Because he is near kinsman unto Charles. Exe. Beside, his wealth doth warrant a liberal dower, Where Reignier sooner will receive than give. Suf. A dower, my lords! disgrace not so your king, That he should be so abject, base, and poor, To choose for wealth and not for perfect love. And not to seek a queen to make him rich: So worthless peasants bargain for their wives, Not whom we will, but whom his Grace affects, 48 52 56 60 An age of discord and continual strife? And is a pattern of celestial peace. Whom should we match with Henry, being a king, But Margaret, that is daughter to a king? 56 by attorneyship: by the shrewd calculation of third parties If with a lady of so high resolve As is fair Margaret he be link'd in love. 76 80 King. Whether it be through force of your report, My noble lord of Suffolk, or for that My tender youth was never yet attaint With any passion of inflaming love, I cannot tell; but this I am assur'd, I feel such sharp dissension in my breast, Such fierce alarums both of hope and fear, As I am sick with working of my thoughts. 84 Take, therefore, shipping; post, my lord, to France; Agree to any covenants, and procure That Lady Margaret do vouchsafe to come To cross the seas to England and be crown'd And I me, 88 92 96 100 Exit. Glo. Ay, grief, I fear me, both at first and last. Exit Gloucester [with Exeter]. Suf. Thus Suffolk hath prevail'd; and thus he goes, As did the youthful Paris once to Greece; 92 charge: money to spend 100 from company: unaccompanied 104 93 gather up a tenth; cf. n. 105 event: outcome But prosper better than the Trojan did. 108 Exit. FINIS. NOTES The First Part of Henry the Sixth. The numeral is invariably spelled 'Sixt' in the old editions, the new form of the word being very rare in Shakespeare's time. So 'fift' for 'fifth,' as for instance in the opening stage direction and in line 6 below. This I. i. 1. Hung be the heavens with black. meteorological reference receives added point from the Elizabethan practice of draping the stage in black when a tragedy was to be acted. Cf., for example, lines 74, 75 of the Induction to A Warning for Fair Women (perhaps by Thomas Heywood), printed in 1599: "The stage is hung with black, and I perceive The play cited was acted by Shakespeare's company. ern editors retain. I. i. 60, 61. These lines illustrate the freedom with which the play everywhere alters historic fact. Two of the places named, Orleans and Poitiers, were not in English possession. The others were not lost till periods varying from seven to nearly thirty years after the date represented in the scene. Possibly we should understand that the first Messenger is reporting exaggerated rumors. His statement in regard to Orleans is contradicted by what the third Messenger says in line 157 (cf. also line 111). I. i. 92. Another anachronism. The crowning of Charles VII at Rheims, the culmination of Joan of Arc's triumphs, actually occurred seven years later (July 12, 1429). Charles had, however, been crowned at Poitiers in 1422. The Bastard of Orleans, mentioned in the next line, was Jean, Count Dunois (1402-1468), illegitimate son of the Duke of Orleans and first cousin of Charles VII. He was one of the finest soldiers of his age, and is introduced in a conspicuous rôle in Schiller's play, Die Jungfrau von Orleans, as well as in Voltaire's earlier mockheroic, La Pucelle d'Orléans. I. i. 110, 111. The tenth of August last .. the siege of Orleans. These lines and those which follow describe the Battle of Patay (June 18, 1429), of which another account is introduced in IV. i. 19-26. The general issue of the battle is correctly given and it is rightly said to have followed the British retirement from the siege of Orleans (May 8, 1429); but the allusion to Patay in the present lines is out of place, since the raising of the siege of Orleans is portrayed in a later part of the play (I. v and vi). I. i. 116. wanted pikes to set before his archers. The military tactics of the day directed that the archers, often stationed on the flanks of the army, should be protected from charges of cavalry by rows of pikes fixed in the ground, points outward. Holinshed's statement is that the English set their pikes (stakes) before the archers in the usual way, but had no time afterwards to arrange their line of battle. I. i. 124. flew. The Folios have the easy misprint 'slew' (with long s), which a very few editors are quixotic enough to champion. I. i. 131. Sir John Fastolfe. This episode of Fastolfe's cowardice is four times employed in the play. Cf. I. iv. 35-37; III. ii. 104-109; IV. i. 9-47. Modern historians represent Fastolfe as a general of distinction and of unblemished valor. but the chroniclers of Shakespeare's day accepted the libel incorporated in the play. The chief interest of the figure here is his connection with the great Falstaff of the Henry IV plays. It is to be noted that the early |