Pluck down my officers, break my decrees; And to the English court assemble now, Now, neighbour confines, purge you of your scum: P. Hen. O, pardon me, my liege! but for my tears, [Kneeling. The moist impediments unto my speech, majesty, How cold it struck my heart! If I do feign, Hath fed upon the body of my father; But thou, most fine, most honour'd, most renown'd, Med eine potable. The allusion is here to aurum polabile, a preparation of gold to which great virtues were formerly ascribed. Hast eat thy bearer up.'-Thus, my most royal liege, Accusing it, I put it on my head, To try with it, as with an enemy, That had before my face murder'd my father, But if it did infect my blood with joy, Heaven put it in thy mind to take it hence, Pleading so wisely in excuse of it. son, By what by-paths, and indirect crook'd ways, Falls upon thee in a more fairer sort; So thou the garland wear'st successively. Yet, though thou stand'st more sure than I could do, Thou art not firm enough, since griefs are green; And all my friends, which thou must make thy friends, Have but their stings and teeth newly ta'en out; Be it thy course, to busy giddy minds With foreign quarrels; that action, hence borne out, May waste the memory of the former days. You won it, wore it, kept it, gave it me; Enter PRINCE JOHN of Lancaster, Warwick, Lords, and others. K. Hen Look, look, here comes my John of Lancaster. RECENT NEW READING. Sc. I. p. 268.-"To a loud trumpet, and a point of war." "To a loud trumpet and report of war."-Collier. Let us look at the entire passage as we have printed it in the text: "Wherefore do you so ill translate yourself, Out of the speech of peace, that bears such grace, Mr. Collier says-" Here 'point of war' can have no mean· ing." The above ought to be printed thus, on the authority of the Corrector, "Your tongue divine To a loud trumpet and report of war." In 'Waverley' we have the following passage:-" The trumpets and kettledrums of the cavalry were next heard to perform the beautiful and wild point of war appropriated as a signal for that piece of nocturnal duty." Of course, when Walter Scott wrote this passage he was deceived by the "no meaning" of the common Shaksperes. Had the word become obsolete when the Corrector changed it to report? or was the Corrector a caterer for the public taste himself, or one who waited upon the caterers to register their "emendations," in all cases where it was desirable to 1 SCENE I.-" Gualtree forest." THIS forest is in the North Riding of Yorkshire. and was formerly called Galtres forest. It is thus mentioned by Skelton : "Thus stode I in the frythy forest of Galtres." Frythy is woody. 2 SCENE I." Whose white investments figure innocence." The ordinary costume of a bishop, not only when he was performing his episcopal functions, but when he appeared in public, and even when he travelled, was a vestment of white linen. From a passage in a letter of Erasmus, it appears that Fisher, bishop of Rochester, when he was about to cross the sea, laid aside his linen vest, "which they always use in England." 3 SCENE I." Their beavers down.' In Hamlet, Act I. Scene II., we find this passage, "He wore his beaver up." In the first Part of Henry IV., page 213, we have seen that the beaver was sometimes used to express a helmet generally. The passage before us, and the passage in Hamlet, have been considered contradictory; and some have supposed that Shakspere confounded the beaver and visor. Douce shews that both the beaver and visor moved up,-and when so, the face was exposed; when the beaver was down, the face was covered; -and the beaver and visor were both down in the battle or the tournament. The following representations, which are taken from Meyrick and Skelton's Ancient Armour, will be more satisfactory than any verbal description: 1. 2. 3. Helmet belonging to a suit of cap-a-pee armour, of the date 1495, preserved in the collection of Sir Samuel Meyrick, Goodrich Court. 1. Profile of the helmet, with the opening for the face closed by the visor a, and the beaver, b. 2. Ditto, half opened by the elevation of the visor, a. 3. Front view, ditto. Some helmets were, however, so constructed, that the beaver, being composed of falling overlapping plates, exposed the face when it was down. 4. "An armet" (from specimens in Goodrich Court) of the time of Philip and Mary, the umbril of which has attached to it three wide bars to guard the face, over which the beaver, formed of three overlapping lames perforated, is made to draw up. 5. "A helmet" (ditto) of the time of Queen Elizabeth. This has a visor and beaver. The latter when up exposes the face, while in the armet, Fig. 4, such a position guards it. I HISTORIES.-VOL. I. 2 N This "armet," however, appears to have been of an unusual construction. Shakspere alludes to the common beaver both in Hamlet and in the passage before us; and in these no contradiction is involved. 