ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.
[Page 14, l. 3.] “Monarchesse.”—This stately word ought to be revived; it is fully as legitimate as abbess.
[Page 14, l. 9.] “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 restitution of such of their sovereign’s rights as were withheld by Charles.”
[Page 14, l. 17.] “In which one Bill (mongst many) there was red.”—“Many petitions 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 passage 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 pass 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 restitution.
[Page 15, l. 32.] “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.] “Beame.”—Bohemia.
[Page 19, ll. 13, 14.] “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 noble 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.] “And instantly an Embassy 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.] “A Tunne of Paris Tennis balls 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.
“I’le send him Balls 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 passage 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 brasse 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 balls, “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.] “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 (fléchier), 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.] “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.] “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.] “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.] “Sleeue.”—Entirely obsolete in English, but France still knows the Channel as La Manche.
[Page 24, l. 19.] “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.] “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.] “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 ships 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.] “Bay of Portugall” = Bay of Biscay.
[Page 26, l. 14.] “Pruce.”—Prussia.
[Page 26, l. 23.] “Flee-boats.”—Flyboats, Fr. flibots, which affords a more probable etymology than freebooter for flibustier and filibuster.
[Page 27, ll. 17, 18.] “From Holland, Zeland, and from Flanders wonne By weekely pay, threescore twelue Bottoms came.”—“It was one of the earliest measures to secure shipping from Holland” (Nicolas). The total number of ships enumerated by Drayton as joining in the rendezvous at Southampton is one hundred and seventy-eight, the foreign hired vessels included. A contemporary authority quoted by Sir Harris Nicolas makes it three hundred and twenty, made up by contingents from the neighbouring havens to between twelve and fourteen hundred. According to the list published by Sir Harris Nicolas, the number of effective fighting men did not exceed ten thousand five hundred, though there were probably as many more attendants and camp-followers.
[Page 27, l. 31.] “The acclamation of the presse.”—Might be said in our time of any popular war, but in how different a sense!
[Page 28, l. 1.]—This and the following stanza are quoted by Sir Harris Nicolas with just admiration. In fact, Drayton’s description of the marshalling and departure of the expedition are the best part of his poem.
[Page 29, ll. 4–6.] “In Ensignes there, Some wore the Armes of their most ancient Towne, Others againe their owne Diuises beare.”—The catalogue which follows is entirely in the spirit of Italian romantic poetry, and may be especially compared with that of Agramante’s allies and their insignia in the “Orlando Innamorato.” In many instances the device, as Drayton says, represents the escutcheon of some town within the county; in others he seems to have been indebted to his imagination, though endeavouring not unsuccessfully to adduce some reason for his choice.
[Page 30, l. 11.] “Brack.”—Brine.
[Page 30, l. 20.] “Lyam.”—A band or thong by which to lead a hound; hence lyme-hound.
[Page 31, l. 3.] “A Golden Fleece and Hereford doth weare.”—Grammar requires this line to begin And Hereford. Awkward dislocations, however, are not infrequent in Drayton.
[Page 31, l. 6.] “The Shiere whose surface seems most brute.”—George Eliot, like Drayton a native of fertile Warwickshire, entitles the neighbouring county Stonyshire.
[Page 33, l. 17.] “The Fleet then full,” etc.—Compare this fine stanza, which might have been written by one who had never been on shipboard, with the still more poetical and at the same time intensely realistic one of Shakespeare (“Henry V.,” act iii., prologue), which proves that he must have been at sea on some occasion:
“Play with your fancies, and in them behold
Upon the hempen tackle ship-boys climbing;
Hear the shrill whistle which doth order give
To sounds confused; behold the threaden sails,
Borne with the invisible and creeping wind,
Draw the huge bottoms through the furrowed sea.”
[Page 34, ll. 9, 10.] “Long Boates with Scouts are put to land before, Vpon light Naggs the Countrey to discry.”—“Before day-break the next morning, Wednesday the 14th of August, John Holland, Earl of Huntingdon, Sir Gilbert Umfreville, and Sir John Cornwall, were sent with a party of cavalry to reconnoitre Harfleur and its vicinity, with the view of selecting a proper situation for the encampment of the army” (Sir Harris Nicolas).
