You are difputing of your generals. One would have ling'ring wars, with little coft; Let not floth dim your honours, new-begot: EXE. Were our tears wanting to this funeral, Enter another Meffenger. 2 MESS. Lords, view these letters, full of bad mifchance, France is revolted from the English quite; A third man thinks,] Thus the fecond folio. The firft omits the word-man, and confequently leaves the verfe imperfect. STEEVENS. 5 •her flowing tides.] i. e. England's flowing tides. MALONE. their intermiffive miferies.] i. e. their miferies, which have had only a short intermiffion from Henry the Fifth's death to my coming amongst them. WARBURTON. EXE. The Dauphin crowned king! all fly to him! O, whither fhall we fly from this reproach? GLO. We will not fly, but to our enemies' throats: Bedford, if thou be flack, I'll fight it out. BED. Glofter, why doubt'ft thou of my forwardnefs? An army have I mufter'd in my thoughts, Enter a third Meffenger. 3 MESS. My gracious lords,-to add to your laments, Wherewith you now bedew king Henry's hearfe,I muft inform you of a difmal fight, Betwixt the ftout lord Talbot and the French. WIN. What! wherein Talbot overcame? is't fo? 3 MESS. O, no; wherein lord Talbot was o'erthrown: The circumftance I'll tell you more at large. Having full fcarce fix thousand in his troop," 1 Having full scarce &c.] The modern editors read-scarce full, but, I think, unneceffarily. So, in The Tempest: ·Profpero, master of a full poor cell.” STEEVENS.. To keep the horsemen off from breaking in. 2 above human thought, Enacted wonders] So, in King Richard III : STEEVENS. 9 he flew:] I fufpect the author wrote flew. 1 MALONE. And rush'd into the bowels of the battle.] Again, in the fifth Act of this play : "So, rufhing in the bowels of the French." The fame phrafe had occurred in the first part of Jeronimo, 1605 : 2 66 Meet, Don Andrea! yes, in the battle's bowels." STEEVENS. If fir John Faftolfe &c.] Mr. Pope has taken notice, "That Falstaff is here introduced again, who was dead in Henry V. The occafion whereof is, that this play was written before King Henry IV. or King Henry V." But it is the hiftorical Sir John Faftolfe (for fo he is called in both our Chroniclers) that is here mentioned; who was a lieutenant general, deputy regent to the duke of Bedford in Normandy, and a knight of the garter; and not the comick character afterwards introduced by our author, and which was a creature merely of his own brain. Nor when he named him Falstaff do I believe he had any intention of throwing a flur on the memory of this renowned old warrior. THEOBALD. Mr. Theobald might have seen his notion contradicted in the very line he quotes from. Fafiolfe, whether truly or not, is He being in the vaward, (plac'd behind,3 Durft not prefume to look once in the face. faid by Hall and Holinfhed to have been degraded for cowardice. Dr. Heylin, in his Saint George for England, tells us, that "he was afterwards, upon good reafon by him alledged in his defence, restored to his honour."-" This Sir John Faftolfe," continues he, "was without doubt, a valiant and wife captain, notwithstanding the stage hath made merry with him." FARMER. See Vol. XI. p. 194, n. 3; and Oldys's Life of Sir John Faftolfe in the General Dictionary. MALONE. In the 18th Song of Drayton's Polyolbion is the following character of this Sir John Faftolph: 66 66 Strong Faftolph with this man compare we juftly may; By Salfbury who oft being seriously imploy'd "In many a brave attempt the general foe annoy'd; "With excellent fucceffe in Main and Anjou fought, "And many a bulwarke there into our keeping brought; "And chofen to go forth with Vadamont in warre, "Moft refolutely tooke proud Renate duke of Barre.” STEEVENS. For an account of this Sir John Faftolfe, fee Anftis's Treatife on the Order of the Garter; Parkins's Supplement to Blomfield's Hiftory of Norfolk; Tanner's Bibliotheca Britannica; or Capel's notes, Vol. II. p. 221; and Sir John Fenn's Collection of the Pafton Letters. REED. र 3 He being in the vaward, (plac'd behind,] Some of the editors feem to have confidered this as a contradiction in terms, and have propofed to read-the rearward,—but without neceffity. Some part of the van must have been behind the foremost line of it. We often say the back front of a house. STEEVENs. When an army is attacked in the rear, the van becomes the rear in its turn, and of course the referve. M. MASON. BED. Is Talbot flain? then I will flay myfelf, 3 MESS. O no, he lives; but is took prifoner, And lord Scales with him, and lord Hungerford: Most of the rest flaughter'd, or took, likewise. BED. His ransome there is none but I fhall pay: I'll hale the Dauphin headlong from his throne, His crown fhall be the ransome of my friend; Four of their lords I'll change for one of ours.Farewell, my mafters; to my task will I; Bonfires in France forthwith I am to make, To keep our great Saint George's feaft withal: Ten thousand foldiers with me I will take, Whose bloody deeds fhall make all Europe quake. 3 MESS. So you had need; for Orleans is befieg'd; The English army is grown weak and faint: And hardly keeps his men from mutiny, Either to quell the Dauphin utterly, Or bring him in obedience to your yoke. BED. I do remember it; and here take leave, To go about my preparation. [Exit. GLO. I'll to the Tower, with all the hafte I can, To view the artillery and munition; And then I will proclaim young Henry king. [Exit. EXE. To Eltham will I, where the young king is, |