The Battaile of Agincourt Part 16

The Duke of Yorke soe dread The eager vaward led; With the maine Henry sped Amongst his hench men.

Excester had the rear, A brauer man not there.

And now preparing were For the false Frenchmen

And ready to be gone.

Armour on armour shone, Drum vnto drum did grone, To hear was woonder; That with the cries they make The very earth did shake: Trumpet to trumpet spake, Thunder to thunder.

Well it thine age became, O, n.o.ble Erpingham!

That didst the signall frame Vnto the forces; When from a medow by, Like a storme, sodainely The English archery Stuck the French horses.

The Spanish vghe so strong, Arrowes a cloth-yard long, That like to serpents stoong, Piercing the wether: None from his death now starts, But playing manly parts, And like true English harts Stuck close together.

When down theyr bowes they threw, And foorth theyr bilbowes drewe, And on the French they flew, No man was tardy.

Arms from the shoulders sent, Scalpes to the teeth were rent; Downe the French pesants went These were men hardye.

When now that n.o.ble King, His broade sword brandis.h.i.+ng, Into the hoast did fling, As to or'whelme it; Who many a deep wound lent, His armes with blood besprent, And many a cruell dent Brused his helmett.

Glo'ster that Duke so good, Next of the royall blood, For famous England stood With his braue brother: Clarence in steele most bright, That yet a maiden knighte, Yet in this furious fighte Scarce such an other.

Warwick in bloode did wade, Oxford the foes inuade, And cruel slaughter made Still as they ran vp: Suffolk his axe did ply, Beaumont and Willoughby Bare them right doughtyly, Ferrers and Fanhope.

On happy Cryspin day Fought was this n.o.ble fray, Which fame did not delay To England to carry.

O! when shall Englishmen With such acts fill a pen, Or England breed agen Such a King Harry?

ILl.u.s.tRATIVE NOTES.

ILl.u.s.tRATIVE NOTES.

Page 14, l. 3 [Stz. 4]. "_Monarchesse._" --This stately word ought to be revived; it is fully as legitimate as _abbess_.

Page 14, l. 9 [Stz. 5]. "_A Parliament is calld._" --It met at Leicester on April 30th, 1414. Negotiations for a treaty with France had been opened on January 21st preceding. "The first indication of a claim to the crown of France," says Sir Harris Nicolas ("History of the Battle of Agincourt"), "is a commission to the Bishop of Durham and others, dated on the 31st of May, 1414, by which they were instructed to negotiate the rest.i.tution of such of their sovereign's rights as were withheld by Charles."

Page 14, l. 17 [Stz. 6]. "_In which one Bill (mongst many) there was red._" --"Many pet.i.tions moved," says Holinshed, "were for that time deferred: amongst whyche one was that a bill exhibited in the Parliament holden at Westminstre in the eleventh year of King Henry the fourth, might now with good deliberation be pondered, and brought to some good conclusion. The effect of which supplication was that the temporall landes devoutely given, and disordinately spent by religious and other spirituall persons, should be seased into the Kyngs hands, sithence the same might suffice to maintayne to the honor of the King and defence of the realme fifteene Erles, fifteene C. Knightes, six M. two Esquiers, and a C. almes houses for reliefe only of the poor, impotente, and needie persones, and the King to have cleerely to his cofers twentie M.

poundes." Shakespeare ("Henry V.," act i., sc. 1) versifies this pa.s.sage with the remarkable deviation of making the surplus remaining to the Crown one thousand pounds instead of twenty thousand pounds.

Page 14, l. 23. "_Which made those Church-men generally to feare._"--

"_Cant_. If it pa.s.s against us We lose the better half of our possession.

_Ely_. This would drink deep.

_Cant_. 'Twould drink the cup and all."

_Henry V._, act i., sc. 1.

Though Henry did not touch the property of the English Church, he appropriated the revenues of one hundred and ten priories held by aliens, and made no rest.i.tution.

