A holy maid hither with me I bring, Which, by a vision sent to her from heaven, And drive the English forth the bounds of France. Dau. Go, call her in: But first, 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. Enter Joan la Pucelle. 5 10 Reig. Fair maid, is't thouwilt do thesewond'rous 15 Pucel. Reignier,is't thou that thinkest to beguile My wit untrain'd in any kind of art. Heaven, and our Lady gracious, bath it pleas'd To shine on my contemptible estate: Lo, whilst I waited on my tender lambs, 20 25 Dau. Then come o' God's name, I fear nowo man. Pucel. And, while I live, I'll never fly no man. [Here they fight,and Joan la Pucelle overcomes. Dau. Stay, stay thy hands; thou art an Amazon, And fightest with the sword of Deborah. weak. Pucel. Christ's mother helps me, else I were too [help me; Dau. Whoe'er helps thee, 'tis thou that must Impatiently I burn with thy desire; 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 to thee thus. Purel. 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 recompence. Dau. 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. Her e may mean more than we poor men do know: [tongues. These women are shrewd tempters with their And to sun's parching heat display'd my checks, 30 Reig. My lord, where are you? what devise God's mother deigned to appear to me; Will'd me to leave my base vocation, terms: Only this proof I'll of thy valour make,—— Pucel. I am prepar'd: here is my keen-edg'd sword, 1351 Pucel. Assign'd I am to be the English scourge. This night the siege assuredly I'll raise: Expect St. Martin's summer 3, halcyon days, 40 Since I have enter'd thus 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. With Henry's death the English circle ends; 45 Dispersed are the glories it included. Now am I like that proud insulting ship, Which Cæsar and his fortune bare at once. Dau. Was Mahomet inspired with a dove +? Thou with an eagle art inspired then. 50 Helen, the mother of great Constantine, Nor yet Saint Philip's daughters, were like thee. Bright star of Venus, fall 'n down on the earth, How may I reverently worship thee enough? Deck'd with fine flower-de-luces on each side; Thewhich, at TouraineinSaint Katharine's church-55 yard, Out of a deal of old iron I chose forth. 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. There were no nine sibyls of Rome! but our author confounds things, and mistakes this for the nine books of Sibylline oracles, brought to one of the Tarquins. 2 It should be read, believe her words. 3 That is, expect prosperity after misfortune, like fair weather at Martlemas, after winter has begun. 4 Mahomet had a dove, which he used to feed with wheat out of his ear; which dove, when it was hungry, lighted on Mahoniet's shoulder, and thrust its bill in to find its breakfast; Mahomet persuading the rude and simple Arabians, that it was the Holy Ghost that gave him advice. s Meaning, the four daughters of Philip mentioned in the Acts. Dau. Glo. I will not slay thee, but I'll drive thee back: [face. Win. Do what thou dar'st; I beard thee to thy I mean to tug it, and to cuff you soundly: rope! [stay? Now beat them hence, Why do you let thein 25 Thee I'll chase hence, thou wolf in sheep's array.Out, tawny-coats!-out, scarlet hypocrite! Here Gloster's Men beat out the Cardinal's; and enter in the hurly-burly, the Mayor of London and his Officers. Wood. What noise is this? what traitors have 30 we here? Glo. Lieutenant, is it you, whose voice I hear? Open the gates; here's Gloster, that would enter. Wood. Have patience, noble duke; I may not open; The cardinal of Winchester forbids: Glo. Faint-hearted Woodvile, prizest him'fore Mayor. Fie, lords! that you, being supreme magistrates, Thus contumeliously should break the peace! my wrongs: 33 Here's Beaufort, that regards nor God nor king, Hath here distrain'd the Tower to his use. Win. Here's Gloster too, a foe to citizens; One that still motions war, and never peace, O'er-charging your free purses with large fines; 40 That seeks to overthrow religion, Thou art no friend to God, or to the king: Enter to the Protector, at the Tower-Gates, Win- Glo. Piel'd 3 priest, dost thou command me to Win. I do, thou most usurping proditor, And not protector of the king or realm. 155 Because he is protector of the realm; But to make open proclamation:- ■ Conveyance means theft. 2 A tawny coat was the dress of the officer whose business it was to summon offenders to an ecclesiastical court. These are the proper attendants therefore on the bishop of Winchester. 3 Alluding to his shaven crown. In Weever's Funeral Monuments, p. 154, Robert Baldocke, bishop of London, is called a peeled priest, pilide clerk, seemingly in allusion to his shaven crown alone. So, bald-head was a term of scorn and mockery. 