Speeches (Lines) for Lewis the Dauphin in "History of Henry V"

King of France. Thus comes the English with full power upon us;
And more than carefully it us concerns
To answer royally in our defences.
Therefore the Dukes of Berri and of Bretagne,
Of Brabant and of Orleans, shall make forth,
And you, Prince Dauphin, with all swift dispatch,
To line and new repair our towns of war
With men of courage and with means defendant;
For England his approaches makes as fierce
As waters to the sucking of a gulf.
It fits us then to be as provident
As fear may teach us out of late examples
Left by the fatal and neglected English
Upon our fields.

Lewis the Dauphin. My most redoubted father,
It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe;
For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom,
Though war nor no known quarrel were in question,
But that defences, musters, preparations,
Should be maintain'd, assembled and collected,
As were a war in expectation.
Therefore, I say 'tis meet we all go forth
To view the sick and feeble parts of France:
And let us do it with no show of fear;
No, with no more than if we heard that England
Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance:
For, my good liege, she is so idly king'd,
Her sceptre so fantastically borne
By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth,
That fear attends her not.

Constable of France. O peace, Prince Dauphin!
You are too much mistaken in this king:
Question your grace the late ambassadors,
With what great state he heard their embassy,
How well supplied with noble counsellors,
How modest in exception, and withal
How terrible in constant resolution,
And you shall find his vanities forespent
Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus,
Covering discretion with a coat of folly;
As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots
That shall first spring and be most delicate.

Lewis the Dauphin. Well, 'tis not so, my lord high constable;
But though we think it so, it is no matter:
In cases of defence 'tis best to weigh
The enemy more mighty than he seems:
So the proportions of defence are fill'd;
Which of a weak or niggardly projection
Doth, like a miser, spoil his coat with scanting
A little cloth.

King of France. We'll give them present audience. Go, and bring them.
[Exeunt Messenger and certain Lords]
You see this chase is hotly follow'd, friends.

Lewis the Dauphin. Turn head, and stop pursuit; for coward dogs
Most spend their mouths when what they seem to threaten
Runs far before them. Good my sovereign,
Take up the English short, and let them know
Of what a monarchy you are the head:
Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin
As self-neglecting.

King of France. For us, we will consider of this further:
To-morrow shall you bear our full intent
Back to our brother England.

Lewis the Dauphin. For the Dauphin,
I stand here for him: what to him from England?

Duke of Exeter. Scorn and defiance; slight regard, contempt,
And any thing that may not misbecome
The mighty sender, doth he prize you at.
Thus says my king; an' if your father's highness
Do not, in grant of all demands at large,
Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his majesty,
He'll call you to so hot an answer of it,
That caves and womby vaultages of France
Shall chide your trespass and return your mock
In second accent of his ordnance.

Lewis the Dauphin. Say, if my father render fair return,
It is against my will; for I desire
Nothing but odds with England: to that end,
As matching to his youth and vanity,
I did present him with the Paris balls.

Constable of France. And if he be not fought withal, my lord,
Let us not live in France; let us quit all
And give our vineyards to a barbarous people.

Lewis the Dauphin. O Dieu vivant! shall a few sprays of us,
The emptying of our fathers' luxury,
Our scions, put in wild and savage stock,
Spirt up so suddenly into the clouds,
And overlook their grafters?

Constable of France. Dieu de batailles! where have they this mettle?
Is not their climate foggy, raw and dull,
On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale,
Killing their fruit with frowns? Can sodden water,
A drench for sur-rein'd jades, their barley-broth,
Decoct their cold blood to such valiant heat?
And shall our quick blood, spirited with wine,
Seem frosty? O, for honour of our land,
Let us not hang like roping icicles
Upon our houses' thatch, whiles a more frosty people
Sweat drops of gallant youth in our rich fields!
Poor we may call them in their native lords.

Lewis the Dauphin. By faith and honour,
Our madams mock at us, and plainly say
Our mettle is bred out and they will give
Their bodies to the lust of English youth
To new-store France with bastard warriors.

King of France. Therefore, lord constable, haste on Montjoy.
And let him say to England that we send
To know what willing ransom he will give.
Prince Dauphin, you shall stay with us in Rouen.

