"I'le send him Balls and Rackets if I liue
That they such Racket shall in Paris see,
When ouer lyne with Bandies I shall driue,
As that before the Set be fully done,
France may (perhaps) into the Hazard runne."
On these lines Mr. Julian Marshall observes: "This passage is
remarkable, as offering one of the first examples of the double sense of
_racket_, meaning hubbub as well as the implement used in tennis; and
also as showing the early use of the word _bandy_, which we shall find
recurring later in the history of the game." None of the historians who
have related the incident mention the pointed reply to the Dauphin put
into Henry's mouth by Shakespeare, that he would "strike his father's
crown into the hazard." The old playwright on whose foundation
Shakespeare built merely says, "Tel him that in stead of balles of
leather we wil tosse him balles of brasse and yron." Drayton must
consequently have borrowed the term from Shakespeare, which is a pretty
conclusive proof of his having read "Henry V." as well as witnessed its
performance. Regarding Shakespeare's justification for the technical
terms used by him, Mr. Marshall judiciously remarks: "It is certain that
tennis was played and that rackets were used in the time of Henry V.;
but whether chases were marked and a hazard invented, and to which of
our hazards that hazard would answer, are questions which we cannot
solve, and which doubtless never troubled 'sweet Will' for one single
moment."
Sir Harris Nicolas prints in his appendix a ballad on the story of the
tennis balls, "obligingly communicated by Bertram Mitford, of Mitford
Castle, in Northumberland, Esquire, who wrote it from the dictation of a
very aged relative." He also gives another version, from what source
derived is not stated. The Roxburghe collection of ballads at the
British Museum contains yet a third version, which, as it differs in
many respects from the other two, is printed as an appendix to these
Notes. Judging from the type, the date of the Museum broadside would
appear to be about 1750, and the piece itself can hardly be earlier than
the eighteenth century.
Page 21, l. 18 [Stz. 34]. "_Iacks._" --Machines for planing metal.
Page 21, l. 19. "_An olde Fox._" --Sword, so called, it is said, from
the figure of a fox anciently engraved upon the blade; or, as Nares
suggests, from the name of some celebrated cutler. "Thou diest on point
of fox" (Shakespeare, "Henry V.," act iv., sc. 4).
Page 21, l. 23. "_Fletcher._" --An arrow-maker (_flechier_), with which
trade the manufacture of bows, properly the business of the _bowyer_,
was naturally combined. The frequency of the name in our own day might
be alleged in proof of the ancient importance of the industry, but in
most cases it is probably derived from _flesher_, a butcher.
Page 22, l. 1 [Stz. 36]. "_The Light-horse and the Bard._" --A _barded_
horse (French _bardelle_, a pack-saddle) is one with the body entirely
covered with armour. "For he was _barded_ from counter to tail" ("Lay of
the Last Minstrel").
Page 23, l. 17 [Stz. 42]. "_The scarlet Iudge might now set vp his
Mule._" --"Judges and serjeants rode to Westminster Hall on mules;
whence it is said of a young man studying the law, 'I see he was never
born to ride upon a _moyle_' ('Every Man out of his Humour,' ii. 3);
that is, he will never be eminent in his profession" (Nares). It is an
odd example of the mutations of ordinary speech that if we now heard of
a judge setting up a mule, we should understand the exact contrary of
what was understood by Drayton. A modern writer would more probably have
said, set _down_.
Page 23, l. 25 [Stz. 43]. "_By this, the Counsell of this Warre had
met._" --A curious echo of Spenser: "By this the northern waggoner had
set."
Page 24, l. 16 [Stz. 45]. "_Sleeue._" --Entirely obsolete in English,
but France still knows the Channel as _La Manche_.
Page 24, l. 19 [Stz. 46]. "_Scripts of Mart._" --Letters of marque.
"_Mart_, originally for _Mars_. It was probably this use of _mart_ that
led so many authors to use letters of mart, instead of marque, supposing
it to mean _letters of war_. Under this persuasion Drayton put 'script
of mart' as equivalent" (Nares).
Page 24, l. 22. "_Deepe._" --Dieppe.