Page 15, l. 32 [Stz. 11]. "_Thus frames his speech._" --"There is no record of any speech made by Chicheley at this parliament; we search for it in vain in the rolls of parliament, and in the history of the Privy Council." --Dean Hook, who adds in a note, "No notice would have been taken of what was meant by Hall for a display of his own rhetoric, if such splendid use of it had not been made by Shakespeare in the first scene of 'Henry V.'" Drayton's version of the speech departs almost entirely from that given by the chroniclers, who make Chicheley, as no doubt he would have done, dwell at great length upon Henry's alleged claim to the crown of France, and omit all topics unbefitting a man of peace. Drayton greatly curtails Chicheley's legal arguments, and makes him talk like a warrior and a statesman. Shakespeare has shown his usual exquisite judgment by following Holinshed closely as regards the matter of Chicheley's formal harangue, and relegating his exhortation to Henry to follow the example of the Black Prince to a separate discourse, marked off from the first by the king's interruption. Drayton has also missed an opportunity in omitting Henry's impressive appeal to the archbishop to advise him conscientiously in the matter, by which Shakespeare has set his hero's character in the most favourable point of view from the very first.

Page 17, l. 9 [Stz. 17]. "_Beame._" --Bohemia.

Page 19, ll. 13, 14 [Stz. 25]. "_And for they knew, the French did still abet The Scot against vs._" --The discussion between Westmorland and Exeter on the expediency of first attacking Scotland is found in Holinshed. In the rude old play, "The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth," on which Shakespeare founded his "Henry IV." and "Henry V.," the argument for attacking Scotland first is put into the mouth of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Shakespeare's n.o.ble expansion of this scene from the hints of his artless predecessor and of the chroniclers is one of the most signal proofs of the superiority of his genius.

Page 20, l. 1 [Stz. 28]. "_And instantly an Emba.s.sy is sent._" --Of the letters written by Henry on this occasion, Sir Harris Nicolas remarks in his standard work on the Battle of Agincourt, "Their most striking features are falsehood, hypocrisy, and impiety." Being so bad, they are naturally attributed by him to the much maligned Cardinal Beaufort. It is admitted that "in some places they approach nearly to eloquence, and they are throughout clear, nervous, and impressive." They are defended at great length by Mr. Tyler, in his "Life of Henry V."

Page 20, l. 20 [Stz. 30]. "_A Tunne of Paris Tennis b.a.l.l.s him sent._"

--This incident, so famous from the use made of it by Shakespeare, is in all probability historical, being mentioned by Thomas Otterbourne, a contemporary writer, and in an inedited MS. chronicle of the same date. These are quoted by Sir Harris Nicolas and in Mr. Julian Marshall's erudite "Annals of Tennis" (London, 1878). Its being omitted by other contemporaries is no strong argument against its authenticity.

Drayton follows Shakespeare and the chronicler Hall in writing _tunne_.

Holinshed uses the less poetical term _barrel_.

Page 20, ll. 28-32 [Stz. 31].--

"I'le send him b.a.l.l.s and Rackets if I liue That they such Racket shall in Paris see, When ouer lyne with Bandies I shall driue, As that before the Set be fully done, France may (perhaps) into the Hazard runne."

On these lines Mr. Julian Marshall observes: "This pa.s.sage is remarkable, as offering one of the first examples of the double sense of _racket_, meaning hubbub as well as the implement used in tennis; and also as showing the early use of the word _bandy_, which we shall find recurring later in the history of the game." None of the historians who have related the incident mention the pointed reply to the Dauphin put into Henry's mouth by Shakespeare, that he would "strike his father's crown into the hazard." The old playwright on whose foundation Shakespeare built merely says, "Tel him that in stead of balles of leather we wil tosse him balles of bra.s.se and yron." Drayton must consequently have borrowed the term from Shakespeare, which is a pretty conclusive proof of his having read "Henry V." as well as witnessed its performance. Regarding Shakespeare's justification for the technical terms used by him, Mr. Marshall judiciously remarks: "It is certain that tennis was played and that rackets were used in the time of Henry V.; but whether chases were marked and a hazard invented, and to which of our hazards that hazard would answer, are questions which we cannot solve, and which doubtless never troubled 'sweet Will' for one single moment."

