Their horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks, Lob down their heads, dropping the hides and hips; Con. They have said their prayers, and they stay Day. Shall we go send them dinners, and fresh And give their fasting horses provender, It yearns me not, if men my garments wear; Con. I stay but for my guard;' On, to the field: 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. Ere. Farewell, kind lord; fight valiantly to-day: O that we now had here But one ten thousand of those men in England, K. Hen. What's he, that wishes so? Nor care I, who doth feed upon my cost; Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; here: And hold their manhoods cheap, while any speaks, Sal. My sovereign lord, bestow yourself with K. Hen. All things are ready, if our minds be so, K. Hen. Thou dost not wish more help from England, cousin? West. God's will, my liege, 'would you and I Without more help, might fight this battle out! 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. |