4 SCENE III. "I will have it in a particular ballad," &c. In Ben Jonson's 'Bartholomew Fair' we have the following passage: "O, sister, do you remember the ballads over the nursery chimney at home, o' my own pasting up? there be brave pictures Very few ballads of Shakspere's time appeared without the decoration of a rude wood-cut; some. times referring to the subject matter of the ballad, sometimes giving a portrait of the queen. These fugitive productions, Gifford says, came out every term in incredible numbers, and were rapidly dispersed over the kingdom, by shoals of itinerant syrens." I think he's gone to hunt, my lord, at Windsor." The forest of Windsor was the favourite hunting 279 The following extracts from Holinshed describe the progress of the insurrection of Scroop and Northumberland. These passages are evidently the historical authorities which the poet consulted:— "Raufe Nevill, Earl of Westmoreland, that was not far off, together with the lord John of Lancaster, the king's son, being informed of this rebellious attempt, assembled together such power as they might make, and coming into a plain within the forest of Galtree, caused their standards to be pight down in like sort as the archbishop had pight his, over against them, being far stronger in number of people than the other, for (as some write) there were of the rebels at the least eleven thousand men. When the Earl of Westmoreland perceived the force of alversaries, and that they lay still and attempted not to come forward upon him, he subtilely devised how to quail their purpose, and forthwith dispatched messengers unto the archbishop to understand the cause, as it were, of that great assemble, and for what cause, contrary to the king's peace, they came so in armour. The archbishop answered, that he took nothing in hand against the king's peace, but that whatever he did, tended rather to advance the peace and quiet of the commonwealth, than otherwise, and where he and his company were in arms, it was for fear of the king, to whom he could have no free access by reason of such a multitude of flatterers as were about him, and therefore he maintained that his purpose was good and profitable, as well for the king himself, as for the realm, if men were willing to understand a truth and herewith he showed forth a scroll in which the articles were written, whereof before ye have heard. messengers returning unto the Earl of Westmoreland showed him what they had heard and brought from the archbishop. When he had read the articles, he showed in word and countenance outwardly that he liked of the archbishop's holy and virtuous intent and purpose, promising that he and his would prosecute the same in assisting the arch The bishop, who, rejoicing hereat, gave credit to the earl, and persuaded the Earl Marshal against his will as it were to go with him to a place appointed for them to commune together. Here, when they were met with like number on either part, the articles were read over, and without any more ado, the Earl of Westmoreland and those that were with him agreed to do their best to see that a reformation might be had according to the same. The Earl of Westmoreland using more policy than the rest: Well (said he) then our travail is come to the wished end; and where our people have been long in armour, let them depart home to their wonted trades and occupations in the mean time let us drink together, in sign of agreement, that the people on both sides may see it, and know that it is true that we be light at a point. They had no sooner shaked hands together but that a knight was sent straightways from the archbishop to bring word to the people that there was a peace concluded, commanding each man to lay aside arms, and to resort home to their houses. The people beholding such tokens of peace as shaking of hands and drinking together of the lords in loving manner, brake up their field and returned homewards: but in the mean time, whilst the people of the archbishop's side withdrew away, the number of the contrary part increased, according to order given by the Earl of Westmoreland, and yet the archbishop perceived not that he was deceived, till the Earl of Westmoreland arrested both him and the Earl Marshal, with divers other. Their troops being pursued, many were taken, many slain, and many spoiled of that they had about them, and so permitted to go their ways." * "The Earl of Northumberland and the Lord Bardolf, after they had been in Wales, in France, and Flanders, to purchase aid against King Henry, were returned back into Scotland, and had remained there now (1408) for the space of a whole year; and as their evil fortune would, whilst the king held a ད The council of the nobility at London, the said Earl of Northumberland and Lord Bardolf, in a dismal hour, with a great power of Scots, returned into England, recovering divers of the earl's castles and seigniories, for the people in great numbers resorted unto them. Hereupon encouraged with hope of good success, they enter into Yorkshire, and there began to destroy the country. king advertised hereof, caused a great army to be assembled, and came forward with the same towards his enemies: but ere the king came to Nottingham, Sir Thomas (or, as other copies have, Raufe) Rokesby, sheriff of Yorkshire, assembled the forces of the country to resist the earl and his power, coming to Grimbaut Brigges, beside Knaresborough, there to stop them the passage; but they, returning aside, got to Weatherby, and so to Tadcaster, and finally came forward unto Branham Moor, near to Hayselwood, where they chose their ground meet to fight upon. The sheriff was as ready to give battle as the earl to receive it, and so with a standard of St. George spread, set fiercely upon the earl, who, under a standard of his own arms, encountered his adversaries with great manhood. There was a sore encounter and cruel conflict betwixt the parties, but in the end the victory fell to the sheriff. The Earl of Northumberland was slain in the field, and the Lord Bardolf was taken, but sore wounded, so that he shortly after died of the hurts." |