[Page 35, l. 1.] “To the high’st earth whilst awfull Henry gets.”—Whilst must here be taken as = meanwhile.
[Page 35, l. 3.] “With sprightly words” etc.—The confusion in this line is evidently due to the printer. Drayton must have written: “And thus with sprightly words,” etc.
[Page 35, l. 9.] “He first of all proclaim’d.”—“A proclamation was issued forbidding under pain of death a repetition of some excesses which had been committed, and commanding that henceforth the houses should not be set on fire, or the churches or other sacred places violated, and that the persons of women and priests should be held sacred” (Sir Harris Nicolas). Holinshed adds, “or to any suche as should be founde withoute weapon or armor, and not ready to make resistance.”
[Page 36, l. 30.] “Shee so instructed is by Natures Lawes.”—A characteristic instance of this excellent poet’s frequent and unaccountable lapses into bathos.
[Page 38, l. 7.] “Whose Mynes to the besieg’d more mischiefe doe.”—Holinshed, however, admits that the French “with their countermining somewhat disappointed the Englishmen, and came to fight with them hand to hand within the mynes, so that they went no further forward with that worke.”
[Page 41, l. 30.] “But on his bare feete to the Church he came.”—“He dismounted at the gate, took off his shoes and stockings, and proceeded barefoot to the church of St. Martin, where he gave solemn thanks to God for his success” (Sir Harris Nicolas, quoting the French chroniclers), Holinshed mentions Henry’s repairing to the church to offer thanks, but omits the picturesque circumstance of his going thither barefoot, and passes over his entrance into the town in the briefest possible manner. It is an interesting proof of Shakespeare’s dependence upon the chronicler to find him equally ignoring any solemn entry or prolonged sojourn:
“To-night in Harfleur will we be your guest,
To-morrow for the march are we addrest.”
In fact, as Drayton tells us, he remained eight days in Harfleur, awaiting the Dauphin’s reply to his challenge, which Holinshed does not mention. Shakespeare, Drayton, and Holinshed alike pass over the exceedingly picturesque circumstance of the expulsion of the women and children under escort of the English troops. Drayton only says: “Out of the Ports all Vagrants he doth driue.”
[Page 42, ll. 7, 8.] “He frankly off’reth in a single fight, With the young Daulphine to decide his right.”—Sir Harris Nicolas remarks: “Of the personal valour which that letter displays on the part of Henry but little can be said, for the challenger was about twenty-seven years of age, and in the full vigour of manhood, whilst his adversary, of whose prowess or bodily strength there is not the slightest evidence, and who died in the December following, had not attained his twentieth year.”
[Page 43, ll. 15, 16.] “A Ford was found to set his Army ore Which neuer had discouered beene before.”—This cannot be, for the anonymous priest to whose narrative as an eyewitness of the campaign we are so deeply indebted, says, “The approach was by two long but narrow causeways, which the French had before warily broken through the middle” (Nicolas, p. 233).
[Page 44, l. 1.] “Therfore they both in solemne Counsaile satt.”—This council was held on October 20th, five days before Agincourt. “The opinions of the different members,” says Sir Harris Nicolas, “are very minutely given by Des Ursins.”
[Page 44, l. 2.] “Britaine.”—Brittany. The Duke of Brittany, in fact, did not arrive in time to take part in the battle.
[Page 44, l. 17.] “A Route of tatter’d Rascalls starued so.”—Holinshed’s description of the condition of the English army is most graphic: “The English men were brought into great misery in this journey, their victuall was in maner spent, and nowe coulde they get none: for their enemies had destroied all the corne before they came: reste could they none take, for their enemies were ever at hande to give them alarmes: dayly it rained, and nightly it freesed: of fewell there was great scarsitie, but of fluxes greate plenty: money they hadde enoughe, but of wares to bestowe it uppon for their reliefe or comforte, hadde they little or none. And yet in this great necessitye the poore people of the countrey were not spoiled, nor any thyng taken of them wythout payment, neyther was any outrage or offence done by the Englishemenne of warre, except one, whiche was, that a folish souldiour stale a pixe out of a churche.” Shakespeare’s use of this incident is well known.
[Page 46, l. 28.] “Spirits.”—Must here be pronounced as a monosyllable, as at p. 67, l. 18.
