ry,
If for thy ransom thou wilt now compound,
Before thy most assured overthrow.

_K. Hen._ (C.) Who hath sent thee now?

_Mont._ The Constable of France.

_K. Hen._ I pray thee, bear my former answer back:
Bid them achieve me,[23] and then sell my bones.
Good Heaven! Why should they mock poor fellows thus?
The man, that once did sell the lion's skin
While the beast liv'd, was kill'd with hunting him.
Let me speak proudly:--Tell the Constable,
We are but warriors for the working-day:[24]
Our gayness and our guilt[25] are all besmirch'd
With rainy marching in the painful field,
And time hath worn us into slovenry.
But, by the mass, our hearts are in the trim;
And my poor soldiers tell me--yet ere night
They'll be in fresher robes; or they will pluck
The gay new coats o'er the French soldiers' heads,
And turn them out of service.
Come thou no more for ransom, gentle herald:
They shall have none, I swear, but these my joints,
Which if they have as I will leave 'em to them,
Shall yield them little, tell the Constable.

_Mont._ I shall, King Harry.

(_Rises from his knee._)

And so, fare thee well:
Thou never shalt hear herald any more.

[_Exit with Attendants, U.E.L.H._

_K. Hen._ Now, soldiers, march away:--
And how thou pleasest, Heaven, dispose the day!(K)

_Trumpet March._

[_Exeunt L.H._

[Footnote IV.17: _The king himself is rode to view their battle._]
The king is reported to have dismounted before the battle
commenced, and to have fought on foot.]

[Footnote IV.18: _----on the vigil feast his friends_,] i.e., the
evening before the festival.]

[Footnote IV.19: _----with advantages_,] Old men, notwithstanding
the natural forgetfulness of age, shall remember _their feats of
this day_, and remember to tell them _with advantage_. Age is
commonly boastful, and inclined to magnify past acts and past
times. --JOHNSON.]

[Footnote IV.20: _From this day to the ending_] It may be observed
that we are apt to promise to ourselves a more lasting memory than
the changing state of human things admits. This prediction is not
verified; the feast of Crispin passes by without any mention of
Agincourt. Late events obliterate the former: the civil wars have
left in this nation scarcely any tradition of more ancient
history. --JOHNSON.]

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