His sparkling eyes, replete with wrathful fire,
More dazzled and drove back his enemies,
Than mid-day sun, fierce bent against their
faces.

What should I say? his deeds exceed all speech:
He ne'er lift up his hand but conquered.

Exe. We mourn in black: Why mourn we
not in blood?

Henry is dead, and never shall revive :
Upon a wooden coffin we attend;
And death's dishonourable victory
We with our stately presence glorify,
Like captives bound to a triumphant car.
What? shall we curse the planets of mishap,
That plotted thus our glory's overthrow?
Or shall we think the subtle-witted French
Conjurors and sorcerers, that, afraid of him,
By magic verses have contriv'd his end?"

Win. He was a king bless'd of the King of
kings.

Unto the French the dreadful judgment day
So dreadful will not be, as was his sight.
The battles of the Lord of hosts he fought:
The church's prayers made him so prosperous.
Glo. The church! where is it? Had not
churchmen pray'd,

His thread of life had not so soon decay'd;
None do you like but an effeminate prince,
Whom, like a school-boy, you may over-awe.
Win. Gloster, whate'er we like, thou art pro-
tector;

And lookest to command the prince and realm. Thy wife is proud; she holdeth thee in awe, More than God or religious churchmen may.

Glo. Name not religion, for thou lov'st the flesh; And ne'er throughout the year to church thou go'st,

Except it be to pray against thy foes.

Bed. Cease, cease these jars, and rest your minds in peace!

Let's to the altar-Heralds, wait on us :-
Instead of gold, we 'll offer up our arms;
Since arms avail not, now that Henry's dead.
Posterity, await for wretched years,
When at their mothers' moisten'd eyes babes

shall suck;

A passage in Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft,' 1584, explains this:-"The Irishmen. . will not stick to affirm that they can rime either man or beast to death." This is an old northern superstition. In Gray's spirited Descent of Odin,' we find

"Thrice he trac'd the Runic rhyme;

Thrice pronounc'd, in accents dread,
The thrilling verse that wakes the dead."

b Moisten'd. So the folio of 1623. The second folio, in which some verbal alterations of the original text are found, and which, for the most part, are made with judgment, reads moist. We adhere to the original in all those cases where the alterations of the second folio are somewhat doubtful.

Our isle be made a nourish of salt tears, And none but women left to wail the dead. Henry the fifth! thy ghost I invocate; Prosper this realm, keep it from civil broils! Combat with adverse planets in the heavens! A far more glorious star thy soul will make, Than Julius Cæsar, or bright þ

Enter a Messenger.

Mess. My honourable lords, health to you all!
Sad tidings bring I to you out of France,
Of loss, of slaughter, and discomfiture:
Guienne, Champaigne, Rheims, Orleans,
Paris, Guysors, Poictiers, are all quite lost.
Bed. What say'st thou, man, before dead
Henry's corse?

Speak softly; or the loss of those great towns
Will make him burst his lead, and rise from death.
Glo. Is Paris lost? is Rouen yielded up?
If Henry were recall'd to life again,

These news would cause him once more yield the ghost.

Exe. How were they lost? what treachery was us'd?

Mess. No treachery; but want of men and money.

Amongst the soldiers this is muttered,——
That here you maintain several factions;
And, whilst a field should be despatch'd and
fought,

You are disputing of your generals.
One would have ling'ring wars, with little cost;
Another would fly swift, but wanteth wings;
A third man thinks, without expense at all,
By guileful fair words peace may be obtain'd.
Awake, awake, English nobility!

Let not sloth dim your honours, new-begot;
Cropp'd are the flower-de-luces in your arms;
Of England's coat one half is cut away.

Exe. Were our tears wanting to this funeral, These tidings would call forth her flowing tides.

Bed. Me they concern; regent I am of France: Give me my steeled coat, I'll fight for France. Away with these disgraceful wailing robes! Wounds will I lend the French, instead of eyes, To weep their intermissive miseries.

Enter another Messenger.

2 Mess. Lords, view these letters, full of bad mischance:

France is revolted from the English quite;
Except some petty towns of no import:
The Dauphin Charles is crowned king in Rheims;
The bastard of Orleans with him is join'd,
Reignier, duke of Anjou, doth take his part;
The duke of Alençon flieth to his side.

Exe. The Dauphin crowned king! all fly to him!

O, whither shall we fly from this reproach? 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 for-
wardness?

An army have I muster'd in my thoughts,
Wherewith already France is over-run.

Enter a third Messenger.

