HENRY

France, triumph in thy glorious prophetess !
Recover'd is the town of Orleans:
More blessed hap did ne'er befall our state.
Reig. Why ring not out the bells throughout
the town?

Dauphin, command the citizens make boufires,
And feast and banquet in the open streets,
To celebrate the joy that God hath given us.
Alen. All France will be replete with mirth
and joy,

When they shall hear how we have play'd the

is won;

For which, I will divide my crown with her :
And all the priests and friars in my realm
Shall, in procession, sing her endless praise.
A statelier pyramis to her I'll rear,
Than Rhodope's, or Memphis', ever was :
In memory of her, when she is dead,
Her asbes, in an urn more precious
Than the rich-jewell'd coffer of Darius +
Transported shall be at high festivals
Before the kings and queens of France.
No longer on St. Dennis will we cry,
But Joan la Pucelle shall be France's saint.
Come in; and let us banquet royally,
After this golden day of victory.

[Flourish. Exeunt.

Enter TALBOT, BEDFORD, BURGUNDY, and
Forces, with scaling Ladders; their Drums
beating a dead march.

Tal. Lord regent, and redoubted Burgundy,
By whose approach, the regions of Artois,
Walloon, and Picardy, are friends to us,
This happy night, the Frenchmen are secure,
Having all day carous'd and banquetted:
Embrace we then this opportunity;
As fitting best to quittance their deceit,
Contriv❜d by art, and baleful sorcery.

Bed. Coward of France!-how much
wrongs his fame,

Despairing of his own arm's fortitude,
To join with witches, and the help of hell.
Bur. Traitors have never other company.-

he

But what's that Pucelle, whom they term so

pure?

Tal. A maid, they say.

Bett. A maid! and be so martial!

together: better far, I guess,
That we do make our entrauce several ways;
That, if it chance the one of us do fail,
The other yet may rise against their force.
Bed. Agreed: I'll to you corner.

Bur. And I to this.

Tal. And here will Talbot mount, or make

his grave.

Now Salisbury I for thee, and for the right
Of English Heury, shall this night appear
How much in duty I am bound to both.

[The English scale the Walls, crying St.
George! a Talbot! and all enter by the
Town.

Sent. [Within.] Arm, arm! the enemy doth
make assault !

The French leap over the Walls in their
Shirts. Enter, several ways, BASTARD,
ALENGON, REIGNIER, half ready, and halj
unready.

Alen. How now, my lords? what, all un-
ready so?

Bast. Unready? ay, and glad we 'scap'd so well.

Reig. 'Twas time, I trow, to wake and leave our beds,

Hearing alarums at our chamber doors,

Alen. Of all exploits, since first I follow'd

arms,

Ne'er heard I of a warlike enterprize

More venturous, or desperate than this.
Bast. I think, this Talbot be a fiend of

hell.

Reig. If not of hell, the heavens sure favour

bim.

Alen. Here cometh Charles; I marvel, how he sped.

Enter CHARLES, and LA PUCELLE. Bast. Tut! holy Joan was his defensive guard.

Char. Is this thy cunning, thou deceitful
dame?

Didst thou at first, to flatter us withal,
Make us partakers of a little gain,

That now our loss might be ten times so much?
Puc. Wherefore is Charles impatient with

his friend?

At all times will you have my power alike?
Sleeping or waking must I still prevail,

Or will you blame and lay the fault on me ?—
Improvident soldiers! had your watch been
good,

This sudden mischief never could have fall'n.
Char. Duke of Alençon, this was your de
fault;

That, being captain of the watch to-night,
Did look no better to that weighty charge.
Alen. Had all your quarters been as safely
kept,

As that whereof I had the government,

We had not been thus shamefully surpriz❜d.
Bast. Mine was secure.

Reig. And so was mine, my lord.

Char. And, for myself, most part of all this night,

Within her quarter, and mine own precinct,

Bur. Pray God, she prove not masculine ere I was employ'd in passing to and fro,

Rhodope, a famous strumpet, built one of the pyra-To gather our soldiers, scatter'd and dispers'd, mds from the profits of her trade. When Alex And lay new platforms to endamage them. ander took Gaza, he found an exceeding rich and beauful casket, in which he ordered to be placed a copy of Homer's Iliad. The same as guard-room."

Alarum. Enter an English SOLDIER, crying,|I mean to prove this lady's courtesy.

a Talbot! a Talbot They fly, leaving Come bither, captain. [Whispers.]—You per

Count. This is a riddling merchant for the From off this brier pluck a white rose with me.

For pale they look with fear, as witnessing

Suf. Within the temple hall we were too The truth on our side.

I scorn thee and thy fashion, peevish boy.
Suff. Turn not thy scorns this way, Planta-
genet.

Plan. Proud Poole, I will; and scorn both
him and thee.

Suff. I'll turn my part thereof into thy throat.
Som. Away, away, good William De-la-
Poole !

We grace the yeoman, by conversing with him.
War. Now by God's will, thou wrong'st him,

And pithless arms, like to a wither'd vine That droops his sapless branches to the ground:— Was not thy father, Richard, earl of Cam-Yet are these feet whose strengthless stay is bridge,

These eyes, like lamps whose wasting oil is Endeavour'd my advancement to the throne: spent,

was the next by birth and parentage; For by my mother 1 derived am

From Lionel duke of Clarence, the third son
To king Edward the third, whereas he,
From John of Gaunt doth bring his pedigree,
Being but fourth of that heroic line.

