of Falstaff, though there is an absolute certainty that this piece must have been condemned by any audience before whom it was ever represented.-Lastly, because it appears (as Dr. Farmer has observed) from the Jests of the famous comedian, Tarlton, 4to. 1611, that he had been particularly celebrated in the part of the Clown,* in Henry V, and though this character does not exist in our play, we find it in the other, which, for the reasons already enumerated, I suppose to have been prior to this. This anonymous play of Henry V is neither divided into acts or scenes, is uncommonly short, and has all the appearance of having been imperfectly taken down during the representation. As much of it appears to have been omitted, we may suppose that the author did not think it convenient for his reputation to publish a more ample copy. There is, indeed, a play, called Sir John Oldcastle, published in 1600, with the name of William Shakspeare prefixed to it. Steevens. The piece to which Nash alludes is the old anonymous play of King Henry V, which had been exhibited before the year 1589. Tarlton, the comedian, who performed in it both the parts of the Chief Justice and the Clown, having died in that year. It was entered on the Stationers' books in 1594, and, I believe, printed in that year, though I have not met with a copy of that date. An edition of it, printed in 1598, was in the valuable collection of Dr. Wright. See also Vol. VIII, p. 157, n. 2, and the present Vol. p. 93, n. 4. The play before us appears to have been written in the middle of the year 1599. The old King Henry V may be found among Six old Plays on which Shakspeare founded, &c. printed by S. Leacroft, 1778. Malone. * Mr. Oldys, in a manuscript note in his copy of Langbaine, says, that Tarlton appeared in the character of the Judge who receives the box on the ear. This Judge is likewise a character in the old play. I may add, on the authority of the books at Stationers' Hall, that Tarlton published what he called his Farewel, a ballad, in Sept. 1588. In Oct. 1589, was entered, "Tarlton's Repentance, and his Farewel to his Friends in his Sickness a little before his Death," in 1590, "Tarlton's Newes out of Purgatorie;" and in the same year, “ A pleasaunt Ditty Dialogue-wise, between Tarlton's Ghost and Robyn Good-fellowe." Steevens. R 2 King Henry the Fifth. Duke of Gloster, brothers to the king. Duke of Bedford, S Duke of Exeter, uncle to the king. Duke of York, cousin to the king. Earls of Salisbury, Westmoreland, and Warwick. Archbishop of Canterbury. Bishop of Ely. Earl of Cambridge, Lord Scroop, Sir Thomas Grey, conspirators against the king. Sir Thomas Erpingham, Gower, Fluellen, Mackmorris, Jamy, officers in king Henry's army. Bates, Court, Williams, soldiers in the same. Nym, Bardolph, Pistol, formerly servants to Falstaff, now soldiers in the same. Boy, servant to them. A herald. 'Chorus. Charles the Sixth, king of France. Lewis, the dauphin. Dukes of Burgundy, Orleans, and Bourbon. The Constable of France. Rambures, and Grandpree, French lords. Governor of Harfleur. Montjoy, a French herald. Isabel, queen of France. Katharine, daughter of Charles and Isabel. Alice, a lady attending on the princess Katharine. Quickly, Pistol's wife, an hostess. Lords, ladies, officers, French and English soldiers, messengers, and attendants. The SCENE, at the beginning of the play, lies in England; but afterwards, wholly in France. O, for a muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention!1 A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, And monarchs to behold2 the swelling scene! Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, Assume the port of Mars; and, at his heels, Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire, Crouch for employment.3 But pardon, gentles all, The flat unraised spirit, that hath dar'd, On this unworthy scaffold, to bring forth So great an object: Can this cockpit hold The vasty fields of France? or may we cram Within this wooden O,5 the very casques, 10, for a muse of fire, &c.] This goes upon the notion of the Peripatetic system, which imagines several heavens one above another; the last and highest of which was one of fire. Warburton. It alludes likewise to the aspiring nature of fire, which, by its levity, at the separation of the chaos, took the highest seat of all the elements. Johnson. 2 •princes to act, And monarchs to behold-] Shakspeare does not seem to set distance enough between the performers and spectators. Johnson. 3 Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire, Crouch for employment.] In King Henry VI, "Lean famine, quartering steel, and climbing fire,” are called the three attendants on the English General, Lord Talbot: and, as I suppose, are the dogs of war mentioned in Julius Cæsar. This image of the warlike Henry very much resembles Montfaucon's description of the Mars discovered at Bresse, who leads a lion and a lioness in couples, and crouching as for employment. Tollet. Warner, in his Albion's England, 1602, speaking of King Henry V, says: "He led good fortune in a line, and did but war and win." Holinshed, (p. 567) when the people of Roan petitioned King Henry V, has put this sentiment into his mouth: "He declared that the goddesse of battell, called Bellona, had three handmaidens, ever of necessitie attending upon her, as blood, fire, and famine." Steevens. 