thousand lightly armed English marksmen. Weighed down with armour and "sinking deeper into
the mud with every step” (Encyclopedia Britannica 1910, I:374), the French ground forces led by
the Constable managed to engage the enemy but were ultimately, like their mounted comrades,
driven back in disarray by the English archers. Agincourt was remembered as one of the most
humiliating defeats in European military history: 13 English, 5000 French dead.
“Shakespeare” appears to be quite conscious of the historical realities, as reported by Halle,
Holinshead, and modern authorities; the boasting of the French soldiers, which threatens to wreak
havoc within their own camp, furnishes an ironic counterpoint to their imminent defeat. In
Shakespeare's play, the arrogant French forces are defeated by means of their own devices. While
debating "le véridique proverbe" -- the aptness of the proverb to the circumstance -- they fail to
realize that they are about to be destroyed by their own dependence on the antiquated military
technology of armoured knights on horses.
The British, on the other hand, are seen placing their faith in pious prayer and devotion to the
divine will, not in the new technology of the bow and arrow. In this contrast between
Shakespeare's play and his sources we witness the purposeful transfiguration of sources to reflect
the ethical doctrines marked in Edward de Vere's Geneva Bible.
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