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WILLIAMS AND NORGATE'S SCHOOL BOOKS.

With the new regulations duly embodied. Eugène's Student's Comparative Grammar of the French Language, with an Historical Sketch of the Formation of French. For the Use of Public Schools. With Exercises. By G. EUGÈNE FASNACHT, late French Master in Westminster School. Twenty-first Edition, thoroughly Revised. Square crown 8vo, cloth, 5s. Or separately, Grammar, 3s.; Exercises, 2s. 6d. "In itself this is in many ways the most satisfactory grammar for beginners that we have as yet seen. The book is likely to be useful to all who wish either to learn or to teach the French Language.”— Athenæum. "The appearance of a grammar like this is in itself a sign that great advance is being made in the teaching of modern languages. The rules and observations are all scientifically classified and explained.. It is one that we can strongly recommend for use in the higher forms of large schools."-Educational Times.

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The Student's Graduated French Reader, for the Use of Public Schools. By LÉON DELBOS, M.A., late of King's College, London. I.-First year: Anecdotes, Tales, Historical Pieces. Edited, with Notes and a complete Vocabulary. Twelfth Edition. Crown Svo, 2s. 180 pages.

II. Second Year: Historical Pieces and Tales. Sixth Edition. Crown 8vo, 2s. "It would be no easy matter to find a French reader more completely satisfactory in every respect than that of M. Delbos. The contents, which have been selected with great care and judgment from authors of the highest standing, consist of portions of history, biography, anecdotes, and fiction, full of interest and written in the purest French. The arrangement of the materials is no less happy than their selection, the shorter extracts being often grouped under general heads, and carefully graduated in difficulty."-Athenæum.

"This is a very satisfactory collection from the best authors, selected with great care, and supplied with adequate notes. A thoroughly

good book of this kind should, in fact, be calculated to inspire a taste for literature in the student's mind. The volumes edited by M. Delbos fairly meet this requirement."-Journal of Education. Eugène's French Method.-Elementary French Lessons. Easy Rules and Exercises preparatory to the "Student's Comparative French Grammar." Sixteenth Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth, is. 6d. Anecdotes and Tales. Edited with Notes and a complete Vocabulary, by LEON DELBOS, M.A., of H.M.S. "Britannia," late of King's College. Third Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth, 1s. 6d.

Eugène's French Reader, for Beginners.

Roget (F. F.).-An Introduction to Old French. By F. F. ROGET, of Geneva University, late Tutor for comparative Philology, Edinburgh. History, Grammar, Chrestomathy, and Glossary. Third Edition, with Map of French Dialects. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s.

Roget (F. F.). First Steps in French History, Literature, and Philology. For Candidates for the Scottish Leaving Certificate Examinations, the various Universities' Local Examinations, and the Army Examinations. Third Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth, 5s.

Boïelle (James). French Composition through Lord Macaulay's English. Edited, with Notes, Hints, and Introduction, by JAMES BOIELLE, B.A. Univ. Gall., Senior French Master, Dulwich College, &c., &c. Crown 8vo, cloth.

Vol. I. Frederick the Great. 3s. | Vol. II. Warren Hastings. 3s. 6d. Vol. III. Lord Clive. 3s.

"This, we may say at once, is an exceedingly useful idea, well carried out, and one of the best things of its class that we have seen. We can pronounce the equivalence of the idioms recommended to be quite unusually just."-Saturday Review.

Foa (Madame Eugen).-Contes Historiques. (Chagrin de Louis XV.-Bertrand Duguesclin-Dupuytren Grétry-Greuze.) With Idiomatic Notes by G. A. NEVEU. Third Edition. Cloth, 28. French Classics for English Students. Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by LEON DELBOS, M.A., late of King's College, London. Crown Svo, sewed, 6d. ; cloth, 1s. each.

