To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son Could not keep quiet in his conscience, Daughter to Charles the foresaid duke of Lorain : So that, as clear as is the summer's sun, To bar your highness claiming from the female ; Than amply to imbare their crooked titles 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, Go, my dread lord, to your great grandsire's tomb, [1] To unbar is to open, and might have been the word set down by the poet, in opposition to-ban. JOHNS [2] 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 journey be his, with the honour thereof. The slaughter of the French was great and lamentable at the same battle, fought the 26th August, 1346." BOWLE. O noble English, that could entertain With half their forces the full pride of France; Ely. Awake remembrance of these valiant dead, 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 ;3 never king of England Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England, Cant. O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege, With blood, and sword, and fire, to win your right: In aid whereof, we of the spiritualty Will raise your highness such a mighty sum, As never did the clergy at one time Bring in to any of your ancestors. K. Hen. We must not only arm to invade the French; But lay down our proportions to defend Against the Scot, who will make road upon us With all advantages. Cant. They of those marches,4 gracious sovereign, Shall be a wall sufficient to defend Our inland from the pilfering borderers. K. Hen. We do not mean the coursing snatchers only, But fear the main intendment of the Scot, Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us ; [3] W should point the passage thus : They know your grace hath cause; and means, and might, So, in this place, has the force of also, or likewise. M. MASON. [4] The marches are the borders, the limits, the confines. Lords Marchers, i. e. the lords presidents of the marches, &c. Hence the STEEV With ample and brim fulness of his force; Hath shook, and trembled at the ill neighbourhood. Cant. She hath been then more fear'd than harm'd, my liege : For hear her but exampled by herself,- The king of Scots; whom she did send to France, With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries. Then with Scotland first begin:5 Exe. It follows then, the cat must stay at home: Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries, For government, though high, and low, and lower. Like music. Cant. True: therefore doth heaven divide [5] Hall's Chronicle. Hen V. year 2, fol. 7, (p. 2,) x. POPE. [6] A curs'd necessity means, I believe, only an unfortunate necessity. Curs'd, in colloquial phrase, signifies any thing unfortunate. STEEV. [7] I learn Dr. Burney, that consent is co nected harmony, in general, and not confined to any specific consonance. Thus. (says the same elegant and well-informed writer,) concentio and concentus are both used by Cicero for the union of voices or instruments in what we should now call a chorus, or con. Cert. STEEV. Obedience : for so work the honey bees; Who, busied in his majesty, surveys The lazy yawning drone. I this infer,- As many several ways meet in one town; K. Hen. Call in the messengers sent from the Dau[Exit an Attendant. phin. The King ascends his throne. Now are we well resolv'd: and,-by God's help; [8] The sense is, that ail endeavour is to terminate in obedience, to be subordinate to the puol c good and general design of goveram. nt JOHNS. [9] To knead the honey gives an easy sense, though not physically true. The bees, do in fact, knead the wax more than the honey, but that Shakspeare perhaps did not know. JOHNS. Or break it all to pieces: Or there we'll sit, O'er France and all her almost kingly dukedoms : Tombless, with no remembrance over them: Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth, Enter Ambassadors of France. Now are we well prepar'd to know the pleasure K. Hen. We are no tyrant, but a Christian king; Amb. Thus then, in few. Your highness, lately sending into France, Desires you, let the dukedoms, that you claim, Exe. Tennis-balls, my liege. K.Hen.We are glad, the dauphin is so pleasant with use His present, and your pains, we thank you for : When we have match'd our rackets to these balls, Tell him, he hath made a match with such a wrangler, This word signifies dominion, now obsolete. [2] A galliard was an ancient dance, now obsolete. STEEV. STEEV. |