Of heady murder, fpoil, and villainy. If not, why, in a moment, look to fee And their most reverend heads dafh'd to the walls; Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confus'd Enter Governor, upon the walls. Gov. Our expectation hath this day an end : The Dauphin, whom of fuccour we entreated, Returns us-that his powers are not yet ready To raise so great a fiege. Therefore, dread king, We yield our town, and lives, to thy foft mercy: Enter our gates; difpofe of us, and ours; For we no longer are defenfible. K. Henry. Open your gates.-Come, uncle Exeter, Go you and enter Harfleur; there remain, And fortify it strongly 'gainst the French: Use mercy to them all. For us, dear uncle,The winter coming on, and fickness growing Upon our foldiers,-we'll retire to Calais. To-night in Harfleur will we be your gueft; To-morrow for the march are we addreft. [Flourish, and enter the town, SCENE " Defile the locks &c.] The folio reads: 6 Defire the locks, &c. STEEVENS. we are addrest.] i. e. prepared. So, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630: 66 our fhield "We must address next, for tomorrow's field." 7S CEN E IV. The French camp. Enter Katharine, and an old gentlewoman. Kath. Alice, tu as efté en Angleterre, & tu parles bien le language. Again, in the Brazen Age, 1613: Again: 66 clamours from afar, "Tell us thefe champions are addreft for war." 66 -See I am addreft "With this, to thunder on thy captive creft." Alice. STEEVENS. 7 Scene IV.] I have left this ridiculous fcene as I found it; and am forry to have no colour left, from any of the editions, to imagine it interpolated. WARBURTON. Sir T. Hanmer has rejected it. The fcene is indeed mean enough, when it is read; but the grimaces of two French women, and the odd accent with which they uttered the English, made it divert upon the ftage. It may be obferv'd, that there is in it not only the French language, but the French fpirit. Alice compliments the princefs upon her knowledge of four words, and tells her that the pronounces like the English themfelves. The princefs fufpects no deficiency in her instructress, nor the inftructress in herself. Throughout the whole fcene there may be found French fervility, and French vanity. I cannot forbear to transcribe the first sentence of this dialogue from the edition of 1608, that the reader who has not looked into the old copies may judge of the ftrange negligence with which they are printed. "Kate. Alice venecia, vous aves cates en, vou parte fort bon Angloys englatara, coman fae palla vou la main en francoy." JOHNSON. We may observe in general, that the early editions have not half the quantity; and every fentence, or rather every word, moft ridiculously blundered. Thefe, for feveral reasons, could not poffibly be published by the author; and it is extremely probable, that the French ribaldry was at first inserted by a different hand, as the many additions most certainly were after he had left the ftage.-Indeed, every friend to his memory will not easily believe, that he was acquainted with the fcene between Katharine and the old Gentlewoman: or furely he would not have admitted fuch obfcenity and nonfenfe. FARMER. It Alice. Un peu, madame. Kath. Je te prie, m'enfeignez; il faut que j'apprenne à parler. Comment appellez vous la main, en Anglois? Alice. La main? elle eft appellée, de hand. Kath. De hand. Et les doigts? Alice. Les doigts? may foy, je oublie les doigts; mais je me fouviendray. Les doigts? je penfe, qu'ils font appellé de fingres; ouy, de fingers; oui de fingers. Kath. La main, de hand; les doigts, de fingres. Je penfe, que je fuis le bon efcolier. J'ay gagnée deux mots d'Anglois viftement. Comment appellez vous les ongles? Alice. Les ongles? les appellons, de nails. It is very certain, that authors in the time of Shakespeare, did not correct the prefs for themselves. I hardly ever faw in one of the old plays a fentence of either Latin, Italian, or French, without the moft ridiculous blunders. In the Hift. of Clyomon, Knight of the Golden Shield, 1599, a tragedy which I have often quoted, a warrior afks a lady difguifed like a page, what her name is. She answers, "Cur Daceer," i. e. Cœur d'Acier, Heart of Steel. STEEVENS. 