That haunted us in our familiar paths: Witness our too much mémorable shame, When Creffy battle fatally was ftruck,

And all our princes captiv'd, by the hand

Of that black name, Edward black prince of Wales; 'Whiles that his mountain fire,-on mountain ftanding,

Up in the air, crown'd with the golden fun 2,-
Saw his heroical feed, and fmil'd to fee him
Mangle the work of nature, and deface

The patterns that by God and by French fathers
Had twenty years been made. This is a ftem

9 That haunted us -] We fhould affuredly read hunted: the integrity of the metaphor requires it. So, foon after, the king again fays:

You fee this chafe is hotly followed. WARBURTON.

The emendation weakens the paffage. To haunt is a word of the utmost horror, which fhews that they dreaded the English as goblins and fpirits. JOHNSON.

While that bis mountain fire, on mountain ftanding,] We should read, mounting, ambitious, afpiring. WARBURTON. Thus, in Love's Labour's Loft, act IV:

"Whoe'er he was, he fhew'd a mounting mind."

Dr. Warburton's emendation may be right, and yet I believe the poet meant to give an idea of more than human proportion in the figure of the king:

Quantus Athos, aut quantus Eryx, &c." Virg.

"Like Teneriffe or Atlas unremov'd." Milton.

Drayton, in the 18th fong of his Polyolbion, has a fimilar thought: Then he, above them all, himself that fought to raise, Upon fome mountain top, like a pyramides."

Again, in Spenfer's Faerie Queen, B. I. c. xi:

Where ftretch'd he lay upon the funny fide

aid of a great hill, bimfelf like a great hill."
agmen agens, magnique ipfe agminis inftar.

Mr. Tollet thinks this paffage may be explained by another in act I. fc. i:

26

his moft mighty father on a hill. STEEVENS.

2 Up in the air, crown'd with the golden fun,-] Dr. Warburton calls this the nonfenfical line of fome player." The idea, however, might have been taken from Chaucer's Legende of good Women:

"Her gilt here was ycrownid with a fon." STEEVens.

Of

Of that victorious flock; and let us fear
The native mightiness and fate of him.

Enter a Meffenger.

Meff. Ambaffadors from Henry king of England Do crave admittance to your majesty.

Fr. King. We'll give them prefent audience. Go, and bring them.

You fee, this chafe is hotly follow'd, friends.

Dau. Turn head, and ftop purfuit: for coward dogs Moftfpend their mouths, when what they seem to threaten,

Runs far before them. Good my fovereign,
Take up the English fhort; and let them know
Of what a monarchy you are the head:
Self-love, my liege, is not fo vile a fin,
As felf-neglecting.

Enter Exeter.

Fr. King. From our brother England?
Exe. From him; and thus he greets your majefty,
He wills you, in the name of God Almighty,
That you diveft yourself, and lay apart

The borrow'd glories, that, by gift of heaven,
By law of nature, and of nations, 'long'
To him, and to his heirs; namely, the crown,
And all wide-ftretched honours that pertain
By cuftom, and the ordinance of times,

Unto the crown of France. That you may know, 'Tis no finifter, nor no aukward claim,

3-fate of him.] His fate is what is allotted him by destiny, or what he is fated to perform. JOHNSON.

So Virgil, speaking of the future deeds of the defcendants of Æneas: Attollens humeris' famamque et fata nepotum."

STEEVENS.

4-spend their mouths,-] That is, bark; the sportsman's terin.

JOHNSON.

Pick'd from the worm-holes of long-vanish'd days,
Nor from the duft of old oblivion rak'd,
He fends you this moft memorable line,
In every branch truly demonftrative;

[Gives the French king a paper.

Willing you, overlook this pedigree
And, when you find him evenly deriv'd
From his moft fam'd of famous ancestors,
Edward the third, he bids you then refign
Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held
From him the native and true challenger,
Fr. King. Or elfe what follows?

