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Ver. With him, my lord, for he hath done me

wrong.

Bas. And I with him; for he hath done me wrong. K. Hen. What is that wrong whereof you both complain?

First let me know, and then I'll answer you.

Bas. Crossing the sea, from England into France,
This fellow here, with envious, carping tongue,
Upbraided me about the rose I wear;"
Saying the sanguine colour of the leaves
Did represent my master's blushing cheeks,
When stubbornly he did repugn' the truth,
About a certain question in the law,

Argu'd betwixt the duke of York and him;
With other vile and ignominious terms:
In confutation of which rude reproach,
And in defence of my lord's worthiness,
I crave the benefit of law of arms.

Ver. And that is my petition, noble lord;
For though he seem, with forged quaint conceit,
To set a gloss upon his bold intent,

Yet know, my lord, I was provok'd by him;
And he first took exceptions at this badge,
Pronouncing--that the paleness of this flower
Bewray'd2 the faintness of my master's heart.

York. Will not this malice, Somerset, be left?
Som. Your private grudge, my lord of York, will
out,

Though ne'er so cunningly you smother it.

K. Hen. Good lord! what madness rules in brain-
sick men;

When, for so slight and frivolous a cause,
Such factious emulations shall arise!—
Good cousins both, of York and Somerset,
Quiet yourselves, I pray, and be at peace,

York. Let this dissension first be tried by fight,
And then your highness shall command a peace.
Som. The quarrel toucheth none but us alone;
Betwixt ourselves let us decide it then.
York. There is my pledge; accept it, Somerset.
Ver. Nay, let it rest where it began at first.
Bas. Confirm it so, mine honourable lord.
Glo. Confirm it so? Confounded be your strife!
And perish ye, with your audacious prate!
Presumptuous vassals! are you not asham'd,
With this immodest, clamorous outrage,
To trouble and disturb the king and us?
And you, my lords,-methinks you do not well,
To bear with their perverse objections;
Much less, to take occasion from their mouths
To raise a mutiny betwixt yourselves;
Let me persuade you take a better course.

Exe. It grieves his highness;-Good my lords,

be friends.

K. Hen. Come hither, you that would be com-
batants:

Henceforth, I charge you, as you love our favour,
Quite to forget this quarrel and the cause.—
And you, my lords,-remember where we are:
In France, amongst a fickle wavering nation:
If they perceive dissension in our looks,
And that within ourselves we disagree,
How will their grudging stomachs be provok'd
To wilful disobedience, and rebel?
Beside, What infamy will there arise,
When foreign princes shall be certified,
That, for a toy, a thing of no regard,
King Henry's peers, and chief nobility,
Destroy'd themselves, and lost the realm of France?
O, think upon the conquest of my father,
My tender years; and let us not forego
That for a trifle, that was bought with blood!

1 To repugn is to resist. From the Latin repugno. 2 i. e. discovered. 2 The old copy reads 'And if I wish he did: an evidens typographical error. York says that he is not pleased that the king should prefer the red rose, the badge of Somerset, his enemy; Warwick desires him not to be offended at it, as he dares say the king meant no harm. To which York, yet unsatisfied, hastily reples, in a menacing tone, If I thought he did ;-but

Let me be umpire in this doubtful strife. I see no reason, if I wear this rose,

[Putting on a red Rose. That any one should therefore be suspicious I more incline to Somerset than York: Both are my kinsmen, and I love them both: As well may they upbraid me with my crown, Because, forsooth, the king of Scots is crown'd. But your discretions better can persuade, Than I am able to instruct or teach: And therefore, as we hither came in peace, So let us still continue peace and love.Cousin of York, we institute your grace To be our regent in these parts of France: And good my lord of Somerset, unite Your troops of horsemen with his bands of foot ;And, like true subjects, sons of your progenitors, Go cheerfully together, and digest Your angry choler on your enemies: Ourself, my lord protector, and the rest, After some respite, will return to Calais; From thence to England; where I hope ere long To be presented by your victories, With Charles, Alençon, and that traitorous rout. [Flourish. Exeunt K. HEN. GLO. SOM. WIN. SUF. and BASSET. War. My lord of York, I promise you, the king Prettily, methought, did play the orator. York. And so he did; but yet I like it not, In that he wears the badge of Somerset. War. Tush! that was but his fancy, blame him

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For, had the passions of thy heart burst out,
I fear we should have seen decipher'd there
More rancorous spite, more furious raging broils,
Than yet can be imagin'd or suppos'd.
But howsoe'er, no simple man that sees
This jarring discord of nobility,

This should'ring of each other in the court,
This factious bandying of their favourites,
But that it doth presage some ill event.
'Tis much, when sceptres are in children's hands;
But more, when envy breeds unkind division;
There comes the ruin, there begins confusion."

