That shall first spring, and be most delicate.
Dau. Well, 'tis not so, my lord high constable,
But though we think it so, it is no matter:
In cases of defence, 'tis best to weigh
The enemy more mighty than he seems,
So the proportions of defence are fill'd;
Which, of a weak and niggardly projection,"
Doth, like a miser, spoil his coat, with scanting
A little cloth.

Fr. King.

Think we king Harry strong;

And, princes, look, you strongly arm to meet him:
The kindred of him hath been flesh'd upon us;
And he is bred out of that bloody strain,"
That haunted us in our familiar paths:
Witness our too much memorable shame,
When Cressy battle fatally was struck,

8

5 Which, of a weak and niggardly projection,] This passage, as it stands, is so perplexed, that I formerly suspected it to be corrupt. If which be referred to proportions of defence, (and I do not see to what else it can be referred) the construction will be"which proportions of defence, of a weak and niggardly projection, spoils his coat, like a miser," &c.

If our author had written

While oft a weak and niggardly projection
Doth, &c.

the reasoning would then be clear.-In cases of defence, it is best to imagine the enemy more powerful than he seems to be; by this means, we make more full and ample preparations to defend ourselves: whereas, on the contrary, a poor and mean idea of the enemy's strength induces us to make but a scanty provision of forces against him; wherein we act as a miser does, who spoils his coat by scanting of cloth.

Projection, I believe, is here used for fore-cast or preconception. It may, however, mean preparation.

Perhaps, in Shakspeare's licentious diction, the meaning may be" Which proportions of defence, when weakly and niggardly projected, resemble a miser who spoils his coat," &c. The false concord is no objection to such a construction; for the same inaccuracy is found in almost every page of the old copy. Malone. 6 strain,] lineage. Reed.

7 That haunted us -] To haunt is a word of the utmost horror, which shows that they dreaded the English as goblins and spirits. Johnson.

8 When Cressy battle fatally was struck,] So, in Robert of Glou

cester:

66

and that fole of Somersete

"His come, and smyte a batayle." Steevens.

And all our princes captiv'd, by the hand

Of that black name, Edward black prince of Wales; Whiles that his mountain sire,-on mountain standing, '† Up in the air, crown'd with the golden sun, 1.

9 Whiles that his mountain sire,-on mountain standing,] Mr. Theobald would read-mounting; i. e. high-minded, aspiring. Thus, in Love's Labour's Lost, Act IV:

"Whoe'er he was, he show'd a mounting mind."

The emendation may be right, and yet I believe the poet meant to give an idea of more than human proportion in the figure of the king:

Quantus Athos, aut quantus Eryx, &c. Virg.

"Like Teneriffe or Atlas unremov'd." Milton.

Drayton, in the 18th Song of his Polyolbion, has a similar thought: "Then he above them all, himself that sought to raise, "Upon some mountain top, like a pyramides."

Again, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. I, c. xi:

"Where stretch'd he lay, upon the sunny side
“Of a great hill, himself like a great hill.”

Steevens.

agmen agens, magnique ipse agminis instar. If the text is not corrupt, Mr. Steevens's explication is the true one. See the extract from Holinshed, p. 215, n. 4. The repetition of the word mountain is much in our author's manner, and therefore I believe the old copy is right. Malone.

† Mountain sire, may have been used as a term of reproach, derived from the epithet mountaineer, i. e. savage, barbarian, freebooter. We may either suppose it pointed at the descent of Edward III, whose father, the weak and unfortunate Edward II, was born in Wales, from which he was surnamed Edward of Cærnarvon, or to the prevalent idea entertained in the French court, as supported in the dialogue at the opening of Act III, sc. v; where, in the presence of the king, the English are stigmatized as a "barbarous people,"-" wild and savage;" and the courage which even envy is compelled to acknowledge, hatred endeavours to debase, by pronouncing it the ferocity of robbers. It may not be irrelevant to remark that the opinion of the king is the opinion of the court, and that if the court speaks contemptuously of the English people-denouncing them as savage, wild, &c. it is derived immediately from the monarch, and in all probability from the very expression here used of mountain sire: The hint was sufficient to call forth the intemperate language of the court, which, in the scene alluded to is cordially countenanced by him, though he never degrades his dignity by descending to abuse, unless it may be conceived he has done so in this instance.

Am. Ed.

1 Up in the air, crown'd with the golden sun. n.] Dr. Warburton calls this "the nonsensical line of some player." The idea, however, might have been taken from Chaucer's Legende of good Women:

"Her gilt beere was ycrownid with a son." *

Saw his heroical seed, and smil'd to see him
Mangle the work of nature, and deface

The patterns that by God and by French fathers
Had twenty years been made. This is a stem
Of that victorious stock; and let us fear
The native mightiness and fate of him."
Enter a Messenger.

Mess. Ambassadors from Henry King of England Do crave admittance to your majesty,

Fr. King. We'll give them present audience. Go, and bring them.

