The attempts to explain this passage have been hitherto abortive. The best I can do with it is this. Westmoreland had asked the archbishop what he complained of? "General (replies the bishop) the common-wealth, my brother general, (i. e. general brother) become, as it is, by misrule, a household cruelty to its brothers born, I make my special cause of quarrel." 165. "Our battle is more full of names than yours." << Names," for men of eminence and title. 166. "To us, and to our purposes, consign'd." Confin'd, the old reading, I believe right—executed with a strict conformity to our intentions, 177. SCENE II. "Heaven, and not we, hath safely fought to-day." The ascribing thus the success of the grossest treachery to the influence of heaven, howsoever it may shock the mere moralist, is perfectly pious and orthodox. 185. 66 SCENE III. This little kingdom, man." Thus in King John, Act 4, 395 : In the body of this fleshly land, "This kingdom," &c. SCENE IV. 195. "The seasons change their manners, as the year "Had found some months asleep, and leap'd them over." N. Lee, describing a similar disorder of the Seasons, says: Blind winter meets the summer "In the mid-way, and knowing not his livery, "Hath driven him headlong back." 209. Edipus. All thy friends, which thou must make thy friends." i. e. I believe, all those capable or likely to assist you, and whom it is incumbent on you to conciliate and attach to your cause. Mr. Seymour, thus explains this passage:"All those capable or likely to assist you, and whom it is incumbent on you to conciliate and attach to your cause." If this be the true explanation, (which I am rather inclined to think) Mr. Tyrwhitt's emendation is inadmissible. LORD CHEDWORTH. ACT V. SCENE I. 214. "William Cook." It may be true, that, anciently, the lower orders of the people had no surnames; but this comment of Mr. Steevens's does not tend to prove it, and, indeed, might well be spared."The note upon William Cook (says Heron) is in the true antiquarian style, and as such I leave it. Coke, I have no doubt, was a proper name, as well as Canning." By " William Cook," Shallow certainly means William, the cook. Of this I should have thought no one would have doubted. LORD CHEDWORTH. " Never shall you see, that I will "A ragged and forestall'd remission.” I take the plain meaning to be-never will I descend to the meanness of asking pardon for an act, the commission of which must, in every impartial and honest mind, be already justified.Forestall'd, for anticipated, is in current use at this day. Was this tolerable? easily to be borne, or passed-by: as in Second Part of King Henry, Act 3: "These faults are easy." KING HENRY V. CHORUS. 273. "O, for a muse of fire, that would ascend "The brightest heaven of invention," &c. I cannot, with Dr. Warburton, suppose that there is here any reference to the doctrine of the Peripatetics, or, with Dr. Johnson, to the nature or quality of fire: it seems to be nothing more than the expression of a wish to be inspired with poetic ardour, equal to the sublimity of the theme; just as Milton invokes the heavenly muse's aid to his Adventurous song, "That with no middle flight intends to soar "Above th' Aonian mount." 276. "Into a thousand parts divide one man." Let every thing we shew be regarded as miniature; in order to extend your ideas to any thing like the reality, let each man before you be supposed to be a thousand. ACT I. SCENE I. 281. "The courses of his youth promis'd it not. "The breath no sooner left his father's body, "But that his wildness, mortified in him, "Seem'd to die too." Somewhat of this thought we find in Milton's History of Britain, p. 11, folio ed. "Who thenceforth, vice itself dissolving in him, and forgetting her firmest hold, with the admiration of a deed so heroic-' "The courses of his youth," &c. The character of Henry V. reminds us of what Tacitus says of Titus:-Lætam voluptatibus adolescentiam egit, suo quam Patris Imperio modestior. Hist. II. 2. LORD CHEDWORTH. "Unloose," for "untie," or "make loose," occurs in King Lear-" Cut the holy cords in twain, too intrinsicate to unloose”—and appears to be a corruption from "enloose." 284. " &c. Grew like the summer grass," This brings to our recollection, from Virgil— "Non liquidi gregibus fontes, non gramina desunt "Et quantum longis carpent armenta diebus SCENE II. 295. "Stand for your own." Contend, be resolute for your own; as in King Henry IV. First Part:-" Thou com'st not of the |