ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE NOTES. Abbott (or Gr.), Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar (third edition). A. S., Anglo-Saxon. A. V., Authorized Version of the Bible (1611). B. and F., Beaumont and Fletcher. B. J., Ben Jonson. Camb. ed., "Cambridge edition" of Shakespeare, edited by Clark and Wright Cf. (confer), compare. Coll., Collier. Coll. MS., Manuscript Corrections of Second Folio, edited by Collier. D., Dyce. H., Hudson. Hen. VIII. (followed by reference to page), Rolfe's edition of Henry VIII. J. C. (followed by reference to page), Rolfe's edition of Julius Cæsar. J. H., John Hunter's edition of Henry V. (London, n. d.). K., Knight. Macb. (followed by reference to page), Rolfe's edition of Macbeth. Mer., Rolfe's edition of The Merchant of Venice. M. N. D. (followed by reference to page), Rolfe's edition of A Midsummer-Night's Dream. Nares, Glossary, edited by Halliwell and Wright (London, 1859). Prol., Prologue. Rich. II. (followed by reference to page), Rolfe's edition of Richard II. S., Shakespeare. Schmidt, A. Schmidt's Shakespeare-Lexicon (Berlin, 1874). Sr., Singer. St., Staunton. Temp. (followed by reference to page), Rolfe's edition of The Tempest. V., Verplanck. W., White. Walker, Wm. Sidney Walker's Critical Examination of the Text of Shakespeare. (London, 1860'. Warb., Warburton. Wb., Webster's Dictionary (revised quarto edition of 1864). Worc., Worcester's Dictionary (quarto edition). The abbreviations of the names of Shakespeare's Plays will be readily understood; as T. N. for Twelfth Night, Cor. for Coriolanus, 3 Hen. VI. for The Third Part of King Henry the Sixth, etc. P. P. refers to The Passionate Pilgrim; V. and A. to Venus and Adonis; L C. to Lover's Complaint; and Sonn. to the Sonnets. The following extracts from Holinshed (which we select from Halliwell's Introduction) contain the more important passages used by the poet in the play : : A.D. 1413.-"Whilest in the Lent season the king laie at Killingworth, there came to him from Charles Dolphin of France certeine ambassadors, that brought with them a barrell of Paris balles, which from their maister they presented to him for a token that was taken in verie ill part, as sent in scorne, to signifie that it was more meet for the king to passe the time with such childish exercise, than to attempt any worthie exploit. Wherfore the K. wrote to him that, yer ought long, he would tosse him some London balles that perchance should shake the walles of the best court in France." A.D. 1414.-" In the second yeare of his reigne, king Henrie called his high court of parlement, the last daie of Aprill, in the towne of Leicester, in which parlement manie profitable lawes were concluded, and manie petitions mooved, were for that time deferred. Amongst which, one was, that a bill exhibited in the parlement holden at Westminster in the eleventh yeare of king Henrie the fourth (which, by reason the king was then troubled with civil discord, came to none effect) might now with good deliberation be pondered, and brought to some good conclusion. The effect of which supplication was, that the temporall lands devoutlie given, and disordinatelie spent by religious, and other spirituall persons, should be seized into the kings hands, sith the same might suffice to mainteine, to the honor of the king, and defense of the realme, fifteene earls, fifteene hundred knights, six thousand and two hundred esquiers, and a hundred almesse-houses, for reliefe onlie of the poore, impotent, and needie persons, and the king to have cleerlie to his coffers twentie thousand pounds, with manie other provisions and values of religious houses, which I passe over. "This bill was much noted, and more feared among the religious sort, whom suerlie it touched verie neere, and therefore to find remedie against it, they determined to assaie all waies to put by and overthrow this bill; wherein they thought best to trie if they might moove the kings mood with some sharpe invention, that he should not regard the importunate petitions of the commons. Whereupon, on a daie in the parlement, Henrie Chichelie, archbishop of Canturburie, made a pithie oration, wherein he declared, how not onelie the duchies of Normandie and Aquitaine, with the counties of Anjou and Maine, and the countrie of Gascoigne, were by undoubted title apperteining to the king, as to the lawfull and onelie heire of the same; but also to the whole realme of France, as heire to his great grandfather king Edward the third. "Herein did he much inveie against the surmised and false fained law Salike which the Frenchmen alledge ever against the kings of England in barre