[Exeunt Mess. and certain Lords.

You see, this chase is hotly follow'd, friends.

Dau. Turn head, and stop pursuit: for coward dogs Most spend their mouths, 3 when what they seem to threaten,

Runs far before them. Good my sovereign,

Take up the English short; and let them know

Of what a monarchy you are the head:

Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin,

As self-neglecting.

Re-enter Lords, with EXETER and Train.

Fr. King.

From our brother England?

Exe. From him; and thus he greets your majesty, He wills you, in the name of God Almighty, That you divest yourself, and lay apart The borrow'd glories, that, by gift of heaven, By law of nature, and of nations, 'long To him and to his heirs; namely, the crown, And all wide-stretched honours that pertain, By custom and the ordinance of times, Unto the crown of France.

That you may know,

'Tis no sinister, nor no awkward claim,

Pick'd from the worm-holes of long-vanish'd days,
Nor from the dust of old oblivion rak❜d,

Shakspeare's meaning, (divested of its poetical finery) I sup pose, is, that the king stood upon an eminence, with the sun shining over his head. Steevens.

2 fate of him.] His fate is what is allotted him by destiny, or what he is fated to perform. Johnson.

3

·spend their mouths,] That is, bark; the sportsman's term.

Johnson.

He sends

you this most memorable line,4 [Gives a paper:

In every branch truly demonstrative;
Willing you, overlook this pedigree:
And, when you find him evenly deriv'd
From his most fam'd of famous ancestors,
Edward the third, he bids you then resign
Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held
From him the native and true challenger.
Fr. King. Or else what follows?

Exe. Bloody constraint; for if you hide the crown
Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it:
And therefore in fierce tempest is he coming,
In thunder, and in earthquake, like a Jove;
(That, if requiring fail, he will compel;)
And bids you, in the bowels of the Lord,
Deliver up the crown; and to take mercy
On the poor souls, for whom this hungry war
Opens his vasty jaws: and on your head
Turns he the widows' tears, the orphans' cries,
The dead men's blood," the pining maidens' groans,
For husbands, fathers, and betrothed lovers,

4 memorable line,] This genealogy; this deduction of his lineage. Johnson.

5 And therefore &c.] The word-And is wanting in the old copies. It was supplied by Mr. Rowe, for the sake of measure.

Steevens.

6 Turns he-] Thus the quarto, 1600. The folio reads—turning the widows' tears. Malone.

7 The dead men's blood,] The disposition of the images were more regular, if we were to read thus:

upon your head

Turning the dead men's blood, the widows' tears,

The orphans' cries, the pining maidens' groans. Johnson: The quartos, 1600 and 1608, exhibit the passage thus:

And on your heads turns he the widows' tears,

The orphans' cries, the dead men's bones,

The pining maidens' groans,

For husbands, fathers, and distressed lovers,

Which &c.

These quartos agree in all but the merest trifles; and therefore, for the future, I shall content myself in general to quote the former of them, which is the most correct of the two. Steevens.

Pining is the reading of the quarto, 1600. The folio hasprivy. Blood is the reading of the folio. The quarto, instead of it, has-bones. Malone.

That shall be swallow'd in this controversy.
This is his claim, his threat'ning, and my message;
Unless the Dauphin be in presence here,

To whom expressly I bring greeting too.

Fr. King. For us, we will consider of this further: To-morrow shall you bear our full intent

Back to our brother of England.

Dau.
For the Dauphin,
I stand here for him; What to him from England?
Exe. Scorn, and defiance; slight regard, contempt,
And any thing that may not misbecome

The mighty sender, doth he prize you at.
Thus says my king: and, if your father's highness
Do not, in grant of all demands at large,
Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his majesty,
He'll call you to so hot an answer for it,
That caves and womby vaultages of France
Shall chide your trespass, and return your mock
In second accent of his ordnance."

'8

Dau. Say, if my father render fair reply,
It is against my will: for I desire

Nothing but oddst with England; to that end,
As matching to his youth and vanity,

I did present him with those Paris balls.

Exe. He'll make your Paris Louvre shake for it, Were it the mistress court of mighty Europe:

And, be assur'd, you 'll find a difference,

8 Shall chide your trespass,] To chide is to resound, to echo. So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream:

66 - never did I hear

"Such gallant chiding."

Again, in King Henry VIII:

"As doth a rock against the chiding flood." Steevens. This interpretation is confirmed by a passage in The Tempests the thunder,

9

66

"That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounc'd

"The name of Prosper; it did bass my trespass." Malone.

of his ordnance.] Ordnance is here used as a trisyllable; being, in our author's time, improperly written ordinance. Malone. Nothing but odds with England Nothing but contention, hostility, strife. It is used in this sense by our author in King Lear:

"He flashes into one gross crime or other,
"That sets us all at odds." Am. Ed.