man of his age who rejected the imperfect evidence of all the historians as to the character of Henry of Monmouth, and nobly vindicated him even from his own biographer, and, what was of more importance, from the coarser traditions embodied in a popular drama of Shakspere's own day. This In the play of 'The Famous Victories of Henry V.' we have, as already mentioned, the character of "Sir John Oldcastle." personage, like all the other companions of the prince in that play, is a low, worthless fellow, without a single spark of wit or humour to relieve his grovelling profligacy. But he is also a very insignificant character, with less stage business than even "Ned" and "Tom." Dericke, the clown, is, indeed, the leading character throughout this play. Altogether, Oldcastle has only thirty lines put in his mouth in the whole piece. We have no allusion to his being fat; we hear nothing of his gluttony. Malone, however, calls this Sir John Oldcastle "a pampered glutton." It is a question whether this Oldcastle, or Jockey, suggested to Shakspere his Falstaff. We cannot discover the very slightest similarity; although Malone decidedly says, "Shakspere appears evidently to have caught the idea of the character of Falstaff from a wretched play entitled 'The Famous Victories of King Henry V." But Malone is arguing for the support of a favourite theory. Rowe has noticed a tradition that Falstaff was written originally under the name of Oldcastle. This opinion would receive some confirmation from the fact that Shakspere has transferred other names from the old play, Ned, Gadshill,and why not, then, Oldcastle? The prince in one place calls Falstaff "my old lad of the castle;" but this may be otherwise explained, The Sir John Oldcastle of history, Lord Cobham, was, as is well known, one of the most strenuous supporters of the Reformation of Wickliffe; and hence it has been argued that the original name of Shakspere's fat knight was offensive to zealous Protestants in the time of Elizabeth, and was accordingly changed to that of Falstaff. Whether or not Shakspere's Falstaff was originally called Oldcastle, he was, after the character was fairly established as Falstaff, anxious to vindicate himself from the charge that he had attempted to represent the Oldcastle of history. In the epilogue to The Second Part of Henry IV.' we find this pas sage: "For anything I know, Falstaff shall die of a sweat, unless already he be killed with your hard opinions; for Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man," Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act IV. sc. 2. Act V. sc. 4; sc. 5. SIR WALTER BLUNT, friend to the King. Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act III. sc. 2. Act IV. sc. 3. Act V. sc. 1; sc. 3. THOMAS PERCY, Earl of Worcester. Appears, Act I. sc. 3. Act III. sc. 1. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act V. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 5. HENRY PERCY, Earl of Northumberland. HENRY PERCY, surnamed Hotspur, son to the Appears, Act I. sc. 3. Act II. sc. 3. Act III. sc. 1. EDMUND MORTIMER, Earl of March. SCROOP, Archbishop of York. Appears, Act IV. sc. 4. SIR MICHAEL, a friend of the Archbishop. Appears, Act IV. sc. 4. ARCHIBALD, Earl of Douglas." Appears, Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act V. sc. 2; sc. 3; sc. 4. OWEN GLENDOWER. Appears, Act III. sc. 1. SIR RICHARD VERNON. Appears, Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act V. sc. 1; sc, 2; sc. 5. SIR JOHN FALSTAFF. Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Act II. sc. 2; sc. 4. Act III. sc. 3. Act IV. sc. 2. Act V. sc. 1; sc. 3; sc. 4. POINS. Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Act II. sc. 2; sc. 4. Act III. sc. 3. GADSHILL. Appears, Act II. