Out, tawny coats!-out, scarlet hypocrite!2

Here a great Tumult. In the midst of it, Enter the Mayor of London,3 and Officers.

May. Fy, lords! that you, being supreme magistrates, Thus contumeliously should break the peace!

Glo. Peace, mayor; thou know'st little of my wrongs: Here's Beaufort, that regards nor God nor king, Hath here distrain'd the Tower to his use.

Win Here's Gloster too, a foe to citizens;^ One that still motions war, and never peace, O'ercharging your free purses with large fines; That seeks to overthrow religion,

Because he is protector of the realm;

And would have armour here out of the Tower,
To crown himself king, and suppress the prince.
Glo. I will not answer thee with words, but blows.
[Here they skirmish again.
May. Nought rests for me, in this tumultuous strife,
But to make open proclamation:-

Come, officer; as loud as e'er thou canst.

Offi. All manner of men, assembled here in arms this day, against God's peace and the king's, we charge and command you, in his highness' name, to repair to your several dwelling-places; and not to wear, handle, or use, any sword, weapon, or dagger, henceforward, upon pain of death.

Glo. Cardinal, I'll be no breaker of the law: But we shall meet, and break our minds at large.

Win. Gloster, we 'll meet; to thy dear cost, be sure: 5

2 out, scarlet hypocrite!] Thus, in King Henry VIII, the Earl of Surrey, with a similar allusion to Cardinal Wolsey's habit, calls him-" scarlet sin." Steevens.

3 the Mayor of London,] I learn from Mr. Pennant's LoNDON, that this Mayor was John Coventry, an opulent mercer, from whom is descended the present Earl of Coventry. Steevens.

4 Here's Gloster too, &c.] Thus the second folio. The first folio, with less spirit of recíprocation, and feebler metre,—Here is Gloster &c. Steevens.

5 Gloster, we'll meet; to thy dear cost, be sure: e:] Thus the secand folio. The first omits the epithet-dear; as does Mr. Malone, who says that the word-sure "is here used as a dissyllable." Steevens.

Thy heart-blood I will have, for this day's work.
May. I'll call for clubs, if you will not away:6-
This cardinal is more haughty than the devil.

Glo. Mayor, farewel: thou dost but what thou may'st, Win. Abominable Gloster! guard thy head; For I intend to have it, ere long.

[Exeunt. May. See the coast clear'd, and then we will depart.Good God! that nobles should such stomachs bear! I myself fight not once in forty year.

SCENE IV.

France. Before Orleans.

[Exeunt.

Enter, on the Walls, the Master-Gunner and his Son. M. Gun. Sirrah, thou know'st how Orleans is besieg'd;

6 I'll call for clubs, if you will not away:] This was an outcry for assistance, on any riot or quarrel in the streets. It hath been explained before. Whalley.

That is, for peace-officers armed with clubs or staves. In affrays, it was customary in this author's time to call out clubs, clubs! See As you Like it, Vol. V, p. 128, n. 4. Malone.

7

stomachs -] Stomach is pride, a haughty spirit of resentment. So, in King Henry VIII:

8

he was a man

"Of an unbounded stomach

-"Steevens.

that nobles should such stomachs bear!

I myself fight not once in forty year.] Old copy-these nobles. Corrected by Mr. Rowę. Malone.

The Mayor of London was not brought in to be laughed at, as is plain by his manner of interfering in the quarrel, where he all along preserves a sufficient dignity. In the line preceding these, he directs his Officer, to whom without doubt these two lines should be given. They suit his character, and are very expressive of the pacific temper of the city guards. Warburton.

I see no reason for this change. The Mayor speaks first as a magistrate, and afterwards as a citizen. Johnson.

Notwithstanding Warburton's note in support of the dignity of the Mayor, Shakspeare certainly meant to represent him as a poor, well-meaning, simple man, for that is the character he invariably gives to his Mayors The Mayor of London, in Richard III, is just of the same stamp. And so is the Mayor of York, in the Third Part of this play, where he refuses to admit Edward as King, but lets him into the city as Duke of York, on which Gloster says

"A wise stout captain! and persuaded soon.

"Hast. The good old man would fain that all were well." Such are all Shakspeare's Mayors. M. Mason.

VOL. X.

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:
Chief master-gunner am I of this town;
Something I must do, to procure me grace.
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;1

And thence discover, how, with most advantage,
They may vex us, with shot, or with assault.
To intercept this inconvenience,

A piece of ordnance 'gainst it I have plac'd;
And 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.

If thou spy'st any, run and bring me word;

And thou shalt find me at the governor's.

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

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

[Exit.

Enter, in an upper Chamber of a Tower, the Lords SALISBURY and TALBOT,2 Sir WILLIAM GLANSDALE, Sir THOMAS GARGRAVE, and Others.

Sal. Talbot, my life, my joy, again return'd! How wert thou handled, being prisoner?

9 The prince's espials-] Espials are spies. So, in Chaucer's Freres Tale:

"For subtilly he had his espiaille." Steevens.

The word is often used by Hall and Holinshed. Malone.

