Suf. Then call our captains and our colours forth!
And, madam, at your father's castle walls

We'll crave a parley, to confer with him.

A Parley sounded. Enter REIGNIER, on the walls.

See, Reignier, see thy daughter prisoner!

Reig. To whom?

130

Suffolk, what remedy?

135

Suf. Yes, there is remedy enough, my lord:
Consent, and for thy honour give consent,
Thy daughter shall be wedded to my king,
Whom I with pain have woo'd and won thereto;
And this her easy-held imprisonment
Hath gain'd thy daughter princely liberty.

Reig. Speaks Suffolk as he thinks?
Suf.
Fair Margaret knows
That Suffolk doth not flatter, face, or feign.
Reig. Upon thy princely warrant, I descend
To give thee answer of thy just demand.

Suf. And here I will expect thy coming.

140

[Exit from the walls.

Trumpets sound. Enter REIGNIER. Reig. Welcome, brave earl, into our territories:

Command in Anjou what your honour pleases. Suf. Thanks, Reignier, happy for so sweet a child, Fit to be made companion with a king.

What answer makes your grace unto my suit? Reig. Since thou dost deign to woo her little worth

Ff.

145

150

130. A parley sounded] Cambridge; Trumpet sounds a parley Capell; Sound Enter . ] Ff. 144. [Exit. . ] Capell; omitted Ff.

...

132. what remedy] See Merry Wives of Windsor, v. v. 250, the earliest example in New Eng. Dict., except a Scotch one from Dunbar, 1500-1520. See again Twelfth Night, I. v. 56: "There's no help for it."

133. unapt] "not propense or ready" (Schmidt). Occurs in Venus and Adonis, 34; 1 Henry IV., and Coriolanus in the same sense.

134. exclaim on] See above, III. iii. 60. To abuse in language, or accuse.

142. face] deceive, humbug, feign. New Eng. Dict. quotes Roger Ascham, The Scholemaster, 1570 (Arber, p. 54):

"To laughe, to lie, to flatter, to face;

Foure waies in Court to win men

grace."

And Hay any Work (1589): "Thou canst cog, face, and lye as fast as a dog can trot." Spenser recalled Ascham in Mother Hubberd's Tale (11. 504-506) :—

"For there [at the Court] thou needs must learne to laugh, to lie,

To face, to forge, to scoffe, to companie,

To crouche, to please,"

To be the princely bride of such a lord,

Upon condition I may quietly

Enjoy mine own, the country Maine and Anjou,
Free from oppression or the stroke of war,

155

My daughter shall be Henry's, if he please. Suf. That is her ransom; I deliver her;

And those two counties I will undertake Your grace shall well and quietly enjoy. Reig. And I again, in Henry's royal name, As deputy unto that gracious king,

Give thee her hand for sign of plighted faith.

Suf. Reignier of France, I give thee kingly thanks,
Because this is in traffic of a king:

160

[Aside.] And yet, methinks, I could be well content 165
To be mine own attorney in this case.

I'll over then to England with this news
And make this marriage to be solemniz'd.

So farewell, Reignier: set this diamond safe
In golden palaces, as it becomes.

170

Reig. I do embrace thee, as I would embrace

The Christian prince, King Henry, were he here.

Mar. Farewell, my lord. Good wishes, praise and prayers
Shall Suffolk ever have of Margaret.

[Going.

Suf. Farewell, sweet madam! But hark you, Margaret; 175
No princely commendations to my king?

Mar. Such commendations as becomes a maid,
A virgin and his servant, say to him.

Suf. Words sweetly placed and modestly directed.
But, madam, I must trouble you again;
No loving token to his majesty?

Mar. Yes, my good lord; a pure unspotted heart,
Never yet taint with love, I send the king.
165, 166. Marked "Aside" by Rowe.
going Ff. 179. modestly] modestie F 1.

155. stroke of war] a standard term, like" stroke of death." See Tambur laine, Part II. II. v. (Dyce, 16, b): "Since he is yielded to the stroke of war."