of their just title to the crowne of France. The verie words of that supposed law are these, In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant, that is to saie, into the Salike land let not women succeed. Which the French glossers expound to be the realme of France, and that this law was made by king Pharamond; whereas yet their owne authors affirme that the land Salike is in Germanie betweene the rivers of Elbe and Sala; and that when Charles the great had overcome the Saxons, he placed there certeine Frenchmen, which having in disdeine the dishonest maners of the Germane women, made a law, that the females should not succeed to any inheritance within that land, which at this daie is called Meisen, so that, if this be true, this law was not made for the realme of France, nor the Frenchmen possessed the land Salike, till foure hundred and one and twentie yeares after the death of Pharamond, the supposed maker of this Salike law, for this Pharamond deceased in the yeare 426, and Charles the great subdued the Saxons, and placed the Frenchmen in those parts beyond the river of Sala, in the yeare 805. "Moreover, it appeareth by their owne writers that king Pepine, which deposed Childerike, claimed the crowne of France, as heire generall, for that he was descended of Blithild, daughter to king Clothair the first: Hugh Capet also, who usurped the crowne upon Charles Duke of Loraine, the sole heire male of the line and stocke of Charles the great, to make his title seeme true, and appeare good, though in deed it was starke naught, conveied himselfe as heire to the ladie Lingard, daughter to king Charlemaine sonne to Lewes the emperour, that was son to Charles the great. King Lewes also the tenth, otherwise called saint Lewes, being verie heir to the said usurper Hugh Capet, could never be satisfied in his conscience how he might justlie keepe and possesse the crowne of France, till he was persuaded and fullie instructed that queene Isabell his grandmother was lineallie descended of the ladie Ermengard daughter and heire to the above named Charles duke of Loraine, by the which marriage, the bloud and line of Charles the great was againe united and restored to the crowne and scepter of France, so that more cleeare than the sunne it openlie appeareth that the title of king Pepin, the claime of Hugh Capet, the possession of Lewes, yea and the French kings to this daie, are derived and conveied from the heire female, though they would under the colour of such a fained law, barre the kings and princes of this realme of England of their right and lawfull inheritance. "The archbishop further alledged out of the booke of Numbers this saieing: When a man dieth without a sonne, let the inheritance descend to his daughter.' At length, having said sufficientlie for the proofe of the kings just and lawfull title to the crowne of France, he exhorted him to advance foorth his banner to fight for his right, to conquer his inheritance, to spare neither bloud, sword, nor fire, sith his warre was just, his cause good, and his claime true. And to the intent his loving chapleins and obedient subjects of the spiritualtie might show themselves willing and desirous to aid his majestie, for the recoverie of his ancient right and true inheritance, the archbishop declared that in their spirituall convocation, they had granted to his highnesse such a summe of monie, as never by no spirituall persons was to any prince before those daies given or advanced. "When the archbishop had ended his prepared tale, Rafe Nevill, earle of Westmerland, and as then lord Warden of the marches against Scotland, understanding that the king, upon a couragious desire to recover his right in France, would suerlie take the wars in hand, thought good to moove the king to begin first with Scotland, and thereupon declared how easie a matter it should be to make a conquest there, and how greatlie the same should further his wished purpose for the subduing of the Frenchmen, concluding the sum of his tale with this old saying: that Who so will France win, must with Scotland first begin. Many matters he touched, as well to show how necessarie the conquest of Scotland should be, as also to proove how just a cause the king had to attempt it; trusting to persuade the king and all other to be of his opinion. "But after he had made an end, the duke of Excester, uncle to the king, a man well learned and wise, who had beene sent into Italie by his father, intending that he should have been a preest, replied against the erle of Westmerlands oration, affirming rather that he which would Scotland win, he with France must first begin. For if the king might once |