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
And sit at chiefest stern of public weal.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II

France. Before Orleans.

Sound a Flourish. Enter Charles, Alençon, and
Reignier, marching with Drum and Soldiers.

Char. Mars his true moving, even as in the heavens
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;

176. "steal," Mason's conjecture; Ff., "send"; Keightley, "fetch." -I. G.

177. This was one of the things charged upon the Bishop by Gloucester when their quarrel broke out. Thus in Holinshed "my said lord of Winchester purposed and disposed him to set hand on the King's person, and to have him removed from Eltham, to the intent to put him in governance as he list."-H. N. H.

1. "Mars his true moving"; cp. "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 not attain to,” quoted by Steevens from one of Nash's prefaces to Gabriel Harvey's Hunt's Up, 1596. Kepler's work on Mars (Comment. de Motibus Stella Martis) was published in 1609.-I. G.

Otherwhiles the famish'd English, like pale

ghosts,

Faintly besiege us one hour in a month.

Alen. They want their porridge and their fat bullbeeves

Either they must be dieted like mules,

10

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? 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 honor of the forlorn French! Him I forgive my death that killeth me When he sees me go back one foot or fly.

20

[Exeunt.

Here Alarum; they are beaten back by the English with great loss.

Re-enter Charles, Alençon, and Reignier.

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.

13. "live"; Capell, "sit"; Walker, "lie."-I. G.

28. That is, the prey for which they are hungry.—H. N. H.

Alen. Froissart, a countryman of ours, records,

30

England all Olivers and Rowlands bred
During the time Edward the Third did reign.
More truly now may this be verified;

For none but Samsons and Goliases

It sendeth forth to skirmish. One to ten!
Lean raw-boned rascals! who would e'er suppose
They had such courage and audacity?

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

And hunger will enforce them to be more eager: 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 gimmors or device

40

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 even let them alone. Alen. Be it so.

Enter the Bastard of Orleans

Bast. Where's the Prince Dauphin? I have news for him.

30. 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.—H. N. H. "bred"; Ff., breed."-I. G.

41. "Gimmors" means any kind of device or machine for producing motion. Thus Digby, Of Man's Soul: "Whence 'tis manifest that his answers do not proceed upon set gimals or strings, whereof one being struck moves the rest in a set order.” And in Bishop Hall's Epistles: "The famous Kentish idol moved her eyes and hands by those secret gimmers which now every puppet play can imitate.”H. N. H.

Char. Bastard of Orleans, thrice welcome to us. Bast. Methinks your looks are sad, your cheer appall'd:

Hath the late overthrow wrought this offense?
Be not dismay'd, for succor 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,

50

And drive the English forth the bounds of
France.

The spirit of deep prophecy she hath,

Exceeding the nine sibyls of old Rome:

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.

[Exit Bastard.] But first,

60

Char. Go, call her in.
to try her skill,
Reignier, stand thou as Dauphin in my place:
Question her proudly; let thy looks be stern:

By this means shall we sound what skill she hath.

47. "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."-H. N. H.

48. "Cheer" in this instance means heart or courage, as in the expression, “be of good cheer."—H. N. H.

56. “nine sibyls of old Rome." The number of the Sibyls is variously given as three, four, seven, ten; possibly the "nine" is here due to confusion with the nine Sibylline books.-I. G.

Warburton says, "there were no nine sibyls 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 Sibyls were women that had the spirit of prophecy and they prophesied of Christ.-H. N. H.

Re-enter the Bastard of Orleans, with

Joan La Pucelle.

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 be

hind;

I know thee well, though never seen before.
Be not amazed, there's nothing hid from me:
In private will I talk with thee apart.
Stand back, you lords, and give us leave

awhile.

70

Reig. She takes upon her bravely at first dash.
Puc. Dauphin, I am by birth a shepherd's daugh-

ter,

My wit untrain❜d in any kind of art.

Heaven and our Lady gracious hath it pleased
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:
Her aid she promised and assured success:
In complete glory she reveal'd herself;

80

And, whereas I was black and swart before,
With those clear rays which she infused on me
That beauty am I bless'd with which you see.

86. "which you see," reading of Ff. 2, 3, 4; F. 1, “which you may see."-I. G.