For living idly here, in pomp and ease,
Whilst such a worthy leader, wanting aid,
Unto his dastard foemen is betray'd.

pay:

3 Mess. O no, he lives; but is took prisoner, And Lord Scales with him, and Lord Hungerford : Most of the rest slaughter'd, or took, likewise. Bed. His ransome there is none but I shall I'll hale the Dauphin headlong from his throne, His crown shall be the ransome of my friend; Four of their lords I'll change for one of ours.-Farewell, my masters; to my task will I; Bonfires in France forthwith I am to make, To keep our great Saint George's feast withal : Ten thousand soldiers with me I will take, Whose bloody deeds shall make all Europe quake. 3 Mess. So you had need; for Orleans is besieg'd;

The English army is grown weak and faint:
The earl of Salisbury craveth supply,

And hardly keeps his men from mutiny,
Since they, so few, watch such a multitude.

Exe. Remember, lords, your oaths to Henry

sworn;

Either to quell the Dauphin utterly,

Or bring him in obedience to your yoke.

Bed. I do remember it; and here take leave,

To go about my preparation.

[Exit.

Glo. I'll to the Tower, with all the haste I can,

To view the artillery and munition;

And then I will proclaim young Henry king. [Exit. Exe. To Eltham will I, where the young king is, Being ordain'd his special governor;

And for his safety there I'll best devise.

[Exit.

Win. Each hath his place and function to attend :

I am left out for me nothing remains.

But long I will not be Jack-out-of-office;
The king from Eltham I intend to steal 12,
And sit at chiefest stern of public weal.

[Exit. Scene closes.

SCENE II. France. Before Orleans.

Enter CHARLES, with his Forces; ALENÇON,
REIGNIER, and Others.

Char. Mars his true moving1, even as in the
heavens,

1 So in the earth, to this day is not known:
Late did he shine upon the English side;
Now we are victors, upon us he smiles.
What towns of any moment, but we have?
At pleasure here we lie, near Orleans;
Otherwhiles, the famish'd English, like pale ghosts,
Faintly besiege us one hour in a month.

Alen. They want their porridge, and their fat bull-
beeves:

Either they must be dieted like mules,

And have their provender tied to their mouths,
Or piteous they will look, like drowned mice.

Reig. Let's raise the siege; Why live we idly here?

12 The old copy reads send, the present reading was proposed by Mason, who observes that the king was not at this time in the power of the cardinal, but under the care of the duke of Exeter. The second article of accusation brought against the bishop by the duke of Gloucester is 'that he purposed and disposed him to set hand on the king's person, and to have removed him from Eltham to Windsor, to the intent to put him in governance as him list.' Holinshed, vol. iii. p. 591. The necessity of the rhime, and the disagreeable clash of the words intend and send, also show the propriety of the alteration.

You are as ignorant in the true movings of my muse as the astronomers are in the true movings of Mars, which to this day they could never attain to.' Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up, by Nash, 1596, Preface.

Talbot is taken, whom we wont to fear:
Remaineth none but mad-brain'd Salisbury;
And he may well in fretting spend his gall,
Nor men, nor money, hath he to make war.
Char. Sound, sound alarum; we will rush on them.
Now for the honour of the forlorn French :-
Him I forgive my death, that killeth me,
When he sees me go back one foot, or fly. [Exeunt.
Alarums: Excursions: afterwards a Retreat.
Re-enter CHARLES, ALENÇON, REIGNIER, and
Others.

Char. Who ever saw the like? what men have I?— Dogs! cowards! dastards!—I would ne'er have fled, But that they left me 'midst my enemies.

Reig. Salisbury is a desperate homicide;
He fighteth as one weary of his life.
The other lords, like lions wanting food,
Do rush upon us as their hungry prey.

