My learned lord, we pray you to proceed :
And justly and religiously unfold,
Why the law Salique, that they have in France,
Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim.
And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,
That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your
reading,

Or nicely charge your understanding soul
With opening titles miscreate," whose right
Suits not in native colours with the truth;
For God doth know, how many, now in health,
Shall drop their blood in approbation
Of what your reverence shall incite us to:
Therefore take heed how you impawn our per-

son,

How you awake our sleeping sword of war: We charge you in the name of God, take heed:

For never two such kingdoms did contend
Without much fall of blood; whose guiltless drops
Are every one a woe, a sore complaint,
'Gainst him whose wrongs give edge unto the
swords

That make such waste in brief mortality.
Under this conjuration, speak, my lord:
For we will hear, note, and believe in heart,
That what you speak is in your conscience washed
As pure as sin with baptism.

Cant, Then hear me, gracious sovereign; and you peers

That owe yourselves, your lives, and services,e

impossible for us to attempt to follow them, beyond indicating the principal omissions. We shall, however, occasionally give a passage to show the exceeding care with which the later copy was worked up. This speech of the king, already given in the Introductory Notice, is the first example that presents itself:

"King. Sure we thank you: and, good my lord, proceed Why the law Salique which they have in France, Or should or should not stop in us our claim: And God forbid my wise and learned lord, That you should fashion, frame, or wrest the same. For God doth know how many now in health

Shall drop their blood, in approbation

Of what your reverence shall incite us to.
Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,
How you awake the sleeping sword of war:

We charge you in the name of God take heed.

After this conjuration, speak, my lord:

In

To

b Impawn. A pawn and a gage are the same. Richard II. we have "take up mine honour's pawn.' "impawn our person" is equivalent, therefore, to engage our person.

c In the quartos the line stands thus:

"Which owe your lives, your faith, and services." We, of course, copy the folio; but we ask upon what principle the earlier modern editors arbitrarily made up a text out of the first imperfect copy engrafted upon the second complete one? In this single scene we have a dozen such substitutions-some trifling indeed, such as and instead of for,-the instead of our,-that instead of who,but still unauthorized. We shall, in most cases, silently restore the true reading.

To this imperial throne :-There is no bar
To make against your highness' claim to France,
But this, which they produce from Pharamond,—
In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant,'
'No woman shall succeed in Salique land :'
Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze
To be the realm of France, and Pharamond
The founder of this law and female bar.
Yet their own authors faithfully affirm
That the land Salique is in Germany,
Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe:
Where Charles the great, having subducd the
Saxons,

There left behind and settled certain French;
Who, holding in disdain the German women,
For some dishonest manners of their life,
Establish'd then this law,-to wit, no female
Should be inheretrix in Salique land;
Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala,
Is at this day in Germany call'd Meisen.
Then doth it well appear, the Salique law
Was not devised for the realm of France;
Nor did the French possess the Salique land
Until four hundred one and twenty years
After defunction of king Pharamond,
Idly suppos'd the founder of this law;
Who died within the year of our redemption
Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the
great

Subdued the Saxons, and did seat the French
Beyond the river Sala, in the
year
Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say,
King Pepin, which deposed Childerick,
Did, as heir general, being descended

Of Blithild, which was daughter to king Clothair,
Make claim and title to the crown of France.
Hugh Capet also,-who usurp'd the crown
Of Charles the duke of Loraine, sole heir male
Of the true line and stock of Charles the great,-
To find his title, with some shews of truth,
(Though, in pure truth, it was corrupt and
naught,)

Convey'd himself as th' heir to th' lady Lingare,

a Gloze. The verb to gloze, to gloss (whence glossary), is derived from the Anglo-Saxon glesan, to explain. We have this expression in Hall's Chronicle: "This land Salique the deceitful glosers named to be the realm of France. Holinshed, who abridges Hall, simply says, "The French glossers expound to be the realm of France."

b Dishonest. So the folio and quartos. Capell has introduced the word unhonest into his text, because that word occurs in the original edition of Holinshed, 1577. In the edition of 1586 the word is changed to dishonest. Shakspere used the language nearest his time.

c To find his title. The quarto reads to fine his title: which has been adopted by most modern editors. Warbur ton says, to fine is to refine. Johnson would read to line. The reading of the folio, find, requires little defence. We have an analogous expression, to find a bill. Hugh Capet, to deduce a title, conveyed himself, &c.

Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son
To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son

Of Charles the great: Also king Lewis the tenth,"

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 Loraine :

By the which marriage, the line of Charles the great

Was re-united 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
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 imbar their crooked titles
Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.

b

a This Lewis was the ninth, as Hall correctly states. Shak-pere found the mistake in Holinshed.

b Imbar. The folio gives this word imbarre, which modern editors, upon the authority of Theobald, have changed into imbare. Rowe, somewhat more boldly, reads make bare. There can be no doubt, we think, that imbar is the right word. It might be taken as placed in opposition to bar. To bar is to obstruct; to imbar is to bar in. to secure. They would hold up the Salique law, "to bar your highness." hiding "their crooked titles" in a net, rather than amply defending them. But it has been suggested to us that imbar is here used for "to set at the bar"-to place their crooked titles before a proper tribunal. This is ingenious and plausible.