8 Kath. Alice, tu as efté-] I have regulated several speeches in this French fcene; fome whereof were given to Alice, and yet evidently belonged to Katharine and fo, vice verfa. It is not material to diftinguish the particular tranfpofitions I have made. Mr. Gildon has left no bad remark, I think, with regard to our poet's conduct in the character of this princefs: For why he should not allow her," fays he, " to speak in Englifh as well as all the other French, I can't imagine: fince it adds no beauty, but gives a patch'd and pye-bald dialogue of no beauty or force." THEOBALD. In the collection of Chefter Whitfun Myfteries, among the Har leian MSS. No. 1013, I find French fpeeches introduced. In the Vintner's Play, p. 65, the three kings who come to worship our infant Saviour, addrefs themselves to Herod in that language, and Herod very politely' answers them in the fame. At firft, I fuppofed the author to have appropriated a foreign tongue to them, because they were strangers; but in the Skynner's Play, p. 144, I found Pilate talking French, when no fuch reafon could be offered to justify a change of language. These mysteries are faid to have been written in 1328. It is hardly neceffary to mention that in this MS. the French is as much corrupted as in the paffage quoted by Dr. Johnfon from the 4to edition of -King Henry V. STEEVENS. Kath. 79 Kath. De nails. Efcoutez: dites moy, fi je parle bien de hand, de fingres, de nails. Alice. Ceft bien dit, madame; il eft fort bon Anglois. Kath. Et le coude. Alice. De elbow. Kath. De elbow. Je m'en faitz la repetition de tous les mots, que vous m'avez appris dès a prefent. Alice. Il est trop difficile, madame, comme je penfe. Kath. Excufez moy, Alice; efcoutez: De hand, de fingre, de nails, de arm, de bilbow. Alice. De elbow, madame. Kath. O Seigneur Dieu! je m'en oublie; De elbow. Comment appellez vous le col? Alice. De neck, madame. Kath. De neck: Et le menton? Alice. De chin. Kath. De fin. Le col, de neck: le menton, de fin. Alice. Ouy. Sauf voftre honneur; en verité, vous prononcez les mots auffi droict que les natifs d'Angleterre. Kath. Je ne doute point d'apprendre par la Dieu; & en peu de temps. grace de Alice. N'avez vous pas deja oublié ce que je vous ay enfeignée ? Kath. Non, je reciteray à vous promptement. De hand, de fingre, de mails. Alice. De nails, madame. Kath. De nails, de arme, de ilbow. Alice. Sauf, voftre honneur, de elbow. Kath. Ainfi dis je; de elbow, de neck, et de fin : Comment appellez vous les pieds, & la robe? Alices De foot, madame; & de con. Kath. De foot, & de con? O Seigneur Dieu! ces I 139V De band, de fingre, de nayle, de arme.] The first folio has this paffage thus d'hand, de fingre, de mailes-without de arm.And fo it fhould be printed. TYRWHITT, VOL. VI. font font mots de fon mauvais, corruptible, groffe, et impudique, & non pour les dames d'honneur d'ufer: Fe ne voudrois pranoncer ces mots devant les Seigneurs de France, pour tout le monde. Il faut de foot, & de con, neant-moins. Fe reciterai une autre fois ma leçon enfemble: De hand, de fingre, de nails, de arm, de elbow, de neck, de fin, de foot, de con. Alice. Excellent, madame! Kath. C'eft affez pour une fois; allons nous a difner. SCENE V. Prefence-chamber in the French court. [Exeunt, Enter the king of France, the Dauphin, duke of Bourbon, the Conftable of France, and others. Fr. King. 'Tis certain, he hath pass'd the river Con. And if he be not fought withal, my lord, Our fyens, put in wild and favage stock, And over-grow their grafters? Bour. Normans, but baftard Normans, Norman Mort de ma vie! if thus they march along 9 -de fingre,—] It is apparent by the correction of Alice, that the princefs forgot the nails, and therefore it should be left out in her part. JoHNSON. I our father's luxury,] In this place, as in others, luxury means luft. JOHNSON. 2 -favage-] Is here used in the French original fenfe, for filan, uncultivated, the fame with wild. JOHNSON, / In |