Bluegrass Messengers

No. 164: King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France

[Two accepted traditional versions (Harmon version and the Green version) were collected in the early 1930's in the US. If you add Niles three versions from  his ballad book, 1961, the total is five. According to Niles, his versions were collected from 1913 to 1932. Niles A seems to be fashioned after the Harmon version. It seems likely that these three versions are recreations -- possibly from traditional fragments. The question remains: Since Niles had a hitherto unknown Child ballad in 1913 why didn't he come forward with this historic find?

Both the Harmon and Green versions have the infamous stanza about "tennis balls" that were given by the King of France to King Henry of England. This remarkable stanza's origin is covered by Child in his headnotes below.

R. Mattteson 2015]

CONTENTS:

1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnotes  (Found at the end of Child's Narrative)
3. Brief (Kittredge)
4. Child's Ballad Texts A a (Changes from A a to make texts A b- A m given in Endnotes. An addition version, n, is given in Additions and Corrections.)
5. Endnotes
6. Additions and Corrections

ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):

1. Recordings & Info: 164. King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France 
    A.  Roud No. 251:  King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France (32 Listings)
       
2. Sheet Music: King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France (Bronson's music examples and texts)

3. US & Canadian Versions

4. English and Other Versions (Including Child versions A a- A m with additional notes)]
 

Child's Narrative: 164. King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France

A. a-d, broadsides, 
   a. Among Percy's papers.
   b. Roxburghe Ballads, III, 358.
   c. Jewitt's Ballads and Songs of Derbyshire, p. 1.
   d. Chatham's Library, Manchester, in Hales and Furnivall, Percy's Folio Manuscript, II, 597.
   e. Percy papers, "taken down from memory."
   f. Nicolas, History of the Battle of Agincourt, 1832, Appendix, p. 78, from the recitation of a very aged person.
   g. The same, p. 80, source not mentioned.
   h. Tyler, Henry of Monmouth, II, 197, apparently from memory.
   i. Percy Society, XVII, Dixon, Ancient Poems, etc., p. 52, from singing.
   j. Skene Manuscript, p. 42.
   k. Macmath Manuscript, p. 27, from tradition.
   l. Macmath Manuscript, p. 27, from tradition.
   m. Buchan's Manuscripts, I, 176, II, 124, probably broadside or stall copies.
   n. 'The Battle of Agincourt' in C.K. Sharpe's "first collection," p. 29

All the known copies of this ballad are recent. It is not in Thackeray's list of broadsides, which dates perhaps as late as 1689 (Chappell, The Roxburghe Ballads, I, xxiv-xxvii); and it is not included in the collection of 1723-25, which showed particular favor to historical pieces. In a manuscript index of first lines to a large collection of songs and ballads "formed in 1748," I find, "As our king lay on his bed," and the ballad may probably have first been published in the second quarter of the last century. In a woodcut below the title of a, b, there are two soldiers with G R on the flap of the coat and G on the cap (no doubt in c as well); the date of these broadsides cannot therefore be earlier than the accession of George I, 1714. The broadside is in a popular manner, but has no mark of antiquity. It may, however, represent an older ballad, disfigured by some purveyor for the Aldermary press.

It is probable that the recited versions had their ultimate source in print, and that printed copies were in circulation which, besides the usual slight variations,^[1] contained two more stanzas, one after 2 and another after 8, such as are found in h and elsewhere; which stanzas are likely to have formed part of the original matter.

After 2, h (see also g, i, j):

  Tell him to send me my tribute home,
  Ten ton of gold that is due to me;
  Unless he send me my tribute home,
  Soon in French land I will him see.

After 8, h (see also g, i, k, m):

then bespoke our noble king,
A solemn vow then vowed he:
I'll promise him such English balls ^[2]
As in French lands he neer did see!

g has several stanzas which are due to the hand of some improver.

Another, and much more circumstantial, ballad on Agincourt, written from the chronicles, was current in the seventeenth century. It begins, 'A councell braue [grave] our king did hold,' and may be seen in the Percy Manuscript, p. 241, Hales and Furnivall, II, 166, in The Crown Garland of Golden Roses (with seven stanzas fewer), ed. 1659, p. 65 of the reprint by the Percy Society, vol. xv; Pepys' Ballads, I, 90, No 44; Old Ballads, II, 79; Pills to purge Melancholy, V, 49; etc.

