Tul. With scoffs, and scorns, and contumelious taunts.

In open market-place produc'd they me,
To be a public spectacle to all :

Here, said they, is the terror of the French,
The scarecrow that affrights our children so.
Then broke I from the officers that led me;
And with my nails digg'd stones out of the
ground,

To hurl at the beholders of my shame.
My grisly countenance made others fly;

None durst come near, for fear of sudden death.

In iron walls they deem'd me not secure ;

So great fear of my name 'mongst them was spread,

That they suppos'd I could rend bars of steel,
And spurn in pieces posts of adamant :
Wherefore a guard of chosen shot I had,
That walk'd about me every minute-while;
And if I did but stir out of my bed,

Ready they were to shoot me to the heart.

Sal. I grieve to hear what torments you endur'd;

But we will be reveng'd sufficiently.
Now it is supper-time in Orleans:

a

Here, through this grate, I count each one,
And view the Frenchmen how they fortify;
Let us look in, the sight will much delight
thec.

Sir Thomas Gargrave, and sir William Glans

dale,

Let me have your express opinions,
Where is best place to make our battery next.
Gar. I think, at the north gate; for there
stand lords.

Glan. And I, here, at the bulwark of the bridge.

Tal. For aught I sec, this city must be famish'd.

Or with light skirmishes enfeebled.

[Shot from the town. SALISBURY and Sir THO. GARGRAVE fall. Sal. O Lord, have mercy on us, wretched sinners!

Gar. O Lord, have mercy on me, woeful man!

Tal. What chance is this that suddenly hath cross'd us?

Speak, Salisbury; at least, if thou canst speak;
How far'st thou, mirror of all martial men?
One of thy eyes, and thy check's side struck
off!-

a The second folio, reads,

"Here, through this grate I can count every one."

Accursed tower! accursed fatal hand,
That hath contriv'd this woeful tragedy!
In thirteen battles Salisbury o'ercame ;
Henry the fifth he first train'd to the wars;
Whilst any trump did sound, or drum struck up,
His sword did ne'er leave striking in the field.
Yet liv'st thou, Salisbury? though thy speech
doth fail,

One eye thou hast, to look to heaven for grace:
The sun with one eye vieweth all the world.
Heaven, be thou gracious to none alive,
If Salisbury wants mercy at thy hand!
Bear hence his body, I will help to bury it.
Sir Thomas Gargrave, hast thou any life?
Speak unto Talbot; nay, look up to him.
Salisbury, cheer thy spirit with this comfort;
Thou shalt not die, whiles-

He beckons with his hand, and smiles on me;
As who should say, 'When I am dead and

gone,

Remember to avenge me on the French.'-
Plantagenet, I will; and like thee, Nero,"
Play on the lute, beholding the towns burn:
Wretched shall France be only in my name.

[Thunder heard; afterwards an alarum. What stir is this? What tumult's in the heavens? Whence cometh this alarum, and the noise? Enter a Messenger.

Mess My lord, my lord, the French have gather'd head:

The Dauphin, with one Joan la Pucelle join'd,— A holy prophetess, new risen up,—

Is come with a great power to raise the siege. [SALISBURY groans.

Tal. Hear, hear, how dying Salisbury doth groan!

b

It irks his heart he cannot be reveng'd.-
Frenchmen, I'll be a Salisbury to you :-
Pucelle or puzzel, dolphin or dogfish,
Your hearts I'll stamp out with my horse's
heels,

And make a quagmire of your mingled brains.
Convey me Salisbury into his tent,

And then we'll try what these dastard Frenchmen dare.

[Exeunt, bearing out the bodies.

As you fly from your oft-subdued slaves.

[Alarum. Another skirmish.
It will not be :-Retire into your trenches :
You all consented unto Salisbury's death,
For none would strike a stroke in his revenge.-
Pucelle is enter'd into Orleans,

In spite of us, or aught that we could do.
O, would I were to die with Salisbury!
The shame hereof will make me hide my
head!

[Alarum. Retreat. Exeunt TALBOT and
his Forces, Sc.

SCENE VI.-The same.

Enter, on the walls, PUCELLE, CHARLES, REIGNIER, ALENÇON, and Soldiers.

Puc. Advance our waving colours on the walls;

Rescued is Orleans from the English wolves :"-
Thus Joan la Pucelle hath perform'd her word.
Char. Divinest creature, bright Astræa's b
daughter,

How shall I honour thee for this success?
Thy promises are like Adonis' gardens,
That one day bloom'd, and fruitful were the
next.-

France, triumph in thy glorious prophetess !—
Recover'd is the town of Orleans:

More blessed hap did ne'er befall our state.
Reig. Why ring not out the bells aloud
throughout the town?
Dauphin, command the citizens make bonfires,
And feast and banquet in the open streets,
To celebrate the joy that God hath given us.

