHNS.

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 ! laċquay ! ha!

Orl. O brave spirit!

Dau. Via !-les eaux & la terre ?.

Orl. Rien puis ? l'air & 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 dout 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 sheath 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 enough
To purge this field of such a hilding foe;
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 sonuance, and the note to mount : 2

[9] To dout, for do out, is a common phrase in the western counties; where they often say, dout the fire, that is, put out the fire. MAL.

[1] This strong expression did not escape the notice of Dryden and Pope, who have both made use of it. STEEV.

For our approach shall so much dare the field,3
That England shall couch down in fear, and yield.
Enter GRANDPRE.

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 curtains4 poorly are let loose,
And our air shakes them passing scornfully.
Big Mars seems bankrupt in their beggar'd host,
And faintly through a rusty beaver peeps.
Their horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks,

With torch-staves in their hand :5 and their poorjades
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 bit
Lies foul with chew'd grass, still and motionless ;6
And their executors, the knavish crows,

Fly o'er them all, impatient for their hour.7
Description cannot suit itself in words,

To démonstrate 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.

[2] The tucket-sonuance was, I believe the name of an introductory flourish on the trumpet, as toccata in Italian is the prelude of a sonata on the harps ichord, and toccar la tromba is to blow the trumpet.

STEEV.

[3] He uses the terms of the field as if they were going out to the chace for sport. To dare the field is a phrase in falconry. Birds are dared when by the falcon in the air they are terrified from rising, so that they will be sometimes taken by the hand.-Such an easy capture the lords expected to make of the English. JOHNS.

[4] Their colours. M. MASON,-The idea seems to have been taken from ragged curtains put in motion by the air, when the windows of mean houses are left open! STEEV.

[5] Grandpre alludes to the form of ancient candlesticks, which frequently represented human figures holding the sockets for the lights in their extended hands. STEEV.

[6] Gimmal is, in the western counties, a ring; a gimmal bit is therefore a bit of which the parts played one within another. JOHNS.

[7] The crows who are to have the disposal of what they shall leave, their hilles and their flesh. JOHNS.

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. [Ex.SAL. Bed. He is as full of valour, as of kindness;

Princely in both.

West. O that we now had here

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 enough

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 yerns 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,
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,

[8] To yearn is to grieve to vex, STEEV..

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 :9
He that out-lives 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,
And say, these wounds I had on Crispin's day.
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,
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition :2

And gentlemen in England, now a-bed,

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

[9] The battle of Agincourt was fought upon the 25th of October, St. Crispin's day; the legend upon which this is founded, follows:-"Crispinus and Crispinus were brethren, born at Rome; from whence they travelled to Soissons in France, about the year 303, to propagate the christian religion; but because they would not be chargeable to others for their maintenance, they exercised the trade of shoemakers; but the governour of the town dis covering them to be Christians, ordered them to be beheaded about the year 303. From which time, the shoemakers made choice of them for their tutelar saints." See Hall's Chronicle, fol. 47. GREY.

[1] Old men, notwithstanding the natural forgetfulness of age, shall remember their feats of this day, and remember to tell them with advantage. Age is commonly boastful, and inclined to magnify past acts and past times. JOH. [2] King Henry V. inhibited any person but such as had a righ by inher irance. or grant, to assume coats of arms, except those who fought with him at the battle of Agincourt; and, I think, these last were allowed the chief seats of honour at all feasts and public meetings. TOLLET.