And rush'd into the bowels of the battle. Here had the conquest fully been seal'd up, 3 Mess. O no, he lives; but is took prisoner, The English army is grown weak and faint: 11 For an account of this Sir John Fastolfe, vide Biographia Britannica, by Kippis, vol. v.; in which is his life, written by Mr. Gough. See also Anstis On the Order of the Garter; Parkins Supplement to Blomefield's History of Norfolk; Capel's Notes to Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 221; and Sir John Fenn's Collection of the Paston Letters. He is said by Hall to have been degraded for cowardice; and Heylin, in his History of St. George, tells us that he was afterwards, upon good reasons by him alledged in his defence, restored to his honour.' And hardly keeps his men from mutiny, sworn; Either to quell the Dauphin utterly, Or bring him in obedience to your yoke. Exit. 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 steal12, And sit at chiefest stern of public weal. [Exit. Scene closes. SCENE II. France. Before Orleans. Enter CHARLES, with his Forces; ALENÇON, REIGNIER, and Others. Char. Mars his true moving1, even as in the heavens, So in the earth, to this day is not known: 12 The old copy reads send, the present reading was proposed by Mason, who observes that the king was not at this time in the power of the cardinal, but under the care of the duke of Exeter. The second article of accusatiou brought against the bishop by the Duke of Gloucester is 'that he purposed and disposed him to set hand on the king's person, and to have removed him from Eltham to Windsor, to the intent to put him in governance as him list. Holinshed, vol. iii. p. 591. The necessity of the rhime, and the disagreeable clash of the words intend and send, also show the propriety of the alteration. 1 '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 never attain to.' Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up, by Nash. 1596, Preface. Now we are victors, upon us he smiles. 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, And have their provender tied to their mouths, Talbot is taken, whom we wont to fear: -- Re-enter CHARLES, ALENÇON, REIGNIER, and Others. Alen. Froissard, a countryman of ours, records, 2 i. e. the prey for which they are hungry. 3 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. More truly now may this be verified; It sendeth forth to skirmish. One to ten! Char. Let's leave this town; for they are hairbrain'd slaves, And hunger will enforce them to be more eager: Enter the Bastard of Orleans. Bast. Where's the prince Dauphin, I have news for him. Char. Bastard of Orleans, thrice welcome to us. Bast. Methinks, your looks are sad, your cheer6 appall'd; Hath the late overthrow wrought this offence? 4 By gimmals, gimbols, gimmers, or gimowes, any kind of device or machinery producing motion was meant. Baret has 'the gimew or hinge of a door. There were gimmal bits and gimmal rings, &c.: 'My acts are like the motional gymmals Fix'd in a watch.' Vow Breaker, 1636. -the famous Kentish idol moved her eyes and hands by those secret gimmers which now every puppet play can imitate.' Bishop Hall, Epist. vi. Dec. 1. 5 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.' It has, however, been disputed whether bastardy was or was not a disgrace among the ancients. See the subject fully discussed in Potter's Antiquities of Greece, vol. ii. p. 337, edit. 1715. 6 Cheer in this instance means heart or courage, as in the expression be of good cheer.' Ordained is to raise this tedious siege, And drive the English forth the bounds of France. Char. Go, call her in: [Exit Bastard.] But, first to try her skill, Reignier, stand thou as Dauphin in my place: [Retires. Enter LA PUCELLE, Bastard of Orleans, and Others. 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 behind; Heaven, and our Lady gracious, hath it pleas'd Lo, whilst I waited on my tender lambs, Warburton says that 'there were no nine sybils 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 sybils were women that had the spirit of prophecy (enumerating them) and that they prophesied of Christ." |