4 spirit,] Old copy-spirits. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. Malone. 5 Within this wooden O,] Nothing shows more evidently the power of custom over language, than that the frequent use of That did affright the air at Agincourt?7 calling a circle an O could so much hide the meanness of the metaphor from Shakspeare, that he has used it many times where he makes his most eager attempts at dignity of style. Johnson. Johnson's criticism on Shakspeare's calling a circle an O, is rather injudiciously introduced in this place, where it was evidently the poet's intention to represent the circle in which they acted in as contemptible a light as he could. M. Mason. Within this wooden O,] An allusion to the theatre where this history was exhibited, being, from its circular form, called The Globe. The same expression is applied, for the like reason, to the world, in Antony and Cleopatra: "A sun and moon, which kept their course, and lighted "The little o, the earth." I know not whether Shakspeare calls the Globe playhouse a cock-pit from its being a round building, or else from its serving that purpose also: the latter appears probable, from his styling the floor an unworthy scaffold, which suggests the idea of its being temporary, and that the edifice answered both turns, by means of a slight alteration. Henley. This theatre, like all our ancient ones, was denominated from its sign, viz. The Globe, and not from its shape. Had playhouses been named with reference to their form of construction, what sort of building could have corresponded with the title of a Red Bull, a Curtain, a Fortune, Cross Keys, a Phanix, &c.? Shakspeare, meaning to degrade the stage he was describing, may call it a cock-pit, because a cock-pit was the most diminutive enclosure present to his mind; or, perhaps, because there was a playhouse called The Cock-pit, at which King Henry V might first have been acted. N. B. From Mr. Henley's own drawing of The Globe, the outside of it, at least, appears to have been octagonal. Steevens. 6 the very casques,] The helmets. Johnson. The very casques, does not mean the identical casques, but the casques only, the casques alone. So, in The Taming of the Shrew, Katharine says to Grumio: Thou false deluding slave, "That feed'st me with the very name of meat." The very name, means here, the name only. M. Mason. The very casques, are-even the casques or helmets; much less the men by whom they were worn. So, in Macbeth: 7 for fear "Thy very stones prate of my whereabout." Malone. casques That did affright the air-] Thus Prudentius, in Psychoma、 chia, 297: clypeo dum territat auras." Steevens. And let us, ciphers to this great accompt, 8 - imaginary forces - Imaginary for imaginative, or your powers of fancy. Active and passive words are by this author frequently confounded. Johnson. 9 Whose high upreared and abutting fronts The perilous, narrow ocean parts asunder.] Perilous narrow, in burlesque and common language, meant no more than very narrow. In old books this mode of expression occurs perpetually. A perilous broad brim to a hat, a perilous long sword, &c. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Humorous Lieutenant: "She is perilous crafty." Thus, villainous is only used to exaggerate, in The Tempest: be turn'd to barnacies or apes 66 "With foreheads villainous low." Again, in John Florio's Preface to his translation of Montaigne: in this perilous crook'd passage-." 66 The narrow seas, however, were always reckoned dangerous, insomuch that Golding, in his version of the 14th Book of Ovid's Metamorphosis, translates-Savior illa freto surgente, 66 -the lady crueller "Than are the rising narrow seas." Again, in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, edit. 1632, p. 326: "How full of feare, how furious? "The narrow seas are not so boisterous." Steevens. The present reading is right, but there should be a comma between the words perilous and narrow, as it was by no means Shakspeare's intention to join them together, and to make a burlesque phrase of them, such as Steevens describes. The perilousness of the ocean to be passed by the army, before the meeting of the kings, adds to the grandeur and interest of the scene; and it is well known that narrow seas are the most perilous. So the Chorus in the next Act insinuates that it was necessary: 661 To charm the narrow seas "To give them gentle pass." And in The Merchant of Venice, the narrow seas are made the scene of shipwrecks, where Salarino says, " Antonio hath a ship of rich lading wrecked on the narrow seas; the Goodwins I think they call the place; a very dangerous flat, and fatal," &c. M. Mason. 1 Into a thousand parts divide one man,] The meaning of this is, Suppose every man to represent a thousand; but it is very ill expressed. M. Mason. |