Enclosed were they with their enemies:
A bafe Walloon, to win the Dauphin's grace,
Thruft Talbot with a spear into the back;
Whom all France, with their chief affembled."

ftrength,

Durft not prefume to look once in the face.
BED. Is Talbot flain? then I will flay myself,
For living idly here, in pomp and ease,
Whilft fuch a worthy leader, wanting aid,
Unto his daflard foe-men is betray'd.

3. MESS. O no, he lives; but is took prifoner, And lord Scales with him, and lord Hungerford: Most of the rest flaughter'd, or took, likewife.

BED. His ransom there is none but I fhall pay:
I'll hale the Dauphin headlong from his throne,
His crown fhall be the ranfom of my friend;
Four of their lords I'll change for one of ours.-
Farewell, my mafters; to my task will I;
Bonfires in France forthwith I am to make,
To keep our great faint George's feaft withal:
Ten thousand foldiers with me I will take,
Whose bloody deeds fhall make all Europe quake.
3. MESS. So you had need; for Orleans is be-
fieg'd;

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

And hardly keeps his men from mutiny,
Since they, fo few, watch fuch a multitude.
EXE. Remember, lords, your oaths to Henry
fworn;

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 hafte 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 fpecial governor;

And for his fafety there I'll beft devise.

[Exit.

WIN. Each hath his place and function to at

tend:

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 fend,
And fit at chiefeft ftern of publick weal.9

[Exit. Scene closes.

The king from Eltham I intend to fend, And fit at chiefeft fern of publick weal.] The king was not at this time fo much in the power of the Cardinal, that he could fend him where he pleased. I have therefore no doubt but that there is an error in this paffage, and that it should be read thus:

The king from Eltham I intend to fteal
And fit at chiefeft ftern of publick weal.

This flight alteration preserves the fenfe, and the rhyme allo, with which many scenes in this play conclude. The king's person,

as appears from the fpeech immediately preceding this of Winchefter, was under the care of the Duke of Exeter, not of the Cardinal: "Exe. To Eltham will I, where the young king is,

Being ordain'd his fpecial governor." M. MASON.

The fecond charge in the Articles of accufation preferred by the Duke of Glofter against the Bishop, (Hall's Chron. Henry VI. f. 12, b.) countenances this conjecture. MALONE.

The disagreeable clash of the words-intend and fend, feems indeed to confirm the propriety of Mr. M. Mafon's emendation.

STEEVENS.

SCENE II.

France. Before Orleans.

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

2

CHAR. Mars his true moving, even as in the

heavens,

So in the earth, to this day is not known:
Late, did he fhine upon the English fide;
Now we are victors, upon us he fmiles.
What towns of any moment, but we have?
At pleasure here we lie, near Orleans;
Otherwhiles, the famifh'd English, like pale ghosts,
Faintly befiege 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 ty'd to their mouths,
Or pitèous they will look, like drowned mice.
REIG. Let's raife the fiege; 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, found alarum; we will rush on
them.

7

Mars his true moving, &c.] So, before Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up, in the true movings of my mufe, true movings of Mars, which to this

VOL. XIV.

i

Nah, in one of his prefaces 1596" You are as ignorant as the aftronomers are in the day they could never attain to." STEEVENS,

G

Now for the honour of the forlorn French:-
Him I forgive my death, that killeth me,
When he fees me go back one foot, or fly.

[Exeunt.

Alarums; Excurfions; afterwards a Retreat.

Re-enter CHARLES, ALENÇON, REIGNIER, and
Others.

CHAR. Who ever faw the like? what men have

I?

Dogs! cowards! daftards!-I would ne'er have

fled,

But that they left me 'midft my enemies.
REIG. Salisbury is a defperate 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. Froifard, a countryman of ours, records,
England all Olivers and Rowlands bred,4
During the time Edward the third did reign.
More truly now may this be verified;

3 as their hungry prey. ] I believe it should be read: as their hungred prey. JOHNSON.

I adhere to the old reading, which appears to fignify-the prey for which they are hungry. STEEVEN.

These were two

4 England all Olivers and Rowlands bred, ] of the most famous in the lift of Charlemagne's twelve peers; and their exploits are rendered fo ridiculoufly and equally extravagant by the old romancers, that from thence arofe that faying amongst our plain and fenfible ancestors, of giving one a Rowland for his Oliver, to figuify the matching one incredible lye with another. WARBURTON.

Rather, to oppofe one hero to another, i. e. to give a perfon as good a one as he brings. STEEVENS.

The old copy has breed. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

For none but Sampfons, and Goliaffes,
It fendeth forth to fkirmish.

One to ten!

Lean raw-bon'd rafcals! who would e'er fuppofe They had fuch courage and audacity?

CHAR Let's leave this town; for they are hairbrain'd flaves,

5

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 forfake the fiege. REIG. I think, by fome odd gimmals or de

vice,

6

Their arms are fet, like clocks,' ftill to ftrike on;
Elfe ne'er could they hold out fo, as they do.
By my confent, we'll e'en let them alone.
ALEN. Be it fo.

And hunger will enforce them to be more eager:] The prepofition to fhould be omitted, as injurious to the measure, and unneceffary in the old elliptical mode of writing. So, A& IV. sc. i. of this play:

"Let me perfuade you take a better course." i. e. to take &c.

6

The error pointed out, occurs again in p. 29: "Piel'd priest, doft thou command me to be shut out?"

STEEVENS.

gimmals ] A gimmal is a piece of jointed work, where one piece moves within another, whence it is taken at large for an engine. It is now by the vulgar called a gimcrack. JOHNSON.

In the inventory of the jewels, &c. belonging to Salisbury cathedral, taken in 1536, 28th of Henry VIII. is, A faire cheft with gimmals and key." Again: "Three other chefts with gimmals of filver and gilt." Again, in The Vow-breaker, or Faire Maide of Clifton, 1636:

"My aces are like the motionall gymmals

"Fixt in a watch."

See alfo, Vol. XIII. p. 425, n. 2. STEEVENS.

The

7 Their arms are fet, like clocks, ] Perhaps the author was thinking of the clocks in which figures in the shape of men ftruck the hours. Of these there were many in his time. MALONE.

To go like clockwork, is fill a phrafe in common use, to express a regular and conftant motion. STEEVENS.