166. mine own attorney] See note, v. v. 56. And Comedy of Errors, v. i. 100: "And will have no attorney but myself." And Richard III. v. iii. 83. Favourite language in Shakespeare's early plays.

176. princely] See above, 11. 70, 140, 143 and 152. Five times in one scene, an allowance that Shakespeare must have overlooked. Greene was very fond of

ΙΟ

180

174. [Going] Cambridge; Shee is

princely." Such people, such words. In Kyd's Spanish Tragedy (III. xii.) an ambassador repeats "kingly" three or four times in a few lines. The guise of

court.

Occurs again
A well-known

182. unspotted heart] 2 Henry VI. III. i. 100. expression of Peele's :"But though from court to cottage he depart,

His saint is sure of his unspotted heart" (Polyhymnia).

183. Never yet taint] never yet attainted, or attaint, as in v. v. 81 below. "Taint" in the sense of tinge, tint (as of

Suf. And this withal.
Mar. That for thyself: I will not so presume

To send such peevish tokens to a king.

[Exeunt Reignier and Margaret.

Suf. O! wert thou for myself. But, Suffolk, stay;

Thou may'st not wander in that labyrinth;
There Minotaurs and ugly treasons lurk.
Solicit Henry with her wondrous praise:
Bethink thee on her virtues that surmount,
And natural graces that extinguish art;
Repeat their semblance often on the seas,
That, when thou com'st to kneel at Henry's feet,
Thou may'st bereave him of his wits with wonder.

SCENE IV.-Camp of the Duke of York in Anjou.
Enter YORK, WARWICK, and Others.

York. Bring forth that sorceress, condemn'd to burn.

Enter LA PUCELLE guarded, and a Shepherd.

Shep. Ah, Joan, this kills thy father's heart outright!
Have I sought every country far and near,
And, now it is my chance to find thee out,
Must I behold thy timeless cruel death?

Ah, Joan, sweet daughter Joan, I'll die with thee!

Puc. Decrepit miser! base ignoble wretch!

I am descended of a gentler blood:

Thou art no father nor no friend of mine.

Shep. Out, out! My lords, an please you, 'tis not so;
I did beget her all the parish knows:
Her mother liveth yet, can testify
She was the first fruit of my bachelorship.

2. kills thy father's heart] An old expression; see Love's Labour's Lost, v. ii. 149, note, Arden edition, p. 131. See again As You Like It, III. ii. 260; Winter's Tale, Iv. iii. 88; Richard II. v. i. 100; Henry the Fifth, 11. i. 92.

3. sought] searched; used here as though it were the participle of "search," not "seek." Compare "unsought" in Comedy of Errors, 1. i. 136.

5. timeless] untimely, premature. A Shakespearian word. See Two Gentlemen of Verona, III. i. 21; Richard II. IV. i. 5; 3 Henry VI. III. ii. 187, and v. vi. 42; Richard III. 1. ii. 117; Titus Andronicus, II. iii. 265; Romeo and Juliet, v. iii. 162. Steevens gave an example of "timeless death" from Drayton's Legend of Robert Duke of Normandy (taken from here), 1596. A regular Marlowe use. Compare Tamburlaine, Part II. (last lines): earth and heaven his timeless death deplore." And Edward the Second (Dyce, 186, a) :

"This ground.

"Let

Shall be their timeless sepulchre or
mine."

And The Massacre at Paris (begin-
ning) :—

"the blood of innocents,
That Guise hath slain by treason
of his heart,

And brought by murder to their
timeless ends."

5

ΙΟ

In

Without finding Marlowe's own work
in this, as in other doubtful plays, we
find his influence on Shakespeare, for
this scene is Shakespeare's own.
the case of Greene, one sees Shake-
speare's remodelling of him. Peele
has (Old Wives Tale, 457, a): "And
now my timeless date is come to end
[Dies]," where the sense is rather pre-
viously undetermined (compare IV. vi. 9).

