Page 15, l. 32 [Stz. 11]. “_Thus frames his speech._” --“There is no record of any speech made by Chicheley at this parliament; we search for it in vain in the rolls of parliament, and in the history of the Privy Council.” --Dean Hook, who adds in a note, “No notice would have been taken of what was meant by Hall for a display of his own rhetoric, if such splendid use of it had not been made by Shakespeare in the first scene of ‘Henry V.’” Drayton’s version of the speech departs almost entirely from that given by the chroniclers, who make Chicheley, as no doubt he would have done, dwell at great length upon Henry’s alleged claim to the crown of France, and omit all topics unbefitting a man of peace. Drayton greatly curtails Chicheley’s legal arguments, and makes him talk like a warrior and a statesman. Shakespeare has shown his usual exquisite judgment by following Holinshed closely as regards the matter of Chicheley’s formal harangue, and relegating his exhortation to Henry to follow the example of the Black Prince to a separate discourse, marked off from the first by the king’s interruption. Drayton has also missed an opportunity in omitting Henry’s impressive appeal to the archbishop to advise him conscientiously in the matter, by which Shakespeare has set his hero’s character in the most favourable point of view from the very first. Page 17, l. 9 [Stz. 17]. “_Beame._” --Bohemia. Page 19, ll. 13, 14 [Stz. 25]. “_And for they knew, the French did still abet The Scot against vs._” --The discussion between Westmorland and Exeter on the expediency of first attacking Scotland is found in Holinshed. In the rude old play, “The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth,” on which Shakespeare founded his “Henry IV.” and “Henry V.,” the argument for attacking Scotland first is put into the mouth of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Shakespeare’s noble expansion of this scene from the hints of his artless predecessor and of the chroniclers is one of the most signal proofs of the superiority of his genius. Page 20, l. 1 [Stz. 28]. “_And instantly an Embassy is sent._” --Of the letters written by Henry on this occasion, Sir Harris Nicolas remarks in his standard work on the Battle of Agincourt, “Their most striking features are falsehood, hypocrisy, and impiety.” Being so bad, they are naturally attributed by him to the much maligned Cardinal Beaufort. It is admitted that “in some places they approach nearly to eloquence, and they are throughout clear, nervous, and impressive.” They are defended at great length by Mr. Tyler, in his “Life of Henry V.”