No, not all these, thrice-gorgeous ceremony, Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave; Erp. My lord, your nobles, jealous of your ab- Seek through your camp to find you. Good old knight, Collect them all together at my tent: Erp. hearts! Possess them not with fear: take from them now Dau. Montez a cheval :-My horse! valet! lao quay ? ha! Orl. O'brave spirit! Dau. Via !-les eaux et la terre Orl. Rien puis? l'air et le feu- Now, my lord Constable. Con. Hark, how our steeds for present service neigh. Dau. Mount them, and make incision in their That their hot blood may spin in English eyes, How shall we then behold their natural tears? Mess. The English are embattled, you French Con. To horse, you gallant princes! straight to But that our honours must not. What's to say? A very And all is done. Then let the trumpets sound Grand. Why do you stay so long, my lords of Yon island carrions, 11 desperate of their bones, 8 About our squares of battle.' Thus in Antony and 1- cramm'd with distressful bread.' However oddly this may sound to modern ears, it was suffi ciently intelligible to our ancestors. Distressful bread is the bread or food of poverty; Mensa angusta. Johnson observes that these lines are exquisitely pleasing. To sweat in the eye of Phoebus,' and 'to sleep in Ely-Thus in All's Well that Ends Well, the French lords sium,' are expressions very poetical. 2 Apollo. See Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 2. 3 He little knows at the expense of how much royal vigilance that peace, which brings most advantage to the peasant, is maintained. To advantage is a verb used by Shakspeare in other places. It was formerly in general use. 4 The late editions exhibit the passage thus:-take from them now The sense of reckoning, if the opposed numbers 5 Two chantries. One of these was for Carthusian monks, and was called Bethlehem; the other was for religious men and women of the order of Saint Bridget, and was named Sion. They were on opposite sides of the Thames, and adjoined the royal manor of Sheen, now called Richmond. 6 Via, an exclamation of encouragement, on, away; of Italian origin. 7 That their hot blood may spin in English eyes, And doubt them with superfluous courage.' In the brave squares of battle.' 9A hilding foe' is a paltry, cowardly, base foe. call Bertram'a hilding. the field as if they were going out only to chase for sport. 10 The tucket sonuance,' &c. He uses the terms of To dare the field is a phrase in falconry. Birds are dared when by the falcon in the air they are terrified from rising so as to be taken by hand. Such an easy capture the lords expected to make of the English. The tucket-sonuance was a flourish on the trumpet as a signal to prepare to march. The phrase is derived from the Italian toccata, a prelude or flourish, and suonanza, a sound, a resounding. Thus in the Devil's Law Case, 1623, two tuckets by two several trumpets. 11 Yon island carrions.' The description of the English is founded on Holinshed's melancholy account, speaking of the march from Harfleur to Agincourt:-this journey; their victual was in a manner all spent, The Englishmen were brought into great misery in take, for their enemies were ever at hand to give them and now could they get none:-rest none could they allarmes daily it rained, and nightly it freezed; of fewel there was great scarcity, but of fluxes great plenty; This is the reading of the folio which Malone has alter-money they had enough, but wares to bestow it upon, ed to dout, i. e. do out in provincial language. It ap. pears to me that there is no reason for the substitution. for their releife or comforte, had they little or none." Their horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks,' Lob down their heads, dropping the hides and hips; Con. They have said their prayers, and they stay for death. Dau. Shall we go send them dinners, and fresh And give their fasting horses provender, It yearns me not, if men my garments wear; Con. I sta but for my guard ;3 On, to the field: lish Host; GLOSTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, Bed. The king himself is rode to view their battle. West. Of fighting men they have full threescore thousand. Exe. There's five to one; besides, they all are Sal. God's arm strike with us! 