Alen. Froissard, a countryman of ours, records,
England all Olivers and Rowlands 3 bred,
During the time Edward the Third did reign.
More truly now may this be verified;
For none but Samsons, and Goliasses,
It sendeth forth to skirmish. One to ten!
Lean raw-bon'd rascals; who would e'er suppose
They had such courage and audacity?

Char. Let's leave this town; for they are hairbrain'd slaves,

And hunger will enforce them to be more eager:

2 i. e. the prey for which they are hungry.

3 These were two of the most famous in the list of Charlemagne's twelve peers; and their exploits are the theme of the old romances. From the equally doughty and unheard of exploits of these champions, arose the saying of Giving a Rowland for an Oliver, for giving a person as good as he brings.

4

Of old I know them; rather with their teeth
The walls they'll tear down, than forsake the siege.
Reig. I think, by some odd gimmals or device,
Their arms are set, like clocks, still to strike on ;
Else ne'er could they hold out so as they do.
By my consent, we'll e'en let them alone.
Alen. Be it so.

Enter the Bastard of Orleans.

Bast. Where's the prince Dauphin, I have news for him.

Char. Bastard 5 of Orleans, thrice welcome to us. Bast. Methinks, your looks are sad, your cheer 6 appall❜d;

Hath the late overthrow wrought this offence?
Be not dismay'd, for succour is at hand:

A holy maid hither with me I bring,
Which, by a vision sent to her from heaven,
Ordained is to raise this tedious siege,

And drive the English forth the bounds of France.
The spirit of deep prophecy she hath,

4 By gimmals, gimbols, gimmers, or gimowes, any kind of device or machinery producing motion was meant. Baret has the gimew or hinge of a door.' There were gimmal bits and gimmal rings, &c.:

'My acts are like the motional gymmals

Fix'd in a watch.'

Vow Breaker, 1636.

the famous Kentish idol moved her eyes and hands by those secret gimmers which now every puppet play can imitate.' Bishop Hall, Epist. vi. Dec. 1.

5 Bastard was not in former times a title of reproach. Hurd, in his Letters on Chivalry and Romance, makes it one of the circumstances of agreement between Heroic and Gothic manners, 'that bastardy was in credit with both.' It has, however, been disputed whether bastardy was or was not a disgrace among the ancients. See the subject fully discussed in Potter's Antiquities of Greece, vol. ii. p. 337, edit. 1715.

6 Cheer in this instance means heart or courage, as in the expression be of good cheer.'

Exceeding the nine sibyls of old Rome7;
What's past, and what's to come, she can descry.
Speak, shall I call her in? Believe my words,
For they are certain and unfallible.

Char. Go, call her in: [Exit Bastard.] But, first to try her skill,

Reignier, stand thou as Dauphin in my place: Question her proudly, let thy looks be stern:By this mean shall we sound what skill she hath. [Retires. Enter LA PUCELLE, Bastard of Orleans, and Others. Reig. Fair maid, is't thou wilt do these wondrous feats?

Puc. Reignier, is't thou that thinkest to beguile me?

Where is the Dauphin?-come, come from behind;
I know thee well, though never seen before.
Be not amaz'd, there's nothing hid from me:
In private will I talk with thee apart:—
Stand back, you lords, and give us leave a while.
Reig. She takes upon her bravely at first dash.
Puc. Dauphin, I am by birth a shepherd's daughter,
My wit untrained in any kind of art.

Heaven, and our Lady gracious, hath it pleas'd
To shine on my contemptible estate:

Lo, whilst I waited on my tender lambs,
And to sun's parching heat display'd my cheeks,
God's mother deigned to appear to me;
And, in a vision full of majesty,
Will'd me to leave my base vocation,
And free my country from calamity:

7 Warburton says that there were no nine sybils of Rome, it is a mistake for the nine Sibylline Oracles brought to one of the Tarquins. But the poet followed the popular books of his day, which say that the ten sybils were women that had the spirit of prophecy (enumerating them) and that they prophesied of Christ.'