Sir Harris Nicolas prints in his appendix a ballad on the story of the tennis b.a.l.l.s, "obligingly communicated by Bertram Mitford, of Mitford Castle, in Northumberland, Esquire, who wrote it from the dictation of a very aged relative." He also gives another version, from what source derived is not stated. The Roxburghe collection of ballads at the British Museum contains yet a third version, which, as it differs in many respects from the other two, is printed as an appendix to these Notes. Judging from the type, the date of the Museum broadside would appear to be about 1750, and the piece itself can hardly be earlier than the eighteenth century.

Page 21, l. 18 [Stz. 34]. "_Iacks._" --Machines for planing metal.

Page 21, l. 19. "_An olde Fox._" --Sword, so called, it is said, from the figure of a fox anciently engraved upon the blade; or, as Nares suggests, from the name of some celebrated cutler. "Thou diest on point of fox" (Shakespeare, "Henry V.," act iv., sc. 4).

Page 21, l. 23. "_Fletcher._" --An arrow-maker (_flechier_), with which trade the manufacture of bows, properly the business of the _bowyer_, was naturally combined. The frequency of the name in our own day might be alleged in proof of the ancient importance of the industry, but in most cases it is probably derived from _flesher_, a butcher.

Page 22, l. 1 [Stz. 36]. "_The Light-horse and the Bard._" --A _barded_ horse (French _bardelle_, a pack-saddle) is one with the body entirely covered with armour. "For he was _barded_ from counter to tail" ("Lay of the Last Minstrel").

Page 23, l. 17 [Stz. 42]. "_The scarlet Iudge might now set vp his Mule._" --"Judges and serjeants rode to Westminster Hall on mules; whence it is said of a young man studying the law, 'I see he was never born to ride upon a _moyle_' ('Every Man out of his Humour,' ii. 3); that is, he will never be eminent in his profession" (Nares). It is an odd example of the mutations of ordinary speech that if we now heard of a judge setting up a mule, we should understand the exact contrary of what was understood by Drayton. A modern writer would more probably have said, set _down_.

Page 23, l. 25 [Stz. 43]. "_By this, the Counsell of this Warre had met._" --A curious echo of Spenser: "By this the northern waggoner had set."

Page 24, l. 16 [Stz. 45]. "_Sleeue._" --Entirely obsolete in English, but France still knows the Channel as _La Manche_.

Page 24, l. 19 [Stz. 46]. "_Scripts of Mart._" --Letters of marque.

"_Mart_, originally for _Mars_. It was probably this use of _mart_ that led so many authors to use letters of mart, instead of marque, supposing it to mean _letters of war_. Under this persuasion Drayton put 'script of mart' as equivalent" (Nares).

Page 24, l. 22. "_Deepe._" --Dieppe.

Page 24, l. 28 [Stz. 47]. "_Like the huge Ruck from Gillingham that flewe._" --It seems remarkable to meet with the _roc_ of the "Arabian Nights" in English so long before the existence of any translation. The word, however, occurs in Bishop Hall's "Satires," thirty years before Drayton. It probably came into our language from the Italian, being first used by Marco Polo, who says (part iii., chap. 35): "To return to the griffon; the people of the island do not know it by that name, but call it always _ruc_; but we, from their extraordinary size, certainly conclude them to be griffons."

Page 25, l. 2 [Stz. 48]. "_Stoad._" --Not found in the dictionaries, but apparently equivalent to _stowage_, and hence in this place to _cargo_.

Page 25, ll. 5, 6. "_Straitly commanded by the Admirall, At the same Port to settle their aboad._" --"On the 11th of April, 1415, Nicholas Mauduyt, serjeant-at-arms, was commanded to arrest all s.h.i.+ps and other vessels carrying twenty tons or more, _as well belonging to this kingdom as to other countries_, which were then in the river Thames, and in other sea-ports of the realm as far as Newcastle-upon-Tyne, or which might arrive there before the 1st of May, and the said vessels were to be at the ports of Southampton, London, or Winchelsea by the 8th of May at the latest" (Sir Harris Nicolas).

Page 25, l. 28 [Stz. 51]. "_Bay of Portugall_" = Bay of Biscay.