And in their pale dull mouths the gimmal bit' 3 CON. They have said their prayers, and they stay for death. DAU. Shall we go send them dinners, and fresh suits, And give their fasting horses provender, And after fight with them? I CON. I stay but for my guard; On, to the field: GIMMAL bit] Gimmal is, in the western counties, a ring a gimmal bit is therefore a bit of which the parts played one within another. JOHNSON. I meet with the word, though differently spelt, in the old play of The Raigne of King Edward the Third, 1596: "Nor lay aside their jacks of gymold mail." Gymold or gimmal'd mail means armour composed of links like those of a chain, which by its flexibility fitted it to the shape of the body more exactly than defensive covering of any other contrivance. There was a suit of it to be seen in the Tower. Spenser, in his Fairy Queen, book i. ch. v. calls it woven mail : 'In woven mail all armed warily." 66 In Lingua, &c. 1607, is mentioned: — a gimmal rink with one link hanging." STEEVENs. "A gimmal or gemmow ring, (says Minsheu, Dictionary, 1617,) from the Gal. gemeau, Lat. gemellus, double, or twinnes, because they be rings with two or more links." MALONE. 2 their executors, the knavish crows,] The crows who are to have the disposal of what they shall leave, their hides and their flesh. JOHNSON. 3 In life so lifeless-] So, in The Comedy of Errors: "A living dead man." STEEVENS. 4 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. The following quotation from Holinshed, p. 554, will best elucidate this passage: "The duke of Brabant when his standard was not come, caused a banner to be taken from a trumpet and I will the banner from a trumpet take, And use it for my haste. Come, come, away! [Exeunt. fastened upon a spear, the which he commanded to be borne before him instead of a standard." In the second part of Heywood's Iron Age, 1632, Menelaus, after having enumerated to Pyrrhus the treasures of his father Achilles, as his myrmidons, &c. adds: "His sword, spurs, armour, guard, pavilion." From this last passage it should appear that guard was part of the defensive armour; perhaps what we call at present the gorget. Again, in Holinshed, p. 820: " The one bare his helmet, the second his granguard," &c. STEEVENS. By his guard, I believe, the Constable means, not any part of his dress, but the guard that usually attended with his banner; to supply the want of which he afterwards says, that he will take a banner from a trumpet, and use it for his haste. It appears, from a passage in the last scene of the fourth Act, that the principal nobility, and the princes, had all their respective banners, and of course their guards : "Of princes in this number, "And nobles bearing banners, there be dead Dr. Johnson and Mr. Steevens are of opinion that "guard in this place means rather something of ornament, or of distinction, than a body of attendants." But from the following passage in Holinshed, p. 554, which our author certainly had in his thoughts, it is clear, in my apprehension, that guard is here used in its ordinary sense : "When the messenger was come back to the French hoste, the men of warre put on their helmettes, and caused their trumpets to blow to the battaile. They thought themselves so sure of victory, that diverse of the noble men made such haste toward the battaile, that they left many of their servants and men of warre behind them, and some of them would not once stay for their standards; as amongst other the Duke of Brabant, when his standard was not come, caused a banner to be taken from a trumpet, and fastened to a speare, the which he commanded to be borne before him, instead of a standard." The latter part only of this passage is quoted by Mr. Steevens; but the whole considered together proves, in my apprehension, that guard means here nothing more than the men of war whose duty it was to attend on the Constable of France, and among those his standard, that is, his standard-bearer. In a preceding passage Holinshed mentions, that "the Constable of France, the SCENE III. The English Camp. Enter the English Host; GLoster, Bedford, EXETER, SALISBURY, and Westmoreland. GLO. Where is the king? BED. The king himself is rode to view their battle. WEST. Of fighting men they have full threescore thousand. EXE. There's five to one; besides, they all are fresh. SAL. God's arm strike with us! 