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France. A Room in the French King's Palace.

Enter the French King attended; the Dauphin, the duke of BURGUNDY, the Conftable, and Others.

FR. KING. Thus come the English with full
power upon us;

And more than carefully it us concerns,
To answer royally in our defences.

8

Therefore the dukes of Berry, and of Bretagne, Of Brabant, and of Orleans, fhall make forth,And you, prince Dauphin,-with all swift defpatch,

Perhaps, indeed, it is a Scotch term; for in Ane very excellent and delectabill Treatife intitulit Philotus, &c. printed at Edinburgh, 1603, I find it again:

"What reck to tak the bogill-bo,

My bonie burd, for anes."

The reader may suppose buggle-boe to be just what he pleases. STEEVENS.

Whatever covert fenfe Piftol may have annexed to this word, it appears from Cole's Latin Dictionary, 1678, that bogle-bo (now corruptly founded bugabow) fignified" an ugly wide-mouthed picture, carried about with May-games." Cole renders it by the Latin words, manducus, terriculamentum. The interpretation of the former word has been juft given. The latter he renders thus: "A terrible fpectacle; a fearful thing; a fcare-crow." T. C.

An anonymous writer fuppofes that by the words-keep clofe, Piftol means, keep within doors. That this was not the meaning, is proved decifively by the words of the quarto. MALONE.

Perhaps, the words—keep clofe, were rendered perfectly intelligible by the action that accompanied them on the stage. STEEVENS.

The inquifitive reader will beft collect the fenfe in which buggle boe is here ufed, from a perufal of La Fontaine's tale of "Le Diable de pape-figuiere." DOUCE.

8 And more than carefully it us concerns,] More than carefully is with more than common care; a phrafe of the fame kind with better than well. JOHNSON.

To line, and new repair, our towns of war,
With men of courage, and with means defendant:
For England his approaches makes as fierce,
As waters to the fucking of a gulf.

It fits us then, to be as provident

As fear may teach us, out of late examples
Left by the fatal and neglected English
Upon our fields.

DAU.

My moft redoubted father, It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe: For peace itself fhould not fo dull a kingdom,' (Though war, nor no known quarrel, were in queftion,)

But that defences, mufters, preparations,
Should be maintain'd, affembled, and collected,
As were a war in expectation.

Therefore, I say, 'tis meet we all go forth,
To view the fick and feeble parts of France:
And let us do it with no fhow of fear;

No, with no more, than if we heard that England

Were bufied' with a Whitfun morris-dance:

For, my good liege, fhe is fo idly king'd,'
Her fcepter fo fantastically borne

By a vain, giddy, fhallow, humorous youth,
That fear attends her not.

CON.

O peace, prince Dauphin! You are too much mistaken in this king:'

8f dull a kingdom,] i. e. render it callous, infenfible. So, in Hamlet:

"But do not dull thy palm," &c. STEEVENS.

• Were bufied-] The quarto, 1600, reads-were troubled. STEEVENS.

2

fo idly king'd,] Shakspeare is not fingular in his use of this verb-to king. I find it in Warner's Albion's England, B. VIII. chap. xlii:

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and king'd his fifter's fon." STEEVENS. 3 You are too much mistaken in this king:] larged fince the first writing. POPE.

This part is much en

Question your grace the late ambaffadors,—
With what great state he heard their embassy,
How well fupplied with noble counsellors,
How modeft in exception,+ and, withal,
How terrible in constant resolution,-
And you fhall find, his vanities fore-spent
Were but the outfide of the Roman Brutus,
Covering difcretion with a coat of folly; '

4 How modeft in exception,] How diffident and decent in making objections. JOHNSON.

5 And you fhall find, his vanities fore-fpent

Were but the outfide of the Roman Brutus,

Covering difcretion with a coat of folly ;] Shakspeare not having given us, in the Firft or Second Part of Henry IV. or in any other place but this, the remotest hint of the circumftance here alluded to, the comparison muft needs be a little obfcure to thofe who do not know or reflect that fome hiftorians have told us, that Henry IV. had entertained a deep jealoufy of his fon's afpiring fuperior genius. Therefore to prevent all umbrage, the prince withdrew from publick affairs, and amufed himself in conforting with a diffolute crew of robbers. It seems to me, that Shakspeare was ignorant of this circumftance when he wrote the two parts of Henry IV. for it might have been fo managed as to have given new beauties to the character of Hal, and great improvements to the plot. And with regard to thefe matters, Shak fpeare generally tells us all he knew, and as foon as he knew it. WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton, as ufual, appears to me to refine too much. I believe, Shakspeare meant no more than that Henry, in his external appearance, was like the elder Brutus, wild and giddy, while in fact his understanding was good.