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By CLAUDE F CONDELL:

12. The Chanson de Roland. Historical, Critical and Grammatical Introduction. Three Passages. with Explanatory Notes and an English Translation. Stiff boards, 9d. "Compared with other books having the same aim, these books deserve very favourable mention. For the notes are well selected; they never commit the capital fault of trespassing on the province of the grammar or the dictionary, and so pandering to the pupil's laziness; and they are, moreover, generally well expressed and to the point."-Saturday Review. "The new issue is a marvel of cheapness."-Journal of Education. Victor Hugo. Les Misérables.-Les Principaux Episodes. Edited with Life and Notes, by J. BOIELLE, Officier d'Académie. Second Edition, 2 Vols. Crown 8vo, each 3s. 6d. Victor Hugo.-Notre-Dame de Paris. use of Schools and Colleges. By J. BOIELLE. each 3s.

Adapted for the

2 Vols. Crown 8vo,

Contes Militaires. A. DAUDET. 2s. 6d. "The choice is an exceptionally good one, and the notes are excellent."Guardian. "We therefore do more than recommend-we urge-all readers of French to get the stories in some form, and the present one is both good and cheap."-Schoolmaster.

Le Coup de Pistolet, &c. PROSPER MÉRIMÉE. 2s. 6d.

"A book more admirably suited to its purpose could not be desired. The editor deserves to be congratulated."-National Observer. Vaillante. JACQUES VINCENT. 2s. 6d.

"The books are well got up, and in 'Vaillante' an excellent choice has been made."-Guardian.

A Short Sketch of German Literature for Schools. Prepared for the Scottish Leaving-Certificate Examinations. By VIVIAN PHILLIPPS, B.A., Fettes College. Second Edition Revised. price 1s.

Complete Practical German Grammar.

Pott 8vo,

With Exercises,

constituting a Method and Reader. By T. HEINRICH WEISSE. Fourth Edition, almost entirely Re-written. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s. "We have no hesitation in pronouncing this the fullest and most satisfactory German Grammar yet published in England."-Journal of Education.

Weisse's Short Guide to German Idioms. Being a Collection of the Idioms most in use. With Examination Papers. Svo, cloth, 2s.

German Classics for English Students. With Notes and
Vocabulary. Crown 8vo, sewed, 9d. each.

Schiller's Lied von der Glocke (The Song of the Bell),
and other Poems and Ballads. By M. FÖRSTER.
Schiller's Maria Stuart. By MORITZ FÖRSTER.
Schiller's Minor Poems and Ballads. By ARTHUR
VERNON.

Goethe's Iphigenie auf Tauris. By H. ATTWELL.
Goethe's Hermann und Dorothea. By M. FÖRSTER.
Goethe's Egmont. By H. APEL.

Lessing's Emilia Galotti. By G. HEIN.

Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm. By J. A. F. SCHMIDT.
Chamisso's Peter Schlemihl. By M. FÖRSTER.
Grimm's Märchen. By W. J. HICKIE.

Andersen's Bilderbuch ohne Bilder. By ALPHONSE
ВЕСК.

German Examination Papers: comprising a complete set of German Papers set at the Local Examinations in the Four Universities of Scotland. By G. HEIN, Aberdeen Grammar School. Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d.

A German Reading Book. A Graduated Series of Anecdotes, Tales, Historical Pieces, and Poetry. With a complete Vocabulary. By A. MÖLLER. New Edition. Corrected to the Official German Spelling. 150 pages, crown 8vo, cloth, 28.

Auf Verlornem Posten, and Nazzarena Danti. JOHANNES V. DEWALL. 3s.

"Well printed, well bound, and annotated just sufficiently to make the reading of them sure as well as easy."-Educational Times. Erzählungen. E. HOEFER. 33.

Third Hundred Thousand.

Kiepert's Atlas Antiquus. Twelve Maps of the Ancient
World. For Schools and Colleges.
KIEPERT.
By Dr. HENRY
Twelfth Edition. Improved, Corrected, and Enlarged, with List of
Names. Folio, boards, 6s.; cloth, 7s. 6d.

WILLIAMS & NORGATE,

14, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London; 20, South Frederick Street, Edinburgh; and 7, Broad Street, Oxford.

The School World

A Monthly Magazine of Educational Work and Progress.

No. 25.

JANUARY, 1901.

SIXPENCE.

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REVIEW AND OUTLOOK.

