This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this,

Desires you, let the dukedoms, that you claim,
Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.
K. Hen. What treasure, uncle?

Exe.

Tennis-balls, my liege.1

K. Hen. We are glad, the Dauphin is so pleasant with

us;2

His present, and your pains, we thank you for:
When we have match'd our rackets to these balls,
We will, in France, by God's grace, play a set,
Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard:
Tell him, he hath made a match with such a wrangler,
That all the courts of France will be disturb'd
With chaces.3 And we understand him well,
How he comes o'er us with our wilder days,
Not measuring what use we made of them.
We never valu'd this poor seat of England;4

1 Tennis-balls, my liege.] In the old play of King Henry V, already mentioned, this present consists of a gilded tun of tennisballs and a carpet. Steevens.

2 We are glad, the Dauphin is so pleasant with us;] Thus stands the answer of King Henry in the same old play :

My lord, prince Dolphin is very pleasant with me. "But tell him, that instead of balls of leather, "We will toss him balls of brass and of iron: "Yea, such balls as never were toss'd in France. "The proudest tennis-court in France shall rue it." The same circumstance also is thus expressed in Michael Drayton's Battle of Agincourt:

3

"I'll send him balls and rackets if I live;

"That they such racket shall in Paris see,

"When over line with bandies I shall drive;

"As that, before the set be fully done,

"France may perhaps into the hazard run." Steevens.

chaces.] Chace is a term at tennis. Johnson.

So, in Sidney's Arcadia, Book III: "Then Fortune (as if she had made chases enow on the one side of that bloody Tenis-court) – went on the other side of the line" &c.

The hazard is a place in the tennis-court into which the ball is sometimes struck.

Steevens.

4 this poor seat of England;] By the seat of England the King, I believe, means the throne. So, Othello boasts that he is descended "from men of royal siege." Henry afterwards says, he will rouse him in his throne of France. The words below, "I will keep my state," likewise confirm this interpretation. See

And therefore, living hence,5t did give ourself

Vol. VIII, p. 241, n. 1; and Vol. VII, p. 144, n. 9. So, in King Richard II:

"Yea, distaff-women manage rusty bills

Against thy seat." Malone.

5 And therefore, living hence,] This expression has strength and energy: he never valued England, and therefore lived hence, i. e. as if absent from it. But the Oxford editor alters hence to here. Warburton. Living hence means, I believe, withdrawing from the court, the place in which he is now speaking.

Perhaps Prospero, in The Tempest, has more clearly expressed the same idea, when he says:

"The government I cast upon my brother,

"And to my state grew stranger." Steevens.

In King Richard II, Act V, sc. ii, King Henry IV, complains that he had not seen his son for three months, and desires that he may be enquired for among the taverns, where he daily frequents,

"With unrestrain'd and loose companions."

See also King Henry IV, Part II, Act III, sc. ii:

Thy place in council thou hast rudely lost, "Which by thy younger brother is supplied; "And art almost an alien to the hearts

"Of all the court and princes of my blood."

There can therefore be no doubt that Mr. Steevens's explanation is just. Hence refers to the seat or throne of England, mentioned in the preceding line, on which Henry is now sitting. An anonymous Remarker says, "It is evident that the word hence implies here." If hence means here, any one word, as Dr. Johnson has somewhere observed, may stand for another. It undoubtedly does not signify here in the present passage; and if it did, would render what follows nonsense. Malone.

The more I consider this passage, and the remarks of its various commentators, the more convinced I am that the present reading cannot be reconciled to sense. M. Mason.

A little attention will clear this passage from the mist of comment with which it is obscured. King Henry, in this speech, discovers to the ambassadors his views on France; and while, with seeming humbleness, he touches on his youthful follies, he hints that they have been the cause why he has been so long negligent of his right: He boldly avows his intentions, calls France his home, and declares what he will do in his throne of France: He says "We never valued this poor seat of England." This expression he evidently uses in contradistinction to his seat of France, which he insinuates is his true and most valuable inheritance, and his home; "And therefore, living hence," from that part of his dominions which he considers his home, and which he intends to make the rich seat of his greatness, "did give ourself to barbarous license; as 'tis ever common that men are merriest when

To barbarous license; As 'tis ever common,
That men are merriest when they are from home.
But tell the Dauphin,-I will keep my state;
Be like a king, and show my sail of greatness,
When I do rouse me in my throne of France:
For that I have laid by my majesty,

6

And plodded like a man for working-days;
But I will rise there with so full a glory,
That I will dazzle all the eyes of France,
Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us.
And tell the pleasant prince,-this mock of his
Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones; and his soul
Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance
That shall fly with them: for many a thousand widows
Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands;
Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down;
And some are yet ungotten, and unborn,

That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's scorn.
But this lies all within the will of God,

To whom I do appeal; And in whose name,

Tell you the Dauphin, I am coming on,

To venge me as I may, and to put forth

My rightful hand in a well-hallow'd cause.

they are from home." This opinion is supported by the sentence which follows:

"But tell the Dauphin,-I will keep my state;

"Be like a king, and show my sail of greatness,

"When I do rouse me in my throne of France:" Am. Ed. 6 For that I have laid by-] To qualify myself for this undertaking, I have descended from my station, and studied the arts of life in a lower character. Johnson.