The story of the Tennis-Balis is not mentioned by the French historians, by Walsingham, Titus Livius, or the anonymous biographer of Henry in Cotton Manuscript, Julius E. iv.^[3] It occurs, however, in several contemporary writings, as in Elmham's Liber Metricus de Henrico Quinto, cap. xii (Quod filius regis Francorum, in derisum, misit domino regi pilas, quibus valeret cum pueris ludere potius quam pugnare, etc.), Cole, Memorials of Henry the Fifth, 1858, p. 101; but not in Elmham's prose history. So in Capgrave, De illustribus Henricis, with a fertur, ed. Hingeston, 1858, p. 114; but not in Capgrave's chronicle. We might infer, in these two cases, that the tale was thought good enough for verses and good enough for eulogies, though not good enough for history.

Again, in verses of Harleian Manuscript 565, "in a hand of the fifteenth century," the Dolphin says to the English ambassadors:

Me thinke youre kyng he is nought [so] old
No werrys for to maynteyn.
Grete well youre kyng, he seyde, so yonge,
That is both gentill and small;
A tonne of tenys-ballys I shall hym sende,
For hym to pleye with all.

Henry sends back this message:

   Oure Cherlys of Fraunce gret well or ye wende,
   The Dolfyn prowed withinne his wall;
   Swyche tenys-ballys I schal hym sende
   As schall tere the roof all of his [h]all.^[4]

But there is a chronicler who has the tale still. Otterbourne writes: Eodem anno [1414], in quadragesima, rege existente apud Kenilworth, Karolus, regis Francorum filius, Delphinus vocatus, misit pilas Parisianas ad ludendum cum pueris. Cui rex Anglorum rescripsit, dicens se in brevi pilas missurum Londoniarum, quibus terreret et confunderet sua tecta.

And once more, the author of an inedited "Chronicle of King Henry the Fifth that was Kyng Henries son," Cotton Manuscript, Claudius A. viii, of the middle of the fifteenth century, fol. 1, back:^[5]

And than, the Dolphine of Fraunce aunswered to our embassatours, and said in this maner, 'that the kyng was ouer yong and to tender of age to make any warre ayens hym, and was not lyke yet to be noo good werrioure to doo and to make suche a conquest there vpon hym. And somwhat in scorne and dispite he sente to hym a tonne fulle of tenysballis, be-cause he wolde haue some-what for to play withalle for hym and for his lordis, and that be-came hym better than to mayntayn any werre. And than anone oure lordes that was embassatours token hir leue and comen in to England ayenne, and tolde the kyng and his counceille of the vn-goodly aunswer that they had of the Dolphyn, and of the present the whiche he had sent vnto the kyng. And whan the kyng had hard her wordis, and the answere of the Dolp[h]ynne, he was wondre sore agreued, and righte euelle apayd towarde the Frensshemen, and toward the kyng, and the Dolphynne, and thoughte to auenge hym vpon hem as sone as God wold send hym grace and myghte; and anon lette make tenys-ballis for the Dolp[h]ynne in all the hast that the myghte be made, and they were grete gonne-stones for the Dolp[h]ynne to play wythe-alle.'

The Dolphin, whom two of these writers make talk of Henry as if he were a boy, was himself in his nineteenth year, and the English king more than eight years his senior. "Hume has justly observed," says Sir Harris Nicolas, "that the great offers made by the French monarch, however inferior to Henry's demands, prove that it was his wish rather to appease than exasperate him; and it is almost incredible that, whilst the advisers of Charles evinced so much forbearance, his son should have offered Henry a personal insult... It should be observed, as additional grounds for doubting that the message or gift was sent by the Dauphin, that such an act must have convinced both parties of the hopelessness of a pacific arrangement afterwards, and would, it may be imagined, have equally prevented the French court and Henry from seeking any other means of ending the dispute than by the sword. This, however, was not the case; for even supposing that the offensive communication was made on the occasion of the last, instead ... of that of the first embassy, it is certain that overtures were again sent to Henry whilst he was on his journey to the place of embarkation, and that even when there, he wrote to the French monarch with the object of adjusting his claims without a recourse to arms: " pp. 9, 12 f.

History repeats itself. Darius writes to Alexander as if he were a boy, and sends him, with other things, a ball to play with; and Alexander, in his reply to Darius, turns the tables upon the Persian king by his interpretation of the insolent gifts: Pseudo-Callisthenes, I, 36, ed. Müller, p. 40 f.^[6] The parallel is close. It is not inconceivable that the English story is borrowed, but I am not prepared to maintain this.