4

[Exit.

SCENE II. France. Before Bordeaux. Enter TALBOT, with his Forces.

Tal. Go to the gates of Bordeaux, trumpeter, Summon their general unto the wall, Trumpet sounds a Parley. Enter, on the Walls, the

General of the French Forces, and others. English John Talbot, captains, calls you forth, Servant in arms to Harry king of England; And thus he would,-Open your city gates, Be humble to us; call my sovereign yours, And do him homage as obedient subjects, And I'll withdraw me and my bloody power: But, if you frown upon this proffer'd peace, You tempt the fury of my three attendants, Lean famine, quartering steel, and climbing fire; Who, in a moment, even with the earth Shall lay your stately and air-braving towers, If you forsake the offer of our love."

Gen. Thou ominous and fearful owl of death, Our nation's terror, and their bloody scourge !

he instantly checks his threat with, let it rest. It is an example of a rhetorical figure not uncommon.

4 'Tis an alarming circumstance, a thing of great consequence, or much weight.

5 Envy, in old English writers, frequently means malice, enmity.

6 Unkind is unnatural.

7 The old editions read their love. Sir Thomas Hanmer altered it to our love; and I think, with Steevens, that the alteration should be adopted.

The period of thy tyranny approacheth. On us thou canst not enter, but by death: For, I protest, we are well fortified,

And strong enough to issue out and fight:
If thou retire, the Dauphin, well appointed,
Stands with the snares of war to tangle thee:
On either hand thee there are squadrons pitch'd,
To wall thee from the liberty of flight;
And no way canst thou turn thee for redress,
But death doth front thee with apparent spoil,
And pale destruction meets thee in the face.
Ten thousand French have ta'en the sacrament,
To rive their dangerous artillery!

Upon no Christian soul but English Talbot.
Lo! there thou stand'st, a breathing valiant man,
Of an invincible unconquer'd spirit:
This is the latest glory of thy praise,
That I, thy enemy, due thee withal';
For ere the glass, that now begins to run,
Finish the process of his sandy hour,
These eyes, that see thee now well coloured,
Shall see thee wither'd, bloody, pale, and dead.
[Drum afar off
Hark! hark! the Dauphin's drum, a warning bell,
Sings heavy music to thy timorous soul;
And mine shall ring thy dire departure out.

[Exeunt General, &c. from the Walls.
Tal. He fables not, I hear the enemy ;-
Out, some light horsemen, and peruse their wings.-
O, negligent and heedless discipline!
How are we park'd, and bounded in a pale;
A little herd of England's timorous deer,
Maz'd with a yelping kennel of French curs!
If we be English deer; be then in blood:4
Not rascal-like, to fall down with a pinch;
But rather moody-mad, and desperate stags,
Turn on the bloody hounds with heads of steel,
And make the cowards stand aloof at bay:
Sell every man his life as dear as mine,
And they shall find dear deer of us, my friends.-
God, and Saint George! Talbot, and England's
right!

Prosper our colours in this dangerous fight!

[Exeunt.

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Never so needful on the earth of France,
Spur to the rescue of the noble Talbot;
Who now is girdled with a waist of iron,'
And hemm'd about with grim destruction:
To Bordeaux, warlike duke! to Bordeaux, York!
Else, farewell Talbot, France, and England's ho-

Lucy. Thou princely leader of our English strength,

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Doth stop my cornets were in Talbot's place!
So should we save a valiant gentleman,
By forfeiting a traitor and a coward.

Mad ire, and wrathful fury, make me weep.
That thus we die, while remiss traitors sleep.
Lucy. O, send some succour to the distress'd
lord!

1 'To rive their dangerous artillery' is merely a figurative way of expressing to discharge it. To rive is to burst; and burst is applied by Shakspeare more than once to thunder, or to a similar sound.

2 Due for endue, or giving due and merited praise. 3 So Milton's Comus:

York. He dies, we lose; I break my warlike word; We mourn, France smiles; we lose, they daily get; All 'long of this vile traitor Somerset.