Lewis the Dauphin. Not so, I do beseech your majesty.

Duke of Orleans. Will it never be morning?

Lewis the Dauphin. My lord of Orleans, and my lord high constable, you
talk of horse and armour?

Duke of Orleans. You are as well provided of both as any prince in the world.

Lewis the Dauphin. What a long night is this! I will not change my
horse with any that treads but on four pasterns.
Ca, ha! he bounds from the earth, as if his
entrails were hairs; le cheval volant, the Pegasus,
chez les narines de feu! When I bestride him, I
soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the earth
sings when he touches it; the basest horn of his
hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes.

Duke of Orleans. He's of the colour of the nutmeg.

Lewis the Dauphin. And of the heat of the ginger. It is a beast for
Perseus: he is pure air and fire; and the dull
elements of earth and water never appear in him, but
only in Patient stillness while his rider mounts
him: he is indeed a horse; and all other jades you
may call beasts.

Constable of France. Indeed, my lord, it is a most absolute and excellent horse.

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

Duke of Orleans. No more, cousin.

Lewis the Dauphin. Nay, the man hath no wit that cannot, from the
rising of the lark to the lodging of the lamb, vary
deserved praise on my palfrey: it is a theme as
fluent as the sea: turn the sands into eloquent
tongues, and my horse is argument for them all:
'tis a subject for a sovereign to reason on, and for
a sovereign's sovereign 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:
'Wonder of nature,'--

Duke of Orleans. I have heard a sonnet begin so to one's mistress.

Lewis the Dauphin. Then did they imitate that which I composed to my
courser, for my horse is my mistress.

Duke of Orleans. Your mistress bears well.

Lewis the Dauphin. Me well; which is the prescript praise and
perfection of a good and particular mistress.

Constable of France. Nay, for methought yesterday your mistress shrewdly
shook your back.

Lewis the Dauphin. So perhaps did yours.

Constable of France. Mine was not bridled.

Lewis the 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 of France. You have good judgment in horsemanship.

Lewis the 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 of France. I had as lief have my mistress a jade.

Lewis the Dauphin. I tell thee, constable, my mistress wears his own hair.

Constable of France. I could make as true a boast as that, if I had a sow
to my mistress.

Lewis the Dauphin. 'Le chien est retourne a son propre vomissement, et
la truie lavee au bourbier;' thou makest use of any thing.

Constable of France. Stars, my lord.

Lewis the Dauphin. Some of them will fall to-morrow, I hope.

Constable of France. And yet my sky shall not want.

Lewis the Dauphin. That may be, for you bear a many superfluously, and
'twere more honour some were away.

Constable of France. Even as your horse bears your praises; who would
trot as well, were some of your brags dismounted.

Lewis the 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 of France. You must first go yourself to hazard, ere you have them.

Lewis the Dauphin. 'Tis midnight; I'll go arm myself.

Duke of Orleans. The sun doth gild our armour; up, my lords!

Lewis the Dauphin. Montez A cheval! My horse! varlet! laquais! ha!

Duke of Orleans. O brave spirit!

Lewis the Dauphin. Via! les eaux et la terre.

Duke of Orleans. Rien puis? L'air et la feu.

Lewis the Dauphin. Ciel, cousin Orleans.
[Enter Constable]
Now, my lord constable!

Constable of France. Hark, how our steeds for present service neigh!

Lewis the Dauphin. Mount them, and make incision in their hides,
That their hot blood may spin in English eyes,
And dout them with superfluous courage, ha!

Constable of France. They have said their prayers, and they stay for death.

Lewis the Dauphin. Shall we go send them dinners and fresh suits
And give their fasting horses provender,
And after fight with them?

Duke of Orleans. O seigneur! le jour est perdu, tout est perdu!

Lewis the Dauphin. Mort de ma vie! all is confounded, all!
Reproach and everlasting shame
Sits mocking in our plumes. O merchante fortune!
Do not run away.

Constable of France. Why, all our ranks are broke.

Lewis the Dauphin. O perdurable shame! let's stab ourselves.
Be these the wretches that we play'd at dice for?