ENTIMENTAL considerations suggest that our first number to appear in the New Century might appropriately be prefaced with a few editorial remarks, in which past performances and future prospects are surveyed -“ in contemplative fashion." But though sentiment provides a reasonable excuse for such an introduction to our third volume, the accomplishments of 1900, and the well-grounded hopes for 1901, are themselves sufficient to justify a short statement.

We are able to begin a new-year's work with the gratifying assurance of a growing appreciation on the part of teachers and other educationists, of our efforts to obtain the opinions of experienced specialists on the teaching of subjects comprised in a secondary-school curriculum; and for the opportunity THE SCHOOL WORLD provides of placing on record the results of personal experiences of educational ways and means.

A glance at our correspondence columns should act as a corrective to the pessimist who declares that teachers in secondary schools are indifferent to the necessity for improved methods in teaching, and have limited views as to scholastic responsi bility. To name only two or three examples: the animated and valuable discussion upon the heuristic method of teaching science (more especially physics and chemistry) has, we know, been followed with keen interest by some of the most distinguished men of science in the kingdom. The letters on the teaching of spelling show that even in the case of the most elementary subjects there is always something to be learnt from a frank interchange of opinion; and the correspondence on leisure hour pursuits for boys and girls demonstrates that help ful suggestions on less purely pedagogic matters can still be obtained by a friendly comparison of notes on the part of practical teachers.

The recent decision of the Council of the British Association to establish an Educational Section, to No. 25, VOL. 3.]

meet for the first time at Glasgow in September next, may be taken as an index of the modern growth of interest in methods of instruction; and it is believed this action of the Council of the British Association will have a profound and immediate effect on British education.

It is true that some of the events of the past year have been a little discouraging-leading to the conclusion as they do that the administrators of English education have still to be convinced of the value of training and experience, whether obtained at a special college or by actual work in the class room. Yet, on the other hand, teachers themselves recognise more fully than ever before that there is a science as well as an art of education. And now that the Consultative Committee have really begun to discuss the terms of admission to the Register of Teachers to be prepared immediately, our School Governors may become impressed by an official recognition of the value to be attached to a practical acquaintance with the principles of educational science and the canons of educational art.

During 1901 several series of articles on subjects not hitherto dealt with will be contributed by experienced writers new to our columns and familiar with the needs of the school. For instance, in the early months of the year papers will be published (1) on Recent Researches in Classical Archæology so far as they affect the school teaching of Scripture History, Latin, and Greek; (2) on the Prevention of Infectious Diseases in Schools; (3) on the set books in English Literature in many of the public examinations of the year. The reasonable study of English Literature will be especially encouraged, not only by the publication of original articles, but also by the criticism of examination questions, by essay competitions, and in other ways. We intend, in fact, to spare no trouble to make THE SCHOOL WORLD indispensable to teachers in secondary schools, and we confidently appeal to our readers to assist us by making the magazine known to those of their scholastic friends who are not yet familiar with it.

B

E

COMMON EXAMINATION ERRORS.

II. ENGLISH HISTORY.

By A. J. EVANS, M.A.

XAMINERS find that, to a large extent, boys and girls pass or fail in English history by classes rather than by individuals. The obvious conclusion is that results depend not so much on the industry or native powers of the pupils as on the methods adopted by the teachers. Again, it is found that, from the schools which are successful in obtaining passes, comparatively few attain to any high degree of success in this subject. The large majority of pupils manage only to escape failure. Often there does not seem to be even an endeavour to do more. An attempt will be made in this article to suggest some of the probable causes of this failure.

So low is the standard for a bare pass in most of our public examinations that a general failure of a class must be due to such neglect of the subject as is due to utter indifference. For such the only remedy is a change of intention-a change which nothing that we can say here will effect, and which can be wrought only by a desire for success new-born out of whatever motives can be

brought to bear. We do not suppose we count many such teachers, if any, among our readers. But for those who are desirous of raising their standard of success we make the following suggestion.

