Note 193 — 164 KING HENRY FIFTH’S CONQUEST OF FRANCE
Reading edition
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.