To fine1 his title with some show of truth, (Though, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught,) Conveyed himself as heir to the lady Lingare, 2 Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son 3 Of Charles the Great. Also king Lewis the Tenth,3 Was lineal of the lady Ermengare, Daughter to Charles the foresaid duke of Lorain : So that, as clear as is the summer's sun, 4 Than amply to imbare their crooked titles K. Hen. May I, with right and conscience, make this claim? Cant. The sin upon my head, dread sovereign! For in the book of Numbers is it writ, When the son dies, let the inheritance Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord, Go, my dread lord, to your great grandsire's tomb, 1 To fine is to embellish, to trim, to make showy or specious: Limare. The folio reads find. 2 Shakspeare found this expression in Holinshed; and, though it sounds odd to modern ears, it is classical. 3 This should be Lewis the Ninth, as it stands in Hall's Chronicle. Shakspeare has been led into the error by Holinshed, whose Chronicle he followed. 4 The folio reads imbarre; the quarto imbace. From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit, Ely. Awake remembrance of these valiant dead, Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises. Exe. Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth Do all expect that you should rouse yourself, As did the former lions of your blood. West. They know your grace hath cause, and means, and might; 2 So hath your highness; never king of England Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England, Cant. O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege, With blood, and sword, and fire, to win your right. In aid whereof, we of the spirituality Will raise your highness such a mighty sum, As never did the clergy at one time Bring in to any of your ancestors. K. Hen. We must not only arm to invade the French, But lay down our proportions to defend 1 This alludes to the battle of Cressy, as described by Holinshed, vol. ii. p. 372. 2 i. e. your highness hath indeed what they think and know you have. Against the Scot, who will make road upon us Cant. They of those marches,1 gracious sovereign, Shall be a wall sufficient to defend Our inland from the pilfering borderers. K. Hen. We do not mean the coursing snatchers only, But fear the main intendment 2 of the Scot, Hath shook and trembled at the ill neighborhood.3 Cant. She hath been then more feared than harmed, my liege. For hear her but exampled by herself,- The king of Scots; whom she did send to France, As is the ooze and bottom of the sea With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries. being in prey, For once the eagle England being in 1 The marches are the borders. 2 The main intendment is the principal purpose, that he will bend his whole force against us; the Bellum in aliquem intendere of Livy. 3 The quarto reads, "at the bruit thereof." Comes sneaking, and so sucks her princely eggs; Exe. It follows, then, the cat must stay at home. Yet that is but a crushed necessity; 1 Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries, Cant. 2 True; therefore doth Heaven divide 3 They have a king, and officers of sorts; 4 Where some, like magistrates, correct at home; Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad: ; Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings, Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds; Who, busied in his majesty, surveys The singing masons building roofs of gold; 1 "Yet that is but a crushed necessity." This is the reading of the folio. The editors of late editions have adopted the reading of the quarto "cursed necessity.' copy, 2 Concent is connected harmony in general, and not confined to any specific consonance. Concentio and concentus are both used by Cicero for the union of voices or instruments, in what we should now call a chorus or concert. 3 "The act of order" is the statute or law of order; as appears from the reading of the quarto. "Creatures that by awe ordain an act of order to a peopled kingdom." 4 i. e. of different degrees: if it be not an error of the press for sort, i. e. rank. 5 The civil citizens kneading up the honey." Civil is grave. See The poor mechanic porters crowding in 2 As many several ways meet in one town ; K. Hen. Call in the messengers sent from the dauphin. [Exit an Attendant. The King ascends Now are we well resolved; and by God's help, O'er France, and all her almost kingly dukedoms ; Twelfth Night, Act iii. Sc. 4. Johnson observes, to knead the honey is not physically true. The bees do, in fact, knead the wax more than the honey. 1 "Executors," for executioners. Thus also Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 38, ed. 1632: "Tremble at an executor, and yet not feare hell-fire." 2 "Without defeat." The quartos read, "Without defect." 3 "Empery." This word, which signifies dominion, is now obsolete. |