Alen. All France will be replete with mirth

In memory of her, when she is dead,
Her ashes, in an urn more precious
Than the rich jewell'd coffer of Darius,"

The expression of the text, and the explanation, are found in a passage of Puttenham's Arte of Engli shPoesie,' 1589"In what price the noble poems of Homer were holden with Alexander the Great, insomuch that every night they were laid under his pillow, and by day were carried in the rich jewel-coffer of Darius, lately before vanquished by Aim in battle."

1 SCENE I." Hung be the heavens with black." "THE Covering, or internal roof, of the theatre was anciently termed the heavens." Malone, in his History of the Stage,' has collected some passages from old writers to prove this. The passage before us would warrant us in believing that upon the performance of tragedy the roof, or heavens, underwent some gloomy transformation. There is a similar allusion in Marston's 'Insatiate Countess :'

"The stage of heaven is hung with solemn black,
A time best fitting to act tragedies."

Mr. Whiter ('Specimen of a Commentary,' &c.) has a long and very ingenious passage to prove, that several of the poetical images of Shakspere are derived from this association.

2 SOENE II." Now am I like that proud insulting ship,

Which Cæsar and his fortune bare at once." The comparison was suggested by a passage in Plutarch's Life of Cæsar,' thus translated by

It was a favourite theory with the commentators upon Shakspere, after the time of Dr. Farmer, that the acquired knowledge of the poet was of the most limited character. According to these critics, he was not only unable to read any language but his own, but his power even of reading in English books was limited in a degree that would indicate him to have been the most idle or the most incurious of mankind. Malone's favourite opinion is, that Shakspere consulted but one historical writer for the materials of his Histories. In a note upon the passage in the first act of Henry V. in which the King of France is erroneously called King Louis the tenth," Malone says that Holinshed led Shakspere into the mistake, and that Hall calls the King correctly Charles the ninth; and he adds,-"Here, therefore, we have a decisive proof that our author's guide in all his historical plays was Holinshed, and not Hall." In a note upon the second act of the First Part of Henry VI., where an English soldier enters, crying, "A Talbot, a Talbot!" the same critic says, "I have quoted a passage from Hall's Chronicle, which probably furnished the author of this play with this circumstance. It is not mentioned by Holinshed (Shakspeare's historian), and is one of the numerous proofs that have convinced me that this play was not the production of our author."

Without entering into a discussion in this place as to the value of Malone's argument that Shakspere was not the author of the First Part of Henry VI. because the author of that play had evidently consulted Hall's Chronicle, we must express a decided opinion of the worthlessness of this point, in justification of our intention to illustrate the play before us by passages taken indifferently from Hall or Holinshed. We believe that the question whether Shakspere was the author of the First Part of Henry VI. is not in the slightest degree affected by the circumstance that the author of this play appears to have been familiar with the narrative of Hall, in which the circumstances of this period of history are given more in detail than by Holinshed. It was perfectly impossible that any writer who undertook to produce four dramas upon the subject of the wars of York and Lancaster should not have gone to Hall's Chronicle as an authority; for that book is expressly on the subject of these The original edition of 1548 bears this title: The Vnion of the two noble and illustre Famelies of Lancastre and Yorke, beeying long in continual discension for the croune of this noble realme, with all the actes done in bothe the tymes of the princes, bothe of the one linage and of the other, beginnyng at the tyme of Kyng Henry the fowerth, the first Aurthor of this deuision, and so

wars.

civil wars particularly to Hall, it is manifest that for some of his details he would go to the book especially devoted to the subject, in which they were treated more fully than in the abridgment which he generally consulted. For example, in Holinshed's narrative of the pathetic interview between Talbot and his son, before they both fell at the battle of Chatillon, we have no dialogue between the father and son, but simply, "Many words he used to persuade him to have saved his life." In Hall we have the very words at length which the poet has paraphrased. We repeat, therefore, that we shall quote indifferently from Hall and Holinshed passages illustrating this play, without considering that the question of its authorship is in the slightest degree involved in thus tracing the footsteps of its author.

The play opens with the funeral of Henry V. In this, as it appears to us, there is great dramatic judgment. The death of that prince, who was the conqueror of France and the idol of Englandwho, by his extraordinary talents and energy, obliterated almost the memory of the circumstances under which his father obtained the throne-was the starting point of a long period of error and misfortune, during which France was lost, and England torn to pieces by civil war. It was the purpose of the poet to mark most strikingly the obvious cause of these events; and thus, surrounding the very bier of Henry V., the great lords, to whom were committed the management of his kingdom and the guardianship of his son, begin to dispute, and the messenger of France reproaches them for their party conflicts :

"Among the soldiers this is muttered,

That here you maintain several factions." This, indeed, was an anticipation; for it was two or three years after the accession of Henry VI. that the quarrels of Gloster and Beaufort became dangerous to the realm. In the same way, the losses of towns in France, the coronation of the Dauphin at Rheims, and the defeat of Talbot at Patay, were all anticipations of events which occurred during the succeeding seven years. The poet had the chronicles before him in which these events are detailed, year by year, with the strictest regard to dates. But he was not himself a chronicler. was his business to crowd the narrative of these events upon the scene, so as to impress upon his audience the general truth that the death of Henry V. was succeeded by disasters which finally over

It