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:
I know thee well, though never seen before.
Be not amaz'd, there's nothing hid from me:
In private will I talk with thee apart ;—
Stand back, you lords, and give us leave a while.
REIG. She takes upon her bravely at first dash.
Prc. Dauphin, I am by birth a shepherd's daugh-
ter,

My wit untrain'd in any kind of art.

Heaven and our Lady gracious, hath it pleas'd
To shine on my contemptible estate":

Lo, whilst I waited on my tender lambs,
And to sun's parching heat display'd my cheeks,
God's mother deigned to appear to me:
And, in a vision full of majesty',

Will'd me to leave my base vocation,
And free my country from calamity:
Her aid she promis'd, and assur'd success:
In cómplete glory she reveal'd herself;
And, whereas I was black and swart before,
With those clear rays which she infus'd on me,

To shine on my contemptible estate:] So, in Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond, 1594:

7

thy king, &c.

"Lightens forth glory on thy dark estate." STEEVENS.
-a VISION full of MAJESTY,] So, in The Tempest:
"This is a most majestick vision-," STEEVENS.

That beauty am I bless'd with, which you may seeR.
Ask me what question thou canst possible,
And I will answer unpremeditated:

My courage try by combat, if thou dar'st,
And thou shalt find that I exceed my sex,
Resolve on this: Thou shalt be fortunate,
If thou receive me for thy warlike mate.
CHAR. Thou hast astonish'd me with thy high
terms;

Only this proof I'll of thy valour make,—
In single combat thou shalt buckle with me;
And, if thou vanquishest, thy words are true;
Otherwise, I renounce all confidence.

Puc. I am prepar'd: here is my keen-edg'd sword,

Deck'd with five flower-de-luces on each side';
The which at Touraine, in Saint Katharine's church-

yard,

Out of a great deal of old iron I chose forth 2.

8

which you see.] Thus the second folio. The first, injudiciously as well as redundantly,-which you may see.

STEEVENS. 9 RESOLVE on this:] i. e. be firmly persuaded of it. So, in King Henry VI. Part III :

66

I am resolv'd

"That Clifford's manhood lies upon his tongue."

STEEVENS.

1 Deck'd with FIVE flower-de-luces, &c.] Old copy-fine; but we should read, according to Holinshed,-five flower-de-luces. "-in a secret place there among old iron, appointed she hir sword to be sought out and brought her, that with five floure-delices was graven on both sides," &c. STEEVENS.

The same mistake having happened in A Midsummer-Night's Dream, and in other places, I have not hesitated to reform the text, according to Mr. Steevens's suggestion. In The MSS. of the age of Queen Elizabeth, u and n are undistinguishable.

2 Out of a deal of old iron, &c.] dundantly-Out of a great deal, &c. original line stood, elliptically, thus:

MALONE.

The old copy yet more re-
I have no doubt but the

"Out a deal of old iron I chose forth,"

CHAR. Then come o' God's name, I fear no wo

man.

Puc. And, while I live, I'll ne'er fly from a man. [They fight. CHAR. Stay, stay, thy hands; thou art an Ama

zon,

And fightest with the sword of Deborah.

Puc. Christ's mother helps me, else I were too weak.

CHAR. Whoe'er helps thee, 'tis thou that must help me :

Impatiently I burn with thy desire3;

My heart and hands thou hast at once subdu'd.
Excellent Pucelle, if thy name be so,

Let me thy servant, and not sovereign, be;
'Tis the French Dauphin sueth to thee thus.
Puc. I must not yield to any rites of love,
For my profession's sacred from above:
When I have chased all thy foes from hence,
Then will I think upon a recompense.

CHAR. Mean time look gracious on thy prostrate

thrall.

REIG. My lord, methinks, is very long in talk. ALEN. Doubtless he shrives this woman to her

smock;

Else ne'er could he so long protract his speech. REIG. Shall we disturb, him, since he keeps no

mean?

ALEN. He may mean more than we poor men do know:

The phrase of hospitals is still an out door, not an out of door patient. STEEVens.

