3 narrow seas i.e. the English Channel

  4 amain speedily

  5 giddy unstable, fickle, excitable

  8 suffered tolerated, permitted (to burn)

  11 son son-in-law

  17 wondrous extraordinarily

  20 girt in with surrounded by

  21 Dian Diana, Roman goddess of the moon, hunting, and chastity; often portrayed with her attendant virginal nymphs

  22 rest remain

  23 stand not do not wait

  25 Hector the eldest son of Priam, King of Troy, Hector was one of the great warriors of the Trojan war 26 truth faith, loyalty

  27 Well-minded loyal, virtuous, well-intentioned

  28 Comfort be encouraged

  29 thus Oxford probably also kisses Henry's hand

  31 at once together happy propitious, fortunate 36 encounter fight and defeat

  37 doubt fear

  38 meed merit, virtue

  39 their demands the various requests and appeals of the people 40 posted off postponed suits pleas, petitions 45 subsidies taxes

  46 forward of eager for

  48 graces challenge grace virtues claim respect and favor 52 shame-faced timid, shy, modest

  54 fount spring, source

  56 ebb waning, reducing

  58 bend direct

  59 peremptory imperious, overbearing

  61 mars ruins

  61 hay i.e. yield, harvest

  62 betimes quickly

  Act 5 Scene 1

  5.1 Location: the city walls of Coventry

  3 this this time, now

  3 Dunsmore between Coventry and Daventry

  6 Daintry Daventry

  6 puissant powerful

  7 son son-in-law

  9 Southam town about ten miles southeast of Coventry

  12 here in this direction

  16 parle parley, a trumpet summons for negotiation between opposing sides, during which fighting was to stop 17 surly imperious, arrogant

  18 unbid unwelcome

  18 sportful lecherous

  20 repair approach

  25 draw withdraw

  27 patron protector

  32 earl lower in rank than a duke

  36 Atlas ... weight in classical mythology, the giant Atlas carried the earth on his shoulders 42 forecast forethought, prudence/anticipated

  43 single ten a mere ten-point card, valuable but less so than a royal card 44 fingered stolen

  47 even exactly

  47 are Warwick still i.e. will always be yourself, and doubtless will not change your attitude/remain in position, and have the chance to change your attitude 48 time opportunity

  49 Nay, when? expression of impatience

  49 Strike ... cools proverbial: "strike while the iron is hot" (Warwick shifts the sense of strike to "lower one's sail in submission") 57 Wind-changing i.e. changeable, fickle Colours military flagbearers 61 set ... backs attack our rearguard forces 62 array readiness for combat

  63 bid challenge

  64 of small defence poorly fortified

  65 rouse draw out (from a lair; a hunting term)

  66 want need

  68 buy pay for

  70 harder matched greater the enemy

  71 presageth foretells

  71 happy fortunate

  73 Two ... name Edmund, second Duke of Somerset, killed at the 1455 battle of St. Albans (his head appears in Act 1 Scene 1), and his son Henry, third duke, beheaded in 1464 for his Lancastrian sympathies 78 to right for justice

  79 nature natural instinct

  81 Father father-in-law

  83 ruinate ruin

  84 lime stick, join

  85 trowest thou do you think

  86 blunt rough, ignorant

  87 bend aim, direct

  89 object bring up, urge as an objection

  91 Jephthah ... daughter biblical character who vowed that if the Israelites defeated the Ammonites in battle he would sacrifice the first thing he saw on his return home, little realizing that it would mean having to kill his own daughter (Judges 11) 92 trespass wrong, crime

  96 abroad i.e. outside Coventry

  99 blushing i.e. in shame

  102 unconstant changeable, disloyal

  106 passing surpassing, extreme

  109 cooped protectively enclosed

  110 Barnet town about ten miles north of London (seventy-five miles southeast of Coventry, but Shakespeare has compressed various historical events for dramatic purposes; the action between this and the next scene is virtually continuous) 110 presently immediately