Failure to pass or to get honours in history examinations may be attributed, speaking generally, to causes falling under three heads :

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(1) The Text-book.-Questions are set by examiners or committees of examiners who survey the period as a whole and prefer to seek for the knowledge which the examinees have gained and assimilated of history as such rather than for their reception of the language of any one book. The consequence is that no one textbook, however good in quantity or quality, will be sufficient. For purposes of economy, both of money and of time, the pupils can probably have no more than one book. But the teacher should not be thus satisfied. Having chosen the best manual to put into the hands of his scholars, he should set no limits to his own reading and note-taking. Before the term's work commences he should have a good working knowledge of the period to be studied, acquired from the widest possible reading, and extending to acquaintance with at least two or three of the best text-books and some of the more important illustrative literature. Otherwise he will find in the paper which his pupils will bring him hereafter questions which required knowledge of matters, often the most elementary, that have never entered into his curriculum. It is true that the subject is wide, and it may often reasonably be argued that it is impossible, in the greatest amount of time allotted, to cover the ground implied by the examination paper. But a nearer approximation between

the ideals of examiners and of teachers may be reached if the latter will study the best of recent text-books.

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(2) Methods of Teaching.-It will not do to begin the course with "setting" the first chapter or first reign" to be learnt, then the second, and so on till the last, and then begin again. This is to lose the wood in the trees. The first lessons should be devoted to making sure that the pupils have a thorough grip of some of the most important events in the period. Specially should they be made to know the names of the kings and the dates of their reigns. Then to this may constantly be added new facts, grouped and re-grouped till ridiculous mistakes in chronology are morally impossible. Examiners generally are not pedantically desirous of absolute accuracy in dates, where it does not seriously matter. But surely it does matter whether, e,g., "Lambert Simnel

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comes before or after 1485, or whether the "Long Parliament met at the beginning or end of 1640. Dates are useful to fix the order of events in minds that are too youthful to learn that order as one of constant cause and effect. Sometimes examiners find them centuries wrong.

Much should be made of biographies. But here caution is necessary. Who does not know of the answer to "Thomas Becket" questions that tells the famous romance and ends with the words, "they married and Thomas was their son"? See that the information given in answer to "Give the life of" is true, inclusive and relevant.

(3) Use of Periodical Test-papers. In the early stages the questions set should not be those expected in the public examination. They should include mere memory questions, such as, "Give a list of: (say) kings, their wives and children, battles with dates, men famous in this reign or period." Specially important at this stage are clear definitions. "What is or was-?" should be a frequent formula. Assize, Salic law, code, Act of Parliament, &c., &c., are words to which many an examinee has attached no definite meaning. They can talk about the thing, very much about it, but what it is they often do not know. When this preliminary work has been completed sets of questions should be made for the class with a view to testing their powers of grouping events topically rather than chronologically. Suppose, for example, that the period under study is that of the first three Edwards. Such questions should be asked as, "What were the relations between England and Scotland during this period?" thus requiring the pupil to remember "Wallace," "Bannockburn" and "Nevil's Cross" in one connection.

Great regard should be paid to order and composition. Pupils should be taught to write good English, to minimise their words while multiplying the information they give, so long as such information is relevant. All such test papers should be strictly time-papers. Pupils cannot too early be taught that they must economise their time, and that if they find they have not finished their papers when the time is up, they have certainly been too prolix over some question or other. Such

prolixity defeats the candidates' aim in two ways. A busy examiner will often not wade through three sheets when he expected only six lines, and marks will thus be lost for information embedded in "talk," and answers are crowded out which the pupil may have been able to give well. All such papers should be returned to the pupil with their errors of all kinds marked. Some suffer from "trivial" blunders, such as dating events consistently just a century wrong. How is an examiner to know if this is mere slip or want of knowledge? He is bound in fairness to careful candidates to mark the careless lower. Others misspell words even when they are given in the questions. Some give too little, others too much. Each must be treated individually and warned against his peculiar failings.

Public attention has been drawn to a too frequent use of colloquialisms. This often arises from the reproduction of familiar explanation or illustration used by the teacher. Many governmental institutions are difficult of comprehension by the child, and the use of such explanation is not to be deprecated. But when the pupil has thus been led to understand, he should be taught to substitute for the easy, familiar words the correct technical phrase. In this connection a word may be useful as to the use of proper verbs. Treaties are not "passed," but "made." Parliamentary Bills are passed and then become Acts or statutes. Taxes are granted. Hampden was not found guilty, but non-suited. The intelligent teacher will supply for himself other examples.