Page 24, l. 28 [Stz. 47]. "_Like the huge Ruck from Gillingham that
flewe._" --It seems remarkable to meet with the _roc_ of the "Arabian
Nights" in English so long before the existence of any translation. The
word, however, occurs in Bishop Hall's "Satires," thirty years before
Drayton. It probably came into our language from the Italian, being
first used by Marco Polo, who says (part iii., chap. 35): "To return to
the griffon; the people of the island do not know it by that name, but
call it always _ruc_; but we, from their extraordinary size, certainly
conclude them to be griffons."
Page 25, l. 2 [Stz. 48]. "_Stoad._" --Not found in the dictionaries, but
apparently equivalent to _stowage_, and hence in this place to _cargo_.
Page 25, ll. 5, 6. "_Straitly commanded by the Admirall, At the same
Port to settle their aboad._" --"On the 11th of April, 1415, Nicholas
Mauduyt, serjeant-at-arms, was commanded to arrest all ships and other
vessels carrying twenty tons or more, _as well belonging to this kingdom
as to other countries_, which were then in the river Thames, and in
other sea-ports of the realm as far as Newcastle-upon-Tyne, or which
might arrive there before the 1st of May, and the said vessels were to
be at the ports of Southampton, London, or Winchelsea by the 8th of May
at the latest" (Sir Harris Nicolas).
Page 25, l. 28 [Stz. 51]. "_Bay of Portugall_" = Bay of Biscay.
Page 26, l. 14 [Stz. 53]. "_Pruce._" --Prussia.
Page 26, l. 23 [Stz. 54]. "_Flee-boats._" --Flyboats, Fr. _flibots_,
which affords a more probable etymology than _freebooter_ for
_flibustier_ and _filibuster_.
Page 27, ll. 17, 18 [Stz. 58]. "_From Holland, Zeland, and from Flanders
wonne By weekely pay, threescore twelue Bottoms came._" --"It was one of
the earliest measures to secure shipping from Holland" (Nicolas). The
total number of ships enumerated by Drayton as joining in the rendezvous
at Southampton is one hundred and seventy-eight, the foreign hired
vessels included. A contemporary authority quoted by Sir Harris Nicolas
makes it three hundred and twenty, made up by contingents from the
neighbouring havens to between twelve and fourteen hundred. According to
the list published by Sir Harris Nicolas, the number of effective
fighting men did not exceed ten thousand five hundred, though there were
probably as many more attendants and camp-followers.
Page 27, l. 31 [Stz. 59]. "_The acclamation of the presse._" --Might be
said in our time of any popular war, but in how different a sense!
Page 28, l. 1 [Stz. 60]. --This and the following stanza are quoted by
Sir Harris Nicolas with just admiration. In fact, Drayton's description
of the marshalling and departure of the expedition are the best part of
his poem.
Page 29, ll. 4-6 [Stz. 64]. "_In Ensignes there, Some wore the Armes of
their most ancient Towne, Others againe their owne Diuises beare._"
--The catalogue which follows is entirely in the spirit of Italian
romantic poetry, and may be especially compared with that of Agramante's
allies and their insignia in the "Orlando Innamorato." In many instances
the device, as Drayton says, represents the escutcheon of some town
within the county; in others he seems to have been indebted to his
imagination, though endeavouring not unsuccessfully to adduce some
reason for his choice.
Page 30, l. 11 [Stz. 68]. "_Brack._" --Brine.
Page 30, l. 20 [Stz. 69]. "_Lyam._" --A band or thong by which to lead a
hound; hence _lyme-hound_.
Page 31, l. 3 [Stz. 71]. "_A Golden Fleece and Hereford doth weare._"
--Grammar requires this line to begin _And Hereford_. Awkward
dislocations, however, are not infrequent in Drayton.
Page 31, l. 6. "_The Shiere whose surface seems most brute._" --George
Eliot, like Drayton a native of fertile Warwickshire, entitles the
neighbouring county _Stonyshire_.
Page 33, l. 17 [Stz. 80]. "_The Fleet then full,_" _etc._ --Compare this
fine stanza, which might have been written by one who had never been on
shipboard, with the still more poetical and at the same time intensely
realistic one of Shakespeare ("Henry V.," act iii., prologue), which
proves that he must have been at sea on some occasion:
"Play with your fancies, and in them behold
Upon the hempen tackle ship-boys climbing;
Hear the shrill whistle which doth order give
To sounds confused; behold the threaden sails,
Borne with the invisible and creeping wind,
Draw the huge bottoms through the furrowed sea."
