(As we, his subjects, have in wonder found,)
Between the promise of his greener days,

And these he masters now;1 now he weighs time,
Even to the utmost grain; which you shall read2
In your own losses, if he stay in France.

Fr. King. To-morrow shall you know our mind at full. Exe. Despatch us with all speed, lest that our king Come here himself to question our delay;

For he is footed in this land already.

Fr. King. You shall be soon despatch'd, with fair con

ditions:

A night is but small breath, and little pause,
To answer matters of this consequence.

[Exeunt.

ACT III.

Enter CHORUS.

Chor. Thus with imagin'd wing our swift scene flies, In motion of no less celerity

Than that of thought. Suppose, that you have seen
The well-appointed3 king at Hampton pier
Embark his royalty; and his brave fleet

1

Part I:

he masters now;] Thus the folio. So, in King Henry VI,

"As if he master'd there a double spirit

"Of teaching and of learning" &c.

The quarto, 1600, reads-musters.

2

Steevens.

-you shall read -] So the folio. The quarto, 1600, has-you shall find. Malone.

3

-well-appointed] i. e. well furnished with all the necessaries of war. So, in King Henry VI, Part III:

"And very well appointed as I thought,
"March'd towards Saint Alban's -

at Hampton pier

Steevens.

Embark his royalty;] All the editions downwards, implicitly, after the first folio, read-Dover pier. But could the poet possibly be so discordant from himself (and the Chronicles, which he copied,) to make the king here embark at Dover; when he has before told us so precisely, and that so often over, that he embarked at Southampton? I dare acquit the poet from so flagrant a variation. The indolence of a transcriber, or a compositor at press, must give rise to such an error. They, secing pier at the

With silken streamers the young Phoebus fanning.
Play with your fancies; and in them behold,
Upon the hempen tackle, ship-boys climbing:
Hear the shrill whistle, which doth order give
To sounds confus'd: behold the threaden sails,
Borne with the invisible and creeping wind,
Draw the huge bottoms through the furrow'd sea,
Breasting the lofty surge: O, do but think,
You stand upon the rivage," and behold
A city on the inconstant billows dancing;
For so appears this fleet majestical,

Holding due course to Harfleur. Follow, follow!
Grapple your minds to sternage of this navy;8
And leave your England, as dead midnight, still,

5

end of the verse, unluckily thought of Dover pier, as the best known to them; and so unawares corrupted the text. Theobald.

Among the records of the town of Southampton, they have a minute and authentick account (drawn up at that time) of the encampment of Henry the Fifth near the town, before this embarkment for France. It is remarkable, that the place where the army was encamped, then a low level plain or a down, is now entirely covered with sea, and called Westport. T. Warton.

5

Rowe.

Phabus fanning.] Old copy-fuyning. Corrected by Mr.
Malone.

So, in Macbeth:

"Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky,
"And fan our people cold." Steevens.

6 Hear the shrill whistle, which doth order give

To sounds confus'd:] So, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1609:
the boatswain whistles, and

7

"The master calls, and trebles the confusion." Malone. -rivage,] The bank or shore. Johnson.

Rivage: French. So, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. IV, c. i: "Pactolus with his waters shere

"Throws forth upon the rivage round about him nere." Again, in Gower, De Confessione Amantis, Lib. VIII, fol. 186: "Upon the stronde at rivage." Steevens.

8 to sternage of this navy;] The stern being the hinder part of the ship, the meaning is, let your minds follow close after the navy. Stern, however, appears to have been anciently synonymous to rudder. So, in the King Leir, 1605:

"Left as it were a ship without a sterne."

Steevens.

I suspect the author wrote, steerage. So, in his Pericles:

Think his pilot, thought;

"So with his steerage shall your thoughts grow on,
"To fetch his daughter home." Malone.

Guarded with grandsires, babies, and old women,
Either past, or not arriv'd to, pith and puissance:
For who is he, whose chin is but enrich'd

With one appearing hair, that will not follow

These cull'd and choice-drawn cavaliers to France?
Work, work, your thoughts, and therein see a siege:
Behold the ordnance on their carriages,

With fatal mouths gaping on girded Harfleur.
Suppose, the ambassador from the French comes back;
Tells Harry-that the king doth offer him
Katharine his daughter; and with her, to dowry,
Some petty and unprofitable dukedoms.
The offer likes not: and the nimble gunner
With linstock now the devilish cannon touches,

[Alarum; and Chambers1 go off.

And down goes all before them. Still be kind,
And eke2 out our performance with your mind. [Exit.