1 Wont, through a secret grate of iron bars &c.] That is, are ac customed to overpeer the city. The word is used very frequently by Spenser, and several times by Milton. Tyrwhitt.

2 Talbot,] Though the three parts of King Henry VI are deservedly numbered among the feeblest performances of Shakspeare, this first of them appears to have been received with the greatest applause. So, in Pierce Penniless's Supplication to the Dewil, by Nash, 1592: "How would it have joyed brave Talbot (the terror of the French,) to thinke that after he had lien two hundred years in his tombe, he should triumph againe on the stage, and have his bones new embalmed with the tears of ten thousand spectators at least (at several times,) who in the tragedian that represents his person, imagine they behold him fresh bleeding?"

Steevens.

Or by what means got'st thou to be releas'd?
Discourse, I pr'ythee, on this turret's top.

Tal. The duke of Bedford had a prisoner,
Called the brave lord Ponton de Santrailles;
For him I was exchang'd and ransomed.
But with a baser man of arms by far,

Once, in contempt, they would have barter'd me:
Which I, disdaining, scorn'd; and craved death
Rather than I would be so"pil'd'esteem'd.3
vile.

3 —so pil'd esteem'd.] Thus the old copy. Some of the medern editors read, but without authority-so vile-esteem'd.-Se pill'd, may mean-so pillag'd, so stripp'd of honours; but I suspect a corruption, which Mr. M. Mason would remedy, by reading either vile or ill-esteemed.

It is possible, however, that Shakspeare might have writtenPhilistin'd; i. e. treated as contumeliously as Samson was by the Philistines. Both Samson and Talbot had been prisoners, and alike insulted by their captors.

Our author has jocularly formed more than one verb from a proper name; as for instance, from Aufidius, in Coriolanus: “ ---- - 1 would not have been so fidius'd for all the chests in Corioli." Again, in K. Henry V, Pistol says to his prisoner; "Master Fer? I'll fer him,' &c. Again, in Hamlet, from Herod, we have the verb "out-herod."

Shakspeare, therefore, in the present instance, might have taken a similar liberty.-To fall into the hands of the Philistines has long been a cant phrase, expressive of danger incurred, whether from enemies, association with hard drinkers, gamesters, or a less welcome acquaintance with the harpies of the law.

Talbot's idea would be sufficiently expressed by the termPhilistin'd, which (as the play before us appears to have been copied by the car) was more liable to corruption than a common verb.

I may add, that perhaps no word will be found nearer to the sound and traces of the letters, in pil-esteem'd, than Philistin'd. Philistine, in the age of Shakspeare, was always accented on the first syllable, and therefore is not injurious to the line in which I have hesitatingly proposed to insert it.

I cannot, however, help smiling at my own conjecture; and should it excite the same sensation in the reader who journeys through the barren desert of our accumulated notes on this play, like Addison's traveller, when he discovers a cheerful spring amid the wilds of sand, let him—

- bless his stars, and think it luxury."

Steevens

I have no doubt that we should read-so pile-esteem'd: a Latinism, for which the author of this play had, I believe, no occasion to go to Lilly's Grammar: "Flocci, nauci, nihili, pili, &c. his verbis, æstimo, pendo, peculiariter adjiciuntur; ut,-Nec hu

In fine, redeem'd I was as I desir'd.
But, O! the treacherous Fastolfe wounds
Whom with my bare fists I would execute,
If I now had him brought into my power.

my

heart!

Sal. Yet tell'st thou not, how thou wert entertain❜d. Tul. With scoffs, and scorns, and contumelious

taunts.

In open market-place produc'd they me,

To be a public spectacle to all;

Here, said they, is the terror of the French,

The scare-crow that affrights our children so.4
Then broke I from the officers that led me;
And with my nails digg'd stones out of the ground,
To hurl at the beholders of my shame.

My grisly countenance made others fly;

None durst come near, for fear of sudden death.
In iron walls they deem'd me not secure;

So great fear of my name 'mongst them was spread,
That they suppos'd, I could rend bars of steel,
And spurn
in pieces posts of adamant:

Wherefore a guard of chosen shot I had,
That walk'd about me every minute-while;
And if I did but stir out of my bed,

Ready they were to shoot me to the heart.

Sal. I grieve to hear what torments you endur'd;

jus facio, qui me pili æstimat." Even if we suppose no change to be necessary, this surely was the meaning intended to be conveyed. In one of Shakspeare's plays we have the same phrase, in English,-vile-esteem'd. Malone.

If the author of the play before us designed to avail himself of the Latin phrase-pili æstimo, would he have only half translated it? for what correspondence has pile in English to a single hair? Was a single hair ever called-a pile, by any English writer? Steevens.

4 the terror of the French,

The scare-crow that affrights our children so.] From Hall's Chronicle: "This man [Talbot] was to the French people a very scourge and a daily terror, insomuch that as his person was fearful, and terrible to his adversaries present, so his name and fame was spiteful and dreadful to the common people absent; insomuch that women in France to fear their young children, would crye, the Talbot commeth, the Talbot commeth." The same thing is said of King Richard I, when he was in the Holy Land. See Camden's Remaines, 4to. 1614, p. 267. Malone.