he is indeed a horfe; 3 and all other jades you may call, beafts.

Con. Indeed, my lord, it is a moft abfolute and excellent horse.

Dau. It is the prince of palfreys; his neigh is like the bidding of a monarch, and his countenance enforces homage.

Orl. No more, coufin.

Dau. Nay, the man hath no wit, that cannot, from the rifing of the lark to the lodging of the lamb, vary deferved praife on my palfrey: it is a theme as fluent as the fea; turn the fands into eloquent tongues, and my horfe is argument for them all: 'tis a fubject for a fovereign to reafon on, and for a fovereign's fovereign to ride on; and for the world (familiar to us and unknown) to lay apart their particular functions, and wonder at him. I once writ a sonnet in his praise, and began thus, 4 Wonder of nature

Orl. I have heard a fonnet begin fo to one's miftrefs.

Dau. Then did they imitate that which I compos'd to my courfer; for my horfe is my mistress.

Orl. Your miftrefs bears well.

Dau. Me, well;

which is the prescript praise

and perfection of a good and particular miftrefs.

Con. Ma foy! the other day methought your miftrefs fhrewdly shook your back.

3

Dau. So, perhaps, did yours.

Con. Mine was not bridled.

Dau. O, then, belike, fhe was old and gentle;, and

and all other jades you may call, beafts.] It is plain that jades and beafts thould change places, it being the first word and not the laft, which is the term of reproach; as afterwards it is faid,

I had as lieve have my mistress a jade. WARBURTON. 4- Wonder of nature] Here, I fuppofe, fome foolish poem of our author's time is ridiculed; which indeed partly appears from the answer. WARBURTON.

you

you rode, 5 like a kerne of Ireland, your French hose off, and in your ftrait troffers.

Con. You have good judgment in horfemanship.

Dau. Be warn'd by me then: they that ride fo, and ride not warily, fall into foul bogs; I had rather have my horse to my mistress.

Con. I had as lief have my miftrefs a jade.

Dau. I tell thee, conftable, my miftrefs wears her own hair.

Con. I could make as true a boast as that, if I had a fow to my mistress.

Dau. Le chien eft retourné à fon propre vomiffement, & la truie lavée au bourbier: thou mak'ft ufe of any thing.

Con. Yet do I not use my horse for my miftrefs; or any such proverb, fo little kin to the purpose.

Ram. My lord conftable, the armour, that I faw in your tent to-night, are thofe ftars, or funs upon it? Con. Stars, my lord.

Dau. Some of them will fall to-morrow, I hope.. Con. And yet my sky shall not want.

Dau. That may be, for you bear a many fuperfluoufly; and 'twere more honour, fome were away.

Con. Even as your horse bears your praises; who would trot as well, were fome of your brags dif mounted.

Dau. Would I were able to load him with his defert!

like a kerne of Ireland, your French hofe off, and in your ftrait ftroffers.] Thus all the editions have mistaken this word, which fhould be troffers; and fignifies, a pair of breeches.

THEOBALD.

This word very frequently occurs in the old dramatic writers. A man in The Coxcomb of Beaumont and Fletcher, speaking to an Irish fervant, fays, "I'll have thee flead, and trofers made "of thy fkin, to tumble in." Troffers appear to have been loofe breeches.The kerns of Ireland anciently rode without breeches, and therefore ftrait troffers, I believe, means only in their naked fkin, which fits clofe to them. The word is ftill preferved, but now written trowfers. STEEVENS. F

VOL. VI.

Will

Will it never be day? I will trot to-morrow a mile, and my way fhall be paved with English faces.

Con. I will not fay fo, for fear I fhould be fac'd out of my way: but I would it were morning, for I would fain be about the ears of the English.

Ram. Who will go to hazard with me for twenty English prifoners?

Con. You must first go yourfelf to hazard ere you

have them.

Dau. 'Tis mid-night, I'll go arm myself.
Orl. The Dauphin longs for morning.
Ram. He longs to eat the English.
Con. I think he will eat all he kills.

[Exit.

Orl. By the white hand of my lady, he's a gallant prince.

Con. Swear by her foot, that she may tread out the oath.

Orl. He is fimply the most active gentleman of France.

Con. Doing is activity; and he will still be doing. Orl. He never did harm that I heard of.

Con. Nor will do none to-morrow: he will keep that good name ftill.

Orl. I know him to be valiant.

Con. I was told that by one that knows him better than you.

Orl. What's he?

Con. Marry, he told me fo himself; and he said, he car'd not who knew it.

Orl. He needs not, it is no hidden virtue in him. Con. By my faith, Sir, but it is; never any body faw it, but his lacquey: 7 'tis a hooded valour, and when it appears, it will bate.

Ori.

- bis lacquey:-] He has beaten nobody yet but his footboy. JOHNSON.

7

tis a hooded valeur, and when it appears, it will bait.] This is fid with allufion to falcons which are kept hooded when they are not to fly at game, and as foon as the hood is off bait

ΟΣ

Or. Ill-will never faid well.

Con. I will cap that proverb with, There is flattery in friendship.

Orl. And I will take up that with, Give the devil bis due.

Con. Well plac'd; there ftands your friend for the devil have at the very eye of that proverb, 9 with, A pox of the devil.

:

Or. You are the better at proverbs, by how much a fool's bolt is foon fhot.

Con. You have fhot over.

Orl. 'Tis not the first time you were over-fhot.

Enter a Messenger.

Meff. My lord high conftable, the English lie within fifteen hundred paces of your tents.

Con. Who hath meafur'd the ground?

Mef. The lord Grandprée.

Con. A valiant and most expert gentleman. 1 'Would it were day!--Alas, poor Harry of England! he longs not for the dawning as we do.

Orl. What a wretched and peevish fellow is this king of England, to mope with his fat-brain'd followers fo far out of his knowledge!

Con. If the English had any apprehenfion, they would run away.

Orl. That they lack; for if their heads had any in

or flap the wing. The meaning is, the Dauphin's valour has never been let loofe upon an enemy, yet, when he makes his firft effay, we shall see how he will futter. JOHNSON.

I will cap that proverb-] Alluding to the practice of capping verfes. JOHNSON.

9-with, A pox on the devil!] The 4to 1608 reads, with, A jogge of the devil. STEEVENS.

I

Would it were day!-] Inftead of this and the fucceeding fpeeches, the 4to 1608 concludes this fcene here, with a couplet:

Come, come away,

The fun is high, and we wear out the day. STEEVENS.

tellectual armour, they could never wear fuch heavy head-pieces.

Ram. That ifland of England breeds very valiant creatures their mastiffs are of unmatchable courage.

Orl. Foolish curs, that run winking into the mouth of a Ruffian bear; and have their heads crush'd like rotten apples. You may as well fay, that's a valiant flea, that dares eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion.

Con. Juft, juft; and the men do fympathize with maftiffs in robuftious 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.

Orl. Ay; but thefe English are shrewdly out of beef.

Con. Then we fhall find to-morrow, they have only stomachs to eat, and none to fight. Now it is time to arm; come, fhall we about it?

Orl. 'Tis two o'clock; but, (let me fee) by ten, We shall have each a hundred Englishmen.

WOW entertain conjecture of a time,

When creeping murmur, and the poring dark,

Fills the wide veffel of the universe.

From camp to camp, through the foul womb of

night,

The

2 Fills the wide veffel of the univerfe.] Universe for horizon: for we are not to think Shakespeare fo ignorant as to imagine it was night over the whole globe at once. He intimates he knew otherwife, by that fine line in Midfummer Night's Dream:

-following darkness like a dream.

Befides,