4 The public stews were formerly under the district of the bishop of Winchester, 5 This means, I believe, I'll tumble thee into thy great hat, and shake thee, as bran and meal are shaken in a sieve. • Maundrel, in his Travels, says, that about four miles from Damascus is a high hill, reported to be the same on which Cain slew his brother Abel, A strumpet, or the consequences of her love, was a Winchester goose. Nn 2 Glo. sure: Thy heart-blood I will have for this day's work. Win. Abominable Gloster! guard thy head; 10 To be a public spec 5 Here, said they, is th The scare-crow that Then broke I from t And with my nails dis To hurl at the behol My grisly countena None durst come ne: In iron walls they de So great fear of myna That they suppos'd, I 15 And spurn in pieces Wherefore a guard c That walk'd about m And if I did but stir Ready they were to Enter the B Sal. I grieve to h dur'd; Enter the Master-Gunner of Orleans, and his Boy. And how the English have the suburbs won. M. Gun. But now thou shalt not. Be thou 25 Chief master-gunner am I of this town; But we will be reven How the English, in the suburbs close intrench'd, 30 Where is best place 2 Went, through a secret grate of iron bars In yonder tower, to over-peer the city; And thence discover, how, with most advantage, A piece of ordnance 'gainst it I have plac'd; If thou spy'st any, run and bring me word; Tal. The duke of Bedford had a prisoner, But, oh! the treacherous Fastolfe wounds my heart! Whom with my bare fists I would execute, Gar. I think, at the lords. Glan. And I here, a Tul. Foraught I see 35 Or with light skirmis [Shot from the to Gargrave f Sal. O Lord, hav sinners! 1401 45 Gar. O Lord, have Tal. What chance cross'd us? Speak, Salisbury; at How far'st thou, mir Oneof thy eyes, and th Accursed tower! acc That hath contriv'd In thirteen battles Sa Henry the fifth he fi 50 Whilst any trump di His sword did ne'er l Yet liv'st thou,Salisb fail, 55 One eye thou hast to The sun with one ey Heaven, be thou gra If Salisbury wants m Bear hence his body Sir Thomas Gargrav 60 Speak unto Talbot; Salisbury, chear thy Thou shalt not die, y He beckons with his Espials are spies. 2 Wont, i. e. were accustomed. honours. 3 So pill'd, mea As who should say, When I am dead and gone, [Here an alarum, and it thunders and lightens. Mess. My lord, my lord, the French have The Dauphin, with one Joan la Pucelle join'd,- Is come with a great power to raise the siege. It irks his heart, he cannot be reveng’d.- Tal. My thoughts are whirled like a potter's I know not where I am, nor what I do: 10 [Alarum. Here another skirmish. [Alarum. Exeunt, bearing out the bodies. 25 Here an alarum again; and Talbot pursueth the Tal. Where is my strength, my valour, and my force? Our English troops retire, I cannot stay them; Enter La Pucelle. 30 35 Here,here she comes:—I'll have a boutwith thee; thee. Tal. Heavens, can you suffer hell so to prevail? My breast I'll burst with straining of my courage, And from my shoulders crack my arms asunder, But I will chastise this high-minded strumpet. Pucel. Talbot, farewell; thy hour is not yet [come: 1 must go victual Orleans forthwith. [A short alarum. Then enters the town with O'ertake me if thou canst; I scorn thy strength. 145 In spight of us, or aught that we could do. SCENE VI. Enter on the walls, Pucelle, Dauphin, Reignier, More blessed hap did ne'er befall our state. the town? Dauphin, command the citizens make bonfires, joy, When theyshall hear howwe have play'd themen. Mr. Tollet says, Pussel means a dirty wench or a drab, from puzza, i. e. malus fœtor, says Minshew. In a translation from Stephens's Apology for Herodotus, in 1607, p. 98, we read,-"Some 2 The superstition of those filthy queans, especially our puzzles of Paris, use this other theft." 3 Rhodope was times taught, that he that could draw the witch's blood, was free from her power. Nn3 Her i Of English Henry, s How much in duty 15 The English, scaling A Talbot! Cent. [Within.] A make assau The French leap over t several ways, Bast ready, and half un Alen. How now, my Bast. Unready? ay Reig. 'Twas time, Hearing alarums at ou Alen. Of all exploit Ne'er heard I of a w More venturous, or o Bast. I think, this 30 Reig. Ifnot of hell,t Alen. Here cometh sped. Enter Char Bast. Tut! holy Jo Didst thou at first, to Make us partakers of That now our loss mis Pucel. Wherefore his friend? At all times will you Sleeping, or waking, Or will you blame an Improvident soldiers! 45 This sudden mischief Char. Duke of Alen That, being captain o Did look no better to Alen. Had all your As that whereof I had We had not been thus Bast. Mine was sec Reign. And so was Char. And, for mysel 55Within her quarter, a I was employ'd in pass About relieving of the Then how, or which wa When Alexander the Great took the city of Gaza, the metropolis of and wealth of Darius treasured up there, he found an exceeding rich and bea and asked those about him what they thought fittest to be laid up in it. Wh vered their opinions, he told them, he esteemed nothing so worthy to bep Iliad. 2 Unready was the current word in those times for undress'd. |