SCENE IV. Paris. A Room in the Palace. Enter King HENRY, GLOSTER, and other Lords, Vernon, BasseT, &c. To them TALBOT, and some of his Officers. TAL. My gracious prince, and honourable peers,― Hearing of your arrival in this realm, I have a while given truce unto my wars, In sign whereof, this arm-that hath reclaim'd Twelve cities, and seven walled towns of strength, Lets fall his sword before your highness' feet; K. HEN. Is this the lord Talbot, uncle Gloster1, When I was young, (as yet I am not old,) Is this the lord Talbot, uncle Gloster,] Sir Thomas Hanmer supplies the apparent deficiency, by reading "Is this the fam'd lord Talbot," &c. So, in Troilus and Cressida : "My well fam'd lord of Troy-." STEEVENS. 2 I do remember how my father said,] The author of this play was not a very correct historian. Henry was but nine months old when his father died, and never even saw him. MALONE. Long since we were resolved of your truth", 4 Or been reguerdon'd with so much as thanks, face: Therefore, stand up; and, for these good deserts, We here create you earl of Shrewsbury; And in our coronation take your place. [Exeunt King HENRY, GLOSTER, TALBOT, and Nobles. VER. Now, sir, to you, that were so hot at sea, Disgracing of these colours that I wear 5 In honour of my noble lord of York,― VER. Sirrah, thy lord I honour as he is. BAS. Why, what is he? as good a man as York, VER. Hark ye; not so: in witness, take ye that. [Strikes him, BAS. Villain, thou know'st, the law of arms is such, That, who so draws a sword, 'tis present death 6; 3 RESOLVED of your truth,] i. e. confirmed in opinion of it. So, in the Third Part of this play: I am resolv'd "That Clifford's manhood lies upon his tongue." STEEVENS. 4 Or been REGUERDON'D-] i. e. rewarded. The word was obsolete even in the time of Shakspeare. Chaucer uses it in the Boke of Boethius. STEEVENS. 5 - these COLOURS that I wear -] This was the badge of a rose, and not an officer's scarf. So, in Love's Labour's Lost, Act III. Scene the last : "And wear his colours like a tumbler's hoop." TOLLET. 6 That, WHO so draws a sword, 'tis present death;] Shakspeare wrote: draws a sword i' th' presence 't's death;" i. e. in the court, or in the presence chamber. WARBURTON. Or else this blow should broach thy dearest blood. But I'll unto his majesty, and crave I may have liberty to venge this wrong; When thou shalt see, I'll meet thee to thy cost. VER. Well, miscreant, I'll be there as soon as you; And, after, meet you sooner than you would. [Exeunt. This reading cannot be right, because, as Mr. Edwards observed, it cannot be pronounced. It is, however, a good comment, as it shows the author's meaning. JOHNSON. I believe the line should be written as it is in the folio : "That, who so draws a sword i. e. (as Dr. Warburton has observed,) with a menace in the court, or in the presence chamber. Johnson, in his collection of Ecclesiastical Laws, has preserved the following, which was made by Ina, king of the West Saxons, 693: "If any one fight in the king's house, let him forfeit all his estate, and let the king deem whether he shall live or not." I am told that there are many other ancient canons to the same purpose. Grey. STEEVENS. Sir William Blackstone observes that, "by the ancient law before the Conquest, fighting in the king's palace, or before the king's judges, was punished with death. So too, in the old Gothic constitution, there were many places privileged by law, ' quibus major reverentia et securitas debetur, ut templa et judicia quæ sancta habebantur,‚—arces et aula regis,-denique locus quilibet presente aut adventante rege.' And at present with us, by the Stat. 33 Hen. VIII. c. xii. malicious striking in the king's palace, wherein his royal person resides, whereby blood is drawn, is punishable by perpetual imprisonment and fine, at the king's pleasure, and also with loss of the offender's right hand, the solemn execution of which sentence is prescribed in the statute at length." Commentaries, vol. iv. p. 124. "By the ancient common law, also before the Conquest, striking in the king's court of justice, or drawing a sword therein, was a capital felony." Ibid. p. 125. REED. ACT IV. SCENE I. The Same. A Room of State. Enter King HENRY, GLOSTER, EXETER, YORK, SUF FOLK, SOMERSET, WINCHESTER, WARWICK, TALBOT, the Governour of Paris, and Others. GLO. Lord bishop, set the crown upon his head. WIN. God save king Henry, of that name the sixth! GLO. Now, governour of Paris, take your oath,— [Governour kneels. That you elect no other king but him: Esteem none friends, but such as are his friends; And none your foes, but such as shall pretend ' Malicious practices against his state: This shall ye do, so help you righteous God! [Exeunt Gov. and his Train, Enter Sir JOHN FASTOLFe. FAST. My gracious sovereign, as I rode from Calais, To haste unto your coronation, A letter was deliver'd to my hands, Writ to your grace from the duke of Burgundy. TAL. Shame to the duke of Burgundy, and thee! I vow'd, base knight, when I did meet thee next, To tear the garter from thy craven's leg 8 [Plucking it off. 7 such as shall Pretend→] To pretend is to design, to intend. JOHNSON. So, in Macbeth : "What good could they pretend?" STEEVENS. 8 To tear the garter from thy CRAVEN'S leg,] Thus the old copy. STEEVENS. The last line should run thus: (Which I have done) because unworthily When but in all I was six thousand strong, In which assault we lost twelve hundred men; GLO. To say the truth, this fact was infamous, And ill beseeming any common man ; Much more a knight, a captain, and a leader. TAL. When first this order was ordain'd, my lords, i. e. from thy craven leg." e. thy mean, dastardly leg. WHalley. To take the epithet expressing cowardice from the person, and to apply it to his leg, is surely no very obvious improvement. BOSWELL. 9 at the battle of PATAY,] The old copy has-Poitiers. The error was pointed out by Mr. Steevens. MALONE. The battle of Poictiers was fought in the year 1357, the 31st of King Edward III. and the scene now lies in the 7th year of the reign of King Henry VI. viz. 1428. This blunder may be justly imputed to the players or transcribers; nor can we very well justify ourselves for permitting it to continue so long, as it was too glaring to have escaped an attentive reader. The action of which Shakspeare is now speaking, happened (according to Holinshed) "neere unto a village in Beausse called Pataie," which we should read, instead of Poictiers. "From this battell departed without anie stroke striken, Sir John Fastolfe, the same yeere by his valiantnesse elected into the order of the garter. But for doubt of misdealing at this brunt, the duke of Bedford tooke from him the image of St. George and his garter," &c. Holinshed, vol. ii. p. 601. Monstrelet, the French historian, also bears witness to this degradation of Sir John Fastolfe. STEEVENS. |