_O diable!_
_O diable!_
_O diable!_
_O diable!_
_O Seigneur! le jour est perdu, tout est perdu!_
_O Seigneur! le jour est perdu, tout est perdu!_
_O Seigneur! le jour est perdu, tout est perdu!_
_O Seigneur! le jour est perdu, tout est perdu!_
_Mort de ma vie!_ all is confounded, all!
Reproach and everlasting shame
Sits mocking in our plumes.
_Mort de ma vie!_ all is confounded, all! Reproach and everlasting shame Sits mocking in our plumes.
_Mort de ma vie!_ all is confounded, all! Reproach and everlasting shame Sits mocking in our plumes.
_Mort de ma vie!_ all is confounded, all! Reproach and everl
Scene 4-5 is fourteen lines long. After the elaborate buildup of Agincourt — the night, the speeches, the comedy of Pistol — Shakespeare compresses the French collapse into almost nothing. This is a conscious artistic choice: the French do not deserve a long scene. Their defeat is as quick as their confidence was vast. Bourbon's final couplet ('Let life be short, else shame will be too long') is genuinely good — it is the kind of line that earns a moment of tragic dignity. But it comes after twelve lines of pure collapse. The brevity is the judgment.
Why, all our ranks are broke.
Why, all our ranks are broke.
Why, all our ranks are broke.
Why, all our ranks are broke.
O perdurable shame! Let’s stab ourselves,
Be these the wretches that we play’d at dice for?
O perdurable shame! Let’s stab ourselves, Be these the wretches that we play’d at dice for?
O perdurable shame! Let’s stab ourselves, Be these the wretches that we play’d at dice for?
O perdurable shame! Let’s stab ourselves, Be these the wretc
What is striking about this scene is that the French lords, even in defeat, are not cowards. Bourbon chooses death. The Constable proposes a last charge. Orleans is still trying to think tactically. These are men of genuine courage who have been broken by an outcome they could not imagine. The play has been setting this up since 3-7, where the Dauphin and the French lords are depicted as overconfident — but never as cowards. Their tragedy is not cowardice but pride: they built their confidence on numbers and material superiority, and when those failed them, they had no psychological reserve. Henry's men had the opposite: they went in expecting to die and were wrong. The French went in expecting to win and were wrong. The difference in how each group handles being wrong is the moral center of Act 4.
Is this the king we sent to for his ransom?
Is this the king we sent to for his ransom?
Is this the king we sent to for his ransom?
Is this the king we sent to for his ransom?
Shame and eternal shame, nothing but shame!
Let’s die in honour! Once more back again!
And he that will not follow Bourbon now,
Let him go hence, and with his cap in hand,
Like a base pandar, hold the chamber door
Whilst by a slave, no gentler than my dog,
His fairest daughter is contaminated.
Shame and eternal shame, nothing but shame! Let’s die in honour! Once more back again! And he that will not follow Bourbon now, Let him go hence, and with his cap in hand, Like a base pandar, hold the chamber door Whilst by a slave, no gentler than my dog, His fairest daughter is contaminated.
Shame and eternal shame, nothing but shame! Let’s die in honour! Once more back again! And he that will not follow Bourbon now, Let him go hence, and with his cap in hand, Like a base pandar, hold the chamber door Whilst by a slave, no gentler than my dog, His fairest daughter is contaminated.
Shame and eternal shame, nothing but shame! Let’s die in hon
Disorder, that hath spoil’d us, friend us now!
Let us on heaps go offer up our lives.
Disorder, that has spoil’d us, friend us now! Let us on heaps go offer up our lives.
D'sorder, that has spoil’d us, friend us now! Let us on heaps go offer up our lives.
disorder, that has spoil’d us, friend us now! let us on heaps go offer up our li
We are enough yet living in the field
To smother up the English in our throngs,
If any order might be thought upon.
We are enough yet living in the field To smother up the English in our throngs, If any order might be thought upon.
We 're enough yet living in the field To smother up the Engl'sh in our throngs, If any order might be thought upon.
we are enough yet living in the field to smother up the english in our throngs,
The devil take order now! I’ll to the throng.
Let life be short, else shame will be too long.
The devil take order now! I’ll to the throng. Let life be short, else shame will be too long.
The devil take order now! I’ll to the throng. Let life be short, else shame will be too long.
The devil take order now! I’ll to the throng. Let life be sh
The Reckoning
Fourteen lines. The French army has collapsed. The lords who were drinking champagne and claiming the heavens two scenes ago are now watching their ranks dissolve around them. The Dauphin's bravado is gone — he's reduced to 'Shame and eternal shame, nothing but shame.' What's interesting is that even in defeat these men choose honor: they go back to die rather than surrender. The scene is a tragic mirror of the English scene before Agincourt — they too face impossible odds, but they face them without a Henry to inspire them.
If this happened today…
The executive team that was doing victory laps at 9 a.m. is now in an emergency meeting watching the numbers collapse in real time. Someone says 'all is lost.' Another says 'we're done.' The one who said we'd win by noon is now saying 'if we're going down, we go down swinging — send it all.' It's not courage this time. It's shame.