Page 34, ll. 9, 10 [Stz. 83]. "_Long Boates with Scouts are put to land
before, Vpon light Naggs the Countrey to discry._" --"Before day-break
the next morning, Wednesday the 14th of August, John Holland, Earl of
Huntingdon, Sir Gilbert Umfreville, and Sir John Cornwall, were sent
with a party of cavalry to reconnoitre Harfleur and its vicinity, with
the view of selecting a proper situation for the encampment of the army"
(Sir Harris Nicolas).
Page 35, l. 1 [Stz. 86]. "_To the high'st earth whilst awfull Henry
gets._" --_Whilst_ must here be taken as = _meanwhile_.
Page 35, l. 3. "_With sprightly words_" _etc._ --The confusion in this
line is evidently due to the printer. Drayton must have written: "And
thus with sprightly words," etc.
Page 35, l. 9 [Stz. 87]. "_He first of all proclaim'd._"
--"A proclamation was issued forbidding under pain of death a repetition
of some excesses which had been committed, and commanding that
henceforth the houses should not be set on fire, or the churches or
other sacred places violated, and that the persons of women and priests
should be held sacred" (Sir Harris Nicolas). Holinshed adds, "or to any
suche as should be founde withoute weapon or armor, and not ready to
make resistance."
Page 36, l. 30 [Stz. 93]. "_Shee so instructed is by Natures Lawes._"
--A characteristic instance of this excellent poet's frequent and
unaccountable lapses into bathos.
Page 38, l. 7 [Stz. 98]. "_Whose Mynes to the besieg'd more mischiefe
doe._" --Holinshed, however, admits that the French "with their
countermining somewhat disappointed the Englishmen, and came to fight
with them hand to hand within the mynes, so that they went no further
forward with that worke."
Page 41, l. 30 [Stz. 113]. "_But on his bare feete to the Church he
came._" --"He dismounted at the gate, took off his shoes and stockings,
and proceeded barefoot to the church of St. Martin, where he gave solemn
thanks to God for his success" (Sir Harris Nicolas, quoting the French
chroniclers), Holinshed mentions Henry's repairing to the church to
offer thanks, but omits the picturesque circumstance of his going
thither barefoot, and passes over his entrance into the town in the
briefest possible manner. It is an interesting proof of Shakespeare's
dependence upon the chronicler to find him equally ignoring any solemn
entry or prolonged sojourn:
"To-night in Harfleur will we be your guest,
To-morrow for the march are we addrest."
In fact, as Drayton tells us, he remained eight days in Harfleur,
awaiting the Dauphin's reply to his challenge, which Holinshed does not
mention. Shakespeare, Drayton, and Holinshed alike pass over the
exceedingly picturesque circumstance of the expulsion of the women and
children under escort of the English troops. Drayton only says: "Out of
the Ports all Vagrants he doth driue."
Page 42, ll. 7, 8 [Stz. 114]. "_He frankly off'reth in a single fight,
With the young Daulphine to decide his right._" --Sir Harris Nicolas
remarks: "Of the personal valour which that letter displays on the part
of Henry but little can be said, for the challenger was about
twenty-seven years of age, and in the full vigour of manhood, whilst his
adversary, of whose prowess or bodily strength there is not the
slightest evidence, and who died in the December following, had not
attained his twentieth year."
Page 43, ll. 15, 16 [Stz. 119]. "_A Ford was found to set his Army ore
Which neuer had discouered beene before._" --This cannot be, for the
anonymous priest to whose narrative as an eyewitness of the campaign we
are so deeply indebted, says, "The approach was by two long but narrow
causeways, which the French had before warily broken through the middle"
(Nicolas, p. 233).
Page 44, l. 1 [Stz. 122]. "_Therfore they both in solemne Counsaile
satt._" --This council was held on October 20th, five days before
Agincourt. "The opinions of the different members," says Sir Harris
Nicolas, "are very minutely given by Des Ursins."
Page 44, l. 2. "_Britaine._" --Brittany. The Duke of Brittany, in fact,
did not arrive in time to take part in the battle.
