Henry the Fifth, too famous to live long! His brandifh'd fword did blind men with its beams; Exe. We mourn in black; why mourn we not in Henry is dead, and never shall revive: [blood? Upon a wooden coffin we attend: has not been very precife to the Date and Difpofition of his Facts; but 1 fhuffled them, backwards and forwards, out of Time. For Inftance; The Lord Talbot is kill'd at the End of the 4th Act of this Play, who in reality did not fall till the 13th of July 1453: and the 2d Part of Henry VI. opens with the Marriage of the King, which was folemniz'd 8 Years before Talbot's Death, in the Year 1445. Again, in the zd Part, Dame Eleanor Cobham is introduc'd to infult Q. Margaret; though her Penance and Banishment for Sorcery happen'd three Years before that Princess came over to England. I could point out many other Tranfgreffions againft Hiftory, as far as the Order of Time is concern'd. Indeed, tho there are feveral Mafter-Strokes in these three Plays, which inconteftibly betray the Workmanship of Shakespeare; yet I am almoft doubtful, whether they were entirely of his Writing. And unless they were wrote by him very early, I fhou'd rather imagine them to have been brought to him as a Director of the Stage; and fo to have receiv'd fome finishing Beauties at his hand, An accurate Obferver will eafily fee, the Diction of them is more obfolete, and the Numbers more mean and profaical, than in the Generality of his genuine Compofitions. So So dreadful will not be as was his fight. Glou. The church? where is it? had not church-men pray'd, His thread of life had not fo foon decay'd. None do you like but an effeminate Prince, Bed. Ceafe, cease these jars, and reft your minds in Let's to the altar: heralds, wait on us; Inftead of gold we'll offer up our arms, Since arms avail not now that Henry's dead! Pofterity await for wretched years, [peace: When at their mothers moift eyes babes fhall fuck; Enter (2) Our Ile be made a Marish of falt Tears,] Thus it is in both the Impreffions by Mr. Pope: upon what Authority, I cannot fay. All the old Copies read, a Nourish and confidering it is faid in the Line immediately preceding, that Babes fhall fuck at their Mothers moift Eyes, it feems very probable that our Author wrote, a Nourice: i. e. that the whole Ifle fhould be one common Nurse, or Nourisher, of Tears: and those be the Nourishment of its miferable Iffue. The Word, 'tis true, is purely French; but it had been adopted, long before our Author's Time, into our Tongue, and frequently used by Chaucer. (3) A far more glorious Star thy foul will make Than Julius Cæfar, or bright -] Whether this was defign'd Break of the Author's, occafion'd by the fudden and abrupt Entrance of the Meffenger; or whether the latter End of the Verfe was loft, Enter a Meffenger. Meff. My honourable lords, health to you all; Sad tidings bring I to you out of France, loft, by its not being legible to the firft Editors, is not very easy now to determine. Mr. Pope thinks (for Rhyme-fake, I fuppofe ;) that the Poet might poffibly have fill'd up the Hemistich thus ; or bright Sir Francis Drake. But there are more Objections than one to be made to this Conjecture. In the first place, Sir Francis Drake did not die till the Year 1595; before which time, I believe, this Play had made its Appearance. Befides, the Poet, as he mentioned the Star of Julius Cæfar, muft be fuppofed, to talk Senfe in the Close of the Verfe, to inftance in some other deified Hero, and who had the Rule likewife of a Star. Mr. Pope has attempted to be smart upon me for restoring a genuine Anachronism to our Poet; and yet is here for foifting a fictitious one upon him, which, I dare fay, the Poet never once conceiv'd in his Imagination. In all Anachronisms, as in other Licences of Poetry, this Rule ought certainly to be obferv'd; that the Poet is to have Regard to Verifimilitude. But there is no Verifimilitude, when the Anachronism glares in the Face of the common People. For this Falfhood is, like all other Falfhoods in Poetry, to be only tolerated, where the Falfhood is hid under Verifimilitude. No fober Critick ever blamed Virgil, for inftance, for making Dido ánd Eneas contemporary. (Such a Prolepfis may be juftified by the Examples of the greatest Poets of Antiquity.) But had he made Æneas mention Hamilcar, what Man in his Senfes would have thought of an Excufe for him? For the Name of Hamilcar, tho a Foreigner, was too recent in the Acquaintance of the People; as he had for five Years together infefted the Coaft of Italy; and after that, begun the fecond Punic War upon them. The Cafe of our Author differs in his mentioning Machiavel in fome of his Plays, the Action of which was earlier than that Statefman's Birth. For Machiavel was a Foreigner, whofe Age, we may suppose, the common Audience not fo well acquainted with; as being long before their time, and, indeed, very near the Time of the Action of thofe Plays. Befides, He having fo eftablish'd a Reputation, in the time of our Author, amongst the Politicians; might well be fuppos'd by thofe, who were not Chronologers, to be of much longer Standing than he was. This, therefore, was within the Rules of Licence; and if there was not Chronological Truth, there was at leaft Chronological Likelihood: without which a Poet goes out of his Jurifdiction, and comes under the Penalty of the Criticks Laws. I have only one further Remark to make upon the Topick in hand, and 'tis this: That where the Authority of all the Books makes the Poet commit a Blunder, (whofe general Character it is, not to be very exact ;) 'tis the Duty of an Editor to thew him as he is; and to detect all fraudulent tampering to make him better. But to fill up a Chafm by Conjecture, with an Anachronism that ftares Sense out of Countenance; this, with Submiffion to Mr. Pope, Nec homines, nec Dii, nec conceffere Columna. Of lofs, of flaughter, and difcomfiture; Bed. What fay'ft thou, man, before dead Henry's coarse? Speak foftly, or the lofs of thofe great towns Will make him 'burft his lead, and rise from death. If Henry were recall'd to life again, These news would cause him once more yield the ghost. That here you maintain fevral factions; Exe. Were our tears wanting to this funeral, Enter to them another Meffenger. 2 Meff. Lords, view thefe letters, full of bad mifchance. France is revolted from the English quite, Except fome petty towns of no import. The Dauphin Charles is crowned King in Rheims, Vol. IV. [Exit. Exe. Exe. The Dauphin crowned King? all fly to him? O, whither fhall we fly from this reproach? Glou. We will not fly but to our enemies throats. Bedford, if thou be flack, I'll fight it out. Bed. Glofter, why doubt'ft thou of my forwardness? An army have I mufter'd in my thoughts, Wherewith already France is over-run. Enter a Third Messenger. 3 Meff. My gracious lords, to add to your laments, Wherewith you now bedew King Henry's hearfe, I must inform you of a difmal fight Betwixt the ftout lord Talbot and the French. Win. What! wherein Talbot overcame? is't fo? Having scarce full fix thoufand in his troop, To keep the horsemen off from breaking in. And rufh'd into the bowels of the battel. If Sir John Faftolfe had not play'd the coward; (4) He (4) If Sir John Falftaffe] Mr. Pope has taken Notice, in a Note upon the third Act of this Play," That Falstaffe is here introduc'd again, "who |