SCENE II.

France. Before Orleans.

Enter CHARLES, with his Forces; ALENÇON,
REIGNIER, and Others.

CHAR. Mars his true moving,5 even as in the hea

vens,

So in the earth, to this day is not known:
Late did he shine upon the English fide
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 famifh'd English, like pale ghosts,
Faintly befiege us one hour in a month."

ALEN. They want their porridge, and their fat
bull-beeyes:

Either they must be dieted like mules,

And have their provender tyed to their mouths,
Or piteous they will look, like drowned mice.

REIG. Let's raife the fiege; 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, found alarum; we will rufh on
them.

5 Mars his true moving, &c.] So, Nash, in one of his prefaces before Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up, 1596: "You are as ignorant in the true movings of my mufe, as the aftronomers are in the true movings of Mars, which to this day they could never attain to."

STEEVENS.

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

[Exeunt.

Alarums; Excurfions; afterwards a Retreat.

Re-enter CHARLES, ALENÇON, REIGNIER, and Others.

CHAR. Who ever faw the like? what men have

I?—

Dogs! cowards! daftards !--I would ne'er have fled,
But that they left me 'midft 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. Froiffard, a countryman of ours, records,
England all Olivers and Rowlands bred,"
During the time Edward the third did reign.

as their hungry prey.] I believe it should be read: - as their hungred prey. JOHNSON.

I adhere to the old reading, which appears to fignify-the prey for which they are hungry. STEEVENS.

7 England all Olivers and Rowlands bred,] Thefe were two of the most famous in the lift of Charlemagne's twelve peers; and their exploits are rendered fo ridiculously and equally extravagant by the old romancers, that from thence arofe that saying amongst our plain and fenfible ancestors, of giving one a Rowland for his Oliver, to fignify the matching one incredible lie with another. WARBURTON.

Rather, to oppose one hero to another; i. e. to give a perfon as good a one as he brings. STEEVENS.

The old copy has-breed. Corrected by Mr. Rowe.

MALONE.

More truly now may this be verified;
For none but Samfons, and Goliaffes,

It fendeth forth to skirmish. One to ten!
Lean raw-bon'd rascals! who would e'er suppose
They had fuch courage and audacity?

CHAR. Let's leave this town; for they are hairbrain'd flaves,

.8

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 fome odd gimmals 9 or de-

vice,

Their arms are fet, like clocks,' ftill to ftrike on;

And hunger will enforce them to be more eager :] The prepofition to fhould be omitted, as injurious to the measure, and unneceffary in the old elliptical mode of writing. So, A& IV. fc. i. of this play:

"Let me perfuade you take a better course."

i. e. to take &c. The error pointed out, occurs again in p. 31: "Piel'd prieft, doft thou command me to be shut out?” STEEVENS.

gimmals-] A gimmal is a piece of jointed work, 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.

In the inventory of the jewels, &c. belonging to Salisbury cathedral, taken in 1536, 28th of Henry VIII. is " A faire cheft with gimmals and key." Again: "Three other chefts with gimmals of filver and gilt." Again, in The Vow-breaker, or The faire Maide of Clifton, 1636:

"My actes are like the motionall gymmals

"Fixt in a watch."

See also King Henry V. A& IV. fc. ii. STEEVENS.

Their arms are fet, like clocks,] Perhaps our author was thinking of the clocks in which figures in the fhape of men ftruck the hours. Of these there were many in his time.

MALONE.

To go like clockwork, is ftill a phrafe in common ufe, to exprefs a regular and constant motion. STEEVENS.

Elfe ne'er could they hold out fo, as they do.
By my confent, we'll e'en let them alone.
ALEN. Be it fo.

Enter the Baftard of Orleans,

BAST. Where's the prince Dauphin, I have news for him.

2.

CHAR. Baftard of Orleans, thrice welcome to us. BAST. Methinks, your looks are fad, your cheer appall'd ;3

2 Bastard of Orleans,] That this in former times was not a term of reproach, fee Bishop Hurd's Letters on Chivalry and Romance, in the third volume of his Dialogues, p. 233, who obferving on circumftances of agreement between the heroick and Gothick manners, fays that " Baftardy was in credit with both." One of William the Conqueror's charters begins, " Ego Gulielmus cognomento Baftardus." And in the reign of Edward I. John Earl Warren and Surrey being called before the King's Juftices to show by what title he held his lands, produxit in medium gladium antiquum evaginatum-et ait, Ecce Domini mei, ecce warrantum meum! Anteceffores mei cum Willō Baftardo venientes conquefti funt terras fuas, &c. Dugd. Orig. Jurid. p. 13. Dugd. Bar. of Engl. Vol. I. Blount 9.

"Le Bastarde de Savoy," is infcribed over the head of one of the figures in a curious picture of the Battle of Pavia, in the Afhmolean Museum. In Fenn's Pafton Letters, Vol. III. p. 72-3, in the articles of impeachment against the Duke of Suffolk, we read of the "Erle of Danas, baftard of Orlyaunce-."

VAILLANT.

See

Baftardy was reckoned no difgrace among the ancients. the eighth Iliad, in which the illegitimacy of Teucer is mentioned as a panegyrick upon him, ver. 284:

« Καί σε, νόθον περ ἐόντα, κομίσσατο ὦ ἐνὶ οἴκω.”

STEEVENS.

3 your cheer appall'd;] Cheer is jollity, gaiety.

M. MASON. Cheer, rather fignifies-countenance. So, in A MidfummerNight's Dream:

"All fancy-fick fhe is, and pale of cheer." See Vol. IV. p. 414, n. 9. STEEvens.

Hath the late overthrow wrought this offence?
Be not dismay'd, for fuccour 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 fiege,

And drive the English forth the bounds of France.
The fpirit of deep prophecy the hath,
Exceeding the nine fibyls of old Rome;4
What's paft, and what's to come, the can defcry.
Speak, fhall I call her in? Believe my words,5
For they are certain and unfallible.

CHAR. GO, call her in: [Exit Baftard.] But, first,
to try her skill,

Reignier, ftand thou as Dauphin in my place:
Queftion her proudly, let thy looks be ftern :-
By this means fhall we found what skill the hath.
[Retires.

Enter LA PUCELLE, Baftard of Orleans, and Others.

REIG. Fair maid, is't thou wilt do thefe wond'rous feats?

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

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

♦-----nine fibyls of old Rome;] There were no nine fibyls of Rome; but he confounds things, and mistakes this for the nine books of Sibylline oracles, brought to one of the Tarquins. WARBURTON.

5

Believe my words;] It fhould be read:

Believe her words. JOHNSON.

I perceive no need of change. The Battard calls upon the Dauphin to believe the extraordinary account he has just given of the prophetick fpirit and prowefs of the Maid of Orleans.

MALONE.