7. Decrepit] See Love's Labour's Lost, I. i. 139; Venus and Adonis, 1148; Sonnet 37. Worn with age.

7. miser] a miserable wretch. Not elsewhere in Shakespeare in this sense. Compare Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, book ii. (ed. 1738, ii. p. 217): "Most blessed paper, which shalt kiss that hand, whereto all blessedness is in nature a servant, do not yet disdain to carry with thee the woeful words of a miser now despairing" (ante 1586). Steevens quotes from Holinshed, and from Jacob and Esau, 1568. No doubt Spenser gave the word fresh life in Faerie Queene, II. i. 9, and 11. iii. 8.

7. ignoble] of low descent. See above III. i. 178; 3 Henry VI. Iv. i. 70, and Richard III. III. vii. 127.

8. gentler blood] See Iv. i. 44 above, and note. "Men, noble and ignoble,' occurs in the chroniclers Fabyan, Hall and Grafton.

13. first fruit] In Winter's Tale, III. ii. 98, it is "first fruits" (plural for

War. Graceless! wilt thou deny thy parentage?
York. This argues what her kind of life hath been:
Wicked and vile; and so her death concludes.
Shep. Fie! Joan, that thou wilt be so obstacle;

God knows thou art a collop of my flesh;
And for thy sake have I shed many a tear :
Deny me not, I prithee, gentle Joan.

Puc. Peasant, avaunt! You have suborn'd this man,
Of purpose to obscure my noble birth.

Shep. 'Tis true I gave a noble to the priest

The morn that I was wedded to her mother.
Kneel down and take my blessing, good my girl.
Wilt thou not stoop? Now cursed be the time
Of thy nativity! I would the milk

Thy mother gave thee when thou suck'dst her breast,

13. bachelorship] No other example in New Eng. Dict. excepting from Lamb's Elia. See note below at "attorneyship," v. v. 56. 14, 20, 32. deny] disown. Romeo and Juliet, 11. ii. 34. 15. This argues kind of life] Compare 2 Henry VI. 111. iii. 30: "So bad a death argues a monstrous life." See too Othello, III. iv. 38. This is evidence of Shakespeare, if needs be.

.

17. obstacle] "An old vulgar corruption of 'obstinate,' which has oddly lasted since our author's time till now (Johnson). New Eng. Dict. has an example from a 1536 Will. Steevens quotes from Chapman's May Day (1611) and The Tragedy of Hoffman, 1631. He says further: "It may be met with in Gower."

18. a collop of my flesh] Ritson quoted from The History of Morindos and Miracola, 1609-a far cry. The expression is an old one, occurring in Golding's Ovid (v. 650-651) :—

my daughter is a Jewell deare
and leefe ;

A collup of mine owne flesh cut as
well as out of thine."

15

20

25

Henry IV. II. iv. 321) which I have not pursued. The shepherd affects not to understand any meaning of “noble” except the pecuniary one, in a quite Shakespearian way. In "The XV Yere" of Edward the Third, Grafton says (vol. i. p. 347): "And in this yere the king caused a new coyne of Gold to be coyned called the Noble, of the value of vj shillings viij pence or ix pence, &c. Wherein was mixed and quartered the armes of Fraunce and England" (1339-1340).

25. good my girl] A favourite transposition of Shakespeare's, occurring in the majority of his plays. See note at Love's Labour's Lost, III. i. 144 (Arden edition, p. 52).

27. nativity] See Comedy of Errors, IV. iv. 32 and As You Like It, IV. i. 36. Not commonly used in the ordinary sense of birth. For the sentiment compare Greene's George-a-Greene (Grosart, xiv. 131):

"I say, Sir Gilbert, looking on my daughter,

I curse the houre that ere I got the girle."

And Faerie Queene, III. vi. 2:—
"The Hevens
Looking with myld aspect upon the
earth

In th' Horoscope of her nativitee." 28. suck'dst] See note at "meant'st," III. ii. 222, Part II. Occurs again Coriolanus, III. ii. 129, and Titus Andronicus, II. iii. 144. The use of these forms, now stilted or disused, belonged to the formerly much commoner "thou" and “thee.” As in biblical language.