The elder candidates, at least, and so far as possible even the younger ones, should be taught not to be bullied by the form of the question. Many an answer is spoiled by rushing the words of the question into the first sentence of an answer. E.g., "What were the causes of the Civil War ?" Answer : "The causes of the Civil War were-" This can, to a large extent, be avoided by training the pupils to pause a little before writing their answers. Tell them they need be in no hurry to answer lest the teacher point to the "next boy." There should be a great difference between answers to questions "round the class" and in a written examination. To sum up: the parting words of a teacher before sending pupils into a history examination should be: "Understand clearly what the examiner expects you to give as an answer to each question, specially if it is a double one. Be relevant, be concise, but not too concise. Minimise mere words, but give as many thoughts as belong to the subject. Spell carefully. When wanting a date don't try to recall figures, but order of events. Think a sentence out before you write it down. In a long answer make paragraphs."

THE student who is to enter the higher region of thought which the philosophy of history occupies must first have obtained a substratum of dates and facts; must have had presented to him a carte du pays, by means of which he may assign its right place to any new information he may be able to obtain.-Sir Joshua Fitch.

SHAKESPEARE'S "HENRY V."

By J. A. NICKLIN, B.A.

Late Scholar of St. John's College, Cambridge.

ENRY V." has to be considered by the

"H literary student (1) as an apotheosis of

the fortune and the spirit of England; (2) as a continuation of "Henry IV." I put the patriotic theme first, because it is by its representation of a united England, gathering itself up after the exhaustion of furious intestine strife to a triumphant display of force in the eyes of the world, that the later play resumes and completes the earlier plays. The serious, historical matter of the two parts of "Henry IV." finds its complement and explanation in "Henry V." There is no need to dwell long on the relations of the play to Shakespeare's own time and political beliefs. It is probable that in the later scenes the poet uttered the warm pleas for a close union between England and France under the influence of sympathy with Essex's Spanish policy-a policy of spirited aggression which would necessarily depend for its success on the friendship of France. His predilection for Essex is hinted at in the prologue to Act V., where he prophesies the earl's triumphant return from Ireland, "bringing rebellion broached on his sword." Undoubtedly the strong national feeling of the previous acts was an expression, under dramatic limitations, of English feelings towards Spain, and the exultation over the miraculous and unforeseen victory of Agincourt was a reflex of the exultation of all Englishmen at the miraculous overthrow of the Armada. And probably King Henry's vision of a boy, half French, half English, who will go to Constantinople and take the Turk by the beard, is a prophetic anticipation of English triumphs and English expansion. May it not be that Shakespeare's thought was glancing off to a king, part Scotch, part English, who at this period might not unreasonably be expected to inherit and fulfil Elizabeth's ambitions? Without wishing to insist on a very dubious point, I may notice that Shakespeare has introduced a Scots captain into the international confederacy of English, Welsh and Irish before the walls of Harfleur.

The play, as I have said, is an apotheosis of the English fortune and the English spirit. It is a companion piece to the "Persae" of Aeschylus,

and

as that represents directly the Athenian triumph over the Persians at Salamis, so this represents, though by mere suggestion and unexpressed parallel, the English triumph over the Armada. The essence of drama is missing; the gradual development of character or its transformation under unusual circumstances. It is mainly concerned with simple action, and the drama being unsuitable for the display of mere action, the somewhat inartistic device of descriptive prologues before the acts has been hit upon. It should be noticed that some of the finest passages occur in these prologues-Henry's voyage to France, the

English camp on the night before the battle, Henry's triumphant return,-and that Henry's great speech to his army might have had place in an epic as naturally as in a play.

