court, where Charles VI. is surrounded by the Dauphin, the Duke of Burgundy, and the constable, Charles D'Albret. The mention of Burgundy is, I believe, erroneous; nor did Shakspeare` find it in Holinshed. Burgundy had not, at this time, come in person to the succour of the king. Indeed, a negociation had been on foot between him and Henry V., one object of which was the marriage of the king with Catherine of Burgundy; and it has been supposed that the distracted state of France between the Burgundian and Orleans factions, were among the inducements to Henry's invasion. Nevertheless, he sent his forces to join the king's army.

The Dauphin is again made to hold Henry for a trifler :

"She is so idly king'd,

Her sceptre so fantastically borne,

By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth,

That fear attends her not."

The constable corrects him, but speaks of the king's "vanities fore-spent." All this is in keeping with the whole plot of these plays, and with popular belief, but there is neither probability nor record to support the notion, that the French had a low opinion of Henry, whom they had indeed found

"how terrible in constant resolution."

Ambassadors from England are now announced, and the Duke of Exeter appears. Here a great liberty is taken with history. Exeter's mission, as mentioned by Holinshed,* took place a considerable time before Henry went to France, or even to Southampton. But I do not find that Exeter was in any one of Henry's missions to the French king; nor was there any mission, as this is described to be, after the landing of the English in France.

"Exeter. Dispatch us with all speed, lest that our king Come here himself to question our delay, For he is footed in this land already."

$

Henry landed on the 14th of August, 1415. There had been two embassies to France, one in January, 1414, the other in May, 1415.† The most recent ambassage was from France to England, whither the Archbishop of Bourges (who is introduced into the old play) was sent only one month before the embarkation of Henry. Of this negociation there are various accounts, but it ap pears to have been broken off upon the amount of the money which the Princess Catherine of France was to bring to England, and of her dower, and of the time at which the payment should be made. The demand of the crown of France was suspended,

* P. 67.

+ Nicolas, p. 122.

but I am inclined to agree with Sir Harris Nicolas, that Henry was at this time resolved upon war.

That Shakspeare now relied more upon popular tradition than upon his usual authority, is apparent from his discrepancy with Holinshed, as to the terms demanded on this the last occasion.

"At time prefixed, (at Winchester), before the king's presence, sitting on his throne imperial, the Archbishop of Bruges made an eloquent and a long oration, dissuading war, and praising peace; offering the King of England a great sum of money, with divers countries, being in very deed but fair and poor, as a dowry with the lady Catherine, in marriage, so that he would dissolve his army and dismiss his soldiers, which he had gathered and put in a readiness. When his oration was ended, the king caused the ambassadors to be highly feasted, and set them at his own table. And, after a day assigned in the foresaid hall, the Archbishop of Canterbury to their oration made a notable answer, the effect of which was, that if the French king would not give with his daughter in marriage the duchies of Aquitain, Anjou, and all other signories and dominions sometime appertaining to the noble progenitors of the King of England, he would in no wise retire his army, nor break his journey; but would with all diligence enter into France, destroy the people, waste the country, and subvert the town with blood, sword, and fire, and never cease till he had recovered his ancient right and lawful patrimony. The king avowed the archbishop's saying,

and on the word of a prince, promised to perform it to the uttermost."

There is here no peremptory demand of the crown of France.

I venture to admire the introduction to the third act, in spite of Dr. Johnson.

"Chorus. Thus, with imagin'd wing, our swift scene flies,

In motion of no less celerity

Than that of thought. Suppose that you have seen
The well-appointed king at Hampton pier

Embark his royalty; and his brave fleet

With silken streamers the young Phœbus fanning.
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 furrow'd sea,
Breasting the lofty surge: O, do but think
You stand upon the rivage, and behold
A city on the inconstant billows dancing;
For so appears this fleet majestical,

Holding due course to Harfleur. Follow, follow!
Grapple your minds to sternage of this navy,
And leave you England, as dead midnight still,
Guarded with grandsires, babies, and old women,
Either pass'd, or not arrived to, pith and puissance :
For who is he, whose chin is but enrich'd

With one appearing hair, that will not follow
These cull'd and choice-drawn cavaliers to France?
Work, work your thoughts, and therein see a siege;
Behold the ordnance on their carriages,

With fatal mouths gaping on girded Harfleur.
Suppose the ambassador from the French comes back;
Tells Harry, that the king doth offer him
Katharine his daughter; and with her, to dowry,
Some petty and unprofitable dukedoms.
The offer likes not; and the nimble gunner
With linstock now the devilish cannon touches,
And down goes all before them. Still be kind,
And eke out our performance with your mind."

As Shakspeare does not follow history in the negociations between Henry and the French government, I know not to which of the numerous proposals that were interchanged he now alludes. But it is true that the Archbishop of Bourges, whom I have already mentioned, offered "Angouleme and Bijome, and various other territories,”* very inferior to Henry's demand.

We now find Henry and his army before Harfleur. His address to his soldiers may perhaps be suggested by one which Holinshed+ ascribes to a later period of the campaign :

a right grave oration moving them to play the men, whereby to obtain a glorious victory, as there was

* Nicolas, p. 3.

† P. 79