unsavery for hym to contynue in it." In a letter of the earl of Shrewsbury's, respecting his prisoner, Mary, queen of Scots, we read, "That her majesty was to be removed for fyve or sixe days, to klense her chamber, being kept very unklenly." And in the Memoirs of Anne, countess of Dorset, we are informed of a party of lords and ladies, who "were all lowsy by sitting in Sir Thomas Erskin's chamber,—STEEVENS. "To pray for the queen."-EPILOGUE. It was usual, at the end of a play, for the actors to pray for their patrons. We will give an instance or two: "Preserve our noble Queen Elizabeth, and her councell all." New Custom. "This shows like kneeling after the play; I praying for my lord Owemuch and his good countess, our honourable lady and mistress." Middleton's Mad World my Masters. "As duty bids us, for our noble queene let us pray, And for her honourable councel, the truth that they may use, To practise justice, and defend her grace eche day; To maintaine God's word they may not refuse, To correct all those that would her grace and grace's laws abuse: To be guided by trueth and defended from wrong. Cambyses. KING HENRY V. "Gun-stones."-Act I. Sc. 2. When ordnance was first used, they discharged balls, not of iron, but of stone. So, Holinshed :-" About seven of the clocke, marched forward the light pieces of ordnance, with stone and powder." In the Brut of England, it is said, that when Henry V., before Hare-flete, receivd a taunting message from the dauphine of France, and a ton of tennis-balls by way of contempt, "he anone lette make tenes balles for the Dolfin (Henry's ship), in all the hayste that they myght, and they were great gonne-stones for the Dolfin to playe with alle. But this game of tennis was too rough for the besieged when Henry played at this tennis with his hard gonnestones."-STEEVENS. "The man that was his bedfellow."-Act II. Sc. 2. Holinshed says:-"The said Lord Scroop was in such favour with the king, that he admitted him sometime to be his bedfellow." The familiar name of bedfellow, which seems strange to us, was common with the ancient nobility. There is a letter from the sixth earl of Northumberland (still preserved in the collection of the present duke), addressed “To his beloved cousyn, Thomas Arundel," which begins, "Bedfellow, after my most harté recommendacion." This unseemly custom continued common till the middle of last century, if not later. Cromwell obtained much of his intelligence during the civil wars from the mean men with whom he slept.-STEEVENS and MALONE. "I saw him fumble with the sheets."—Act II. Sc. 3. Catching and pulling at the bed-clothes has always been considered as a sign of approaching dissolution. Pliny, in his Chapter on the Signs of Death, mentions, "a fumbling and pleiting of the bed-clothes." So, also, in the Ninth Booke of Notable Things, by Thomas Lupton: the foreheade of the sicke wax redde, and his nose waxe sharpe: if he pulls straws, or the cloathes of his bedde, these are most certain tokens of death."-STEEVENS. "At turning of the tide."-Act II. Sc. 3. :—"If It has been a very old opinion, which Mead, de imperio solis, quotes, as if he believed it, that nobody dies but in the time of ebb: half the deaths in London confute the notion; but it was common in Shakspeare's age.-JOHNSON. “ A pix.”—Act III. Sc. 6. In Henry VIIIth's will, we read :-"Forasmoch as we have often and many tymes to our inwarde regrete and displeasure, seen at our Jen, in diverse manie churches of our reame, the holie sacrament of the aulter, kept in ful simple and inhonest pixes, specially pixes of copre and tymbre; we have appointed and commaunded the treasurer of our chambre, and maistre of our juell-houss, to cause to be made furthwith, pixes of silver and gilt, in a great nombre, for the keeping of the holie sacrament of the aulter, after the faction of a pixe which we have caused to be delivered to theim. Every of the said pixes to be of the value of iiiil. garnished with our armes, and rede roses and poart-colis crowned." "A beard of the general's cut.”