'tis a fearful odds. God be wi' you, princes all; I'll to my charge: If we no more meet, till we meet in heaven, Then, joyfully, my noble lord of Bedford,My dear lord Gloster,-and my good lord Exeter,And my kind kinsman,-warriors all, adieu! Marshal, &c. and other of the French nobility, came and pitched down their standards and banners in the county of St. Paule." Again: "Thus the French men being ordered under their standards and banners, made a great shew: "-or, as Hall has it: "Thus the French men were every man under his banner, only waiting," &c. It appears, from both these historians, that all the princes and nobles in the French army bore banners, and of these one hundred and twenty-six were killed in this battle. In a subsequent part of the description of this memorable victory, Holinshed mentions that "Henry having felled the Duke of Alanson, the king's guard, contrary to his mind, outrageously slew him." The Constable being the principal leader of the French army, had, without doubt, like Henry, his guard also, one of whom bore before him, as we may collect from Hall, the banner-royal of France. MALONE. 5- Salisbury,] Thomas Montacute, Earl of Salisbury. MALONE. 6 And my kind KINSMAN,] This must be addressed to West BED. Farewell, good Salisbury; and good luck go with thee! EXE. Farewell, kind lord; fight valiantly to-day: And yet I do thee wrong, to mind thee of it, For thou art fram'd of the firm truth of valour". [Exit SALISBURY. BED. He is as full of valour, as of kindness; Princely in both. WEST. O that we now had here99 moreland but how was that nobleman related to Salisbury? True it is, that the latter had married one of the sisters and coheirs of Edmund Earl of Kent, and that another of them was wife to Westmoreland's eldest son. Salisbury's daughter was likewise married to a younger son of Westmoreland's, who, in her right, was afterward Earl of Salisbury, and appears in the Second and Third Parts of King Henry VI. The present speaker is Thomas Montacute, who is killed by a shot in the next play. But these connections do not seem to make him akin to Westmoreland. RITSON. 7 Bed. Farewell, good Salisbury, &c.] Thus the old edition [i. e. the first folio]: "Bed. Farewell, good Salisbury, and good luck go with thee; "And yet I do thee wrong to mind thee of it, For thou art fram'd of the firm truth of valour. "Exe. Farewell, kind lord: fight valiantly to-day." What! does he do Salisbury wrong to wish him good luck? The ingenious Dr. Thirlby prescribed to me the transposition of the verses, which I have made in the text and the old quartos plainly lead to such a regulation. THEOBALD. I believe this transposition to be perfectly right, for it was already made in the quartos, 1600 and 1608, as follows: "Farewell, kind lord; fight valiantly to-day, "For thou art made on the true sparkes of honour." STEEVENS. He is AS FULL OF VALOUR, AS OF kindness;] So, in King Richard II. : As full of valour, as of royal blood-." STEEVENS. 9 O that we now had here, &c.] From Holinshed: "It is said also, that he should heare one of the hoste utter his wishe to another, that stood next to him, in this wise: I would to God there were present here with us this day so many good souldiers as are at this hour within the realme of England; whereupon Enter King HENRY. But one ten thousand of those men in England, K. HEN. What's he, that wishes so? My cousin Westmoreland1?-No, my fair cousin : If we are mark'd to die, we are enough To do our country loss; and if to live, The fewer men, the greater share of honour. Nor care I, who doth feed upon my cost; It yearns me not, if men my garments wear; Such outward things dwell not in my desires: But, if it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive. No, 'faith, my coz, wish not a man from England: Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host the king answered: I would not wishe a man more here than I 1 My cousin Westmoreland?] In the quartos, 1600 and 1608, this speech is addressed to Warwick. STEEVENS. 2 By Jove,] The king prays like a christian, and swears like a heathen. JOHNSON. I believe the player-editors alone are answerable for this incongruity. In consequence of the Stat. 3. James 1. c. xxi. against introducing the sacred name on the stage, &c. they omitted it where they could; and in verse, (where the metre would not allow omission,) they substituted some other word in its place. MALONE. 3 It YEARNS me not,] To yearn is to grieve or vex. So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor: "She laments for it, that it would yearn your heart to see it." STEEVENS. 4 O, Do not wish one more :] Read (for the sake of metre)-"Wish not one more." RITSON. |