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 4. PETO. Appears, Act II. sc. 2; sc. 4. BARDOLPH. Appears, Act II. sc. 2; sc. 4. Act III. sc. 3. LADY PERCY, wife to Hotspur, and sister to Appears, Act II. sc. 3. Act III. sc. 1. LADY MORTIMER, daughter to Glendower, and wife to Mortimer. Appears, Act III. sc. 1. MRS. QUICKLY, hostess of a tavern in East cheap. Appears, Act II. sc. 4. Act III. sc. 3. Lords, Officers, Sheriff, Vintner, Chamberlain, Drawers, Two Carriers, Travellers, and Attendants. SCENE, ENGLAND. There is no List of Characters in the old copies. Enter KING HENRY, WESTMORELAND, Sir WALTER BLUNT, and others." K. HEN. So shaken as we are, so wan with care, Find we a time for frighted peace to pant, Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood; Stronds-strands-shores. b Entrance. In the variorum editions of Shakspere, except Malone's of 1821, we have the following correction of the text:- "No more the thirsty Erinnys of this soil." This reading was suggested by Monck Mason, and adopted by Steevens. Erinnys, according to Monck Mason, is the Fury of Discord. The first conjecture of Steevens was that the word was entrants; the suggestion of Douce was entrails. The original text is somewhat obscure; but the obscurity is perfectly in the manner of Shakspere, and in great part arises from the boldness of the metaphor. Entrance is put for mouth; and if we were to read, "No more the thirsty mouth of this earth shall daub her lips with the blood of her own children," we should find little more difficulty than with the passage in Genesis, which was probably in Shakspere's mind when he wrote the line:-"And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven, Shall now, in mutual well-beseeming ranks, (Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross Forthwith a power of English shall we levy"; Whose arms were moulded in their mother's womb To chase these pagans, in those holy fields, Over whose acres walked those blessed feet, Which, fourteen hundred years ago, were nail'd, But this our purpose is a twelvemonth old, Therefore we meet not now:-Then let me hear WEST. My liege, this haste was hot in question, But yesternight: when, all athwart, there came A post from Wales, loaden with heavy news; Whose worst was,-that the noble Mortimer, brother's blood from thy hand." The terms entrance and mouth are convertible even now-as the mouth of a river, for the entrance of a river. But Malone gives a passage in the old King John' of 1591, ́which, he says, may throw some light on that before us : "Is all the blood y-spilt on either part, Closing the crannies of the thirsty earth, Grown to a love-game and a bridal feast?" A correspondent, who lighted upon this passage, would read "No more the thirsty crannies of this soil Shall daub their lips with her own children's blood." Levy. Gifford (Ben Jonson, v. 138) has properly rebuked the rash disposition of Steevens to meddle with the text, in a remark upon the passage before us. Steevens says, to levy a power as far as to the sepulchre of Christ is an expression quite unexampled, if not corrupt; and he proposes to read lead. "The expression is neither unexampled nor corrupt," says Gifford, “but good authorised English. One instance of it is before me: "Scipio, before he levied his force to the walles of Carthage, gave his soldiers the print of the citie in a cake to be devoured.'-Gosson's 'School of Abuse,' 1587." b Therefore we meet not now. We do not meet now on that account. Limits. To limit is to define; and therefore the limits of the charge may be the calculations, the estimates. 3 Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight By those Welshwomen done, as may not be, K. HEN. It seems, then, that the tidings of this broil WEST. This, match'd with other like, my gracious lord. Came from the north, and thus it did report: Where they did spend a sad and bloody hour; And shape of likelihood, the news was told; K. HEN. Here is a dear and true-industrious friend, Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours; Ten thousand bold Scots, two-and-twenty knights, Balk'd in their own blood, did sir Walter see On Holmedon's plains: Of prisoners, Hotspur took Corpses. So the folio; the quartos, corpse. Welshwomen, &c. The story is told in Walsingham, and may be found in Andrews's "History of Great Britain,' vol. i., part ii., p. 4. • The first quarto, which has been followed in modern editions, reads thus: "This, match'd with other, did, my gracious lord, For more uneven and unwelcome news Came from the north, and thus it did import." The quarto of 1604 has like, for, and import. We retain the reading of the folio, substituting for in the place of far. a Balk'd. To balk is to raise into ridges,—as in Minshew-" to balke, or make a balk in earing of land." Thus, the ten thousand bold Scots, balk'd in their own blood, are the slain heaped upthe "hills of dead" of Pope's translation of the Iliad.' Some conjecture the passage ought to be "bak'd in their own blood,"-as in Heywood's 'Iron Age,' "Troilus lies embak'd In his cold blood." |