'tis a fearful odds. Exe. Farewell, kind lord; fight valiantly to-day: O that we now had here What's he, that wishes so? Nor care I, who doth feed upon my cost; But he'll remember, with advantages, What feats he did that day; Then shall our names, Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, here: And hold their manhoods cheap, while any speaks, Sal. My sovereign lord, bestow yourself with K. Hen. All things are ready, if our minds be so. K. Hen. Thou dost not wish more help from Eng land, cousin? West. God's will, my liege, 'would you and I Without more help, might fight this battle out! 9 With advantages.' Old men, notwithstanding the 1 Ancient candlesticks were often in the form of hu-natural forgetfulness of old age, shall remember their man figures, holding the socket for the lights, in their extended hands. feats of this day, and remember to tell them with advantage. Age is commonly boastful, and inclined to magnify past acts and past times. 2 The gimmal bit was probably a bit in which two parts or links were united, as in the gimmal ring, so 9From this day to the ending,' &c. Johnson has a called because they were double linked, from gemel-note on this passage, which concludes by saying that lus, Lat. 'the civil wars have left in the nation scarcely any tra31 stay but for my guard. Dr. Johnson and Mr.dition of more ancient history.' Steevens were of opinion that guard here means rather 10 i. e. shall advance him to the rank of a gentleman. something of ornament, than an attendant or attendants. King Henry V. inhibited any person but such as had a 4 And my kind kinsman.' This is addressed to right by inheritance or grant, from bearing coats of arms, Westmoreland by the speaker, who was Thomas Mon-except those who fought with him at the battle of Agintacute, earl of Salisbury: he was not in point of fact re- court; and these last were allowed the chief seats at all lated to Westmoreland, there was only a kind of con- feasts and public meetings. nection by marriage between their families. 12 i. e. expedition. 11 i. e. in a braving manner. To go bravely is to 5 In the quarto this speech is addressed to Warwick. look aloft; and to go gaily, desiring to have the preThe incongruity of praying like a Christian and swear-eminence: Speciose ingredi'; faire le brave, ing like a heathen, which Johnson objects against, arose from the necessary conformation to the statute 3 James I. c xxi. against introducing the sacred name on the stage. The players omitted it where they could, and where the metre would not allow of the omission they Bubstituted some other word in its place. 6 To yearn is to grieve or vex. 13thou hast unwished five thousand men. By wishing only thyself and me, thou hast wished five thou sand men away. The poet, inattentive to numbers, purs five thousand, but in the last scene the French are said to be full three score thousand, which Exeter declares to be five to one; the numbers of the English are vari 7 The feast of Crispian.' The battle of Agincourt ously stated; Holinshed makes them fifteen thousand, was fought upon the 25th of October, 1415. others but nine thousand. KING HENRY V. Which likes me better, than to wish us one.- Tucket. Enter MONTJOY. Mont. Once more I come to know of thee, King If for thy ransom thou wilt now compound, Must lie and fester. K. Hen. Who hath sent thee now? K. Hen. I pray thee, bear my former answer back; Bid them achieve me, and then sell my bones. thus? The man, that once did sell the lion's skin And draw their honours reeking up Let me speak proudly;-Tell the Constable, 1 i. e. remind. 2 i. e. in brazen plates, anciently let into tombstones. Theobald, with over busy zeal for emendation, changed 4 i. e. golden show, superficial gilding. 5 The Duke of York. This Edward duke of York has already appeared in King Richard II. under the title of duke of Aumerle. He was the son of Edmond Langley, the duke of York of the same play, who was the fifth son of King Edward III. Richard, earl of Cambridge, who appears in the second act of this play, was younger brother to this Edward duke of York. 6 The vaward is the vanguard. 7 Callino, castore me! The jargon of the old copies where these words are printed Qualitie calmie custure me-was changed by former editors into 'Quality, call you me? construe me.' Caleno custure me, mentioned as the burthen of a song Malone found in A Handful of Plesant Delites,' 1584. And Mr. 65 Which if they have, as I will leave 'em to them, 513 Mont. I shall, King Harry. And so fare thee well: Thou never shalt hear herald any more. K. Hen. I fear, thou'lt once more come again The leading of the vaward. K. Hen. Take it, brave York.