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THE FIRST PART OF

If Sir John Fastolfe had not play'd the co
He, being in the vaward, plac'd behind
With purpose to relieve and follow them,
Cowardly fled, not having struck one strok
Hence grew the general wrack and massad
Enclosed were they with their enemies.
A base Walloon, to win the Dauphin's gra
Thrust Talbot with a spear into the back;
Whom all France, with their chief assemble
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 foemen is betray'd.

131. Fastolfe] Theobald; Falstaff Ff. 132. vaward] (Theobald conj.). 135. wrack] Ff, Craig; wreck Ste 137. Walloon] Ff 3, 4; Wallon Ff 1, 2. 139. their ch Ff 3, 4.

was in support (pla
vanguard, which wa
Talbot himself.
raised objections, bu
be foremost. In Gre
Censure to Philautus
"Clytomaches, who
could daunt
owne resolution, wa
vawarde."

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[ACT I.

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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.

145

150

155

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Mess. So you had need; for Orleans is besieg'd;
The English army is grown weak and faint;
The Earl of Salisbury craveth supply,
And hardly keeps his men from mutiny,
Since they, so few, watch such a multitude.

rereward Hanmer

teevens, Cambridge. chief] Ff 1, 2; tha

placed behind) of the was probably led by The passage but somebody had o Greene's Euphues H us (Grosart, vi. 275 mose courage no pen . for proofe of his was foremost in th

ind] A military use

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Exe. Remember, lords, your oaths to Henry sworn, Either to quell the Dauphin utterly,

Or bring him in obedience to your yoke.

Bed. I do remember it; and here take my leave, To go about my preparation.

Glou. I'll to the Tower with all the haste I can,

To view th' artillery and munition; And then I will proclaim young Henry king. Exe. To Eltham will I, where the young king is, Being ordain'd his special governor ;

149. Dauphin] Dolphin Ff (throughout).

146. Scales

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Hungerford] See note at line 116 above. 149. hale headlong] Compare Marlowe, Tamburlaine, Part II. iv. 3 (65, a): Haling him headlong to the lowest hell."

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154. our great Saint George's feast] Held regularly on 23rd April in Shakespeare's time. Nichols has "Feast of St. George now kept," 1560 (i. 88); and "Feast of St. George observed at Utrecht," 1586 (ii. 455-57). A full account of the ceremonies and banqueting will be found at the later reference.

160

165

[Exit.

[Exit.

165. my] omitted Ff 2, 3, 4.

170

battayle, and to subdue by force.. Wherefore he having together ten thousand good Englishe men (besides Normans) departed out of Paris in warlike fashion and passed through Brie to Monstrell, Faultyow, and there sent by Bedforde his Herault letters to the French king" (Grafton, i. 583, ed. 1809).

156. all Europe] See "all France," above, line 139.

162. to Henry sworn] See note at line 70, above.

168. munition] war materials. again King John, v. ii. 98.

See

as in III. ii. 127. icle, i. 296: "plan en of warre in sundr See Much A

es.

1. iii. 159. Sose] on purpose, de e Merchant of Veni John, v. vii. 86. an inhabitant of the ween the Netherland De country itself, as it

e] See again "
6 below; and "
vi. 15; "through
Midsummer Night
Compare (Peele's
e are here four cap
aw, Wat Tyler, Ho
Miller: Search
nd four such captains
pod I'll be hanged
V.386). And Peele
a): "My lordes, 't
ny is in all Wales."

155. Ten thousand soldiers] "The
Duke of Bedford hearing that these
townes had returned to the parte of his
adversaries, and that Charles late
Dolphin had taken upon him the name
and estate of the King of Fraunce
were driven only to

overcome by

171. his special governor] "The Citie of Mouns thus being reduced into the English mens hands, the Lorde Talbot departed to the towne of Alanson. After which marciall feate manfully acheeved, the Erle of Warwike

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And for his safety there I'll best devise.
Win. Each hath his place and function to atten
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.

Windsore, to the en governaunce as him 563).

176. Eltham] Men 156. A favourite p kings of England do Henry VIII., when i importance to Green frequented by Elizab hunting and the hea "As for tythyngs h way at Eltham and at and to sport hym Parlement, and the Prynce byth in Wal with hir the Duc other" (Paston Lette

177. sit at chiefes chiefest place of gu affairs. Stern is rud this sense in Whetst Cassandra, part i. Plays): "I am the their thoughts."

177. public weal] A sion occurring again iii. 189. It is in G 258, 259): "rulde the Persey" (Persia). Th in Grafton's Continud (1543), as at p. 574, is

[Exit

end:

175

[Exeunt.

176. send] Ft,

entent to put him in

liste" (Grafton, p.

entioned again, III. i. palace of the early own to the reign of it began to yield in wich. It was much Deth and James for ealthy air of Kent. here, the Kyng is Grenewych to hunt there, byding the e Quene and the ys alway. And is of Excestre and rs, Oct. 12, 1460), t stern] be in the uidance of public der. It occurs in cone's Promos and (p. 11, Six Old stern that guides A standard expresin Coriolanus, II. olding's Ovid (iv epublike weal Of e usual expression tion of Hardyng 'public weal."

