Will. Your majesty came not like yourself: you appeared to me but as a common man; witness the night, your garments, your lowliness; and what your highness suffered under that shape, I beseech you, take it for your own fault, and not mine; for had you been as I took you for, I made no offence; therefore, I beseech your highness, pardon me.

K. Hen. Here, uncle Exeter, fill this glove with

crowns,

And give it to this fellow.-Keep it, fellow;
And wear it for an honour in thy cap,

Till I do challenge it.-Give him the crowns:
And, captain, you must needs be friends with him.
Flu. By this day and this light, the fellow has
mettle enough in his pelly;-Hold, there is twelve
pence for you, and I pray you to serve Got, and
keep you out of prawls, and prabbles, and quarrels,
and dissensions, and, I warrant you, it is the petter
for you.

Will. I will none of your money.

Flu. It is with a goot will; I can tell you, it will serve you to mend your shoes: Come, wherefore should you be so pashful? your shoes is not so goot: 'tis a goot silling, I warrant you, or I will change it.

Enter an English Herald.

K. Hen. Now, herald: are the dead number'd? Her. Here is the number of the slaughter'd French. [Delivers a Paper.

K. Hen. What prisoners of good sort are taken,

uncle?

Exe. Charles duke of Orleans, nephew to the
king;

John duke of Bourbon, and Lord Boueiqualt:
Of other lords, and barons, knights, and 'squires,
Full fifteen hundred, besides common men.

K. Hen. This note doth tell me of ten thousand
French,

That in the field lie slain: of princes, in this number,
And nobles bearing banners, there lie dead
One hundred twenty-six: added to these,
Of knights, esquires, and gallant gentlemen,
Eight thousand and four hundred; of the which,
Five hundred were but yesterday dubb'd knights3:
So that, in these ten thousand they have lost,
There are but sixteen hundred mercenaries;
The rest are - princes, barons, lords, knights, squires,
And gentlemen of blood and quality.

The names of those their nobles that lie dead,-
Charles De-la-bret, high constable of France;
Jaques of Chatillon, admiral of France;

The master of the cross-bows, Lord Rambures;
Great-master of France, the brave Sir Guischard
Dauphin;

John duke of Alençon; Antony duke of Brabant,
The brother to the duke of Burgundy;
And Edward duke of Bar: of lusty earls,
Grandpré, and Roussi, Fauconberg, and Foix,
Beaumont, and Marle, Vaudemont, and Lestrale,
Here was a royal fellowship of death!--
Where is the number of our English dead?

[Herald presents another Paper.
Edward the duke of York, the earl of Suffolk,
Sir Richard Ketley, Davy Gam, esquire1:
None else of name; and, of all other men,

3 Five hundred were but yesterday dubb'd knights. In ancient times the distribution of this honour appears to have been customary on the eve of a battle. Thus in Lawrence Minot's Sixth Poem on the Successes of King Edward III, p. 28:-

'Knightes war thar well two score,

That war new dubbed to that dance.

4 'Davy Gam, Esquire.' This gentleman being sent out by Henry, before the battle, to reconnoitre the enemy, and to find out their strength, made this report:-May it please you, my liege, there are enough to be killed, enough to be taken prisoners, and enough to run away." field. Had the poet been apprized of this circumstance, the brave He saved the king's life in the Welshman would probably have been more particularly noticed, and not have been merely a name in a muster roll.-See Drayton's Battaile of Agincourt, 1627, p. 50 and 54; and Dunster's Edition of Philips's Cyder, a poem, p. 71.

But five and twenty. O God, thy arm was here,
And not to us, but to thy arm alone
Ascribe we all.-When, without stratagem,
But in plain shock, and even play of battle,
Was ever known so great and little loss,
On one part and on the other?-Take it, God,
For it is only thine!
"Tis wonderful!

Exe.

K. Hen. Come, go we in procession to the village: And be it death proclaimed through our host, To boast of this, or take that praise from God, Which is his only.

Flu. Is it not lawful, an please your majesty, to tell how many is killed?

K. Hen. Yes, captain; but with this acknowledgment,

That God fought for us.

Flu. Yes, my conscience, he did us great goot.
K. Hen. Do we all holy rites5;

Let there be sung Non nobis, and Te Deum.
The dead with charity enclos'd in clay,
We'll then to Calais; and to England then;
Where ne'er from France arriv'd more happy men.
[Exeunt.

