Suffolk first dy'd; and York, all haggled over, Upon thefe words I came, and cheer'd him up; So did he turn, and over Suffolk's neck The pretty and fweet manner of it forc'd 4 But all my mother came into mine And gave me up to tears. K. Henry. I blame you not; eyes, 5 For, hearing this, I muft perforce compound With mistful eyes, or they will iffue too. But, hark! what new alarum is this fame? [Alarm, The French have re-inforc'd their scatter'd men ; But all my mother came into mine eyes And gave me up to tears.] This thought is apparently copied by Milton, Par. Loft, þ. xi compaffion quell'd "His beft of man, and gave him up to tears." 5 For, bearing this, I must perforce compound With mixtful eyès, STEEVENS. The poet must have wrote, mifful: i. e. juft ready to over-run with tears. The word he took from his obfervation of nature: for just before the bursting out of tears the eyes grow dim as if in a mift. WARBURTON. Then Then every foldier kill his prisoners; Give the word through. 7S CENE VII. Exeunt, Alarums continued; after which, Enter Fluellen and 8 Gower. Flu. Kill the poys and the luggage! 'tis exprefsly against the law of arms; 'tis as arrant a piece of kna Give the word through.] Here the quartos 1600 and 1608 add: 7 Scene VII. Here, in the other editions, they begin the fourth act, very abfurdly, fince both the place and time evidently continue, and the words of Fluellen immediately follow thofe of the king just before. POPE. 8 Kill the poyes and the luggage! 'tis expressly against the law of arms:] In the old folios, the 4th act is made to begin here. But as the matter of the Chorus, which is to come betwixt the 4th and 5th acts, will by no means fort with the Scenery that here follows, I have chose to fall in with the other regulation. Mr. Pope gives a reason why this fcene fhould be connective to the preceding feene; but his reafon, according to custom, is a miftaken one. The words of Fluellen," fays he, "immediately follow those of the king just before." The king's last words, at his going off, were: Then ev'ry foldier kill his prisoners: Give the word through. Now Mr. Pope muft very accurately fuppofe, that Fluellen over hears this; and that by replying, Kill the poyes and the luggage! tis exprefly against the law of arms; he is condemning the king's order, as against martial difcipline. But this is a molt abfurd fuppofition. Fluellen neither overhears, nor replies to, what the king had faid; nor has kill the poyes and the luggage, any reference to the foldiers killing their prifoners. Nay, on the contrary (as there is no interval of an act here) there must be fome little paufe betwixt the king's going off, and Fluellen's entering (and therefore I have faid, Alarms continued ;) for we find by Gower's firft fpeech, that the foldiers had already cut their prifoners throats, which required fome time to do. The matter is this. The baggage, during the battle (as king Henry had no men to fpare) was guarded only by boys and lacqueys; which fome French run-aways getting notice of, they came down upon the English camp-boys, whom they kill'd, and plun dered, knavery, mark you now, as can be offer'd, in the 'orld; In your confcience now, is it not? Gow. 'Tis certain, there's not a boy left alive; and the cowardly rafcals, that ran away from the battle, have done this flaughter: befides, they have burn'd or carried away all that was in the king's tent; wherefore the king, moft worthily, has caus'd every foldier to cut his prifoner's throat. O, 'tis a gallant king! Flu. I, he was porn at Monmouth, captain Gower: What call you the town's name, where Alexander the pig was born? Gow. Alexander the great. Flu. Why, I pray you, is not pig, great? the pig, or the great, or the mighty, or the huge, or the magnanimous, are all one reckonings, fave the phrafe is a little variations. Gow. I think, Alexander the great was born in Macedon, his father was called-Philip of Macedon, as I take it. Flu. I think, it is in Macedon, where Alexander is porn. I tell you, captain,-If you look in the maps of the 'orld, I warrant, you fhall find, in the comparifons between Macedon and Monmouth, that the fituations, look you, is both alike. There is a river in Macedon; and there is alfo moreover a river at Monmouth it is call'd Wye, at Monmouth; but it is out : dered, and burn'd the