-Now, soldiers, And how thou pleasest, God, dispose the day! [Exeunt. SCENE IV. The Field of Battle. Alarums: Excursions. Enter French Soldier, PISTOL, and Boy. Pist. Yield, cur.. Fr. Sol. Je pense, que vous estes le gentilhomme de bonne qualité. Pist. Quality? Callino, castore me!" art thou a gentleman? What is thy name? discuss. Fr. Sol. O seigneur Dieu ! Pist. O, signieur Dew should be a gentleman Fr. Sol. O, prennez misericorde! ayez pitié de moy! In drops of crimson blood. Fr. Sol. Est-il impossible d' eschapper la force de ton bras? Pist. Brass, cur! Thou damned and luxurious mountain goat, Fr. Sol. O pardonnez moy Pist. Say'st thou me so? is that a ton of moys ?10 Come hither, boy; Ask me this slave, in French, Boy. Escoutez; Comment estes-vous appellé ? Boy. He says, his name is-master Fer. Pist. Bid him prepare, for I will cut his throat. Boswell discovered that it was an old Irish song, which Callino, Callino, Callino, castore me, word for a sword. Generally old for; it was applied Pistol 9 For I will fetch thy rim out at thy throat. moydore (itself a corruption of moeda d'oro,) at least to jerk are words of the same import. vous prest; car ce soldat icy est disposé tout à cette heure de couper vostre gorge. Pist. Ouy, couper gorge, par ma foy, pesant, Fr. Sol. O, je vous supplie pour l'amour de Dieu, me pardonner! Je suis gentilhomme de bonne maison: gardez ma vie, et je vous donneray deux cents escus. Pist. What are his words? Boy. He prays you to save his life: he is a gentleman of a good house; and, for his ransom, he will give you two hundred crowns. Pist. Tell him-my fury shall abate, and I The crowns will take. Fr. Sol. Petit monsieur, que dit-il? par Boy. Encore qu'il est contre son jurement, de donner aucun prisonnier; neantmoins, pour les escus que vous l'avez promis, il est content de vous donner la liberté, le franchisement. : Fr. Sol. Sur mes genoux, je vous donne mille remerciemens et je m'estime heureux que je suis tombé entre les mains d'un chevalier, je pense, le plus brave, valiant, et très distingué seigneur d'Angle terre. Pist. Expound unto me, boy. Boy. He gives you, upon his knees, a thousand thanks: and he esteems himself happy that he hath fallen into the hands of (as he thinks) the most brave, valorous, and thrice worthy signieur of England. Pist. As I suck blood, I will some mercy show. Follow me, cur. [Exit PISTOL. Boy. Suivez-vous le grand capitaine. [Exit French Soldier. I did never know so full a voice issue from so empty a heart: but the saying is true,-The empty vessel makes the greatest sound. Bardolph, and Nym, had ten times more valour than this roaring devil i' the old play, that every one may pare his nails with a wooden dagger, and they are both hanged; and so would this be, if he durst steal any thing adventurously. I must stay with the lackeys, with the luggage of our camp: the French might have a good prey of us, if he knew of it; for there is none to guard it but boys. [Exit. SCENE V. Another Part of the Field of Battle. Alarums. Enter Dauphin, ORLEANS, BOURBON, Constable, RAMBURES, and others. Con. O diable! Orl. O seigneur !-le jour est perdu, tout est perdu! Dau. Mort de ma vie! all is confounded, all! Reproach and everlasting shame Sits mocking in our plumes.--O meschante fortune!-Do not run away. [A short Alarum. Why, all our ranks are broke. Dau. O perdurable shame!--let's stab ourselves. Be these the wretches that we play'd at dice for? Orl. Is this the king we sent to for his ransom? Bour. Shame, and eternal shame, nothing but shame! Con. 3 Orl. We are enough, yet living in the field, Bour. The devil take order now! I'll to the throng; Let life be short; else, shame will be too long. [Exeunt. SCENE VI. Another Part of the Field. Alarums. Enter KING HENRY and Forces; EXETER, and others. K. Hen. Well have we done, thrice-valiant coun trymen : But all's not done, yet keep the French the field. Exe. The duke of York commends him to your majesty. I K. Hen. Lives he, good uncle? thrice, within this hour, saw him down; thrice up again, and fighting; From helmet to the spur, all blood he was. Ere. In which array (brave soldier) doth he lie, Larding the plain: and by his bloody side, (Yoke-fellow to his honour-owing wounds) The noble earl of Suffolk also lies. Suffolk first died, and York, all haggled over, Comes to him, where in gore he lay insteep'd, And takes him by the beard; kisses the gashes, That bloodily did yawn upon his face; And cries aloud,-Tarry, dear cousin Suffolk! My soul shall thine keep company to heaven: Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly abreast; As, in this glorious and well-foughten field, We kept together in our chivalry! Upon these words I came, and cheer'd him up: He smil'd me in the face, raught me his hand, And, with a feeble gripe, says,-Dear my lord, my service to my sovereign. Commend So did he turn, and over Suffolk's neck But all And my gave me up to tears. K. Hen. I blame you not; For, hearing this, I must perforce compound With mistful eyes, or they will issue too. [Alarum. But, hark! what new alarum is this same?The French have reinforc'd their scatter'd men: Then every soldier kill his prisoners; Give the word through. [Exeunt. SCENE VII. Another Part of the Field. Alar ums. Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER. Flu. Kill the poys and the luggage! 'tis expressly against the law of arms: 'tis as arrant a piece of knavery, mark you now, as can be offered in the 'orld In your conscience now, is it not? Gow. 'Tis certain, there's not a boy left alive; and the cowardly rascals, that ran from the battle, have done this slaughter: besides, they have burned and carried away all that was in the king's tent; wherefore the king, most worthily, hath caused every soldier to cut his prisoner's throat." O, 'tis a Let us die in fight: Once more back again; 1 'this roaring devil i' the old play, that every one may pare his nails with a wooden dagger. See note on Twelfth Night, Act iv. Sc. 2. In the old play of The Taming of a Shrew, one of the players says, My lord, we must have a little vinegar to make our devil roar. Ho! ho! and Ah! ha! seem to have been the exclamations constantly given to the devil, who is, in the old mysteries, as turbulent and vainglorious as Pistol. The Vice or fool, among other indignities, used to threaten to pare his nails with his dagger of lath; the devil being supposed from-choice to keep his claws long and sharp. 2 The old copy wants the word fight, which was supplied by Malone. Theobald proposed let us die inlant, which Steevens adopted. Flu. Av, he was porn at Monmouth, captain Gower: What call you the town's name, where Alexander the pig was born? 3 i. e. who has no more gentility. 4 This line is from the quartos. 6 5 i. e. reached. But all my mother came into my eyes, And gave me up to tears.' Thus the quarto. The folio reads 'And all,' &c. Bid has here the force of but that, 7 Caused every soldier to cut his prisoner's throat' The king killed his prisoners (says Johnson) because he expected another battle, and he had not sufficient men to guard one army and fight another. Gower's reason is, as we see, different. Shakspeare followed Holinshed, who gives both reasons for Henry's conduct, but has chosen to make the king mention one of them and Gower the other. don, as I take it. Besides, we'll cut the throats of those we have;' Ere. Here comes the herald of the French, my Glo. His eves are humbler than they us'd to be. K. Hen. How now, what means this, herald? know'st thou not, Flu. I think, it is in Macedon, where Alexander is porn. I tell you, captain,-If you look in the That I have fin'd these bones of mine for ransom? maps of the 'orld, I warrant, you shall find, in the Com'st thou again for ransom? comparisons between Macedon and Monmouth, that Mont. No, great king: the situations, look you, is both alike. There is a I'come to thee for charitable licence, river in Macedon; and there is also moreover a That we may wander o'er this bloody field, river at Monmouth: it is called Wye, at Mon-To book our dead, and then to bury them; mouth: but it is out of my prains, what is the name To sort our nobies from our common men; of the other river; but 'tis all one, 'tis so like as my For many of our princes (woe the while!) fingers is to my fingers, and there is salmons in Lie drown'd and soak'd in mercenary blood both. If you mark Alexander's life well, Harry of (So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs Monmouth's life is come after it indifferent well; In blood of princes;) and their wounded steeds for there is figures in all things. Alexander (God Fret fetlock deep in gore, and, with wild rage, knows, and you know,) in his rages, and his furies, Yerk out their armed heels at their dead masters, and his wraths, and his cholers, and his moods, and Killing them twice. O, give us leave, great king, his displeasures, and his indignations, and also be-To view the field in safety, and dispose ing a little intoxicates in his prains, did, in his ales Of their dead bodies. and his angers, look you, kill his pest friend, Clytus. Gow. Our king is not like him in that; he never killed any of his friends. Flu. It is not well done, mark you now, to take tales out of my mouth, ere it is made an end and finished. I speak but in the figures and comparisous of it: A's Alexander is kill his friend Clytus, being in his ales and his cups; so also Harry Monmouth, being in his right wits and his goot judg ments, is turn away the fat knight with the great pelly-doublet: he was full of jests, and gipes, and knaveries, and mocks; I am forgot his name." Gow. Sir John Falstaff. Flu. That is he: I can tell you, there is goot men porn at Monmouth. Gow. Here comes his majesty. Alarum. Enter KING HENRY, with a Part of th K. Hen. I was not angry since I came to France 1 As Alexander,' &c. Steevens thinks that Shakspeare here ridicules the parallels of Plutarch: he appears to have been well read in Sir Thomas North's Translation. 