ANNOTATIONS

UPON

FIRST PART OF

KING HENRY VI.

1 That have consented-] CONSENTED means here united or agreed, from the Latin concentus.

2 Or shall we think the subtle-witted French, &c.] There was a notion prevalent a long time, that life might be taken away by metrical charms. As superstition grew weaker, these charms were imagined only to have power on irrational animals. In our author's time it was supposed that the Irish could kill rats by a song.

JOHNSON.

3 Than Julius Cæsar, or bright-] I can't guess the occasion of the hemistich and imperfect sense in this place; 'tis not impossible it might have been filled up with-Francis Drake, though that were a terrible anachronism (as bad as Hector's quoting Aristotle in Troilus and Cressida); yet perhaps at the time that brave Englishman was in his glory, to an

English-hearted audience, and pronounced by some favourite actor, the thing might be popular, though not judicious; and, therefore, by some critic in favour of the author afterwards struck out. But this is a mere slight conjecture.

POPE.

To confute the slight conjecture of Pope, a whole page of vehement opposition is annexed to this passage by Theobald. Sir Thomas Hanmer has stopped at Cæsar perhaps more judiciously. It might, however, have been written,-or bright Berenice. JOHNSON.

4

If sir John Fastolfe, &c.] Mr. Pope has taken notice, "That Falstaff is here introduced again, who was dead in Henry V. The occasion whereof is, that this play was written before King Henry IV. or King Henry V." But it is the historical Sir John Fastolfe (for so he is called by both our Chroniclers) that is here mentioned; who was a lieutenant general, deputy regent to the duke of Bedford in Normandy, and a knight of the garter; and not the comick character afterwards introduced by our author, and which was a creature merely of his own brain. Nor when he named him Falstaff do I believe he had any intention of throwing a slur on the memory of this renowned old warrior.

THEOBALD.

Mr. Theobald might have seen his notion contradicted in the very line he quotes from. Fastolfe, whether truly or not, is said by Hall and Holinshed to have been degraded for cowardice. Dr. Heylin, in' his Saint George for England, tells us, that "he was afterwards, upon good reason by him alledged in his'

defence, restored to his honour."—"This Sir John Falstoff," continues he, "was without doubt, a valiant and wise captain, notwithstanding the stage hath made merry with him.”

FARMER.

5-gimmals-] A gimmal, says Johnson, is a piece of jointed work, where one piece moves within another; whence it is taken at large for an engine. It is now by the vulgar called a gimcrack.

6 -nine sibyls of old Rome;] There were no nine sibyls of Rome; but he confounds things, and mistakes this for the nine books of Sibylline oracles, brought to one of the Tarquins. WARBURTON.

7 Expect saint Martin's summer,] That is, expect prosperity after misfortune, like fair weather at Martlemas when winter is begun.

8 Nor yet saint Philip's daughters,] Meaning the four daughters of Philip, mentioned in the Acts.

9 Piel'd priest-] Cui pellis, vel pili omnes ex morbo aliquo, præsertim è lue venerea, defluxerunt.

10 Thou, that giv'st whores indulgences to sin:] The public stews were formerly under the district of the bishop of Winchester.

POPE.

There is now extant an old manuscript (formerly the office-book of the court-leet held under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Winchester in Southwark) in which are mentioned the several fees arising from the brothel-houses allowed to be kept in the bishop's manor, with the customs and regulations of them. One of the articles is,

"De his, qui custodiunt mulicres habentes nefandam infirmitatem."

"Item. That no stewholder keep any woman within his house, that hath any sickness of brenning, but that she be put out upon pain of making a fyne unto the lord of C shillings."

UPTON.

"This be Damascus, be thou cursed Cain,] Cain is supposed to have killed his brother on the spot where Damascus was built. See the Polychronicon and Maundeville's Travels.

12

-so pil'd esteemed.] Mr. Steevens interprets piled to be pillaged or stripped of honours, and other editors read vile-esteemed.

19 Pucelle or puzzel, dolphin or dogfish,] Puzzel means a drah or dirty wench, placed contemptuously in opposition to Pucelle, as dogfish is to the Dauphin or Dolphin, as that prince's title was anciently spelt.

14 Than Rhodope's] Rhodope was a famous strumpet, who acquired great riches by her trade. The least but most finished of the Egyptian pyramids was built by her. Pliny, lib. 36. cap. xii.

-coffer of Darius,] When Alexander the Great took the city of Gaza, the metropolis of Syria, amidst the other spoils and wealth of Darius treasured up there, he found an exceeding rich and beautiful little chest or casket, and asked those about him what they thought fittest to be laid up in it. When they had severally delivered their opinions, he told them, he esteemed nothing so worthy to be preserved in it as