It does not appear from any testimony external to the ballad that married men or widows' sons had the benefit of an exemption in the levy for France, or that Cheshire, Lancashire, and Derby^[7] were particularly called upon to furnish men: st. 9. The Rev. J. Endell Tyler believes the ballad to be unquestionably of ancient origin, "probably written and sung within a very few years of the expedition," "before Henry's death, and just after his marriage;" which granted, this stanza would have a certain interest. But, says Mr. Tyler, "whether there is any foundation at all in fact for the tradition of Henry's resolution to take with him no married man or widow's son, the tradition itself bears such strong testimony to the general estimate of Henry's character for bravery at once and kindness of heart that it would be unpardonable to omit every reference to it," and he has both printed the ballad in the body of his work and placed "that golden stanza" on his title-page.^[8] The question of Henry's kindness of heart does not require to be discussed here, but it may be said in passing that there is not quite enough in this ballad to remove the impression which is ordinarily made by his conduct of the siege of Rouen.

The Battle of Agincourt was fought October 25, 1415. It is hardly necessary to say, with reference to the marching to Paris gates, that Henry had the wisdom to evacuate French ground as soon after the battle as convoy to England could be procured.

Footnotes:

1. 3². Away and away and away, e, f, i, k. 12¹. The first that fired it was the French, f, g, h. 12⁴. were forced to flee, f, i, m (first to flee, e). 14³. in all French land, e, f, g, (in our) h, m. Etc.

2. English balls again in m, tennis-balls in i, k.

3. Whose work was printed in 1850, ed. Benjamin Williams. I am for the most part using Sir Harris Nicolas's excellent History of the Battle of Agincourt, 2d ed., 1832, here; see pp. 8-13, 301 f.

4. Nicolas, p. 302 f, slightly corrected; much the same in another copy of the poem, ib., Appendix, p. 69 f. The jest in Henry's reply is carried out in detail when he comes to Harfleur, ib., pp. 308-310.

5. Nicolas, p. 10, as corrected by Hales and Furnivall, II, 161, and in one word emended by me. By several of the above writers the Dauphin Louis is called Charles, through confusion with his father or his younger brother.

6. The gifts are a whip (σκῦτος), a ball, and a casket of gold. In Julius Valerius's version, Müller, as above, σκῦτος is rendered habena, whip or reins; in Leo's Historia de Preliis, ed. Landgraf, p. 54, we have virga for habena; in Lamprecht's Alexander, Weismann, I, 74, 1296-1301, the habena is a pair of shoe-strings. The French romance, Michelant, p. 52, 25 ff, to make sure, gives us both rod (verge) and reins; the English Alexander, Weber, I, 75, 1726-28, has a top, a scourge, and a small purse of gold. Weber has noticed the similarity of the stories, Romances, III, 299, and he remarks that in 'The Famous Victories of Henry Fifth' a carpet is sent with the tun of tennis-balls, to intimate that the prince is fitter for carpet than camp.

7. Cheshire, Lancashire, and the Earl of Derby are made to carry off the honors in ballad-histories of Bosworth and Flodden: see the appendix to No 168. Perhaps the hand of some minstrel of the same clan as the author or authors of those eulogies may be seen in this passage.

8. Henry of Monmouth, or Memoirs of the Life and Character of Henry the Fifth, II, 121, 197. Jewitt, Derbyshire Ballads, p. 2, says that there is a tradition in the Peak of Derby that Henry V would take no married man or widow's son, when recruiting for Agincourt; but he goes on to say that the ballad is not unfrequently sung by the hardy sons of the Peak, which adequately accounts for the tradition.

Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge

All the known copies are of recent date, and the ballad may probably have first been published in the second quarter of the eighteenth century. The broadside is in a popular manner, but has no mark of antiquity. It may, however, represent an older ballad disfigured by some purveyor for the Aldermary press. The recited versions probably had their ultimate source in print. Another and much more circumstantial ballad on Agincourt, written from the chronicles, was current in the seventeenth century. It may be seen in the Percy Manuscript (Hales and Furnivall, u, 166).

