Ask me what question thou canst possible, My courage try by combat, if thou dar'st, 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 10 me: Puc. I am prepar'd: here is my keen-edg'd sword, Out of a great deal of old iron I chose forth. Char. Then come o'God's name, I fear no woman. Puc. And, while I live, I'll ne'er fly from a man. [They fight. Char. Stay, stay thy hands; thou art an Amazon, 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 desire; My heart and hands thou hast at once subdu'd. Let me thy servant, and not sovereign, be; • Resolve on this, i. e. be convinced of it. Thus in 'Tis Pity She's a Whore: "This banquet is a harbinger of death To you and me, resolve yourself it is." In the Third Part of King Henry VI. "I am resolv'd That Clifford's manhood lies upon his tongue." 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: 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 11, 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 12. Now am I like that proud insulting ship, 11 Expect Saint Martin's summer, i. e. expect prosperity after misfortune, like fair weather at Martlemas, after winter has begun. The French have a proverbial expression, Esté de St. Martin for fine weather in winter. 12 This is a favourite image with poets. It is to be found in Silius Italicus, Ariosto, Pope, and many others: take one example from Sir John Davies's Nosce Te ipsum : "As when a stone is into water cast, One circle doth another circle make, Till the last circle reach the bank at last." Char. Was Mahomet inspired with a dove13? Thou with an eagle art inspired then. Helen, the mother of great Constantine, Nor yet Saint Philip's daughters 11, 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. Reig. Woman, do what thou canst to save our ho nours; Drive them from Orleans, and be immortaliz'd. it: No prophet will I trust, if she prove false. [Exeunt. SCENE III. London. Hill before the Tower. Enter, at the Gates, the DUKE OF GLOSTER, with his Serving-men, in blue Coats. Glo. I am come to survey the Tower this day; Since Henry's death, I fear there is conveyance1. Where be these warders, that they wait not here? Open the gates! 'Tis Gloster that calls. [Servants knock. 1 Ward. [Within.] Who's there that knocks so imperiously? 1 Serv. It is the noble duke of Gloster. 13 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."-Raleigh's Hist. of the World, part i. c. vi. 14 Saint Philip's daughters. Meaning the four daughters of Philip mentioned in Acts xxi. 9. 1 Conveyance anciently signified any kind of furtive knavery, or privy stealing. "Manticulatio, slie and deceitful conveyance, as the cutting of a purse." 66 Convey the wise it call; steal! foh; a fico for the phrase.”—Pistol, in The Merry Wives of Windsor. 2 Ward. [Within.] Whoe'er he be, you may not be let in. 1 Serv. Villains, answer you so the lord protector? 1 Ward. [Within.] The Lord protect him! so we answer him: We do no otherwise than we are will'd. Glo. Who willed you? or whose will stands, but mine ? There's none protector of the realm, but I. Servants rush at the Tower Gates. Enter, to the Gates, WOODVILLE, the Lieutenant. Wood. [Within.] What noise is this? what traitors have we here? Glo. Lieutenant, is it you, whose voice I hear? Open the gates; here's Gloster, that would enter. Wood. [Within.] Have patience, noble duke: I may not open; The cardinal of Winchester forbids: From him I have express commandement, Glo. Faint-hearted Woodville, prizest him 'fore me? 1 Serv. Open the gates unto the lord protector; Or we'll burst them open, if that you come not quickly. "He 2 To break up was the same as to break open. "They have broken and have passed through the gate." Micah ii. 13. up would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.' "Matthew xxiv. 43. "The lusty Kentishmen, hoping on more friends, brake up the gaytes." Hall's Chronicle, fo. 78. Enter WINCHESTER, attended by a Train of Servants in tawny Coats3. Win. How now, ambitious Humphrey? what means this? Glo. Piel'd priest, dost thou command me to be shut out? Win. I do, thou most usurping proditor5, And not protector of the king or realm. Glo. Stand back, thou manifest conspirator; Thou, that contriv'dst to murder our dead lord; Thou, that giv'st whores indulgences to sin": I'll canvas thee in thy broad cardinal's hat, 3 It appears that the attendants upon ecclesiastical courts, and a bishop's servants, were then, as now, distinguished by clothing of a sombre colour. Thus in Stow's Chronicle, p. 822, "The bishop of London met him, attended by a goodly company of gentlemen in tawny coats." And the old comedy A Maidenhead well Lost, 1634, "Tho' I was never a tawny coat, yet I have played the summoner's part." It appears also to have been a mourning colour, for in the Complaint of a Lover, by the E[arl] of O[xford], in the Paradise of Dainty Devices, it is thus mentioned : "For blacke and tawny will I wear, Which mourning colours be." I suspect that tawny, like the French original tanné, was applied to any obscure colour approaching black in hue, and that some such sad colour as is still in use for the servants of ecclesiastics is meant, and not the russet colour which we now call tawny. 4 Piel'd priest, i. e. bald, alluding to his shaven crown. breo, to waxe or become pild or bald." DICT. Pield and pild, or pilled, are only various ways of spelling peel'd. 5 Proditor, i. e. traitor, betrayer. "Gla 6 The public stews in Southwark were under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Winchester. Upton had seen the office book of the court leet, in which was entered the fees paid by, and the customs and regulations of these brothels. 7 To canvas was "to toss in a sieve; a punishment (says Cotgrave) inflicted on such as commit gross absurdities." Thus in Davenant's Cruel Brother, 1630: "I'll sift and winnow him in an old hat." Canvassed also was occasionally used for "beaten thoroughly, swinged out of doors." See Cotgrave in v. Forbatu and Berné: where may be also seen the meaning of the word in Steevens's |