If thou proceed in this thy insolence.

Win. Nay, stand thou back, I will not budge a

foot;

This be Damascus, be thou cursed Cain,

To slay thy brother Abel, if thou wilt.

Glo. I will not slay thee, but I'll drive thee back: Thy scarlet robes, as a child's bearing-cloth, I'll use to carry thee out of this place.

Win. Do what thou dar'st; I beard thee to thy face. Glo. What? am I dar'd, and bearded to my face?Draw, men, for all this privileged place; Blue-coats to tawny-coats. Priest, beware your

beard;

[GLOSTER and his men attack the Bishop.

I mean to tug it, and to cuff you soundly:
Under my feet I stamp thy cardinal's hat;
In spite of pope or dignities of church,
Here by the cheeks I'll drag thee up and down.
Win. Gloster, thou'lt answer this before the pope.
Glo. Winchester goose9, I cry-a rope! a rope!
Now beat them hence, Why do you let them stay ?
Thee I'll chase hence, thou wolf in sheep's array.
Out, tawny coats!—out, scarlet 10 hypocrite!

extract from Nash's Have with you in Saffron Walden, which has no bearing upon the present passage. Our old friend Cotgrave is here a better commentator than Messrs. Steevens and Malone.

8 Ritson cites the following explanation of this allusion:"Damascus is as much as to say shedding of blood; for there Chaym slew Abel, and hid him in the sand."-POLYCHRONICON. Mandeville also says, "In that place where Damascus was founded Kayn sloughe Abel his brother."

A Winchester goose was a particular stage of the disease contracted in the stews, hence Gloucester bestows the epithet on the bishop in derision and scorn. A person affected with that disease was likewise so called. Thus in Troilus and Cressida, Act v. Sc. 2:

"My fear is this,

Some galled goose of Winchester would hiss."

10 Scarlet hypocrite. In King Henry VIII. the Earl of Surrey, with a similar allusion to Cardinal Wolsey's habit, calls him "scarlet sin."

Here GLOSTER's Men beat out the Cardinal's Men; and Enter, in the hurly burly, the Mayor of London11, and his Officers.

May. Fye, lords! that you, being supreme magistrates,

Thus contumeliously should break the peace!

Glo. Peace, mayor! thou know'st little of my wrongs: Here's Beaufort, that regards nor God nor king, Hath here distrain'd the Tower to his use.

Win. Here's Gloster too, a foe to citizens; One that still motions war, and never peace, O'ercharging your free purses with large fines; That seeks to overthrow religion,

Because he is protector of the realm ;

And would have armour here out of the Tower,
To crown himself king, and suppress the prince.
Glo. I will not answer thee with words, but blows.
[Here they skirmish again.

May. Nought rests for me, in this tumultuous strife, But to make open proclamation:— Come, officer; as loud as e'er thou can'st. Off. All manner of men, assembled here in arms this day against God's peace and the king's, we charge and command you, in his highness' name, to repair to your several dwelling-places; and not to wear, handle, or use, any sword, weapon, or dagger, henceforward, upon pain of death.

Glo. Cardinal, I'll be no breaker of the law: But we shall meet, and break our minds at large. Win. Gloster, we'll meet; to thy dear cost, be sure: Thy heart-blood I will have, for this day's work.

"It appears from Pennant's London that this mayor was John Coventry, an opulent mercer, from whom the present Earl of Coventry is descended.

May. I'll call for clubs 12, if you

will not away:

This Cardinal's more haughty than the devil. Glo. Mayor, farewell: thou dost but what thou may'st.

Win. Abominable Gloster! guard thy head; For I intend to have it, ere long.

[Exeunt May. See the coast clear'd, and then we will de

part.—

Good God! these nobles should such stomachs 13 bear! I myself fight not once in forty year.

SCENE IV. France.

[Exeunt.

Before Orleans.

Enter, on the Walls, the Master Gunner and his Son.

M. Gun. Sirrah, thou know'st how Orleans is besieg'd:

And how the English have the suburbs won.