Child's Ballad Text

King Henry V. his Conquest of France, in revenge for the affront offered him by the French king in sending him, instead of the Tribute due, a Ton of Tennis-Balls- Version A a; Child 164 King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France
a. Among Percy's papers.
b. Roxburghe Ballads, III, 358.
c. Jewitt's Ballads and Songs of Derbyshire, p. 1.
d. Chatham's Library, Manchester, in Hales and Furnivall, Percy's Folio Manuscript, II, 597.
e. Percy papers, "taken down from memory."
f. Nicolas, History of the Battle of Agincourt, 1832, Appendix, p. 78, from the recitation of a very aged person.
g. The same, p. 80, source not mentioned.
h. Tyler, Henry of Monmouth, II, 197, apparently from memory.
i. Percy Society, XVII, Dixon, Ancient Poems, etc., p. 52, from singing.
j. Skene Manuscript, p. 42.
k. Macmath Manuscript, p. 27, from tradition.
l. Macmath Manuscript, p. 27, from tradition.
m. Buchan's Manuscripts, I, 176, II, 124, probably broadside or stall copies.

1    As our king lay musing on his bed,
He bethought himself upon a time
Of a tribute that was due from France,
Had not been paid for so long a time.
Fal, lal, etc.

2    He called for his lovely page,
His lovely page then called he,
Saying, You must go to the king of France,
To the king of France, sir, ride speedily.

3    O then went away this lovely page,
This lovely page then away went he;
And when he came to the king of France,
Low he fell down on his bended knee.

4    'My master greets you, worthy sir;
Ten ton of gold that is due to he,
That you will send him his tribute home,
Or in French land you soon will him see.'

5    'Your master's young and of tender years,
Not fir to come into my degree,
And I will send him three tennis-balls,
That with them he may learn to play.'

6    O then returned this lovely page,
This lovely page then returned he,
And when he came to our gracious king,
Low he fell down on his bended knee.

7    'What news, what news, my trusty page?
What is the news you have brought to me?'
'I have brought such news from the king of France
That you and he will never agree.

8    'He says you're young and of tender years,
Not fit to come into his degree,
And he will send you three tennis-balls,
That with them you may learn to play.'

9    'Recruit me Cheshire and Lancashire,
And Derby Hills that are so free;
No marryd man nor no widow's son;
For no widow's curse shall go with me.'

10    They recruited Cheshire and Lancashire,
And Derby Hills that are so free;
No marryd man, nor no widow's son;
Yet there was a jovial bold company.

11    O then we marchd into the French land,
With drums and trumpets so merrily;
And then bespoke the king of France,
'Lo, yonder comes proud King Henry.'

12    The first shot that the Frenchmen gave,
They killd our Englishmen so free;
We killd ten thousand of the French,
And the rest of them they ran away.

13    And then we marched to Paris gates,
With drums and trumpets so merrily:
O then bespoke the king of France,
'The Lord have mercy on my men and me!

14    'O I will send him his tribute home,
Ten ton of gold that is due to he,
And the finest flower that is in all France
To the Rose of England I will give free.'

End-Notes

a.  King Henry V. his Conquest of France, in revenge for the affront offered him by the French king in sending him, instead of the Tribute due, a Ton of Tennis-Balls.
Printed and sold at the Printing Office in Bow Church-Yard, London.
1³. due to.

b.  Title the same, with omission of the first him and due.
Printed and sold in Aldermary Church Yard, Bow Lane, London, st.
1³. due from.
3³. Low he came.
3⁴. And when fell.
7¹. wanting.
7⁴. he and you will ne'er.
10³. man or widow's.
12⁴. run.

c.  Title as in b. Printed as in b.
1³. due from.
3¹. away went.
3³. Lo he.
3⁴. And then he.
7⁴. he and you will ne'er.
9³. man or widow's.
12⁴. run.

d.  Title as in b. Imprint not given.
1³. due from.
3³. Low he came.
3⁴. And when fell.
7⁴. he and you will ne'er.
9³. man or.
12⁴. run.

e.  2¹. Then he called on.
2⁴. With a message from King Henry.
3¹. Away then went.
3². Away and away and away.
3⁴. He fell low down.
4². of gold wanting.
4³. And you must send him this.
4⁴. you'll soon.
5¹, 3¹. tender age.
5², 8². not meet to come in.
5³. So I'll send him home some.
6^1,2,4 as in 3^1,2,4.
7¹. my lovely.
7³. what news bring you to me?
7⁴. That I'm sure with him you'll neer agree.
8³. So he's sent you here some.
9². that be.
9³, 10³. man nor widow's.
9⁴. For wanting.
10^1,2. Then they recruited Lankashire, Cheshire and Derby Hills so free.
10⁴. brave for bold.
11², 13². so wanting.
11³, 13¹. O then.
12³. But we.
12⁴. them were forsd to free.
13⁴. Lord have mercy on [my] men and me.
14¹. send this.
143. fairest flower in all French land.
14⁴. make free.

