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ambridge Editors

SCENE I.-Westminster Abbey.

Dead March. Enter the Funeral of KING HENRY the Fifth,
attended on by the DUKE OF BEDFORD, Regent of France;
the DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, Protector; the DUKE OF
EXETER, the EARL OF WARWICK, the BISHOP OF WIN-
CHESTER, Heralds, &c.

Bed. Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night!
Comets, importing change of times and states,

King Henry the Sixth] Henry the Sixt F1; King Henry VI F 4.
minster Abbey] Theobald. Fifth] Fift F 1, Fifth F 4.
Malone; and the Duke of Somerset. Ff.

1. Hung... black] The stage was
draped with black for a tragedy.
Steevens quotes Sidney, Arcadia, bk.
ii. (p. 229, vol. ii. ed. 1739): “There
arose even with the sun, a vail of dark
clouds before his face, which shortly,
like ink poured into water, had blacked
over all the face of heaven, preparing
as it were a mournfull stage for a
tragedy to be played on." Malone
refers to Marston's Insatiate Countess
(1613), IV. V. 4-7-

"The stage of heaven is hung with
solemn black,

A time best fitting to act tragedies.
The night's great queen, that
maiden governess,

Musters black clouds to hide her
from the world."
Compare too A Warning for Faire
Women, 1599 (Simpson's School of
Shakespeare, ii. 244):-

"Look, Comedy, I mark'd it not till

now,

3

WestHeralds, &c.]

18

4

THE FIRST PART

Brandish your crystal tresses in the sk And with them scourge the bad revolti That have consented unto Henry's dea King Henry the Fifth, too famous to 1 England ne'er lost a king of so much v Glou. England ne'er had a king until his ti Virtue he had, deserving to command His brandish'd sword did blind men wi His arms spread wider than a dragon's His sparkling eyes, replete with wrathf More dazzled and drove back his enem Than mid-day sun fierce bent against t What should I say! his deeds exceed a

1549: "Ane stearre . . . callit ane
comeit; quhen it is sene, ther occurris
haistyly efter it sum grit myscheif."
Greene often refers to the superstition:
"like the elevation of a Commet which
foreshewes ever some fatall and finall
ruine" (Penelopes Web (Grosart, v.
175), 1587). And in Mamillia (Grosart,
ii. 150), 1583: "his foes contrariwise
conjecturing the worst, said that his
pompous prodigalitie and rich attire
were the two blazing starres and care-
full comets which did alwaies prog-
nosticate some such event." Common
in later plays. And see Spenser's
Faerie Queene, III. i. 16, where Upton's
note gives classical references. Cam-
den tells of one in 1582. See line 55
below, note.

3. Brandish] flash and glitter like a
brandished sword. See quotation from
Holland's Plinie at line 2. New Eng.
Dict. has "Brandysh, or glytter, like a
sword, corusco (Huloet, 1552). And
Sylvester's Du Bartas :-

"Thine eyes already (now no longer
eyes;

But new bright stars) do brandish
in the skyes."

3. crystal] bright, clear. Often used
in connection with the skies. Compare
"the heaven crystalline " in the old
Taming of a Shrew (Six Old Plays, p.
190), 1594. A similar expression occurs
in Marlowe's Tamburlaine, Part I. v.:
"Flora in her morning's pride, shaking
her silver tresses in the air." The
reader is at once reminded of Marlowe
by these opening lines.

4. revolting] rebellious. A favourite word in Shakespeare.

5. consented unto] agreed with, acted

See Richard II. L Ë ⠀
tus (Steevens). Compat
Orid, bk. xi. lines 78.79
cian women... As mar
g to this wicked act we
sh'd] See note at line
s "his brandisht blad:
ne, II. xi. 37).
's wings] Compare Tr
, V. viii. 17. "That
the Redcross knight si
Faerie Queene was
s mind: "Then, with
s displayed wide" (1.1

azing eyes.
with wrath and sparke
Fire,

road Beacons.
ning give that enem
(st. xiv.).

те

eith] full of Compa edie of Richard Du Library, Hazlitt, p. 8 pokes are all repleat Troubles nd

The

John (Shaks. Librar , 1591: "My life repl tyranie." And see 20, and 3 Henry VI pression occurs only earliest work, especial It is not c l plays. See Hawes' Pastim passim).

ed adverbially again i

9.

uld I say !] it is hope Golding's Ovid, bk i at should he doe?. at was best to doe, his

He ne'er lift up his hand but conquered.