Still, there is a display of character, though not of development of character: the British simplicity and force which obtained their apotheosis at Agincourt. Shakespeare's characterisation in this play is wholly concerned with explaining the qualities which made the English army victorious in the face of every obstacle, and the French army experience the very dregs of humiliation in spite of every advantage. The king, the incarnation of manly simplicity and steadfast energy, nobles like York, Exeter and Westmoreland forgetting their self-assertion and all the unhappy feuds of old time in the patriotic fervour which Henry knew so well how to inspire, the honest purpose and professional enthusiasm of Fluellen, the shrewd, prosaic valour of Williams and Bates, are set into the sharpest relief by the fantastic, impracticable extravagances of the French chivalry. There are no Frenchmen of the lower orders in the play, because Shakespeare understood that the French feudal system allowed no room for such a yeomanry as had decided the fate of Crecy and Poitiers. The scene of hot-headed insouciance in the French camp is a fine piece of historic insight. It not only explains the failure of the French army at Creçy, Poitiers and Agincourt, but it gives a prophetic representation of the spirit which delivered the cavaliers as a prey to the New Model of Cromwell. It should be remarked that Shakespeare has given the last touch to his picture of the disorganisation of the French and the contagious spirit of victory among the English by making a French gentleman of undoubted courage, Monsieur le Fer, surrender to the cowardly and low-born Pistol.

The character of the King can only be fully apprehended when we regard it as the close and completion of the career of Prince Hal. As Professor Moore-Smith has pointed out, "So long as Henry had been merely Prince of Wales, he had had none of the responsibility of government. Born with a healthy, genial nature and an honest love of truth and reality, he could "not be content to pass the May morn of his youth in the close atmosphere of statecraft and dissimulation; he must go out from his father's court, mix with all conditions of men, see things from all sides, and while seeming only to laugh, feel within himself that he was learning to understand (among other things learning to understand the worthlessness of his associates)." Through all the riot of the comic. scenes of Henry IV., Prince Hal had kept before himself a certain ideal, a certain standard. It might not be a high standard--it was the standard of irreflective honour of a man of action,-but at least he was always faithful to it. He was willing to be misconceived by others, but he would not for anything deviate from his own conception of his part. "Who! I rob? I a thief? Not I, by my faith!" he exclaims; and when he has consented to take part in a wild escapade, he explains, in a soliloquy, his own interior assurance

I'll so offend to make offence a skill,
Redeeming time when men least think I will.

His companions were cruelly mistaken in thinking that they possessed any influence over him. He understood them no more than they understood him. He scarcely appreciated Falstaff's inexhaustible wit; it was the freedom, unconventionality and carelessness of appearance that attracted him; when the call came to responsibility and authority, he could brush aside his old associations without a regret. In his selfexamination, as he prepares to leave the decision of his cause to the God of Battles, he remembers his father's sin of usurpation, but he feels no remorse for his own past; it had the approval of his own conscience. In the scene in the Presence Chamber, where the question of his succession to the French Crown is debated, Henry shows himself scrupulous in examination of his legal right, but ready to act on the mere proof of legality. It never occurs to him, as it would to a deeper thinker, that those miseries of war, which he himself so faithfully paints, need a much more cogent justification than mere legality of claim. Nor does it ever enter his mind to enquire whether he can lawfully sit upon the throne which his father gained by unlawful insurrection. The same calm assurance in external objective right shows itself in his threat to Harfleur, disclaiming all responsibility for the outrages which would ensue on its being taken by storm, and in his rejoinder to the soldiers' plea that the King must answer for all the souls of the English who fell at Agincourt. This absence of self-questioning, and firm conviction in the righteousness of any position that he has deliberately taken up, renders him confident in the greatest dangers, prudent and foreseeing in his measures, as in his insistence on provision against Scotch invasion, before attempting aggression in France-(this because he looks always for an external justification of his conduct, which will be especially evidenced in reasonableness and success, and because he is not distracted by those moral questionings which interfere with decided action)-and prompt to take stern measures if they should appear necessary, as in his order to kill all the prisoners.

It must not be thought that Shakespeare wished to mark the limitations of Henry invidiously. Rather, he was himself too near akin to a Hamlet not to overprize a little the decision and directness of a Henry. In some respects he has made Laërtes show up the disadvantage of Hamlet. Henry is altogether superior to Laërtes; he is differentiated by single-heartedness in aim, magnificence in scope, grandeur in conduct. In Henry Shakespeare has alike personified the militant spirit of England and drawn the ideal man of action.

Most of the characters in the play are drawn with the same intention as Henry; it is to "show the mettle of their pasture," to make us understand the nature of the men who "stuck all together" at Agincourt. Of the yeomen, Bates and Williams, it is not necessary to speak much. They should

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