ACT I. The dauphin Charles is crowned king in Rheims, Exe. The dauphin crowned king! all fly to him! Glo. We will not fly, but to our enemies' throats :--Bedford, if thou be slack, I'll fight it out. Bed. Gloster, why doubt'st thou of my forwardness ? An army have I muster'd in my thoughts. Wherewith already France is over-run. Enter a third Messenger. 3 Mes. My gracious lords,—to add to your laments, Wherewith you now bedew king Henry's hearse,I must inform you of a dismal fight, Betwixt the stout lord Talbot and the French. Win. What! wherein Talbot overcame ? is't so? 3 Mes. O, no; wherein lord Talbot was o'erthrown: The circumstance I'll tell you more at large. The tenth of August last, this dreadful lord, Having full scarce six thousand in his troop, To keep the horsemen off from breaking in. 8 [8] Mr. Pope has taken notice, "That Falstaff is here introduced again, who was dead in Henry F." But it is the historical sir John Fastolfe (for so he is called in both our Chroniclers) that is here mentioned; who was a lieutenant gener:1, de 4 He being in the vaward, (plac'd behind, A base Walloon, to win the Dauphin's grace, Thrust Talbot with a spear into the back; Whom all France, with their chief assembled strength, Due to Talbot slain? then I will slay myself, 3 Mes. O no, he lives; but is took prisoner, And lord Scales with him, and lord Hungerford: Most of the rest slaughter'd, or took, likewise. Bed. His ransome there is none but I shall pay : And hardly keeps his men from mutiny, Since they, so few, watch such a multitude. Exe. Remember, lords, your oaths to Henry sworn Either to quell the Dauphin utterly, Or bring him in obedience to your yoke. Bed. I do remember it; and here take leave, To go about my preparation. [Exit. Glo. I'll to the Tower, with all the haste I can, To view the artillery and munition; And then I will proclaim young Henry king. [Exit. Exe. To Eltham will I, where the young king is, Being ordain'd his special governor; And for his safety there I'll best devise. [Exit. Win. Each hath his place and function to attend : puty regent to the duke of Bedford in Normandy, and a knight of the garter; and not the comic character afterwards introduced by our author. STEEVENS. I am left out; for me nothing remains. SCENE II. [Exit. France. Before Orleans. Enter CHARLES, with his Forces; Alençon, ReiGNIER, and others. Char. Mars his true moving, even as in the heavens, Other whiles, the famish'd English, like pale ghosts, Alen. They want their porridge, and their fat bullbeeves: Either they must be dieted like mules, And have their provender tyed to their mouths, Reig. Let's raise the siege; Why live we idly here? Char. Sound, sound alarum; we will rush on them. [Exeunt. Re-enter CHARLES, ALENÇON, REIGNIER, and others. Char. Who ever saw the like? what men have I ?— Dogs! cowards! dastards!-I would ne'er have fled, But that they left me 'midst my enemies. Reig. Salisbury is a desperate homicide; He fighteth as one weary of his life. The other lords, like lions wanting food, Alen. Froisard, a countryman of ours, records, England all Olivers and Rowlands bred," [9] These were two of the most famous in the list of Charlemague's twelve peers, and their exploits are rendered so ridiculously and equally extravagant by the During the time Edward the Third did reign. It sendeth forth to skirmish. One to ten! Lean raw-bon'd rascals! who would e'er suppose Char. Let's leave this town; for they are hair-brain'd slaves, And hunger will enforce them to be more eager : Alen. Be it so. Enter the Bastard of Orleans. Bast. Where's the prince Dauphin ? I have news for him. Char. Bastard of Orleans,' thrice welcome to us. pall'd ;3 Hath the late overthrow wrought this offence? Which, by a vision sent to her from heaven, Ordained is to raise this tedious siege, cheer ap And drive the English forth the bounds of France. Exceeding the nine sibyls of old Rome;" What's past, and what's to come, she can descry. old romancers, that from thence arose that saying amongst our plain and sensible ancestors, of giving one a Rowland for his Oliver, to signify the matching one incredible lie with another. WARBURTON. Rather, to oppose one hero to another; i. e. to give a person as good a one as he brings. STEEVENS. [1] A grimmal is a piece of jointed wood, where one piece moves within another, whence it is taken at large for an engine. It is now by the vulgar called a gimcrack. JOHNSON. [2] That this in former times was not a term of reproach, see Bishop Hurd's Letters on Chivalry and Romance, who observing on circumstances of agreement between the heroic and Gothic manners, says that "Bastardy was in credit with both." One of William the Conqueror's charters begins, 60 Ego Gulielmus cognomento Bastardus." VAILLANT. See the eighth Iliad, in Bastardy was reckoned no disgrace among the ancients. which the illegitimacy of Teucer is mentioned as a panegyric upon him. [3] Cheer-countenance. STEEVENS. STEEVENS. There were no nine sibyls of Rome; but he confounds things, and mistakes this for the nine books of Sibylline oracles, brought to one of the Tarquins. WARBURTON. Speak, shall I call her in? Believe my words, 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. Stand back, you lords, and give us leave a while. Heaven, and our Lady gracious, hath it pleas'd Lo, whilst I waited on my tender lambs, And to sun's parching heat display'd my cheeks, Char. Thou hast astonish'd me with thy high terms; |