Her aid she promis'd, and assur'd success:
In complete glory she reveal'd herself;
And, whereas I was black and swart before,
With those clear rays which she infus'd on me,
That beauty am I bless'd with, which you see.
Ask me what question thou canst possible,
And I will answer unpremeditated:

My courage try by combat, if thou dar'st,
And thou shalt find that I exceed my sex..
Resolve on this 8: Thou shalt be fortunate,
If thou receive me for thy warlike mate.

Char. Thou hast astonish'd me with thy high terms;
Only this proof I'll of thy valour make,-
In single combat thou shalt buckle with me:
And, if thou vanquishest, thy words are true;
Otherwise, I renounce all confidence.

Puc. I am prepar'd: here is my keen-edg'd sword, Deek'd with five flower-de-luces on each side; The which at Touraine, in Saint Katharine's churchyard,

Out of a great deal of old iron I chose forth.

Char. Then come o'God's name, I fear no woman. Puc. And, while I live, I'll ne'er fly from a man. [They fight. Char. Stay, stay thy hands; thou art an Amazon, And fightest with the sword of Deborah.

Puc. Christ's mother helps me, else I were too weak.

Char. Whoe'er helps thee, 'tis thou that must help me :

Impatiently I burn with thy desire ;

8 i. e. be convinced of it. Thus in 'Tis Pity She's a Whore:This banquet is a harbinger of death

To you

and me,

resolve yourself it is.'

In the Third Part of King Henry VI. :—

I am resolv'd

That Clifford's manhood lies upon his tongue.'

My heart and hands thou hast at once subdu'd.
Excellent Pucelle, if thy name be so,
Let me thy servant, and not sovereign, be;
'Tis the French Dauphin sueth thus to thee.
Puc. I must not yield to any rites of love,
For my profession's sacred from above:
When I have chased all thy foes from hence,
Then will I think upon a recompense.

Char. Mean time, look gracious on, thy prostrate thrall.

Reig. My lord, methinks, is very long in talk. Alen. Doubtless he shrives this woman to her smock;

Else ne'er could he so long protract his speech.

Reig. Shall we disturb him, since he keeps no mean? Alen. He may mean more than we poor men do know: These women are shrewd tempters with their tongues. Reig. My lord, where are you? what devise you on? Shall we give over Orleans, or no?

Puc. Why, no, I say, distrustful recreants! Fight till the last gasp; I will be your guard, Char. What she says, I'll confirm; we'll fight it out. Puc. Assign'd am I to be the English scourge. This night the siege assuredly I'll raise : Expect Saint Martin's summer9, halcyon days, Since I have entered into these wars. Glory is like a circle in the water,

Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself,

Till, by broad spreading, it disperse to nought 10.

9 i. e. expect prosperity after misfortune, like fair weather at Martlemas, after winter has begun. The French have a proverbial expression, Esté de St. Martin, for fine weather in winter.

10 This is a favourite image with poets. It is to be found in Silius Italicus, Ariosto, Pope, and many others: take one example from Sir John Davies's Nosce Te ipsum :

'As when a stone is into water cast,
One circle doth another circle make,
Till the last circle reach the bank at last.'

With Henry's death, the English circle ends;
Dispersed are the glories it included.
Now am I like that proud insulting ship,
Which Cæsar and his fortune bare at once.

Char. Was Mahomet inspired with a dove11?
Thou with an eagle art inspired then.

Helen, the mother of great Constantine,

Nor yet Saint Philip's daughters 12, were like thee. Bright star of Venus, fall'n down on the earth, How may I reverently worship thee enough?

Alen. Leave off delays, and let us raise the siege. Reig. Woman, do what thou canst to save our honours;

Drive them from Orleans, and be immortaliz'd.
Char. Presently we'll try :-Come, let's away

about it:

No prophet will I trust, if she prove false. [Exeunt.

SCENE III. London. Hill before the Tower. Enter, at the Gates, the Duke of GLOSTER, with his Serving-men, in blue Coats.

