K. Hen. Then, good my lord, teach your cousin to consent to winking.

Bur. I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you will teach her to know my meaning: for maids, well summered and warm kept, are like flies at Bartholomewtide, blind, though they have their eyes; and then they will endure handling, which before would not abide looking on.

K. Hen. This moral ties me over to time, and a hot summer; and so I will catch the fly, your cousin, in the latter end, and she must be blind too.

Bur. As love is, my lord, before it loves.

K. Hen. It is so: and you may, some of you, thank love for my blindness; who cannot see many a fair French city, for one fair French maid that stands in my way.

Fr. King. Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, the cities turned into a maid; for they are all girdled with maiden walls, that war hath never entered.*

K. Hen. Shall Kate be my wife?

Fr. King. So please you.

K. Hen. I am content; so the maiden cities you talk of, may wait on her: so the maid, that stood in the way of my wish, shall show me the way to my will.

Fr. King. We have consented to all terms of reason. K. Hen. Is 't so, my lords of England?

West. The king hath granted every article: His daughter, first; and then, in sequel, all,5

2 This moral-] That is, the application of this fable. The moral being the application of a fable, our author calls any application a moral. Johnson.

3 you see them perspectively, the cities turned into a maid;] So, in Twelfth Night, Act V, sc. i:

4

"A natural perspective, that is, and is not."

Steevens.

they are all girdled with maiden walls, &c.] We have again the same allusion in The Rape of Lucrece:

"This moves in him more rage, and lesser pity,

"To make the breach, and enter this sweet city."

Again, in his Lover's Complaint:

"And long upon these terms I held my city,

"Till thus he 'gan to siege me."

See also All's Well that Ends Well, Vol. V, p. 164. Malone.

According to their firm proposed natures.

Exe. Only, he hath not yet subscribed this:-Where your majesty demands,-That the king of France, having any occasion to write for matter of grant, shall name your highness in this form, and with this addition, in French,-Notre tres cher filz Henry roy d'Angleterre, heretier de France; and thus in Latin,—Præclarissimus filius noster Henricus, rex Anglia, & hæres Francia.

Fr. King. Nor this I have not, brother, so denied, But your request shall make me let it pass.

K. Hen. I pray you then, in love and dear alliance, Let that one article rank with the rest:

And, thereupon, give me your daughter.

Fr. King. Take her, fair son; and from her blood raise up

Issue to me that the contending kingdoms

Of France and England, whose very shores look pale
With envy of each other's happiness,

May cease their hatred; and this dear conjunction
Plant neighbourhood and christian-like accord

In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance
His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair France.
All. Amen!

K. Hen. Now welcome, Kate:-and bear me witness

all,

That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen. [Flourish. Q. Isa. God, the best maker of all marriages,

5

and then, in sequel, all,] Then, which is not in the old copy, was supplied, for the sake of the metre, by the editor of the second folio. Malone.

6

Notre tres cher filz and thus in Latin,-Præclarissimus filius —] What, is tres cher, in French, Præclarissimus in Latin? We should read-præcarissimus. Warburton.

"This is exceeding true," says Dr. Farmer, "but how came the blunder? It is a typographical one in Holinshed, which Shakspeare copied; but must indisputably have been corrected, had he been acquainted with the languages." Steevens.

In all the old historians that I have seen, as well as in Holinshed, I find this mistake; but in the preamble of the original treaty of Troyes, Henry is styled Præcarissimus; and in the 22d article the stipulation is, that he shall always be called, "in lingua Gallicana notre tres cher fils, &c. in lingua vero Latina hoc modo, noster præcarissimus filius Henricus," &c. See Rymer's Fæd. IX, 893. Malone.

Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one!
As man and wife, being two, are one in love,
So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal,
That never may ill office, or fell jealousy,
Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage,
Thrust in between the paction of these kingdoms,7
To make divorce of their incorporate league;
That English may as French, French Englishmen,
Receive each other!-God speak this Amen!
All. Amen!

K. Hen. Prepare we for our marriage:-on which day, My lord of Burgundy, we 'll take your oath, And all the peers', for surety of our leagues.--Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me; And may our oaths well kept and prosp'rous be!

Enter CHORUS.

Thus far, with rough, and all unable pen,
Our bending author hath pursu'd the story;
In little room confining mighty men,

8

[Exeunt.

Mangling by starts1 the full course of their glory.
Small time, but, in that small, most greatly liv'd
This star of England: fortune made his sword;
By which the world's best garden2 he achiev'd,
And of it left his son imperial lord.

7

the paction of these kingdoms,] The old folios have it— -the pation, which makes me believe the author's word was paction; a word more proper on the occasion of a peace struck up. A passion of two kingdoms for one another is an odd expression. An amity and political harmony may be fixed betwixt two countries, and yet either people be far from having a passion for the other. Theobald.

8 Prepare we &c.] The quartos, 1600 and 1608, conclude with the following speech:

"Hen. Why then fair Katharine,

"Come, give me thy hand:

"Our marriage will we present solemnize,

"And end our hatred by a bond of love.

"Then will I swear to Kate, and Kate to me,

"And may our vows once made, unbroken be." Steevens. 9 Our bending author -] By bending, our author meant unequal to the weight of his subject, and bending beneath it; or he may mean, as in Hamlet: "Here stooping to your clemency." Steevens.

1 Mangling by starts-] By touching only on select parts.

Johnson

Henry the sixth, in infant bands crown'd king
Of France and England, did this king succeed;
Whose state so many had the managing,

That they lost France, and made his England bleed: Which oft our stage hath shown; and, for their sake, your fair minds let this acceptance take.

In

[Exit.3

2 the world's best garden—] i. e. France. A similar distinction is bestowed, in The Taming of the Shrew, on Lombardy:

"The pleasant garden of great Italy." Steevens.

3 This play has many scenes of high dignity, and many of easy merriment. The character of the King is well supported, except in his courtship, where he has neither the vivacity of Hal, nor the grandeur of Henry. The humour of Pistol is very happily continued: his character has perhaps been the model of all the bullies that have yet appeared on the English stage.

The lines given to the Chorus have many admirers; but the truth is, that in them a little may be praised, and much must be forgiven; nor can it be easily discovered why the intelligence given by the Chorus is more necessary in this play than in many others where it is omitted. The great defect of this play is the emptiness and narrowness of the last Act, which a very little diligence might have easily avoided. Johnson.

T. S. Manning, Printer, 143 N. Third Street.