Alarums.

SCENE

V.

Another Part of the Field of Battle.

Enter Dauphin, ORLEANS, BOURBON, Conftable, RAMBURES, and Others.

Con. O diable!

Orl. O feigneur!-le jour eft perdu, tout eft perdu! Dau. Mort de ma vie! all is confounded, all! Reproach and everlasting fhame

Sits mocking in our plumes.-O mefchante for

tune!

Do not run away.

CON.

A short alarum. Why, all our ranks are broke. DAU. O perdurable shame! --let's ftab ourselves. Be these the wretches that we play'd at dice for?

ORL. Is this the king we fent to for his ransom? BOUR. Shame, and eternal fhame, nothing but fhame!

Let us die inftant: Once more back again;"
And he that will not follow Bourbon now,

8 O perdurable shame!] Perdurable is lasting, long to continue. So, in Daniel's Civil Wars, &c.

"Triumphant arcs of perdurable might." STEEVENS.

9 Let us die inftant: Once more back again;] This verse, which is quite left out in Mr. Pope's editions, ftands imperfect in the first folio. By the addition of a fyllable, I think, I have retrieved the poet's fenfe. It is thus in the old copy:

Let us die in once more back again. THEOBALD.

Let us die in fight;] For the infertion of the word fight, which (as I obferved in my Second Appendix, 8vo. 1783,) appears to have been omitted by the negligence of the tranfcriber or compofitor, I am anfwerable. So Bourbon fays afterwards:

"I'll to the throng; Let life be fhort."

Macbeth utters the fame fentiment:

"At least we'll die with harnefs on our backs."

Let him go hence, and, with his cap in hand,
Like a base pander, hold the chamber-door,
Whilft by a flave, no gentler' than my dog,
His faireft daughter is contaminate.*

CON. Disorder, that hath spoil'd us, friend us

now!

Let us, in heaps, go offer up our lives
Unto these English, or elfe die with fame.'

Mr. Theobald corrected the text by reading inftant inftead of in; but (as I have already remarked,) it is highly improbable that a printer fhould omit half a word; nor indeed does the word inftant fuit the context. Bourbon probably did not wish to die more than other men; but if we are conquered, (fays he) if we are to die, let us bravely die in combat with our foes, and make their victory as dear to them as we can.

The editor of the fecond folio, who always cuts a knot inftead of untying it, substituted fly for die, and abfurdly reads—Let us fly in; leaving the metre, which was deftroyed by the omiffion of a word, ftill imperfect, and at the fame time rendering the paffage monfenfe. The lines ftand thus in the quarto, 1600:

"Con. We are enough yet living in the field
To fmother up the English,

"If any order might be thought upon.'

"Bour. A plague of order! once more to the field; "And he that will not follow," &c. MALONE.

I have not adopted Mr. Malone's emendation, because when I read it, I cannot fuppofe myself to be reading the beginning of a verse. Inftant may be an adjective used adverbially. In the course of this publication my compofitors will not deny their occafional omiffion of feveral half words. STEEVENS.

Like a bafe pander,] The quartos read:

Like a bafe leno. STEEVENS.

30 gentler-] Who has no more gentility. MALONE. 4 is contaminate.] The quarto has-contamuracke, which corrupted word, however, is fufficient to lead us to the true reading now inferted in the text: It is alfo fupported by the metre and the ufage of our author and his contemporaries. We have had in this play "hearts create" for hearts created: fo, elsewhere, combinate, for combin'd; confummate, for confummated, &c. The folio reads-contaminated. MALONE.

5 Unto thefe English, or elfe die with fame.] reftored from the quartos, 1600 and 1608.

This line I have The Constable of

ORL. We are enough, yet living in the field, To fmother up the English in our throngs,

If

any order might be thought upon.

BOUR. The devil take order now! I'll to the throng;

Let life be short; elfe, fhame will be too long.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI.

Another Part of the Field.

Alarums. Enter King HENRY and Forces; EXETER, and Others.

K. HEN. Well have we done, thrice-valiant countrymen :

But all's not done, yet keep the French the field. EXE. The duke of York commends him to your

majesty.

K. HEN. Lives he, good uncle? thrice, within this hour,

I saw him down; thrice up again, and fighting; From helmet to the fpur, all blood he was.

EXE. In which array, (brave foldier,) doth he lie,

Larding the plain: and by his bloody fide, (Yoke-fellow to his honour-owing wounds,)

France is throughout the play reprefented as a brave and generous enemy, and therefore we fhould not deprive him of a refolution which agrees fo well with his character. STEEVENS.

6 Larding the plain:] So, in King Henry IV. Part I:
"And lards the lean earth as he walks along."

The noble earl of Suffolk alfo lies.

Suffolk firft died: and York, all haggled over,
Comes to him, where in gore he lay infteep'd,
And takes him by the beard; kiffes the gashes
That bloodily did yawn upon his face;

And cries aloud,-Tarry, dear coufin Suffolk!
My foul ball thine keep company to heaven:
Tarry, fweet foul, for mine, then fly a-breast ;
As, in this glorious and well-foughten field,
We kept together in our chivalry!

Upon these words I came, and cheer'd him up:
He smil'd me in the face, raught' me his hand,
And, with a feeble gripe, fays,-Dear my lord,
Commend my fervice to my fovereign.

So did he turn, and over Suffolk's neck
He threw his wounded arm, and kifs'd his lips;
And fo, efpous'd to death, with blood he feal'd
A teftament of noble-ending love."

The pretty and fweet manner of it forc'd

Those waters from me, which I would have stopp'd;
But I had not fo much of man in me,

But all my mother came into mine eyes,
And gave me up to tears."

5 raught-] i. e. reached. See Vol. X. p. 241, n. 8.

6 A teftament of noble-ending love.] So the folio. reads:

An argument of never-ending love. MALONE.

7 But all my mother came into mine eyes,

STEEVENS.

The quarto

And gave me up to tears.] Thus the quarto. The folio reads And all &c. But has here the force of-But that.

MALONE.

This thought is apparently copied by Milton, Paradise Loft, Book IX:

66

-compaffion quell'd

"His beft of man, and gave him up to tears."

STEEVENS.

K. HEN.

I blame you not;

For, hearing this, I must perforce compound
With mistful eyes, or they will iffue too.-

8

[Alarum.

But, hark! what new alarum is this fame?9The French have reinforc'd their scatter'd men:Then every foldier kill his prifoners;

Give the word through."

[Exeunt.

Dryden alfo, in All for Love, Act I. has the fame expreffion: "Look, Emperor, this is no common dew.

"I have not wept this forty years; but now

"My mother comes afresh into my eyes:

"I cannot help her softness.'

REED.

With mistful eyes,] The folio-mixtful. The paffage is not in the quarto. MALONE.

The poet must have wrote-miftful: i. e. juft ready to over-run with tears. The word he took from his obfervation of nature: for, juft before the bursting out of tears, the eyes grow dim, as if in a mift. WARBURTON.

9

what new alarum is this fame?] The alarum on which Henry ordered the prifoners to be flain, was founded by the affrighted runaways from his own camp, who brought intelligence that the French had got behind him, and had pillaged it. See a fubfequent note. Not knowing the extent of his danger, he gave the order here mentioned, that every foldier should kill his prifoners.

After Henry fpeaks thefe words, "what new alarum is this fame?" Shakspeare probably intended that a meffenger fhould enter, and fecretly communicate this intelligence to him; though by fome negligence no fuch marginal direction appears.

MALONE. Give the word through.] Here the quartos 1600 and 1608 ridiculously add: Pit. Couper gorge. STEEVENS.