Put forth disorder'd twigs; her fallow leas The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth And as our vineyards *, fallows, meads, and hedges, As a hedge, however, that is even-pleached or woven together, and one that is clipt, are alike reduced to an even surface, our author, with his usual licence, might have meant only by evenpleached, our hedges which were heretofore clipp'd smooth and even." 66 The line "Like prisoners," &c. it should be observed, relates to the one which follows, and not to that which precedes it. The construction is, Her even-pleached hedges put forth disordered twigs, resembling persons in prison, whose faces are from neglect over-grown with hair.' MALONE. '-coulter-] The ploughshare. See Johnson's Dict. in voce. REED. 2 - deracinate-] To deracinate is to force up by the roots. So, in Troilus and Cressida : 3 all-] Old copy, unmetrically-withall. STEEvens. 4 And as our vineyards,] The old copy reads-And all our vineyards. The emendation was made by Mr. Roderick. MALONE. 5 Defective in their NATURES,] Nature had been changed by some of the editors into nurture; but, as Mr. Upton observes, unnecessarily. "Sua deficiuntur natura." They were not defective in their crescive nature, for they grew to wildness; but they were defective in their proper and favourable nature, which was to bring forth food for man. STEEVENS. Have lost, or do not learn, for want of time, K. HEN. If, duke of Burgundy, you would the peace, Whose want gives growth to the imperfections You have, enschedul'd briefly, in your hands. as yet, There is no answer made. K. HEN. Well then, the peace, Which you before so urg'd, lies in his answer. -- 6 DIFFUS'D attire,] Diffus'd, for extravagant. The military habit of those times was extremely so. Act III. Gower says, "And what a beard of the general's cut, and a horrid suit of the camp, will do amongst, &c. is wonderful to be thought on." WARBURTON. Diffus'd is so much used by our author for wild, irregular, and strange, that in The Merry Wives of Windsor, he applies it to a song supposed to be sung by fairies. JOHNSON. So, in King Lear, vol. x. p. 48, n. 2: "If that as well I other accents borrow, "That can my speech diffuse." See note on this passage. STEEVENS. 7-former FAVOUR,] Former appearance. JOHNSON. So, in Othello: 66 nor should I know him, "Were he in favour as in humour alter'd." STEEVENS. O'er-glanc'd the articles: pleaseth your grace K. HEN. Brother, we shall.-Go, uncle Exeter,And brother Clarence,-and you, brother Gloster,Warwick, and Huntington,-go with the king: And take with you free power, to ratify, - 8 we will, suddenly, Pass OUR accept, and peremptory answer.] As the French King desires more time to consider deliberately of the articles, 'tis odd and absurd for him to say absolutely, that he would accept them all. He certainly must mean, that he would at once wave and decline what he disliked, and consign to such as he approved of. Our author uses pass in this manner in other places; as in King John: "But if you fondly pass our proffer'd love." WARBURTON. The objection is founded, I apprehend, on a misconception of the word accept, which does not, I think, import that he would accept them all, but means acceptation. We will immediately, says he, deliver our acceptation of these articles, -the opinion which we shall form upon them, and our peremptory answer to each particular. Fuller, in his Worthies, 1660, uses acception for acceptation. See Sc. VII. of the preceding Act, p. 445, n. 5. If any change were to be made, I would rather read,—“ Pass or except," &c. i. e. agree to, or except against the articles, as I should either approve or dislike them. So, in a subsequent part of this scene: "Nor this I have not, brother, so denied, "But your request shall make me let it pass." MALONE. "Pass our accept, and peremptory answer." i. e. we will pass our acceptance of what we approve, and we will pass a peremptory answer to the rest. Politeness might forbid his saying, we will pass a denial, but his own dignity required more time for deliberation. Besides, if we read pass or accept, is not peremptory answer superfluous, and plainly implied in the former words? TOLLET. 9 And brother CLARENCE,] Neither Clarence nor Huntington, whom the King here addresses, has been enumerated in the Dramatis Personæ, as neither of them speaks a word. Huntington was John Holland, Earl of Huntington, who afterwards married the widow of Edmond Mortimer, Earl of March. MALONE. Augment, or alter, as your wisdoms best Q. ISA. Our gracious brother, I will go with them ; Haply, a woman's voice may do some good, She is our capital demand, compris'd [Exeunt all but Henry, Katharine, and K. HEN. her Gentlewoman. Fair Katharine, and most fair'! Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms, Such as will enter at a lady's ear, And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart? KATH. Your majesty shall mock at me; I cannot speak your England. K. HEN. O fair Katharine, if you will love me soundly with your French heart, I will be glad to hear you confess it brokenly with your English tongue. Do you like me, Kate? KATH. Pardonnez moy, I cannot tell vat is-like me. K. HEN. An angel is like you, Kate; and you are like an angel. KATH. Que dit-il? que je suis semblable à les anges? Fair Katharine, and most fair!] Shakspeare might have taken the hint for this scene from the anonymous play of Henry V. so often quoted, where the King begins with greater bluntness, and with an exordium most truly English : "How now, fair lady Katharine of France! ALICE. Ouy, vrayment, (sauf vostre grace) ainsi dit il. K. HEN. I said so, dear Katharine; and I must not blush to affirm it. KATH. O bon Dieu! les langues des hommes sont pleines des tromperies. K. HEN. What says she, fair one? that the tongues of men are full of deceits? ALICE, Ouy; dat de tongues of de mans is be full of deceits: dat is de princess 2. K. HEN. The princess is the better English-woman. I' faith, Kate, my wooing is fit for thy understanding: I am glad, thou can'st speak no better English; for, if thou couldst, thou wouldst find me such a plain king3, that thou would'st think, I had 2 dat is de princess.] Surely this should be-" Dat says de princess." This is in answer to the King, who asks, "What says she, fair one?" M. MASON. I believe the old reading is the true one. By-" dat is the princess," the lady, in her broken English, means—that is what the princess has said. Perhaps, the speaker was desirous to exempt herself from suspicion of concurrence in a general censure on the sincerity of mankind. STEEVENS. 3- such a plain king,] I know not why Shakspeare now gives the king nearly such a character as he made him formerly ridicule in Percy. This military grossness and unskilfulness in all the softer arts does not suit very well with the gaieties of his youth, with the general knowledge ascribed to him at his accession, or with the contemptuous message sent him by the Dauphin, who represents him as fitter for a ball-room than the field, and tells him that he is not to revel into duchies, or win provinces with a nimble galliard. The truth is, that the poet's matter failed him in the fifth Act, and he was glad to fill it up with whatever he could get; and not even Shakspeare can write well without a proper subject. It is a vain endeavour for the most skilful hand to cultivate barrenness, or to paint upon vacuity. JOHNSON. Our author, I believe, was led imperceptibly by the old play to give this representation of Henry, and meant probably, in this speech at least, not to oppose the soldier to the lover, but the plain, honest Englishman, to the less sincere and more talkative Frenchman. In the old King Henry V. quarto, 1598, the corresponding speech stands thus: |