Will'd me to leave my base vocation,
And free my country from calamity.
Her aid she promis'd, and assured 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 may 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; 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, Deck'd with five flower-de-luces on each side;

3

The which at Touraine, in Saint Katharine's church

yard,

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;

3 Deck'd with FIVE flower-de-luces-] In the folio, 1623, the u, instead of v, with which fire was formerly printed, was accidentally turned, and the word is therefore fine; but Holinshed enables us to detect the error, for he states that "fire flower-de-luces were graven on both sides" of the sword of Joan of Arc. They fight.] The old stage-direction is, "Here they fight, and Joan de Pucel overcomes."

VOL. V.

C

My heart and hands thou hast at once subdued.
Excellent Pucelle, if thy name be so,
Let me thy servant, and not sovereign, be:
"Tis the French Dauphin sueth to thee thus.
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 summer, 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.
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 dove?
Thou with an eagle art inspired, then.
Helen, the mother of great Constantine,
Nor yet St. Philip's daughters 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.

SCENE III.

London. Tower Hill.

[Exeunt.

Enter, at the Gates, the Duke of GLOSTER, with his Serving-men.

Glo. I am come to survey the Tower this day; Since Henry's death, I fear, there is conveyance3. Where be these warders, that they wait not here? Open the gates! "Tis Gloster that calls.

[Servants knock. 1 Ward. [Within.] Who's 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. Villains, answer you so the lord protector? 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.—
Break up the gates, I'll be your warrantize.
Shall I be flouted thus by dunghill grooms?

I fear, there is CONVEYANCE.] i. e. fraud or theft. See Vol. iv. p. 193.

GLOSTER'S Men 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 commandement,
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.

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 Servants in tawney

Coats.

Win. How now, ambitious Humphrey! what means this?

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

Win. I do, thou most usurping proditor,

And not protector, of the king or realm.

Glo. Stand back, thou manifest conspirator, Thou that contriv'dst to murder our dead lord;

6

Servants in tawney Coats.] The attendants of a bishop seem to have been usually so attired. Stow, in a passage quoted by Steevens, speaks on one occasion of the bishop of London, who was " attended on by a goodly company of gentlemen in tawney coats." Summoners, officers belonging to the Bishops' Courts, wore tawney coats.

7 PILL'D priest,] "Pill'd" is what is now usually spelt peel'd, and in the folio, 1623, the orthography of the word is pield; but we have had it before, in exactly the same sense, in "Measure for Measure," Vol. ii. p. 11. The allusion is to the shaven crown of the bishop of Winchester.

Thou that giv'st whores indulgences to sins.
I'll canvass thee in thy broad cardinal's hat,
If thou proceed in this thy insolence.

Win. Nay, stand thou back; I will not budge a foot: This be Damascus, be thou cursed Cain',

To slay thy brother Abel, if thou wilt.

Glo. I will not slay thee, but I'll drive thee back. Thy scarlet robes, as a child's bearing-cloth

I'll use to carry thee out of this place.

Win. Do what thou dar'st; I'll beard thee to thy face.

Glo. What am I dar'd, and bearded to my face?Draw, men, for all this privileged place;

Blue coats to tawney coats?. Priest, beware your beard; [GLOSTER and his Men attack the Bishop.

I mean to tug it, and to cuff you soundly.
Under my feet I stamp thy cardinal's hat,
In spite of pope or dignities of church;

Here by the cheeks I'll drag thee up and down.
Win. Gloster, thou'lt answer this before the pope.
Glo. Winchester goose3! I cry-a rope! a rope!-

8

- indulgences to sin:] The Stews in Southwark were formerly under the jurisdiction of the bishops of Winchester, whose palace (a relic of which is still left) stood near those on the Bankside. See, in a note to the Percy Society's reprint of Rowley's "Search for Money," p. 45, a curious and early account of the Stews in Southwark.

9 I'll CANVASS thee in thy broad cardinal's hat,] i. e. I'll sift thee. Cotgrave renders canabasser (which Skinner says means to beat hemp) by the words "to canvass, or curiously to examine, or sift out." Winchester could not have been a cardinal at this time, according even to the chronology of the play; and in A. v. sc. 1, Exeter speaks of him as if he had then just been made cardinal. According to history, as Malone has observed, Winchester was elected cardinal in the fifth year of Henry VI.

1 This be Damascus, be thou cursed Cain,] Reed pointed out the following illustrative quotation from "The Travels of Sir John Mandeville :"-" And in that place where Damascus was founded, Kayn sloughe Abel his brother." Ritson added the subsequent passage from the "Polychronicon:"-" Damascus is as much as to say shedding of blood; for there Chaym slew Abel, and hid him in the sand."

2 BLUE COATS to tawney coats.] The usual livery of servants at the period when Shakespeare wrote, and long before, was blue: such therefore was the colour of the dress worn by the attendants on the duke of Gloster.

3 Winchester goose!] Johnson would here make out an allusion to the દ consequence of love" for the inhabitants of the Stews, under the control of the