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is instructive to ministers of state, and every puny politician. A dramatist, who had feigned occurrences, or who had not closely adhered to facts, as Shakspeare in this play has done, might have been charged with burlesquing the human character in the vainglory which is here given to France, and her consequent humiliation.

Fiction, from the pen of genius, will often appear more like nature, than nature will appear like herself. The admired speech invented by the author for King Henry, in a beautiful soliloquy just before battle, seems the exact effect of the place and circumstances with which he was then surrounded, and to be, as his very mind stamped on the dramatic page-and yet perhaps his majesty, in his meditations, had no such thoughts as are here provided for him ;but that his opponents had thoughts and expectations equally extravagant with those allotted to them, their every action evinced.

The incident of the soldier's glove has a degree of interest not only from itself, but that it shows some slight remainder of Falstaff's merry Hal, in the then great King of England,

The famed battle of Agincourt, which this play ex• hibits, was fought on the 25th of October, the day of St. Crispin; to which one of the king's sentences alludes. Here fifteen thousand of the English only, it is said, defeated fifty-two thousand of the French. The consequences of this glorious victory were yet most horrible to the humane Britons; for the number of their prisoners amounting to more than their

own triumphant army, they were commanded, even when the heat of contest had subsided, to put every Frenchman to death.

Although the particular number of the forces which were engaged on either side, in this memorable com bat, may be differently recorded by different historians; and the motive which induced the conqueror to slay his captives, may also be variously stated; yet it is certain that the French army were more than twice the number of the English, and that the English slew their prisoners.

Shakspeare was determined, in this drama, to expose every vanity of the Gallic foe to British ridicule-and thus-instantly after the slaughter of their numerous hosts-he displays the frivolous anxiety of the surviving nobility, by the herald Montjoy, in this address to Henry :

"Great king,

"I come to thee for charitable license,
"That we may wander o'er this bloody field,
"To sort our nobles from our common men ;
"For many of our princes (woe the while!)
"Lie drown'd and soak'd in mercenary blood:
"So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs
"In blood of princes."

There is a judicious remark by a commentator on Shakspeare" that he knows not why the Princess Katharine, in this play, should not be allowed to speak English, as well as all the other French."

But had her royal highness been as fluent in speech as the rest of the characters, the poet had possibly failed of materials to have lengthened his last act to the expected number of pages. Dr. Johnson, in speaking of the evident deficiency of this act, most justly and forcibly says—

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The truth is, that the poet's matter failed him in the fifth act, and he was glad to fill it up with what he could get; and not even Shakspeare can write well without a proper subject. It is a vain endeavour for the most skilful hand to cultivate barrenness, or to paint upon vacuity."

Notwithstanding some brilliant exploits of Henry the Fifth-the catastrophe of his life, and the final event of all his actions, may convey, to many a youthful debauchee, as good a moral as his total abandonment of his early associates.

The hero of Agincourt was in declining health, the effect of former intemperance, even on the spot where he gathered his laurels. He lived no more than three years after this renowned victory, and left no more than one child, who was dethroned and murdered.

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DUKE OF EXETER

EARL OF WESTMORELAND ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

BISHOP OF ELY

EARL OF CAMBRIDGE

LORD SCROOP

SIR THOMAS GREY

SIR THOMAS ERPINGHAM

GOWER

FLUELLEN

WILLIAMS

BATES

NYM

BARDOLPH

PISTOL

Boy

MRS. QUICKLY

Mr. C. Kemble.

Mr. W. Murray.

Mr. Pope.

Mr. Claremont.

Mr. Creswell.

Mr. Waddy.

Mr. King.
Mr. Field.
Mr. Jefferies.

Mr. Hull.
Mr. Chapman.
Mr. Blanchard.

Mr. Emery.

Mr. Beverly.

Mr. Wilde.

Mr. Davenport. Mr. Simmons. Master Benson.

Mrs. Davenport.

FRENCH.

CHARLES THE SIXTH, KING OF

FRANCE

THE DAUPHIN

DUKE OF BURGUNDY

CONSTABLE OF FRANCE
BOURBON

GOVERNOR OF HARFLEUR
MONTJOY

ISABEL, QUEEN OF FRANCE PRINCESS KATHARINE

OF Mr. Murray.

Mr. Brunton.
Mr. Farley.
Mr. Klanert.

Mr. L. Bologna.
Mr. Atkins.

Mr. Treby.

Mrs. St. Leger. Miss Taylor.

LORDS, HERALDS, MESSENGERS, CITIZENS, FRENCH and ENGLISH ARMIES, and ATTENDANTS.

The SCENE, at the beginning of the Play, lies in England; but afterwardswholly in France.

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