[Page 48, l. 6.] “Till their foule noyse doth all the ayre infest.”—Drayton probably stands alone among English poets in disliking the music of the rookery.
[Page 49, l. 15.] “Quoyts, Lots, and Dice for Englishmen to cast.”—“The captaines had determined before howe to devide the spoile, and the souldiours the night before had plaid the englishemen at dice” (Holinshed).
[Page 50, l. 9.] “And cast to make a Chariot for the King.”—This circumstance also is mentioned by Holinshed, and is authenticated by the anonymous priest.
[Page 50, ll. 31, 32.] “Some pointing Stakes to stick into the ground, To guard the Bow-men.”—Henry had ordered the archers to provide themselves with stakes even before the passage of the Somme.
[Page 51, l. 25.] “King Richards wrongs, to minde, Lord doe not call.”—Drayton evidently follows Shakespeare, but remains a long way behind:
“Not to-day, O Lord,
O, not to-day, think not upon the fault
My father made in compassing the crown!
I Richard’s body have interred new:
And on it have bestowed more contrite tears
Than from it issued forced drops of blood:
Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay,
Who twice a day their withered hands hold up
Toward heaven, to pardon blood; and I have built
Two chantries, where the sad and solemn priests
Sing still for Richard’s soul. More will I do;
Though all that I can do is nothing worth,
Since that my penitence comes after all,
Imploring pardon.”
Henry V., act iv., sc. 1.
Shakespeare’s infinite superiority in moral delicacy, not merely to his imitator, but to all poets except the very best, is forcibly shown by his causing Henry to abstain from all attempts to excuse his father and himself at the expense of Richard, so natural in the mouth of an ordinary person, so unbecoming a hero.
[Page 52, ll. 6, 7.] “When as that Angell to whom God assign’d The guiding of the English.”—This fine passage may very probably have been in Dryden’s mind when he planned the machinery of his unwritten epic, and in Addison’s when he penned the famous simile of the Angel in his poem on Blenheim.
[Page 52, ll. 29, 30.] “Foorth that braue King couragious Henry goes, An hower before that it was fully light.”—No personal reconnoissance on Henry’s part is mentioned by the historians, although Sir Harris Nicolas says, on the authority of Elmham: “About the middle of the night, before the moon set, Henry sent persons to examine the ground, by whose report he was better able to draw up his forces on the next day.” As the English were the assailants, the precaution of posting the archers behind the quickset hedge would have proved unnecessary.
[Page 55, l. 27.] “His coruetting Courser.”—“A little grey horse.” He wore no spurs, probably to show his men that he entertained no thought of flight.
[Page 56, l. 20.] “To know what he would for his Ransome pay.”—This is mentioned by Holinshed, but cannot be true, for all contemporary authorities agree that the French sent envoys to Henry on the morning of the battle offering him a free passage to Calais upon condition of surrendering Harfleur. This would seem to indicate that the leaders did not fully share the confidence of their troops.
[Page 57, ll. 3, 4.] “And strongly fixe the Diadem of France, Which to this day vnsteady doth remaine.”—No Frenchman could have said this on such an occasion. Drayton would make for any port when in stress of rhyme.
[Page 57, l. 16.] “Thus to his Souldiers comfortably spake.”—Drayton’s version of his speech in the main agrees with Holinshed’s. Shakespeare, usually so close a follower of Holinshed, substitutes an oration entirely of his own composition. The beautiful lines—
“For he this day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile
This day shall gentle his condition”—
appear to be derived from the same source as the exaggerated statement of Archbishop Des Ursins, that on another occasion Henry promised that his plebeian soldiers should be ennobled and invested with collars of SS. This cannot be taken directly from Des Ursins, whose history of the reign of Charles VI., though written in the fifteenth century, was not published until 1614.
[Page 58, ll. 9, 10.] “When hearing one wish all the valiant men At home in England, with them present were.”—According to the anonymous monk, who may be fully relied upon, the speaker was Sir Walter Hungerford. Shakespeare puts the sentiment into the mouth of the Earl of Westmorland.
[Page 59, l. 9.] “At the full Moone looke how th’vnweldy Tide” etc.—These lines are clearly a reminiscence of Shakespeare’s—
“Let the brow o’erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O’erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill’d with the wild and wasteful ocean.”
