And never noted in him any study, Ely. The strawberry grows underneath the nettle;2 And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best, Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality: And so the prince obscur'd his contemplation Cant. It must be so: for miracles are ceas'd; Ely. But, my good lord, How now for mitigation of this bill 4 Cant. And in regard of causes now in hand, 1 popularity.] i. e. plebeian intercourse; an unusual sense of the word: though perhaps the same idea was meant to be communicated by it in King Henry IV, Part I, where King Richard II, is represented as having "Enfeoff'd himself to popularity." Steevens. 2 The strawberry &c.] i. e. the wild fruit so called, that grows in the woods. Steevens. 3 crescive in his faculty.] Increasing in its proper power. Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night, Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.] "Crescit occulto velut arbor ævo "Fama Marcelli." Johnson. Crescive is a word used by Drant, in his translation of Horace's Art of Poetry, 1567: 4 "As lusty youths of crescive age doe flourishe freshe and grow." Steevens. swaying more upon our part,] Swaying is inclining. So, in King Henry VI, Part III: "Now sways it this way, like a mighty sea, "Now sways it that way." Malone. Which I have open'd to his grace at large, Ely. How did this offer seem receiv'd, my lord? Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms; Ely. What was the impediment that broke this off? Ely. SCENE II. [Exeunt. The same. A Room of State in the same. Enter King HENRY, GLOSTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and Attendants. K. Hen. Where is my gracious lord of Canterbury? Exe. Not here in presence. K. Hen. Send for him, good uncle." 5 The severals, and unhidden passages,] This line I suspect of corruption, though it may be fairly enough explained: the passages of his titles are the lines of succession by which his claims descend. Unhidden is open, clear. Johnson. I believe we should read several, instead of severals. 6 Send for him, good uncle.] The person here addressed was Thomas Beaufort, Earl of Dorset, who was half-brother to King Henry IV, being one of the sons of John of Gaunt, by Katharine Swynford. Shakspeare is a little too early in giving him the title of Duke of Exeter; for when Harfleur was taken, and he West. Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege?? K. Hen. Not yet, my cousin; we would be resolv'd, Before we hear him, of some things of weight, That task our thoughts, concerning us and France. Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bishop of Ely. Cant. God, and his angels, guard your sacred throne, And make you long become it! K. Hen. Sure, we thank you. My learned lord, we pray you to proceed; And justly and religiously unfold, Why the law Salique, that they have in France, That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading, was appointed governor of the town, he was only Earl of Dorset. He was not made Duke of Exeter till the year after the battle of Agincourt, Nov. 14, 1416. Malone. Perhaps Shakspeare confounded this character with that of John Holland, Duke of Exeter, who was married to Elizabeth, the king's aunt. He was executed at Plashey in 1400: but with this circumstance our author might have been unacquainted. See Remarks &c. on the last edition of Shakspeare, [i. e. that of 1778] p. 239. Steevens. 7 Shall we call in &c.] Here began the old play. Pope. 8 task-] Keep busied with scruples and laborious disquisitions. Johnson. 9 Or nicely charge your understanding soul-] Take heed, lest by nice and subtle sophistry you burthen your knowing soul, or knowingly burthen your soul, with the guilt of advancing a false title, or of maintaining, by specious fallacies, a claim which, if shown in its native and true colours, would appear to be false. Johnson. miscreate,] Ill-begotten, illegitimate, spurious. Johnson. in approbation—] i. e. in proving and supporting that title which shall be now set up. So, in Braithwaite's Survey of Histories, 1614: " Composing what he wrote, not by report of others, but by the approbation of his own eyes." 1 2 Again, in The Winter's Tale: "That lack'd sight only;-nought for approbation, Of what your reverence shall incite us to: 'Gainst him, whose wrongs give edge unto the swords That make such waste in brief mortality.4 Under this conjuration, speak, my lord: And we will hear, note, and believe in heart, Cant. Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers, That owe your lives, your faith, and services, 3 take heed how you impawn our person,] The whole drift of the king is to impress upon the archbishop a due sense of the caution with which he is to speak. He tells him that the crime of unjust war, if the war be unjust, shall rest upon him: Therefore take heed how you impawn your person. So, I think, it should be read, Take heed how you pledge yourself, your honour, your happiness, in support of bad advice. Dr. Warburton explains impawn by engage, and so escapes the difficulty. Johnson. The allusion here is to the game of chess, and the disposition of the pawns with respect to the King, at the commencement of this mimetick contest. Henley. To engage and to pawn were, in our author's time, synonymous. See Minshieu's Dictionary, in v. engage. But the word pawn had not, I believe, at that time, its present signification. To impawn seems here to have the same meaning as the French phrase Malone. se commettre. 4 brief mortality.] "Nulla brevem dominum sequetur." Horace. Steevens. 5 - There is no bar &c.] This whole speech is copied (in a manner verbatim) from Hall's Chronicle, Henry V, year the second, folio iv, xx, xxx, xl, &c. In the first edition it is very imperfect, and the whole history and names of the princes are confounded; but this was afterwards set right, and corrected from the original, Hall's Chronicle. Pope. This speech (together with the Latin passage in it) may as well be said to be taken from Holinshed as from Hall. Steevens. See a subsequent note, in which it is proved that Holinshed, and not Hall, was our author's historian. The same facts, in To make against your highness' claim to France, No woman shall succeed in Salique land: Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze," Where Charles the great, having subdued the Saxons, Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala, Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say, Of Blithild, which was daughter to king Clothair, deed, are told in both, Holinshed being a servile copyist of Hall; but Holinshed's book was that which Shakspeare read; and therefore I always quote it in preference to the elder chronicle, contrary to the rule that ought in general to be observed. Malone. -gloze,] Expound, explain, and sometimes comment up; So, in Troilus and Cressida: on. 6 66 you have said well; "And on the cause and question now in hand, |