Exe. We mourn in black: why mourn we not in blood?
Henry is dead and never shall revive.
Upon a wooden coffin we attend,
And death's dishonourable victory
We with our stately presence glorify,
Like captives bound to a triumphant car.
What! shall we curse the planets of mishap
That plotted thus our glory's overthrow?
Or shall we think the subtle-witted French
Conjurers and sorcerers, that, afraid of him,
By magic verses have contriv'd his end?

Win. He was a king bless'd of the King of kings.
Unto the French the dreadful judgment-day
So dreadful will not be as was his sight.
The battles of the Lord of hosts he fought:
The church's prayers made him so prosperous.
Glou. The church! where is it? had not churchmen pray'd
His thread of life had not so soon decay'd:

wittes were ravisht so" (1567). And
Grafton's Chronicle, 1569 (reprint 1809,
i. 574), Henry the Sixt: "What should
I saye, the Captaines on horsebacke
came to the gate and the Traytors
within slue the porters and watchemen
and let in their friendes." Often in
Hall and Grafton.

16. lift] lifted. Common in early
writers: "they drewe foorth, and lift
Joseph out of the pit" (Genesis xxxvii.
28, Geneva Bible, altered in modern
text). And Greene, A Looking Glasse
for London (Grosart, xiv. 29, line
553):

"And when I trac't upon the tender
grass,

Love, that makes warme the center
of the earth,

Lift up his crest to kisse Remilia's
foote."

And Peele, David and Bethsabe:
Hath fought like one whose arms
were lift by heaven" (468).

17. mourn ... in blood] Compare
mourn in steel" (3 Henry VI. ì. i.

58).

19. wooden] senseless, expressionless, unfeeling. The extended sense gives some colour to the line. See "that's a wooden thing" (v. iii. 89). Suffolk's contemptuous expression for the king. Compare Greene's Orpharion (Grosart, xii. 17), 1588-9: "or fayre without wit, and that is to marry a woodden picture

20

25

30

with a golden creast, full of favour but flattering."

23. planets of mishap] An expression of Greene's: "Borne underneathe the Planet of mishap" (Alphonsus, King of Arragon, Grosart, xiii. 391).

26. Conjurer] a magician; one who has to do with spirits. So in Part II. 1. ii. 76. "Roger Bolingbroke the conjurer " is a nigromancer in the Chronicles. And compare Comedy of Errors, Acts iv. and v. "A Ballad of the life and deathe of Doctor Faustus the Cunngerer" (Stationers' Register, 1589). Sacrapant in The Old Wives Tale (Peele) is a conjurer.

27. magic verses] Compare Faerie Queene, 1. ix. 48:—

"All his manly powres it did disperse,

As he were charmed with inchaunted rimes:

That oftentimes he quaked, and fainted oftentimes."

34. thread of life] Again in 2 Henry VI. iv. ii. 31, and Pericles, 1. ii. 109. Compare Golding's Ovid, ii. 81, 819 (1567):

"And in the latter end

The fatall dame, shall breake thy threede.".

Without any rect reference to theFates, compare (eele's) Jack Straw (Hazlitt's Dodsley, v. 409): "When thread of life is Almost fret in twain."

THE FIRST PA

None do you like but an effemina
Whom, like a school-boy, you ma
Win. Gloucester, whate'er we like, tho
And lookest to command the prin
Thy wife is proud; she holdeth th
More than God or religious church
Glou. Name not religion, for thou lov's
And ne'er throughout the year to
Except it be to pray against thy fo
Bed. Cease, cease these jars and rest you
Let's to the altar: heralds, wait on
Instead of gold we'll offer up our a
Since arms avail not now that Hen
Posterity, await for wretched years,
When at their mothers' moist'ned ey
Our isle be made a nourish of salt te
And none but women left to wail the
Henry the Fifth! thy ghost I invocat
Prosper this realm, keep it from civil
Combat with adverse planets in the h
A far more glorious star thy soul will
Than Julius Cæsar or bright-

49. moist'ned] F 1; moist Ff. 2, 3, 4.
Pope, Craig; nourice Theobald.

50. nourish 56. or bright-]

Pope conj.; or bright Cassiopeta Theobald conj.; or
conj. (Other suggestions are Orion Mitford, Great Ale
Keightley, Charlemagne Anon.)

52. thy gho
gods whom tho
pray to.
8: "Be it law
Com
ghost." And L
dread ghost of th
earlier examples.
in Sonnet xxxvii

Julius Cæsar]
Metamorphoses,
293 (1567):-
55, 56. more g
"The turning

And again, bk xv

Julius Cæs That fame vertuous do

from the Julius Cæsa

His sowle with

out of hand Amid the Sen

invisible did And from her C

his new expu