If not, why, in a moment, look to see The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand And their most reverend heads dash'd to the walls; Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confus'd Gov. Our expectation hath this day an end: K. HEN. Open your gates.-Come, uncle Exeter, Go you and enter Harfleur; there remain, And fortify it strongly 'gainst the French: Use mercy to them all. For us, dear uncle,The winter coming on, and sickness growing Upon our soldiers,-we'll retire to Calais. To-night in Harfleur will we be your guest; To-morrow for the march are we addrest". [Flourish. The King, &c. enter the Town. 5 DEFILE the locks, &c.] The folio reads: "Desire the locks," &c. STEEVENS. The emendation is Mr. Pope's. MALONE. 6 whom of succour we entreated,] Many instances of similar phraseology are already given in a note on the following in A Midsummer-Night's Dream : "I shall desire you of passage more acquaintance." See Act III. Sc. I. STEEvens. 7 are we ADDREST.] i. e. prepared. So, in Heywood's Brazen Age, 1613: "Tell us these champions are addrest for war." STEEVENS. Enter KATHARINE and ALICE. KATH. Alice, tu as esté en Angleterre, et tu parles bien le language. 8 Scene IV.] I have left this ridiculous scene as I found it; and am sorry to have no colour left from any of the editions, to imagine it interpolated. WARBURTON. Sir T. Hanmer has rejected it. The scene is indeed mean enough, when it is read; but the grimaces of two French women, and the odd accent with which they uttered the English, made it divert upon the stage. It may be observed, that there is in it not only the French language, but the French spirit. Alice compliments the princess upon her knowledge of four words, and tells her that she pronounces like the English themselves. The princess suspects no deficiency in her instructress, nor the instructress in herself. Throughout the whole scene there may be found French servility, and French vanity. I cannot forbear to transcribe the first sentence of this dialogue from the edition of 1608, that the reader, who has not looked into the old copies, may judge of the strange negligence with which they are printed. "Kate. Alice venecia, vous aves cates en, vou parte fort bon Angloys englatara, coman sae palla vou la main en francoy." JOHNSON. We may observe, in general, that the early editions have not half the quantity; and every sentence, or rather every word, most ridiculously blundered. These, for several reasons, could not possibly be published by the author; and it is extremely probable that the French ribaldry was at first inserted by a different hand, as the many editions most certainly were after he had left the stage. Indeed, every friend to his memory will not easily believe, that he was acquainted with the scene between Katharine and the old Gentlewoman: or surely he would not have admitted such obscenity and nonsense. FARMER. It is very certain that authors, in the time of Shakspeare, did not correct the press for themselves. I hardly ever saw, in one of the old plays, a sentence of either Latin, Italian, or French, without the most ridiculous blunders. In The History of Clyomon, Knight of the Golden Shield, 1599, a tragedy which I have often quoted, a warrior asks a lady, disguised like a page, ALICE. Un peu madame. KATH. Je te prie, m'enseigneuz; il faut que j'apprenne à parler. Comment appellez vous la main, en Anglois? ALICE. La main? elle est appellée, de hand. ALICE. Les doigts? may foy', je oublie les doigts; mais je me souviendray. Les doigts? je pense, qu'ils sont appellé de fingres; ouy, de fin gres. KATH. La main, de hand; les doigts, de fingres. Je pense, que je suis le bon escolier. Jay gagné deux mots d'Anglois vistement. Comment appellez vous les ongles? ALICE. Les ongles? les appellons, de nails. what her name is. She answers, "Cur Daceer," i. e. Cœur d'Acier, Heart of Steel. STEEVENS. 9 Kath. Alice, tu as esté -] I have regulated several speeches in this French scene; some whereof are given to Alice, and yet evidently belong to Katharine: and so vice versa. It is not material to distinguish the particular transpositions I have made. Mr. Gildon has left no bad remark, I think, with regard to our poet's conduct in the character of this princess: "For why he should not allow her," says he, "to speak in English as well as all the other French, I cannot imagine; since it adds no beauty, but gives a patched and pye-bald dialogue of no beauty or force." THEOBALD. In the collection of Chester Whitsun Mysteries, among the Harleian MSS. No. 1013, I find French speeches introduced. In the Vintner's Play, p. 65, the three kings, who come to worship our infant Saviour, address themselves to Herod in that language, and Herod very politely answers them in the same. At first, I supposed the author to have appropriated a foreign tongue to them, because they were strangers; but in the Skinner's Play, p. 144, I found Pilate talking French, when no such reason could be offered to justify a change of language. These mysteries are said to have been written in 1328. It is hardly necessary to mention that in this MS. the French is as much corrupted as in the passage quoted by Dr. Johnson from the quarto edition of King Kenry V. STEEVENS. MAY foy,] Thus the old copies; but I suspect we should read-ma foy. STEEVENS. KATH. De nails. Escoutez; dites moy, si je parle bien de hand, de fingres, de nails. ALICE. C'est bien dit, madame; il est fort bon Anglois. KATH. Dites moy en Anglois, le bras. ALICE. De arm, madame. KATH. Et le coude. ALICE. De elbow. KATH. De elbow. Je m'en faitz la repetition de tous les mots, que vous m'avez appris dès a pre sent. ALICE. Il est trop difficile, madame, comme je pense. KATH. Excusez moy, Alice; escoutez: De hand, de fingre, de nails, de arm, de bilbow. ALICE. De elbow, madame. KATH. O Seigneur Dieu! je m'en oublie; De elbow. Comment appellez vous le col? ALICE. De neck, madame. KATH. De neck: Et le menton? ALICE. De chin. KATH. De sin. Le col, de neck: le menton, de sin. ALICE. Ouy. Sauf vostre honneur; en verité, vous prononces les mots aussi droict que les natifs d'Angleterre. KATH. Je ne doute point d'apprendre par là grace de Dieu; et en peu de temps. ALICE. N'avez vous pas deja oublié ce que je vous ay enseignée? KATH. Non, je reciteray à vous promptement. De hand, de fingre, de mails, ALICE. De nails, madame. KATH. De nails, de arme, de ilbow. ALICE. Sauf vostre honneur, de elbow. KATH. Ainsi dis je; de elbow, de neck, et de sin: Comment appellez vous le pieds et la robe? ALICE. De foot, madame; et de con. KATH. De foot, et de con? O Seigneur Dieu! ces sont mots de son mauvais, corruptible, grosse, et impudique, et non pour les dames d'honneur d'user: Je ne voudrois prononcer ces mots devant les Seigneurs de France, pour tout le monde. Il faut de foot, et de con, neant-moins. Je reciterai une autre fois ma leçon ensemble: De hand, de fingre, de nails, de arm, de elbow, de neck, de sin, de foot, de con. ALICE. Excellent, madame! KATH. C'est assez pour une fois; allons nous a disner. [Exeunt. SCENE V. The same. Another Room in the same. Enter the French King, the Dauphin, Duke of BOURBON, the Constable of France, and Others. FR. KING. 'Tis certain, he hath pass'd the river Somme. CON. And if he be not fought withal, my lord, Let us not live in France; let us quit all, And give our vineyards to a barbarous people. DAU. O Dieu vivant! shall a few sprays of us,The emptying of our father's luxury 3 2 Our scions, put in wild and savage stock, 2 our father's LUXURY,] In this place, as in others, luxury means lust. JOHNSON. So, in King Lear: "To't, luxury, pell-mell, for I lack soldiers." STEEVENS. savage-] Is here used in the French original sense, for silvan, uncultivated, the same with wild. JOHNSON. 3 |