King. Then, good my lord, teach your cousin to consent winking.

Bur. I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you will teach her to know my meaning: for maids, well summered and warm kept, are like flies at Bartholomew-tide,1 blind, though they have their eyes; and then they will endure handling, which before would not abide looking on.

King. This moral ties me over to time and a hot summer; and so I shall catch the fly, your cousin, in the latter end and she must be blind too.

341

Bur. As love is, my lord, before it loves. King. It is so: and you may, some of you, thank love for my blindness, who cannot see 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.]

King. Shall Kate be my wife?
Fr. King. So please you.

350

King. I am content; [so the maiden cities you talk of may wait on her: so the maid that stood in the way for my wish shall show (me the way to my will.

Fr. King. We have consented to all terms of reason.

{King. Is 't so, my lords of England?] 359

West. The king hath granted every article: His daughter first, and then in sequel all, According to their firm proposed natures.

[Ere. 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 très-cher fils Henri, Roi d'Angleterre, Héritier de France;2 and thus in Latin, Proclarissimus filius noster Henricus, Rex Angliæ, et Hares Francia.3

1 Bartholomew-tide, the 24th of August.

370

2 "Our very dear son Henry, King of England, heir (apparent) of France."

3 "Our most illustrious son Henry, King of England, and heir (apparent) of France."

Fr. King. Nor this I have not, brother, so denied,

But your request shall make me let it pass. King. I pray you then, in love and dear alliance,

Let that one article rank with the rest;
And thereupon give me your daughter.]

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

380

fresh wars, was taken sick with pleurisy, and died August 31st, 1422, of the fever that followed this attack. His body was brought to England with great pomp and ceremony, and finally entombed in Westminster Abbey on the 11th of November in the same year.

2. DUKE OF GLOUCESTER. This was Prince Humphrey Plantagenet, the only one of Henry's brothers who was actually present at Agincourt, where he fought bravely and was wounded, his royal brother coming to his rescue and defending him until he could be borne from the field. He was also at the meeting of the French and English princes at Troyes. See note 3, I. Henry VI.

3. DUKE OF BEDFORD. This is the person who figured as Prince John of Lancaster in I. and II. Henry IV. (See note 3, I. Henry IV.) Henry created him Earl of Kendal and Duke of Bedford on the 6th of May, 1414. He also appointed him to be "Lieutenant of the whole realm of England" during his own absence in France. The dramatist is therefore at fault in representing the duke as present before Harfleur and at Agincourt. For a fuller account of this character see note 2, I. Henry VI. 4. DUKE OF EXETER. This was Thomas Beaufort, for an account of whom see note 4, I. Henry VI. At the time of the battle of Agincourt he was only Earl of Dorset and not Duke of Exeter, as Shakespeare calls him. As French remarks, he was not present at Agincourt, although nearly all writers agree with Shakespeare in putting him in command of the rear-guard there. It is remarkable that the poet has given a sufficient reason for his absence in iii. 3. 51-53:

Come, uncle Exeter,

Go you and enter Harfleur; there remain,
And fortify it strongly 'gainst the French.

This is true to history, Dorset having remained in charge of Harfleur after its capture. The town was twice attacked by the Count of Armagnac, who was in both instances repulsed by the garrison under the command of Dorset.

5. DUKE OF YORK. This is the Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Rutland and Duke of Aumerle, who appears in Richard II. (See note 5 of that play.) He was restored to his father's former title by Henry IV. in 1406. He fell at Agincourt, fighting bravely in command of the van. "He was very corpulent, and having been struck down by the Duke of Alençon, it was in stooping to assist his cousin that the king himself was assailed by that French prince, who struck off Henry's jewelled coronet" (French).

6. EARL OF SALISBURY. This was Thomas Montacute, eldest son of the Earl of Salisbury who appears in the play of Richard II. (See note 8 of that play.) Henry IV. restored him to the title his father had forfeited. For an account of him see note 9, I. Henry VI.

7. EARL OF WESTMORELAND. The Ralph Neville of the preceding plays. (See note 4, I. Henry IV., and note 8, II. Henry IV.) He could not have been at Agincourt, since his duties as one of the council to the Regent Bedford, and also as warden of the West Marches towards

1 In that note, by an accidental error, he is twice called Duke of Gloucester (lines 19 and 21 of note 4, vol. i. p. 315).

