Up in the air, crown'd with the golden fun,3—
Saw his heroical feed, and fmil'd to fee him
Mangle the work of nature, and deface

The patterns that by God and by French fathers
Had twenty years been made. This is a ftem
Of that victorious ftock; and let us fear
The native mightiness and fate of him."

Enter a Meffenger.

MESS. Ambaffadors from Henry King of England Do crave admittance to your majesty.

FR. KING. We'll give them prefent audience. Go, and bring them.

[Exeunt Meff. and certain Lords. You fee, this chafe is hotly follow'd, friends.

Again, in Spenfer's Faerie Queen, B. I. c. xi:

"Where ftretch'd he lay upon the funny fide
"Of a great hill, himself like a great hill."
agmen agens, magnique ipfe agminis inftar.

Mr. Tollet thinks this paffage may be explained by another in

A&t I. fc. i:

-his most mighty father on a hill." STEEVENS.

If the text is not corrupt, Mr. Steevens's explication is the true one. See the extract from Holinfhed, p. 284, n. 5. The repetition of the word mountain is much in our author's manner, and therefore I believe the old copy is right. MALONE.

3 Up in the air, crown'd with the golden fun,] calls this "the nonfenfical line of fome player." ever, might have been taken from Chaucer's

Women:

Dr. Warburton The idea, howLegende of good

"Her gilt heere was yerownid with a fon.” Shak fpeare's meaning, (divefted of its poetical finery,) I fuppofe, is, that the king stood upon an eminence, with the fun fhining over his head. STEEVENS.

4-fate of him.] His fate is what is allotted him by destiny, or what he is fated to perform. JOHNSON.

So Virgil, fpeaking of the future deeds of the defcendants of Æneas: Attollens humeris famamque et fata nepotum. STEEVENS.

DAU. Turn head, and stop pursuit: for coward dogs Most spend their mouths, when what they seem to

threaten,

Runs far before them. Good my sovereign,
Take up the English fhort; and let them know
Of what a monarchy you are the head:
Self-love, my liege, is not fo vile a fin,
As felf-neglecting.

Re-enter Lords, with EXETER and Train.

FR. KING.

From our brother England?

EXE. From him; and thus he greets your ma

jefty.

He wills you, in the name of God Almighty,
That you diveft yourself, and lay apart
The borrow'd glories, that, by gift of heaven,
By law of nature, and of nations, 'long
To him, and to his heirs; namely, the crown,
And all wide-ftretched honours that pertain,
By custom and the ordinance of times,
Unto the crown of France.

That you may know, 'Tis no finifter, nor no aukward claim,

Pick'd from the worm-holes of long-vanish'd days,
Nor from the duft of old oblivion rak'd,
He fends you this most memorable line,"

[Gives a paper.

In every branch truly demonftrative;
Willing you, overlook this pedigree:
And, when you find him evenly deriv'd
From his moft fam'd of famous ancestors,

5fpend their mouths,] That is, bark; the fportfman's term.

6

JOHNSON.

- memorable line,] This genealogy; this deduction of his lineage. JOHNSON.

Edward the third, he bids you then refign
Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held
From him the native and true challenger.
FR. KING. Or elfe what follows?

EXE. Bloody constraint; for if you hide the crown
Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it:
And therefore in fierce tempeft is he coming,
In thunder, and in earthquake, like a Jove;
(That, if requiring fail, he will compel ;)
And bids you, in the bowels of the Lord,
Deliver up the crown; and to take mercy
On the poor fouls, for whom this hungry war
Opens his vafty jaws: and on your head
Turns he the widows' tears, the orphans' cries,
The dead men's blood, the pining maidens' groans,
For husbands, fathers, and betrothed lovers,
That fhall be swallow'd in this controverfy.

6 And therefore &c.] The word-And, is wanting in the old copies. It was fupplied by Mr. Rowe, for the fake of measure. STEEVENS.

7 Turns be-] Thus the quarto, 1600. The folio readsturning the widows' tears. MALONE.

8 The dead men's blood,] The difpofition of the images were more regular, if we were to read thus:

upon your head

Turning the dead men's blood, the widows' tears,

The orphans' cries, the pining maidens' groans. JOHNSON. The quartos 1600 and 1608 exhibit the paffage thus: And on your heads turns he the widows' tears,

The orphans' cries, the dead men's bones,

The pining maidens' groans,

For husbands, fathers, and diftreffed lovers,
Which &c.

Thefe quartos agree in all but the mereft trifles;
the future I fhall content myself in general to
of them, which is the more correct of the two.

and therefore for quote the former STEEVENS.

The folio has

Pining is the reading of the quarto, 1600. privy. Blood is the reading of the folio.-The quarto instead of it has-bones. MALONE.

This is his claim, his threat'ning, and my meffage; Unless the Dauphin be in prefence here,

To whom exprefsly I bring greeting too.

FR. KING. For us, we will confider of this further: To-morrow fhall you bear our full intent

Back to our brother of England.

DAU.

For the Dauphin,

I ftand here for him; What to him from England? EXE. Scorn, and defiance; flight regard, contempt,

And any thing that may not misbecome

The mighty fender, doth he prize you at.
Thus fays my king: and, if your father's highness
Do not, in grant of all demands at large,
Sweeten the bitter mock you fent his majefty,
He'll call you to fo hot an answer for it,
That caves and womby vaultages of France
Shall chide your trefpafs," and return your mock
In fecond accent of his ordnance.2

DAU. Say, if my father render fair reply,

It is against my will: for I defire

Nothing but odds with England; to that end,

9 Shall chide your trefpafs,] To chide is to refound, to echo. So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream:

never did I hear

"Such gallant chiding."

Again, in King Henry VIII:

"As doth a rock against the chiding flood." STEEVENS. This interpretation is confirmed by a paffage in The Tempest:

2

66

the thunder,

"That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounc'd
"The name of Profper; it did bass my trespass."

MALONE.

of bis ordnance.] Ordnance is here ufed as a trifyllable; being in our author's time improperly written ordinance.

As matching to his youth and vanity,
I did prefent him with those Paris balls.

EXE. He'll make your Paris Louvre fhake for it,
Were it the mistress court of mighty Europe:
And, be affur'd, you'll find a difference,
(As we, his fubjects, have in wonder found,)
Between the promife of his greener days,
And these he mafters now; now he weighs time,
Even to the utmoft grain; which you shall read *
In your own loffes, if he stay in France.

FR. KING. To-morrow fhall you know our mind at full.

EXE. Defpatch us with all speed, left that our king

Come here himself to question our delay;
For he is footed in this land already.

FR. KING. You fhall be foon despatch'd, with fair conditions:

A night is but small breath, and little pause,
To answer matters of this confequence. [Exeunt.

3 -

-he mafters now;] Thus the folio. So, in King Henry VI. Part I:

"As if he mafter'd there a double spirit

"Of teaching and of learning" &c.

The quarto, 1600, reads mufters. STEEVENS.

4

-you fhall read-] So the folio. The quarto, 1600, has-you shall find. MALONE.