Lucy. Then, God take mercy on brave Talbot's soul!

And on his son, young John; whom, two hours since,

I met in travel toward his warlike father!
This seven years did not Talbot see his son ;
And now they meet where both their lives are done."
York. Alas! what joys shall noble Talbot have,
To bid his young son welcome to his grave?
Away! vexation almost stops my breath,
That sunder'd friends greet in the hour of death.—
Lucy, farewell: no more my fortune can,
But curse the cause I cannot aid the man.-
Maine, Blois, Poictiers, and Tours, are won away,
'Long all of Somerset, and his delay.

[Exit.

Lucy. Thus, while the vulture of sedition Feeds in the bosom of such great commanders, Sleeping neglection doth betray to loss The conquest of our scarce-cold conqueror, That ever-living man of memory, Henry the Fifth-Whiles they each other cross, Lives, honours, lands, and all, hurry to loss. [Exit.

SCENE IV. Other Plains of Gascony. Enter SOMERSET, with his Forces; an Officer of TALBOT's with him.

Som. It is too late; I cannot send them now:
Too rashly plotted; all our general force
This expedition was by York, and Talbot,
Might with a sally of the very town

Be buckled with the over-daring Talbot
Hath sullied all his gloss of former honour,
By this unheedful, desperate, wild adventure:
York set him on to fight, and die in shame,
That, Talbot dead, great York might bear the name.
Off. Here is Sir William Lucy, who with me
Set from our o'ermatch'd forces forth for aid.

Enter SIR WILLIAM LUCY.

Som. How now, Sir William? whither were you
sent?

Lucy. Whither, my lord? from bought and sold
Lord Talbot;10

Who, ring'd about11 with bold adversity,
Cries out for noble York and Somerset,
To beat assailing death from his weak legions.

or baffled. To be treated with contempt like a lot· or country fellow,' says Malone. But the meaning of the word here is evidently loitered, retarded: and the following quotation from Cotgrave will show that this was sometimes the sense of to lowt: Loricarder, to luske, lowt, or lubber it; to loyter about like a masterless man.' those sleeping stones 4 In blood is a term of the forest; a deer was said to That as a waist do girdle you about.' be in blood when in vigour or in good condition, and full King John. of courage, here put in opposition to rascal, which was si. e. expended, consumed. Malone says that the the term for the same animal when lean and out of con-word is still used in this sense in the western counties. dition.

She fables not, I feel that I do fear."

5 Sples

7

9 Alluding to the tale of Prometheus.

10 i. e. from one utterly ruined by the treacherous

6 To lowt may signify to depress, to lower, to dis-practices of others. The expression seems to have honour,' says Johnson: but in his Dictionary he ex-been proverbial; intimating that foul play had been plains it to overpower. Steevens knows not what to used.

make of it: to let down, to be subdued, or vanquished,| 11 Encircled, environed.

And whiles the honourable captain there
Drops bloody sweat from his war-wearied limbs,
And, in advantage ling'ring,' looks for rescue,
You, his false hopes, the trust of England's honour,
Keep off aloof with worthless emulation.2
Let not your private discord keep away
The levied succours that should lend him aid,
While he, renowned noble gentleman,
Yields up his life unto a world of odds:
Orleans the Bastard, Charles, and Burgundy,
Alençon, Reignier, compass him about,
And Talbot perisheth by your default.

Som. York set him on, York should have sent him aid.

Lucy. And York as fast upon your grace exclaims;

Swearing that you withhold his levied host,
Collected for this expedition.

Som. York lies; he might have sent and had the horse:

I owe him little duty, and less love;
And take foul scorn, to fawn on him by sending.
Lucy. The fraud of England, not the force of
France,

Hath now entrapp'd the noble-minded Talbot:
Never to England shall he bear his life;
But dies, betrayed to fortune by your strife.
Som. Come, go; I will despatch the horsemen
straight:

Within six hours they will be at his aid.

Lucy. Too late comes rescue; he is ta'en, or slain; For fly he could not, if he would have fled; And fly would Talbot never, though he might.

you.

Som. If he be dead, brave Talbot, then adieu! Lucy. His fame lives in the world, his shame in [Exeunt. SCENE V. The English Camp, near Bordeaux. Enter TALBOT and JOHN his Son.

