P. 87, 1. 6–8. — ten times more valour than this roaring devil i'the old play, that every one may pare his nails with a wooden dagger] In modern puppet shows, which seem to be copied from the old farces, Punch sometimes fights the devil, and always overcomes him. I suppose the pice of the old farce, to whom Punch succeeds, used to fight the devil with a wooden dagger. JOHNSON.

The devil, in the old mysteries, is as turbulent and vain-glorious as Pistol. MALONE.

P. 87, 1. 28. Perdurable is lasting, long to continue. STEEVENS.

P..88, 1. 12. Unto these English, or else die I have restored from theith fame.] This line the quartos, 1600 and 1608. The Constable of France is throughout the play represented as a brave and generous enemy, and therefore we should not deprive him of a resolution which agrees so well with his character, STEEVENS. raught—] i. e. reached.

P. 89, 1. 15.

STEEVENS.

P. 89, 1. 30. With mistful eyes,] The foliomixtful. The passage is not in the quarto. MALONE.

The poet must have wrote-mistful: i.e, just ready to over-run with tears. The word he took from his observation of nature: for, just before the bursting out of tears, the eyes grow dim, as if in a mist. WARBURTON

P. 89, 1. 31. what

alarum is this

on

same? The alarum which Henry ordered the prisoners to be slain, Was sounded by the affrighted runaways from his own camp, who brought intelligence that the

French had got behind him, and had pillaged it. See a subsequent note. Not knowing the extent of his danger, he gave the order here mentioned, that every soldier should kill his prisoners.

1

After. Henry speaks these words, "what new alarum is t this same ?" Shakspeare probably "intended that a messenger should enter, and secretly communicate this intelligence to him; though by some negligence no such marginal direction appears. MALONE.

P. 9o. first 1. Here, in the other editions, they begin the f fourth act, very absurdly, since both the place and time evidently continue, and the words of Fluellen immediately follow those of the King just before. PoPE.

P. go, 1. 4. Kill the poys and the luggage!] The baggage, during the battle (as King Henry had no men to spare) was guarded, only by boy and lacqueys; which some French runaways getting notice of of, they came w ame down upon the campboys, whom they kill'd, and plundered, and burn'd the baggage in resentment of which villain it was, that the King, contrary to his wonted lenity, order'd all prisoners throats to be cut. And to this villainy of the French runaways Fluellen is alluding, when he says, Kill the poys and the luggage! The fact is set out Both by Hall and Holiushed. TrEOBALD,

suf

Unhappily the King gives one reason for his order to kill the prisoners, and Gower another. The King killed his prisoners because he expected another battle, and he had not ficient to guard one arany and fight another. Gower declares that the gallant King has worthily ordered the prisoners to be destroyed, because

the luggage was plundered, and the boys were 'slain. JOHNSON.

P. 91, .1. 19. and fol. As Alexander is kill his friend Clytus, &c.] I should suspect that Shakspeare, who was well read in Sir Thomas North's translation, of Plutarch, meant these speeches of Fluellen as a ridicule on the parallels of the Greek author; in which, circumstances common to all men are assembled in opposition, and one great action is forced into comparison with another, though as totally different in themselves, as was the behaviour of Harry Monmouth, from that of Alexander the Great. STEEVENS.

P. 91, 1. 23. -the fat knight-] This is the last time that Falstaff can make sport. The poet was loath to part with him, and has continued his memory as long as he could. JOHNSON.

P. 91, 1. 31. WARWICK,] Richard Beauchamp' Earl of Warwick. He did not, however, obtain that title till 1417, two years after the era of this play. MALONE.

P. 92, 1. 7. we'll cut the throats of those we have ;] The King is in a very bloody disposition. He has already cut the throats of his prisoners, and threatens now to cut them again. No haste of composition could produce such negligence; neither was this play, which is the second draught of the same design, written in haste. There must be some dislocation of the scenes. If we place these lines at the beginning of the twelfth scene, the absurdity will be removed, and the action will proceed in a regular series. This transposition might easily happen in copies written for the players. Yet it must not be concealed, that in

the imperfect play of 1608 the order of the scenes is the same as here. JOHNSON.

Johnson's long note on this passage is owing to his inattention. The prisoners whom the King had already put to death, were those 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 subsequent desperate charge made by Bourbon, Orleans, &c. And accordingly we find, in the next scene but one, an account of those prisoners amounting to upwards of 1500, with Bourhon and Orleans at the head of the list. It was this second attack that compelled the, King to kill the prisoners whom he had taken in the first. M. MASON.

P. 93, 1. 20, Monmouth caps were formerly much worn. From the following stanza in an old ballad of The Caps, printed in The Antidote against Melancholy, 1661, p. 31, it appears they were particularly worn by soldiers:

"The soldiers that the Monmouth wear, "On castle's tops their ensigns rear. "The seaman with the thrumb doth stand "On higher parts than all the land." REED. The best caps, (says Fuller, in his Worthies of Wales, p. 50,) were formerly made at Moninouth, where the Capper's chapel doth still remain. If (he adds) at this day [1660] the phrase of wearing a Monmouth cap be taken in a bad acception, I hope the inhabitants of that town will endeavour to disprove the occasion thereof." MALONE.

P. 94, 1. 27. a gentleman of great sort, i. e. high rank. JOHNSON.

P. 94, 1. 27.

quite from the answer of his degree.] A man of such station as is not bound to hazard his person to answer to a challenge from one of the soldier's low degree. JOHNSON."

P. 94, 1. 33. a jack - sauce, i. e. saucy

Jack. MALONE.

felled

by

P. 95, 1. 10. When Alençon and myself were down together, &c.) This circumstance is not an invention of Shakspeare's. Henry was fe to the ground at the battle of Agincourt the Duke of Alençon, but recovered and slew two of the Duke's attendants. Afterwards Alencon was killed by the King's guard, contrary to Henry's intention, who wished to have saved him. MALONE.

3:38

P. 96, 1. 24. 25. I will give treason his payment into plows.] Mr. Heath very plausibly reads in two plows. JOHNSON.

-

The quarto reads

due presently.

in

I will give treason his We might therefore read due plows, i. e. in the beating that is so well his due.

Fuller, in his Church History, p. 139, speaks of the task - masters of Israel, "on whose back the number of bricks wanting were only scored in blows." STEEVENS.

the

The Scotch both in speaking and in writing, frequently use into for in. However, if it should be thought necessary to amend the text, readiest way would be to omit a syllable, and read in plows. RITSON.

P. 97, I. 27. Give me thy glove,] It must by be give me my glove; for of the soldier's glove the King had not the fellow. JOHNSON,