Brandish your crystal3 tresses in the sky, Glo. England ne'er had a king, until his time. His brandish'd sword did blind men with his beams; Exe. We mourn in black; Why mourn we not in blood? Henry is dead, and never shall revive; Upon a wooden coffin we attend ; Win. He was a king bless'd of the King of kings. 3 Crystal is an epithet repeatedly bestowed on comets by our ancient writers. Thus in a Sonnet by Lord Sterline, 1604:"When as those chrystal comets whiles appear." -- 4 Consented here meant conspired together to promote the death of Henry by their malignant influence on human events. Our ancestors had but one word to express consent, and concent, which meant accord and agreement, whether of persons or things. • There was a notion long prevalent that life might be taken away by metrical charms. "The Irishmen addict themselves, &c.; yea, they will not sticke to affirme that they can rime man or beast to death."-Reginald Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft, 158 See As You Like It, Act iii. Sc. 2, note 21, p. 58. Unto the French the dreadful judgment day His thread of life had not so soon decay'd: Win. Gloster, whate'er we like, thou art protector; And lookest to command the prince and realm. Thy wife is proud; she holdeth thee in awe, More than God, or religious churchmen, may. Glo. Name not religion, for thou lov'st the flesh; And ne'er throughout the year to church thou go'st, Except it be to pray against thy foes. Bed. Cease, cease these jars, and rest in peace! your minds Let's to the altar :--Heralds, wait on us: Posterity, await for wretched years, When at their mother's moist eyes babes shall suck; The old copy has " a nourish of salt tears," which has been explained 66 a nurse," but this would be an incongruous figure. It is much more probable that it was a misprint for marish, a marsh, which Pope substituted. Ritson's quotation from the Spanish Tragedy is much to the point: "Made mountains marsh with spring-tides of my tears." 7 Pope conjectured that this blank had been supplied by the name of Francis Drake, which, though a glaring anachronism, he Enter a Messenger. you Mess. My honourable lords, health to Sad tidings bring I to you out of France, Of loss, of slaughter, and discomfiture: Guienne, Champaigne, Rheims, Orleans, Paris, Guysors, Poictiers, are all quite lost. Bed. What say'st thou, man, before dead Henry's corse? Speak softly; or the loss of those great towns If Henry were recall'd to life again, These news would cause him once more yield the ghost. Exe. How were they lost? what treachery was us'd? Mess. No treachery; but want of men and money. Amongst the soldiers this is mutter'd, That here you maintain several factions ; And, whilst a field should be despatch'd and fought, One would have ling'ring wars, with little cost; Exe. Were our tears wanting to this funeral, These tidings would call forth her flowing tides3. Bed. Me they concern; regent I am of France : thought might have been a popular, though not judicious, mode of attracting plaudits in the theatre. Part of the arms of Drake Johnson with great improbability prowas two blazing stars. The corrector of Mr. Collier's folio would read posed Berenice. on bright Cassiopé. i. e. England's flowing tides of tears. Give me my steeled coat, I'll fight for France. To weep Enter another Messenger. eyes, 2 Mess. Lords, view these letters, full of bad mischance, France is revolted from the English quite; Except some petty towns of no import : The Dauphin Charles is crowned king in Rheims ; [Exit. Exe. The Dauphin crowned king! all fly to him! O! whither shall we fly from this reproach? Glo. We will not fly, but to our enemies' throats. Bedford, if thou be slack, I'll fight it out. Bed. Gloster, why doubt'st thou of my forwardness? An army have I muster'd in my thoughts, Wherewith already France is overrun. Enter a third Messenger. 3 Mess. My gracious lords, to add to your laments, Wherewith you now bedew King Henry's hearse, I must inform you of a dismal fight, Betwixt the stout Lord Talbot and the French. Win. What! wherein Talbot overcame? is't so? 3 Mess. O, no; wherein Lord Talbot was o'erthrown! The circumstance I'll tell you more at large. a Having scarce full six thousand in his troop, • The old copies have "full scarce" the words being evidently transposed by accident. Was round encompassed and set upon : To keep the horsemen off from breaking in. Bed. Is Talbot slain? then I will slay myself, For an account of this Sir John Fastolfe, vide Biographia Britannica, by Kippis, vol. v.; in which is his life, written by Mr. Gough. See also Anstis On the Order of the Garter; Parkins' Supplement to Blomefield's History of Norfolk; Capel's Notes to Shakespeare, vol. ii. p. 221; and Sir John Fenn's Collection of the Paston Letters. He is said by Hall to have been degraded for cowardice; and Heylin, in his History of St. George, tells us |