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Unto whose grace our paffion is as fubject,

As are our wretches fetter'd in our prifons: Therefore, with frank and with uncurbed plainnefs,

Tell us the Dauphin's mind.

Амв. Thus then, in few. Your highness, lately fending into France, Did claim fome certain dukedoms, in the right Of your great predeceffor, king Edward the third. In answer of which claim, the prince our master Says, that you favour too much of your youth; And bids you be advis'd, there's nought in France, That can be with a nimble galliard won; 5 You cannot revel into dukedoms there: He therefore fends you, meeter for your spirit, This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this, Defires you, let the dukedoms, that you claim, Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin fpeaks.

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a nimble galliard won;] A galliard was an ancient dance, now obfolete. So, in All for Money, 1574:

"Where fhall we get a pipe, to play the devil a galliard?” STEEVENS.

Galliards are thus defcribed by Sir John Davis, in his poem called Orchestra:

"But for more diverse and more pleasing show,

"A fwift and wand'ring dance fhe did invent,

"With paffages uncertain to and fro,

"Yet with a certain anfwer and confent

"To the quick mufic of the inftrument,

"Five was the number of the mufic's feet,

"Which ftill the dance did with five paces meet;

"A gallant dance, that lively doth bewray

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"A fpirit and a virtue mafculine,

Impatient that her house on earth should stay,

"Since the herself is fiery and divine:

"Oft doth the make her body upward fine;
"With lofty turns and capriols in the air,

"Which with the lufty tunes accordeth fair." REED.

K. HEN. What treasure, uncle?

EXE.

Tennis-balls, my liege."

K. HEN. We are glad, the Dauphin is fo pleasant with us;

His prefent, and your pains, we thank you for:
When we have match'd our rackets to these balls,
We will, in France, by God's grace, play a fet,
Shall ftrike his father's crown into the hazard:
Tell him, he hath made a match with fuch a wrang-
ler,

That all the courts of France will be disturb'd
With chaces. And we understand him well,
How he comes o'er us with our wilder days,
Not measuring what ufe we made of them.

6 Tennis-balls, my liege.] In the old play of King Henry V. already mentioned, this prefent confifts of a gilded tun of tennisballs and a carpet. STEEVENS.

We are glad, the Dauphin is fo pleafant with us;] Thus ftands the answer of K. Henry in the fame old play:

"My lord, prince Dolphin is very pleasant with me.
"But tell him, that instead of balls of leather,

"We will tofs him balls of brafs and of iron:

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Yea, fuch balls as never were tofs'd in France. "The proudest tennis-court in France fhall rue it."

The fame circumftance alfo is thus expreffed in Michael Drayton's Battle of Agincourt:

"I'll fend him balls and rackets if I live;
"That they fuch racket fhall in Paris fee,
"When over line with bandies I fhall drive;

"As that, before the fet be fully done,
"France may perhaps into the hazard run."

STEEVENS.

chaces-] Chace is a term at tennis. JOHNSON. So, in Sidney's Arcadia, Book III: "Then Fortune (as if fhe had made chafes enow on the one fide of that bloody Teniscourt) went on the other fide of the line" &c.

The hazard is a place in the tennis-court into which the ball is fometimes ftruck. STEEVENS.

We never valu'd this poor feat of England;'
And therefore, living hence,' did give ourself
To barbarous licence; As 'tis ever common,

9—this poor feat of England;] By the Seat of England, the King, I believe, means, the throne. So, Othello boafts that he is defcended" from men of royal fiege." Henry afterwards fays, he will roufe him in his throne of France. The words below, "I will keep my ftate," likewife confirm this interpretation. See Vol. VIII. p. 471, n. 2; and Vol. VII. p. 474, n. 4. So, in King

Richard II:

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Yea, diftaff-women manage rusty bills
Against thy feat."

Again, in King Richard III:

"The fupreme feat, the throne majestical,———.” Again, in King Henry VI. Part II:

"The rightful heir to England's royal feat." MALONE.

