Thou, Elizabeth, art here: But thou, Seymour, with a greeting, Henry, too, hath here his part; By the life so basely shed Of the pride of Norfolk's line, By the axe so often red, By the fire with martyrs fed, May her happy spirit be! And here lies one whose tragic name Ye, whose relics rest around, One who reverently, for thee, NOTES TO JOAN OF ARC. NOTE 1, PAGE 1. "Lewes Duke of Orleance murthered in Paris, by Jhon Duke of Burgoyne, was owner of the Castle Concy, on the frontiers of Fraunce toward Arthoys, whereof he made Constable the Lord of Cawny, a man not so wise as his wife was faire, and yet she was not so faire, but she was as well beloved of the Duke of Orleance, as of her husband. Betwene the duke and her husband (I cannot tell who was father) she conceived a child, and brought furthe a prety boye called Jhon, whiche child beyng of the age of one yere the duke deseased, and not long after the mother and the Lord of Cawny ended their lives. The next of kynne to the Lord Cawny chalenged the inheritaunce, which was worth foure thousande crounes a yere, alledgyng that the boye was a bastard: and the kynred of the mother's side, for to save her honesty, it plainly denied. In conclusion, this matter was in contencion before the presidentes of the Parliament of Paris, and there hang in controversie till the child came to the age of eight years old. At whiche tyme it was demanded of hym openly whose sonne he was; his frendes of his mother's side advertised hym to require a day, to be advised of so great an answer, whiche he asked, and to hym it was granted. In the mean season, his said frendes persuaded him to claime his inheritance as sonne to the Lorde of Cawny, whiche was an honorable livyng, and an auncient patrimony, affirming that if he said contrary, he not only slaundered his mother, shamed hymself, and stained his bloud, but also should have no livyng, nor anything to take to. The scholemaster thinkyng that his disciple had wel learned his lesson, and would reherse it according to his instruccion, brought hym before the judges at the daie assigned, and when the question was repeted to hym again, he boldly answered my harte geveth me, and my tonge telleth me that I am the sonne of the noble Duke of Orleaunce, more glad to be his bastarde with a meane livyng, than the lawful sonne of that coward cuckolde Cawny, with his four thousand crownes.' The judges much merveiled at his bolde answere, and his mother's cosyns detested hym for shamyng of his mother, and his father's supposed kinne rejoysed in gaining the patrimony and possessions. Charles Duke of Orleaunce heryng of his judgment, took hym into his family, and gave hym greate offices and fees, whiche he well deserved, for (during his captivitie) he defended his landes, expulsed the Englishmen, and in conclusion procured his deliverance." -Hall, Chron. Perhaps Shakspeare recollected this anecdote of Dunois when he drew the character of the Bastard Falconbridge. NOTE 2, PAGE 2. This agrees with the account of her age given by Holinshed, who calls her "a young wench of an eighteene years old, of favour was she counted likesome, of person stronglie made and manlie, of courage great, hardie, and stout withall; an understander of counsels though she were not at them, greet semblance of chastitie both in body and behaviour, the name of Jesus in hir mouth about all her business, humble, obedient, and fasting divers daies in the weeke." - Holinshed, 600. De Serres speaks thus of her, " A young maiden named Joan of Arc, borne in a village upon the Marches of Barre, called Domremy, neere to Vaucouleurs, of the age of eighteene or twenty years, issued from bare parents, her father was named James of Arc, and her mother Isabel, poore countrie folkes, who had brought her up to keep their cattel. She said with great boldnesse that she had a revelation how to succour the king, how he might be able to chase the English from Orleaunce, and after that to cause the king to be crowned at Rheims, and to put him fully and wholly in possession of his realme. "After she had delivered this to her father and mother, and their neighbours, she presumed to go to the Lord of Baudricourt, Provost of Vaucouleurs; she boldly delivered unto him, after an extraordinary manner, all these great mysteries, as much wished for of all men as not hoped for: especially comming from the mouth of a poore country maide, whom they might with more reason beleeve to be possessed of some melancholy humour than divinely inspired; being the instrument of so many excellent remedies, in so desperat a season, after the vaine striving of so great and famous personages. At the first he mocked her and reproved her, but having heard her with more patience, and judging by her temperate discourse and modest countenance that she spoke not idely, in the end he resolves to present her to the king for his discharge. So she arrives at Chinon the sixt day of May, attired like a man. "She had a modest countenance, sweet, civill, and resolute; her discourse was temperate, reasonable, and retired, her actions cold, shewing great chastity. Having spoken to the king or noblemen with whom she was to negociate, she presently retired to her lodging with an old woman that guided her, without vanity, affectation, babling, or courtly lightThese are the manners which the original attributes to her." nesse. NOTE 3, PAGE 11. I translate the following anecdote of the Black Prince from Froissart: -The Prince of Wales was about a month, and not longer, before the city of Limoges, and he did not assault it, but always continued mining. When the miners of the Prince had finished their work they said to him, "Sir, we will throw down a great part of the wall into the moat whenever it shall please you, so that you may enter into the city at your ease, without danger." These words greatly pleased the prince who said to them, "I chuse that your work should be manifested to-morrow at the hour of daybreak." Then the miners set fire to their mines the next morning as the prince had commanded, and overthrew a great pane of the wall, which filled the moat where it had fallen. The English saw all this very willingly, and they were there all armed and ready to enter into the town; those who were on foot could enter at their ease, and they entered and ran to the gate and beat it to the earth and all the barriers also; for there was no defence, and all this was done so suddenly that the people of the town were not upon their guard. And then you might have seen the Prince, the Duke of Lancaster, the Count of Canterbury, the Count of Pembroke, Messire Guischart Dangle and all the other chiefs and their people who entered in, and ruffians on foot who were prepared to do mischief, and to run through the town, and to kill men and women and children, and so they had been commanded to do. There was a very pitiful sight, for men and women and children cast themselves on their knees before the prince and cried "mercy!" but he was so enflamed with so great rage that he heard them not, neither man nor woman was heard, but they were all put to the sword wherever they were found, and these people had not been guilty. I know not how they could have no pity upon poor people, who had never been powerful enough to do any treason. There was no heart so hard in the city of Lymoges which had the remembrance of God, that did not lament the great mischief that was there; for more than three thousand men and women and children had their throats cut that day, God has their souls, for indeed they were martyred. In entering the town a party of the English went to the palace of the bishop and found him there and took him and led him before the prince, who looked at him with a murderous look (felonncusement), and the best word what he could say to him was that his head should be cut off, and then he made him be taken from his presence.-I. 235. The crime which the people of Limoges had committed was that of surrendering when they had been besieged by the Duke of Berry and in consequence turning French. And this crime was thus punished at a period when no versatility of conduct was thought dishonourable. The phrases tourner Anglois-tourner Francois-retourner Anglois, occur repeatedly in Froissart. I should add that of all the heroes of this period the Black Prince was the most generous and the most humane. NOTE 4, PAGE 11. Holinshed says, speaking of the siege of Roanne, "If I should rehearse how deerelie dogs, rats, mise, and cats were sold within the towne, and how greedilie they were by the poore people eaten and devoured, and how the people dailie died for fault of food, and young infants laie sucking in the streets on their mothers' breasts, being dead starved for hunger, the reader might lament their extreme miseries. p. 566. NOTE 5, PAGE 13. In the Journal of Paris in the reigns of Charles VI. and VII., it is asserted that the Maid of Orleans, in answer to an interrogatory of the Doctors, whether she had ever assisted at the assemblies held at the Fountain of the Fairies near Domprein, round which the evil spirits |