Defile the locks of your fhrill-fhrieking daughters; And their moft reverend heads dafht to the walls; While the mad mothers with their howls confus'd Enter Governor, upon the Walls. Gov. Our expectation hath this day an end: For we no longer are defenfible. K. Henry. Open your gates: come, uncle Exeter, [Flourish, and enter the town. SCENE, the French Court. Enter Catharine, and an old gentlewoman. Cath. A LICE, tu as efté en Angleterre, & tu parlois bien le language. (22) Alice. Un peu, madame. Cath. (22) Cath. Alice, tu as été I have regulated feveral Speeches in this French Scene: Some whereof were given to Alice, and yet evidently belong'd to Catharine; and fo, vice verfa. It is not material to distinguifh the particular Tranfpofitions I have made. Mr. Gildon has left ro bad Cath. Je te prie de m'enfeigner; il faut, que j'apprenne à parler. Comment appellez vous la main en Anglois ? Alice. La main, il est appellé, de band. Cath. De band. Et le doyt? Alice. Le doyt? ma foy, je oublie le doyt; mais je me fouviendra le doyt; je penfe, qu'ils ont appellé des fingres; ouy, de fingres. Cath. La main, de band; le doit, le fingres. Je pense, que je fuis le bon efcolier. 7 ay gaigné deux mots d' Anglois viftement; comment appellez vous les ongles? Alice. Les ongles, les appellons de nayles. Cath. De nayles. Efcoutez: dites moy, fi je parle bien : de band, de fingres, de nayles. Alice. C'est bien dit, madame; il eft fort bon Anglois. Cath. Dites moy en Anglois, le bras. Alice. De arme, madame. Cath. Et le coude: Alice. D' elbow. Cath. D'elbow: je m'en faitz la repetition de tous les mots, que vous m' avez apprins dès a present. Alice. Il est trop difficile, madame, comme je pense. Cath. Excufe moy, Alice; efcoutez; d' band, de fingre, de nayles, d'arme, de bilbow. Alice. D' elbow, madame. Cath. O Signeur Dieu! je m'en oublie d elbow; comment appellez vous le col ? Alice. De neck, madame. Cath. De neck; & le menton ? Alice. De chin. Cath. De fin: le col, de neck: le menton, de fin. Alice. Ouy. Sauf voftre bonneur, en verité, vous prononciés les mots auffi droit, que les natifs d' Angleterre. Cath. Je ne doute point d'apprendre par la grace de Dieu, & en peu de temps. bad Remark, I think, with Regard to our Poet's Conduct in the Character of this Princess: for why He should not allow her (fays He) to speak in English as well as all the other French, I can't imagine: fince it adds Beauty; but gives a patch'd and pye-bald Dialogue of no Beauty or Force. 1 Alice. N'avez vous pas deja oublié ce que je vous ay enfeigné ? Cath. Non, je reciteray à vous promptement; d band, de fingre, de mayles, de arme. Alice. De nayles, madame. Cath. De nayles, de arme, de ilbow. Cath. Ainfi de-je d elbow, de neck, de fin: comment appellez vous les pieds & de robe. Alice. Le foot, madame, & le coun. Cath. Le foot, & le coun! O Seignieur Dieu! ces font des mots mauvais, corruptibles & impudiques, & non pour les dames d'honneur d' ufer: je ne voudrois prononcer cets mots devant les Seigneurs de France, pour tout le monde! il faut le foot, & le coun, neant-moins. Je reciteray un autrefois ma leçon enfemble; d' hand, de fingre, de nayles, d'arme, d elbow, de neck, de fin, de foot, de coun. Alice. Excellent, madame. Cath. C'eft affez pour une fois, allons nous en difner. [Exeunt. SCENE, Prefence-Chamber in the French Court. Enter the King of France, the Dauphin, Duke of Bourbon, the Conftable of France, and others. Fr. King. IS certain, he hath pass'd the river Some. And give our vineyards to a barb❜rous people. (The emptying of our fathers luxury,) Sprout up fo fuddenly into the clouds, And over-look their grafters? [my lord, [tards. Bour. Normans, but baftard Normans; Norman bafMort de ma vie ! if thus they march along Unfought withal, but I will fell my Dukedom, 1 To buy a foggy and a dirty farm In that nook-fhotten Ifle of Albion. (23) [mettle? Upon our house-tops, while more frosty people Our madams mock at us, and plainly fay, Our mettle is bred out; and they will give (23) In that fhort nooky Ifle of Albion.] If the Editor meant by this Reading little and, it will be hard to reconcile it to the largest Iland in the known World. If he means fort in regard to its Circumference, it is ftill a greater Blunder, as every one knows. And if he means, that the Nooks, or Angles of it, are short, that will crown the Abfurdity. Nothing, fo ridiculous as this Reading, could have come from the pen of Shakespeare, who certainly wrote it, juft as his Editor found it, nook-footten Ille. This on Examination will be proved to be as true and proper a Defcription of Great Britain, as Camden, or the most exact Topographer, could have given. For botten fignifies any thing that is projected; or, as we fay, fhot out. So nook-fbotten is a Place that fhoots out into Capes, Promontories, and Necks of Land; the very Situation of our Island! Anonymus. (24) while more frofty People, Sweat drops of gallant Blood in our rich Fields: Poor, We may call them, in their native Lords.] As the laft Verfe here was a long time obfcure, and ftuck with me, tho' now I clearly understand it; it may not be amifs, left fome Readers fhould likewise be at a Lofs, to give a fhort comment on it. The Lord Conftable is wondering, how the English fhould derive fuch Spirit and Courage, as they fhew'd, under the Disadvantages of their Climature and Beverage; and that his own Countrymen fhould feem cold and frofty, when their Blood was fpirited up with generous Wine, and they had fo warm a Sun, and fo rich a Soil: But he has no fooner faid This, than a Reflection on their cold Behaviour makes him correct himfelf; What talk I of a rich Soil? Surely, we may call it poor enough, if it may receive Difparagement from the Quality of its Poffeffors. Their bodies to the luft of English youth, To new-ftore France with baftard warriors. Bour. They bid us to the English dancing Schools, Fhence; Fr. King. Where is Montjoy, the herald? speed him Let him greet England with our fharp defiance. Up, Princes, and with fpirit of honour edg'd, Yet fharper than your fwords, hie to the field: Charles Delabreth, high conftable of France; You, Dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and of Berry, Alanfon, Brabant, Bar and Burgundy, Jaques Chatillion, Rambures, Vaudemont, Beaumont, Grandpree, Rouffie, and Faulconbridge, Loys, Leftraile, Bouciqualt, and Charaloys, High Dukes, great Frinces, Barons, Lords and For your great feats now quit you of great fhames : The Alps doth fpit and void his rheum upon. Bring him our prifoner. Con. This becomes the great. Sorry am I, his numbers are fo few, His foldiers fick, and famifht in their march: 1 [joy; Fr. King. Therefore, Lord Constable, hafte on MountAnd let him fay to England, that we send (25) Barons, Lords, and Kings ;] Thus it ftands in the Old Folio's; but I corrected it to Knights in my SHAKESPEARE reftor'd, and Mr. Pope has, in his last Edition, embrac'd the Correction. VOL. IV. D To |