That have confented 3 unto Henry's death!
King Henry the fifth, too famous to live long!
England ne'er loft a king of fo much worth.

Glo. England ne'er had a king, until his time.
Virtue he had, deferving to command:

His brandifh'd fword did blind men with his beams;
His arms fpread wider than a dragon's wings;
His fparkling eyes, replete with wrathful fire,
More dazzled and drove back his enemies,
Than mid-day fun, fierce bent against their faces.
What fhould I say? his deeds exceed all speech:
He ne'er lift up his hand, but conquered.

Exe. We mourn in black; Why mourn we not in blood? Henry is dead, and never fhall revive;

Upon a wooden coffin we attend;

3 That bave confented-] If this expreffion means no more than that the stars gave a bare confent, or agreed to let king Henry die, it does no great honour to its author. I believe to confent, in this inftance, means to act in concert. Concentus, Lat. Thus Erato the mufe applauding the fong of Apollo, in Lylly's Midas, 1592, cries out, "O sweet confent!" i. e. fweet union of founds. Again, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. IV. c. ii:

Such mufick his wife words with time confented."

Again, in his translation of Virgil's Culex :

"Chaunted their fundry notes with fweet concent."

and in many other places. Confented, or as it should be spelt, concented, means, bave thrown themselves into a malignant configuration, to promote the death of Henry. Spenfer, in more than one inftance, fpells this word as it appears in the text of Shakspeare; as does Ben Jonfon, in his Epithalamion on Mr. Wefton. The following lines,

fhall we curfe the planets of mishap,

"That plotted thus, &c."

feem to countenance my explanation; and Falftaff fays of Shallow's fervants, that "they flock together in confent, like fo many wild geefe." STEEVENS.

Confent, in all the books of the age of Elizabeth, and long afterwards, is the ufual fpelling of the word concent. See Vol. IV. p. 319, n. 4i and Vol. V. p. 413, n.. In other places I have adopted the modern and more proper fpelling; but, in the prefent inftance, I apprehend, the word was used in its ordinary fenfe. In the second act, p. 28, Talbot, reproaching the foldiery, ufes the fame expreffion, certainly without any idea of a malignant configuration:

"You all confented unto Salisbury's death." MALONE,

And death's difhonourable victory
We with our ftately prefence glorify,
Like captives bound to a triumphant car.
What? Thall we curfe the planets of mishap,
That plotted thus our glory's overthrow ?
Or fhall we think the fubtle-witted French +
Conjurers and forcerers, that, afraid of him,
By magick verses have contriv'd his end?
Win. He was a king bleft of the King of kings.
Unto the French the dreadful judgment-day
So dreadful will not be, as was his fight.
The battles of the Lord of hofts he fought:
The church's prayers made him fo profperous.

Glo.The church! where is it? Had not churchmen pray'd
His thread of life had not fo foon decay'd:
None do you like but an effeminate prince,
Whom, like a school-boy, you may over-awe.

Win. Glofter, whate'er we like, thou art protector; And lookeft to command the prince, and realm. Thy wife is proud; the holdeth thee in awe, More than God, or religious church-men, may. Glo. Name not religion, for thou lov'ft the Refh; And ne'er throughout the year to church thou go'ft, Except it be to pray against thy foes.

Bed. Ceafe, ceafe thefe jars, and reft your minds in peace! Let's to the altar-Heralds, wait on us :

Inftead of gold, we'll offer up our arms;

Since arms avail not, now that Henry's dead.
Pofterity, await for wretched years,

When at their mothers' moiften'd eyes babes fhall fuck;
Our ifle be made a nourish of salt tears,

And

4 -the fubtle-witted French, &c.] There was a notion prevalent a long time, that life might be taken away by metrical charms. As fuperftition grew weaker, these charms were imagined only to have power on irrational animals. In our author's time it was fuppofed that the Irish could kill rats by a fong. JOHNSON.

So, in Reginald Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584: "The Irishmen addict themselves, &c. yea they will not flicke to affirme that they can rime either man or beaft to death." STIEVENS.

5 Our ifle be made a nourish of falt tears,] It seems very probable that our author wrote, a nourice; i. e. that the whole ifle fhould be

And none but women left to wail the dead.-
Henry the fifth! thy ghoft I invocate;

Profper this realm, keep it from civil broils!
Combat with adverfe planets in the heavens !
A far more glorious ftar thy foul will make,
Than Julius Cæfar, or bright-

Enter a Meffenger,

Meff. My honourable lords, health to you all!
Sad tidings bring I to you out of France,
Of lofs, of flaughter, and difcomfiture:
Guienne, Champaigne, Rheims, Orleans 7,
Paris, Guyfors, Poitiers, are all quite loft,

Bed. What fay't thou, man, before dead Henry's corfe?
Speak foftly; or the lofs of thofe great towns
Will make him burft his lead, and rife from death.
Glo. Is Paris loft? is Roüen yielded up?

If Henry were recall'd to life again,

These news would cause him once more yield the ghoft. Exe. How were they loft? what treachery was us'd?

one common nurse, or nourisher, of tears: and thofe be the nourishment of its miferable iffue. THEOBALD.