Bat mark; as, in this haughty⚫ great attempt,
They laboured to plant the rightful heir,
I lost my liberty, and they their lives.
Long after this, when Henry the fifth,
Succeeding his father Bolingbroke, did reign,
Thy father, earl of Cambridge, then deriv'd
From famous Edmund Langley, duke of York,
Marrying my sister, that thy mother was,
Again, in pity of my hard distress,
Levied an army; weening to redeem,
And have install'd me in the diadem:
But, as the rest, so fell that noble earl,
And was beheaded. Thus the Mortimers,
In whom the title rested, were suppress'd.
Plan. Of which, my lord, your honour is the

last.

Mor. True; and thou seest that I no issue
have;

And that any fainting words do warrant death:
Thou art my heir; the rest, I wish thee gather:
But yet be wary in thy studious care.

Plan. Thy grave admonishments prevail with

me:

Bat yet, methinks, my father's execution
Was nothing less than bloody tyranny.

Mar. With silence, nephew, be thou politic;
Strong-fixed is the house of Lancaster,
And, like a mountain, not to be remov'd.
But now thy uncle is removing hence;

With written pamphlets studiously devis'd,
Humphrey of Gloster? if thou canst accuse,
Or aught intend'st to lay unto my charge,
Do it without invention suddenly;
As I with sudden and extemporal speech
Purpose to answer what thou canst object.

Glo. Presumptuous priest! this place com-
mands my patience,

Or thou should'st find thou hast dishonour'd me.
Think not, although in writing I preferr'd
The manner of thy vile outrageous crimes,
That therefore I have forg'd, or am not able
Verbatim to rehearse the method of my pen :
No, prelate; such is thy audacious wicked-
ness,

Thy lewd, pestiferous, and dissentious pranks,
As very infants prattle of thy pride.
Thou art a most pernicious usurer;
Froward by nature, enemy to peace;
Lascivious, wauton, more than well beseems
A man of thy profession, and degree;
And for thy treachery, What's more manifest?
In that thou laid'st a trap to take my life,
As well at London bridge, as at the Tower?
Beside, I fear me, if thy thoughts were sifted,
The king thy sovereign, is not quite exempt
From envious malice of thy swelling heart.

Win. Gloster, I do defy thee.-Lords, vouch-
safe

To give me hearing what I shall reply,
If I were covetous, ambitious, or perverse,
As he will have me, how am I so poor ?
Or how haps it, I seek not to advance
Or raise myself, but keep my wonted calling:
And for dissention, who preferreth peace

As princes do their courts, when they are More than I do, except I be provok'd?

cloy'd

With long continuance in a settled place.
Plan. O uncle, 'would some part of my young

years

Might but redeem the passage of your age;
Mor. Thou dost then wrong me: as the
slaught'rer doth,

Which giveth many wounds, when one will kill.
Mourn not, except thou sorrow for my good;
Only, give order for my funeral;

And so farewell:† and fair be all thy hopes !
And prosperous be thy life, in peace, and war!
[Dies.

Plan. And peace, no war, befall thy parting
soul !

In prison hast thou spent a pilgrimage,
And like a hermit overpass'd thy days.-
Well, I will lock his counsel in my breast;
And what I do imagine, let that rest.-
Keepers, convey him hence; and I myself
Will see bis burial better than his life.-

[Exeunt KEEPERS, bearing out MORTIMER.
Here dies the dusky torch of Mortimer,
Chok'd with ainbition of the meaner sort :-
And, for those wrongs, those bitter injuries,
Which Somerset bath offer'd to my house,
I doubt not, but with honour to redress :
And therefore haste I to the parliament;
Either to be restored to my blood,
Or make my ill the advantage of my good.

АСТ 111.

[Exit.

SCENE 1.-The same.-The Parliamenthouse.

Flourish. Enter King HENRY, EXETER, Gloster, WARWICK, SOMERSET, and SUF POLK; the Bishop of WINCHESTER, RICHARD PLANTAGENET, and others. GLOSTER offers to put up a Bill; WINCHESTER Snatches it, and tears it.

No, my good lords, it is not that offends;
It is not that, that hath incens'd the duke:
It is, because no one should sway but he;
No one, but he, should be about the king;
And that engenders thunder in his breast,
And makes him roar these accusations forth.
But he shall know, I am as good--
Glo. As good?

Thon bastard of my grandfather !-

Win. Ay, loudly Sir; For what are you, I
pray,

But one imperious in another's throne?
Glo. Am I not the protector, saucy priest?
Win. And am I not a prelate of the church !
Glo. Yes, as an outlaw in a castle keeps,
And useth it to patronage his theft.

Win. Unreverent Gloster!

Glo. Thou art reverent,

Touching thy spiritual function, not thy life.
Win. This Rome shall remedy.

War. Roam thither then.

Som. My lord, it were your duty to forbear.
War. Ay, see the bishop be not overborne.
Som. Methinks, my lord should be religious,
And know the office that belongs to such.
War. Methinks, his lordship should be hum-
bler;

It fitteth not a prelate so to plead.

Som. Yes, when his holy state is touch'd so

near.

War. State holy, or unhallow'd, what of
that ?

Is not his grace protector to the king?
Plan. Plantagenet, I see, must hold his
tongue;

Lest it be said, Speak, sirrah, when you
should;

Must your bold verdict enter talk with lords!
Else would I have a fling at Winchester.

[Aside.

K. Hen. Uncles of Gloster and of Winches
ter,

The special watchmen of our English weal;
I would prevail, if prayers might prevail,
To join your hearts in love and amity.

Win. Com'st thou with deep premeditated what a scandal is it to our crown,

lines,

That two such noble peers as ye should jar !
Believe me, lords, my tender years can tell,
Civil dissention is a viperous worm,