Saying, our grace is only in our heels, FR. KING. Where is Mountjoy, the herald; Let him greet England with our sharp defiance.Up, princes; and, with spirit of honour edg'd, More sharper than your swords, hie to the field: Charles De-la-bret, high constable of France'; You dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and of Berry, Alençon, Brabant, Bar, and Burgundy; "Yet is there one the most delightful kind, "And whirl themselves in strict embracements bound, "That taught the Spartans dancing on the sands 66 Among the stars their double image stands, Together jumping in their turning race." REED. A very amusing account of this dance is to be found in Mr. Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 489. BOSWELL. Charles De-la-bret, &c.] Milton somewhere bids the English take notice how their names are misspelt by foreigners, and seems to think that we may lawfully treat foreign names, in return, with the same neglect. This privilege seems to be exercised in this catalogue of French names, which, since the sense of the author is not affected, I have left as I found it. JOHNSON. I have changed the spelling; for I know not why we should leave blunders or antiquated orthography in the proper names, when we have been so careful to remove them both from all other parts of the text. Instead of Charles De-la-bret, we should read Charles D'Albret, but the metre will not allow of it. STEEVENS. Shakspeare followed Holinshed's Chronicle, in which the Constable is called Delabreth, as he here is in the folio. MALONE. Jaques Chatillion, Rambures, Vaudemont, High dukes, great princes, barons, lords, and knights", For your great seats, now quit you of great shames. Bar Harry England, that sweeps through our land With pennons painted in the blood of Harfleur: Rush on his host, as doth the melted snow * 2 3 and KNIGHTS,] The old copy reads-kings. The emendation is Mr. Theobald's. It is confirmed by a line in the last scene of the fourth Act: -princes, barons, lords, knights." MALONE. 3 With PENNONS-] Pennons armorial were small flags, on which the arms, device, and motto of a knight were painted. Pennon is the same as pendant. So, in The Stately Moral of the Three Lords of London, 1590: "In glittering gold and particolour'd plumes, "With curious pendants on their launces fix'd," &c. Again, in Chaucer's Knyghtes Tale, v. 980, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edition : "And by his banner borne is his penon "Of gold ful riche, in which there was ybete In MS. Harl. No. 2413, is the following note: "Penon. "A penon must bee tow yardes and a halfe longe, made round att the end, and conteyneth the armes of the owner, and servith for the conduct of fiftie men. "Everye knight may have his pennon if hee bee cheefe captaine, and in it sett his armes : and if hee bee made bannerett, the kinge or the lieftenant shall make a slitt in the end of the pennon, and the heralds shall raise it out. "Pencelles. "Pencells or flagges for horsemen must bee a yarde and a halfe longe, with the crosses of St. George," &c. STEEVENS. 4 melted snow-] The poet has here defeated himself by passing too soon from one image to another. To bid the French rush upon the English as the torrents formed from melted snow stream from the Alps, was at once vehement and proper, but its force is destroyed by the grossness of the thought in the next line. JOHNSON. Upon the vallies; whose low vassal seat Bring him our prisoner. CON. This becomes the great. Sorry am I, his numbers are so few, His soldiers sick, and famish'd in their march; And let him say to England, that we send s The Alps doth spit and void his rheum upon :] Jupiter hybernas canâ nive conspuit Alpes. 6 He'll drop his heart into the sink of fear, Fur. Bibac. ap Hor. And, FOR achievement, offer us His ransom.] I can make no sense of these words as they stand, though it is to be supposed that the editors understood them, since they have passed them by unnoticed. I have little doubt but the words his and for, in the last line, have been misplaced, and that the line should run thus: "And his achievement offer us for ransom." And accordingly the King of France sends to Henry to know what ransom he will give. By "his achievement” is meant the town of Harfleur, which Henry had taken.' In the former part of this Act he says: "I will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur, "Till in her ashes she be buried." M. MASON. The first of the two lines which appear so obscure to Mr. M. Mason, is to me at least sufficiently intelligible; yet as the idea designed to be communicated by it, is not only contemptible but dirty, I still choose to avoid explanation. STEEVENS. 66 And for achievement offer us his ransom." That is, instead of achieving a victory over us, make a proposal to pay us a certain sum, as a ransom. So, in Henry VI. Part III. : "For chair and dukedom, throne and kingdom say." MALONE. To know what willing ransom he will give.Prince Dauphin, you shall stay with us in Roüen". DAU. Not so, I do beseech your majesty. FR. KING. Be patient, for you shall remain with us. Now, forth, lord constable, and princes all; [Exeunt. SCENE VI. The English Camp in Picardy. Enter GoWER and FLUELlen. Gow. How now, captain Fluellen? come you from the bridge? FLU. I assure you, there is very excellent service committed at the pridge. Gow. Is the duke of Exeter safe? FLU. The duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as Agamemnon; and a man that I love and honour with my soul, and my heart, and my duty, and my life, and my livings, and my uttermost powers: he is not, (God be praised, and plessed!) any hurt in the 'orld; but keeps the pridge most valiantly, 7 in Rouen.] Here, and a little higher, we have, in the old copy-Roan, which was, in Shakspeare's time, the mode of spelling Rouen, in Normandy. He probably pronounced the word as a monosyllable, Roan; as indeed most Englishmen do at this day. MALONE. 8 but keeps the PRIDGE most valiantly,] This is not an imaginary circumstance, but founded on an historical fact. After Henry had passed the Some, the French endeavoured to intercept him in his passage to Calais; and for that purpose attempted to break down the only bridge that there was over the small river of Ternois, at Blangi, over which it was necessary for Henry to pass. But Henry, having notice of their design, sent a part of his troops before him, who, attacking and putting the French to with excellent discipline. There is an ensign there at the pridge,—I think, in my very conscience, he is as valiant as Mark Antony; and he is a man of no estimation in the 'orld: but I did see him do gallant service. Gow. What do you call him? FLU. He is called-ancient Pistol. Enter PISTOL. FLU. Do you not know him? Here comes the man. PIST. Captain, I thee beseech to do me favours: The duke of Exeter doth love thee well. FLU. Ay, I praise Got; and I have merited some love at his hands. PIST. Bardolph, a soldier, firm and sound of heart, Of buxom valour', hath,-by cruel fate, And giddy fortune's furious fickle wheel, That goddess blind, That stands upon the rolling restless stone 2, flight, preserved the bridge, till the whole English army arrived, and passed over it. MALONE. 9 There is an ENSIGN] Thus the quarto. The folio reads -there is an ancient lieutenant. Pistol was not a lieutenant. MALONE. 1 Of BUXOM Valour,] i. e. valour under good command, obedient to its superiors. So, in Spenser's Fairy Queen : "Love tyrannizeth in the bitter smarts "Of them that to him are buxom and prone." STEEVENS, 2 That goddess BLIND, That stands upon the ROLLING restless STONE,] Fortune is described by Cebes, and by Pacuvius, in the Fragments of Latin Authors, p. 60, and the first book of the pieces to Herennius, precisely in these words of our poet. It is unnecessary to quote them. S. W. Rolling restless" In an Ode to Concord, which concludes the fourth Act of Gascoigne's Jocasta, we find the same combina, tion of epithets, though applied to a different object: |