yet to be noo good werrioure to doo and make suche a conquest there upon hym; and somewhat in cornet and dispite he sente to hym a tonne full of tenys ballis, because he wolde have somewhat for to play withall for hym and for hys lordis, and that became hym better than to mayntain any were: and than anon our lordes that was embassadours token hir leve and comen into England ayenne, and told the Kyng and his counceill of the ungoodly aunswer that they had of the Dolphyn, and of the present the which he had sent unto the Kyng: and whan the Kyng had hard her wordis, and the aunswere of the Dolpynne he was wondre sore agreved,

and right evell apayd towarde the Frensshmen, and toward the Kyng and the Dolphynne, and thought to avenge hym upon hem as sone as God wold send hym grace and myght, and anon lette make tenys ballis for the Dolphynne, in all the hast that they myght be made; and they were great gonne stones for the Dolpynne to play wyth all."

There is some doubt whether the balls were "tennis balls." This extract uses that word, although it might not apply to the game of Shakspere's time. Holinshed calls them "Paris balls."

7 CHORUS.

"And hides a sword, from hilts unto the point, With crowns imperial, crowns and coronets. THE engraving which we subjoin is copied from a woodcut in the first edition of Holinshed's 'Chronicle'-that edition, most probably, which Shakspere was in the habit of consulting. The idea conveyed in these lines was evidently suggested by some such representation. In ancient trophies in tapestry or painting, a sword is often thus hidden, from hilt unto the point, with naval or mural crowns. There is a portrait of Edward III. in the Chapter House at Windsor, with a sword in his hand thus ornamented, if we remember rightly, with three crowns.

8 SCENE I.-"Thou prick-ear'd cur of Iceland." Dr. Caius, a physician of Queen Elizabeth's

time, wrote a treatise on British dogs, which he divides into dogs of chase, farm dogs, and mongrels, describing the several species under each We find herein no mention of the Icehead.

land dog. He, however, mentions the wappe; and Harrison, in his description of England, speaking of our English dogs, says "The last sort of dogs consisteth of the currish kind, meet for many toys, of which the whappet, or prick-eared cur, is one." He adds:-"Besides these also we have sholts, or curs, daily brought out of Iseland, and much made of among us because of their sauciness and quarrelling. Moreover, they bite very sore, and love candles exceedingly, as do the men and women of their country." The " cur of Iceland" of Shakspere is unquestionably "the cur daily brought out of Iseland" of Harrison; and it is to be observed that the prick-ears are invariable indications of the half-reclaimed animal. The Esquimaux dog, the dog of the Mackenzie River, and the Australasian dog, or dingo, of each of which the Zoological Society have had specimens, furnish striking examples of this characteristic. Pistol, in his abuse of Nym, uses an expression which was meant to convey the intimation that he was as quarrelsome and as savage as a halfcivilized Iceland dog. Johnson upon this passage has a most curious theory, which Steevens adopts: "He seems to allude to an account credited in Elizabeth's time, that in the north there was a nation with human bodies and dogs' heads."

"SCENE II.-" Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow."

Holinshed states this literally: "The said Lord Scroop was in such favour with the king, that he admitted him sometime to be his bedfellow." Malone says, "This unseemly custom continued common till the middle of the last century (the seventeenth), if not later." Customs are unseemly, for the most part, when they are opposed to the general usages of society, and to the state of public opinion. The necessity for two persons occupying one bed belonged to an age when rooms were large and furniture scanty. It is scarcely just to consider the custom unseemly when connected with manners very different from our own. When Roger Ascham speaks of a favourite pupil who was his bedfellow, we see only the affectionate remembrance of the good old schoolmaster; and, in Shakspere, we find the custom connected with the highest poetry :—

"O world, thy slippery turns! Friends now fast sworn,
Whose double bosoms seem to wear one heart,
Whose hours, whose bed, whose meal, and exercise,
Are still together, who twin, as 't were, in love
Unseparable, shall within this hour,
On a dissension of a doit, break out

To bitterest enmity." (Coriolanus, Act IV. Sc. IV.)