  Act 5 Scene 2

  5.2 Location: the battlefield, near Barnet, ten miles north of London

  2 bug imaginary terror, bogeyman

  2 feared frightened

  3 sit fast be on guard, secure yourself

  4 That so that

  11 cedar the tallest of evergreen trees was a popular symbol of sovereignty, like the eagle and the lion

  12 arms branches

  13 ramping rearing fiercely onto its hind legs

  14 overpeered peered over/lorded over, outranked

  14 Jove's spreading tree the oak, the tree associated with the Roman king of the gods 18 search seek out, discern/probe

  22 bent his brow frowned

  24 parks private hunting grounds

  24 walks pathways of garden or park

  27 pomp splendor, luxury

  31 puissant power powerful army

  35 with ... awhile i.e. kiss me; at death the soul was thought to escape through the mouth 45 mought might

  Act 5 Scene 3

  5.3 triumph a display of victorious celebration 8 Gallia France

  14 valued estimated to be

  16 breathe rest, gather her strength

  18 advertised informed

  19 Tewkesbury town in Gloucestershire

  21 rids way makes the journey seem shorter

  Act 5 Scene 4

  5.4 Location: near Tewkesbury, in Gloucestershire

  2 cheerly cheerfully, optimistically

  4 holding-anchor i.e. anchor, used to secure a ship by holding fast to the bottom of the sea 5 flood sea

  6 pilot captain, i.e. Henry meet right, fitting 10 in his moan as he laments

  11 industry hard work

  15 tackles rigging

  18 shrouds ropes that brace and support the mast

  19 Ned i.e. Edward, Henry and Margaret's son

  20 charge responsibility

  21 from leave

  23 shelves sandbanks

  27 ragged jagged, uneven

  28 bark ship

  31 Bestride sit upon, straddle

  41 magnanimity greatness of spirit

  42 naked unarmed

  42 foil ... arms defeat an armed man in combat

  45 betimes at once

  50 Women and children i.e. Margaret and Edward 52 grandfather i.e. Henry V

  59 his i.e. Edward's

  59 that yet who as yet

  62 policy stratagem, cunning

  63 unprovided unprepared

  65 forwardness eagerness, readiness

  66 pitch our battle set up, deploy our army

  71 wot know

  71 blaze burn with zeal, excitement

  74 gainsay contradict

  77 state sovereignty

  80 spoil destruction, pillage

  Act 5 Scene 5

  1 a period an end

  1 broils turmoil, confused fighting

  2 Hames now Ham, a town on the River Somme near Calais

  2 straight immediately

  6 stoop submit

  8 Jerusalem i.e. heaven

  9 who whoever

  10 he i.e. Edward

  11 lo look

  12 gallant fine young man (usually applied to a fashionable man about town) 14 satisfaction amends, atonement

  19 chair throne

  24 breech breeches, trousers

  25 Aesop the Greek writer of moral fables concerning animals was a slave and reputedly hunchbacked 25 fable tell tal
es

  26 currish snarling, contemptible, cynical/about animals 26 sorts not are not in keeping

  29 scold verbally abusive woman

  31 charm subdue, silence with a charm

  32 malapert impudent

  35 Dick possibly plays on the sense of "penis"

  38 likeness image

  38 railer abusive ranter (i.e. Margaret)

  39 Sprawl'st thou? Do you thrash, writhe around?

  40 twitting taunting/rebuking

  42 Marry, and shall I shall, by the Virgin Mary

  42 Offers attempts

  48 be sure expect

  55 by ... it there to compare with it 56 respect comparison

  62 untimely prematurely

  63 have no cannot possibly have

  64 remorse pity

  66 Look expect

  67 rid killed

  68 perforce forcibly

  69 dispatch kill

  70 Here i.e. in my body

  72 ease comfort, release

  75 usest are accustomed

  75 forswear thyself perjure yourself, break your word 78 Hard-favoured ugly

  79 alms-deed act of charity

  80 put'st back rejected, turned away

  82 So come to may the same happen to

  86 sudden swift, impulsive

  87 common sort ordinary soldiers

  Act 5 Scene 6

  5.6 Location: the Tower of London

  1 book probably prayer book or Bible

  3 better i.e. than flattery

  5 preposterous an inversion of the natural order

  6 Sirrah sir (used to an inferior)

  7 reckless negligent, careless

  10 Roscius famous first-century Roman actor

  11 Suspicion apprehension of something evil

  13 limed trapped with birdlime, a sticky substance spread on branches to snare birds 14 misdoubteth suspects, fears

