The position of Henry's army was critically dangerous. Outnumbered, enfeebled by disease and fatigue, and badly supplied, they were kept in good discipline and in good heart by the half-thoughtful, half-jocund confidence of their sovereign. In the scenes before and at the battle, Shakspeare shows in action the finest conception of a great general, the happy warrior-he

"Who doom'd to go in company with Pain
And Fear and Bloodshed, miserable train!
Turns his necessity to glorious gain;
In face of these doth exercise a power
Which is our human nature's highest dower;
Controls them and subdues, transmutes, bereaves
Of their bad influence, and their good receives."*

An historical event is dramatized when the king, overhearing Westmoreland's wish

"Oh, that we now had here

But one ten thousand of those men in England
That do no work to-day!"

asks

"What's he that wishes so?

My cousin Westmoreland?—No, my fair cousin :

If we are mark'd to die, we are enough

To do our country loss; and if to live,

The fewer men, the greater share of honour."

Again, when, at early morn, he greets his brothers with such fine cheerfulness and courtesy

"Gloster, 'tis true that we are in great danger;
The greater therefore should our courage be.
Good morrow, brother Bedford!"

Wordsworth's "Character of the Happy Warrior."

And what can be more touchingly beautiful than the respectful and affectionate greeting to the white hairs of that fine old soldier, Erpingham ?

"Good morrow, old Sir Thomas Erpingham!

A good soft pillow for that good white head,
Were better than a churlish turf of France."

And when the old knight takes his leave, saying

"The Lord in heaven bless thee, noble Harry !”—

the king's cordial response is

"God-a mercy, old heart! thou speakest cheerfully."

In his season of the highest peril the spirit of Prince Hal seems to animate the king, and it is in the mood of lighter-hearted days, that he answers the message of the Constable of France

"Why should they mock poor fellows thus?

The man that once did sell the lion's skin

While the beast lived, was killed with hunting him.

And many of our bodies shall, no doubt,

Find native graves; upon the which, I trust,
Shall witness live in brass of this day's work.
Tell the constable

We are but warrior's for the working day:
Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirch'd
With rainy marching in the painful field;
There's not a piece of feather in our host,
(Good argument, I hope, we shall not fly,)
And time hath worn us into slovenry:

But, by the mass, our hearts are in the trim;
And my poor soldiers tell me yet ere night
They'll be in fresher robes."

The battle was fought; and, at no great distance from the field of Cressy, the victory of Agincourt was won. I

cannot, of course, take time to dwell on the particulars of it; to speak of the immense loss of life to the nobility of France; the consequence of their impetuous but illdirected valour. Nor can I more than mention Henry's stern order-let us hope it was unavoidable-for the slaughter of the French prisoners. One incident alone I must refer to as finely illustrative of that period of England's history; and it is described in one of the beautiful passages of poetic description with which the play abounds the description of the deaths of York and Suffolk. After the battle, the king inquires whether his cousin, the Duke of York, survives :

"Lives he, good uncle? Thrice, within this hour,
I saw him down; thrice up again and fighting;
From helmet to the spur, all blood he was."

Exeter answers

"In which array (brave soldier) doth he lie,
Larding the plain; and by his bloody side
(Yoke-fellow to his honour-owing wounds)
The noble Earl of Suffolk also lies.

Suffolk first died; and York, all haggled over,
Comes to him, where in gore he lay insteep'd,
And takes him by the beard; kisses the gashes
That bloodily did yawn upon his face;
And cries aloud-Tarry, dear cousin Suffolk !
My soul shall thine keep company to heaven:
Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly abreast;
As, in this glorious and well-foughten field
We kept together in our chivalry!'
Upon these words, I came and cheer'd him up:
He smiled me in the face, raught me his hand,
And, with a feeble gripe, says-'Dear my lord,
Commend my service to my sovereign.'
So did he turn, and over Suffolk's neck

He threw his wounded arm, and kiss'd his lips;
And so, espoused to death, with blood he seal'd

A testament of noble-ending love."

This description is an image of the English nobility; not discordant, but "keeping together in their chivalry" in the hour of battle and of death, and uttering with their last breath dutiful and affectionate loyalty to that sovereign, whose sway gave glory and harmony to the nation.

Intending this drama as a kind of triumphal song Shakspeare has carried it, not as usual on to the monarch's death, but to the happy ending of the marriage of Henry the Fifth to Katharine of France, the daughter of King Charles. The great achievement of the war was the treaty stipulation for the permanent union of the crowns of England and France. The subjugation of the French was partial and of short duration; and the next page of history that we have to turn to, will show how the independence of France found its wondrous redemption by the splendid heroism of Joan of Arc.

LECTURE VIII.*

The Reign of Henry the Sixth.

The treaty of Troyes-Its details-The last hours of Henry the Fifth -His intended crusade-Hume's comments-Henry the Sixth an infant-His reign and these "Chronicle-Plays" unpromising subjects-Genuineness of the plays-The Minority-The French wars— State of France-The Regent Bedford-The Siege of Orleans--Joan of Arc-Various criticisms on her character-Her sincerity— Imputed witchcraft-Defective education-Her influence-Relief of Orleans-Coronation of the king at Rheims-Exemption of Domremy-Capture of the Maid-Her trial and examination-Her martyrdom-Cardinal Beaufort and the Bishop of Beauvais-The cardinal's death-Statue of the Maid at Versailles-Death of the Duke of Bedford-His monument-Magnanimity of Louis the Eleventh.

In concluding the last lecture, I pointed your attention to the fact that Shakspeare, in order to preserve unbroken the triumphant tone of the drama of Henry the Fifth, did not bring it down to the monarch's death. The historical illustration which the play furnished us, ended with the close of Henry's campaign in France and his marriage with Katharine. The war waged by England against France extended over a period of about one hundred and twenty years, broken, indeed, by various truces and interruptions; and at length, some eighty years after its

*February 15th, 1847.