10 SCENE IV.--" Were busied with a Whitsun Morris dance."

Mr. Douce's 'Dissertation on the Ancient English Morris Dance' is a performance of considerable research and ingenuity. His opinion, which is opposed to that of Strutt, is, that the Morris dance was derived from the Morisco or Moorish dance. The Morris dance has been supposed to have been first brought into Eng

land in the time of Edward III.; but it can scarely be traced beyond the reign of Henry VII. The Whitsun Morris dance, here spoken. of by Shakspere, was, perhaps, the original Morris dance, unconnected with the May games in which the Robin Hood characters were introduced. After archery, however, went into disuse (for the encouragement of which the May games were principally established), the Morris dance was probably again transferred to the celebration of Whitsuntide. In Warner's 'Albion's England' (1612), we have this line:—

"At Paske begun our Morrise, and ere Penticost our May." (See Illustrations of 'All's Well that ends Well,' Act II., Sc. 2.)

" SCENE IV. "He'll make your Paris Loure shake for it."

According to some writers, the ancient palace of the Louvre was as old as the seventh century. The obscurity as to the origin of the name is, perhaps, a proof of its antiquity. Some say that it was called after a seigneur of Lourres: others, that the word signifies l'œuvre-the work par excellence. It was originally, no doubt, at once a palace and a fortress. At the commencement of the sixteenth century the buildings were in a very ruinous state; and Francis l in 1528, resolved to build a new palace on the site of the old; but this design was only par tially carried into effect till the subsequent reign of Henry II., when what is now called the old Louvre was completed by Pierre Lescot, in 1548. (See Dictionnaire Historique, d'Ar chitecture.' Par M. Quatremère De Quincy; article Lescot.)

The conspiracy of Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey, against Henry V., is minutely detailed in Holinshed. Shakspere has followed the statement of the Chronicler, that the prisoners confessed that they had received a great sum of money of the French king, to deliver Henry into the hands of his enemies, or to murder him. It appears, however, by the verdict of the jury (for the conspirators were not sum

marily executed, as described in the play and the Chronicle), that it was their intention te proclaim Edward Earl of March rightful heir to the crown in case Richard II. was actually dead. The following passage in Holinshed is the foundation of Henry's address to the prisoners in the second Scene: "If you have conspired the death and destruction of me, which am the head of the realm and governor of the people,

without doubt I must of necessity think, that you likewise have compassed the confusion of all that here be with me, and also the final destruction of your native country. . . Wherefore seeing that you have enterprised so great a mischief, to the intent that your fautours being in the army, may abhor so detestable an offence by the punishment of you, haste you to receive the pain that for your demerits you have deserved, and that punishment that by the law for your offences is provided."

In the fourth Scene of this Act, the Constable only, amongst the French nobles, takes part in the dialogue; but the Duke of Burgundy is mentioned as being present. Shakspere did not find this in the Chronicles; and it is probable that the Duke of Burgundy was absent from France; as the States of Flanders proclaimed that the duke would render no assistance in the defence of France, unless the Dauphin redressed the injuries which he had heaped upon his wife, the daughter of the duke. (See 'Pictorial History of England,' vol. ii. p. 28.)

12 SCENE II.-" Enter Nym, Bardolph, and Pistol."

BARDOLPH and Fluellen were names of inhabitants of Stratford, in 1592. But Pistol and Bardolph might have lived in the traditions of the French war; for we find in the Additional Charters in the British Museum, No. 1021 and 1022, that Wm. Pistail and R. Bardolf were amongst Canoniers serving in Normandy, Ao.

1435.

13 SCENE IV.-ROUEN.- "Alice, tu as esté," &c. When in the Epilogue to 'Henry IV. Part II.,' the author promised the audience "to make you merry with fair Katharine of France," he certainly was a fitting judge of the sources from which his audience would derive their merriment. Warburton, however, calls this a ridiculous Scene. Hanmer rejects it as an interpolation of the players. Not only this Scene, but the scraps of French which are put in the months of other characters, have a dramatic purpose. The great object of this play is to

excite and elevate the nationality of the English; and this could not be done without a marked and obvious distinction between the The occasional people of the two nations. French accomplishes this much more readily than any other device. It is to be remembered that Shakspere's plays were written to be acted. Of distinguishing dresses the wardrobe of Shakspere's stage had few to boast. The introduction of Katharine in this particular Scene, learning the very rudiments of English, is a fit introduction for that of the fifth Act, where she attempts to converse with her future husband

in his native tongue.

