peace, Whose hours the peasant best advantages.] The sense of this passage, which is expressed with some slight obscurity, iseems to be-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 elsewhere used by Shakspeare. Id. l. 49. Two chantries.] One of these monasteries was for Carthusian monks, and was called Bethlehem; the other was for religions men and women of the order of Saint Bridget, and was named Sion. They were on opposite sides of the Thames, and adjoining the royal manor of Sheen, now called Richmond. SCENE II. Id. l. 66. Via!-les eaux et la terre-] Via is an old hortatory exclamation, as allons! Id. l. 75. And dout them- Dout is a word still used in Warwickshire, and signifies to do out, or extinguish. P. 86 c. 1, 1. 22. —a hilding foe ;] Hilding, or kinderling, is a low wretch. Id. l. 28 The tucket-sonnance, &c.] The tucketsonnance was, perhaps, the name of an introductory flourish on the trumpet, as toccata in Italian is the prelude of a sonata on the harpsichord, and toccar la tromba is to blow the trumpet Id. 1. 36. Their ragged curtains poorly are let loose.] By their ragged curtains are meant their colours. The idea seems to have been taken from what every man must have observed, i. e. ragged curtains put in motion by the air, when the windows of mean houses are left With torch-staves in their hand:] Grandpré alludes to the form of ancient candlesticks, which frequently represented human figures holding the sockets for the lights in their extended hands. Id. l. 44. gimmal bit-] Gimmal is, in the western counties, aring; a gimmal bit is therefore a bit of which the parts played one within another. ld. 1. 56 I stay but for my guard:] It seems, by what follows, that guard in this place means rather something of ornament or of distinction, than a body of attendants. JOHNSON. SCENE III. Ja c. 2, l. 18. It yearns me not,] To yearn is to grieve or vex. Id. l. 33. of Crispian:] The battle of Agin Id. court was fought upon the 25th of October St. Crispin's day. Id. l. 43.- -with advantages,] Old men, notwithstanding the natural forgetfulness of age, shall remember their feats of this day, and remember to tell them with advantage. Age is commonly boastful and inclined to magnify past acts and past times. JOHNSON. l. 51. From this day to the ending-] It may be observed that we are apt to promise to our-. selves a more lasting memory than the changing state of human things admits. This prediction is not verified; the feast of Crispin passes by without any mention of Agincouri. Late events obliterate the former: the civil wars have left in this nation scarcely any tradition of more ancient history. Id l. 56 - gentle his condition:] This day shall advance him to the rank of a gentleman. JOHN SON. King Henry V. inhibited any person, but such as had a right by inheritance, or grant, to assume coats of arms, except those who fought with him at the battle of Agincourt; and, I think, these last were allowed the chief seats of honour at all feasts and public meetings. TOLLET. Id. l. 60. upon Saint Crispin's day] This speech, like many others of the declamatory kind, is too long. Had it been contracted to about half the number of lines, it might have gained force, and lost none of the sentiments. JOHNSON. P. 87, c. 1, l. 8. - mind] i. e. remind. Id. 1. 22. - in brass-] i. e. in brazen plates anciently let into tombstones. Id. 1. 29. "Mark then abounding," &c. MALONE. Lu. 1. 35. warriors for the working-day:] We are soldiers but coarsely dressed; we have not on our holiday apparel. Id. 1. 36. -- our gilt,] i. e. golden show, superficial gilding. Obsolete. Id. l. 9. -- a ton of moys?] Moy, says Dr. Johnson, is a piece of money; whence moi d'or, or moi of gold; but may also was a measure of corn. Which is meant here, the reader may determine. Id. l. 15. - and firk him,] The word firk is so variously used by the old writers, that it is almost impossible to ascertain its precise meaning. On this occasion it may mean to chastise. P. 89, c. 1, 1. 55.- - great sort,] High rank. ACT V. P. 90, c. 2, 7. 19. --a mighty whiffler-] An officer who walks first in processions, or before persons in high stations, on occasions of ceremony. The name is still retained in London, and there is an officer so called that walks before their companies at times of public solemnity. It seems a corruption from the French word huissier. Id. l. 24. ——to have borne, &c.] The construction is, to have his bruised helmet, &c. borne before him through the city: i. e. to order it to be borne. Id. 1. 28. Giving full trophy,] Transferring all the honours of conquest, all trophies, tokens, and shows, from himself to God." Id. l. 36. tude. ld. l. 37. - likelihood,] Likelihood for similiWARBURTON. -the general of our gracious em press- The earl of Essex, in the reign of queen Elizabeth. vagant. The military habit of those times Id 1 60.--former favour,] Former appearance. Pass our accept and peremptory answer.] Id. 1. 39. Bringing rebellion broached—] Spitted, Id Paint upon vacuity. JOHNSON. transfixed. 57. —no strength in measure,] i. e. in dancing. Id. l. 65. look greenly,] i. e. like a young lover, awkwardly Id. l. 76. -take a fellow of plain and uncoined constancy;] Uncoined constancy signifies real and true constancy, unrefined and unadorned. JOHNSON. - untempering effect-] The sense is, that you love me notwithstanding my face has no power to temper, i. e. soften you to my purpose. weak list-] i. e. slight bar Id. c. 2, l. 69. – gleeking—] i. e. scoffing, sneering. Gleek was a game at cards. Id. l. 55. English condition.] Condition is temper, disposition of mind. Id. 1.57. Doth fortune play the huswife-] that is, the jilt. Huswife is here used in an ill sense. Id. l. 66. The comic scenes of The History of Henry the Fourth and Fifth are now at an end, and all the comic personages are now dismissed. Falstaff and Mrs. Quickly are dead; Nym and Bardolph are hanged; Gadshill was lost immediately after the robbery; Points and Peto have vanished since, one knows not how; and Pistol is now beaten into obscurity. I believe every reader regrets their departure. JOHNSON. P. 93, c. 1, l. 39. rier. Id. l. 59. - my condition is not smooth:] Condition is temper. Id. Id. 1. 