Scotland, would require his presence in England. Compare what Henry says in i. 2. 136-139:

We must not only arm t' invade the French,
But lay down our proportions to defend
Against the Scot, who will make road upon us
With all advantages.

8. EARL OF WARWICK. This was Richard Beauchamp, some account of whom will be found in note 7, II. Henry IV., and note 8, I. Henry VI. He was at Harfleur, but not at Agincourt, having returned to England after the capture of the former city. He subsequently returned to France, and was made governor of Caen after it was taken by Henry. He was one of the ambassadors sent to treat of the king's marriage, and was present at Troyes, as represented in the play (act v. scene 2). Henry, on his death-bed, appointed him tutor to his infant son, on the ground that "no fitter person could be provided to teach him all things becoming his rank."

Henry Chicheley,

9. ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. who was born about 1362, at Higham Ferrars, where in 1415 he founded and endowed a college for secular priests. He had been archdeacon of Salisbury and bishop of St. David's before his appointment to the see of Canterbury in 1414. He founded All Souls' College at Oxford, and enlarged and adorned Lambeth Palace. He died April 12, 1443.

10. BISHOP OF ELY. John Fordham, who, after being Dean of Wells, was promoted to the see of Durham, and subsequently transferred to Ely. He died in 1425.

11. EARL OF CAMBRIDGE. Richard Plantagenet, brother of the Duke of York in this play, and second son of the Duke of York in Richard II. He married Anne, daughter of Roger Mortimer, fourth earl of March; and their son, Richard Plantagenet, became the head of the Yorkists, or party of the White Rose in the subsequent reign. (See note 7 of I. Henry VI. and note 4 of II. Henry VI.) Having been engaged in the conspiracy against Henry V., he was beheaded at Southampton on the 5th of August, 1415. The plan of the conspirators was to put his brother-in-law, Edmund Mortimer, on the throne; but the latter disclosed the plot to the king, who was his intimate friend.

12. LORD SCROOP. Henry Scroop was the eldest son of Sir Stephen Scroop or Scrope. (See note 21, Richard II.) He was employed by Henry V. on certain embassies to Denmark and France; but, under the influence of French bribes, he plotted the destruction of his sovereign, and drew the Earl of Cambridge and Sir Thomas Grey int› the conspiracy. He was tried, attainted, and beheaded on the same day with his confederate Cambridge.

13. SIR THOMAS GREY. He was the son of Sir Thomas Grey of Berwick, Constable of Norham Castle. He was executed at Southampton on the 2nd of August, 1415. His eldest brother, Sir John Grey, distinguished himself in the wars of Henry V., from whom he received the earldom of Tancarville.

14. GOWER, FLUELLEN, MACMORRIS, AND JAMY. As French remarks: "Shakespeare probably selected these names to represent the four nations which sent contingents to Henry's army in France." He calls attention also

to the fact that Fluellen (as the Welsh Llewellyn is pronounced) was the name of a townsman of the dramatist at Stratford.

15. NYM, BARDOLPH, AND PISTOL. Bardolph was also a Stratford name in the time of Shakespeare. Pistol appears to have been a favourite character, as his name is given in the titles of some editions of II. Henry IV. (see the Introduction to that play); and "Ancient Pistol" is also mentioned in the title-pages of the quartos of the present play.

The

16. CHARLES THE SIXTH, KING OF FRANCE. monarch was not at Agincourt, having been urged to keep away by his uncle, the Duc de Berri, who had served at Poitiers, and who told Charles that it was better to lose a battle than a battle and a king also. Neither was he at Troyes at the time of the betrothal of his daughter, being then the victim of one of the fits of insanity to which he had long been subject. Charles had come to the throne in 1380 as successor to his father, Charles V. He married Isabel, daughter of Stephen II. of Bavaria, by whom he had three sons and five daughters. Of the latter the eldest was Isabel, who became the second queen of Richard II. (see note 23, Richard II.); and the fifth was Katharine the Fair, who figures in this play. Charles died on the 21st of October, 1422, a few weeks after Henry V.

