Enter the Dauphin, Orléans, Rambures, and Beaumont. ORLÉANS
The sun doth gild our armor. Up, my lords. DAUPHIN
Montez à cheval! My horse, varlet! Lackey! Ha! ORLÉANS O brave spirit! DAUPHIN Via les eaux et terre. ORLÉANS Rien puis? L’air et feu? 5 DAUPHIN Cieux, cousin Orléans. Enter Constable. Now, my Lord Constable? CONSTABLE
Hark how our steeds for present service neigh. DAUPHIN
Mount them, and make incision in their hides,
That their hot blood may spin in English eyes 10
And dout them with superfluous courage. Ha! RAMBURES
What, will you have them weep our horses’ blood?
How shall we then behold their natural tears? | Over at the enemy camp, the French are as cocky as ever as they prepare for battle. |
Enter Messenger. MESSENGER
The English are embattled, you French peers. CONSTABLE
To horse, you gallant princes, straight to horse. 15
Do but behold yond poor and starvèd 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 20
To give each naked curtal ax a stain,
That our French gallants shall today draw out
And sheathe for lack of sport. Let us but blow on
them,
The vapor of our valor will o’erturn them. 25
’Tis positive against 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, 30
Though we upon this mountain’s basis by
Took stand for idle speculation,
But that our honors must not. What’s to say?
A very little little let us do,
And all is done. Then let the trumpets sound 35
The tucket sonance and the note to mount,
For our approach shall so much dare the field
That England shall couch down in fear and yield. | A Messenger arrives with word that the English have lined up and are ready to rumble. The Constable declares that whipping the English soldiers is going to be a piece of cake. In fact, the English soldiers will probably just "couch down in fear and yield." Also, he adds, the English have probably already said their prayers and are just standing around waiting to die. |
Enter Grandpré. GRANDPRÉ
Why do you stay so long, my lords of France?
Yond island carrions, desperate of their bones, 40
Ill-favoredly become the morning field.
Their ragged curtains poorly are let loose,
And our air shakes them passing scornfully.
Big Mars seems bankrupt in their beggared host
And faintly through a rusty beaver peeps. 45
The horsemen sit like fixèd candlesticks
With torch staves in their hand, and their poor jades
Lob down their heads, drooping the hides and hips,
The gum down-roping from their pale dead eyes,
And in their pale dull mouths the gemeled bit 50
Lies foul with chawed 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 55
In life so lifeless, as it shows itself. CONSTABLE
They have said their prayers, and they stay for death. DAUPHIN
Shall we go send them dinners and fresh suits,
And give their fasting horses provender,
And after fight with them? 60 CONSTABLE
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. They exit. | Bourbon jokes that maybe they should send over some fresh clothes for the English and some food for their starving horses before they destroy them in battle. They run off to fight. |