"_Cant_. If it pass against us
We lose the better half of our possession.
_Ely_. This would drink deep.
_Cant_. 'Twould drink the cup and all."
_Henry V._, act i., sc. 1.
Though Henry did not touch the property of the English Church, he
appropriated the revenues of one hundred and ten priories held by
aliens, and made no restitution.
Page 15, l. 32 [Stz. 11]. "_Thus frames his speech._" --"There is no
record of any speech made by Chicheley at this parliament; we search for
it in vain in the rolls of parliament, and in the history of the Privy
Council." --Dean Hook, who adds in a note, "No notice would have been
taken of what was meant by Hall for a display of his own rhetoric, if
such splendid use of it had not been made by Shakespeare in the first
scene of 'Henry V.'" Drayton's version of the speech departs almost
entirely from that given by the chroniclers, who make Chicheley, as no
doubt he would have done, dwell at great length upon Henry's alleged
claim to the crown of France, and omit all topics unbefitting a man of
peace. Drayton greatly curtails Chicheley's legal arguments, and makes
him talk like a warrior and a statesman. Shakespeare has shown his usual
exquisite judgment by following Holinshed closely as regards the matter
of Chicheley's formal harangue, and relegating his exhortation to Henry
to follow the example of the Black Prince to a separate discourse,
marked off from the first by the king's interruption. Drayton has also
missed an opportunity in omitting Henry's impressive appeal to the
archbishop to advise him conscientiously in the matter, by which
Shakespeare has set his hero's character in the most favourable point of
view from the very first.
Page 17, l. 9 [Stz. 17]. "_Beame._" --Bohemia.
Page 19, ll. 13, 14 [Stz. 25]. "_And for they knew, the French did still
abet The Scot against vs._" --The discussion between Westmorland and
Exeter on the expediency of first attacking Scotland is found in
Holinshed. In the rude old play, "The Famous Victories of Henry the
Fifth," on which Shakespeare founded his "Henry IV." and "Henry V.," the
argument for attacking Scotland first is put into the mouth of the
Archbishop of Canterbury. Shakespeare's noble expansion of this scene
from the hints of his artless predecessor and of the chroniclers is one
of the most signal proofs of the superiority of his genius.
Page 20, l. 1 [Stz. 28]. "_And instantly an Embassy is sent._" --Of the
letters written by Henry on this occasion, Sir Harris Nicolas remarks in
his standard work on the Battle of Agincourt, "Their most striking
features are falsehood, hypocrisy, and impiety." Being so bad, they are
naturally attributed by him to the much maligned Cardinal Beaufort. It
is admitted that "in some places they approach nearly to eloquence, and
they are throughout clear, nervous, and impressive." They are defended
at great length by Mr. Tyler, in his "Life of Henry V."
Page 20, l. 20 [Stz. 30]. "_A Tunne of Paris Tennis balls him sent._"
--This incident, so famous from the use made of it by Shakespeare, is
in all probability historical, being mentioned by Thomas Otterbourne,
a contemporary writer, and in an inedited MS. chronicle of the same
date. These are quoted by Sir Harris Nicolas and in Mr. Julian
Marshall's erudite "Annals of Tennis" (London, 1878). Its being omitted
by other contemporaries is no strong argument against its authenticity.
Drayton follows Shakespeare and the chronicler Hall in writing _tunne_.
Holinshed uses the less poetical term _barrel_.