Page 44, l. 17 [Stz. 124]. "_A Route of tatter'd Rascalls starued so._"
--Holinshed's description of the condition of the English army is most
graphic: "The English men were brought into great misery in this
journey, their victuall was in maner spent, and nowe coulde they get
none: for their enemies had destroied all the corne before they came:
reste could they none take, for their enemies were ever at hande to give
them alarmes: dayly it rained, and nightly it freesed: of fewell there
was great scarsitie, but of fluxes greate plenty: money they hadde
enoughe, but of wares to bestowe it uppon for their reliefe or comforte,
hadde they little or none. And yet in this great necessitye the poore
people of the countrey were not spoiled, nor any thyng taken of them
wythout payment, neyther was any outrage or offence done by the
Englishemenne of warre, except one, whiche was, that a folish souldiour
stale a pixe out of a churche." Shakespeare's use of this incident is
well known.
Page 46, l. 28 [Stz. 133]. "_Spirits._" --Must here be pronounced as a
monosyllable, as at p. 67, l. 18.
Page 48, l. 6 [Stz. 138]. "_Till their foule noyse doth all the ayre
infest._" --Drayton probably stands alone among English poets in
disliking the music of the rookery.
Page 49, l. 15 [Stz. 143]. "_Quoyts, Lots, and Dice for Englishmen to
cast._" --"The captaines had determined before howe to devide the
spoile, and the souldiours the night before had plaid the englishemen at
dice" (Holinshed).
Page 50, l. 9 [Stz. 147]. "_And cast to make a Chariot for the King._"
--This circumstance also is mentioned by Holinshed, and is authenticated
by the anonymous priest.
Page 50, ll. 31, 32 [Stz. 149]. "_Some pointing Stakes to stick into the
ground, To guard the Bow-men._" --Henry had ordered the archers to
provide themselves with stakes even before the passage of the Somme.
Page 51, l. 25 [Stz. 153]. "_King Richards wrongs, to minde, Lord doe
not call._" --Drayton evidently follows Shakespeare, but remains a long
way behind:
"Not to-day, O Lord,
O, not to-day, think not upon the fault
My father made in compassing the crown!
I Richard's body have interred new:
And on it have bestowed more contrite tears
Than from it issued forced drops of blood:
Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay,
Who twice a day their withered hands hold up
Toward heaven, to pardon blood; and I have built
Two chantries, where the sad and solemn priests
Sing still for Richard's soul. More will I do;
Though all that I can do is nothing worth,
Since that my penitence comes after all,
Imploring pardon."
_Henry V._, act iv., sc. 1.
Shakespeare's infinite superiority in moral delicacy, not merely to his
imitator, but to all poets except the very best, is forcibly shown by
his causing Henry to abstain from all attempts to excuse his father and
himself at the expense of Richard, so natural in the mouth of an
ordinary person, so unbecoming a hero.
Page 52, ll. 6, 7 [Stz. 154]. "_When as that Angell to whom God assign'd
The guiding of the English._" --This fine passage may very probably have
been in Dryden's mind when he planned the machinery of his unwritten
epic, and in Addison's when he penned the famous simile of the Angel in
his poem on Blenheim.
Page 52, ll. 29, 30 [Stz. 157]. "_Foorth that braue King couragious
Henry goes, An hower before that it was fully light._" --No personal
reconnoissance on Henry's part is mentioned by the historians, although
Sir Harris Nicolas says, on the authority of Elmham: "About the middle
of the night, before the moon set, Henry sent persons to examine the
ground, by whose report he was better able to draw up his forces on the
next day." As the English were the assailants, the precaution of posting
the archers behind the quickset hedge would have proved unnecessary.
Page 55, l. 27 [Stz. 169]. "_His coruetting Courser._" --"A little grey
horse." He wore no spurs, probably to show his men that he entertained
no thought of flight.
Page 56, l. 20 [Stz. 172]. "_To know what he would for his Ransome
pay._" --This is mentioned by Holinshed, but cannot be true, for all
contemporary authorities agree that the French sent envoys to Henry on
the morning of the battle offering him a free passage to Calais upon
condition of surrendering Harfleur. This would seem to indicate that the
leaders did not fully share the confidence of their troops.
Page 57, ll. 3, 4 [Stz. 174]. "_And strongly fixe the Diadem of France,
Which to this day vnsteady doth remaine._" --No Frenchman could have
said this on such an occasion. Drayton would make for any port when in
stress of rhyme.
Page 57, l. 16 [Stz. 175]. "_Thus to his Souldiers comfortably spake._"
--Drayton's version of his speech in the main agrees with Holinshed's.