Henry V., prologue to act iii.
[Page 62, l. 21.] “Dampeir.”—Chatillon, Admiral of France, was also Lord of Dampierre. It must be by inadvertence that Sir Harris Nicolas (p. 121) speaks of Cliquet de Brabant, whom Drayton calls Cluet, as Admiral.
[Page 63, l. 6.] “Could.”—Must have been pronounced cold, as it was sometimes written. See also p. 83, l. 26.
[Page 63, l. 16.] “Cantels.”—Corners (Germ. Kant); hence = morsels, though Shakespeare speaks of “a monstrous cantle.”
[Page 66, ll. 11, 12.] “Bespeaking them with honourable words Themselues their prisoners freely and confesse.”—One of Drayton’s awkward inversions. The anonymous ecclesiastic says that some of the French nobles surrendered themselves more than ten times, and were slain after all.
[Page 72, l. 15.] “In comes the King his Brothers life to saue.”—“The Duke of Gloucester, the King’s brother, was sore wounded about the hippes, and borne down to the ground, so that he fel backwards, with his feete towards his enemies, whom the King bestridde, and like a brother valiantly rescued him from his enimies, and so saving his life, caused him to be conveyed out of the fight into a place of more safetie” (Holinshed).
[Page 72, ll. 25, 26.] “Vpon the King Alanzon prest so sore, That with a stroke,” etc.—There seems no contemporary authority for the single combat between Henry and Alençon of which Shakespeare has made such ingenious use in his management of the incident of Henry’s glove. According to one account, Alençon struck at the King somewhat unfairly as he was stooping to aid his brother, and smote off a piece of his crown. According to another authority, the blow was given by one of a band of eighteen knights who had sworn to strike the diadem from Henry’s head, or perish in the attempt, as they all did.
[Page 82, l. 28.] “Nock.”—Notch.
[Page 83, l. 16.] “Tue.”—Must be pronounced as a dissyllable; but the French cry was more probably tuez.
[Page 85, l. 28.] “Base.”—Run as at prisoners’ base. Murray’s “Dictionary” cites one example of the use of the word in this sense, which is from Warner’s “Albion’s England,” a poem read and admired by Drayton.
[Page 87, l. 27.] “Clunasse.”—A misprint for Clamasse.
[Page 87, l. 27.] “Dorpe” = thorpe, a word revived by Tennyson in “The Brook.”
[Page 88, ll. 17, 18.] “And in his rage he instantly commands, That euery English should his prisoner kill.”—
“I was not angry since I came to France
Until this instant.”
Henry V., act iv., sc. 7.
[Page 92, l. 15.] “And so tow’rds Callice brauely marching on.”—This is certainly a flat conclusion. It is surprising that Drayton made no use of the appearance of the herald Montjoy on the field, with confession of defeat and appeal for—
“Charitable licence,
That we may wander o’er this bloody field
To book our dead, and then to bury them.”
Henry V., act iv., sc. 7.
[ TO MY FRINDS THE CAMBER-BRITANS]
AND THEYR HARP.
It has already been observed in the Introduction that this grand lyric gave the model for Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade.” This latter poem appears along with “Maud,” and another piece in the same slender volume contains unequivocal proof of the Laureate’s acquaintance with Drayton. In the powerful poem entitled “Will” occur the lines—
“Sown in a wrinkle of the monstrous hill,
The city sparkles like a grain of salt.”
In a passage of Song IX. of the “Polyolbion,” excerpted by Mr. Bullen, Drayton says—
“The mightie Giant-heape so less and lesser still
Appeareth to the eye, untill the monstrous hill
At length shewes like a cloud; and further being cast,
Is out of kenning quite.”
The identity of epithet might possibly be accidental, but the resemblance extends to the entire passage.
A singularly beautiful stanza from Drayton’s “Barons’ Warres,” also in Mr. Bullen’s selection, must have been unconsciously present to Shelley’s mind when he wrote in “The Witch of Atlas”—
“While on her hearth lay blazing many a piece
Of sandal wood, rare gems, and cinnamon.
Men scarcely know how beautiful fire is;
Each flame of it is as a precious stone
Dissolved in ever-moving light, and this
Belongs to each and all who gaze thereon.”