17. LEWIS, THE DAUPHIN. He is called simply "the Dolphin" by Shakespeare. At the beginning of the play, Louis, the eldest son of Charles, was Dauphin, but he died soon after the battle of Agincourt. He was succeeded by his next brother, John, who died in 1417, and was in turn succeeded by his brother Charles, afterwards King Charles VII., who is a character in I. Henry VI. See note 22 of that play.

18. DUKE OF BURGUNDY. During the time of act i this would be John Sans-Peur, or the Fearless, who was assassinated September 10th, 1418. His son, Philip, Count of Charolois, is the Duke of Burgundy in act v. of the play. He was not at Agincourt, though he visited the field soon after the battle, in which his uncles, the Duke of Brabant (mentioned in iv. 8. 101) and the Duke of Nevers, had been killed. He was present at Troyes during the negotiations for peace (act v. scene 2).

19. DUKE OF ORLEANS. Son of Louis, Duke of Orleans, brother to Charles VI. In 1408 he married his cousin Isabel, widow of Richard II. After the battle of Agincourt he "was discovered by an English esquire, Richard Waller, under a heap of slain, showing but faint signs of life, and after a captivity of twenty-five years in England he was released on payment of 80,000 crowns. in part of the sum fixed for his ransom, April, 1440" (French, p. 113). While imprisoned in the Tower of London he wrote several poems of no mean character. He died in 1465, and his son became King Louis XII. of France.

20. DUKE OF BOURBON. John, Duke of Bourbon, who served at Agincourt, was taken prisoner, and carried to England, where he died in 1433. He was buried at Christ Church, Newgate, London.

VOL. IV.

21. THE CONSTABLE OF FRANCE. Charles d'Albret, a natural son of Charles le Mauvais, King of Navarre, and half-brother to Queen Joan, stepmother of Henry V. He led the van at Agincourt, was wounded, and died the next day.

22. RAMBURES and GRANDPRÉ. The former French lord was "Master of the Crossbows," and had a high command in the van at Agincourt; the latter was a leader in the main body with the Dukes of Alençon and Bar. Both fell in the battle.

23. GOVERNOR OF HARFLEUR. This was Jean, Lord d'Estouteville, at the time when the siege began; but on the arrival of reinforcements under Raoul, Sieur de Gaucourt, that general appears to have taken charge of the defence. Both these lords were sent as prisoners to England, and Gaucourt wrote a narrative of the siege.

24. MONTJOY, A FRENCH HERALD. "The principal king at arms was taken prisoner at Agincourt, and it was from him that Henry V. learned that he had gained the field, and the name of the place, as stated in the play" (French, p. 117).

Accor

25. AMBASSADORS TO THE KING OF ENGLAND. ding to Rymer the ambassadors on the present occasion were "Louis, Earl of Vendôme; Monsieur William Bouratin, the archbishop of Bourges; the bishop of Lisieux; the lords of Ivry and Braquemont, with Jean Andrée and Master Gualtier Cole, the king's secretaries."

26. ISABEL, QUEEN OF FRANCE. See note 16 above. She died September 24, 1435, three days after the ratification of the second treaty of Troyes, in bringing about which she had been largely instrumental.

27. THE PRINCESS KATHARINE. She was born at Paris, October 27th, 1401. After the betrothal at Troyes she was committed by Henry V. to the care of Sir Louis Robsert, who was likewise her escort to England after her husband's death. She subsequently married Owen Tudor, a Welsh gentleman of excellent family but small estates. He is said to have saved the life of Henry V. at Agincourt, and the king made him one of his "esquires of the body." The marriage with the widow of Henry, nevertheless, gave offence to her high-born kindred in both countries, and she passed the remainder of her life in obscurity. (See Introduction to II. Henry VI. vol. ii. p. 11.) Her death occurred at Bermondsey Abbey, January 3rd, 1437. Edmund, the eldest son of Owen Tudor and Katharine, was made Earl of Richmond in 1452 by his half-brother, Henry VI., and subsequently married Margaret Beaufort, heiress of the Dukes of Somerset. Their only child came to the throne of England as Henry VII.

PROLOGUE.

28. In the Folios the play is divided into acts but not into scenes, although to the first is prefixed Actus Primus, Scena Prima. The division into scenes was first made by Pope.

29. Lines 1, 2.-Warburton sees here an allusion to the Peripatetic system with its several heavens, "the highest 65 90