Man. So the folio. The quarto, son. This reading is perhaps the better. The passage in the Book of Numbers, as quoted by Hall and Holinshed, is-"When a man dieth without a son, let the inheritance descend to his daughter." Scripture was quoted on the other side of the controversy:"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin,"-was held to apply to the arms of France, the lilies. Voltaire, with a sly solemnity, proves, with reference to this, that the arms of France never had any affinity with lilies, but were spear-heads.

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

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:

And lie pavilion'd in the fields of France.

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, gracious sovereign,

Shall be a wall sufficient to defend

Our inland from the pilfering borderers.

a Cold for action. Malone says "cold for want of action." This, we think, is to interpret too literally. The unemployed forces, seeing the work done to their hands, stood laughing by and indifferent for action-unmoved to action. It is the converse of "hot for action."

b They know, &c. Coleridge's emphatic reading of this passage is certainly the true one; and it involves no change in the original, even of punctuation:

"They know your grace hath cause, and means, and might: So hath your highness-never king of England Had nobles richer."

What the "monarchs of the earth" know, Westmoreland confirms. This is much better than Monck Mason's interpretation of so for also, making his grace have cause, and his highness means and might.

The twenty-one lines here ending have no parallel lines in the quartos.

d Marches--the boundaries of England and Scotland-the borders.

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;
For you shall read, that my great grandfather
Never went with his forces into France,1
But that the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdom
Came pouring, like the tide into a breach,
With ample and brim fulness of his force;
Galling the gleaned land with hot essays;
Girding with grievous siege castles and towns:
That England, being empty of defence,

Hath shook and trembled at th' ill-neighbourhood.

Cant. She hath been then more fear'd than harm'd, my liege:

For hear her but exampled by herself,-
When all her chivalry hath been in France,
And she a mourning widow of her nobles,
She hath herself not only well defended,
But taken, and impounded as a stray,

The king of Scots; whom she did send to
France,

To fill king Edward's fame with prisoner kings;
And make your chronicles as rich with praise
As is the ooze and bottom of the sea
With sunken wrack and sumless treasuries.

West. But there's a saying, very old and true,—

If that you will France win
Then with Scotland first begin;

For once the eagle England being in prey,
To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot
Comes sneaking, and so sucks her princely eggs;
Playing the mouse, in absence of the cat,

a Your chronicles. The folio reads their chronicles-the quarto your chronicle. The folio was, without doubt, printed from a written copy, without reference to the previous quarto; and in old manuscripts your and their were contracted alike-yr.

b Taint. The folio tame-the quarto spoil. To tame is to subdue-to subject by fear. But the mouse does not tame, neither does she spoil, in the sense in which that word was formerly used. Theobald suggested that tame was a misprint for taint. Rowe printed tear.

c Crush'd necessity. So the folio. The quarto, curs'd necessity, which some editors follow. Warburton would read s'cus'd (excus'd). Coleridge thinks it may be crash for 'crass,' from crassus, clumsy; or curt. A friend suggests to us cur's necessity. After all, is the word crush'd so full of difficulty? The necessity alleged by Westmoreland is overpowered, crush'd, by the argument that we have "locks" and "pretty traps;" so that it does not follow that "the cat must stay at home."

6

The state of man in divers functions,
Setting endeavour in continual motion;
To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,
Obedience: for so work the honey bees;
Creatures, that, by a rule in nature, teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
They have a king, and officers of sorts:
Where some, like magistrates, correct at
home;

Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad;
Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,
Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds;
Which pillage they with merry march bring
home

To the tent-royal of their emperor:
Who, busied in his majesty, surveys
The singing masons building roofs of gold ;
The civil citizens kneading up the honey;
The poor mechanic porters crowding in
Their heavy burthens at his narrow gate;
The sad-ey'd justice, with his surly hum,
Delivering o'er to éxecutors pale

The lazy yawning drone. I this infer,—
That many things, having full reference
To one concent, may work contrariously;
As many arrows, loosed several ways,

;

a This passage has been supposed to be founded upon a fragment of Cicero's De Republicâ. It has been imperfectly quoted by Theobald. We give it in full:

"Ut in fidibus, ac tibiis, atque cantu ipso, ac vocibus concentus est quidam tenendus ex distinctis sonis, quem immutatum, ac discrepantem aures eruditæ ferre non possunt, isque concentus ex dissimillimarum vocum moderatione concors tamen efficitur & congruens: sic ex summis, & infimis, & mediis interjectis ordinibus, ut sonis, moderata ratione civitas consensu dissimillimorum concinit, & quæ harmonia a musicis dicitur in cantu, ea est in civitate concordia, arctissimum atque optimum omni in republica vinculum incolumitatis: quæ sine justitia nullo pacto esse potest." (See Illustration 5 of Act I.) b So the folio. The ordinary reading "several ways" is that of the quarto.

c So the folio. A former made-up text gave us

"As many fresh streams run in one self sea."

