8 Familiar in their mouths as household words,- We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; Familiar in their mouths-] i. e. in the mouths of the old man ("who has outlived the battle and come fafe home,") and "his friends." This is the reading of the quarto, which I have preferred to that of the folio,-his mouth; because their cups, the reading of the folio in the fubfequent line, would otherwife appear, if not ungrammatical, extremely awkward. The quarto readsin their flowing bowls; and there are other confiderable variations in the two copies. MALONE. 9 From this day to the ending-] It may be obferved that we are apt to promise to ourselves a more lafting memory than the changing ftate of human things admits. This prediction is not verified; the feaft of Crifpin pailes by without any mention of Agincourt. Late events obliterate the former: the civil wars have left in this nation scarcely any tradition of more ancient history. 2 JOHNSON. -gentle his condition:] This day fhall advance him to the rank of a gentleman. JOHNSON. King Henry V. inhibited any perfon but fuch as had a right by inheritance, or grant, to affume coats of arms, except thofe who fought with him at the battle of Agincourt; and, I think, thefe laft were allowed the chief feats of honour at all feafts and publick meetings. TOLLET. That Mr. Tollet is right in his account, is proved by the origi nal writ to the Sheriff of Southampton and others, printed in Rymer's Fœdera, anno 5 Henry V. Vol. IX. p. 457. And fee more fully on the fubject Anftis's Order of the Garter, Vol. II. p. 108, who mentions it, and obferves thereon, citing Gore's Catalog, rei Herald. Introduct, and Sandford's General Hift. p. 283. VAILLANT. And gentlemen in England, now a-bed, Enter SALISBURY. SAL. My fovereign lord, bestow yourself with fpeed: The French are bravely in their battles fet, K. HEN. All things are ready, if our minds be fo. WEST. Perish the man, whose mind is backward now! K. HEN. Thou doft not wifh more help from England, coufin? WEST. God's will, my liege, 'would you and I alone, Without more help, might fight this battle out!" K. HEN. Why, now thou haft unwish'd five thou fand men ; 7 3upon faint Crifpin's day.] This fpeech, like many others of the declamatory kind, is too long. Had it been contracted to about half the number of lines, it might have gained force, and loft none of the fentiments. JOHNSON. 4 — bravely—] is fplendidly, oftentatiously. JOHNSON, Rather-gallantly. So, in The Tempest: "Bravely the figure of this harpy haft thou "Perform'd, my Ariel!" STEEVENS. expedience-] i. e. expedition. So, in King Richard II: "Are making hither with all due expedience." STEEVENS. might fight this battle out!] Thus the quarto. The folio reads could fight this royal battle. MALONE. 7-thou hast unwish'd five thousand men;] By wishing only thyfelf and me, thou haft wifhed five thousand men away.--. Shakspeare never thinks of fuch trifles as numbers. In the laft fcene the French are faid to be full threefcore thousand, which Exeter Which likes me better, than to wish us one.- Tucket. Enter MONTJOY. MONT. Once more I come to know of thee, king If for thy ranfom thou wilt now compound, For, certainly, thou art fo near the gulf, Thou needs must be englutted. Befides, in mercy, declares to be five to one; but, by the king's account, they are twelve to one. JOHNSON. Holinshed makes the English army confift of 15,000, and the French of 60,000 horfe, befides foot, &c. in all 100,000; while Walfingham and Harding reprefent the English as but 9000; and other authors fay that the number of French amounted to 150,000. STEEVENS. Fabian fays the French were 40,000, and the English only 7000. Dr. Johnfon, however, I apprehend, mifunderstood the king's words. He fuppofes that Henry means to fay, that Weftmoreland, wifhing himself and Henry alone to fight the battle out with the French, had wished away the whole English army, confifting of five thousand men. But Henry's meaning was, I conceive, very different. Westmoreland had before expreffed a wifh that ten thousand of thofe who were idle at that moment in England were added to the king's army; a wifh, for which when it was uttered, Henry, whether from policy or fpirit, reprimanded him. Weftmoreland now fays, he should be glad that he and the king alone, without any other aid whatfoever, were to fight the battle out againft the French. "Bravely faid, (replies Henry;) you have now half atoned for your former timid wish for ten thousand additional troops. You have unwished half of what you wish'd before." The king is fpeaking figuratively, and Dr. Johnson underftood him literally.