5 'Do we all holy rites.' "The king, when he saw no appearance of enemies, caused the retreate to be blowen; and, gathering his army together, gave thanks to Almighty God for so happy a victorie, causing his prelates and chapeleins to sing this psalme-In exitu Israel de Egypto, and commaunding every man to kneele down on the grounde at this verse-Non nobis, Domine, non nobis sed nomini tuo da gloriam; which done, he caused TE DEUM and certain anthems to be sung, giving laud and praise to God, and not boasting of his own force or any humaine power.'-Holinshed.

ACT V.

Enter CHORUS.

Chor. Vouchsafe to those that have not read the

story,

That I may prompt them: and of such as have,
I humbly pray them to admit the excuse
Of time, of numbers, and due course of things,
Which cannot in their huge and proper life
Be here presented. Now we bear the king
Toward Calais: grant him there; there seen1,
Heave him away upon your winged thoughts,
Athwart the sea: Behold, the English beach
Pales in the flood with men, with wives, and boys,
Whose shouts and claps outvoice the deep-mouth'd

sea,

Which, like a mighty whiffler 'fore the king,
Seems to prepare his way: so let him land;
And, solemnly, see him set on to London.
So swift a pace hath thought, that even now
You may imagine him upon Blackheath:

1 'Toward Calais: grant him there; there seen.' Steevens proposes, in order to complete the metre, that we should read:"Toward Calais: grant him there; there seen awhile.'

2

'Which, like a mighty whiffler 'fore the king,
Seems to prepare his way.'

Whifflers were persons going before a great personage or procession, furnished with staves or wands to clear the way. The junior liverymen of the city companies, who walk first in pròcessions, are still called whifflers, from the circumstance of their going before. There have been several errors, as Mr. Douce remarks, in the attempts to give the origin of the term: he derives it from whiffle, which, he says, is another name for a fife, as fifers usually preceded armies or processions. It strikes me that it may be only a corruption of way-feeler, as. it exists in several northern tongues. In the old Teutonic and in the Flemish weyffeler, or wjifeler has the same meaning as our whiffler. Bastoniera, in Italian, is 'a verger, a mace bearer, a stickler, or a whiffler, also a cudgeller, a staffman, according to Torriano. Minsheu renders a whiffler, 'Bastonero, in Spanish, i. e. a clubman.' And Grose, who thought the word local, says, 'Whifflers are men who make way for the corporation of Norwich by flourishing their swords.'

Where that his lords desire him, to have borne
His bruised helmet, and his bended sword,
Before him, through the city: he forbids it,
Being free from vainness and self-glorious pride;
Giving full trophy, signal, and ostent,

Quite from himself, to God3. But now behold,
In the quick forge and workinghouse of thought,
How London doth pour out her citizens!
The mayor, and all his brethren, in best sort,—
Like to the senators of the antique Rome,
With the plebeians swarming at their heels,-
Go forth, and fetch their conquering Caesar in:
As, by a lower, but by loving likelihood,
Were now the general of our gracious empress
(As, in good time, he may), from Ireland coming,
Bringing rebellion broached on his sword,
How many would the peaceful city quit,

To welcome him? much more, and much more

cause,

Did they this Harry. Now in London place him; (As yet the lamentation of the French

Invites the king of England's stay at home):
The emperor's coming in behalf of France,

3 i. e. transferring all the honours of conquest from himself to God. 4 i. e. similitude.

si. e. the earl of Essex. Shakspeare grounded his anticipation of such a reception for Essex on his return from Ireland, upon what had already occurred at his setting forth, when he was accompanied by an immense concourse of all ranks, showering blessings upon his head. The continuator of Stowe's Chronicle gives us a long account of it. But how unfortunately different his return was from what the poet predicted, may be seen in the Sydney Papers, vol. ii. p. 127.

• Broached is spitted, transfixed.

"The emperor's coming.' The Emperor Sigismund, who was married to Henry's second cousin.. This passage stands in the following embarrassed and obscure manner in the folio :

Now in London place him.

As yet the lamentation of the French
Invites the king of England's stay at home:
The emperor's coming in behalf of France,
To order peace between them and omit
All the occurrences,' &c.

The liberty I have taken is to transpose the word and, and sub. stitute we in its place.