Tal. O young John Talbot! I did send for thee, To tutor thee in stratagems of war; That Talbot's name might be in thee reviv'd, When sapless age, and weak unable limbs, Should bring thy father to his drooping chair. But,-O malignant and ill boding stars!Now thou art come unto a feast of death,3 A terrible and unavoided danger : Therefore, dear boy, mount on my swiftest horse; And I'll direct thee how thou shalt escape By sudden flight: come, dally not, begone. John. Is my name Talbot? and am I your son? And shall I fly? O, if you love my mother, Dishonour not her honourable name, To make a bastard, and a slave of me: The world will say-He is not Talbot's blood, That basely fled, when noble Talbot stood,

Tal. Fly, to revenge my death, if I be slain. John. He, that flies so, will ne'er return again. Tal. If we both stay, we both are sure to die. John. Then let me stay; and, father, do you fly: Your loss is great, so your regard should be ; My worth unknown, no loss is known in me. Upon my death the French can little boast; In yours they will, in you all hopes are lost." Flight cannot stain the honour you have won; But mine it will, that no exploit have done : You fled for vantage every one will swear; But, if I bow, they'll say it was for fear." There is no hope that ever I will stay, If, the first hour, I shrink, and run away. Here, on my knee, I beg mortality, Rather than life preserv'd with infamy.

John. Ay, rather than I'll shame my mother's

womb.

Tal. Upon my blessing I command thee go.
John. To fight I will, but not to fly the foe.
Tal. Part of thy father may be sav'd in thee.
John. No part of him, but will be shame in me.
Tal. Thou never hadst renown, nor canst not
lose it.

John. Yes, your renowned name: Shall flight abuse it?

Tal. Thy father's charge shall clear thee from that stain.

John. You cannot witness for me, being slain, If death be so apparent, then both fly.

Tal. Shall all thy mother's hopes lie in one tomb?

1 Protracting his resistance by the advantage of a strong post.

2 Emulation here signifies envious rivalry, not struggle for superior excellence.

Tal. And leave my followers here, to fight, and

die ?

My age was never tainted with such shame.
John. And shall my youth be guilty of such
blame?"

No more can I be sever'd from your side,
Than can yourself yourself in twain divide:
Stay, go, do what you will, the like do I ;
For live I will not, if my father die.

3 To a field where death will be feasted with slaughter.

4 Unavoided for unavoidable.

Tal. Then here I take my leave of thee, fair son, Born to eclipse thy life this afternoon. Come, side by side together live and die; And soul with soul from France to heaven fly. [Exeunt.

5For what reason this scene is written in rhyme (says Dr. Johnson) I cannot guess. If Shakspeare had not in other plays mingled his rhymes and blank verses

SCENE VI. A Field of Battle. Alarum: Excursions, wherein TALBOT's Son is hemmed about, and TALBOT rescues him.

Tal, Saint George and victory! fight, soldiers, fight:

The regent hath with Talbot broke his word,
And left us to the rage of France his sword.
Where is John Talbot?-pause, and take thy breath;
I gave thee life, and rescu'd thee from death.

John. O twice my father! twice am I thy son:
The life, thou gav'st me first, was lost and done;
Till with thy warlike sword, despite of fate,
To my determin'd' time thou gav'st new date.

Tal. When from the Dauphin's crest thy sword struck fire,

It warm'd thy father's heart with proud desire
Of bold-fac'd victory. Then leaden age,
Quicken'd with youthful spleen, and warlike rage,
Beat down Alençon, Orleans, Burgundy,
And from the pride of Gallia rescu'd thee.
The ireful bastard Orleans-that drew blood
From thee, my boy; and had the maidenhood
Of thy first fight-I soon encountered;
And, interchanging blows, I quickly shed
Some of his bastard blood; and, in disgrace,
Bespoke him thus: Contaminated, base,
And misbegotten blood I spill of thine,
Mean and right poor; for that pure blood of mine,
Which thou didst force from Talbot, my brave boy:
Here, purposing the Bastard to destroy,
Came in strong rescue. Speak, thy father's care;
Art thou not weary, John? How dost thou fare?
Wilt thou yet leave the battle, boy, and fly,
Now thou art seal'd the son of chivalry?
Fly, to revenge my death, when I am dead;
The help of one stands me in little stead.
O, too much folly is it, well I wot,

To hazard all our lives in one small boat.
If I to-day die not with Frenchmen's rage,
To-morrow I shall die with mickle age:
By me they nothing gain, an if I stay,
"Tis but the short'ning of my life one day:
In thee thy mother dies, our household's name,

in the same manner, I should have suspected that this dialogue had been part of some other poem, which was never finished, and that being loath to throw his labour away, he inserted it here.' Mr. Boswell remarks that it was a practice common to all Shakspeare's contemporaries.

