SCENE I.

The English Camp at Agincourt.

Enter King HENRY, BEDFORD, and GLOSTER.

K. HEN. Glofter, 'tis true, that we are in

danger;

great

The greater therefore fhould our courage be.—
Good morrow, brother Bedford.-God Almighty!
There is fome foul of goodness in things evil,
Would men obfervingly diftil it out;

For our bad neighbour makes us early ftirrers,
Which is both healthful, and good husbandry:
Befides, they are our outward confciences,
And preachers to us all; admonishing,
That we fhould drefs us fairly for our end."
Thus may we gather honey from the weed,
And make a moral of the devil himself.

Enter ERPINGHAM.

Good morrow, old fir Thomas Erpingham:"

6 That we should drefs us fairly for our end.] Drefs us, I believe, means here, addrefs us; i. e. prepare ourselves. So, before, in this play:

"To-morrow for our march we are address'd.”

It should therefore be printed-'dress us.

MALONE.

I do not recollect that any one of our author's plays affords an example of the word-addrefs, thus abbreviated.

Drefs, in its common acceptation, may be the true reading. So, in King Henry IV. Part I:

66

They come like facrifices in their trim." STEEVENS. 7-old fir Thomas Erpingham:] Sir Thomas Erpingham came over with Bolingbroke from Bretagne, and was one of the commiffioners to receive King Richard's abdication. EDWARDS'S MS.

Sir Thomas Erpingham was in Henry V.'s time warden of Dover caftle. His arms are ftill vifible on one fide of the Roman pharos. STEEVENS.

A good foft pillow for that good white head
Were better than a churlish turf of France.

ERP. Not fo, my liege; this lodging likes me better,

Since I may fay-now lie I like a king.

K. HEN. 'Tis good for men to love their prefent pains,

Upon example; fo the fpirit is eased:

And, when the mind is quicken'd, out of doubt,
The organs, though defunct and dead before,
Break up their drowsy grave, and newly move
With cafted flough and fresh legerity.

Lend me thy cloak, fir Thomas.-Brothers both,
Commend me to the princes in our camp;
Do my good morrow to them; and, anon,
Defire them all to my pavilion.

GLO. We fhall, my liege.

[Exeunt GLOSTER and BEDFORD.

ERP. Shall I attend your grace?

K. HEN.

No, my good knight;

Go with my brothers to my lords of England:

I and my bofom muft debate awhile,

And then I would no other company.

ERP. The Lord in heaven blefs thee, noble

Harry!

[Exit ERPINCHAM. K. HEN. God-a-mercy, old heart! thou speak'st

cheerfully.

With cafted flough &c.] Slough is the fkin which the ferpent annually throws off, and by the change of which he is fuppofed to regain new vigour and fresh youth. Legerity is lightnefs, nimblenels. JOHNSON.

66

So, in Stanyhurft's tranflation of Virgil, Book IV. 1582: His flough uncating, himfelf now youthfully bleacheth." Legerity is a word used by Ben Jonfon in Every Man out of his Humour, STEEVENS.

Enter PISTOL.

PIST. Qui va lá ?

K. HEN. A friend.

PIST. Difcufs unto me; Art thou officer?
Or art thou base, common, and popular?
K. HEN. I am a gentleman of a company.
PIST. Trail'ft thou the puiffant pike?
K. HEN. Even fo: What are you?

PIST. As good a gentleman as the emperor.

K. HEN. Then you are a better than the king. PIST. The king's a bawcock, and a heart of gold, A lad of life, an imp of fame; ?

Of parents good, of fift moft valiant:

I kifs his dirty fhoe, and from my heart-ftrings
I love the lovely bully. What's thy name?

K. HEN. Harry le Roy.

PIST. Le Roy! a Cornish name: art thou of
Cornish crew?

K. HEN. No, I am a Welshman.
PIST. Know'ft thou Fluellen?

K. HEN. Yes.

PIST. Tell him, I'll knock his leek about his pate,

Upon faint Davy's day.