f.  "Communicated by Bertram Mitford, of Mitford Castle, in Northumberland, who wrote it from the dictation of a very aged relative."
1¹. As a.
1³. Those tributes due from the French king.
2⁴. Those tributes that are due to me.
3^1,2, 6^1,2. Away, away went this lovely page,
Away and away and away went he, nearly as in e.
4^1,2. My master he does greet you well, He doth greet you most heartily.
4³. If you don't.
5², 8². come within.
5⁴. And in French land he ne'er dare me see.
7¹. my lovely, as in e.
7³. from the French king.
7⁴. That with him I 'm sure you can ne'er agree.
8⁴. And in French land you ne'er dare him see.
9¹. Go, 'cruit me.
10⁴. jovial brave, as in e.
12¹. The first that fired it was the French.
12⁴. them were forced to flee.
13³. The first that spoke was the French king.
13⁴. Lord a mercy on my poor men and me.
14^1,2. go and take your tributes home, Five tons of gold I will give thee.
14⁴. in all French land, as in e.
   f was clearly derived from the same source as e.

g.  The fourth line repeated as burden.
2   O then calld he his lovely page,
His lovely page then called he,
Who, when he came before the king,
Lo, he fell down on his bended knee. 

  'Welcome, welcome, thou lovely page,
Welcome, welcome art thou here;
Go sped thee now to the king of France,
And greet us well to him so dear.
  'And when thou comst to the king of France
,
And hast greeted us to him so dear,
Thou then shall ask for the tribute due,
That has not been paid for many a year.'

3^1,2. Away then went this lovely page, Away, away, then went he.
3⁴. Lo, he.
Between 3 and 4:
  'What news, what news, thou royal page?
What news, what news dost thou bring to me?'
'I bring such news from our good king
That him and you may long agree.
4   'My master then does greet you well,
Does greet you well and happy here,
And asks from you the tribute due,
That has not been paid this many a year.'
6^1,2. Away, away went this lovely page,
Away, away, then away went he. ^[1]
7⁴. That he and you can ne'er agree.
After 8:
  O then in wroth rose our noble king,
In anger great then up rose he:
'I'll send such balls to the king in France
As Frenchmen ne'er before did see.'
9¹. Go 'cruit me.
10^2,4. Tho no married man, nor no widow's son,
They recruited three thousand men and three.
Between 10 and 11:
  And when the king he did them see,
He greeted them most heartily:
'Welcome, welcome, thou trusty band,
For thou art a jolly brave company.
  'Go now make ready our royal fleet,
Make ready soon, and get to sea;
I then will shew the king of France
When on French ground he does me see.'
  And when our king to Southampton came,
There the ships for him did wait a while;
Sure such a sight was ne'er seen before,
By any one in this our isle.
  Their course they then made strait for France,
With streamers gay and sails well filld;
But the grandest ship of all that went
Was that in which our good king saild.
11^3,4. The Frenchmen they were so dismayd,
Such a sight they ne'er did wish to see.
12¹. The first that fired it was the French, as in f.
13³. The first that spoke was the French king, as in f.
13⁴. Lo yonder comes proud King Henry.
After 13:
  'Our loving cousin, we greet you well,
From us thou now hast naught to fear;
We seek from you our tribute due,
That has not been paid for this many a year.'
14^1,2. 'O go and take your tributes home,
Five tons of gold I will give to thee,' as in f.
14³. And the fairest flower in all French land, as in e, f.

h.  "The author, to whom the following Song of Agincourt has been familiar from his childhood, cannot refrain from inserting it here."
1¹. musing wanting.
1². All musing at the hour of prime: "conjectural."
1³. He bethought him of the king of France.
1⁴. And tribute due for so long a time.
2^3,4, 3³. king in.
After 2:
  Tell him to send me my tribute home,
Ten ton of gold that is due to me;
Unless he send me my tribute home,
Soon in French land I will him see.
3^1,2, 6^1,2. Away then goes this lovely page,
As fast, as fast as he could hie.
4². gold is due to me.
5³. send him home some.
7⁴. That you and he can.
8². come up to.
8³. He has sent you home some.
After 8:
  Oh! then bespoke our noble king,
A solemn vow then vowed he:
I'll promise him such English balls
As in French lands he ne'er did see.
  Cf. g.
9¹. Go! call up.
9³, 10³. But neither ... nor.
9⁴. For wanting.
10¹. They called up.
After 10:
  He called unto him his merry men all,
And numbered them by three and three,
Until their number it did amount
To thirty thousand stout men and three. 
   Cf. g 10^3,4.
11¹. Away then marched they.
11², 13². and fifes.
12¹. The first that fired it was the French, as in f, g.
13¹. Then marched they on to.
14³. due from me.
14³. the very best flower.

