Of Charles the duke of Lorain, sole heir male (Though, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught,) To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son Of Charles the great. Also king Lewis the tenth,1 7 To fine his title &c.] This is the reading of the quarto, 1608; that of the folio is-To find his title. I would read: To line his title with some show of truth. To line may signify at once to decorate and to strengthen. So, in Macbeth: 66 did line the rebel "With hidden help and vantage; وو Dr. Warburton says, that to fine his title, is to refine or improve it. The reader is to judge. 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: ", -to make his 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: 66 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. 8 Convey'd himself -] Derived his title. Our poet found this expression also in Holinshed. Malone. 9 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 Einhardi præfationem. Edit. 1711, p. 157. But then Charlechauve had only one daughter, named Fudith, 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 Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet, Daughter to Charles the foresaid duke of Lorain: 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 invasion and conquest of France, in prosecution of the dying advice of his father: 66 to busy giddy minds "In foreign quarrels; that action, hence borne out, that his subjects might have sufficient employment to mislead their attention from the nakedness of his title to the crown. The zeal and eloquence of the Archbishop are owing to similar motives. 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. Lewis the tenth,] This is a mistake, (as is observed in The Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. LIII, P. 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. 5, p. 210. 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. So that, as clear as is the summer's sun, 2 King Lewis his satisfaction,] He had told us just above, that Lewis could not wear the crown with a safe conscience, “till sar tisfied," &c. Theobald. 3 imbare their crooked titles —] Mr. Pope reads: Than openly imbrace 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,-66 that is stronger made, دو "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. 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! When the son dies, let the inheritance Go, my dread lord, to your great grandsire's tomb, O noble English, that could entertain With half their forces the full pride of France; 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 ea. sily 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. 4 Whiles his most mighty father on a hill 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.” 5 Holinshed, Vol. II, p. 372, col. i. Bowle. and cold for action!] This epithet all the commentators have passed by, and I am unable to explain. I cannot but sus 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; + never king of England Cant. O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege, pect it to be corrupt. A desire to distinguish themselves seems to merit the name of ardour, rather than the term here given it. If cold be the true reading, their coldness should arise from inaction; and therefore the meaning must be, 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. 6 So hath your highness;] i. e. your highness bath indeed what they think and know you have. Malone. Dr. Warburton and M. Mason disagree with this explanation of Malone, but the meaning is so plain, that the insertion of opposing comments is useless; " 'they know, your grace hath cause, and means, and might; [and] so your highness hath;" &c. Am. Ed. 7 With blood, &c.] Old copy-bloods. Corrected in the third folio. Malone. This and the foregoing line Dr. Warburton gives to Westmoreland, but with so little reason that I have continued them to Canterbury. The credit of old copies, though not great; is yet more than nothing. Johnson. |