K. HEN. Do not you wear your dagger in your cap that day, left he knock that about yours. PIST. Art thou his friend?

9 —an imp of fame ;] An imp is a hoot in its primitive fense, but means a fon in Shakspeare. In Holinfhed, p. 951, the laft words of Lord Cromwell are preferved, who fays: " and after him that his fonne prince Edward, that goodlie impe, may long reigne over you." STEEVENS.

K. HEN. And his kinfman too.

PIST. The figo for thee then!

K. HEN. I thank you: God be with you!

PIST. My name is Pistol call'd.

[Exit.

K. HEN. It forts well with your fierceness.

Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER, feverally.

Gow. Captain Fluellen!

FLU. So! in the name of Chefhu Christ, speak lower. It is the greatest admiration in the univer

It forts-] i. e. it agrees. So, in Chapman's verfion of the 17th book of the Odyffey:

"His faire long lance well forting with his hand." STEEVENS. 3fpeak lower.] The earlieft of the quartos reads-speak lewer, which in that of 1608 is made lower. The alterations made in the feveral quartos, and in all the folios that fucceeded the first, by the various printers or correctors through whofe hands they paffed, carry with them no authority whatfoever; yet here the correction happens, I think, to be right. The editors of the folio read-speak fewer. I have no doubt that in their MS. (for this play they evidently printed from a MS. which was not the cafe in fome others,) the word by the careleffness of the tranfcriber was lewer, (as in that copy from which the quarto was printed,) and that, in order to obtain fome fenfe, they changed this to fewer. Fluellen could not with any propriety call on Gower to speak fewer, he not having uttered a word except Captain Fluellen." Meeting Fluellen late at night, and not being certain who he was, he merely pronounced his name. Having addreffed him in too high a key, the Welchman reprimands him; and Gower justifies himself by faying that the enemy fpoke fo loud, that the English could hear them all night. But what he fays as he is going out, puts, I think, the emendation that I have adopted, beyond doubt, I will do as you defire; " I will speak lower."

Shakspeare has here as ufual followed Holinfhed: " Order was taken by commandement from the king, after the army was first fet in battayle array, that no noife or clamour should be made in the hofte." MALONE.

To fpeak lower is the more familiar reading; but to speak few, is a provincial phrase still in ufe among the vulgar in fome counties;

fal 'orld, when the true and auncient prerogatifes and laws of the wars is not kept: if you would take the pains but to examine the wars of Pompey the great, you fhall find, I warrant you, that there is no tiddle taddle, nor pibble pabble, in Pompey's camp; I warrant you, you fhall find the ceremonics of the wars,+ and the cares of it, and the forms of it, and the fobriety of it, and the modesty of it, to be otherwife.

Gow. Why, the enemy is loud; you heard him all night.

FLU. If the enemy is an afs and a fool, and a prating coxcomb, is it meet, think you, that we fhould alfo, look you, be an ass, and a fool, and a prating coxcomb; in your own confcience now? Gow. I will speak lower.

will.

FLU. I pray you, and befeech you, that you [Exeunt GOWER and FLUELLEN.

K. HEN. Though it appear a little out of fashion, There is much care and valour in this Welshman.

Enter BATES, COURT, and WILLIAMS.

COURT. Brother John Bates, is not that the morn¬ ing which breaks yonder?

fignifying, to speak in a calm, small voice; and confequently has the fame meaning as low.-In Suffex I heard one female fervant fay to another" Speak fewer, or my miftrefs will hear you."

STEEVENS.

4 I warrant you, &c.] Amongst the laws and ordinances militarie fet down by Robert Earl of Leicester in the Low Countries, printed at Leyden, 1586, one is, that "No man fhall make anie outcrie or noife in any watch, ward, ambush, or anie other place where filence is requifite, and neceffarie, upon paine of loffe of life or limb at the general's discretion." REED.