  15 male father

  15 bird offspring

  16 fatal deadly/fateful

  16 object ... eye sight, scene in my mind's eye/thing, person before me (or, conceivably, Gloucester has already drawn the weapon Henry goes on to refer to) 17 Where in which/by whom

  18 peevish foolish, childish

  19 fool ... fowl Icarus and his father, Daedalus, tried to escape imprisonment in Crete using wings Daedalus had made out of feathers and wax; Icarus flew too close to the sun, the wax melted and he fell to his death 19 office function, role

  20 fool continues the punning on fowl

  22 Minos the King of Crete, who imprisoned Daedalus and Icarus

  22 course departure

  23 sun likened here to Edward, the sun alludes to the Yorkist emblem 25 envious malicious, evil

  25 gulf whirlpool/voracious depths

  27 brook endure, take

  28 history story

  38 mistrust ... fear apprehend, suspect no part of what I fear (will happen) 40 water-standing filled, flooded with tears

  42 timeless untimely, premature

  45 night-crow literary name for a bird whose nighttime croak was an evil omen 45 aboding forewarning

  47 rooked her cowered, huddled (perhaps with play on "rook," a type of bird) 48 pies magpies (also thought to be bad luck)

  48 dismal ominous, sinister

  49 pain labor pains

  51 To wit that is to say

  51 indigested shapeless

  53 Teeth ... born this was considered abnormal and ominous 58 ordained destined

  63 weeps i.e. drips blood

  64 purple blood-colored

  64 alway always

  69 that ... of what Henry said about me/what Henry said to me 71 came ... forward i.e. was a breech birth, where the baby is born feet first 74 wondered was amazed

  79 answer correspond to

  81 greybeards wise old men

  82 like who resemble

  84 light the crown (an image drawn from the Yorkist sun) 85 sort arrange/set

  85 pitchy black as pitch (a tarlike substance)

  86 buzz abroad spread rumors in the world

  86 prophecies omens, forewarnings

  87 of for

  91 bad worthless, contemptible

  93 doom judgment, i.e. your death

  Act 5 Scene 7

  5.7 Location: the royal court, London

  4 in tops at the height

  6 hardy bold, resolute

  6 undoubted unquestionable/fearless

  6 champions warriors, men of valor

  7 as namely

  9 coursers powerful horses used in war

  10 bears refers to Warwick's family emblem, a bear chained to a ragged staff 11 in with

  11 fettered shackled

  13 suspicion apprehension, anxiety

  13 seat throne

  17 watched kept watch, remained awake throughout

  18 all afoot on foot, as soldiers/all over the place

  21 blast blight, wither

  21 head plays the sense of "head of wheat"

  21 laid cut off (maintains the crop image)

  22 looked on held in high regard

  23 thick sturdy (referring to his hunched back)

  25 Work devise (addressed to himself)

  25 that i.e. his shoulder

  25 execute carry it out (with grim play on the sense of "put to death") 30 brother i.e. brother-in-law

  31 that because

  31 tree i.e. the family of York, his own stock 33 Judas ... master Judas famously kissed Christ and betrayed him 34 whenas although

  39 Reynard ... Jerusalem Margaret's father, Reignier, was the titular King of Sicily, Naples (the Sicils), and Jerusalem; spelling "Reynard" may imply the craft of a fox 40 it i.e. the money raised

  41 waft convey by sea

  43 triumphs public processions celebrating victory

  45 sour annoy bitter trouble

 


 

  William Shakespeare, Henry VI (Parts I, II and III) (Signet Classics)

  (Series: # )

 

 


 

 
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