thank love for my blindness; who cannot sec many a fair French city, for one fair French maid that stands in my way. Fr. King. Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, the cities turned into a maid; for they are all girdled with maiden walls, that war hath never entered. K. Hen. Shall Kate be my wife? K. Hen. I am content; so the maiden cities you talk of may wait on her: so the maid that stood in the way of my wish shall shew me the way to my will. Fr. King. We have consented to all terms of reason. K. Hen. Is't so, my lords of England? West. The king hath granted every article: His daughter, first; and then, in sequel, all, According to their firm proposed natures. Exe. Only, he hath not yet subscribed this :Where your majesty demands, That the king of France, having any occasion to write for matter of grant, shall name your highness in this form, and with this addition, in French,-Notre tres cher filz Henry roy d'Angleterre, héritier de France; and thus in Latin,-Praclarissimus filius noster Henricus, rex Angliæ, et heres Franciæ. 4 Fr. King. Nor this I have not, brother, so denied, But your request shall make me let it pass. Let that one article rank with the rest: Fr. King. Take her, fair son; and from her blood raise up Issue to me that the contending kingdoms Of France and England, whose very shores look pale With envy of each other's happiness, May cease their hatred; and this dear conjunction Plant neighbourhood and christian-like accord In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair France. All. Amen! K. Hen. Now welcome, Kate :-and bear me witness all, That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen. [Flourish. Q. Isa. God, the best maker of all marriages, Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one! As man and wife, being two, are one in love, So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal, That never may ill office, or fell jealousy, Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage, Thrust in between the paction of these kingdoms, To make divorce of their incorporate league; That English may as French, French Englishmen, Receive each other!-God speak this Amen! All. Amen! K. Hen. Prepare we for our marriage;-on which day, My lord of Burgundy, we 'll take your oath, And all the peers', for surety of our leagues. Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me; And may our oaths well kept and prosperous be! [Exeunt ILLUSTRATIONS OF ACT V. I CHORUS -"Like a mighty whiffler 'fore the king." A whiffler may be taken generally to mean an officer who leads the way in processions. A whiffler was originally a fifer or piper, who anciently went first on occasions of pageant and ceremony. Minsheu defines him to be a club or staff bearer. Grose, in his 'Provincial Glossary,' mentions whifflers as men who make way for the corporation of Norwich, by flourishing their swords." The sword-flourishers of Norwich are standardbearers in London, under the same name. 2 CHORUS. "As yet the lamentation of the French," &c. It is extremely difficult to explain this passage as it stands. Why should the lamentation of the French invite the King of England to stay at home? If we were half as venturons as our editorial predecessors, we would transpose a line as printed (such a typographical change of a manuscript being too common in printing) and read thus : "Now in London place him; As yet the lamentation of the French. 3 SCENE I. -"Why wear you your leek to-day? St. Davy's day is past." Even We have been favoured with some memoranda on the use of the leek, as the national emblem of Wales, by that accomplished antiquary Sir Samuel Meyrick, the substance of which we have great pleasure in presenting to our readers. Not one of the Welsh bards, though there exists a tolerable series of their compositions from the fifth century, till the time of Elizabeth, have in any manner alluded to the leek as a national emblem. at the present day, the custom of wearing leeks on the first of March is confined to the members of modern clubs. There is, however, a tradition in Wales as to the origin of the custom, namely, that the Saxons being about to attack the Britons on St. David's day, put leeks in their caps, in order, if dispersed, to be known to each other; and that the Britons having gained the victory, transferred the leeks to their own caps as signals of triumph. This, like many other traditions, seems to have been invented for the nonce. But the Harleian MS., No. 1977, written by a Welshman, of the time of James I., contains the following passage: "I like the leek above all herbs and flowers; Next to the lion and the unicorn, The leek's the fairest emblem that is worn." Now, the inference to be drawn from these lines, is, that the leek was assumed upon, or immediately after, the battle of Bosworth-field, which was won by Henry VII., who had many Welshmen (his countrymen) in his army, and whose yeomen guard was composed of Welshmen; and this inference is derived from the fact, that the Tudor colours were white and green; and, as may be seen in several heraldic MSS., formed the field on which the English, French, and Irish arms were placed. "The field was ours" alludes to the victory, of course, as well as to the heraldic field. This view of the case would account for the leek being only worn by Welshmen in England, and its having been a custom of comparatively modern origin in the time of Shakspere. SCENE II.