6 Your care of your own safety.

7 Determined here must signify prescribed, limited, appointed; and not ended, as Steevens and Malone concur in explaining it. John could not be meant to say that his time of life was actually ended.

My death's revenge, thy youth, and England's fame: | Alarums. Exeunt Soldiers and Servant, leaving
All these, and more, we hazard by thy stay;
All these are sav'd, if thou wilt fly away.

John. The sword of Orleans hath not made me
sinart,
[heart:1
These words of yours draw life-blood from my
On that advantage, bought with such a shame
(To save a paltry life, and slay bright fame,)
Before young Talbot from old Talbot fly,
The coward horse, that bears me, fall and die :
And, like me to the peasant boys of France;
To be shame's scorn, and subject of mischance!
Surely, by all the glory you have won,
An if I fly, I am not Talbot's son:

Then talk no more of flight, it is no boot ;3
If son to Talbot, die at Talbot's foot.

Tal. Then follow thou thy desperate sire of
Crete,4

Thou Icarus; thy life to me is sweet:

If thou wilt fight, fight by thy father's side;
And, commendable prov'd, let's die in pride.

[Exeunt. SCENE VII. Another Part of the same. Alarum: Excursions. Enter TALBOT wounded, supported by a Servant.

Tal. Where is my other life?-mine own is
gone ;-

O, where's young Talbot?-where is valiant John?-
Triumphant death, smear'd with captivity!
Young Talbot's valour makes me smile at thee:-
When he perceiv'd me shrink, and on my knee,
His bloody sword he brandish'd over me,
And, like a hungry lion, did commence
Rough deeds of rage, and stern impatience;
But when my angry guardant stood alone,
Tend'ring my ruin, and assail'd of none,
Dizzy-ey'd fury, and great rage of heart,
Suddenly made him from my side to start
Into the clust'ring battle of the French:
And in that sea of blood my boy did drench
His overmounting spirit; and there died
My Icarus, my blossom, in his pride.

Enter Soldiers, bearing the Body of JOHN TALBOT. Serv. O my dear lord! lo, where your son is borne !

Tal. Thou antic death, which laugh'st us here to scorn,"

Anon, from thy insulting tyranny,
Coupled in bonds of perpetuity,

Two Talbots, winged through the lither sky,
In thy despite shall 'scape mortality.-

O thou, whose wounds become hard-favour'd death,
Speak to thy father, ere thou yield thy breath:
Brave death by speaking, whether he will, or no;
Imagine him a Frenchman, and thy foe.-

Poor boy! he smiles, methinks; as who should say-
Had death been French, then death had died to-day.
Come, come, and lay him in his father's arms;
My spirit can no longer bear these harms.
Soldiers, adieu! I have what I would have,
Now my old arms are young John Talbot's grave.
Dies.

1 Prior has borrowed this thought in his Henry and

Emma:

Are there not poisons, racks, and flames, and swords, That Emma thus must die by Henry's words?

i. e. compare me, reduce me to a level by comparison.

3 See note on King Richard II. Act i. Sc. 1.
4 Thus in the Third Part of King Henry VI. :-
'What a peevish fool was that of Crete.'

5 Triumphant death, though thy presence is made more terrible, on account of the stain of dying in captivity, yet young Talbot's valour makes me smile at thee.

6 Watching me with tenderness in my fall.'
7 In King Richard II. we have the same image:-
within the hollow crown

That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps death his court: and there the antic sits
Scoffing his state, and grinning at his pomp.'
8 Lither is flexible, pliant, yielding.

the two Bodies. Enter CHARLES, ALENÇON, BURGUNDY, Bastard, LA PUCELLE, and Forces. Char. Had York and Somerset brought rescue in, We should have found a bloody day of this. Bast. How the young whelp of Talbot's, ragingwood,"

Did flesh his puny sword in Frenchmen's blood!
Puc. Once I encounter'd him, and thus I said,
Thou maiden youth, be vanquish'd by a maid:
But-with a proud, majestical high scorn,-
He answer'd thus; Young Talbot was not born
To be the pillage of a giglot wench:
So, rushing in the bowels of the French,11
He left me proudly, as unworthy fight.