-Shakspeare therefore, though often inattentive to "fuch trifles as numbers," is here not inaccurate. He undoubtedly meant to reprefent the English army, (according to Exeter's fate of it,) as confifting of about twelve thonfand men; and according to the beft accounts this was nearly the number that Henry had in the field. Hardyng, who was himself at the battle of Agincourt, fays that the French army confifted of one hundred thoufand; but the account is probably exaggerated. MALONE. The Conftable defires thee-thou wilt mind" Muft lie and fefter. K. HEN. poor Who hath fent thee now? MONT. The Conftable of France. K. HEN. I pray thee, bear my former answer back; Bid them achieve me, and then fell my bones. Good God! why fhould they mock poor fellows thus? The man, that once did fell the lion's fkin While the beaft liv'd, was kill'd with hunting him. A many of our bodies fhall, no doubt, Find native graves; upon the which, I trust, Shall witnefs live in brafs of this day's work: And those that leave their valiant bones in France, Dying like men, though buried in your dunghills, They fhall be fam'd; for there the fun fhall greet them, And draw their honours reeking up to heaven; Leaving their earthly parts to choke your clime, The smell whereof thall breed a plague in France. Mark then a bounding valour in our English;' 7 mind,] i. e. remind. So, in Coriolanus : "I minded him how royal 'twas to pardon." STEEVENS. 8 A many-] Thus the folio; the quarto-And many. STEEVENS. • Mark then a bounding valour in our English;] The old folios-Mark then abounding, The quartos, more erroneoufly ftill Mark then aboundant Mr. Pope degraded the paffage in both his editions, because, I prefame, he did not understand it. I have reformed the text, and the allufion is exceedingly beautiful; comparing the revival of the Englith valour to the rebounding of a cannon-ball. THEOBALD. Mr. Theobald was probably misled by the idle notion that our author's imagery muft be round and correfponding on every fide, That, being dead, like to the bullet's grazing, and that this line was intended to be in unifon with the next. This was fo far from being an object of Shakspeare's attention, that he feems to delight in paffing haftily from one idea to another. To fupport his emendation, Mr. Theobald mifrepresented the reading of the quarto, which he faid was aboundant. It is abundant; and proves in my apprehenfion decifively that the reading of the folio is not formed by any accidental union of different words; for though abounding may according to Mr. Theobald's idea be made two words, by what analyfis can abundant be separated? We have had already in this play-" fuperfluous courage," an expreffion of nearly the fame import "as abounding valour. Mr. Theobald's emendation, however has been adopted in all the modern editions. That our author's word was abundant or abounding, not a bounding, may be proved by King Richard III. where we again meet with the fame epithet applied to the fame fubject: "To breathe the abundant valour of the heart." MALONE. The preceding note (in my opinion at leaft) has not proved that, though Shakspeare talks of abundant valour in King Richard III. he might not have written a bounding valour in King Henry V. Muft our author indulge himfelf in no varieties of phrafeology, but always be tied down to the ufe of fimilar expreffions? Or does it follow, that becaufe his imagery is fometimes incongruous, that it was always fo? Aboundant may be feparated as regularly as abounding; for boundant (like mountant in Timon of Athens, and queftant in All's well that ends well) might have been a word once in ufe. The reading ftigmatized as a mifreprefentation, might alfo have been found in the quarto confulted by Mr. Theobald, though not in fuch copies of it as Mr. Malone and I have met with. In feveral quarto editions, of fimilar date, there are varieties which till very lately were unobferved. I have not therefore difcarded Mr. Theobald's emendation. STEEVENS. 2 Killing in relapfe of mortality.] What it is to kill in relapfe of mortality, I do not know. I fufpect that it should be read: Killing in reliques of mortality. That is, continuing to kill when they are the reliques that death has left behind it. That the allufion is, as Mr. Theobald thinks, exceedingly beautiful, I am afraid few readers will difcover. The valour of a putrid body, that deftroys by the ftench, is one of the thoughts |