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(Though, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught,)
Convey'd himself2 as heir to the lady Lingare,
Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son
To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son

Of Charles the great. Also king Lewis the tenth *,

I now believe that find is right; the jury finds for the plaintiff, or finds for the defendant; to find his title is, " to determine in favour of his title with some show of truth." JOHNSON. To fine his title, is to make it showy or specious, by some appearance of justice. STEEVENS.

So, in King Henry IV. Part I. :

"To face the garment of rebellion,
"With some fine colour."

The words in Holinshed's Chronicle are:

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title seem true, and appear good, though indeed it was stark naught."-In Hall, "to make, &c.-though indeed it was both evil and untrue." MALONE.

I believe that fine is the right reading, and that the metaphor is taken from the fining of liquors. In the next line the speaker says:

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'Though in pure truth it was corrupt and naught."

It is the jury that finds a verdict, not the plaintiff or defendant, and therefore a man cannot find his own title. M. MASON.

2 CONVEY'D himself-] Derived his title. Our poet found this expression also in Holinshed. MALONE.

3 the lady LINGARE,

Daughter to CHARLEMAIN, &C.] By Charles the Great is meant the Emperor Charlemagne, son of Pepin: Charlemain is Charlechauve, or Charles the Bald, who, as well as Charles le Gros, assumed the title of Magnus. See Goldasti Animadversiones in Einhardum. Edit. 1711, p. 157. But then Charlechauve had only one daughter, named Judith, married, or, as some say, only betrothed, to our King Ethelwulf, and carried off, after his death, by Baldwin the forester, afterward Earl of Flanders, whom, it is very certain, Hugh Capet was neither heir to, nor any way descended from. This Judith, indeed, had a great-grand-daughter called Luitgarde, married to a Count Wichman, of whom nothing further is known. It was likewise the name of Charlemagne's fifth wife; but no such female as Lingare is to be met with in any French historian. In fact, these fictitious personages and pedigrees seem to have been devised by the English heralds, to "fine a title with some show of truth," which, "in pure truth was corrupt and naught." It was manifestly impossible that Henry, who had no hereditary title to his own dominions, could derive one, by the same colour, to another person's. He merely proposes the inva

Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet,
Could not keep quiet in his conscience,
Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied
That fair queen Isabel, his grandmother,
Was lineal of the lady Ermengare,

Daughter to Charles the foresaid duke of Lorain:
By the which marriage, the line of Charles the great
Was-reunited to the crown of France.

So that, as clear as is the summer's sun,
King Pepin's title, and Hugh Capet's claim,
King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear

sion and conquest of France, in prosecution of the dying advice of his father:

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"In foreign quarrels; that action, thence borne out,
Might waste the memory of former days:

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that his subjects might have sufficient employment to mislead their attention from the nakedness of his title to the crown. zeal and eloquence of the Archbishop are owing to similar motives.

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RITSON.

Also king Lewis the TENTH,] The word ninth has been inserted by some of the modern editors. The old copies read tenth. Ninth is certainly wrong, and tenth certainly right. Isabel was the wife of Philip the second, father of Lewis the ninth, and grandfather of Lewis the tenth. RITSON.

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Lewis the tenth." This is a mistake, (as is observed in The Gentleman's Magazine, vol. liii. Part II. p. 588,) into which Shakspeare was led by Holinshed, (vol. ii. p. 546, edit. 1577), whom he copied. St. Lewis, (for he is the person here described,) the grandson of Queen Isabel, the wife of Philip II. King of France, was Lewis the Ninth. He was the son of Lewis VIII. by the Lady Blanch of Castile. In Hall's Chronicle, Henry V. folio iiii. b. (which Holinshed has closely followed, except in this particular error, occasioned by either his own or his printer's inaccuracy,) Lewis is rightly called the Ninth. Here therefore we have a decisive proof that our author's guide in all his historical plays was Holinshed, and not Hall. See n. 8, p. 267. I have however left the error uncorrected, on the same principle on which similar errors in Julius Cæsar, into which Shakspeare was led by the old translation of Plutarch, have been suffered to remain undisturbed; and also, because it ascertains a fact of some importance. MALONE.

5 King Lewis his SATISFACTION,] He had told us just above,

To hold in right and title of the female:
So do the kings of France unto this day;
Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law,
To bar your highness claiming from the female;
And rather choose to hide them in a net,
Than amply to imbare their crooked titles

that Lewis could not wear the crown with a safe conscience, "till satisfied," &c. THEOBALD.

6 IMBARE their crooked titles-] Mr. Pope reads:

"Than openly imbrace

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But where is the antithesis betwixt hide in the preceding line, and imbrace in this? The two old folios read:

"Than amply to imbarre—.”

