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NOTES TO JOAN OF ARC.

NOTE 1, p. 25. - The Bastard Orleans.

"LEWES, Duke of Orleance, murthered in Paris by Jhon, Duke of Burgoyne, was owner of the Castle of Concy, on the frontiers of Fraunce toward Arthoys, whereof he made constable the Lord of Cauny, a man not so wise as his wife was faire; and yet she was not so faire but she was as well beloved of the Duke of Orleance as of her husband. Betwene the duke and her husband (I cannot tell who was father), she conceived a child, and brought furthe a prety boye called Jhon; whiche child beying of the age of one yere, the duke deceased, and, not long after, the mother and the Lord of Cawny ended their lives. The next of kynne to the Lord Cawny chalenged the inheritaunce, which was worth foure thousande crounes a yere, alledgyng that the boye was a bastard; and the kynred of the mother's side, for to save her honesty, it plainly denied. In conclusion, this matter was in contencion before the presidentes of the parliament of Paris, and there hang in controversie till the child came to the age of eight years old; at whiche tyme, it was demanded of hym openly whose sonne he was. His frendes of his mother's side advertised hym to require a day, to be advised of so great an answer; whiche he asked, and to hym it was granted. In the mean season, his said frendes persuaded him to claime his inheritance as sonne to the Lorde of Cawny, whiche was an honorable livyng and an auncient patrimony, affirming that, if he said contrary, he not only slaundered his mother, shamed hymself, and stained his bloud, but also should have no livyng, nor any thing to take to. The scholemaster, thinkyng that his disciple had well learned his lesson,

and would reherse it according to his instruccion, brought hym before the judges at the daie assigned; and, when the question was repeted to hym again, he boldly answered, 'My harte geveth me, and my tonge telleth me, that I am the sonne of the noble Duke of Orleaunce; more glad to be his bastarde, with a meane livyng, than the lawful sonne of that coward cuckolde Cawny, with his four thousand crownes.' The judges much marveiled at his bolde ans were, and his mother's cosyns detested hym for shamyng of his mother, and his father's supposed kinne rejoysed in gaining the patrimony and possessions. Charles, Duke of Orleaunce, heryng of this judgment, took hym into his family, and gave hym greate offices and fees, whiche he well deserved; for (during his captivitie) he defended his landes, expulsed the Englishmen, and, in conclusion, procured his deliverance." - Hall, ff. 104.

There can be no doubt that Shakespeare had this anecdote in his mind when he wrote the first scene wherein the bastard Falconbridge is introduced.

When the Duke of Orleans was so villanously assassinated by order of the Duke of Burgundy, the murder was thought at first to have been perpetrated by Sir Aubert de Cauny, says Monstrellet (Johnes's translation, vol. i. p. 198), from the great hatred he bore the duke for having carried off his wife; but the truth was soon known who were the guilty persons, and that Sir Aubert was perfectly innocent of the crime. Marietta d'Enguien was the name of the adulteress.

NOTE 2, p. 25. — Cheered with the Troubadour's sweet minstrelsy. Lorraine, according to Chaucer, was famous for its singers:"There mightest thou se these flutours,

Minstrallis, and eke jogelours,

That wel to singin did ther paine:

Some songin songis of Loraine;

For in Loraine ther notis be

Full swetir than in this contre."

Romaunt of the Rose.

No mention is made of the Lorraine songs in the correspond

ing lines of the original.

NOTE 3, p. 26. - ·Gainsaying what she sought.

The following account of Joan of Arc is extracted from à history of the siege of Orleans, "prise de mot à mot, sans aucun changement de langage, d'un vieil exemplaire escrit a la main en parchemin, et trouvé en la maison de la dicte ville d'Orleans; Troyes, 1621: "—

