"With edge of penny cord," namely, for stealing a pax of little price" (iii. 6. 44, 47), is recorded by the contemporary historians, Elmham and Titus Livius, as having been committed by a soldier on the march, Oct. 17, 1415, who mistook a pix of copper-gilt for real gold, and stole it from the church at Corbie, for which sacrilege the king ordered him to be hanged on a tree, close to the church, in sight of the whole army. In some editions the theft of Bardolph is called "a pax;" in others "a pix." Dr. Johnson strangely says they signified the same thing;" but the two articles, of great importance in Roman Catholic ceremonies, have very different meanings. The "pax," called also the " pax-brede," is a small tablet, or plate of gold, silver, or copper-gilt (sometimes of ivory), having usually upon it a representation of the crucified Saviour between the Virgin Mary and Saint John, with a handle at the back, by which it was carried round, during the celebration of Mass, for the communicants to give "the kiss of peace,' - whence its name, and hence it was also termed "the osculatory." The "pyx" was the most sacred vessel of the Church of Rome, often formed of the most costly materials, sometimes covered with jewels and precious stones, and frequently made like a shrine or tabernacle of the richest Gothic design and workmanship, and containing the Host, or consecrated wafer.

Bardolph's crime therefore, in the eyes of so great a venerator of church discipline as Henry V., would be greater for stealing a pix, even of the humblest materials, than a pax, however costly. That the poet intended the former may be inferred from the language of Hall and Holinshed, his great authorities, "a foolish soldier stole a pix out of a church, and unreverently did eat the

holy hostes within the same contained." As instances,
among many which might be quoted, showing the dis-
tinction between a pix and a pax, the inventories of
church furniture afford most interesting proofs,
"A
coupe of sylver and golde to lay Goddes body with cris-
tall, and iii. pax-bredes of sylver-gilt: St. Mary Hill
Church, London, 10 Henry VI." Among the jewels, etc.,
belonging to the Church of St. Mary Magdalen, Ber-
mondsey, taken in the reign of Edward VI., men-
tion is made of "ii latten pyxses and ii paxses of
copper."

One of the Ordinances made by Henry V., when in France, is as follows: "For Holy Churche. Also that no man be so hardy, of lesse that he be prest (priest), to touch the sacrement of Godes bodey, upon payne to be drawen and hangede therfor; nor that no maner man be so hardy to touche the box or vessell in the whiche the precious sacrement is in, upon the same payne aforesaide."

Pistol was no doubt a great favourite with the audience, as evinced by the titles of some editions of the Second Part of King Henry IV., which set forth, “The humours of Sir John Falstaffe, and swaggering Pistoll; whilst the present play was frequently entitled “The Chronicle History of Henry the Fifth, with his battle fought at Agincourt in France, together with Ancient Pistoll."

A HERALD. Three heralds attended Henry V. at Agincourt; namely, Lancaster, Guienne, and Ireland, kings-at-arms. In 1419, March 4, King Henry created a new herald, called "Agincourt, king-at-arms," in honour of his great achievement. In this reign "Lancaster,

king-at-arms," was John Ashwell; "Guienne " was John Wrexworth; and "Ireland" was John Kitteby.

CHARLES THE SIXTH, King of France. This monarch is very properly not introduced on the stage in the scenes at Agincourt, for his uncle, the Duc de Berri, who served at Poitiers sixty years before, with a vivid recollection how fatal that field had been to the French royalty persuaded his sovereign not to be present, observing that it was better to lose a battle than a battle and a king also. Charles, however, was not at Troyes to witness the betrothal of his daughter, May 21, 1420, being "otherwise occupied ; " such was the court-phrase on the recurrence of one of those fits of insanity to which he had been subject since 1392. This prince, who succeeded his father Charles V. in 1380, married Isabel, daughter of Stephen II., Duke of Bavaria, by whom he had three sons, successively Dauphins; and five daughters, (1) Isabelle, the second Queen of Richard II.; (2) Marie, who became a nun; (3) Michelle, who was the first wife of Philip, Count of Charolois, afterwards Duke of Burgundy; (4) Jane, married to John de Montfort, Duke of Britany; and (5) Katharine the Fair, who became the Queen of Henry V. Charles VI. died Oct. 21, 1422, a few weeks after his English son-in-law, who had been declared his heir to the kingdom of France, as noticed in the play (v. 2. 331-333).

LEWIS, THE DAUPHIN. Shakspeare only speaks of this prince as "the Dauphin," without assigning any Christian name. The three sons of Charles VI. bore the title in rapid succession during the reign of Henry V. Louis, the eldest son, was Dauphin at the commencement

of this play; he died Dec. 18, 1415, in his twentieth year, and leaving no issue by his wife, daughter of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy; his next brother, John, then became Dauphin, who died in 1417, and his brother Charles succeeded as Dauphin, and was afterwards king as Charles VII.: he figures in the next play under both characters. Louis the Dauphin was not allowed to be present at the battle of Agincourt; he was a dissolute youth, of headstrong passions. The story of his sending the derisive message to Henry V. is related by several contemporary authors; Thomas Elmham, Prior of Lenton, records the incident in Latin prose and verse; in the poem he says,

“Parisius pilas misit quibus ille valeret,

Ludere cum pueris, ut sua cura fuit."

And the monk Lydgate makes the Dauphin “mock" King Henry in like terms,

"A tonne of tenys ballys I shall hym sende,
For to pley him with alle."

Henry's reply to the insulting message (i. 2. 281, 282),—

"tell the pleasant prince this mock of his Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones,"

is furnished by the language of Holinshed: " He anone lette make tenes balles for the Dolfin [Henry's ship], in alle the hayste that they myght, and they were great gounestones for the Dolphin to playe with alle."

DUKE OF Burgundy.

The Duke, at the beginning of this play to Act ii., would be John the Fearless,

who was basely assassinated at the bridge of Montereau, Sept. 10, 1418, at the interview with the Dauphin Charles. His son, Philip Count of Charolois, mentioned under that title in the list of the great feudatories summoned to the field (iii. 5. 45), is therefore the Duke of Burgundy in v. 2, since he was present at Troyes, acting as deputy for Charles VI. As Count of Charolois he visited Agincourt soon after the battle; and Monstrelet relates that the Count was much grieved at the loss of his uncles, the Duke of Brabant and the Count of Nevers, the former of whom is named (iv. 8. 94, 95) in the "royal fellowship of death,"

"Anthony, Duke of Brabant,

The brother to the Duke of Burgundy."

At Troyes, the Duke of Burgundy appeared in deep mourning for his murdered father; King Henry on the same occasion (according to Godwin) was in a splendid suit of burnished armour, wearing in his helmet a fox's tail ornamented with jewels.

DUKE OF ORLEANS.

This French prince was the son of Louis Duke of Orleans (brother to Charles VI.), who was murdered in 1407 by the adherents, and with the connivance, of the Duke of Burgundy; between these two princes there had been a constant struggle for power. The Duke of Orleans in this play, Charles D'Angoulême, married in 1408 his cousin Isabelle, the young widow of Richard II., who died soon after she gave birth to a daughter, Joan, who became the wife of John II., Duke of Alençon, the character under that title in the next play. The character in this play, placed by Shakspeare at the head of the list of "prisoners of good sort" (iv. 8.