SCENE I.

The same. Before Harfleur.

Alarums. Enter King HENRY, EXETER, BEDFORD, GLOSTER, and Soldiers, with scaling ladders.

K. Hen. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once

more;

Or close the wall3 up with our English dead!

9 ·linstock] The staff to which the match is fixed when ordnance is fired. Johnson.

1 ·Chambers -] Small pieces of ordnance. Steevens.

2 And eke —] This word is in the first folio written—eech; as it was, sometimes at least, pronounced. So, in Pericles, 1609:

"And time that is so briefly spent,

"With your fine fancies quaintly each;

"What's dumb in show I'll plain with speech." Malone. 3 Or close the wall &c.] Here is apparently a chasm. One line at least is lost, which contained the other part of a disjunctive proposition. The King's speech is, dear friends, either win the town, or close up the wall with dead. The old quarto gives no help. Johnson.

I do not perceive the chasm which Dr. Johnson complains of. What the King means to say, is,-Re-enter the breach you have made, or fill it up with your own dead bodies; i. e. Pursue your advantage, or give it up with your lives. Mount the breach in the wall, or repair it by leaving your own carcases in lieu of the

In peace, there's nothing so becomes a man,
As modest stillness, and humility:

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;*
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,5
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage:
Then lend the eye a terrible aspéct;

Let it pry through the portage of the head,"
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it,
As fearfully, as doth a galled rock

O'erhang and jutty7 his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.

8

Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide;
Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit1

stones you have displaced: in short-Do one thing or the other. So, in Churchyard's Siege of Edenbrough Castle:

66 we will possesse the place,

"Or leaue our bones and bowels in the breatch."

This speech of King Henry was added after the quartos 1600 and 1608. Steevens.

when the blast of war blows in our ears,

Then imitate the action of the tiger;] Sir Thomas Hanmer has observed, that in storms and high winds the tiger roars and rages most furiously. Steevens.

5

summon up the blood,] Old copy-commune, &c. Corrected by Mr. Rowe.

6

Malone.

portage of the head,] Portage, open space, from port, a gate. Let the eye appear in the head as cannon through the battlements, or embrasures, of a fortification. Johnson. So we now say-the port-holes of a ship. M. Mason. 7-jutty-] The force of the verb to jutty, when applied to a rock projecting into the sea, is not felt by those who are unaware that this word anciently signified a mole raised to withstand the encroachment of the tide. In an act, 1 Edw. VI, c. 14, provision is made for "the maintenaunce of piers, jutties, walles, and bankes, against the rages of the sea." H. White.

8 - his confounded base,] His worn or wasted base. Johnson. So, in The Tempest:

-the shore, that o'er his wave-worn basis bow'd,

"As stooping to relieve him." Steevens.

One of the senses of to confound, in our author's time, was, to

destroy. See Minshieu's Dictionary, in v.

Malone.

9 Now set the teeth,] So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"now I'll set my teeth,

"And send to darkness all that stop me." Steevens.

To his full height!-On, on, you noblest English,2
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof! 3
Fathers, that, like so many Alexanders,

Have, in these parts, from morn till even fought,
And sheath'd their swords for lack of argument.4
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest,

That those, whom you call'd fathers, did beget you!
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,

And teach them how to war!-And you, good yeomen,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear

That you are worth your breeding: which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,"
Straining upon the start." The game's afoot;
Follow your spirit: and, upon this charge,
Cry-God for Harry! England! and Saint George!

[Exeunt. Alarum, and Chambers go off.

bend up every spirit-] A metaphor from the bow.

Johnson So, again, in Hamlet: "they fool me to the top of my bent.” Again, in Macbeth:

2

"I am settled, and bend up

"Each corporal agent to this terrible feat." Malone.

you noblest English,] Thus the second folio. The first has-noblish. Mr. Malone reads-noble; and observes that this speech is not in the quartos. Steevens.

3 Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!] Thus the folio, 1623, and rightly. So, Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. III:

"Whom strange adventure did from Britain fet." Again, in the Prologue to Ben Jonson's Silent Woman:

"Though there be none far-fet, there will dear bought." The sacred writings afford many instances to the same purpose. Mr. Pope first made the change, which I, among others, had inadvertently followed. Steevens.

4

5

argument.] Is matter, or subject. Johnson.

like greyhounds in the slips,] Slips are a contrivance of leather, to start two dogs at the same time. C.

6 Straining upon the start.] The old copy reads-Straying. Cofrected by Mr. Rowe. Malone.