Our author's meaning is fufficiently explained by the following lines in The Rape of Lucrece, 1594:

"Brutus, who pluck'd the knife from Lucrece' fide,

"Seeing fuch emulation in their woe,

Began to clothe his wit in ftate and pride,

Burying in Lucrece' wound his folly's how.

"He with the Romans was esteemed so,

"As filly-jeering ideots are with kings,

"For fportive words, and uttering foolish things.
"But now he throws that shallow habit by,
"Wherein deep policy did him difguife;
"And arm'd his long-hid wits advisedly,
"To check the tears in Collatinus' eyes."

As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots
That fhall firft fpring, and be moft delicate.

DAU. Well, 'tis not fo, my lord high constable,
But though we think it fo, it is no matter:
In cafes of defence, 'tis beft to weigh
The enemy more mighty than he feems,
So the proportions of defence are fill'd;
Which, of a weak and niggardly projection,"

Thomas Otterbourne and the tranflator of Titus Livius indeed fay, that Henry the Fourth in his latter days was jealous of his fon, and apprehended that he would attempt to depofe him; to remove which fufpicion, the prince is faid (from the relation of an earl of Ormond, who was an eye witnefs of the fact,) to have gone with a great party of his friends to his father, in the twelfth year of his reign, and to have prefented him with a dagger, which he defired the king to plunge into his breast, if he ftill entertained any doubts of his loyalty: but, I believe, it is no where faid, that he threw himself into the company of diffolute perfons to avoid giving umbrage to his father, or betook himfelf to irregular courfes with a political view of quieting his fufpicions. MALONE.

6 Which, of a weak and niggardly projection,] This paffage, as it ftands, is fo perplexed, that I formerly fufpected it to be corrupt. If which be referrred to proportions of defence, (and I do not fee to what else it can be referred,) the construction will be," which proportions of defence, of a weak and niggardly projection, fpoils his coat, like a mifer," &c.

If our author had written

While oft a weak and niggardly proje&ion
Doth, &c.

the reafoning would then be clear.-In cafes of defence, it is beft to imagine the enemy more powerful than he seems to be; by this means, we make more full and ample preparations to defend ourfelves: whereas on the contrary, a poor and mean idea of the enemy's ftrength induces us to make but a fcanty provifion of forces against him; wherein we act as a mifer does, who spoils his coat by fcanting of cloth.

Projection, I believe, is here ufed for fore-caft or preconception. It may, however, mean preparation.

Perhaps in Shakspeare's licentious diction the meaning may be,"Which proportions of defence, when weakly and niggardly projected, refemble a mifer who fpoils his coat, &c. The falfe concord

Doth, like a miser, spoil his coat, with fcanting

A little cloth.
FR. KING.

Think we king Harry ftrong;

And, princes, look, you strongly arm to meet him.
The kindred of him hath been flefh'd upon us;
And he is bred out of that bloody ftrain,'
That haunted us in our familiar paths:
Witness our too much memorable fhame,
When Creffy battle fatally was ftruck,'
And all our princes captiv'd, by the hand

Of that black name, Edward black prince of Wales; Whiles that his mountain fire,-on mountain standing,'

is no objection to fuch a conftruction; for the fame inaccuracy is found in almost every page of the old copy. MALONE.

1-ftrain,] lineage. See Vol. IV. p. 442, n. 2. REED. So, in King Lear:

"Sir, you have shown to-day your valiant ftrain."

STEEVENS.

8 That haunted us-] To haunt is a word of the utmost horror, which shows that they dreaded the English as goblins and fpirits.

JOHNSON. When Crefy battle fatally was ftruck,] So, in Robert of Gloucefter:

and that fole of Somerfete

"His come, and fmyte a batayle."

Again, in the title to one of fir David Lyndfay's poems : " How king Ninus began the first warres and ftrake the first battell.”

STEEVENS.

2 Whiles that his mountain fire,-on mountain ftanding,] Mr. Theobald would read,-mounting; i. e. high-minded, afpiring. Thus, in Love's Labour's Loft, A& IV :

"Whoe'er he was, he fhow'd a mounting mind.” The emendation may be right, and yet I believe the poet meant to give an idea of more than human proportion in the figure of the king:

Quantus Athos, aut quantus Eryx, &c. Virg.

"Like Teneriffe or Atlas unremov'd." Milton. Drayton, in the 18th fong of his Polyolbion, has a fimilar thought: "Then he above them all, himfelf that fought to raile, Upon fome mountain top, like a pyramides."