Compare 1 Hy. VI. iv. 7, 56,—

"Enter Sir William Lucy, a French Herald preceding.

Lucy. I come to know what prisoners thou hast ta'en, And to survey the bodies of the dead.”

The folio has (not in quartos),

"To booke our dead."

The correction is by Collier, and is adopted by Dyce and the Camb. eds. The other compared eds. retain “book.” For similar use of "look," compare A. W.

iii. 6, 115,—

"I must go look my twigs."

M. W. W. iv. 2, 79,

"I will look some linen for your head."

A. L. I. ii. 5, 34,

"He hath been all this day to look you."

A. and C. iii. 11, 53,

"By looking back what I have left behind."

Lear iii. 3, 15, folio, "I will looke him;" quartos, “I will seek him." And so Every Man out of his Humour, Act v. sc. 3,

"His dog, sir? he may look his dog, sir,-I saw none of his dog, sir."

Note (18.) Act V. Scene 2, Line 42,—

66

Why that the naked, poor, and mangled Peace,
Dear nurse of arts, plenty, and joyful births,
Should not, in this best garden of the world,
Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage?
Alas, she hath from France too long been chas'd!
And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps,

Corrupting its own fertility.

Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart,

Unpruned lies; her hedges even-pleach'd,

Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair,
Put forth disorder'd twigs."

The folio (not in quartos) has "Unpruned dies;" but the whole context shows that we should read "lies as in "all her husbandry doth lie on heaps." The figure is that, as in war the produce of her soil has grown to wildness from neglected culture, so her youth are growing up savages from neglected education. Neither youth nor vines are dead, but only uncultivated. Both are full of rank life, and grow to wildness. correction is by Warburton. retain "dies."

Note (19.) Ib. Line 55,

The

All the compared eds.

"her fallow leas

The darnel, hemlock, and rank fumitory,
Doth root upon, while that the coulter rusts,
That should deracinate such savagery.
The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth
The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover,
Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank,
Conceives by idleness."

"And as our vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges,
Defective in their nurtures, grow to wildness,
Even so our houses, and ourselves and children,
Have lost, or do not learn for want of time,
The sciences that should become our country;
But grow like savages."

The folio has "Defectiue in their natures"-evidently a misprint, their natures are not defective, the wild growth is as natural without nurture as the cultivated growth is with it. The agriculture of France was suspended by war, but her soil and its produce was not like Caliban (Temp. iv. 1, 189),—

66 on whose nature

Nurture can never stick."

The correction is by Theobald (Warburton). All the compared eds. retain "natures." The folio has, line 35, "plenties," retained by all the compared eds. but Dyce, who prints "plenty." The folio has also, line 50, "withall uncorrected," and line 54, "And all,” corrected by all the compared eds. to "all" and "as."

Note (20.)

Ib. Line 82,

"I have but with a cursorary eye

O'erglanc'd the articles: pleaseth your grace
T'appoint some of your council presently
To sit with us once more, with better heed
To re-survey them, we will suddenly
Pass our direct and peremptory answer."

Compare 2 Hy. IV. iv. 2, 52,——

"Pleaseth your grace to answer them directly
How far forth you do like their articles.”

The old eds. have,—

"Passe our accept and peremptorie Answer."

All the compared eds. retain "accept", and, except Dyce and the Camb. eds., insert a comma after it.

Note (21.) Ib. Line 161,

"And while thou livest, dear Kate, take a fellow of plain and uncoined constancy; for he perforce must do thee right, because he hath not the gift to woo in other places: for these fellows of infinite tongue, that can rhyme themselves into ladies' favours, they do always reason themselves out again."

"uncoined",-coined

having the property of uttering counterfeit coin, full of love's forgeries. Compare Cymb. ii. 5, 5,

"This is the very coinage of your brain." So "uncoined" is the opposite, i.e. that has no property of uttering counterfeits; that is, unskilled in love's forgeries; one that "hath not the gift to woo in other places," i.e. elsewhere. "for these fellows"= as for those, or your fellows,-see Note (6), T. N. reason themselves out again," i.e. find a reason for leaving them.

66

FIRST PART OF KING HENRY VI.

Note (1.) Act I. Scene 2, Line 19,—

"Charles. What towns of any moment but we have?
At pleasure here we lie near Orleans;

Otherwhiles the famish'd English, like pale ghosts,
Faintly besiege us one hour in a month."

"Sound, sound alarum! we will rush on them.

Now for the honour of the true-born French! !"

[They are beaten back by the English with great loss. "Charles. Who ever saw the like? what men have I! Dogs! cowards! dastards!"

Compare Rich II. i. 3, 309,

"Though banish'd, yet a true-born Englishman."

and this play, Act ii. 4, 27,

"Let him that is a true-born gentleman."

The terms applied by Charles after the repulse support

the reading “true-born." The folio has "forlorn," which the context shows to be a misprint. Shakespeare does not employ free-born. Base-born occurs twice in 2 Hy. VI. and once in 3 Hy. VI., and in these instances only. All the compared eds. retain "forlorn,"

Note (2.) Act I. Scene 4, Line 16,—

"Master-Gunner. Sirrah, thou know'st how Orleans is besieg'd

And how the English have the suburbs won.

Son. Father, I know; and oft have shot at them,

Howe'er, unfortunate, I miss'd my aim.

M. Gun. But now thou shalt not. Be thou rul'd by me:

The prince's espials have informed me

How the English, in the suburbs close intrench'd,

Wont through a secret grate of iron bars

In yonder tower, to overpeer the city.

To intercept this inconvenience,

A piece of ordnance 'gainst it I have plac'd,

Aim'd fully even; these three days have I watch'd

If I could see them; now, boy, do thou watch,

For I can stay no longer.

Son. Father, I warrant you; take you no care;

I'll never trouble you, if I may spy them."

"fully" completely, perfectly, as (A. and C. iv. 9, 33) "our hour is fully out." "even" straight, in a straight line. So John ii. 1, 576,—

"The world, who of itself is peised well,

Made to run even upon even ground."

1 Hy. IV. iii. 1, 114,

"And then he [the Trent] runs straight and even.”

"Aim'd fully even "—the reverse of "thou aimest all awry "(2 Hy VI. ii. 4, 58). The above is the reading of the second folio, except that it has "And fully even."