Let us be worried; and our nation lose The name of hardiness, and policy.

K. Hen. Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin.

[Exit an Attendant. The KING ascends
his throne.

Now are we well resolv'd; and, by God's help,
And yours, the noble sinews of our power,
France being ours, we'll bend it to our awe,
Or break it all to pieces: Or, there we'll sit,
Ruling, in large and ample empery,

O'er France and all her almost kingly dukedoms,
Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn,
Tombless, with no remembrance over them:
Either our history shall with full mouth
Speak freely of our acts; or else our grave,
Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless
mouth,

Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph.a

Enter Ambassadors of France.

Now are we well prepar'd to know the pleasure
Of our fair cousin Dauphin; for, we hear,
Your greeting is from him, not from the king.
Amb. May't please your majesty, to give us
leave

Freely to render what we have in charge;
Or shall we sparingly shew you far off
The Dauphin's meaning, and our embassy?

K. Hen. We are no tyrant, but a Christian king;

Unto whose grace our passion is as subject,
As are our wretches fetter'd in our prisons:
Therefore, with frank and with uncurbed plain-

Waren epitaph.
In the quartos this speech of the
King consists only of six lines.
"Call in the messenger sent from the Dauphin;
And by your zid, the noble sinews of our land,
France being ours we 'll bring it to our awe,
Or break it all in pieces.

Either our chronicles shall with full mouth speak
Freely of our acts, or else like tongueless mutes-
Not worshipp'd with a paper epitaph."

The paper epitaph here is clearly the record of the chronicles. We have nothing here about the "urn" and the "grave." And yet the commentators give us two pages of notes disputing whether paper or waxen be the better word in the present text, without reference to the extension of the passage; and Malone finally adopts paper. We can have no doubt about restoring waxen,-which may be taken to mean a perishable epitaph of wax:-not worshipped even with a waxen epitaph. The opposition of war and marble was a familiar image in the old poets. Gifford's interpretation that a waxen epitaph is a copy of verses affixed upon a tomb with wax, appears to us somewhat forced; and yet there is no doubt that such a practice prevailed:

"Let others, then, sad epitaphs invent, And paste them up about thy monument." (See Note on Ben Jonson, vol. ix. p. 59.)

Your highness, lately sending into France,
Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right
Of your great predecessor, king Edward the third.
In answer of which claim, the prince our master
Says, that you savour too much of your youth;
And bids you be advis'd, there's nought in France
That can be with a nimble galliarda won :
You cannot revel into dukedoms there.
He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit,
This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this,
Desires you, let the dukedoms that you
claim
Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.
K. Hen. What treasure, uncle?

for:

His present, and your pains, we thank you
When we have match'd our rackets to these balls,
We will in France, by God's grace, play a set
Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard:
Tell him, he hath made a match with such a
wrangler,

That all the courts of France will be disturb'd
With chases, And we understand him well,
How he comes o'er us with our wilder days,
Not measuring what use we made of them.
We never valued this poor seat of England;"
And therefore, living hence, did give ourself
To barbarous license; as 'tis ever common,
That men are merriest when they are from home.
But tell the Dauphin,-I will keep my state;
Be like a king, and shew my sail of greatness,
When I do rouse me in my throne of France:
For that I have laid by my majesty,
And plodded like a man for working-days;
But I will rise there with so full a glory,
That I will dazzle all the eyes of France,
Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us.
And tell the pleasant prince, this mock of his
Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones; and his soul
Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful ven-

geance

That shall fly with them: for many a thousand widows

Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands;

Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down:

And some are yet ungotten and unborn,

a Galliard An ancient dance;--" a swift and wandering dance," as Sir John Davis has it.

b We never valued, &c. The poor seat, we take it, is the throne. The king, it appears to us, is speaking tauntingly and ironically-"he comes over us with our wilder days' "we (as he thinks) never valued this poor seat of England, and therefore," &c. "But, tell the Dauphin," &c.

That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's

scorn.

But this lies all within the will of God,
To whom I do appeal; and in whose name,
Tell you the Dauphin, I am coming on
To venge me as I may, and to put forth
My rightful hand in a well-hallow'd cause.
So, get you hence in peace; and tell the Dau-
phin,

His jest will savour but of shallow wit,
When thousands weep, more than did laugh at it.
Convey them with safe conduct.-Fare you well.
[Exeunt Ambassadors.

Exe. This was a merry message.

K. Hen. We hope to make the sender blush at it. [Descends from his throne. Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour, That may give furtherance to our expedition: For we have now no thought in us but France; Save those to God, that run before our business. Therefore, let our proportions for these wars Be soon collected; and all things thought upon, That may, with reasonable swiftness, add More feathers to our wings; for, God before, We'll chide this Dauphin at his father's door. Therefore, let every man now task his thought, That this fair action may on foot be brought. [Exeunt.