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.
Glo. The Church! where is it? Had not church-

men pray'd,

His thread of life had not so soon decay'd:

None do you like but an effeminate prince,
Whom, like a school-boy, you may overawe.

Win. Gloster, whate'er we like, thou art pro
tector,

And lookest to command the prince and realm).
Thy wife is proud; she holdeth thee in awe,
More than God, or religious churchmen, may.

Glo. Name not religion, for thou lov'st the flesh,

affirme that they can rime man or beast to death." See As You Like It, Act iii. sc. 2, note 17.

H.

6 Henry Beaufort, known in history as "the great bishop of Winchester," was brother to the duke of Exeter. At this time he held the office of chancellor, and was associated with Exeter in the governing of the infant sovereign. The quarrel between nim and his nephew, the duke of Gloster, did not break out till 1425, though it had been brewing in secret for some time. In 1427 he was advanced by Pope Martin to the office of cardinal. The matter is thus related by Holinshed: "After that the duke of Bedford had set all things in good order in England, he returned into France, first landing at Calis, where the bishop of Winchester, that also passed the seas with him, received the habit, hat, and dignitie of a cardinall. The late king, right deeplie persing into the unrestrainable ambitious mind of the man, that even from his youth was ever to checke at the highest; and also right well ascerteined with what intollerable pride his head should soone be swollen under such a hat; did therefore all his life long keepe this prelat backe from that presumptuous estate. But now. the king being yoong, and the regent his freend, he obteined his purpose to his great profit. For by a bull legantin, which he purchased from Rome, he gathered so much treasure, that no man in maner had monie but he, so that he was called the rich car dinall of Winchester."

H.

And ne'er throughout the year to church thou go'st Except it be to pray against thy foes.

Bed. Cease, cease these jars, and rest your minds in peace!

Let's to the altar: Heralds, wait on us.

-

Instead of gold, we'll offer up our arms,
Since arms avail not, now that Henry's dead.
Posterity, await for wretched years,

When at their mothers' moist eyes babes shall suck
Our isle be made a marish' of salt tears,
And none but women left to wail the dead.
Henry the Fifth! thy ghost I invocate;
Prosper this realm, keep it from civil broils!
Combat with adverse planets in the heavens!
A far more glorious star thy soul will make,
Than Julius Cæsar, or bright

8

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: Guienne, Champaigne, Rheims, Orleans, Paris, Guysors, Poictiers, are all quite lost.

Bed. What say'st thou, man, before dead Henry's corse?

Speak softly; or the loss of those great towns Will make him burst his lead, and rise from death.

7 The original has nourish here, which can hardly be made to yield any reasonable meaning. Pope thought nourish a misprint for marish, an old form of marsh; and Ritson gives an apt quotation from Kyd's Spanish Tragedy: "Made mountains marsh with spring tides of my tears."

H.

8 So in the original, the same mark being used here as in several other cases to signify an interruption of the speaker. Malone thought this blank arose from the transcriber's or composi tor's not being able to make out the name." Accordingly severa. names have been proposed to fill up the line, as Francis Drake, by Pope, and Berenice, by Johnson.

H.

Glo. Is Paris lost? is Rouen yielded up?

If Henry were recall'd to life again,

These news would cause him once more yield the ghost.

Exe. How were they lost? what treachery was

us'd?

Mess. No treachery; but want of men and money. Among the soldiers this is muttered,

That here you maintain several factions;

And, whilst a field should be despatch'd and fought,
You are disputing of your generals.

One would have lingering wars with little cost;
Another would fly swift, but wanteth wings;
A third man thinks, without expense at all,
By guileful fair words peace may be obtain❜d.
Awake, awake, English nobility!

Let not sloth dim your honours, new-begot:
Cropp'd are the flower-de-luces in your arms;
Of England's coat one half is cut away.

Exe. Were our tears wanting to this funeral, These tidings would call forth their flowing tides. Bed. Me they concern; regent I am of France: Give me my steeled coat! I'll fight for France. Away with these disgraceful wailing robes! Wounds I will lend the French, instead of eyes, To weep their intermissive miseries.10

Enter another Messenger.

2 Mess. Lords, view these letters, full of bad mis chance.

France is revolted from the English quite,

Except some petty towns of no import:

The Dauphin, Charles, is crowned king in Rheims,

9 That is, England's flowing tides.

10 That is, their miseries which have only a short intermission

The bastard of Orleans with him is join'd;
Reignier, duke of Anjou, doth take his part;
The duke of Alençon flieth to his side.

Exe. The Dauphin crowned king! all fly to him O! whither shall we fly from this reproach?

Glo. We will not fly, but to our enemies' throats Bedford, if thou be slack, I'll fight it out.

Bed. Gloster, why doubt'st thou of my forward ness?

An army have I muster'd in my thoughts,
Wherewith already France is overrun.

Enter a third Messenger.

3 Mess. My gracious lords, to add to your laments Wherewith you now bedew king Henry's hearse, I must inform you of a dismal fight,

Betwixt the stout lord Talbot and the French.

Win. What! wherein Talbot overcame ? is't so! 3 Mess. O, no! wherein lord Talbot was o'er thrown:

The circumstance I'll tell you more at large.
The tenth of August last, this dreadful lord,
Retiring from the siege of Orleans,

Having full scarce six thousand in his troop,
By three-and-twenty thousand of the French
Was round encompassed and set upon :
No leisure had he to enrank his men ;

He wanted pikes to set before his archers;
Instead whereof, sharp stakes, pluck'd out of hedges,
They pitched in the ground confusedly,

To keep the horsemen off from breaking in.
More than three hours the fight continued ;
Where valiant Talbot, above human thought,
Enacted wonders with his sword and lance.
Hundreds he sent to hell, and none durst stand him

Here, there, and every where, enrag'd he slew:
The French exclaim'd, the devil was in arms;
All the whole army stood agaz'd on him:
His soldiers, spying his undaunted spirit,
A Talbot! a Talbot! cried out amain,
And rush'd into the bowels of the battle.
Here had the conquest fully been seal'd up,
If Sir John Fastolfe had not play'd the coward:
He being in the vaward, plac'd behind"
With purpose to relieve and follow them,
Cowardly fled, not having struck one stroke.
Hence grew the general wreck and massacre :
Enclosed were they with their enemies :
A base Walloon, to win the Dauphin's grace,
Thrust Talbot with a spear into the back;
Whom all France, with their chief assembled strength,
Durst not presume to look once in the face.

Bed. Is Talbot slain? then I will slay myself,
For living idly here in pomp and ease,

r'an.

11 Vaward is an old word for the foremost part of an army, the The passage seems to involve a contradiction; but the meaning probably is, that Fastolfe commonly led the raward, but was on this occasion placed behind. Monck Mason supposes the army

to have been attacked in the rear, and remarks that in such cases "the van becomes the rear."-The original has Falstaffe for Fas tolfe; but of course without any reference to the fat, funny old sinner of Henry IV., who had not been conceived when this play was written. Fastolfe was an actual person, greatly distinguished during these wars in France, and is well known in history. He was as far as possible from being a coward: nevertheless, Holinshed, speaking of the battle of Patay, June, 1429, where Talbot was taken prisoner, has the following: "From this battell departed without ane stroke striken sir John Fastolfe, the same yeare for his valiantnesse elected into the order of the garter. But, for doubt of misdealing in this brunt, the duke of Bedford tooke from him the image of saint George and his garter; though afterward, by meanes of freends, and apparent causes of good excuse, the same were to him again delivered against the mind of lord Talbot."

11