V.
FOR THE VICTORY AT AGINCOURT.
That our plain and martial ancestors could wield their swords much better than their pens, will appear from the following homely rhymes, which were drawn up by some poet laureat of those days to celebrate the immortal victory gained at Agincourt, Oct. 25, 1415. This song or hymn is given meerly as a curiosity, and is printed from a MS. copy in the Pepys collection, vol. i. folio. It is there accompanied with the musical notes, which are copied on the opposite page.
* * * * *
[When the news of this great victory arrived in England, the people "were literally mad with joy and triumph," and although Henry V. on his entrance into London after the battle, commanded that no "ditties should be made and sung by minstrels or others" in praise of Agincourt, "for that he would whollie have the praise and thankes altogether given to God," several songs have come down to us on this soul-inspiring theme. Besides the present ballad there are,
1. _Agincourte Battell_, beginning--
"A councell brave our King did hold,"
in the Percy Folio MS. (see Hales and Furnivall's edition, vol. ii. p. 166).
2. _Agincourt, or the English Bowman's Glory_, a spirited ballad quoted in Heywood's _King Edward IV._, the first stanza of which is as follows--
"Agincourt, Agincourt! Know ye not Agincourt? Where English slue and hurt All their French foemen? With our pikes and bills brown, How the French were beat downe, Shot by our bowman."
3. _King Henry V., his Conquest of France_, commencing--
"As our King lay musing on his bed."
4. _The Cambro-Briton's Ballad of Agincourt_, by Michael Drayton.
Besides these ballads there is a poem attributed to Lydgate, and Drayton's _Battaile of Agincourt_. For further information on the subject the reader should see Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas's _History_ of the Battle, and Hales and Furnivall's edition of the Percy Folio MS. (vol. ii. pp. 158, 595).
Dr. Rimbault describes the music attached to the present ballad "as the first English regular composition of which we have any remains."]
* * * * *
_Deo gratias Anglia redde pro victoria!_
Owre kynge went forth to Normandy, With grace and myyt of chivalry; The God for hym wrouyt marvelously, Wherefore Englonde may calle, and cry 5 _Deo gratias_: _Deo gratias Anglia redde pro victoria_.
He sette a sege, the sothe for to say, To Harflue[238] toune with ryal aray; That toune he wan, and made a fray, 10 That Fraunce shall rywe tyl domes day. _Deo gratias, &c._
Then went owre kynge, with alle his oste, Thorowe Fraunce for all the Frenshe boste; He spared 'for' drede of leste, ne most, 15 Tyl he come to Agincourt coste.[239] _Deo gratias, &c._
Than for sothe that knyyt comely In Agincourt feld he fauyt manly, Thorow grace of God most myyty 20 He had bothe the felde, and the victory. _Deo gratias, &c._
Ther dukys, and erlys, lorde and barone, Were take, and slayne, and that wel sone, And some were ledde in to Lundone 25 With joye, and merthe, and grete renone. _Deo gratias, &c._
Now gracious God he save owre kynge, His peple, and all his wel wyllynge, Gef him gode lyfe, and gode endynge, 30 That we with merth mowe savely synge _Deo gratias_: _Deo gratias Anglia redde pro victoria_.
FOOTNOTES:
[238] [Harfleur.]
[239] [region.]