Bur. Doubtless, he would have made a noble knight:

See, where he lies inhersed in the arms
Of the most bloody nurser of his harms.

Bas. Hew them to pieces, hack their bones asunder;

Whose life was England's glory, Gallia's wonder.
During the life, let us not wrong it dead.
Char. O, no; forbear: for that which we have fled

Enter SIR WILLIAM LUCY, attended, a French
Herald preceding.

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son is.

But tell me whom thou seek'st?

Lucy. Where is the great Alcides of the field,
Valiant Lord Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury?
Created, for his rare success in arms,
Great earl of Washford, 13 Waterford, and Valence;
Lord Strange of Blackmere, Lord Verdun of Alton,
Lord Talbot of Goodríg and Urchinfield,
Lord Cromwell of Wingfield, Lord Furnival of
Sheffield,

The thrice victorious lord of Falconbridge;
Knight of the noble order of Saint George,
Worthy Saint Michael, and the Golden Fleece;
Great mareschal to Henry the Sixth,
Of all his wars within the realm of France?

Puc. Here is a silly stately style indeed!
The Turk, that two and fifty kingdoms hath,
Writes not so tedious a style as this.
Him, that thou magnifiest with all these titles,
Stinking and flyblown, lies here at our feet.

Lucy. Is Talbot slain; the Frenchman's only

scourge,

Your kingdom's terror and black Nemesis?
O, were mine eyeballs into bullets turn'd,
That I, in rage, might shoot them at your faces!
O; that I could but call these dead to life!
It' were enough to fright the realm of France:
Were but his picture left among you here,

9 Wood signified furious as well as mad: raging. wood is certainly here furiously raging.

10 A giglot is a wanton wench. A minx, gigle (or giglet,) flirt, callet, or gixie,' says Cotgrave.

il We have a similar expression in the First Part of Jeronimo, 1605 :

Meet, Don Andrea! yes, in the battle's bowels.' 12 Lucy's message implied that he knew who had obtained the victory: therefore Hanmer reads :

Herald, conduct me to the Dauphin's tent.' 13 Wexford, in Ireland, was anciently called Weysford. In Crompton's Mansion of Magnanimitie, 1599, it is written as here, Washford. This long list of titles is from the epitaph formerly existant on Lord Talbot's tomb at Rouen. It is to be found in the work above cited, with one other, Lord Lovetoft of Worsop,' which would not easily fall into the verse. It concludes as here, and adds, who died in the battle of Burdeaux, 1453.'

It would amaze the proudest of you all.
Give me their bodies; that I may bear them hence,
And give them burial as beseems their worth.

Puc. I think, this upstart old Talbot's ghost, He speaks with such a proud commauding spirit. For God's sake, let him have 'em: to keep them here,

They would but stink, and putrefy the air.
Char. Go, take their bodies hence.
Lucy.

I'll bear them hence:
But from their ashes shall be rear'd
A phoenix that shall make all France afeard.
Char. So we be rid of them, do with 'em what

thou wilt.

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pope,

The emperor, and the earl of Armagnac ?

Glo. I have, my lord; and their intent is this,They humbly sue unto your excellence, To have a godly peace concluded of, Between the realms of England and of France.

K. Hen. How doth your grace affect their motion? Glo. Well, my good lord; and as the only means To stop effusion of our Christian blood, And 'stablish quietness on every side.

K. Hen. Ay, marry, uncle; for I always thought, It was both impious and unnatural, That such immanity and bloody strife Should reign among professors of one faith.

Glo. Beside, my lord-the sooner to effect,
And surer bind, this knot of amity,-

The earl of Armagnac-near knit to Charies,
A man of great authority in France,-
Proffers his only daughter to your grace

In marriage, with a large and sumptuous dowry. K. Ilen. Marriage, uncle! alas! my years are young;4

And fitter is my study and my books,
Than wanton dalliance with a paramour.
Yet, call the ambassadors; and, as you please,
So let them have their answers every one:
I shall be well content with any choice,
Tends to God's glory, and my country's weal.
Enter a Legate, and Two Ambassadors, with WIN-

CHESTER, in a Cardinal's Habit.

