discovering the English camp, with group
of soldiery praying. After a pause the scene closes._
O, now, who will behold
The royal captain of this ruin'd band
Walking from watch to watch, from tent to tent,
Let him cry--Praise and glory on his head!
For forth he goes and visits all his host;
Bids them good-morrow with a modest smile,
And calls them--brothers, friends, and countrymen.
Upon his royal face there is no note
How dread an army hath enrounded him;
Nor doth he dedicate one jot of colour
Unto the weary and all-watched night;
But freshly looks, and overbears attaint
With cheerful semblance and sweet majesty;
That every wretch, pining and pale before,
Beholding him, plucks comfort from his looks:
Then, mean and gentle all,
Behold, as may unworthiness define,
A little touch of Harry in the night:
And so our scene must to the battle fly;
The field of Agincourt. Yet, sit and see;
Minding true things[7] by what their mockeries be.
[_Exit._
[Footnote IVc.1: _----+stilly+ sounds,_] i.e., gently, lowly.]
[Footnote IVc.2: _The secret whispers of each other's watch:_]
Holinshed says, that the distance between the two armies was but
250 paces.]
[Footnote IVc.3: _Fire answers fire;_] This circumstance is also
taken from Holinshed. "But at their coming into the village,
_fires_ were made by the English to give light on every side, as
there likewise were in the French hoste."]
[Footnote IVc.4: _----the other's +umber'd+ face:_] _Umber'd_
means here _discoloured_ by the gleam of the fires. _Umber_ is a
dark yellow earth, brought from Umbria, in Italy, which, being
mixed with water, produces such a dusky yellow colour as the
gleam of fire by night gives to the countenance. Shakespeare's
theatrical profession probably furnished him with the epithet,
as burnt umber is occasionally used by actors for colouring the
face.]
[Footnote IVc.5: _----over-+lusty+_] i.e., over-_saucy._]
[Footnote IVc.6: _Do the low-rated English play at dice;_] i.e.,
do play them away at dice. Holinshed says-- "The Frenchmen, in the
meanwhile, as though they had been sure of victory, made great
triumph; for the captains had determined before how to divide the
spoil, and _the soldiers the night before had played the
Englishmen at dice_."]
[Footnote IVc.7: _Minding true things_] To _mind
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