-"Notre tres cher filz," &c. his Dr. Farmer, in his essay on the learning of Shakspere, winds up many proofs of the ignorance of our poet, by the following argument, the crown of all:"But to come to a conclusion, I will give you an irrefragable argument, that Shakspere did not understand two very common words in the French and Latin languages. According to the articles of agreement between the conqueror, Henry, and the king of France, the latter was to style the former (in the corrected French of the former editions), Nostre tres cher filz Henry roy d'Angleterre; and in Latin, Præclarissimus filius, &c. 'What,' says Dr. Warburton, 'is tres cher in French, præclarissimus in Latin ! we should read præcarissimus.' This appears to be exceedingly true; but how came the blunder? it is a typographical one in Holinshed, which Shakspere copied; but must indisputably have corrected, had he been acquainted with the languages." Now really this is a very weak argument, upon Farmer's own showing for Shakspere finding the passage in Holinshed was bound to copy it, without setting himself up as a verbal critic; nor was it necessary that the Latin words of the treaty should have exactly corresponded to the French. He might have understood the agreement to mean, that the very dear son in the one language, should be the most noble son in the other. But Malone says that the mistake is in all the old historians, as well as in Holinshed. He is not quite right in this statement, for the word is precharissimus in Hall. At any rate, the truth could not be ascertained till the publication of such a work as Rymer's 'Foedera,' where, in the treaty of Troyes, the word stands præcarissimus. By a super-refinement of veneration for Shakspere, as justifiable as Farmer's coarse depreciation of him, the præclarissimus might be taken to prove his learning; for Capell maintains that præcarissimus is no Latin word. We give this note to show what stuff criticism may be made of, when it departs from the safe resting-place of common sense. The triumphal procession and the pageant, with which Henry was welcomed to London, described in the chorus, are given in Holinshed; so also the king's freedom "from vainness and self-glorious pride." The Chronicler thus depicts this modesty : "The king, like a great and sober personage, and as one remembering from whom all victories are sent, seemed little to regard such vain pomp and shows as were in triumphant sort devised for his welcoming home from so prosperous a journey, insomuch that he would not suffer his helmet to be carried with him, whereby might have appeared to the people the blows and dents that were to be seen in the same; neither would he suffer any ditties to be made and sung by minstrels of his glorious victory, for that he would wholly have the praise and thanks altogether given to God." Percy, however, thinks that an old song, "For the victory of Agincourt," was drawn up by some poet laureat of those days. This song, or hymn, was printed from a manuscript copy in the Pepys collection. Our readers will perhaps be satisfied with the last stanza: "Now gracious God he save owre kynge, Deo gratias Anglia redde pro victoria." The poet in the chorus to this Act desires his audience to "omit The All the occurrences, whatever chanc'd, Till Harry's back-return again to France." But Henry's return to France was marked by many fearful struggles for power, before the treaty of Troyes was concluded, which gave him the hand of Katharine, and made the king of France his vicegerent. Towns had been won; armies had perished. The Dauphin, whom we have seen at Agincourt, was no more; and he was succeeded in his rank by a prince of greater profligacy. Unhappy France was assailed by a resolute enemy, and had nothing to oppose to him but the weakness of factions, more intent upon destroying each other than disposed to unite for a common cause. Duke of Burgundy, brought in by the poet as the advocate of peace, was certainly present at the negotiations near Meulan, on the 30th May, 1419, when Henry first saw Katharine, and was struck with her grace and beauty. But this Duke of Burgundy, Jean Sans Peur, was murdered by the Dauphin, on the bridge of Montereau, on the following 10th September. This event led to a close connexion between Henry and the young Duke of Burgundy, who was anxious to revenge the death of his father; and perhaps this circumstance mainly contributed to Henry's success in negotiating the treaty of Troyes. 385 |