Alarum. Enter King HENRY, with a Part of the English Forces; WARWICK, GLOSTER, EXETER, and Others. K. HEN. I was not angry fince I came to France Until this inftant.-Take a trumpet, herald; Ride thou unto the horsemen on yon hill; If they will fight with us, bid them come down, Or void the field; they do offend our fight: If they'll do neither, we will come to them; And make them fkirr away,' as swift as ftones Enforced from the old Affyrian flings: Befides, we'll cut the throats of those we have ; * 9 Warwick,] Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. He did not, however, obtain that title till 1417, two years after the era of this play. MALONE. And make them fkir away,] I meet with this word in Ben Jonfon's News from the Moon, a mafque : "blow him afore him as far as he can fee him; or skir over him with his bat's wings," &c. Again, in Arthur Hall's tranflation of the 4th Iliad, 4to. 1581: "It thee becomes with pierfing girde to cause thy arrow skirre "To wound the fturdie Menelau:-." The word has already occurred in Macbeth. See Vol. X. p. 270, n. 9. STEEVENS. 2 Befides, we'll cut the throats &c.] The King is in a very bloody difpofition. He has already cut the throats of his prifoners, and threatens now to cut them again. No hafte of compofition could produce fuch negligence; neither was this play, which is the second draught of the fame defign, written in hafte. There muft be fome diflocation of the fcenes. If we place thefe lines at the beginning of the twelfth fcene, the abfurdity will be removed, and the action will proceed in a regular feries. This tranfpofition might eafily happen in copies written for the players. Yet it muft not be concealed, that in the imperfect play of 1608 the order of the scenes is the fame as here. JOHNSON. And not a man of them, that we shall take, The difference of the two copies, may be thus accounted for. The elder was, perhaps, taken down, during the representation, by the contrivance of fome bookseller, who was in hafte to publish it; or it might, with equal probability, have been collected from the repetitions of actors invited to a tavern for that purpose. The manner in which many of the scenes are printed, adds ftrength to the fuppofition; for in these a single line is generally divided into two, that the quantity of the play might be feemingly increased. The fecond and more ample edition (in the folio 1623) may be that which regularly belonged to the playhouse; and yet with equal confidence we may pronounce, that every dramatick compofition would materially fuffer, if only tranfmitted to the publick through the medium of ignorance, prefumption, and caprice, thofe common attendants on a theatre. STEEVENS. Johnson's 's long note on this paffage is owing to his inattention. The prifoners whom the King had already put to death, were thofe which were taken in the first action; and those whom he had now in his power, and threatens to destroy, are the prisoners that were taken in the fubfequent defperate charge made by Bourbon, Orleans, &c. And accordingly we find, in the next fcene but one, an account of thofe prifoners, amounting to upwards of 1500, with Bourbon and Orleans at the head of the lift. It was this fecond attack that compelled the King to kill the prisoners whom he had taken in the first. M. MASON. The order of the fcenes is the fame (as Dr. Johnson owns) in the quarto and the folio; and the fuppofition of a second draught is, I am perfuaded, a mistake, originating from Mr. Pope, whose researches on these subjects were by no means profound. The quarto copy of this play is manifeftly an imperfect transcript procured by fome fraud, and not a first draught or hafty sketch of Shakspeare's. The choruffes, which are wanting in it, and which must have been written in 1599, before the quarto was printed, prove this. Yet Mr. Pope afferts, that these choruffes, and all the other paffages not found in the quarto, were added by the author after the year 1600. With refpect however to the incongruity objected to, if it be one, Holinthed, and not our poet, is answerable for it; for thus the matter is ftated by him. While the battle was yet going on, about fix hundred French horsemen, who were the first that had fled, hearing that the English tents were a good way distant from VOL. XII. Ii Enter MONTJOY. EXE. Here comes the herald of the French, my liege. the army, without a fufficient guard, entered and pillaged the king's camp. "When the outcry of the lackies and boys, which ran away for fear of the Frenchmen, thus fpoiling the camp, came to the king's ears, he, doubting left his enemies fhould gather together again and begin a new fielde, and mistrusting further that the prifoners would either be an aide to his enemies, or very enemies to their takers indeed, if they were fuffered to live, contrary to his accuftomed gentleness, commanded by founde of trumpet, that every man upon pain of death Should incontinently flea his prifoner."