Drayton writes:
“The Fire of precious Wood, the Light Perfume
Which left a sweetnesse on each thing it shone,
As every thing did to it selfe assume
The Sent from them and made the same their owne
So that the painted Flowres within the Roome
Were sweet, as if they naturally had growne;
The Light gave Colours, which upon them fell,
And to the Colours the Perfume gave smell.”
A still stronger proof of the extent to which Shelley had unconsciously imbibed the spirit of Drayton is afforded by a comparison of the noble speech of Fame in “The tragicall legend of Robert Duke of Normandie” (Bullen, pp. 25, 27) with Shelley’s still finer “Hymn of Apollo.” There is hardly any instance of direct verbal resemblance; but the metre, the strain of sentiment, the oratorical pose, the mental and moral attitude of the two poems are so much alike as to justify the assertion that the younger owes its form and much of its spirit to the older.
The following is the Roxburghe version of the ballad of the Dauphin’s present of tennis-balls, mentioned at p. 106:—
KING HENRY V. HIS CONQUEST OF FRANCE,
IN REVENGE FOR THE AFFRONT OFFERED BY THE FRENCH KING;
IN SENDING HIM (INSTEAD OF THE TRIBUTE) A TON OF TENNIS-BALLS.
| As our King lay musing on his bed, He bethought himself upon a time, Of a tribute that was due from France, Had not been paid for so long a time. Fal, lal, etc. He called for his lovely page, His lovely page then called he; Saying, You must go to the King of France, To the King of France, sir, ride speedily. O then went away this lovely page, This lovely page then away went he; Low he came to the King of France, And then fell down on his bended knee. My master greets you, worthy sir, Ten ton of Gold that is due to he, That you will send his tribute home, Or in French land you soon him will see. Fal, lal, etc. Your master’s young and of tender years, Not fit to come into my degree, And I will send him three Tennis-Balls That with them he may learn to play. O then returned this lovely page, This lovely page then returned he, And when he came to our gracious King, Low he fell down on his bended knee. [A line cut off.] What is the news you have brought to me? I have brought such news from the King of France That he and you will ne’er agree. He says, You’re young and of tender years, Not fit to come to his degree; And he will send you three Tennis-Balls That with them you may learn to play. Recruit me Cheshire and Lancashire, And Derby Hills that are so free; No marry’d man, or widow’s son, For no widow’s curse shall go with me. They recruited Cheshire and Lancashire, And Derby Hills that are so free; No marry’d man, nor no widow’s son, Yet there was a jovial bold company. O then we march’d into the French land With drums and trumpets so merrily; And then bespoke the King of France, Lo yonder comes proud King Henry. The first shot that the Frenchmen gave They kill’d our Englishmen so free, We kill’d ten thousand of the French, And the rest of them they run away. And then we marched to Paris gates, With drums and trumpets so merrily, O then bespoke the King of France, The Lord have mercy on my men and me. O I will send him his tribute home, Ten ton of Gold that is due to he, And the finest flower that is in all France, To the Rose of England I will give free. |
CHISWICK PRESS:—C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE.
[ Text of Woodcut]
Around picture:
EFFIGIES MICHAELIS DRAYTON ARMIGERI, POETÆ CLARISS.
ÆTAT. SVÆ L. A. CHR. ↀ.DC.XIII
Below picture:
Lux Hareshulla tibi Warwici villa, tenebris,
Ante tuas Cunas, obsita Prima fuit.
Arma, Viros, Veneres, Patriam modulamine dixti:
Te Patriæ resonant Arma, Viri, Veneres.
[ Text of Title Page]
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THE BATTAILE OF AGINCOVRT. FOVGHT BY Henry THE fift of that name, King of England, against the whole power of the French: vnder the Raigne of their Charles the sixt, Anno Dom. 1415. The Miseries of Queene Margarite, the infortunate VVife, of that most infortunate King Henry the sixt. Nimphidia, the Court of Fayrie. The Quest of Cinthia. The Shepheards Sirena. The Moone-Calfe. Elegies vpon sundry occasions. By Michaell Drayton Esquire. LONDON, Printed for William Lee, at the Turkes Head in Fleete-Streete, next to the Miter and Phænix. 1627. |