We certainly must read, as Mr. Warburton advised me: "Than amply to imbare

lay open, display to view. I am surprized Mr. Pope did not start this conjecture, as Mr. Rowe had led the way to it in his edition; who reads:

"Than amply to make bare their crooked titles."

THEOBALD.

Mr. Theobald might have found, in the 4to. of 1608, this reading :

"Than amply to embrace their crooked causes;" out of which line Mr. Pope formed his reading, erroneous indeed, but not merely capricious. JOHNSON.

The quarto, 1600, reads-imbace.

I have met with no example of the word-imbare. To unbar is to open, and might have been the word set down by the poet, in opposition to-bar.

So, in the first scene of Timon, the poet says, "I'll unbolt to you."

To embar, however, seems, from the following passage in the first book of Stanyhurst's translation of Virgil, 1583, to signify to break or cut off abruptly:

"Heere Venus embarring his tale," &c.

Yet, as to bar, in Much Ado About Nothing, is to strengthen,― that is stronger made,

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"Which was before barr'd up with ribs of iron-, so, amply to unbar, may mean to weaken by an open display of invalidity.

As imbare, however, is not unintelligible, and is defended by the following able criticks, I have left it in the text. STEEVENS. I have no doubt but imbare is the right reading. Though the editor who has adopted it seems to argue against it, it makes the sense more clear than any of the other readings proposed.

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Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.

K. HEN. May I, with right and conscience, make this claim?

CANT. The sin upon my head, dread sovereign! For in the book of Numbers is it writ,—

When the son dies, let the inheritance
Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord,
Stand for your own; unwind your bloody flag;
Look back unto your mighty ancestors:

Go, my dread lord, to your great grandsire's tomb *,
From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit,
And your great uncle's, Edward the black prince;
Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy,
Making defeat on the full power of France;
Whiles his most mighty father on a hill
Stood smiling, to behold his lion's whelp
Forage in blood of French nobility?.

O noble English, that could entertain

With half their forces the full pride of France;

* Quarto, grave.

+ Quarto, power.

Imbare, in the last line, is naturally opposed to hide in that which precedes, and it differs but little from the reading of the quarto 1600. The objection that there is no such word as imbare, can have but little weight. It is a word so fairly deduced, and so easily understood, that an author of much less celebrity than Shakspeare, had a right to coin it. M. MASON.

In the folio the word is spelt imbarre. Imbare is, I believe, the true reading. It is formed like impaint, impawn, and many other similar words used by Shakspeare. MALone.

7 Whiles his most mighty father on a hill

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Stood smiling, &c.] This alludes to the battle of Cressy, as described by Holinshed: The earle of Northampton and others sent to the king, where he stood aloft on a windmill-hill; the king demanded if his sonne were slaine, hurt, or felled to the earth. No, said the knight that brought the message, but he is sore matched. Well, (said the king,) returne to him and them that sent you, and saie to them, that they send no more to me for any adventure that falleth, so long as my son is alive; for I will that this journeye be his, with the honour thereof. The slaughter of the French was great and lamentable at the same battle, fought the 26th August, 1346." Holinshed, vol. ii. p. 372, col. i.

BOWLE.

And let another half stand laughing by,
All out of work, and cold for action!

ELY. Awake remembrance of these valiant dead, And with your puissant arm renew their feats: You are their heir, you sit upon their throne; The blood and courage, that renowned them, Runs in your veins; and my thrice-puissant liege Is in the very May-morn of his youth,

Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprizes.

EXE. Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth

Do all expect that you should rouse yourself,
As did the former lions of your blood.

WEST. They know, your grace hath cause, and means, and might;

So hath your highness; never king of England

8

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and COLD for action!] i. e. cold for want of action. So Lyly, in Euphues and his England, 1581: if he were too long for the bed, Procrustes cut off his legs, for catching cold, i. e. for fear of catching cold. MALONE.

I always regarded the epithet cold as too clear to need explanation. The soldiers were eager to warm themselves by action, and were cold for want of it. A more recondite meaning, indeed, may be found; a meaning which will be best illustrated by a line in Statius, Theb. vi. 395 :

Concurrit summos animosum frigus in artus. STEEVENS. 9 They know, your GRACE HATH cause, and means, and might; So hath your highness:] We should read:

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your race had cause,"

which is carrying on the sense of the concluding words of Exeter: "As did the former lions of your blood;

meaning Edward III. and the Black Prince.

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WARBURTON.

I do not see but the present reading may stand as I have pointed it. JOHNSON.

Warburton's amendment is unnecessary; but surely we should point the passage thus :

"They know your grace hath cause; and means, and might, "So hath your highness;"

Meaning that the king had not only a good cause, but force to support it. So, in this place, has the force of also, or likewise.

M. MASON.

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