nations that our Kings are indebted for their royalty. Let the fancy of the spectator furnish out those appendages to greatness which the poverty of our stage is unable to supply. The poet is still apologizing for the defects of theatrical representation, STEEVENS.

as

Johnson is in my opinion mistaken also in his explanation of the remainder of the sentence. Carry them here and there, does not mean, he supposes, Carry your thoughts here and there; for the Chorus not only calls upon the imagination of the audience to adorn his Kings, but to carry them also from one place to another, though by a common poetical license the copulative be omitted. M. MASON.

P. 5, 1. 3. This first scene was added since the edition of 1608, which is much short of the present editions, wherein the speeches are generally enlarged and raised: several whole scenes besides, and all the chorusses also, where since added by Shakspeare. Pore.

P. 5, 1. 4. London.] It appears from Hall's and Holinshed's Chronicles that the business of this scene was transacted at Leicester, where King Henry V. held a parliament in the second year of his reign. But the Chorus at the beginning of the second act shows that the author intended to make London the place of his first scene. MALONE.

P. 5, 1. 5. Archbishop of Canterbury,] Henry Chicheley, a Carthusian monk, recently promoted to the see of Canterbury, MALONE.

P. 5, 1. 6. Bishop of Ely] John Fordham, consecrated 1388; died 1426. REED.

P. 5, l. 12. the scambling and unquiet time] In the household book of the 5th Earl of Nort

"

humberland, there is a particular section appointing the order of service for the scambling days in Lent; that is, days on which no regular meals were provided, but every one scambled, i. e. scrambled and shifted for himself as well as he could. So, in the old noted book intitled Leicester's Commonwealth, one of the marginal heads is, “Scambling between Leicester and Huntington at the upshot. Where in the text, the author says, "Hastings, for ought I see, when hee commeth to the scambling, is like to have no better luck by the beare [Leicester] then his ancestour hal once by the boare." [K. Richard III.] edit. 1641, 12mo. p. 87. So again, Shakspeare himself makes King Henry V. say to the Princess Katharine, "I get thee with scambling, and thou must therefore prove a good soldierbreeder." Act V. PERCY.

Shakspeare uses the same word in Much Ado about Nothing:

"Scambling, out-facing, fashion-mong'ring

P. 5, 1. 13.

of further debate.

boys."

STEEVENS. of further question.] ì. e. MALONE.

P. 6, 1. 3. 4. And to the coffers of the King, beside,

A thousand pounds by the year:] Hall, who appears to have been Shakspeare's authority, in the above enumeration, says, "and the Kyng to have clerely in his cofers twentie thousand poundes." REED.

P. 6. 1. 15. 16. Consideration like an angel

came

And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him; ] As paradise, when sin and Adam were driven out by the an

gel, became the habitation of celestial spirits, so the King's heart, since consideration has driven out his follies, is now the receptacle of wisdom and of virtue. JOHNSON.

Mr. Upton observes, that according to the scripture expression, the old Adam, or the old man, signified man in an unregenerated or gentile state. MALONE.

P. 6, 1. 20—24. Never came reformation in a flood, &c.] Alluding to the method by which Hercules cleansed the famous stables, when he turned a river through them. Hercules still is in our author's head when he mentions the Hydra. JOHNSON.

P. 6, 1. 26 and fol. Hear him but reason in

divinity, &c.]

This

speech seems to have been copied from King James's Prelates, speaking of their Solomon ; when Archbishop Whitgift, who, as an eminent writer says, died soon afterwards, and probably doated then, at the Hampton-Court conference, declared himself verily persuaded, that his sacred Majesty spake by the spirit of God., And, in effect, this scene was added after King James's accession to the crown: so that we have no way of avoiding its being esteemed a compliment to him, but by supposing it a compliment to his bishops. WARBURTON.

Why these lines should be divided from the rest of the speech and applied to King James, I am not able to conceive; nor why an opportunity should be so eagerly snatched to treat with contempt that part of his character which was the least contemptible. King James's theological knowledge was not inconsiderable. To preside at disputations is not very suitable to a King,

but to understand the questions is surely laudable. The poet, if he had James in his thoughts, was no skilful encomiast; for the mention of Harry's skill in war, forced upon the remembiance of his audience the great deficiency of their present King; who yet with all his faults, and many faults he had, was such, that Sir Robert Cotton says, he would be content that England should never have a better, provided that it should never have a worse. JOHNSON.

Those who are solicitous that justice should be done to the theological knowledge of our British Solomon, may very easily furnish themselves with specimens of it from a book entitled, Rex Platonicus, sive de potentissimi Principis Jacobi Britanniarum Regis ad illustrissimam Academiam Oxoniensem adventu, Aug. 27, Anno 1605. STEEVENS.

P. 7, 1. 2. The air, a charter'd libertine, This line is

exquisitely beautiful.

is still,

JOHNSON.

P. 7, 1. 5. 6. So that the art and practick part of life

Must be the mistress of this theorick:] He discourses with so much skill on all subjects, that the art and practice of life must be the mistress or teacher of his theorick; that is, that his theory must have been taught by art and practice; which, says he, is strange, since he could see little of the true art or practice among his loose companions, nor ever retired to digest his practice into theory. Art is used by the author for practice, as distinguished from science or theory. JOHNSON.

Theorick is what terminates in speculation.

STEEVENS.

In our author's time, this word was always used where we now use theory. MALONE.

P. 7, l. 10.

companies] is here used

for companions. MALONE. P. 7, l. 14.

popularity.] i. e. plebeian intercourse; an unusual sense of the word: though perhaps the same idea was meant to be communicated by it in King Henry IV. Part I. where King Richard II. is represented as having

66

'Enfeoff'd himself to popularity. STEEVENS. nettle i. e. the wild fruit

P. 7, l. 16.

so called, that grows in the woods, STEEVENS.

P. 7, I. 22.

creasing in its P. 7, 1. 31. P. 8, 1. 10.

crescive in his faculty.] In

proper power, JOHNSON. Swaying is inclining. MALONE. The severals, and unhidden passages,] This line I suspect of corruption, though it may be fairly enough explained: the passages of his titles are the lines of succession by which his claims descend. Unhidden is open, clear. JOHNTON.

I believe we should read, several, instead of severals. M. MASON.

P. 8, last 1. K. Hen. Send for him, good uncle.] The person here addressed was Thomas Beaufort, Earl of Dorset, who was half-brother to King Henry IV. being one of the sons of John of Gaunt, by Katharine Swynford. Shakspeare is a little too early in giving him the title of Duke of Exeter; for when Harfleur was taken and he was appointed governour of the town, he was only Earl of Dorset. He was not made Duke of Exeter till the year after the battle of Agincourt, Nov. 14, 1416. MALONE.

Perhaps Shakspeare confounded this character