—Act III. Sc. 6. REED. It appears from an old ballad, inserted in a miscellany, entitled Le Prince d'Amour, 8vo., 1600, that our ancestors were very curious in the fashion of their beards, and that a certain cut or form was appropriated to the soldier, the bishop, the judge, the clown, &c. The spade-beard and the stiletto-beard belonged to the military profession. The earl of Southampton, our author's patron, who passed much of his time in camps, is drawn with the latter of these beards, and his hapless friend, Lord Essex, is represented with the former. The ballad is worth transcribing: "Now of beards there be Such a companie, Of fashions such a throng; To treat of the beard, Though it be ne'er so long. "The steeletto beard, It is so sharp beneath; For he that doth place, A dagger in his face, What wears he in his sheath? "The soldier's beard Doth match in this herd, In figure like a spade; With which he will make His enemies quake, To think their grave is made."-MALONE. "The feast of Crispian."-Act IV. Sc. 3. The battle of Agincourt was fought upon the 25th of October, (1415,) St. Crispin's day. The legend upon which this is founded, follows:"Crispinus and Crispianus were brethren, born at Rome; from whence they travelled to Soissons in France, about the year 303, to propagate the Christian religion; but because they would not be chargeable to others for their maintenance, they exercised the trade of shoemakers; but the governor of the town discovering them to be Christians, ordered them to be beheaded. From which time, the shoemakers made choice of them for their tutelar saints."-GREY. "This day shall gentle his condition."—Act IV. Sc. 3. King Henry V. inhibited any person but such as had right by inheritance, or grant, to assume coats of arms, except those who fought with him at the battle of Agincourt, and these last were allowed the chief seats of honour at all feasts and public meetings.-TOLLET. "Thou hast unwish'd five thousand men.”—Act IV. Sc. 3. The numbers engaged at the battle of Agincourt are variously stated; Holinshed makes the English army consist of 15,000, and the French of 60,000 horse, besides foot, in all 100,000; while Walsingham and Hardinge represent the English but as 9000; and other authors say that the number of the French amounted to 150,000.-STEEVENS. "Monmouth caps."-Act IV. Sc. 7. Monmouth caps were formerly much worn. "The best caps (says Fuller, in his Worthies of Wales) were formerly made at Monmouth, 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. "When Alençon and myself were down together."-Act IV. Sc. 7. This circumstance is not an invention of Shakspeare's. Henry was felled to the ground at the battle of Agincourt, by the duke of Alençon, but recovered and slew two of the duke's attendants. Afterwards, Alençon was killed by the king's guard, contrary to Henry's intention, who wished to have saved him.-MALONE. "Davy Gam, esquire."-Act IV. Sc. 8. This gentleman being sent by Henry, before the battle, to reconnoitre the enemy, and to find out their strength, made this report:-"May it please you, my liege, there are enough to be killed, enough to be taken prisoners, and enough to run away." He also saved the king's life during the engagement.-MALONE. “Do we all holy rites.”—Act IV. Sc. 8. "The king, when he saw no appearance of enemies, caused the retreat to be blowen, and gathering his army together, gave thanks to Almighty God for so happy a victory, causing his prelates and chapelines to sing this psalme, In exitu Israel de Egypto; and commaunding every man to kneel downe at this verse,-Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam; which done, he caused Te Deum and certain anthems to be sung, giving laud and praise to God, and not boasting of his owne force, or any humaine power."-HOLINSHED. KING HENRY VI. (PART I.) 66 Hung be the heavens with black.”—Act I. Sc. 1. Alluding to our ancient stage practice, when a tragedy was to be performed. So in Sydney's Arcadia:-"There arose even with the sunne, a vaile of darke cloudes, before his face; which shortly had blacked over all the face of heaven, preparing (as it were) a mournfull stage for a tragedie to be played upon."-STEEVENS. "Sir John Fastolfe."-Act I. Sc. 1. The historical Fastolfe, here introduced, was a lieutenant-general, deputy-regent to the duke of Bedford, in Normandy, and a knight of the garter. Hall and Holinshed say that he was degraded for cowardice; but Heylen, in his Saint George for England, tells, that "He was afterwards, upon good reason by him alledged in his defence, restored to his honour." "This Sir John Fastolfe," continues he, "was, without doubt, a valiant and wise captain."