SCENE II.

France. Before Orleans.

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

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

vens,

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 tyed 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.

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 muse, as the astronomers 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 sees me go back one foot, or fly.

[Exeunt.

Alarums; Excursions; afterwards a Retreat.

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. Froissard, 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 signify-the prey for which they are hungry. STEEvens.

7 England all Olivers and Rowlands bred,] These were two of the most famous in the list of Charlemagne's twelve peers; and their exploits are rendered so ridiculously and equally extravagant by the old romancers, that from hence 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.

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

MALONE.

More truly now may this be verified;

For none but Samsons, and Goliasses,

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

CHAR. Let's leave this town; for they are hairbrain'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 gimmals or de-

vice,

Their arms are set, like clocks,' still to strike on;

And hunger will enforce them to be more cager:] The preposition to should be omitted, as injurious to the measure, and unnecessary in the old elliptical mode of writing. So, Act IV. sc. i. of this play:

"Let me persuade you take a better course."

i, e. to take &c. The error pointed out, occurs again in p. 31: "Piel'd priest, dost thou command me to be shut out?" STEEVENS. 9 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 chest with gimmals and key." Again: "Three other chests with gimmals of silver 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. Act IV. sc. ii. STEEVENS.

1 Their arms are set, like clocks,] Perhaps our author was thinking of the clocks in which figures in the shape of men struck the hours. Of these there were many in his time.

MALONE. Το go like clockwork, is still a phrase in common use, to express STEEVENS.

a regular and constant motion.

Else ne'er could they hold out so, as they do.
By my consent, we'll e'en 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,2 thrice welcome to us. BAST. Methinks, your looks are sad, your cheer appall❜d;3

* Bastard of Orleans,] That this in former times was not a term of reproach, see Bishop Hurd's Letters on Chivalry and Romance, in the third volume of his Dialogues, p. 233, who observing on circumstances of agreement between the heroick and Gothick manners, says that " Bastardy was in credit with both." One of William the Conqueror's charters begins" Ego Gulielmus cognomento Bastardus." And in the reign of Edward I. John Earl Warren and Surrey being called before the King's Justices to show by what title he held his lands, produxit in medium gladium antiquum evaginatum-et ait, Ecce Domini mei, ecce war

rantum meum! Antecessores mei cum Willo Bastardo venientes conquesti sunt terras suas, &c. Dugd. Orig. Jurid. p. 13. Dugd. Bar. of Eng. Vol. I. Blount 9.

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

VAILLANT.

Bastardy was reckoned no disgrace among the ancients. See the eighth Iliad, in which the illegitimacy of Teucer is mentioned as a panegyric upon him, ver. 284:

3

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

STEEVENS.

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

M. MASON.

Cheer, rather signifies-countenance. So, in A MidsummerNight's Dream:

"All fancy-sick she 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 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,5
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:

nine sibyls of old Rome;] 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.

3

Believe my words,] It should be read:

Believe her words. JOHNSON.

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

MALONE.