2 Johnson observes, that this is the last time Falstaff can make sport. The poet was loath to part with him, and has continued his memory as long as he could, I K. Hen. I tell thee truly, herald, Mont. K. Hen. Then call we this-the field of Agin- Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus. Flu. Your grandfather of famous memory, an't please your majesty, and your great-uncle Edward the plack prince of Wales, as I have read in the chronicles, fought a most prave pattle here in France. K. Hen. They did, Fluellen. Flu. Your majesty says very true: If your maservice in a garden where leeks did grow, wearing jesties is remember'd of it, the Welshmen did goot feeks in their Monmouth caps; which, your majesty knows, to this hour is an honourable padge of the service; and, I do believe, your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek upon Saint Tavy's day. K. Hen. I wear it for a memorable honour: was ended, the Englishmen disposed themselves in or. der of battayle, ready to abide a new fielde, and also to invade and newly set on their enemies.--Some write, that the king perceiving his enemies in one parte to as semble together, as though they meant to give a new battle for preservation of the prisoners, sent to them a herault, commanding them either to deport out of his sight,or else to come forward at once and give battaile; promising herewith, that, if they did offer to fight 4 i. e. scour away. To run swiftly in various direc-agayne, not only those prisoners which his people al tions. It has the same meaning in Macbeth, Act. v. Sc.ready had taken, but also so many of them as in this 3 Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick. He did not, however, obtain that title till 1417, two years after the era of this play. iii. Skirr the country round.' attack on his camp, stopped the slaughter, and was still able to save a great number. It was policy in Henry to intimidate the French by threatening to kill his prisoners, and occasioned them, in fact, to lay down their arms. new conflicte, which they thus attempted, should full 5 Besides, we'll cut the throats of those we have.' into his hands, should die the death without redemp. Johnson accuses the poet of having made the king cut tion. The fact is, that notwithstanding the first order the throats of his prisoners twice over. Malone replies concerning the prisoners, they were not all put to death, that the incongruity, if it be one, is Holinshed's, for as appears from a subsequent passage, and the concur thus the matter is stated by him: While the battle was rent testimony of various historians, upon whose autho yet going on, about six hundred horsemen, who were rity Hume says that Henry, on discovering that his dan the first that fled, hearing that the English tents were ager was not so great as he at first apprehended from the good way distant from the army, without a suflicient guard, entered and pillaged the king's camp. When the outery of the lackies and boys which ran away for fear of the Frenchmen, thus spoiling the camp, came to the king's ears, he doubting lest his enemies should gather together again and begin a new fielde, and mis- 6 Monmouth, according to Fuller, was celebrated for trusting further that the prisoners would either be an its caps, which were particularly worn by soldiers. Tha aide to his enemies, or very enemies to their takers in- best caps were formerly made at Monmouth, where the deed, if they were suffered to live, contrary to his ac- copper's chapel still remains. He adds, If at this customed gentleness, commanded by sounde of trumpet day the phrase of wearing a Monmouth cap be taken in that every man upon pain of death should incontinent- a bad acception, I hope the inhabitants of that town will ly slea his prisoner. This was the first transaction. endeavour to disprove the occasion.' Worthies of Eng. Holinshed proceeds, When this lamentable slaughter |land, 1660, p. 50. |