Dryden's mind when he planned the machinery of his unwritten
epic, and in Addison's when he penned the famous simile of the Angel in
his poem on Blenheim.

Page 52, ll. 29, 30 [Stz. 157]. "_Foorth that braue King couragious
Henry goes, An hower before that it was fully light._" --No personal
reconnoissance on Henry's part is mentioned by the historians, although
Sir Harris Nicolas says, on the authority of Elmham: "About the middle
of the night, before the moon set, Henry sent persons to examine the
ground, by whose report he was better able to draw up his forces on the
next day." As the English were the assailants, the precaution of posting
the archers behind the quickset hedge would have proved unnecessary.

Page 55, l. 27 [Stz. 169]. "_His coruetting Courser._" --"A little grey
horse." He wore no spurs, probably to show his men that he entertained
no thought of flight.

Page 56, l. 20 [Stz. 172]. "_To know what he would for his Ransome
pay._" --This is mentioned by Holinshed, but cannot be true, for all
contemporary authorities agree that the French sent envoys to Henry on
the morning of the battle offering him a free passage to Calais upon
condition of surrendering Harfleur. This would seem to indicate that the
leaders did not fully share the confidence of their troops.

Page 57, ll. 3, 4 [Stz. 174]. "_And strongly fixe the Diadem of France,
Which to this day vnsteady doth remaine._" --No Frenchman could have
said this on such an occasion. Drayton would make for any port when in
stress of rhyme.

Page 57, l. 16 [Stz. 175]. "_Thus to his Souldiers comfortably spake._"
--Drayton's version of his speech in the main agrees with Holinshed's.
Shakespeare, usually so close a follower of Holinshed, substitutes an
oration entirely of his own composition. The beautiful lines--

"For he this day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile
This day shall gentle his condition"--

appear to be derived from the same source as the exaggerated statement
of Archbishop Des Ursins, that on another occasion Henry promised that
his plebeian soldiers should be ennobled and invested with collars of
SS. This cannot be taken directly from Des Ursins, whose history of the
reign of Charles VI., though written in the fifteenth century, was not
published until 1614.

Page 58, ll. 9, 10 [Stz. 179]. "_When hearing one wish all the valiant
men At home in England, with them present were._" --According to the