Shakespeare, usually so close a follower of Holinshed, substitutes an
oration entirely of his own composition. The beautiful lines--
"For he this day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile
This day shall gentle his condition"--
appear to be derived from the same source as the exaggerated statement
of Archbishop Des Ursins, that on another occasion Henry promised that
his plebeian soldiers should be ennobled and invested with collars of
SS. This cannot be taken directly from Des Ursins, whose history of the
reign of Charles VI., though written in the fifteenth century, was not
published until 1614.
Page 58, ll. 9, 10 [Stz. 179]. "_When hearing one wish all the valiant
men At home in England, with them present were._" --According to the
anonymous monk, who may be fully relied upon, the speaker was Sir Walter
Hungerford. Shakespeare puts the sentiment into the mouth of the Earl of
Westmorland.
Page 59, l. 9 [Stz. 183]. "_At the full Moone looke how th'vnweldy
Tide_" _etc._ --These lines are clearly a reminiscence of
Shakespeare's--
"Let the brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean."
_Henry V._, prologue to act iii.
Page 62, l. 21 [Stz. 196]. "_Dampeir._" --Chatillon, Admiral of France,
was also Lord of Dampierre. It must be by inadvertence that Sir Harris
Nicolas (p. 121) speaks of Cliquet de Brabant, whom Drayton calls Cluet,
as Admiral.
Page 63, l. 6 [Stz. 198]. "_Could._" --Must have been pronounced cold,
as it was sometimes written. See also p. 83, l. 26.
Page 63, l. 16 [Stz. 199]. "_Cantels._" --Corners (Germ. Kant); hence =
morsels, though Shakespeare speaks of "a monstrous cantle."
Page 66, ll. 11, 12 [Stz. 211]. "_Bespeaking them with honourable words
Themselues their prisoners freely and confesse._" --One of Drayton's
awkward inversions. The anonymous ecclesiastic says that some of the
French nobles surrendered themselves more than ten times, and were slain
after all.
Page 72, l. 15 [Stz. 235]. "_In comes the King his Brothers life to
saue._" --"The Duke of Gloucester, the King's brother, was sore wounded
about the hippes, and borne down to the ground, so that he fel
backwards, with his feete towards his enemies, whom the King bestridde,
and like a brother valiantly rescued him from his enimies, and so saving
his life, caused him to be conveyed out of the fight into a place of
more safetie" (Holinshed).
Page 72, ll. 25, 26 [Stz. 237]. "_Vpon the King Alanzon prest so sore,
That with a stroke,_" _etc._ --There seems no contemporary authority for
the single combat between Henry and Alencon of which Shakespeare has
made such ingenious use in his management of the incident of Henry's
glove. According to one account, Alencon struck at the King somewhat
unfairly as he was stooping to aid his brother, and smote off a piece of
his crown. According to another authority, the blow was given by one of
a band of eighteen knights who had sworn to strike the diadem from
Henry's head, or perish in the attempt, as they all did.
Page 82, l. 28 [Stz. 277]. "_Nock._" --Notch.
Page 83, l. 16 [Stz. 279]. "_Tue._" --Must be pronounced as a
dissyllable; but the French cry was more probably _tuez_.
Page 85, l. 28 [Stz. 289]. "_Base._" --Run as at prisoners' base.
Murray's "Dictionary" cites one example of the use of the word in this
sense, which is from Warner's "Albion's England," a poem read and
admired by Drayton.
Page 87, l. 27 [Stz. 297]. "_Clunasse._" --A misprint for _Clamasse_.
Page 87, l. 27. "_Dorpe_" = thorpe, a word revived by Tennyson in "The
Brook."
Page 88, ll. 17, 18 [Stz. 300]. "_And in his rage he instantly commands,
That euery English should his prisoner kill._"--
"I was not angry since I came to France
Until this instant."
_Henry V._, act iv., sc. 7.
Page 92, l. 15 [Stz. 315]. "_And so tow'rds Callice brauely marching
on._" --This is certainly a flat conclusion. It is surprising that
Drayton made no use of the appearance of the herald Montjoy on the
field, with confession of defeat and appeal for--
"Charitable licence,
That we may wander o'er this bloody field
To book our dead, and then to bury them."
_Henry V._, act iv., sc. 7.