-FARMER. 66 England all Olivers and Rowlands bred."-Act I. Sc. 2. These were two of the most famous in the list of Charlemagne's twelve peers; and such an extravagant detail of their exploits is given by the old romancers, that from thence arose the saying, of "Giving one a Rowland for his Oliver," to signify the matching one incredible lie with another.-WARBURTON. "Enter the Bastard of Orleans.”—Act I. Sc. 2. Bastard, in former times, was not a term of reproach. Bishop Hurd, speaking of the agreement between the heroic and Gothic manner, says, that "Bastardy was in credit with both;" and one of William the Conqueror's charters begins, "Ego Gulielmus, cognomento Bastardus." (I, William, surnamed the Bastard.)-VAILLANT. 66 Here is my keen-edg'd sword, Deck'd with five flower-de-luces on each side."-Act I. Sc. 2. "In a secret place there among old iron, appointed she hir sword to be sought out and brought her, that with five floure-de-luces was graven on both sides."-HOLINSHED. "Was Mahomet inspired with a dove?"—Act I. Sc. 2. Mahomet had a dove, "which he used to feed with wheat out of his ear; which dove, when it was hungry, lighted on his shoulder, and thrust its bill in to find its breakfast; Mahomet persuaded the rude and simple Arabians, that it was the Holy Ghost that gave him advice."-LIFE OF MAHOMET, BY DR. PRIDEAUX. "This be Damascus, be thou cursed Cain, To slay thy brother Abel, if thou wilt."-Act I. Sc. 3. About four miles from Damascus is a high hill, reported to be the same on which Cain slew his brother Abel.-POPE. 66 The terror of the French, The scare-crow that affrights our children so."—Act I. Sc. 4. "This man (Talbot) was to the French people a very scourge, and a daily terror, insomuch, that as his person was fearful, and terrible to his adversaries present, so his name and fame was spiteful and dreadful to the common people absent; insomuch, that women in France to feare their yong children, would crye, The Talbot commeth, the Talbot commeth." HALL'S CHRONICLE. "Thy promises are like Adonis' gardens.”—Act I. Sc. 6. The gardens of Adonis, so frequently mentioned by Greek writers, Plato, Plutarch, &c., were nothing but portable earthen pots, with some lettuce or fennel growing in them. On his yearly festival, every woman carried one of them for Adonis's worship, because Venus had once laid him in a lettuce bed. The next day they were thrown away. It will be seen by the text, that the poet has totally misapplied this circumstance.-BENTLEY, &c. "Rhodope."-Act I. Sc. 6. Rhodope was a famous strumpet, who acquired immense riches by her trade. The least, but most finished of the Egyptian pyramids, was built at her cost. She is said afterwards to have married Psammetichus, king of Egypt.-STEEVENS. "Coffer of Darius."—Act I. Sc. 6. When Alexander the Great took the city of Gaza, the metropolis of Syria, amidst the other sports and wealth of Darius, treasured up there, he found an exceeding rich and beautiful little chest or casket, and asked those about him what they thought fittest to be laid up in it. When they had severally delivered their opinions, he told them, he esteemed nothing so worthy to be preserved in it as Homer's Iliad.-THEOBALD. "The Parliament-house."—Act III. Sc. 1. This parliament was held in 1426, at Leicester, though the author of this play has represented it to have been held in London. King Henry was now in the fifth year of his age. In the first parliament which was held in London, shortly after his father's death, his mother, Queen Katherine, brought the young king from Windsor to the metropolis, and sat on the throne of the parliament-house with the infant in her lap.-MALONE. "Thou bastard of my grandfather.”—Act III. Sc. 1. The bishop of Winchester was an illegitimate son of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, by Katherine Swynford, whom the duke afterwards married.-MALONE. "Ye charming spells, and periapets."-Act V. Sc. 3. Periapets were portions of scripture enclosed in bags of silk or velvet, and worn round the neck; they were sometimes quilted on parts of the dress. They were esteemed preservatives from disease.-STEEVENS, &C. END OF VOL. II. |