picture which he has painted of his favourite hero is an exaggerated and flattering representation. The extraordinary merits of Henry V. were those of the individual; his demerits were those of his times. It was not for the poet to regard the most popular king of the feudal age with the cold and severe scrutiny of the philosophical historian. It was for him to embody in the person of Henry V. the principle of national heroism; it was for him to call forth "the spirit of patriotic reminiscence." Frederick Schlegel says, "The feeling by which Shakspere seems to have been most connected with ordinary men is that of nationality." But how different is his nationality from that of ordinary men! It is reflective, tolerant, generous. It lives not in an atmosphere of falsehood and prejudice. Its theatre is war and conquest; but it does not hold up war and conquest as fitting objects for nationality to dedicate itself to, except under the pressure of the most urgent necessity. Neither does it attempt to conceal the fearful responsibilities of those who carry the principle of nationality to the last arbitrement of arms; nor the enormous amount of evil which always attends the rupture of that peace, in the cultivation of which nationality is best displayed. In the inferior persons of the play-the comic characters- the poet has displayed that power which he, above all men, possesses, of combining the highest poetical conceptions with the most truthful delineations of real life. In the amusing pedantry of Fluellen, and the vapourings of Pistol, there is nothing in the slightest degree incongruous with the main action of the scene. The homely bluntness of the common soldiers of the army brings us still closer to a knowledge of the great mass of which a camp is composed. Perhaps one of the most delicate but yet most appreciable instances of Shakspere's nationality, in all its power and justice, is the mode in which he has exhibited the characters of these common soldiers. They are rough, somewhat quarrelsome, brave as lions, but without the slightest particle of anything low or grovelling in their composition. They are fit representatives of the "good yeomen, whose limbs were made in England." On the other hand, the discriminating truth of the poet is equally shown in exhibiting to us three arrant cowards in Pistol, Nym, and Bardolph. His impartiality could afford to paint the bullies and blackguards that even our nationality must be content to reckon as component parts of every army. KING HENRY V. Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Act II. sc. 2. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 3; sc. 6; sc. 7; sc. 8. Act V. sc. 2. Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 6. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 3; sc. 7; sc. 8. Act V. sc. 2. DUKE OF BEDFORD, brother to the King. Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Act II. sc. 2. Act III. sc. 1. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act V. sc. 2. DUKE OF EXETER, uncle to the King. Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Act II. sc. 2; sc. 4. Act III. sc. 1. Act IV. sc. 3; sc. 6; sc. 7; sc. 8. Act V. sc. 2. DUKE OF YORK, cousin to the King. Appears, Act IV. sc. 3. EARL OF SALISBURY. Appears, Act IV. sc. 3. EARL OF WESTMORELAND. Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Act II. sc. 2. Act IV. sc. 3. Act V. sc. 2. EARL OF WARWICK. Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Act IV. sc. 7; sc. 8. Act V. sc. 2. ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 2. BISHOP OF ELY. Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 2. EARL OF CAMBRIDGE, a conspirator against the King. Appears, Act II. sc. 2. LORD SCROOP, a conspirator against the King. Appears, Act II. sc. 2. SIR THOMAS GREY, a conspirator against the King. Appears, Act II. sc. 2. SIR THOMAS ERPINGHAM, an officer in King Henry's army. Appears, Act IV. sc. 1. GOWER, an officer in King Henry's army. Appears, Act III. sc. 2; sc. 6. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 7; sc.8. Act V. sc. 1. FLUELLEN, an officer in King Henry's army. Appears, Act III. sc. 2; sc. 6. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 7; sc. 8. Act V. sc. 1. MACMORRIS, an officer in King Henry's army. Appears, Act III. sc. 2. JAMY, an officer in King Henry's army. Appears, Act III. sc. 2. BATES, a soldier in King Henry's army. Appears, Act IV. sc. 1. COURT, a soldier in King Henry's army. Appears, Act IV. sc. 1. WILLIAMS, a soldier in King Henry's army. Appears, Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 7; sc. 8. NYM, formerly servant to Falstaff, now soldier in King Henry's army. Appears, Act II. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act III. sc. 2. BARDOLPH, formerly servant to Falstaff, now soldier in King Henry's army. Appears, Act II. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act III. sc. 2. PISTOL, formerly servant to Falstaff, now soldier in King Henry's army. Appears, Act II. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 4. Act III. sc. 2; sc. 6. Act V. sc. 1. Boy, servant to Nym, Bardolph, and Pistol. Appears, Act II. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act III. sc. 2. Act IV. sc. 4. A Herald. Appears, Act IV. sc. 8. Chorus. Appears, Act I. Act II. Act III. Act IV. Act V. CHARLES VI., King of France. Appears, Act II. sc. 4. Act III. sc. 5. Act V. sc. 2. LEWIS, the Dauphin. Appears, Act II. sc. 4. Act III. sc. 5; se. 7. DUKE OF BURGUNDY. Appears, Act II. sc. 4. Act V. sc. 2. DUKE OF ORLEANS. Appears, Act III. sc. 7. Act IV. sc. 2; sc. 5. Appears, Act III. sc. 5. Act IV. sc. 5. RAMBURES, a French lord. Appears, Act IV. sc. 2. Appears, Act III. sc. 3. MONTJOY, a French herald. Appears, Act III. sc. 6. Act IV. sc. 3; se. 7. Ambassadors to the King of England. Appear, Act I. sc. 2. ISABEL, Queen of France. Appears, Act V. sc. 2. KATHARINE, daughter of Charles and Isabel. ALICE, a lady attending on the Princess Appears, Act III. sc. 4. QUICKLY, Pistol's wife, an hostess. Appears, Act II. sc. 1; sc. 3. Lords, Ladies, Officers, French and English Soldiers, Messengers, and Attendants. SCENE,- -IN ENGLAND AND IN FRANCE. O for a muse of fire, that would ascend The flat unraised spirit, that hath dared On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth And make imaginary puissance : Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them For 't is your thoughts that now must deck our kings, Who, prologue-like, your humble patience pray, This chorus does not appear in the quarto editions. SCENE I.-London. An Ante-chamber in the King's Palace. CANT. My lord, I 'll tell you,-that self bill is urg'd, But that the scamblinga and unquiet time ELY. But how, my lord, shall we resist it now? CANT. It must be thought on. If it pass against us, We lose the better half of our possession: For all the temporal lands, which men devout Scambling. Percy thinks that to scamble, and to scramble, are synonymous. The "scambling time" is the disorderly time in which authority is unrespected. |