baggage in refentment of which villainy it was, that the king, contrary to his wonted lenity, order'd all prifoners' throats to be cut. And to this villainy of the French run-aways Fluellen is alluding, when he fays, Kill the poyes and the luggage! The fact is fet out (as Mr. Pope might have obferved) both by Hall and Holinfhed. THEOBALD. Unhappily the king gives one reafon for his order to kill the prifoners, and Gower another. The king killed his prisoners because he expected another battle, and he had not men fufficient to guard one army and fight another. Gower declares that the gallant king has worthily ordered the prifoners to be detroyed, because the luggage was plundered, and the boys were flain. JOHNSON. of of my prains, what is the name of the other river; but 'tis all one, 'tis fo like as my fingers is to my fingers, and there is falmons in both. If you mark Alexander's life well, Harry of Monmouth's life is come after it indifferent well; for there is figures in all things. Alexander (Got knows, and you know) in his rages, and his furies, and his wraths, and his cholers, and his moods, and his difpleasures, and his indignations, and alfo being a little intoxicates in his prains, did, in his ales and his angers, look you, kill his peft friend Clytus. Gow. Our king is not like him in that; he never kill'd any of his friends. Flu. It is not well done, mark you now, to take the tales out of my mouth, ere it is made an end and finifh'd. I fpeak but in figures and comparisons of it; As Alexander is kill his friend Clytus, being in his ales and his cups; fo alfo Harry Monmouth, being in his right wits and his goot judgments, is turn away 'the fat knight with the great pelly-doublet: he was full of jefts, and gypes, and knaveries, and mocks; I am forget his name, Goz. Sir John Falstaff. Flu. That is he: I tell you, there is goot men porn at Monmouth. Gow. Here comes his majesty. As Alexander &c.] I fhould fufpect that Shakespeare, who was well read in Sir Thomas North's tranflation of Plutarch, meant these speeches of Fluellen as a ridicule on the parallels of the Greek author, in which, circumstances common to all men are affembled in oppofition, and one great action is forced into comparison with another, though as totally different in themfelves, as was the behaviour of Harry Monmouth, from that of Alexander the Great. STEEVENS. the fat knight-] This is the last time that Falstaff can make fport. The poet was loath to part with him, and has continued his memory as long as he could. JOHNSON. Alarm. Alarum, Enter king Henry, Warwick, Glofter, Exeter, &c. Flourish. K. Henry. I was not angry fince I came to France, If they will fight with us, bid them come down, 3 Befides, we'll cut the throats of those we have; 66 Enter 2 And make them skir away, ] I meet with this word in Ben Jonfon's News from the Moon, a Mafque: -blow him afore him as far as he can fee him; or fair over him with his bat's wings, &c." The word has already occurr'd in Macbeth. STEEVENS. 3 Befides, we'll cut the throats &c.] The king is in a very bloody difpofition. He has already cut the throats of his prifoners, and threatens now to cut them again. No haste of compofition could produce fuch negligence; neither was this play, which is the fecond draught of the fame defign, written in hafte. There must be fome diflocation of the fcenes. If we place thefe lines at the beginning of the twelfth fcene, the abfurdity will be removed, and the action will proceed in a regular feries. This tranfpofition might eafily happen in copies written for the players. Yet it muft not be concealed, that in the imperfect play of 1608 the order of the scenes is the fame as here. JOHNSON. The difference of the two copies may be thus accounted for, The elder was, perhaps, taken down, during the reprefentation, by the contrivance of fome bookfeller who was in hafte to publish it; or it might, with equal probability, have been collected from the repetitions of actors invited to a tavern for that purpose. The manner in which many of the fcenes are printed, adds Itrength to the fuppofition; for in these, a fingle line is generally divided into two, that the quantity of the play might be feemingly encreased.-The fecond and more ample edition may be that which regularly belonged to the playhouse; and yet with {equal |