Orl. Will it never be morning?
Dau. My Lord of Orleans, and my lord high constable,
you talk of horse and armour?[5003]
Orl. You are as well provided of both as any prince in
the world.10
Dau. What a long night is this! I will not change my
horse with any that treads but on four pasterns. Ça, ha![5004]
he bounds from the earth, as if his entrails were hairs; le[5005][5006]
cheval volant, the Pegasus, chez les narines de feu! When[5006][5007]
I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the15
earth sings when he touches it; the basest horn of his hoof
is more musical than the pipe of Hermes.
Orl. He's of the colour of the nutmeg.[5008]
Dau. And of the heat of the ginger. It is a beast for
Perseus: he is pure air and fire; and the dull elements of20
earth and water never appear in him, but only in patient
stillness while his rider mounts him: he is indeed a horse;
and all other jades you may call beasts.[5009]
Con. Indeed, my lord, it is a most absolute and
excellent horse.25
Dau. It is the prince of palfreys; his neigh is like
the bidding of a monarch and his countenance enforces
homage.
Orl. No more, cousin.
Dau. Nay, the man hath no wit that cannot, from the30
rising of the lark to the lodging of the lamb, vary deserved
praise on my palfrey: it is a theme as fluent as the sea: turn[5010]
the sands into eloquent tongues, and my horse is argument
for them all: 'tis a subject for a sovereign to reason on, and
for a sovereign's sovereign to ride on; and for the world,35
familiar to us and unknown to lay apart their particular[5011]
functions and wonder at him. I once writ a sonnet in his
praise, and began thus: 'Wonder of nature,'—