Anon, from thy insulting tyranny,

Coupled in bonds of perpetuity,

Two Talbots, winged through the lither sky,
In thy despite, shall 'scape mortality.-

O thou whose wounds become hard-favour'd death,
Speak to thy father, ere thou yield thy breath:
Brave death by speaking, whether he will, or no;
Imagine him a Frenchman, and thy foe.-

Poor boy! he smiles, methinks; as who should say—
Had death been French, then death had died to-day.
Come, come, and lay him in his father's arms;
My spirit can no longer bare these harms.
Soldiers, adieu! I have what I would have,

Now my old arms are young John Talbot's grave. [Dies. Alarums: Exeunt Soldiers and Servants, leaving the two Bodies. Enter CHARLES, ALENÇON, BURGUNDY, Bastard, LA PUCELLE, and Forces.

Char. Had York and Somerset brought rescue in, We should have found a bloody day of this.

Bast. How the young whelp of Talbot's, raging-wood," Did flesh his puny sword in Frenchmen's blood!3 Puc. Once I encounter'd him, and thus I said, Thou maiden youth be vanquish'd by a maid: But with a proud, majestical high scorn,

It is not improbable that Shakspeare borrowed this idea from one of the cuts to that most exquisite work called Imagines Mortis, commonly ascribed to the pencil of Holbein, but without any authority. See the 7th print. Douce.

6-winged through the lither sky,] Lither is flexible or yielding. In much the same sense Milton says: He with broad sails

65

"Winnow'd the buxom air."

That is, the obsequious air. Johnson.

7 raging-wood,] That is, raging mad. So, in Heywood's Dialogues containing a Number of effectual Proverbs, 1562: "She was, as they say, horn-wood."

Again, in The longer thou livest the more fool thou art, 1570: "He will fight as he were wood." Steevens.

8

in Frenchmen's blood!] The return of rhyme where young Talbot is again mentioned, and in no other place, strengthens the suspicion that these verses were originally part of some other work, and were copied here only to save the trouble of composing rew. Johnson.

He answer'd thus; Young Talbot was not born
To be the pillage of a giglot wench:9

So, rushing in the bowels of the French,1
He left me proudly, as unworthy fight.

Bur. Doubtless, he would have made a noble knight: See, where he lies inhersed in the arms

Of the most bloody nurser of his harms.

Bast. Hew them to pieces, hack their bones asunder;
Whose life was England's glory, Gallia's wonder.
Char. O, no; forbear for that which we have fled
During the life, let us not wrong it dead.

Enter Sir WILLIAM LUCY, attended; a French
Herald preceding.

Lucy. Herald,

Conduct me to the Dauphin's tent; to know
Who hath obtain'd2 the glory of the day.

Char. On what submissive message art thou sent? Lucy. Submission, Dauphin? 'tis a mere French word; We English warriors wot not what it means.

I come to know what prisoners thou hast taʼen,
And to survey the bodies of the dead.

Char. For prisoners ask'st thou? hell our prison is. But tell me whom thou seek'st.

Lucy. Where is the great Alcides3 of the field, Valiant lord Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury?

Created, for his rare success in arms,

4

Great earl of Washford, Waterford, and Valence;

- of a giglot wench:] Giglot is a wanton, or a strumpet.

Johnson. The word is used by Gascoigne and other authors, though now quite obsolete. Steevens.

1

in the bowels of the French,] So, in the first part of Jeronimo, 1605:

"Meet, Don Andrea! yes, in the battle's bowels." Steevens. 2 Herald,

Conduct me to the Dauphin's tent; to know Who hath obtain'd] Lucy's message implied that he knew who had obtained the victory: therefore sir T. Hanmer reads: Herald, conduct me to the Dauphin's tent. Johnson.

3 Where is the great Alcides -] Old copy-But where 's. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. The compositor probably caught the word But from the preceding line. Malone.

Great earl of Washford,] It appears from Camden's Britannnia and Holinshed's Chronicle of Ireland, that Wexford was anciently

Lord Talbot of Goodrig and Urchinfield,

Lord Strange of Blackmere, lord Verdun of Alton,
Lord Cromwell of Wingfield, lord Furnival of Sheffield,
The thrice victorious lord of Falconbridge;
Knight of the noble order of saint George,
Worthy saint Michael, and the golden fleece;
Great mareshal to Henry the sixth,

Of all his wars within the realm of France?
Puc. Here is a silly stately style indeed!
The Turk, that two and fifty kingdoms hath,5
Writes not so tedious a style as this.-

Him, that thou magnifiest with all these titles,
Stinking, and fly-blown, lies here at our feet.

Lucy. Is Talbot slain; the Frenchmen's only scourge, Your kingdom's terror and black Nemesis?

O, were mine eye-balls into bullets turn'd,
That I, in rage, might shoot them at your faces!

O, that I could but call these dead to life!