Glo. I am come to survey the Tower this day; Since Henry's death, I fear there is conveyance1.Where be these warders, that they wait not here? Open the gates; Gloster it is that calls.

[Servants knock.

11 Mahomet had a dove which he used to feed with wheat out of his ear; which dove, when it was hungry, lighted on Mahomet's shoulder, and thrust its bill in to find its breakfast, Mahomet persuading the rude and simple Arabians that it was the Holy Ghost.' Raleigh's Hist. of the World, part i. c. vi.

12 Meaning the four daughters of Philip mentioned in Acts, xxi. 9.

1 Conveyance anciently signified any kind of furtive knavery, or privy stealing. 'Manticulatio, slie and deceitful conveyance, as the cutting of a purse.' Convey the wise it call; steal! foh; a fico for the phrase.' Pistol, in The Merry Wives of Windsor.

1 Ward. [Within.] Who is there that knocks so imperiously?

1 Serv. It is the noble duke of Gloster.

2 Ward. [Within.] Whoe'er he be, you may not be let in.

1 Serv. Answer you so the lord protector, villains? 1 Ward. [Within.] The Lord protect him! so we answer him:

We do no otherwise than we are will'd.

Glo. Who willed you? or whose will stands, but mine?

There's none protector of the realm, but I.—

2

Break up the gates, I'll be your warrantize:
Shall I be flouted thus by dunghill grooms?

Servants rush at the Tower Gates. Enter, to the
Gates, WOODVILLE, the Lieutenant.

Wood. [Within.] What noise is this? what traitors have we here?

Glo. Lieutenant, is it you, whose voice I hear? Open the gates; here's Gloster, that would enter. Wood. [Within.] Have patience, noble duke: I may not open;

The cardinal of Winchester forbids:

From him I have express commandment,
That thou, nor none of thine, shall be let in.

Glo. Faint-hearted Woodville,prizest him 'fore me?
Arrogant Winchester? that haughty prelate,
Whom Henry, our late sovereign, ne'er could brook?
Thou art no friend to God, or to the king:
Open the gates, or I'll shut thee out shortly.

They have

2 To break up was the same as to break open. broken up and have passed through the gate.' Micah, ii. 13. 'He would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.' Matthew, xxiv. 43. The lusty Kentishmen, hoping on more friends, brake up the gaytes.' Hall's Chronicle, fo. 78.

1 Serv. Open the gates unto the lord protector; Or we'll burst them open, if that you come not quickly.

Enter WINCHESTER, attended by a Train of Servants in tawny Coats3.

Win. How now, ambitious Humphry? what means

this?

Glo. Piel'd priest, dost thou command me to be shut out?

Win. I do, thou most usurping proditor 5,
And not protector of the king or realm.

Glo. Stand back, thou manifest conspirator;
Thou, that contriv'dst to murder our dead lord;
Thou, that giv'st whores indulgences to sin":
I'll canvas thee in thy broad cardinal's hat,
If thou proceed in this thy insolence.

7

3 It appears that the attendants upon ecclesiastical courts, and a bishop's servants, were then, as now, distinguished by clothing of a sombre colour. Thus in Stowe's Chronicle, p. 822, the bishop of London met him, attended by a goodly company of gentlemen in tawny coats.' And the old comedy A Maidenhead well Lost, 1634, Tho' I was never a tawny coat, yet I have played the summoner's part.' It appears also to have been a mourning colour, for in the Complaint of a Lover, by the E[arl] of O[xford], in the Paradise of Dainty Devices, it thus mentioned:

I suspect that tawny, like the French original tanne, was applied to any obscure colour approaching black in hue, and that some such sad colour as is still in use for the servants of ecclesiastics is meant, and not the russet colour which we now call tawny.

4 i. e. bald, alluding to his shaven crown. Glabreo, to waxe or become pild or bald.' DICT. Pield and pild, or pilled, are only various ways of spelling peel'd.

5 Traitor.

6 The public stews in Southwark were under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Winchester. Upton had seen the office book of the court leet, in which was entered the fees paid by, and the customs and regulations of these brothels.

7 To canvas was to toss in a sieve; a punishment (says Cot