3 Mess. 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 Mess. O, no; wherein lord Talbot was o'er-
thrown:

The circumstance I'll tell you more at large.
The tenth of August last, this dreadful lord,
Retiring from the siege of Orleans,
Having full scarce six thousand in his troop,
By three and twenty thousand of the French
Was round encompassed and set upon :
No leisure had he to enrank his men;
He wanted pikes to set before his archers;
Instead whereof, sharp stakes, pluck'd out of
hedges,

They pitched in the ground confusedly,
To keep the horsemen off from breaking in.
More than three hours the fight continued;
Where valiant Talbot, above human thought,
Enacted wonders with his sword and lance.
Hundreds he sent to hell, and none durst stand

him ;

Here, there, and everywhere, enrag'd he slew: The French exclaim'd, The devil was in arms; All the whole army stood agaz'd on him:

His soldiers, spying his undaunted spirit,
A Talbot! a Talbot! cried out amain,
And rush'd into the bowels of the battle.
Here had the conquest fully been seal'd up,
If sir John Fastolfe had not play'd the coward;
He being in the vaward,' (plac'd behind,
With purpose to relieve and follow them,)
Cowardly fled, not having struck one stroke.
Hence grew the general wrack and massacre;
Enclosed were they with their enemies :
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,

Durst not presume to look once in the face.

Bed. Is Talbot slain? then I will slay myself, For living idly here, in pomp and ease, Whilst such a worthy leader, wanting aid, Unto his dastard foe-men is betray'd.

3 Mess. 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 ransom there is none but I shall pay : I'll hale the Dauphin headlong from his throne,His crown shall be the ransom of my friend; Four of their lords I'll change for one of ours. Farewell, my masters; to my task will I; Bonfires in France forthwith I am to make, To keep our great Saint George's feast withal: Ten thousand soldiers with me I will take, Whose bloody deeds shall make all Europe quake. 3 Mess. So you had need; for Orleans is be

tend:

I am left out; for me nothing remains.
But long I will not be Jack-out-of-office;
The king from Eltham I intend to send,
And sit at chiefest stern of public weal.

[Exit. Scene closes.

SCENE II.-France. Before Orleans. Enter CHARLES, with his Forces; ALENÇON, REIGNIER, and others.

Char. Mars his true moving, even as in the
heavens,

So in the earth, to this day is not known:
Late did he shine upon the English side;
Now we are victors, upon us he smiles.
What towns of any moment but we have?
At pleasure here we lie near Orleans;
Otherwhiles, the famish'd English, like pale
ghosts,

Faintly besiege us one hour in a month.

Alen. They want their porridge and their fat
bull-beeves:

Either they must be dieted like mules,
And have their provender tied to their mouths,
Or piteous they will look, like drowned mice.
Reig. Let's raise the siege: Why live we idly
here?

Talbot is taken, whom we wont to fear:
Remaineth none but mad-brain'd Salisbury;
And he may well in fretting spend his gall,
Nor men nor money hath he to make war.

Char. Sound, sound alarum; we will rush on
them.

Now for the honour of the forlorn French :-
Him I forgive my death that killeth me,
When he sees me go back one foot, or fly.

[Exeunt. Alarums. They are beaten back by the English, with great loss. 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,
Do rush upon us as their hungry prey.

Alen. Froissart, a countryman of ours, records,
England all Olivers and Rowlands bred
During the time Edward the third did reign.

For none but Samsons, and Goliasses,

It sendeth forth to skirmish. One to ten! Lean raw-bon'drascals! who would e'er suppose They had such courage and audacity?

Char. Let's leave this town; for they are hair-brain'd slaves,

And hunger will enforce them to be more eager: Of old I know them; rather with their teeth The walls they'll tear down than forsake the siege.

Reig. I think, by some odd gimmers* or device, Their arms are set like clocks, still to strike on; Else ne'er could they hold out so as they do. By my consent, we 'll even let them alone. 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. Bast. Methinks your looks are sad, your

cheer appall'd;

Hath the late overthrow wrought this offence?
Be not dismay'd, for succour is at hand:
A holy maid hither with me I bring,
Which, by a vision sent to her from heaven,
Ordained is to raise this tedious siege,

And drive the English forth the bounds of France.
The spirit of deep prophecy she hath,
Exceeding the nine sibyls of old Rome;
What's past, and what 's to come, she can descry.
Speak, shall I call her in? Believe my words,
For they are certain and unfallible.

Char. Go, call her in: [Exit Bastard.] But,

first, to try her skill,

Reignier, stand thou as Dauphin in my place : Question her proudly, let thy looks be stern :—By this means shall we sound what skill she hath. [Retires. Enter LA PUCELLE, BASTARD of ORLEANS, and others.

Reig. Fair maid, is 't thou wilt do these wond'rous feats?

Puc. Reignier, is 't thou that thinkest to beguile me?

Where is the Dauphin?-come, come from behind;

Gimmers. This word is thus given in the original, but is ordinarily printed gimmals, a word of the same meaning. Bishop Hall uses gimmer in a like sense: "When I saw my precious watch (now through an unhappy fall grown irregular) taken asunder, and laying scattered upon the workman's shopboard; so as here lay a wheel, there the balance. here one gimmer, there another; straight my ignorance was ready to think, when and how will all these ever piece togethe again in their former order?"

Cheer-countenance.