Ere. What! is my lord of Winchester install'd, And call'd unto a cardinal's degree! Then, I perceive, that will be verified,

Henry the Fifth did sometime prophesy,—

If once he come to be a cardinal,

He'll make his cap co-equal with the crown.

As-liking of the lady's virtuous gifts,
Her beauty, and the value of her dower,-
He doth intend she shall be England's queen.

K. Hen. In argument and proof of which contract, Bear her this jewel, [To the Amb.] pledge of my affection.

And so, my lord protector, see them guarded,
And safely brought to Dover; where, inshipp'd,
Commit them to the fortune of the sea.

[Exeunt KING HENRY and Train; GLOSTER,
EXETER, and Ambassadors.
Win. Stay, my lord legate; you shall first receive
The sum of money, which I promised
Should be deliver'd to his holiness

For clothing me in these grave ornaments

Leg. I will attend upon your lordship's leisure. Win. Now, Winchester will not submit, I trow, Or be inferior to the proudest peer. Humphrey of Gloster, thou shalt well perceive. That, neither in birth, or for authority, The bishop will be overborne by thee: Or sack this country with a mutiny. I'll either make thee stoop, and bend thy knee,

[Exeunt. SCENE II. France. Plains in Anjou. Exter CHARLES, BURGUNDY, ALENÇON, LA PUCELLE, and Forces, marching.

Char. These news, my lords, may cheer our drooping spirits:

'Tis said, the stout Parisians do revolt, And turn again unto the warlike French.

Alen. Then march to Paris, royal Charles of
France,

And keep not back your powers in dalliance.
Puc. Peace be amongst them, if they turn to us;
Else, ruin combat with their palaces!

Enter a Messenger.

Mess. Success unto our valiant general, And happiness to his accomplices!

Char. What tidings send our scouts? I pr'ythee
speak.

Mess. The English army, that divided was
Into two parts, is now conjoin'd in one;
And means to give you battle presently.

Char. Somewhat foo sudden, sirs, the warning is; But we will presently provide for them.

Bur. I trust the ghost of Talbot is not there; Now he is gone, my lord, you need not fear. Puc. Of all base passions, fear is most accurs'd:

Command the conquest, Charles, it shall be thine; Let Henry fret, and all the world repine.

nate!

Char. Then on, my lords; And France be fortu[Exeunt. SCENE III. The same. Before Angiers. Ala

rums: Excursions. Enter LA PUCELLE. Puc. The regent conquers, and the Frenchmen fly.

K. Hen. My lords ambassadors, your several suits Now help, ye charming spells, and periapts ;"

Have been consider'd and debated on.
Your purpose is both good and reasonable:
And, therefore, are we certainly resolv'd
To draw conditions of a friendly peace;
Which, by my lord of Winchester, we mean
Shall be transported presently to France.
Glo. And for the proffer of my lord
master,-

I have inform'd his highness so at large,

your

1 To amaze is to dismay, to throw into consternation. A citie amazed or astonied with feare. Urbs lymphata horroribus.' Baret.

2 A word is wanting to complete the metre, which Hanmer thus supplied :

But from their ashes, Dauphin, shall be rear'd.' 3 Immanity (immanitas, Lat.) outrageousness, crueity, excess. Blount. A belluine kind of immanity never raged so amongst men.' Howell's Letters, iii. 15. 4 The king was, however, twenty-four years old. 5 The poet has here forgot himself. In the first act Gloster says:

And ye choice spirits that admonish me,
And give me signs of future accidents! [Thunder
You speedy helpers, that are substitutes
Under the lordly monarch of the north,"
Appear, and aid me in this enterprise!
Enter Fiends.

This speedy quick appearance argues proof
Of your accustom'd diligence to me.
Now, ye familiar spirits, that are cull'd

advancement. It appears that he would imply that
Winchester obtained his hat only just before his present
entry. He in fact obtained it in the fifth year of Henry's
reign.

6 Periapts were certain written charms worn about the person as preservatives from disease and danger. Of these the first chapter of St. John's Gospel was deemed the most efficacious. See Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft, 1584, p. 213, &c.

7 The monarch of the north was Zimimar, one of the four principa! devils invoked by witches. The north I'll canvas thee in thy broad cardinal's hat.' was supposed to be the particular habitation of bail And it is strange that Exeter should not know of his spirits. Milton assembles the rebel angels in the north.

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