3 Impatiently I burn with thy desire ;] The amorous constitution of the Dauphin has been mentioned in the preceding play : "Doing is activity, and he will still be doing."

COLLINS. The Dauphin in the preceding play is John, the elder brother of the present speaker. He died in 1416, the year after the battle of Agincourt. RITSON.

These women are shrewd tempters with their

tongues.

REIG. My lord, where are you? what devise you on ?

Shall we give over Orleans, or no?

Puc. Why, no, I say, distrustful recreants! Fight till the last gasp; I will be your guard. CHAR. What she says, I'll confirm; we'll fight it out.

Puc. Assign'd am I to be the English scourge. This night the siege assuredly I'll raise: Expect Saint Martin's summer, halcyon days, Since I have entered into these wars. Glory is like a circle in the water,

Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself,

Till, by broad spreading, it disperse to nought 5.

4

Expect St. Martin's summer,] That is, expect prosperity after misfortune, like fair weather at Martlemas, after winter has begun. JOHNSON.

Glory is like a circle in the water,

Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself,

Till, by broad spreading, it disperse to nought.] So, in Nosce Teipsum, a poem by Sir John Davies, 1599:

"As when a stone is into water cast,

"One circle doth another circle make,

"Till the last circle reach the bank at last."

The same image, without the particular application, may be found in Silius Italicus, lib. xiii. :

Sic ubi perrumpsit stagnantem calculus undam,
Exiguos format per prima volumina gyros,
Mox tremulum vibrans motu gliscente liquorem
Multiplicat crebros sinuati gurgitis orbes;

Donec postremo laxatis circulus oris,

Contingat geminas patulo curvamine ripas. MALONE. This was a favourite simile with Pope. It is to be found also in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, book viii. st. 63, of Sir John Harrington's translation:

"As circles in a water cleare are spread,

"When sunne doth shine by day, and moone by night,
Succeeding one another in a ranke,

"Till all by one and one do touch the banke."

I meet with it again in Chapman's Epistle Dedicatorie, prefixed to his version of the Iliad:

With Henry's death, the English circle ends;
Dispersed are the glories it included.

Now am I like that proud insulting ship,
Which Cæsar and his fortune bare at once 6.
CHAR. Was Mahomet inspired with a dove??
Thou with an eagle art inspired then.

Helen, the mother of great Constantine,

Nor yet Saint Philip's daughters, were like thee.
Bright star of Venus, fall'n down on the earth,
How may I reverently worship thee enough??
ALEN. Leave off delays, and let us raise the
siege.

66

As in a spring,

"The plyant water, mov'd with any thing
"Let fall into it, puts her motion out

"In perfect circles, that move round about

"The gentle fountaine, one another raysing."

And the same image is much expanded by Sylvester, the translator of Du Bartas, 3d part of 2d day of 2d week.

6-like that proud insulting ship,

HOLT WHITE.

Which Cæsar and his fortune bare at once.] This alludes to a passage in Plutarch's Life of Julius Cæsar, thus translated by Sir Thomas North: "Cæsar hearing that, straight discovered himselfe unto the maister of the pynnace, who at the first was amazed when he saw him; but Cæsar, &c. said unto him, Good fellow, be of good cheere, &c. and fear not, for thou hast Cæsar and his fortune with thee." STEEVENS.

7 Was MAHOMET inspired with a dove?] Mahomet had a dove, "which he used to feed with wheat out of his ear; which dove, when it was hungry, lighted on Mahomet's shoulder, and thrust its bill in to find its breakfast; Mahomet persuading the rude and simple Arabians, that it was the Holy Ghost that gave him advice." See Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World, book i. part i. ch. vi. Life of Mahomet, by Dr. Prideaux.

GREY.

8 Nor yet Saint Philip's daughters,] Meaning the four daughters of Philip mentioned in the Acts. HANMER.

9 How may I REVERENTLY worship thee enough?] Perhaps this unmetrical line originally ran thus:

66

How may I reverence, worship thee enough?" The climax rises properly, from reverence, to worship.

STEEVENS.