VI

EXE. The Dauphin crowned king! all fly to him! O, whither fhall we fly from this reproach?

GLO. We will not fly, but to our enemies' throats:

Bedford, if thou be flack, I'll fight it out.

An

BED. Glofter, why doubt'ft thou of my forwardnefs?

army have I mufter'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 hearfe,I must inform you of a difmal fight,

Betwixt the ftout lord Talbot and the French.

WIN. What! wherein Talbot overcame? is't fo? 3 MESS. O, no; wherein lord Talbot was o'erthrown :

The circumftance I'll tell you more at large.
The tenth of August laft, this dreadful lord,
Retiring from the fiege of Orleans,

Having full scarce fix thousand in his troop,"
By three and twenty thousand of the French
Was round encompaffed and fet upon :
No leifure had he to enrank his men;
He wanted pikes to fet before his archers;

Inftead whereof, fharp ftakes, pluck'd out of hedges,
They pitched in the ground confusedly,

Having full fcarce &c.] The modern editors read-fcarce full, but, I think, unneceffarily. So, in The Tempest: Profpero, mafter of a full poor cell."

STEEVENS

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 fword and lance.
Hundreds he fent to hell, and none durft stand him;
Here, there, and every where, enrag'd he flew :9
The French exclaim'd, The devil was in arms;
All the whole army stood agaz'd on him:
His foldiers, fpying his undaunted spirit,
A Talbot! a Talbot! cried out amain,
And rufh'd into the bowels of the battle.1
Here had the conqueft fully been feal'd up,
If fir John Fastolfe2 had not play'd the coward;

Enacted wonders-] So, in King Richard III :
"The king enacts more wonders than a man.'

19

STEEVENS.

9 he flew:] I fufpect the author wrote flew.

MALONE.

And rush'd into the bowels of the battle.] Again, in the fifth Act of this play :

"So, rufhing in the bowels of the French." The fame phrafe had occurred in the first part of Jeronimo, 1605:

2

"Meet, Don Andrea! yes, in the battle's bowels." STEEVENS.

If fir John Faftolfe &c.] Mr. Pope has taken notice, "That Falstaff is here introduced again, who was dead in Henry V. The occafion whereof is, that this play was written before King Henry IV. or King Henry V." But it is the hiftorical Sir John Faftolfe (for fo he is called in both our Chroniclers) that is here mentioned; who was a lieutenant general, deputy regent to the duke of Bedford in Normandy, and a knight of the garter; and not the comick character afterwards introduced by our author, and which was a creature merely of his own brain. Nor when he named him Falstaff do I believe he had any intention of throwing a flur on the memory of this renowned old warrior. THEOBALD.

Mr. Theobald might have feen his notion contradicted in the very line he quotes from. Faftolfe, whether truly or not, is

He being in the vaward, (plac'd behind,3
With purpose to relieve and follow them,)
Cowardly fled, not having ftruck one ftroke.
Hence grew the general wreck and maffacre;
Enclosed were they with their enemies :
A base Walloon, to win the Dauphin's grace,
Thruft Talbot with a spear into the back;
Whom all France, with their chief affembled
ftrength,

Durft not presume to look once in the face.

faid by Hall and Holinfhed to have been degraded for cowardice. Dr. Heylin, in his Saint George for England, tells us, that "he was afterwards, upon good reafon by him alledged in his defence, reftored to his honour." "This Sir John Faftolfe," continues he, e was without doubt, a valiant and wife captain, notwithstanding the ftage hath made merry with him." FARMER. See Vol. XI. p. 194, n. 3; and Oldys's Life of Sir John Faftolfe in the General Dictionary. MALONE.

In the 18th Song of Drayton's Polyolbion is the following character of this Sir John Faftolph:

Strong Faftolph with this man compare we juftly may;
By Salfbury who oft being seriously imploy'd

"In many a brave attempt the general foe annoy'd;
"With excellent fucceffe in Main and Anjou fought,
"And many a bulwarke there into our keeping brought;
"And chofen to go forth with Vadamont in warre,
"Most resolutely tooke proud Renate duke of Barre.”
STEEVENS.

For an account of this Sir John Faftolfe, fee Anftis's Treatife on the Order of the Garter; Parkins's Supplement to Blomfield's Hiftory of Norfolk; Tanner's Bibliotheca Britannica; or Capel's notes, Vol. II. p. 221; and Sir John Fenn's Collection of the Pafton Letters. REED.

3 He being in the vaward, (plac'd behind,] Some of the editors feem to have confidered this as a contradiction in terms, and have proposed to read-the rearward, but without neceffity. Some part of the van must have been behind the foremost line of it. We often fay the back front of a house. STEEVENS.

When an army is attacked in the rear, the van becomes the rear in its turn, and of course the referve, M. MASON.

BED. Is Talbot flain? then I will flay myself, For living idly here, in pomp and ease, Whilft fuch a worthy leader, wanting aid, Unto his daftard 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 flaughter'd, or took, likewife.

BED. His ranfome there is none but I fhall pay: I'll hale the Dauphin headlong from his throne, His crown fhall be the ranfome of my friend; Four of their lords I'll change for one of ours.Farewell, my mafters; to my task will I; Bonfires in France forthwith I am to make, To keep our great Saint George's feaft withal: Ten thoufand foldiers with me I will take, Whose bloody deeds fhall make all Europe quake.

3 MESS. So you had need; for Orleans is befieg'd;

The English army is grown weak and faint:
The earl of Salisbury craveth fupply,

And hardly keeps his men from mutiny,
Since they, fo few, watch such a multitude.

EXE. Remember, lords, your oaths to Henry fworn;

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 hafte 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,

[Exit,

Being ordain'd his special governor;

And for his fafety there I'll beft devise.

WIN. Each hath his place and function to at

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 fend,
And fit at chiefeft ftern of publick weal.4

[Exit. Scene clofes.

4 The king from Eltham I intend to fend,

And fit at chiefeft ftern of publick weal.] The King was not at this time fo much in the power of the Cardinal, that he could fend him where he pleased. I have therefore no doubt but that there is an error in this paffage, and that it should be read thus:

The king from Eltham I intend to steal,

And fit at chiefeft ftern of publick weal.

This flight alteration preferves the fenfe, and the rhyme alfo with which many fcenes in this play conclude. The King's perfon, as appears from the fpeech immediately preceding this of Winchester, was under the care of the Duke of Exeter, not of the Cardinal:

"Exe. To Eltham will I, where the young king is,

"Being ordain'd his special governor." M. MASON.

The second charge in the Articles of Accufation preferred by the Duke of Glofter against the Bishop, (Hall's Chron. Hen. VI. f. 12, b.) countenances this conjecture. MALONE.

The disagreeable clash of the words-intend and fend, feems indeed to confirm the propriety of Mr. M. Mafon's emendation. STEEVENS.