re
people of the countrey were not spoiled, nor any thyng taken of them
wythout payment, neyther was any outrage or offence done by the
Englishemenne of warre, except one, whiche was, that a folish souldiour
stale a pixe out of a churche." Shakespeare's use of this incident is
well known.

Page 46, l. 28 [Stz. 133]. "_Spirits._" --Must here be pronounced as a
monosyllable, as at p. 67, l. 18.

Page 48, l. 6 [Stz. 138]. "_Till their foule noyse doth all the ayre
infest._" --Drayton probably stands alone among English poets in
disliking the music of the rookery.

Page 49, l. 15 [Stz. 143]. "_Quoyts, Lots, and Dice for Englishmen to
cast._" --"The captaines had determined before howe to devide the
spoile, and the souldiours the night before had plaid the englishemen at
dice" (Holinshed).

Page 50, l. 9 [Stz. 147]. "_And cast to make a Chariot for the King._"
--This circumstance also is mentioned by Holinshed, and is authenticated
by the anonymous priest.

Page 50, ll. 31, 32 [Stz. 149]. "_Some pointing Stakes to stick into the
ground, To guard the Bow-men._" --Henry had ordered the archers to
provide themselves with stakes even before the passage of the Somme.

Page 51, l. 25 [Stz. 153]. "_King Richards wrongs, to minde, Lord doe
not call._" --Drayton evidently follows Shakespeare, but remains a long
way behind:

"Not to-day, O Lord,
O, not to-day, think not upon the fault
My father made in compassing the crown!
I Richard's body have interred new:
And on it have bestowed more contrite tears
Than from it issued forced drops of blood:
Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay,
Who twice a day their withered hands hold up
Toward heaven, to pardon blood; and I have built
Two chantries, where the sad and solemn priests
Sing still for Richard's soul. More will I do;
Though all that I can do is nothing worth,
Since that my penitence comes after all,
Imploring pardon."

_Henry V._, act iv., sc. 1.

Shakespeare's infinite superiority in moral delicacy, not merely to his
imitator, but to all poets except the very best, is forcibly shown by
his causing Henry to abstain from all attempts to excuse his father and
himself at the expense of Richard, so natural in the mouth of an
ordinary person, so unbecoming a hero.

Page 52, ll. 6, 7 [Stz. 154]. "_When as that Angell to whom God assign'd
The guiding of the English._" --This fine passage may very probably have
been in