i.  From the singing of a Yorkshire minstrel, with "one or two verbal corrections" from a modern broadside.
2^1,2, 3¹, 6¹. trusty for lovely.
After 2:
  And tell him of my tribute due,
Ten ton of gold that 's due to me;
That he must send me my tribute home,
Or in French land he soon will me see. 
3², 6². Away and away and away, as in e, f.
After 8: Oh! then, etc., as in h, but tennis-balls in line three.
9¹. Go call up, as in h.
10¹. They called up, as in h.
12⁴. And the rest of them they were forced to flee, nearly as in f.
13⁴. Lord have mercy on my poor men and me, as in f.
14³. And the fairest flower that is in our French land: cf. e, f, g.
14⁴. shall go free, as in g.

j.  A Scottish version of the broadside from recitation of the beginning of this century: of slight value.
1². On his bed lay musing he: for the ee rhyme.
After 2 (cf. g, h, i):
  Ye gae on to the king of France,
Ye greet him well and speedily,
And ye bid him send the tributes due,
Or in French lands he'll soon see me.
5³, 8³. some tennis.
5⁴. may play him merrilie.
6¹. Away, away went
7⁴. him an you.
8⁴. may play fu merrilie.
9¹, 10¹. Chester and Lincolnshire.
11². wi drum an pipe.
12 wanting.
13². wi pipe an drum.
13⁴. God hae mercie on my poor men and me: cf. f, i.
14 wanting.

k.  Received, 1886, from Mr. Alexander Kirk, Inspector of Poor, Dairy, Kirkcudbrightshire, who learned it many years ago from David Rae, Barlay, Balmaclellan.
3^1,2, 6^1,2. Away, away ... Away, away, and away: cf. e, f, g, i.
7^3,4. No news, no news, ... But just what my two eyes did see: cf. No 114, A 11, B 10, F 10.
After 3 (cf. g, h, i):
  Go call to me my merry men all,
All by thirties and by three,
And I will send him such tennis-balls
As on French ground he did never see.
12 wanting.
13¹. But when they came to the palace-gates.

l.  'Henry V and King of France.'
2^3,4, 3³. king in.
5². come unto.
7⁴. him and you.
8². come to.
11¹. Then they.
13⁴. Have mercy, Lord.

m.  'The Two Kings.'
3, 4.   When he came to the king of France,
He fell down on his bended knee:
'My master greets you, noble sir,
For a tribute that is due to he.'
5², 3². come to.
5³. send him home ten.
6, 7.   When he came to our noble king,
He fell low on his bended knee:
'What news, what news, my lovely page?
What news have ye brought unto me?'
8³. He's sent you hame ten.
After 8:
  Out then spake our noble king,
A solemn vow then vowed he:
'I shall prepare such English balls
That in French land he ne'er did see.'
9¹. You do recruit.
10¹. They did recruit.
11 wanting.
12⁴. The rest of them were forced to flee.
13¹. As we came in at the palace-gates.
13⁴. Have mercy on my men and me.
14³. The fairest flower in a' French land.

Additions and Corrections

P. 323. There is a copy ('The Battle of Agincourt') in C.K. Sharpe's "first collection," p. 29, from which some variations may be given.

n.  2⁴. And bring home the tribute that's due to me.
4^1-3.   My master the king salutes thee well,
Salutes thee well, most graciously;
You must go send, etc.
5^2-4.   And darna come to my degree;
Go bid him play with his tenish balls,
For in French lands he dare no me see.
7^3,4.   Such tidings from the king of France
As I 'm sure with him you can ner agree.
8³. He bids you play with these tenish balls.
10⁴. They were a jovial good company.
After 10:
  He counted oer his merry men,
Told them by thirty and by three,
And when the were all numberd oer
He had thirty thousand brave and three.
12   The first that fird, it was the French,
Upon our English men so free,
But we made ten thousand of them fall,
And the rest were forc'd for there lives to flee.
13¹. Soon we entered Paris gates.
13². trumpets sounding high.
13⁴. Have mercy on [my] men and me.
14^1,2.   Take home your tribute, the king he says,
And three tons of gold I will give to thee. 
 
There is also a copy in "The Old Lady's Collection," No 7, but it is not worth collating.