which he was especially qualified to throw into the form of a chronicle history. It was a task peculiarly fitted for the young poet during the first five years of his connection with the theatre. Historical dramas, in the rudest form, presented unequalled attractions to the audiences who flocked to the rising stage. He had not here to invent a plot; or to aim at the unity of action, of time, and of place, which the more refined critics of his day held to be essential to tragedy. The form of a chronicle history might appear to require little beyond a poetical exposition of the most attractive facts of the real Chronicles. It is in this spirit, we think, that Shakspere approached the execution of the First Part of 'Henry VI.' It appears to us, also, that in that very early performance he in some degree held his genius in subordination to the necessity of executing his task, rather with reference to the character of his audience and the general nature of his subject, than for the fulfilment of his own aspirations as a poet. There was before him one of two courses. He might have chosen, as the greater number of his contemporaries chose, to consider the dominions of poetry and of common sense to be far sundered; and, unconscious or doubtful of the force of simplicity, he might have resolved, with them, to substitute what would more unquestionably gratify a rude popular taste-the force of extravagance. On the other hand, it was open to him to transfer to the dramatic shape the spirit-stirring recitals of the old chronicle writers; in whose narratives, and especially in that portion of them in which they make their characters speak, there is a manly and straightforward earnestness which in itself not seldom becomes poetical. Shakspere chose this latter course. When we begin to study the 'Henry VI.,' we find in the First Part that the action does not appear to progress to a catastrophe; that the author lingers about the details, as one who was called upon to exhibit an entire series of events rather than the most dramatic portions of them; there are the alternations of success and loss, and loss and success, till we somewhat doubt to which side to assign the victory. The characters are firmly drawn, but without any very subtle distinctions,and their sentiments and actions appear occasionally inconsistent, or at any rate not guided by a determined purpose in the writer. But although the effect may be, to a certain extent, undramatic, there is impressed upon the whole performance a wonderful air of truth. Much of this must have resulted from the extraordinary quality of the poet's mind, which could tear off all the flimsy conventional disguises of individual character, and penetrate the real moving principle of events with a rare acuteness, and a rarer impartiality. In our view, that whole portion of the First Part of Henry VI.' which deals with the character and actions of Joan of Arc is a remarkable example of this power in Shakspere. He knew that, with all the influence of her supernatural pretension, this extraordinary woman could not have swayed the destinies of kingdoms, and moulded princes and warriors to her will, unless she had been a person of very rare natural endowments. She was represented by the Chroniclers as a mere virago, a bold and shameless trull, a monster, a witch;-because they adopted the vulgar view of her character,-the view, in truth, of those to whom she was opposed. They were rough soldiers, with all the virtues and all the vices of their age; the creatures of brute force; the champions, indeed, of chivalry, but with the brand upon them of all the selfish passions with which the highest deeds of chivalry were too invariably associated. The English Chroniclers, in all that regards the delineation of characters and manners, give us abundant materials upon which we may form an estimate of actions, and motives, and instruments; but they do not show us the instruments moving in their own forms of vitality; they do not lay bare their motives; and hence we have no real key to their actions. Froissart is, perhaps, the only contemporary writer who gives us real portraits of the men of mail. But Shakspere marshalled them upon his stage, in all their rude might, their coarse ambition, their low jealousies, their factious hatreds,-mixed up with their thirst for glory, their indomitable courage, their warm friendships, their tender natural affections, their love of country. This is the truth which Shakspere substituted for the vague delineations of the old stage. VERNON, of the White Rose, or York, faction. Appears, Act II. sc. 4. Act III. sc. 4. Act IV. sc. 1. BASSET, of the Red Rose, or Lancaster, faction. Appears, Act III. sc. 4. Act IV. sc. 1. CHARLES, Dauphin, and afterwards King, of France. Appears, Act I. sc. 2; sc. 5; sc. 6. Act II. sc. 1. Act III. sc. 2; sc. 3. Act IV. sc. 7. Act V. sc. 2; sc. 4. HENRY BEAUFORT, great uncle to the King, REIGNIER, Duke of Anjou, and titular King Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act III. sc. 1. Act IV. sc. 1. Act V. sc. 1; sc. 4. JOHN BEAUFORT, Earl of Somerset ; Appears, Act II. sc. 4. Act III. sc. 1. RICHARD PLANTAGENET, eldest son of Richard, late Earl of Cambridge; afterwards Duke of York. Appears, Act II. sc. 4; sc. 5. Act III. sc. 1. Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act II. sc. 4. Act III. sc. 1. EARL OF SALISBURY. Appears, Act I. sc. 4. EARL OF SUFFOLK. Appears, Act II. sc. 4. Act III. sc. 1. Act IV. sc. 1. Act V. sc. 3; sc. 5. LORD TALBOT, afterwards Earl of Shrewsbury. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 5; sc. 6; sc. 7. A Lawyer. Appears, Act II. sc. 4. SIR JOHN FASTOLFE. Appears, Act III. sc. 2. Act IV. sc. 1. SIR WILLIAM LUCY. Appears, Act IV. sc. 3; sc. 4; sc. 7. SIR WILLIAM GLANSDALE. Appears, Act I. sc. 4. of Naples. Appears, Act I. sc. 2; sc. 6. Act II. sc. 1. DUKE OF BURGUNDY. Appears, Act II. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act III. sc. 2; sc. 3. Act IV. sc. 7. Act V. sc. 2. DUKE OF ALENÇON. Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Act II. sc. 1. Act III. sc. 2; sc. 3. Act IV. sc. 7. Act V. sc. 2; sc. 4. Governor of Paris. Appears, Act IV. sc. 1. BASTARD OF ORLEANS. Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Act II. sc. 1. Act III. sc. 2; sc. 3. Act IV. sc. 7. Act V. sc. 4. Master-Gunner of Orleans, and his Son. General of the French Forces in Bourdeaux. A Porter. Appears, Act II. sc. 3. An old Shepherd, father to Joan la Pucelle. Appears, Act V. sc. 4. MARGARET, daughter to Reignier; afterwards married to King Henry. Appears, Act V. sc. 3. COUNTESS OF AUVERGNE. Appears, Act II. sc. 3. JOAN LA PUCELLE, commonly called Joan of Arc. Appears, Act I. sc. 2; sc. 5; sc. 6. Act II. sc. 1. Act III. sc. 2; sc. 3. Act IV. sc. 7. Act V. sc. 2; sc. 3; sc. 4. Fiends appearing to La Pucelle, Lords, Warders of the Tower, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and several Attendants both on the English and French. SCENE,- -PARTLY IN ENGLAND, AND PARTLY IN FRANCE. Dead march. Corpse of KING HENRY V. discovered, lying in state; attended on by the DUKES OF BEDFORD, GLOSTER, and EXETER; the EARL OF WARWICK, the BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, Heralds, dc. BED. Hung be the heavens with black', yield day to night! Comets, importing change of times and states, Brandish your crystal a tresses in the sky; a Crystal. This epithet is applied to comets, in a sonnet by Lord Sterline, 1604:"When as those crystal comets whiles appear." And with them scourge the bad revolting stars, King Henry the fifth, too famous to live long! His brandish'd sword did blind men with his beams; Than mid-day sun, fierce bent against their faces EXE. We mourn in black: Why mourn we not in blood? GLO. The church! where is it? Had not churchmen pray'd, a Consented. Malone is of opinion that consented is here used only in the ordinary sense of that word, and that it is used also in the ordinary sense in the 5th scene of this Act: "You all consented unto Salisbury's death." Steevens, on the other hand, believes that the word should be spelt concented.-Steevens appears to us to be right. To concent is to be in harmony-to act together. See the passage in Henry V.,' Act I., Scene 2, and the notes on that passage:— "For government, through high, and low, and lower, Put into parts, doth keep in one concent; Congreeing in a full and natural close, A passage in Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft,' 1584, explains this:-" The Irishmen will not stick to affirm that they can rime either man or beast to death." This is an old northern superstition. In Gray's spirited 'Descent of Odin' we find "Thrice he trac'd the Runic rhyme; Thrice pronounc'd, in accents dread, None do you like but an effeminate prince, And ne'er throughout the year to church thou go'st, BED. Cease, cease these jars, and rest your minds in peace! Instead of gold, we 'll offer up our arms; When at their mothers' moisten'da eyes babes shall suck; C Enter a Messenger. MESS. My honourable lords, health to you all! Of loss, of slaughter, and discomfiture: ■ Moisten'd. So the folio of 1623. The second folio, in which some verbal alterations of the original text are found, and which, for the most part, are made with judgment, reads moist. We adhere to the original in all those cases where the alterations of the second folio are somewhat doubtful. • Nourish. Nourice, nourish, nursh, are the same words. We have an example in Lydgate:"Athenes whan it was in his floures Was called nourish of philosophers wise." Pope substituted marish, for the nourish of the folios. Mr. Dyce thinks that Pope was right. Ritson, he observes, quotes a line from Kyd's Spanish Tragedy: ' "Made mountains marsh with spring-tides of my tears." • Malone says, "This blank undoubtedly arose from the transcriber's or compositor's not being able to make out the name." We greatly doubt this. In the original the line is terminated with four hyphens, thus (----), a point which is several times used in the same play to mark an interruption. For example, in the 4th scene of this Act, "Thou shalt not die whiles- - Pope suggested (the notion looks like a joke) to fill up the line thus: "Than Julius Cæsar, or bright Francis Drake;" and Monk Mason gravely upholds the reading. Johnson would read,— "Than Julius Cæsar, or bright Berenice." |