The quartos, 1600 and 1608, read-for this. Steevens.

7

his balls to gun-stones;] When ordnance was first used, they discharged balls, not of iron, but of stone. Johnson. So, Holinshed, p. 947: "About seaven of the clocke marched forward the light pieces of ordinance, with stone and powder."

In the BRUT of ENGLAND it is said, that when Henry the Fifth before Hare-flete received a taunting message from the Dauphine of France, and a ton of tennis-balls by way of contempt, "he anone lette make tenes-balles for the Dolfin (Henry's ship) in all the haste that they myght, and they were great gonnestones for the Dolfin to playe with alle. But this game at tennis was too rough for the besieged, when Henry playede at the tenes with his hard gonnestones," &c. Steevens.

So, get you hence in peace; and tell the Dauphin,
His jest will savour but of shallow wit,

When thousands weep, more than did laugh at it.-
Convey them with safe conduct.-Fare you well.

[Exeunt Ambassadors.

Exe. This was a merry message.

K. Hen. We hope to make the sender blush at it. [Descends from his Throne. Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour, That may give furtherance to our expedition: For we have now no thought in us, but France; Save those to God, that run before our business. Therefore, let our proportions for these wars Be soon collected; and all things thought upon, That may, with reasonable swiftness, add More feathers to our wings; for, God before, We'll chide this Dauphin at his father's door. Therefore, let every man now task his thought, That this fair action may on foot be brought. [Exeunt.

ACT II.

Enter CHORus.

Chor. Now all the youth of England1 are on fire,
And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies;

Now thrive the armourers, and honour's thought
Reigns solely in the breast of every man:

8 ·with reasonable swiftness, add

9

More feathers to our wings;] So, in Troilus and Cressida:

"The very wings of reason to his heels." Steevens.

-task his thought,] The same phrase has already occurred at the beginning of the present scene:

"That task our thoughts, concerning us and France."

See p. 209, n. 8. Steevens.

1 Now all the youth of England-]. I think Mr. Pope mistaken in transposing this Chorus, [to the end of the first scene of the second Act] and Mr. Theobald in concluding the [first] Act with it. The Chorus evidently introduces that which follows, not comments on that which precedes, and therefore rather be. gins than ends the Act; and so I have printed it. Johnson.

They sell the pasture now, to buy the horse;
Following the mirror of all Christian kings,
With winged heels, as English Mercuries.
For now sits Expectation in the air;
And hides a sword, from hilts unto the point,
With crowns imperial, crowns, and coronets,
Promis'd to Harry, and his followers.
The French, advis'd by good intelligence
Of this most dreadful preparation,
Shake in their fear; and with pale policy
Seek to divert the English purposes.

O England!-model to thy inward greatness,
Like little body with a mighty heart,-

2

What might'st thou do, that honour would thee do,
Were all thy children kind and natural!

But see thy fault! France hath in thee found out
A nest of hollow bosoms, which he fills3

With treacherous crowns: and three corrupted men,

2 For now sits Expectation in the air;

And hides a sword, from hilts unto the point,

With crowns imperial, &c.] The imagery is wonderfully fine, and the thought exquisite. Expectation sitting in the air designs the height of their ambition; and the sword hid from the hilt to the point with crowns and coronets, that all sentiments of danger were lost in the thoughts of glory. Warburton.

The idea is taken from the ancient representation of trophies in tapestry or painting. Among these it is very common to see swords encircled with naval or mural crowns. Expectation is likewise personified by Milton, Paradise Lost, Book VI:

while Expectation stood
Steevens.

"In horror

In the Horse Armoury in the Tower of London, Edward III is represented with two crowns on his sword, alluding to the two kingdoms, France and England, of both of which he was crowned heir. Perhaps the poet took the thought from a similar representation. Tollet.

This image, it has been observed by Mr. Henley, is borrowed from a wooden cut in the first edition of Holinshed's Chronicle. Malone.

3

66

which he i.e. the king of France. So, in King John :
England, impatient of your just demands,
"Hath put himself in arms.'

Hanmer and some other editors unnecessarily read-she.
Again, in a subsequent scene of the play before us:

"Though France himself, and such another neighbour,
"Stood in our way." Malone.