It were enough to fright the realm of France:
Were but his picture left among you here,

It would amaze the proudest of you all.
Give me their bodies; that I may bear them hence,
And give them burial as beseems their worth.

called Weysford. In Crompton's Mansion of Magnanimitie it is written as here, Washford. This long list of titles is taken from the epitaph formerly fixed on Lord Talbot's tomb in Rouen in Normandy. Where this author found it, I have not been able to ascertain, for it is not in the common historians. The oldest book in which I have met with it is the tract above mentioned, which was printed in 1599, posterior to the date of this play. Numerous as this list is, the epitaph has one more, which, I suppose, was only rejected because it would not easily fall into the verse, "Lord Lovetoft of Worsop." It concludes as here,"Lord Falconbridge, Knight of the noble order of St. George, St. Michael, and the golden fleece, Great Marshall to King Henry VI, of his realm in France, who died in the battle of Bourdeaux, 1453." Malone.

5 The Turk, &c.] Alluding probably to the ostentatious letter of Sultan Solyman the Magnificent, to the Emperor Ferdinand, 1562; in which all the Grand Seignor's titles are enumerated. See Knolles's History of the Turks, 5th edit. p 789. Grey.

6 amaze Ji. e. (as in other instances) confound, throw into consternation. So, in Cymbeline:

"I am amaz'd with matter

Steevens.

47011

Puc. I think, this upstart is old Talbot's ghost,
He speaks with such a proud commanding spirit.
For God's sake, let him have 'em;7 to keep them here,
They would but stink, and putrefy the air.

Char. Go, take their bodies hence.
Lucy.

I'll bear them hence:

But from their ashes shall be rear'd

A phoenix that shall make all France afeard.

Char. So we be rid of them, do with 'em what thou wilt.9

And now to Paris, in this conquering vein;
All will be ours now bloody Talbot's slain.

[Exeunt.

ACT V..... SCENE I.1

London. A Room in the Palace.

Enter King HENRY, GLOSTER, and EXETER.

K. Hen. Have you perus'd the letters from the pope, The emperor, and the earl of Armagnac?

Glo. I have, my lord; and their intent is this,

7 let him have 'em;] Old copy-have him. So, a little lower,-do with him. The first emendation was made by Mr. Theobald; the other by the editor of the second folio. Malone, 8 But from their ashes shall be rear'd

A phanix &c.] The defect in the metre shews that some word of two syllables was inadvertently omitted; probably an epithet to ashes. Malone.

So, in the Third Part of this play:

"My ashes, as the phoenix, shall bring forth

"A bird that will revenge upon you all."

Sir Thomas Hanmer, with great probability reads:

But from their ashes, Dauphin, &c. Steevens.

9 So we be rid of them, do with 'em what thou wilt.] I suppose. for the sake of metre, the useless words-with 'em should be omitted. Steevens.

1 In the original copy, the transcriber or printer forgot to mark the commencement of the fifth Act; and has by mistake called this scene, Scene II. The editor of the second folio made a very absurd regulation by making the Act begin in the middle of the preceding scene, (where the Dauphin, &c. enter, and take notice of the dead bodies of Talbot and his son,) which was inad vertently followed in subsequent editions. Malone.

They humbly sue unto your excellence,

To have a godly peace concluded of,

Between the realms of England and of France.
K. Hen. How doth your grace affect their motion?
Glo. Well, my good lord; and as the only means
To stop effusion of our Christian blood,

And 'stablish quietness on every side.

K. Hen. Ay, marry, uncle; for I always thought,
It was both impious and unnatural,

That such immanity and bloody strife
Should reign among professors of one faith.

Glo. Beside, my lord,-the sooner to effect,
And surer bind, this knot of amity,—
The earl of Armagnac-near knit to Charles,
A man of great authority in France,-
Proffers his only daughter to your grace

In marriage, with a large and sumptuous dowry.
K. Hen. Marriage, uncle? alas! my years are young
And fitter is my study and my books,

Than wanton dalliance with a paramour.
Yet, call the ambassadors; and, as you please,
So let them have their answers every one:
I shall be well content with any choice,
Tends to God's glory, and my country's weal.
Enter a Legate, and Two Ambassadors, with WINK
CHESTER, in a Cardinal's Habit.

Exe. What! is my lord of Winchester install'd,
And call'd unto a cardinal's degree!*

2

3

immanity —] i. e. barbarity, savageness. Steevens.

my years are young;] His majesty, however, was twentyfour years old. Malone.

A What! is my lord of Winchester install'd,

And call'd unto a cardinal's degree!] This, (as Mr. Edwards has observed in his MS. notes,) argues a great forgetfulness in the .poet. In the first Act Gloster says:

"I'll canvass thee in thy broad cardinal's hat:" and it is strange that the Duke of Exeter should not know of his advancement. Steevens.

It should seem from the stage-direction prefixed to this seene, and from the conversation between the Legate and Winchester, that the author meant it to be understood that the bishop had obtained his cardinal's hat only just before his present entry. The inaccuracy, therefore, was in making Gloster address him by VOL. X.

K