Son. Father, I know; and oft have shot at them, Howe'er, unfortunate, I miss'd my aim.

M. Gun. But now thou shalt not.

by me:

Be thou rul'd

Chief master-gunner am I of this town;
Something I must do, to procure me grace1:

12 The practice of calling out Clubs! clubs! to assemble the London apprentices upon the occasion of any affray in the streets, has been before explained, see As You Like It, Act v. Sc. 2. It would appear that the shopkeepers were generally provided with clubs for the purpose.

13 Stomach is pride, a haughty spirit of resentment. It is said of Wolsey, in King Henry VIII.—

"He was a man

Of an unbounded stomach, ever ranking

Himself with princes."

Warburton would have this speech transferred to the officer, as beneath the dignity and gravity of the mayor; but Shakespeare does not generally intend his mayors for any thing but well meaning simple men. The old copy has "these nobles;" that being, by a common ellipsis, understood.

1. Grace, i. e. favour.

The prince's espials have informed me,

How the English, in the suburbs close intrench'd,
Wont3, through a secret grate of iron bars
In yonder tower, to overpeer the city;

And thence discover how, with most advantage,
They may vex us, with shot, or with assault.
To intercept this inconvenience,

A piece of ordnance 'gainst it I have plac'd;
And even these three days have I watch'd, if I
Could see them.

Now, boy, do thou watch, for I can stay no longer.
If thou spy'st any, run and bring me word;
And thou shalt find me at the governour's.

[Exit. Son. Father, I warrant you; take you no care:

I'll never trouble you, if I may spy them.

[Exit.

Enter, in an upper Chamber of a Tower, the LORDS
SALISBURY and TALBOT, SIR WILLIAM GLANS-
DALE, SIR THOMAS GARGRAVE, and Others.
Sal. Talbot, my life, my joy, again return'd!
How wert thou handled, being prisoner?
Or by what means gott'st thou to be releas'd?
Discourse, I pr'ythee, on this turret's top.

Tal. The duke of Bedford had a prisoner,
Called the brave Lord Ponton de Santrailles5;
For him I was exchang'd and ransomed.
But with a baser man of arms by far,

2 Espials, i. e. spies. Vide note on Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 1. 3 The old copy reads went; the emendation is Mr. Tyrwhitt's. The English wont, i. e. are accustomed, to overpeer the city. It The emendation is the third person plural of the old verb wont.

is fully supported by the speech in the Chronicles on which this

is formed.

In the folios he is erroneously called earl.

5 The chronological course of events is here confounded. Saintrailles was not captured by the English until 1431. Talbot was taken at the battle of Patay in 1429, and the death of Salisbury took place in 1428.

Once, in contempt, they would have barter'd me.
Which I, disdaining, scorn'd; and craved death
Rather than I would be so vile esteem'd".

In fine, redeem'd I was as I desir'd.

But, O! the treacherous Fastolfe wounds my
Whom with my bare fists I would execute,
If I now had him brought into my power.

heart i

Sal. Yet tell'st thou not, how thou wert entertain'd. Tal. With scoffs, and scorns, and contumelious

taunts.

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

Here, said they, is the terror of the French',
The scare-crow 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 :

6 The old copy reads "pil'd esteem'd." Steevens has a note pour rire, at which he smiles himself, proposing to read Philistin'd! It should be remembered that vile was frequently spelt vild by Spenser and others of that age, and there can hardly be a doubt that it was the word; we find it thus in Shakespeare's one hundred and twenty-first Sonnet :

""Tis better to be vile than vile-esteem'd."

7 "This man" Talbot "was to the French people a very scourge and a daily terror, insomuch that as his person was fearful and terrible to his adversaries present, so his name and faine was spiteful and dreadful to the common people absent; insomuch that women in France, to feare their yong children, would crye the Talbot cometh."-Hall's Chronicle. The same thing is said of King Richard I. when he was in the Holy Land; and Joinville adds, that "when a Turk's horse started at a bush, he would chide him, saying cuides-tu qu'y soit le Roi Richard ?"