Pift. What are his words? Boy. He prays you to fave his life, he is a gentleman of a good houfe, and for his ranfom he will give you two hundred crowns. Pist. Tell him, my fury shall abate, and I The Crowns will take. Fr. Sol. Petit Monfieur, que dit-il? Boy. Encore qu'il eft contre fon jurement, de pardonner aucun prifonnier, neantmoins pour les efcus que vous l'avez promettes, il eft content de vous donner la liberté, le franchifement. Fr. Sol. Sur mes genoux je vous donne mille remerciemens, & je m' eftime beureux que je fuis tombé entre les mains d'un Chevalier, je penfe, le plus brave, valiant, & tres eftimé Signeur d'Angleterre. Pift. Expound unto me, boy. Boy. He gives you upon his knees a thoufand thanks and esteems himself happy that he hath fall'n into the hands of one, as he thinks, the most brave, valorous, and thrice-worthy Signieur of England. Pift. As I fuck blood, I will fome mercy fhew. Follow me, cur. Boy. Suivez le grand capitain. [Ex. Pift. and Fr. Sol. I did never know fo full a voice iffue from fo empty a heart; but the faying is true, The empty veffel makes the greatest found. Bardolph and Nim had ten times more valour than this roaring devil i' th' old play'; every one may pare his nails with a wooden dagger: yet they are both hang'd; and fo would this be, if he durft fteal any thing advent'roufly. I must stay with the lacqueys, with the luggage of our camp; the French might have a good prey of us, if he knew of it for there is none to guard it but boys. 7 In modern puppet-fhows, which feem to be copied from the old farces, Punch fometimes fights the devil and always over [Exit. comes him. I fuppofe the Vice of the old farce, to whom Punch fucceeds, ufed to fight the devil with a wooden dagger. Gg 4 SCENE SCENE XI. Another part of the Field of Battle. Enter Conftable, Orleans, Bourbon, Dauphin, and Rambures. Con. Diable! Orl. O Signeur le jour eft perdu, tout eft perdu. Dau. Mort de ma vie! all is confounded, all! Reproach and everlasting shame Sits mocking in our plumes. [Abort alarm. O mefchante fortune!--do not run away. Con. Why, all our ranks are broke. Dau. O perdurable thame! 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 ranfom? Bour. Shame, and eternal fhame, nothing but shame! Let us die, inftant-Once more back again; . The man, that will not follow Bourbon now, Con. Disorder, that hath fpoil'd us, friend us now! Let us on heaps go offer up our lives. Orl. We are enow, yet living in the field, To fimother up the Eng in our throngs; If any order might be thought upon. Beur. The devil take order now! I'll to the throng; Let life be fhort, elfe fhame will be too long. [Exeunt. SCENE XII. Alarm. Enter the King and his train, with prisoners, K. Henry. Well have we done, thrice valiant countrymen. But all's not done; the French yet keep the field. K. Henry. Lives he, good uncle? thrice within this hour I faw him down, thrice up again, and fighting, Exe. In which array, brave foldier, doth he lie, Suffolk first dy'd, and York, all haggled over, And cries aloud, tarry, my cousin Suffolk, The pretty and fweet manner of it forc'd Thofe waters from me, which I would have flop'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. K. Henry. K. Henry. I blame you not; "For, hearing this, I muft perforce compound With mistful eyes, or they will iffue too. [Alarm, But, hark, what new alarum is this fame? Give the word through. 'S CENE [Exeunt. XIII. Alarms continued; after which, Enter Fluellen and Gower. Flu. Kill the poys and the luggage! 'tis exprefly against the law of arms; 'tis as arrant a piece of Knavery, For, hearing this, I must perforce compound With mixtful eyes,· ] The poet must have wrote, mißful: i. e. just 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 mist. WARBURTON. SCENE XIII.] Here, in the other editions, they begin the fourth act, very abfurdly, fince both the place and time evidently continue, and the words of Fluellen immediately follow thofe of the King juft before. POPE. 2 Kill the Payes and the lug. gage! 'tis exprefly against the Law of Arms;] in the Old Foho's, the 4th Act is made to begin here. But as the Matter of the Chorus, which is to come betwixt the 4th and 5th Acts, will by no means fort with the Scene that here follows; I have chofe to fall in with the other kegulation. Mr. Pefe gives a Keaton, why this Scene fhould be connective to the preceding Scene; but his Reason, according to Cuftom, is a miflaken one. The words of Fluellen (he fays,) immediately follow thofe of the King just before. The King's laft Words, at his going off, were; Then ev'ry Soldier kill his PriJoners: Give the Word through. Now Mr. Pope must very accurately fuppofe, that Fluellen overhears this: and that by replying: Kill the Poyes, and the luggage; 'tis exprefly against the Law of Arms; he is condemning the King's Order, as against martial Difcipline. But this is a moft abfurd Suppofition. Fiuellen neither overhears, nor replies to, what the King had said: nor has kill the Poyes and the Luggage any reference to the Soldiers' killing their Prisoners. Nay, on the contrary (as there is no Interval of an A here) there muft be fome little Paufe betwixt the King's going off, and Fluellen's Entring Knavery, mark you now, as can be defir'd in your confcience now, is it not? Gow. 'Tis certain, there's not a boy left alive; and the cowardly rascals, that ran away from the battle, have done this flaughter. Befides, they have burn'd or carried away all that was in the King's tent; wherefore the King moft worthily has caus'd every foldier to cut his prifoner's throat. O'tis a gallant King! Flu. I, he was porn at Monmouth, captain Gower ; what call you the town's name, where Alexander the pig, was born? Gow. Alexander the great. Flu. Why, I pray you, is not pig, great? the pig, or the great, or the mighty, or the huge, or the magnanimous, are all one reckonings, fave the phrafe is a little variations. Gow. I think, Alexander the great was born in Macedon; his father was called Philip of Macedon, as 1 take it. Flu. I think, it is in Macedon where Alexander is porn: I tell you, captain, if you look in the maps of the orld, I warrant, that you fall find, in the compa Entring (and therefore I have faid, Alarms continued); for we find by Gower's firft Speech, that the Soldiers had already cut their Prisoners throats, which required fome Time to do. The Matter is this. The Baggage, during the Battle (as K. Henry had no Men to spare) was guarded only by boys and Lacqueys; which fome French Runaways getting notice of, they came down upon the English Camp-boys, whom they kill'd, and plunder'd and burn'd the Baggage: in Refentment of which Villany it was, that the King, contrary to his wonted Lenity, order'd all Prifoners Throats to be cut. And to this Villany of the French Run-aways Fluellen is alluding. when he fays, Kill the Poyes and the Luggage. The Fact is fet out (as Mr. Pope might have obterv'd) both by Hall and Helling head. THEOBALD. Unhappily the King gives one reafon for his order to kill the prifoners, and Gower another. The King killed his prisoners because he expected another battle, and he had not men fufficient to guard one army and fight another. Gower declares that the gallant king has worthily ordered the prifoners to be destroyed, becaufe the luggage was plundered, and the boys were flain. |