War. Let Richard be restored to his blood; So shall his father's wrongs be recompens❜d.

Win. As will the rest, so willeth Winchester. King. If Richard will be true, not that alone, But all the whole inheritance I give, That doth belong unto the house of York, From whence you spring by lineal descent.

Rich. Thy humble servant vows obedience, And humble service, till the point of death. King. Stoop, then, and set your knee against my foot;

7

And, in reguerdon of that duty done,

I girt thee with the valiant sword of York:
Rise, Richard, like a true Plantagenet;

And rise created princely duke of York.

Rich. And so thrive Richard, as thy foes may fall!

And as my duty springs, so perish they

That grudge one thought against your majesty!
All. Welcome, high prince, the mighty duke of
York!

Som. [Aside.] Perish, base prince, ignoble duke of York!

Glo. Now will it best avail your majesty,

To cross the seas, and to be crown'd in France.
The presence of a king engenders love

1 Reguerdon is recompense, reward.

Holinshed, after setting forth the reconciliation of the duke and the bishop, adds, - -"But when the great fier of this dissention was thus by the arbitrators, to their knowledge and judgment utterly quenched out and laid under boord; all other controversies betweene other lords, taking part with the one partie or the other were appeased, and brought to concord, so that for joy the king caused a solemne fest to be kept on Whitsundaie; on which daie ne created Richard Plantagenet, sonne and heire to the erle of Cambridge, duke of York, not foreseeing that this preferment should be his destruction"

H.

Amongst his subjects, and his loyal friends,
As it disanimates his enemies.

King. When Gloster says the word, king Henry

goes;

For friendly counsel cuts off many foes.

Glo. Your ships already are in readiness.

[Exeunt all but EXETER

Exe. Ay, we may march in England, or in France, Not seeing what is likely to ensue.

This late dissension, grown betwixt the peers.
Burns under feigned ashes of forg'd love,
And will at last break out into a flame:
As fester'd members rot but by degrees,
Till bones, and flesh, and sinews, fall away,
So will this base and envious discord breed.
And now I fear that fatal prophecy,

Which, in the time of Henry nam'd the Fifth,
Was in the mouth of every sucking babe,
That Henry, born at Monmouth, should win all,
And Henry, born at Windsor, should lose all:
Which is so plain, that Exeter doth wish

His days may finish ere that hapless time. [Exit.

SCENE II. France. Before Rouen.

Enter LA PUCELLE disguised, and Soldiers dressed like Countrymen, with Sacks upon their Backs.

Puc. These are the city gates, the gates of Rouen, Through which our policy must make a breach. Take heed, be wary how you place your words: Talk like the vulgar sort of market-men,

That come to gather money for their corn.

That is, so will the malignity of this discord propagate itself. and advance.

If we have entrance, (as I hope we shall,)
And that we find the slothful watch but weak,
I'll by a sign give notice to our friends,
That Charles the Dauphin may encounter them.

1 Sold. Our sacks shall be a mean to sack the city, And we be lords and rulers over Rouen; Therefore we'll knock.

Guard. [Within.] Qui est là?

[Knocks

Puc. Paisans, les pauvres gens de France: Poor market-folks, that come to sell their corn. Guard. Enter; go in the market-bell is rung. [Opens the Gate. Puc. Now, Rouen,' I'll shake thy bulwarks to the ground. [PUCELLE, &c., enter the City.

Enter CHARLES, the Bastard, ALENÇON, and Forces.

Char. St. Dennis bless this happy stratagem! And once again we'll sleep secure in Rouen. Bast. Here enter'd Pucelle, and her practisants:* Now she is there, how will she specify Where is the best and safest passage in?

Alen. By thrusting out a torch from yonder tower; Which, once discern'd, shows that her meaning is, – No way to that, for weakness, which she enter'd.

Enter LA PUCELLE on a Battlement; holding out a Torch burning.

Puc. Behold! this is the happy wedding torch, That joineth Rouen unto her countrymen; But burning fatal to the Talbotites.

Rouen was anciently written and pronounced Roan.

2 Practice, in the language of the time, was treachery, or in sidious stratagem. Practisants are therefore confederates in treachery.

3 That is, no way like or compared to that. See The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act ii. sc. 4, note 10.

SC. IJ

79

Bast. See, noble Charles! the beacon of our

friend:

The burning torch in yonder turret stands.

Char. Now shine it like a comet of revenge,

A prophet to the fall of all our foes!

Alen. Defer no time; delays have dangerous
ends:

Enter, and cry, The Dauphin! presently,

And then do execution on the watch. [They enter

Alarums.

Enter TALBOT, and English Soldiers.

Tal. France, thou shalt rue this treason with thy

tears,

If Talbot but survive thy treachery.

Pucelle, that witch, that damned sorceress,
Hath wrought this hellish mischief unawares,
That hardly we escap'd the pride of France.

[Exeunt to the Town.

4 Pride here signifies haughty power.

The

So, afterwards, in Act iv. sc. 6: And from the pride of Gallia rescu'd thee." general sentiment of the English respecting Joan of Arc is very well shown in that the regent, soon after the coronation at Rheims, "he had, by the allurewrote to Charles VII., complaining that ment of a derelish witch, taken upon him the name, title, and dignitie of the king of France," and challenging him to a trial of the question by private combat. Divers other choice vituperative epithets are stuck upon the heroic maiden by the old chroniclers, such as "false miscreant," "a damnable sorcerer suborned by Satan," and "hir pernicious practises of sorcerie and witcherie;" and Holinshed is down upon the prince for having to do with her: "Whose dignitie abroad was foulie spotted in this point, that contrarie to the holie degree of a right christen prince, he would not reverence to prophane his sacred estate by dealing in develish practises with misbeleevers and witches." There needs but a little knowledge of men as they now are, to understand how the English of that day should think their power so great that none but spirits could, and their rights so clear that none but devils would, thwart their purpose.

H

Alarum: Excursions. Enter from the Town BEDFORD, brought in sick in a Chair, with TALBOT, BURGUNDY, and the English Forces. Then, enter on the Walls, LA PUCELLE, CHARLES, the Bastard, ALENÇON, and Others.

Puc. Good morrow, gallants! want ye corn for bread?

I think the duke of Burgundy will fast,
Before he'll buy again at such a rate:
'Twas full of darnel; do you like the taste?

Bur. Scoff on, vile fiend, and shameless courtesan!
I trust, ere long, to choke thee with thine own,
And make thee curse the harvest of that corn.
Char. Your grace may starve, perhaps, before
that time.

Bed. O let no words, but deeds, revenge this

treason.

Puc. What will you do, good grey-beard? break a lance,

And run a tilt at death within a chair?

Tal. Foul fiend of France, and hag of all despite !

Encompass'd with thy lustful paramours,
Becomes it thee to taunt his valiant age,
And twit with cowardice a man half dead?
Dainsel, I'll have a bout with you again,
Or else let Talbot perish with this shame.
Puc. Are you so hot, sir?-Yet, Pucelle, hold

thy peace;

66

5 "Dirnel," says Gerarde in his Herbal, hurteth the eyes, and maketh them dim, if it happen either in corne for breade, or drinke." La Pucelle means to intimate that the corn she carried with her had produced the same effect on the guards of Ronen; otherwise they would have seen through her disguise, and defeated her strat agem.