CON. Dieu de battailes! where have they this Is not their climate foggy, raw, and dull? Upon our houses' thatch, whiles a more frosty people The same compound epithet is employed by Randle Holme, in his Academy of Armory and Blazon, B. III. c. ix. p. 385: "Querke is a nook-shotten pane" [of glass.] STEEVENS. 5 Can sodden water, A drench for sur-rein'd jades,] The exact meaning of surrein'd I do not know. It is common to give horses over-ridden or feverish, ground malt and hot water mixed, which is called a mash. To this he alludes. JOHNSON. The word sur-rein'd occurs more than once in the old plays. So, in Jack Drum's Entertainment, 1601: "Writes he not a good cordial sappy style?— "A sur-rein'd jaded wit, but he rubs on." It should be observed that the quartos 1600 and 1608 read: I suppose, sur-rein'd means over-ridden; horses on whom the rein has remained too long. MALONE. I believe that sur-rein'd means over worked or ridden; but should suppose the word rather derived from the reins of the back, than from those of the bridle. M. MASON. 6 Upon our houses' thatch, whiles a more frosty people-] I cannot help supposing, for the sake of metre, that Shakspeare wrote-house-thatch. House-top is an expression which the reader will find in St. Matthew, xxiv. 17. ŜTEEvens. upon our houses' thatch,] Thus the folio. The quarto has-our houses' tops. The reading of the folio is supported by a passage in The Tempest: like winter drops, "From eaves of reeds." Sweat drops of gallant youth' in our rich fields; Our madams mock at us; and plainly say, BOUR. They bid us to the English dancingschools, And teach lavoltas high,' and swift corantos; Again, in Love's Labour's Lost: 7 "When icicles hang by the wall," &c. MALOne. drops of gallant youth-] This is the reading of the folio. The quarto reads-drops of youthful blood. MALONE. - we may call them,] May, which is wanting in the old copy, was added by the editor of the second folio. MALONE. 8 9 lavoltas high,] Sir T. Hanmer observes, that in this dance there was much turning and much capering. Shakspeare mentions it more than once, but never so particularly as the author of Muleasses the Turk, a tragedy, 1610: "Be pleas'd, ye powers of night, and 'bout me skip 66 Dancing their high lavoltoes to the sun, "Circle me round: and in the midst I'll stand, "And crack my sides with laughter at your sports." Again, in Chapman's May-Day, 1611: 66 let the Bourdeaux grape "Skip like la volta's in their swelling veins." Again: "Where love doth dance la volta." STEEVENS. Lavoltas are thus described by Sir John Davies, in his poem called Orchestra: "Yet is there one the most delightful kind, "A lofty jumping, or a leaping round, "Where arm in arm, two dancers are entwin'd, "And whirl themselves in strict embracements bound, "And still their feet an anapest do sound: "An anapest is all their musick's song, "Whose first two feet is short, and third is long. Saying, our grace is only in our heels, FR. KING. Where is Montjoy, the herald? speed him hence; Let him greet England with our sharp defiance.- "As the victorious twins of Leda and Jove "Knit and united with eternal hands; "Among the stars their double image stands, "Together jumping in their turning race." REED. 1 Charles De-la-bret, &c.] Milton somewhere bids the English take notice how their names are misspelt by foreigners, and seems to think that we may lawfully treat foreign names, in return, with the same neglect. This privilege seems to be exercised in this catalogue of French names, which, since the sense of the author is not affected, I have left as I found it. JOHNSON. I have changed the spelling; for I know not why we should leave blunders or antiquated orthography in the proper names, when we have been so careful to remove them both from all other parts of the text. Instead of Charles De-la-bret, we should read Charles D'Albret, but the metre will not allow of it. STEEVENS. Shakspeare followed Holinshed's Chronicle, in which the Constable is called Delabreth, as he here is in the folio. MALONE. and knights,] The old copy reads-kings. The For your great seats, now quit you of great shames. Bar Harry England, that sweeps through our land With pennons painted in the blood of Harfleur: Rush on his host, as doth the melted snow Upon the vallies; whose low vassal seat The Alps doth spit and void his rheum upon:5 emendation is Mr. Theobald's. It is confirmed by a line in the last scene of the fourth Act: 66 -princes, barons, lords, knights," MALONE. With pennons-] Pennons armorial were small flags, on which the arms, device, and motto of a knight were painted. Pennon is the same as pendant. So, in The Stately Moral of the Three Lords of London, 1590: "In glittering gold and particolour'd plumes, "With curious pendants on their launces fix'd," &c. Again, in Chaucer's Knyghtes Tale, v. 980, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edition: "And by his banner borne is his penon "Of gold ful riche, in which there was ybete "The Minotaure which that he slew in Crete." In MS. Harl. No. 2413, is the following note: "Penon. "A peñon must bee tow yardes and a halfe longe, made round att the end, and conteyneth the armes of the owner, and servith for the conduct of fiftie men, "Everye knight may have his pennon if hee bee cheefe captaine, and in it sett his armes: and if hee bee made bannerett, the kinge or the lieftenant shall make a slitt in the end of the pennon, and the heralds shall raise it out. "Pencelles. "Pencells or flagges for horsemen must bee a yarde and a halfe longe, with the crosses of St. George," &c. STEEVENS. -melted snow -] The poet has here defeated himself by passing too soon from one image to another. To bid the French rush upon the English as the torrents formed from melted snow stream from the Alps, was at once vehement and proper, but its force is destroyed by the grossness of the thought in the next line. JOHNSON. The Alps doth spit and void his rheum upon:] Fur. Bibac. ap. Hor. Go down upon him,-you have power enough,And in a captive chariot, into Rouen Bring him our prisoner. CON. This becomes the great. Sorry am I, his numbers are so few, His soldiers sick, and famish'd in their march; And let him say to England, that we send • He'll drop his heart into the sink of fear, And, for achievement, offer us his ransome.] I can make no sense of these words as they stand, though it is to be supposed that the editors understood them, since they have passed them by unnoticed. I have little doubt but the words his and for, in the last line, have been misplaced, and that the line should run thus: And his achievement offer us for ransome. And accordingly the King of France sends to Henry to know what ransome he will give. By his achievement is meant the town of Harfleur, which Henry had taken. In the former part of this Act he says: "I will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur, "Till in her ashes she be buried.' M. MASON. The first of the two lines which appear so obscure to Mr. M. Mason, is to me at least sufficiently intelligible; yet as the idea designed to be communicated by it, is not only contemptible but dirty, I still choose to avoid explanation. STEEvens. And for achievement offer us his ransome.] That is, instead of achieving a victory over us, make a proposal to pay us a certain sum, as a ransom. So, in Henry VI. Part III: "For chair and dukedom, throne and kingdom say." MALONE. in Rouen.] Here, and a little higher, we have, in the old copy-Roan, which was, in Shakspeare's time, the mode of |