-Here then we have the firft tranfaction relative to the killing of the prisoners, in confequence of the fpoiling of the camp, to which Fluellen alludes in the beginning of this fcene, when he complains of the French having killed the poys and the luggage:" and we fee, the order for killing the prifoners arofe partly from that outrage, and partly from Henry's apprehenfion that his enemies might renew the battle, and that his forces "were not fufficient to guard one army, and fight another.” What follows will ferve to explain the King's threat in the speech now before us, at leaft will fhow that it is not out of its place. "When (proceeds the Chronicler,) this lamentable flaughter [of the prifoners] was ended, the Englishmen difpofed themselves in order of battayle, ready to abide a new fielde, and alfo to invade and newly fet on their enemies.-Some write, that the King perceiving his enemies in one parte to affemble together, as though they meant to give a new battaile for prefervation of the prifoners, fent to them a herault, commaunding them either to depart out of his fight, or elfe to come forward at once, and give battaile; promifing herewith, that IF THEY DID OFFER TO FIGHT AGAYNE, NOT ONLY THOSE PRISONERS WHICH HIS The fact was, that notwithstanding the firft order concerning the prifoners, they were not all put to death, as appears from a fubfequent paffage, (which ascertains what our author's conception was,) and from the most authentick accounts of the battle Gio. His eyes are humbler than they us❜d to be. K. HEN. How now! what means this, herald ? know'ft thou not, That I have fin'd these bones of mine for ransome? Com'ft thou again for ransome? MONT. No, great king: I come to thee for charitable licence, of Agincourt. "When the King fat at his refection, he was ferved at his boorde of thofe great lords aud princes that were taken in the field." According to Fabian, the Duke of Orleans, who was among the captives, on hearing the proclamation for putting the prisoners to death, was fo alarmed, that he immediately fent a meffage to the newly affembled French troops, who thereupon difperfed. Hardyng, who was himself at the battle of Agincourt, fays, the prifoners were put to death, "fave dukes and earles." Speed, on the authority of Monftrelet, fays, "King Henry, contrary to his wonted generous nature, gave present commandment that every man should kill his prisoner, which was immediately performed, certain principal men excepted;" who, as another Chronicler tells us, were tied back to back, and left unguarded. With this account correfponds that of Stowe; who tells us, that "on that night, when the King fat at his refection, he was served at his boorde of thofe great lords and princes that were taken in the fielde." So alfo Polydore Virgil: "Poftquam bonam partem captivorum occiderunt," &c. And lastly Mr. Hume, on the authority of various ancient historians, fays that Henry, on discovering that his danger was not fo great as he at first apprehended from the attack on his camp, "ftopped the flaughter, and was ftill able to fave a great number." But though this fact were not established by the teftimony of fo many hiftorians, and though every one of the prifoners had been put to death, according to the original order, it was certainly policy in Henry to conceal that circumftance, and to threaten to kill them, as if they were living; for the motive that induced the French to rally was, (we are told,) to save these prifoners; and if they had been informed that they were already executed, they might have been rendered defperate; at least would have had lefs inducement to lay down their arms. This however is a difquifition which is not neceffary to our author's vindication. He followed the Chronicle just as he found it. MALONE. That we may wander o'er this bloody field, Of their dead bodies. K. HEN. I tell thee truly, herald, MONT. The day is yours. K. HEN. Praifed be God, and not our ftrength, for it! What is this caftle call'd, that stands hard by ? K. HEN. Then call we this-the field of Agincourt, Fought on the day of Crifpin Crifpianus. 3 FLU. Your grandfather of famous memory, an't and their wounded feeds-] The old copy readsAnd with their &c. the compofitor's eye having probably glanced on the line beneath. Mr. Pope unneceffarily rejected both words, reading-while their wounded steeds, in which he was followed by the fubfequent editors. MALONE. 4 Yerk out their armed heels-] So, in The Weakest goeth to the Wall, 1600: "Their neighing gennets, armed to the field, STEEVENS. |