2 And therefore, living hence,] This expreffion has ftrength and energy: he never valued England, and therefore lived hence, i. e. as if abfent from it. But the Oxford editor alters hence to here. WARBURTON.

Living hence means, I believe, withdrawing from the court, the place in which he is now fpeaking.

Perhaps Profpero, in The Tempeft, has more clearly expressed the fame idea, when he says:

"The government I caft upon my brother,

"And to my fate grew ftranger." STEEVENS.

In King Richard II. A&t V. fc. ii. King Henry IV. complains that he had not feen his fon for three months, and defires that he may be enquired for among the taverns, where he daily frequents, "With unreftrain'd and loofe companions."

See alfo King Henry IV. Part II. A& III. fc. ii:

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Thy place in council thou haft rudely loft, "Which by thy younger brother is fupplied; "And art almost an alien to the hearts

"Of all the court and princes of my blood."

There can therefore be no doubt that Mr. Steevens's explanation is juft. Hence refers to the feat or throne of England mentioned in the preceding line, on which Henry is now fitting. An anonymous Remarker fays, "it is evident that the word hence implies bere." If hence means here, any one word, as Dr. Johnfon has fomewhere observed, may ftand for another. It undoubtedly does not fignify kere in the prefent paffage; and if it did, would render what follows nonfenfe. MALONE.

That men are merrieft when they are from home.
But tell the Dauphin,-I will keep my state;
Be like a king, and fhow my fail of greatness,
When I do roufe me in my throne of France:
For that I have laid by my majefty,

And plodded like a man for working-days;
But I will rife there with fo full a glory,
That I will dazzle all the eyes of France,
Yea, ftrike the Dauphin blind to look on us.
And tell the pleasant prince,-this mock of his
Hath turn'd his balls to gun-ftones; and his foul
Shall ftand fore charged for the wafteful vengeance
That shall fly with them: for many a thousand
widows

Shall this his mock mock out of their dear huf

bands;

Mock mothers from their fons, mock castles down; And fome are yet ungotten, and unborn,

That fhall have caufe to curfe the Dauphin's fcorn.
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,

3 For that I have laid by-] To qualify myself for this undertaking, I have defcended from my ftation, and ftudied the arts of life in a lower character. JOHNSON.

The quartos 1600 and 1608 read-for this. STEEVENS.

4 his balls to gun-ftones ;] When ordnance was first used, they discharged balls, not of iron, but of ftone. JOHNSON.

So, Holinfhed, p. 947 : "About feaven of the clocke marched forward the light pieces of ordinance, with ftone and powder.”

In the BRUT of ENGLAND it is faid, that when Henry the Fifth before Hare-flete received a taunting meffage from the Dauphine of France, and a ton of tennis-balls by way of contempt," he anone lette make tenes balles for the Dolfin (Henry's fhip) in all the hafte that they myght, and they were great gonneftones for the Dolfin to playe with alle. But this game at tennis was too rough for the befieged, when Henry playede at the tenes with his hard gonne fones," &c. STEEVENS.

To venge me as I may, and to put forth
My rightful hand in a well-hallow'd caufe.
So, get you hence in peace; and tell the Dauphin,
His jeft will favour but of fhallow wit,

When thousands weep, more than did laugh at it.—
Convey them with fafe conduct.-Fare you well.
[Exeunt Ambaffadors.

EXE. This was a merry meffage.

K. HEN. We hope to make the fender blush at it. [Defcends 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 foon 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 tafk his thought," That this fair action may on foot be brought. [Exeunt.

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5 -with reasonable swiftness, add

More feathers to our wings;] So, in Troilus and Creffida:

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fet

"The very wings of reafon to his heels." STEEVENS.

-task his thought,] The fame phrafe has already occurred at the beginning of the prefent fcene:

"That task our thoughts concerning us and France." See p. 276, n. 6. STEEVENS.

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