Exe. Bloody constraint; for if you hide the crown
Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it:
And therefore in fierce tempeft is he coming,
In thunder, and in earthquake, like a Jove,
That, if requiring fail, he will compel.
He bids you, in the bowels of the Lord,
Deliver up the crown; and to take mercy
On the poor fouls, for whom this hungry war
Opens his vafty jaws and on your head
Turns he the widows' tears, the orphans' cries,
The dead mens' blood, the pining maidens'

S

groans,

memorable line,] This genealogy; this deduction of his lincage. JOHNSON.

The dead mens' blood,-] The difpofition of the images were more regular if we were to read thus:

upon your head

Turning the dead mens' blood, the widows' tears,

The orphans' cries, the pining maidens' groans, JOHNSON. The quartos 1600 and 1608, exhibit the paffage thus:

And on your beads turns he the widows' tears,

The orphans' cries, the dead mens' bones,

The pining maidens' groans,

For husbands, fathers, and diftreffed lovers,
Which, &c.

Thefe quartos of 1600 and 1608, agree in all but the merest trifles; and therefore for the future I fhall content myself in general to quote the former of them, which is the more correct of the two.

STEEVENS.

For

For hufbands, fathers, and betrothed lovers,
That shall be fwallow'd in this controverfy.
This is his claim, his threatning, and my meffage;
Unless the Dauphin be in prefence here,

To whom exprefsly I bring greeting too.

Pr. King. For us, we will confider of this further; To-morrow fhall you bear our full intent

Back to our brother of England.

Dau. For the Dauphin,

I ftand here for him; What to him from England? Exe. Scorn, and defiance; flight regard, contempt, And any thing that may not mifbecome

The mighty fender, doth he prize you at.

Thus fays my king: and, if your father's highness
Do not, in grant of all demands at large,
Sweeten the bitter mock you fent his majefty,
He'll call you to fo hot an answer for it,
That caves and womby vaultages of France
4 Shall chide your trefpafs, and return your mock
In fecond accent of his ordinance.

Dau. Say, if my father render fair reply,
It is against my will: for I defire

Nothing but odds with England; to that end,
As matching to his youth and vanity,

I did present him with those Paris balls.

Exe. He'll make your Paris Louvre shake for it, Were it the miftrefs court of mighty Europe:

4 Shall hide your trefpafs,] Mr. Pope rightly corrected it, Shall chide WARBURTON. I doubt whether it be rightly corrected. The meaning is, that the authors of this infult shall fly to caves for refuge.

JOHNSON.

Mr. Pope restored chide from the quarto. I have therefore inferted it in the text. To chide is to refound, to echo. So, in The Midfummer Night's Dream:

66

-never did I hear

"Such gallant chiding."

So, in Henry VIII:

"As doth a rock against the chiding flood." STEEVENS,

And,

And, be affur'd, you'll find a difference,
(As we, his fubjects, have in wonder found)
Between the promise of his greener days,

And these he mafters now 5; now he weighs time,
Even to the utmoft grain; which you fhall read
In your own loffes, if he ftay in France.

Fr. King. To-morrow you fhall know our mind at full.

[Flourish. Exe. Difpatch us with all fpeed, left that our king Come here himself to queftion our delay; For he is footed in this land already.

Fr. King. You shall be foon difpatch'd, with fair conditions:

A night is but fmall breath, and little paufe,
To answer matters of this confequence.

[Exeunt.

Chor. Thus with imagin'd wing our fwift fcene flies, In motion of no lefs celerity

Than that of thought. Suppofe, that you have seen The well-appointed king at Hampton pier

Embark

5-he masters now ;] Thus the folio. The quartos 1600 and 1608, read musters. STEEVENS.

The well-appointed king at Dover pier
1

Embark his royalty;

Thus all the editions downwards, implicitly, after the firft folio. But could the poet poffibly be fo difcordant from himself (and the Chronicles, which he copied) to make the king here embark at Dover; when he has before told us fo precifely, and that fo often over, that he embarked at Southampton? I dare acquit the poet from fo flagrant a variation. The indolence of a tranfcriber, or a compofitor at prefs, must give rife to fuch an error. They, VOL. VI. feeing

F