17 SCENE VI. "There's for thy labour, Montjoy."

It was necessary in the days of chivalry not only to preserve the inviolable character of heralds, who often did the duties of ambassadors, but to reward them liberally, however unpleasant might be their messages. In his notes to 'Marmion,' Scott says, "So sacred was the herald's office, that, in 1515, Lord Drummond was by parliament declared guilty of treason, and his lands forfeited, because he had struck with his fist the Lion King-at-Arms when he reproved him for his follies. Nor was he restored, but at the Lion's earnest solicitations."

18 SCENE VII.-" A Kerne of Ireland," &c. The character and costume of the Kerne (an abbreviation, probably, of the Gaelic Ketheryn, Cateran) are described in 'Derrick's Image of Ireland,' printed in Lord Somers' Tracts.Scott's description in Rokeby' of the faithful adherent of an Irish chieftain is founded upon the ruder verses of Derrick :"His plaited hair in elf-locks spread Around his bare and matted head;

On leg and thigh, close stretch'd and trim,
His vesture shew'd the sinewy limb;

In saffron dyed, a linen vest

Was frequent folded round his breast;

A mantle long and loose he wore,

Shaggy with ice, and stain'd with gore."

Suppose, that you have seen

The well-appointed king at Hampton pier
Embark his royalty; and his brave fleet
With silken streamers the young Phoebus fanning."

It was not in Holinshed that Shakspere found a hint of the splendour of Henry's fleet. That Chronicler simply says, "When the wind came about prosperous to his purpose, he caused the mariners to weigh up anchors, and hoyse up sails." Speed, whose history of Great Britain was not published till 1611, speaking of Henry's second expedition into France, in 1417, describes the king as embarking in a ship whose sails were of purple silk most richly embroidered with gold. Neither Holinshed nor Hall, in their accounts of the second expedition, mention this circumstance. But our poet might have found the narrative of a somewhat similar pageantry in Froissart, where the French ships destined for the invasion of England, in 1887, are described as painted with the arms of the commanders and gilt, with banners, pennons, and standards of silk. The invading fleet of Henry V. consisted of between twelve and fourteen hundred vessels, of various sizes, from twenty to three hundred tons. On the 10th of August, 1415, the king embarked on board his ship, the "Trinity," beween Portsmouth and Southampton, and the whole fleet was under weigh on the 11th. By a curious error in the folio of 1623, the king "at Dover pier" embarks his royalty. Of course this was an error of the printer or transcriber, for the passage is incon

sistent with the chorus of the second Act. Warton tells us that amongst the records of the town of Southampton there is a minute and authentic account of the encampment before the embarkation, and that the low plain where the army lay ready to go on board is now entirely covered with sea, and called West Port.

The first Scene of this Act brings us at once before Harfleur. The negociations alluded to in the chorus had occurred at Winchester, in the July preceding the invasion. No opposition was made to the landing of Henry's army on the 14th, when the disembarkation took place at Clef de Caux (about three miles from Harfleur), before which place the fleet had arrived on the 13th. Sir H. Nicolas, in his 'History of the Battle of Agincourt,' has translated a very curious Latin manuscript in the Cotton collection, being the narrative of a priest who accompanied the expedition. In this narrative the landing is thus described: "The king, with the greater part of his army, landed in small vessels, boats, and skiffs, and immediately took up a position on the hill nearest Harfleur, having on the one side, on the declivity of the valley, a coppice wood towards the river Seine, and on the other enclosed farms and orchards." In the vignette at the head of Act III. we have given a view of the high grounds between Havre and Harfleur, as they now appear, clothed with their "coppice wood towards the river Seine." With this Illustration we also present a distant view of Harfleur. Both these interesting representa