Enter another Messenger.

2. MESS. Lords, view these letters, full of bad mifchance,

France is revolted from the English quite;
Except fome petty towns of no import:

The Dauphin Charles is crowned king in Rheims;
The baftard of Orleans with him is join'd;
Reignier, duke of Anjou, doth take his part;
The duke of Alençon flieth to his fide.

EXE. The Dauphin crowned king! all fly to him!
O, whither fhall we fly from this reproach?
GLO. We will not fly, but to our enemies'
throats:-

Bedford, if thou be flack, I'll fight it out.

BED Glofter, why doubt'ft thou of my forward-
nefs?

An army have I mufter'd in my thoughts,
Wherewith already France is over-run.

Enter a third Meffenger.

3. MESS. My gracious lords, to add to your la

ments,

Wherewith you now bedew king Henry's hearfe,I muft inform you of a difmal fight,

Betwixt the flout lord Talbot and the French.

WIN. What! wherein Talbot overcame? is't fo? 3. MESS. O, no; wherein lord Talbot was o'erthrown:

The circumftance I'll tell you more at large.

The tenth of Auguft laft, this dreadful lord,
Retiring from the fiege of Orleans,

had only a fhort intermiffion from Henry the Fifth's death to my coming amongst them. WARBURTON.

Having full scarce fix thousand in his troop.
By three and twenty thousand of the French
Was round encompaffed and fet upon :
No leifure had he to enrank his men;
He wanted pikes to fet before his archers;
Instead whereof, fharp ftakes, pluck'd out of hedges,
They pitched in the ground confufedly,

5

6

To keep the horsemen off from breaking in.
More than three hours the fight continued;
Where valiant Talbot, above human thought,
Enacted wonders with his fword and lance.
Hundreds he fent to hell, and none durft ftand him:
Here, there, and every where, enrag'd he flew:
The French exclaim'd, The devil was in arms;
All the whole army flood agaz'd on him :
His foldiers, fpying his undaunted spirit,
A Talbot! a Talbot! cried out amain,
And rufh'd into the bowels of the battle.
Here had the conqueft fully been feal'd up,
If fir John Faftolfe had not play'd the coward;

4 Having full fcarce &c.] The modern editors read,-fcarce full, but, I think, unneceffarily. So, in The Tempest:

Profpero, mafter of a full poor cell." STEEVENS. above human thought,

Enacted wonders] So, in King Richard III:
"The king enaЯs more wonders than a man."

STEEVENS.

:

he flew ] I fufpe&, the author wrote-flew.

MALONE.

" And rush'd into the bowels of the battle.] Again, in the fifth act of this play:

"So, rufhing in the bowels of the French." The fame phrafe had occurred in the first part of Jeronimo,

1605:

8

"Meet, Don Andrea! yes, in the battle's bowels."

STEEVENS.

If fir John Falfolfe &c.] Mr. Pope has taken notice," That Falftaff is here introduced again, who was dead in Henry V. The

He being in the vaward, (plac'd behind,"
With purpose to relieve and follow them,)
Cowardly fled, not having ftruck one ftroke.
Hence grew the general wreck and maffacre;

occafion whereof is, that this play was written before King Henry IV. or King Henry V." But it is the hiftorical Sir John Faftolfe (for fo he is called by both our Chroniclers) that is here mentioned; who was a lieutenant general, deputy regent to the duke of Bedford in Normandy, and a knight of the garter; and not the comick charader afterwards introduced by our author, and which was a creature merely of his own brain. Nor when he named him Falstaff do I believe he had any intention of throwing a flur on the memory of this renowned old warrior. THEOBALD.

Mr. Theobald might have feen his notion contradiced in the very line he quotes from. Faftolfe, whether truly or not, is faid by Hall and Holinfhed to have been degraded for cowardice. Dr. he was Heylin, in his Saint George for England, tells us, that " afterwards, upon good reafon by him alledged in his defence, reftored to his honour,"" This Sir John Falstoff," continues he, "was without doubt, a valiant and wife captain, notwithstanding the ftage hath made merry with him." FARMER.