63. Pardon the frankness of my_mirth.] moral. Id. l. 18. Mr. Steevens, in edit. 1793, 15 vols. reads "for my wish." Id. l. 69. Our bending author-1 By bending, Id. l. 74. the world's best garden- i. e. 8888 88 THE historical transactions contained in this play, take in the compass of above thirty years. I must observe, however, that our author, in the three parts of Henry VI. has not been very precise to the date and disposition of his facts; but shuffled them, backwards and forwards, out of time. For instance, the lord Talbot is killed at the end of the Fourth Act of this play, who in the reality did not fall till the 13th of July, 1453; and The Second Part of Henry VI. opens with the marriage of the king, which was solemnized eight years before Talbot's death, in the year 1445. Again, in the Second Part dame Eleanor Cobham is introduced to insult Queen Margaret! though her penance and banishment for sorcery happened three years before that princess came over to England. I could point out many other transgressions against history, as far as the order of time is concerned. Indeed, though there are several master-stokes in these three plays, which incontestibly betray the workmanship of Shakspeare, yet I am almost doubtful, whether they were entirely of his writing. And unless they were wrote by him very early, I should rather imagine them to have been brought to him as a director of the stage; and so have received some finishing beauties at his hand. An accurate observer will easily see, the diction of them is more obsolete, and the numbers more mean and prosaical, than in the generality of his genuine compositions. THEOBALD. Like many others, I was long struck with the many evident Shaksperianisms in these plays, which appeared to me to carry such decisive weight, that I could scarcely bring myself to examine with attention any of the arguments that have been urged against his being the author of them. But I should have adverted to a very striking circumstance which distinguishes this first part from the other parts of King Hen ry VI. This circumstance is, that none of these Shakspearian passages are to be found here, though several are scattered through the two other parts. I am therefore decisively of opinion that this play was not written by Shakspeare. I would here request the reader to attend particularly to the versification of this piece (of which almost every line has a pause at the end), which is so different from that of Shakspeare's undoubted plays, and of the greater part of the two succeeding pieces, as altered by him, and so exactly corresponds with that of the tragedies written by others before and about the time of his first commencing author, that this alone might decide the question, without taking into the account the numerous classical allusions which are found in this first part. With respect to the second and third parts of King Henry VI. or, as they were originally called, The Contention of the Two famous Houses of Yorke and Lancaster, they stand, in my apprehension, on a very different ground from that of this first part, or, as I believe it was anciently called, The Play of King Henry VI. This old play of King Henry VI. now before us, or as our author's editors have called it, the first part of King Henry VI, I suppose to have been written in 1589, or before. The disposition of facts in these three plays, not always corresponding with the dates, which Mr. Theobald mentions, and the want of uniformity and consistency in the series of events exhibited, may perhaps be in some measure accounted for by the hypothesis now stated. As to our author's having accepted these pieces as a director of the stage, he had, I fear, no | pretension to such a situation at so early a peried. MALONE. The chief argument on which the first paragraph of the foregoing note depends, is not, in my opinion, conclusive. This historical play might have been one of our author's earliest efforts; and almost every young poet begins his career by imitation. Shakspeare, therefore, till he felt his own strength, perhaps servilely conformed to the style and manner of his predecessors. STEEVENS. Of this play there is no copy earlier than that of the folio in 1623, though the two succeeding parts are extant in two editions in quarto. That the second and third parts were published without the first, may be admitted as 1 weak proof that the copies were surreptitiously obtained, and that the printers of that time gave the public those plays, not such as the author designed, but such as they could get them. That this play was written before the two others is indubitably collected from the series of events; that it was written and played before Henry the fath is apparent, because, in the epilogue there is mention made of this play, and not of the other parts: Henry the sixth in swaddling bands crown'd king, That they lost France, and made his England bleed: France is lost in this play. The two following contain, as the old title imports, the contention of the houses of York and Lancaster. The second and third of Henry VI.were printed in 1600. When Henry V. was written, we know not; but was printed likewise in 1600, and therefore before the publication of the first and second parts. The first part of Berry VI had been often shown on the stage, and would certainly have appeared in its place, had the author been the publisher. Johnson. SCENE L.-Westminster Abbey. Dead march. Corpse of King HENRY the Fifth discovered, lying in state; attended on by the Dukes of BEDFORD, GLOSTER, and EXETER; the Earl of WARWICK, the Bishop of WINCHESTER, Heralds, etc. Bed. Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night! Comets, importing change of times and states, Gla. England ne'er had a king until his time. His brandish'd sword did blind men with his beams; By magic verses have contrived his end? men pray'd, His thread of life had not so soon decay'd: Win. Gloster, whate'er we like, thou art protector; Glo. Name not religion, for thou lov'st the flesh, And ne'er throughout the year to church thou go'st Except it be to pray against thy foes. [in peace! Bed. Cease, cease these jars, and rest your minds When at their mothers' moist eyes babes shall suck; Enter a Messenger. Mess. My honourable lords, health to you all! Sad tidings bring I to you out of France, Of loss, of slaughter, and discomfiture: |