the third messenger brings news, was fought on the 18th of June, 1428. This was a poet's use of history, whereby Shakespeare very boldly, in plays wholly his own, drew afterwards the soul out of the accidents of life. Of the action of the Second Scene, the raising of the siege of Orleans, the historical date is May 8, 1429. Faction at home is set in the Fourth Scenebased on an incident of October, 1426-between the Third and Fifth, which show the revival of French power by Joan of Arc.

In the Second Act the establishment of the factions of the Red and White Roses of Lancaster and York is set, in a scene wholly imagined by the poet, between the prowess of Talbot and a scene of the death of old Mortimer, which shows us how the feud began. The Mortimer of history did not die in confinement, and he was not an old man when he died.

King Henry VI. does not appear upon the stage till the Third Act, when he is in the Parliament at Leicester, which took place, historically, in the third year of his reign. He was at that time a child not fully five years old. In the play, of course, he is advanced to a stage of boyhood more capable of thought, but still a child, who asks, "What, shall a child instruct you what to do?" Discords at home are shown before we turn again to the adventures of Talbot and the growing

dangers of the situation in France. The danger last in evidence is the defection of Burgundy, of which the historical date was 1435. Then King Henry, in France, meets Talbot, and creates him Earl of Shrewsbury. But the Third Act closes immediately afterwards 'with words of feud between two Englishmen.

The coronation of Henry VI. in Paris opens the Fourth Act. Its historical date is the 17th of December, 1430, when the king's age was about ten. Talbot's plucking of the Garter from the knee of Sir John Fastolfe brings courage and cowardice into dramatic contrast. When Shakespeare took the name of Falstaff to replace that of Sir John Oldcastle in his King Henry IV. he had probably this piece of early work in mind. Sir John Fastolfe really was accused of cowardice shown at the battle of Patay, and really was deprived of his Garter. But it was restored to him after fair hearing of his case. The factious strife between the English is then still further emphasised by claims of right of combat between servants of the rival lords, and the scene ends with the comment of Exeter:

"No simple man that sees

This jarring discord of nobility,

This shouldering of each other in the court,
This factious bandying of their favourites,

But that it doth presage some ill event.

"Tis much, when sceptres are in children's hands,
But more, when envy breeds unkind division;
There comes the ruin, there begins confusion."

The rest of the Fourth Act shows how the rivalries of those who should have sent troops to Talbot stay their hands. Armies encompass the brave Englishman, and we are shown his end. It may have been Shakespeare who rhymed, as into a distinct idyll, the scene of the last hour between father and son.

The Fifth Act closes the play with terms of peace, with the condemnation of Joan of Arc, promise of homage to England by the King of France, and Suffolk's capture of Margaret of Anjou-in 1444, when her age was sixteen-yielding himself to her charms while resolving that she shall be Henry the Sixth's queen.

Thus there is unity of plan in the construction of the play, and in its close we may find evidence of a design to carry on the tale of ills that follow upon civil feud.

H. M.

FIRST PART OF KING HENRY VI.

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

MARGARET, daughter to Reignier, afterwards married to King Henry.

COUNTESS OF AUVERGNE. JOAN LA PUCELLE, commonly called Joan of Arc.

Lords, Warders of the Tower,
Heralds, Officers, Soldiers,
Messengers, and Attend-

Fiends appearing to La Pucelle.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-Westminster Abbey.

Dead March. Enter the Funeral of King Henry V., attended on by the Duke of BEDFORD, Regent of France; the Duke of GLOSTER, Protector; the Duke of EXETER, the Earl of WARWICK, the Bishop of WINCHESTER, Heralds, etc.

Bed. Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night!

Comets, importing change of times and states,
Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky,

And with them scourge the bad revolting stars
That have consented unto Henry's death!
King Henry the Fifth, too famous to live long!
England ne'er lost a king of so much worth.

Glo. England ne'er had a king until his time.
Virtue he had, deserving to command;

His brandished sword did blind men with his

beams;

His arms spread wider than a dragon's wings;
His sparkling eyes, replete with wrathful fire,
More dazzled and drove back his enemies