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SCENE II.-France. Before Orleans.

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

Cha. 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:

France. Before Orleans] Before Orleans in France Theobald.
Flourish] F 1, omitted Ff 2, 3, 4; Flourish, Craig.

1. Mars his] So in Troilus and Cressida several times; in The Tempest and Hamlet the reading is Mars's. Peele has "Mars his sworn man," "his knights," etc., very often. Golding has "Mars his snake" (Ovid, iii. 671).

1. Mars his true moving] Steevens referred to Nashe for a curious parallel here. The passage is in "To the Reader" prefixed to Have with you to Saffron Walden (Grosart's Nashe, iii. 28), 1596: "Nay, then, Esopum non attriuistis, 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 attaine too." It was the motions of Mars, watched for many long years by Tycho Brahe, and studied for twenty years by Kepler, which enabled the latter, in 1609, to complete his labours and lead the planet captive.

6. we lie near Orleans] "After this [see note at line 171] in the Moneth of September, he [Salisbury] layde his siege on the one side of the water of Loyre and besieged the towne of Orleaunce, before whose comming, the Bastard of Orleaunce, and the Byshop of the Citie and a great number of Scottes hering of the Erles intent, made divers fortifications about the towne, and destroyed the suburbes, in the which were xij Parishe Churches, and foure orders of Friers. They cut also downe all the vines, trees and bushes within five leagues of the towne, so that the Englishe men should have

5

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8. Faintly] feebly, weakly. pare Tamburlaine, Part I. ii. I: With unwilling soldiers faintly arm'd" (Dyce, 13, b).

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9. porridge] Compare Nashe, Foure Letters Confuted (Grosart, ii. 285), 1592: Amongst all other stratagems and puissant engins, what say you to Mates Pumpe in Cheapside, to pumpe over mutton and porridge into Fraunce? this colde weather our souldiers, I can tell you, have need of it, and, poore field mise, they have almost got the colicke and stone with eating of provant." A suggestive parallel. See lines II, 12.

9. They want their . . . bull-beeves] To eat bull beef was supposed to confer courage. The expression had a proverbial use. Thus Gascoigne, An Apologie of the School of Abuse (Arber, p. 64), 1579: "They have eaten bulbief, and threatned highly, too put water in my woortes, whensoever they catche me; I hope it is but a coppy of their countenance, Ad diem fortasse minitantur. Shrewde kyne shall have shorte hornes." And Nashe, Preface to Sidney's Astrophel and Stella (Arber's English Garner, i. 500), 1591: “they bear out their sails as proudly as if they were ballasted with bull beef." "To look as if he had eaten bull-beef" is in Ray's Proverbs (ed. 1678).

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THE FIRST PART OF

Either they must be dieted like mules
And have their provender tied to their mo
Or piteous they will look, like drowned m
Reig. Let's raise the siege: why live we idly
Talbot is taken, whom we wont to fear:
Remaineth none but mad-brain'd Salisbury
And he may well in fretting spend his gal
Nor men nor money hath he to make war.
Cha. Sound, sound alarum! we will rush on th
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.

Here Alarum; they are beaten back by the Englis
Re-enter CHARLES, ALENÇON, and RE

Cha. Who ever saw the like? what men have
Dogs! cowards! dastards! I would ne'er
But that they left me 'midst my enemies.
11, 12. And have . . . mice] misplaced in Ff. 2, 3, 4 afte
loss] Ff.
Re-enter...] Enter . . . Ff. and Rei
the rest. Capell.

IO, II. mules... provender tied
to their mouths] Compare Nashe,
Summers Last Will (Grosart, vi.
137):-

"Except the Cammell have his pro-
vender

Hung at his mouth he will not
travell on."

And Marlowe, Tamburlaine, Part II.
III. v. 10б:-

"I'll have you learn to feed on
provender

And in a stable lie."
Horse food.

12. piteous... like drowned mice]
usually rats.

"He lokyd furyous as a wyld
catte,

And pale of hew like a drouned
ratte "

(Colyn Blowbres Testament (circa 1500),
Hazlitt's Early Popular Poetry, i. 93).
And Udall's Erasmus, 1542 (Robert's
reprint, p. 203): "Three heares on a
side, like a drowned ratte." And
Churchyard's Queen's Entertainment in
Suffolk, 1578 (Nichols' Progresses, ii.
201): pastime to see us looke like
drowned rattes."

(Grosart, iv. 257): that mad-braine fon

16. spend his go bitterness of spirit sume his gall with Queene, III. x. 18) inward gall with dee 1. ii. 6).

17. men nor mone Scene i. and note, li

21. Here Alarum, no such occurrence but compare the follo agious Bastard, aft continued three wee of the gate of the with the Englishmen him with so fierce a that he was with al pelled to retire and Citie: but the Engl them so fast, in kyll their enemies, that them the Bulwarke which with a great T the ende of the sam continent by the E which conflict many taken, but mo were keeping of the Tow was committed to W Esquire" (Grafton, i.

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