"Or en ce temps avoit une jeunne fille au pais de Lorraine, aagee de dix-huict ans ou environ, nommee Janne, natifue d'un paroisse nomme Dompre, fille d'un laboureur nomme Jacques Tart; qui jamais n'avoit fait autre chose que garder les bestes aux champs, a la quelle, ainsi qu'elle disoit, avoit estè revelè que Dieu vouloit qu'elle allast devers le Roi Charles Septiesme, pour luy aider et le conseiller a recouvrer son royaume et ses villes et places que les Anglois avoient conquises en ses pays. La quelle revelation elle n'osa dire ses pere et mere, pource qu'elle sçavoit bien que jamais n'eussent consenty qu'elle y fust allee; et le persuada tant qu'il la mena devers un gentelhomme nomme Messire Robert de Baudricourt, qui pour lors estoit cappitaine de la ville, ou Chasteau de Vaucouleur, qui est assez prochain de la: auquel elle pria tres instanment qu'il la fist mener devers le Roy de France, en leur disant qu'il estoit tres necessaire qu'elle parlast a luy pour le bien de son royaume, et que elle luy feroit grand secours et aide a recouvrer son dict royaume, et que Dieu le vouloit ainsi, et que il luy avoit esté revelé par plusieurs fois. Des quelles parolles il ne faissoit que rire et se mocquer et la reputoit incensee: toutes fois elle persevera tant et si longuement qu'il luy bailla un gentelhomme, nommé Ville Robert, et quelque nombre de gens, les quels la menerent devers le roy que pour lors estoit a Chinon."

NOTE 4, p. 26. Of eighteen years.

This agrees with the account of her age given by Holinshed, who calls her "a young wench of an eighteene years old. Of favour was she counted likesome; of person stronglie made, and manlie; of courage great, hardie, and stout withall; an

understander of counsels, though she were not at them; greet semblance of chastitie both of bodie and behaviour; the name of Jesus in hir mouth about all her businesses; humble, obedient, and fasting divers days in the weeke."- Holinshed, 600.

De Serres speaks thus of her: "A young maiden named Joan of Arc, born in a village upon the Marches of Barre called Domremy, neere to Vaucouleurs, of the age of eighteene or twenty years, issued from base parents. Her father was named James of Arc, and her mother Isabel, poore country folkes, who had brought her up to keep their cattell. She said with great boldnesse that she had a revelation how to succour the king; how he might be able to chase the English from Orleance; and after that to cause the king to be crowned at Rheims, and to put him fully and wholly in possession of his realme.

"After she had delivered this to her father, mother, and their neighbours, she presumed to go to the Lord of Baudricourt, Provost of Vaucoleurs. She boldly delivered unto him, after an extraordinary manner, all these great mysteries, as much wished for of all men as not hoped for; especially coming from the mouth of a poore country maide, whom they might with more reason beleeve to be possessed of some melancholy humour, than divinely inspired, being the instrument of so many excellent remedies, in so desperat a season, after the vaine striving of so great and famous personages. At the first, he mocked and reproved her; but having heard her with more patience, and judging by her temperate discourse and modest countenance that she spoke not idely, in the end he resolves to present her to the king for his discharge. So she arrives at Chinon, the sixt day of May, attired like a man.

"She had a modest countenance, sweet, civill, and resolute; her discourse was temperate, reasonable, and retired; her actions cold, shewing great chastity. Having spoken to the king, or noblemen with whom she was to negociate, she presently retired to her lodging, with an old woman that guided her, without vanity, affectation, babling, or courtly lightnesse. These are the manners which the Original attributes to her."

Edward Grimeston, the translator, calls her in the margin, "Joane the Virgin, or rather Witch."

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NOTE 5, p. 28.

Lest He in wrath confound me.

"Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

"Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak; for I am a child.

"But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child; for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee; and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak.

66

Thou, therefore, gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them." — Jeremiah, chap. i.

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Taught wisdom to mankind.

"But as for the mighty man, he had the earth, and the honorable man dwelt in it.

66 Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom." - Job.

NOTE 7, p. 31.

Rush o'er the land, and desolate and kill.

"While the English and French contend for dominion, sovereignty, and life itself, men's goods in France were violently taken by the license of war, churches spoiled, men everywhere murthered or wounded, others put to death or tortured, matrons ravished, maids forcibly drawn from out their parents' arms to be deflowered; towns daily taken, daily spoyled, daily defaced; the riches of the inhabitants carried whither the conquerors think good; houses and villages round about set on fire; no kind of cruelty is left unpractised upon the miserable French, omitting many hundred kind of other calamities which all at once oppressed them. Add hereunto that the commonwealth, being destitute of the help of laws (which for the most part are mute in times of war and mutiny), floateth up and down without any anchorage at right or justice. Neither was England herself void of these mischiefs, who every day heard the news

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