See Vol. XII. p. 184, n. 4; and Oldys's Life of Sir John Faltolfe in the General Dictionary. MALONE.

In the 18th fong of Drayton's Polyolbion is the following chafader of this Sir John Faftolph:

"Strong Faflolph with this man compare we juftly may;
By Salbury who oft being seriously imploy'd

"In many a brave attempt the general foe annoy'd;
With excellent fucceffe in Main and Anjou fought,
And many a bulwarke there into our keeping brought:
And chofen to go forth with Vadamont in warre,
Moft refolutely tooke proud Renate duke of Barre."
STEEVENS.

For an account of this Sir John Faftolfe, fee Anftis's Treatise on the Order of the Garter; Parkins's Supplement to Blomfield's Hiftory of Norfolk Tanner's Bibliotheca Britannica; or Capel's notes, Vol. II. p. 221; and Sir John Feun's Collection of the Pafton Letters.

REED.

9 He being in the vaward, (plac'd behind,] Some of the editors feem to have confidered this as a contradi&ion in terms, and have propofed to read-the rearward, but without neceffity. Some part of the van muft have been behind the foremost line of it. We often fay the back front of a house. STEEVENS.

Enclosed were they with their enemies:
A bafe Walloon, to win the Dauphin's grace,
Thruft Talbot with a spear into the back;
Whom all France, with their chief affem bled
ftrength,

Durft not prefume to look once in the face.
BED. Is Talbot flain? then I will flay myself,
For living idly here, in pomp and ease,
Whilft fuch a worthy leader, wanting aid,
Unto his daftard foe-men is betray'd.

3. MESS. O no, he lives; but is took prifoner, And lord Scales with him, and lord Hungerford: Moft of the rest flaughter'd, or took, likewife.

BED. His ranfom there is none but I fhall pay:
I'll hale the Dauphin headlong from his throne,
His crown fhall be the ranfom of my friend;
Four of their lords I'll change for one of ours.—
Farewell, my mafters; to my task will I;
Bonfires in France forthwith I am to make,
To keep our great faint George's feaft withal:
Ten thoufand foldiers with me I will take,
Whose bloody deeds fhall make all Europe quake.
3. MESS. So you had need; for Orleans is be
fieg'd;

The English army is grown weak and faint:
The earl of Salisbury craveth supply

And hardly keeps his men from mutiny,
Since they, fo few, watch fuch a multitude.
EXE. Remember, lords, your oaths to Henry
fworn;

Either to quell the Dauphin utterly,

Or bring him in obedience to your yoke.

BED. I do remember it; and here take leave,

To go about my preparation.

[Exit.

GLO. I'll to the Tower with all the hafte I can,

To view the artillery and munition;

And then I will proclaim young Henry King.

[Exit.

EXE. To Eltham will I, where the young king

is,

Being ordain'd his special governor;

And for his fafety there I'll befst devise.

[Exit.

WIN. Each hath his place and function to at

tend:

I am left out; for me nothing remains.
But long I will not be Jack-out-of-office;
The king from Eltham I intend to fend,
And fit at chiefest stern of publick weal.'

[Exit. Scene closes.

The king from Eltham I intend to fend, And fit at chiefeft fern of publick weal.] The king was not át this time fo much in the power of the Cardinal, that he could fend him where he pleased. I have therefore no doubt but that there is an error in this paffage, and that it should be read thus:

The king from Eltham I intend to fteal
And fit at chiefeft ftern of publick weal.

This flight alteration preferves the fenfe, and the rhyme alfo,
with which many fcenes in this play conclude. The king's perfon,
as appears from the speech immediately preceding this of Winchester,
was under the care of the Duke of Exeter, not of the Cardinal:
"Exe. To Eltham will I, where the young king is,
"Being ordain'd his special governor." M. MASON.
The fecond charge in the Articles of accufation preferred by the
Duke of Glofter against the Bishop, (Hall's Chron. Henry VI.
f. 12, b.) countenances this conje&ure. MALONE.

The difagreeable clash of the words-intend and fend, feems indeed to confirm the propriety of Mr. M. Mason's emendation.

STEEVENS.