Or else this blow should broach thy dearest blood. And, after, meet you fooner than you would. [Exeunt. Sir William Blackstone observes that, " by the ancient law be. fore the Conquest, fighting in the king's palace, or before the king's judges, was punished with death. So too, in the old Gothic conftitution, there were many places privileged by law, quibus major reverentia & fecuritas debetur, ut templa & judicia, quæ fanita habebantur,--arces & aula regis, denique locus quilibet presente aut adventante rege. And at present with us, by the Stat. 33 Hen. VIII. c. 12. malicious striking in the king's palace, wherein his royal person resides, whereby blood is drawn, is punishable by perpetual imprisonment and fine, at the king's pleasure; and also with loss of the offender's right hand, the folemn execution of which sentence is prescribed in the ftatute at length." Commentaries, Vol. IV. p. 124. "By the ancient common law, also before the Conqnest, ftriking in the king's court of justice, or drawing a sword therein, was a capital felony." ibid. p. 125. REED. ACT IV. SCENE I. The fame. A Room of State. Enter King HENRY, GLOSTER, EXETER, YORK, SUFFOLK, SOMERSET, WINCHESTER, WARWICK, TALBOT, the Governour of Paris, and Others. GLO. Lord bifhop, fet the crown upon his head, WIN. God fave king Henry, of that name the fixth! GLO. Now, governour of Paris, take your oath, [Governour kneels. That you elect no other king but him: This shall ye do, so help you righteous God! [Exeunt Gov. and his Train. Enter Sir JOHN FASTOLFE. FAST. My gracious sovereign, as I rode from Calais, To hafte unto your coronation, Writ to your grace from the duke of Burgundy. TAL. Shame to the duke of Burgundy, and thee! 9--Such as shall pretend - To pretend is to design, to in tend. JOHNSON. So, in Macbeth: "What good could they pretend?" STEEVENS. I vow'd base knight, when I did meet thee next, To tear the garter from thy craven's leg, 2 [Plucking it off. 3 (Which I have done) because unworthily GLO. To fay the truth this fact was infamous, 2 To tear the garter from thy craven's leg,] Thus the old copy. The last line should run thus: --from thy craven leg, i. e. thy mean, daftardly leg. WHALLEY. 3 STEEVENS. at the battle of Patay,) The old copy has - Poitiers. MALONE. The battle of Poitiers was fought in the year 1357, the 31ft of King Edward III. and the scene now lies in the 7th year of the reign of King Henry VI. viz. 1428. This blunder may be juftly imputed to the players or transcribers; nor can we very well justify ourselves for permitting it to continue so long, as it was too glaring to have escaped an attentive reader. The action of which Shakspeare is now speaking, happened (according to Holinshed) ،" neere unto a village in Beauffe called Pataie," which we should read, inftead of Poitiers. From this battell departed without anie stroke striken, Sir John Faftolfe, the same yeere by his valiantnesse elected into the order of the garter. But for doubt of misdealing at this brunt, the duke of Bedford tooke from him the image of St. George and his garter," &c. Holinshed, Vol. II. p. 601. Monstrelet, the French hiftorian, also bears witness to this degra. dation of Sir John Fastolfe. STEEVENS. And ill beseeming any common man; K. HEN. Stain to thy countrymen! thou hear'st thy doom: Be packing therefore, thou that wast a knight; And now, my lord protector, view the letter GLO. What means his grace, that he hath chang'd 3 haughty courage, Haughty is here in its original sense for high. JOHNSON. 4 --in most extremes.] i. e. in greatest extremities. So, Spenser : they all repair'd, both most and least." See Vol. XI. p. 246, n. 7. STEEVENS. 5 Pretend fome alteration in good will?] Thus the old copy. To pretend seems to be here used in its Latin sense, i. e. to hold out, to Stretch forward. It may mean, however, as in other places, to design. Modern editors read-portend. STEEVENS. What's here;-I have, upon especial caufe, - [Reads. And join'd with Charles, the rightful king of France. O monstrous treachery! Can this be so; There should be found such false dissembling guile? K. HEN. What! doth my uncle Burgundy revolt? with him, And give him chastisement for this abuse :- TAL. Content, my liege? Yes; but that I am I should have begg'd I might have been employ'd. K. HEN. Then gather strength, and march unto him straight : Let him perceive, how ill we brook his treason; And what offence it is, to flout his friends. 1 a So, in our Liturgy: " Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings." obfolete fenfe: "Elfe had I come, preventing Sheba's queen, 66 " Salomon, Book II. STEEVENS. |