  Act i. sc. 2. Westmoreland's speech:— “They know your grace hath cause, and means, and might; So hath your highness; never King of England Had nobles richer,” &c. Does “grace” mean the king's own peculiar domains and legal revenue, and “highness” his feudal rights in the military service of his nobles?—I have sometimes thought it possible that the words “grace” and “cause” may have been transposed in the copying or printing;— “They know your cause hath grace,” &c. What Theobald meant, I cannot guess. To me his pointing makes the passage still more obscure. Perhaps the lines ought to be recited dramatically thus:— “They know your Grace hath cause, and means, and might:— So hath your Highness—never King of England Had nobles richer,” &c. He breaks off from the grammar and natural order from earnestness, and in order to give the meaning more passionately. Ib. Exeter's speech:— “Yet that is but a crush'd necessity.” Perhaps it may be “crash” for “crass” from crassus, clumsy; or it may be “curt,” defective, imperfect: anything would be better than Warburton's “'scus'd,” which honest Theobald, of course, adopts. By the by, it seems clear to me that this [pg 180] Act iv. sc. 3. King Henry's speech:— “We would not die in that man's company That fears his fellowship to die with us.” Should it not be “live” in the first line? Ib. sc. 5.— “Const. O diable! Orl. O seigneur! le jour est perdu, tout est perdu! Dan. Mort de ma vie! all is confounded, all! Reproach and everlasting shame Sit mocking in our plumes!—O meschante fortune! Do not run away!” Ludicrous as these introductory scraps of French appear, so instantly followed by good, nervous mother-English, yet they are judicious, and produce the impression which Shakespeare intended,—a sudden feeling struck at once on the ears, as well as the eyes, of the audience, that “here come the French, the baffled French braggards!”—And this will appear still more judicious, when we reflect on the scanty apparatus of distinguishing dresses in Shakespeare's tyring-room. |
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