Heaven, and our Lady gracious, hath it pleas'd
To fhine on my contemptible eftate: 4

Lo, whilft I waited on my tender lambs,
And to fun's parching heat difplay'd my cheeks,
God's mother deigned to appear to me;
And, in a vifion full of majefty, 5

Will'd me to leave my bale vocation,
And free my country from calamity:
Her aid fhe promis'd, and affur'd fuccefs:
In complete glory fhe reveal'd heifelf;
And, whereas I was black and fwart before,
With thofe clear rays which the infus'd on me,
That beauty am I blefs'd with, which you fee."
Afk me what queflion thou canft poffible,
And I will anfwer unpremeditated :
My courage try by combat, if thou dar',
And thou fhalt find that I exceed my fex.
Refolve on this: Thou shalt be fortunate,
If thou receive me for thy warlike mate.
CHAR. Thou haft aftonifh'd me with thy high
terms;

Only this proof I'll of thy valour make,—
In fingle combat thou fhalt buckle with me;

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

5

thy king &c.

Lightens forth glory on thy dark eflate." STEEVENS.

a vision full of majesty, So, in The Tempest: "This is a moft majeftick vifion---." STEEVENS. which you fee.] Thus the fecond folio. The firft, in judiciously as well as redundantly,-which you may fee.

6

STEEVENS.

7 Refolve on this:] i. c. be firmly perfuaded of it. So, Vol. XV.

P. 62:

I am refolv'd,

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

STEEVENS.

And, if thou vanquifheft, thy words are true;
Otherwise, I renounce all confidence.

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

fword,

8

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

Out of a deal of old iron I chofe forth. 9

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, ftay thy hands; thou art an Amazon, And fighteft with the fword of Deborah.

Puc. Chrift's mother helps me, elfe I were too weak.

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

Impatiently I burn with thy defire;"

་

Deck'd with five flower-de-luces, &c.] Old copy-fine; but we fhould read, according to Holinlhed, -five flower-de-luces.. --in a fecret place there among old iron, appointed the hir fword to be fought out and brought her, that with five floure-de-* lices was graven on both fides," &c. STEEVENS.

The fame 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 fuggeftion. In the MSS. of the age of Queen Elizabeth, u and n are undiftinguishable. MALONE.

9 Out of a deal of old iron &c.] The old copy yet more redundantly-Out of a great deal &c. I have no doubt but the original line flood, elliptically, thus:

Out a deal of old iron 1 chofe forth.

The phrase of hofpitals is ftill an out door, not an out of door patient. STEEVENS.

2

Impatiently I burn with thy defire;] The amorous, conftitution

of the Dauphin has been mentioned in the preceding play:

་་

Doing is activity, and he will ftill be doing.' COLLINS.

My heart and hands thou haft at once fubdu'd.
Excellent Pucelle, if thy name be so,
Let me thy fervant, and not fovereign, be;
'Tis the French Dauphin fueth to thee thus.
Puc. I must not yield to any rites of love,
For my profeffion's facred from above:
When I have chafed all thy foes from hence,
Then will I think upon a recompense.

CHAR. Mean time, look gracious on thy proftrate
thrall.

REIG. My lord, methinks, is very long in talk. ALEN. Doubtlefs, he fhrives this woman to her fmock;

Elfe ne'er could he fo long protract his fpeech. REIG. Shall we disturb him, fince he keeps no mean?

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

These women are fhrewd tempters with their tongues. REIG. My lord, where are you? what devife you on?

Shall we give over Orleans, or no?

Puc. Why, no, I fay, diftruftful recreants! Fight till the last gasp; I will be your guard. CHAR. What fhe fays, I'll confirm; we'll fight it out.

Puc. Affign'd am I to be the English fcourge. This night the fiege affuredly I'll raise: Expect faint Martin's fummer, halcyon days,

3

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.

3 Exped faint Martin's fummer,] That is, exped prosperity after misfortune, like fair weather at Martlemas, after winter has begun.

JOHNSON.

Since I have entered into these wars.

Glory is like a circle in the water,
Which never ceafeth to enlarge itself,

Till, by broad fpreading, it difperfe to nought.
With Henry's death, the English circle ends;
Difperfed are the glories it included.

Now am I like that proud insulting ship,
Which Cæfar and his fortune bare at once. 5

water

4 Glory is like a circle in the water,

Which never ceafeth to enlarge itself,

Till, by broad Spreading, it difperfe to nought.] So, in Nofce Keipfum, a poem by Sir John Davies, 1599:

"As when a ftone is into water caft,

"One circle doth another circle make,

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

The fame image, without the particular application, may be found in Silius Italicus, Lib. XIII:

"Sic ubi perrumpfit ftagnantem calculus undam,

Exiguos format per prima voluminą gyros,

Mox tremulum vibrans motu glifcente liquorem
Multiplicat crebros finuati gurgitis orbes;

Donec poftremo laxatis circulus oris,

"Contingat geminas patulo curvamine ripas." MALONE. This was a favourite fimile with Pope. It is to be found also in Ariofto's Orlando Furiofo, Book VIII. A. 63, of Sir John Harrington's Tranflation:

As circles in a water cleare are spread,

"When funne doth fhine 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 Epifle Dedicatorie, prefixed to his version of the Iliad:

As in a spring,

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

In perfe& circles, that moue round about
The gentle fountaine, one another gayfing."

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

5

like that proud infulting ship,

HOLT WHITB.

Which Cafar and his fortune bare at once. ] This alludes to a paffage in Plutarch's Life of Julius Cæfar, thus tranflated by Sir

CHAR. Was Mahomet infpired with a dove?"
Thou with an eagle art infpired then.

Helen, the mother of great Conftantine,
Nor yet faint Philip's daughters,' were like thee.
Bright ftar of Venus, fall'n down on the earth,
How may I reverently worship thee enough?
ALEN. Leave off delays, and let us raise the
fiege.

8

REIG. Woman, do what thou canft to fave our honours;

Drive them from Orleans, and be immortaliz'd. CHAR. Prefently we'll try: Come, let's away

about it;

No prophet will I truft, if fhe prove falfe.

[Exeunt.

T. North: "Cæfar hearing that, ftraight difcovered himselfe unto the maifter of the pynnafe, who at the firft was amazed when he faw him; but Cæfar, &c. faid unto him, Good fellow, be of good cheere, &c. and fear not, for thou haft Cæfar and his fortune with thee." STEEVENS.

• Was Mahomet infpired 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 fhoulder, and thruft its bill in to find its breakfaft; Mahomet perfuading the rude and fimple Arabians, that it was the Holy Ghost that gave him advice." See Sir Walter Raleigh's Hiftory of the World, Book I. Part I. ch. vi. Life of Mahomet, by Dr. Prideaux. GREY.

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

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

How may I reverence, worship thee enough?

The climax rifes properly, from reverence, to worship. STEEVENS.