Their horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks,
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 bit
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 battie.
In life so lifeless as it shows itself.

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

Day. Shall we go send them dinners, and fresh
suits,

And give their fasting horses provender,
And after fight with them?

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,
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 Crispian :"
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,

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 Eng-And say, these wounds I had on Crispin's day.
lish 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 with you, princes all; I'll to my charge;
If we no inore 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!

Ere. 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.
[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 75-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;

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,
But we in it shall be remembered:
From this day to the ending of the world,"

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: 10
Shall think themselves accurs'd, they were not
And gentlemen in England, now a bed,

here:

And hold their manhoods cheap, while 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 battle out!
K. Hen. Why, now thou hast unwish'd five thou-
sand men ;13

9 With advantages.' Old men, notwithstanding the

I Ancient candlesticks were often in the form of hu-natural forgetfulness of old age, shall remember their man figures, holding the socket for the lights, in their extended hands.

feats of this day, and remember to tell them with advantage. Age is commonly boastful, and inclined to magnify past acts and past times,

2 The gimmal bit was probably a bit in which two parts or links were united, as in the gimmal ring, so 9From this day to the ending,' &c. Johnson has a called because they were double linked, from gemel-note on this passage, which concludes by saying that lus, Lat. 'the civil wars have left in the nation scarcely any tra 3I stay but for my guard. Dr. Johnson and Mr.dition of more ancient history. Steevens were of opinion that guard here means rather 10 i. e. shall advance him to the rank of a gentleman. something of ornament, than an attendant or attendants. King Henry V. inhibited any person but such as had a 4And my kind kinsman.' This is addressed to right by inheritance or grant, from bearing coats of arms, Westmoreland by the speaker, who was Thomas Mon-except those who fought with him at the battle of Agin tacute, earl of Salisbury: he was not in point of fact re- court; and these last were allowed the chief seats at all lated to Westmoreland, there was only a kind of con- feasts and public meetings. nection by marriage between their families.

12 i. e. expedition.

11 i. e. in a braving manner. To go bravely is to 5 In the quarto this speech is addressed to Warwick. look aloft; and to go gaily, desiring to have the preThe incongruity of praying like a Christian and swear-eminence: Speciose ingredi'; faire le brave.' ing like a heathen, which Johnson objects against, arose from the necessary conformation to the statute 3 James L. c xxi. against introducing the sacred name on the stage. The players omitted it where they could, and where the metre would not allow of the omission they substituted some other word in its place. 6 To yearn is to grieve or vex. 7 The feast of Crispian. The battle of was fought upon the 25th of October, 1415.

13- thou hast unwished five thousand men,' By wishing only thyself and me, thou hast wished five thou sand men away. The poet, inattentive to numbers, puts five thousand, but in the last scene the French are said to be full three score thousand, which Exeter declares to be five to one; the numbers of the English are vari Agincourtously stated; Holinshed makes them fifteen thousand, others but nine thousand.

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