I have been informed, that what we call at prefent a few, in which fish are preferved alive, was anciently called a nourish. Nourice, however, Fr. a nurse, was anciently fpelt many different ways, among which nourish was one. So, in Syr Eglamour of Artois, bl. 1. no date: Of that chylde she was blyth, "After mory hes the fent believe."

A mourifb therefore in this paffage of our author fignifies a nurse, as it apparently does in the Tragedies of John Bochas, by Lydgate, B. I. c. 12 : "Athenes whan it was in his floures

"Was called nourish of philofophers wife.”
"Juba tellus generat, leonum

"Arida nutrix."

STEEVENS.

•Than Julius Cæfar, or bright—] It might have been written, or bright Berenice. JOHNSON.

This blank undoubtedly arofe from the tranfcriber's or compofitor's not being able to make out the name. So, in a fubfequent paffage the word Nera was omitted for the fame reafon. See the Differtation at the end of the third part of King Henry VI. MALONE.

7 Guienne, Champaigne, Rheims, Orleans,] This verfe might be com pleted by the infertion of Rouen among the places loft, as Gloster in his sext speech infers that it had been mentioned with the reft. STEEVENS.

Mess. No treachery; but want of men, and money. Among the foldiers this is muttered,

That here you maintain several factions;

And, whilft a field fhould be dispatch'd and fought,
You are difputing of your generals.

One would have ling'ring wars, with little coft;
Another would fly fwift, but wanteth wings;
A third thinks, without expence at all,

By guileful fair words peace may be obtain❜d.
Awake, awake, English nobility!

Let not floth dim your honours, new-begot:
Cropp'd are the flower-de-luces in your arms;
Of England's coat one half is cut away.

Exe. Were our tears wanting to this funeral,
These tidings would call forth her flowing tides.

Bed. Me they concern; regent I am of France :Give me my steeled coat, I'll fight for France.Away with thefe difgraceful wailing robes! Wounds I will lend the French, inftead of eyes, To weep their intermiffive miferies".

Enter another Meffenger.

2. Mef. Lords, view these letters, full of bad mifchance France is revolted from the English quite;

Except fome petty towns of no import:

The Dauphin Charles is crowned king in Rheims ;
The baftard of Orleans with him is join'd;
Reignier, duke of Anjou, doth take his part;
The duke of Alençon flieth to his fide.

Exe. The Dauphin crowned king! all fly to him!
O, whither shall we fly from this reproach?

Glo. We will not fly, but to our enemies' throats :-
Bedford, if thou be flack, I'll fight it out.

Bed. Glofter, why doubt'ft thou of my forwardness?
An army have I mufter'd in my thoughts,
Wherewith already France is over-run.

8

her flowing tides.] i. e. England's flowing tides. MALONE. -their intermiffive miferies.] i, e. their miferies, which have had only a fhort intermiflion from Henry the Fifth's death to my coming amongst them. WARBURTON.

Enter

Enter a third Meffenger.

3. Meff. My gracious lords,-to add to your laments, Wherewith you now bedew king Henry's hearfe,— I must inform you of a dismal fight,

Betwixt the flout lord Talbot and the French.

Win. What! wherein Talbot overcame? is't fo? 3. Mess. O, no; wherein lord Talbot was o'erthrown : The circumftance I'll tell you more at large.

The tenth of August last, this dreadful lord,
Retiring from the fiege of Orleans,

Having full scarce fix thousand in his troop,
By three and twenty thousand of the French
Was round encompaffed and fet upon :
No leisure had he to enrank his men ;
He wanted pikes to set before his archers;
Inftead whereof, fharp ftakes, pluck'd out of hedges,
They pitched in the ground confufedly,

To keep the horsemen off from breaking in.
More than three hours the fight continued ;
Where valiant Talbot, above human thought,
Enacted wonders with his fword and lance.

Hundreds he fent to hell, and none durft ftand him;
Here, there, and every where, enrag'd he flew *:
The French exclaim'd, The devil was in arms;
All the whole army ftood agaz'd on him:
His foldiers, fpying his undaunted spirit,
A Talbot! a Talbot! cried out amain,
And rufh'd into the bowels of the battle.
Here had the conqueft fully been feal'd up,
If Sir John Faftolfe had not play'd the coward';

He

9 Having full fcarce, &c.] The modern editors read,-fcarce full, but, I think unneceffarily. So, in the Tempeft:

"Profpero, mafter of a full poor cell." STEEVENS.

be flew:] I fufpect, the author wrote-flew. MALONE. 1 If Sir John Faftolfe, &c.] Mr. Pope has taken notice, "That Falftaff is here introduced again, who was dead in K. Henry V. The occafion whereof is, that this play was written before King Henry IV. or K. Henry V." But it is the hiftorical Sir John Faftolfe (for fo he is called by both our Chroniclers) that is here mentioned; who was a lieutenant general; deputy regent to the duke of Bedford in Normandy, and a knight of the garter; and not the comick character afterwards introduced by our author, and which was a creature merely of his own

brain.