Thy wife is proud; she holdeth thee in awe,
More than God, or religious churchmen may.'

A succession of messengers now enter, announcingsad tidings out of France"- the loss of Guienne, Champagne, Rheims, and Orleans, Paris, Gisors, and Poictiers; the coronation of the dauphin (Charles the Seventh) as King of France; and lastly, the defeat and capture of Lord Talbot at the siege of Orleans; and the weak state of the army under the Earl of Salisbury.* And one of the messengers charges the losses in France upon the divisions in the English council.

66

Among the soldiers this is muttered;

That here you maintain several factions,

And whilst a field should be dispatch'd and fought,
You are disputing of your generals.

One would have lingering wars with little cost;
Another would fly swift, but wanteth wings.
A third thinks, without expense at all,

By guileful fair words peace may be maintained."

The dialogue then gives a variety of circum

stances:

"Exeter. Remember, Lords, your oaths to Henry

sworn,

Either to quell the dauphin utterly,

Or bring him in obedience to your yoke.

*Thomas de Montacute, seventh earl.

Gloucester. I'll to the Tower with all the haste I can, To view the artillery and munition,

And then I will proclaim young Henry King.

Exeter. To Eltham will I, where the young king is, Being ordained his special governor;

And for his safety there I'll best devise.

Winchester. Each hath his place and function to
attend;

I am left out, for me nothing remains,
But long I will not be Jack-out-of-office;
The king from Eltham I intend to send,
And sit at chiefest stern of public weal.”

Henry's dying injunctions, to which Exeter alludes, are properly given from Holinshed.

"When he saw them (the lords who attended him) pensive for his sickness, and great danger of life wherein he presently lay, he, with many grave, courteous, and pithy words, re-comforted them the best he could, and therewith exhorted them to be trusty and faithful unto his son, and to see that he might be well and virtuously brought up. And as concerning the rule and governance of his realms during the minority and young years of his said son, he willed them to join together in friendly love and concord, keeping continual peace and amity with the Duke of Burgundy, and never to make treaty with Charles that called himself the Dauphin of Vienne, by the which any part either of the crown of France, or of the duchies of Normandy and Guienne, may be lessened or diminished; and further, that the Duke of Orleans and

other princes should still remain prisoners, till his son came to lawful age, lest returning home again, they might kindle more fire in one day than might be quenched in three.

"He further advised them, that if they thought it necessary that it should be good to have his brother Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, to be protector of England during the non-age of his son; and his brother the Duke of Bedford, with the help of the Duke of Burgundy, to rule and to be Regent of France, commanding him with fire and sword to persecute the dauphin, till he had either brought him to reason and obeisance, or else to drive and expel him out of the realm of France. And here he protested to them, that neither the ambitious desire to enlarge his dominions, neither to purchase even renown and worldly fame, nor any other consideration had moved him to take the wars in hand, but only that in prosecuting his just title, he might in the end attain to a perfect peace, and come to enjoy those pieces of his inheritance which to him of right belonged; and that before the beginning of the same wars, he was fully persuaded by men both wise and of great holiness of life, that upon such intent he might and ought both begin the same wars and follow them till he had brought them to an end justly and rightly; and that without all danger of God's displeasure or peril of soul."*

These dying declarations, and the religious exercises which, as we learn from the same authority, * Hol. 132.

attended the death-bed of Henry, might have extended Exeter's speech with good effect. But it must be observed, that the injunctions to persevering hostility are not to be found in the contemporary historians, who dwell much more upon the disclaimers of inordinate ambition and the submission to God's will. The injunction, however, not to release the Duke of Orleans, was subsequently cited by Gloucester.

The anachronisms of the scene are great. It is true that Gloucester, on the death of his brother, assumed the administration of affairs; and was afterwards confirmed in it by parliament, with the title of protector. It is also matter of record that there were differences between him and the cardinal.

His colleagues in the council and in parliament put restrictions upon his power; and Beaufort, it is believed, was among those that opposed him. Here, therefore, there is only a little anticipation; I suspect that in the following lines, addressed by Beaufort to Gloucester, Shakspeare alluded to the second wife of the Duke, of whom we shall hear much presently.

* Holinshed refers to Titus Livius, who does not bear him out (p. 95); but Monstrelet and Polydore Vergil (not a contemporary) support him better; but see Elmham, 332. There is nothing in the Croyland continuation. I do not know whence Mr. Tyler (ii. 304) takes his version, which contains no charge against making peace with the dauphin.

Thy wife is proud, she holdeth thee in awe, More than God or religious churchmen may." But it was only about this time, and probably not so soon as the funeral, that Gloucester married his first wife, a lady whose adventures, and those which she occasioned, are unnoticed by our dramatist, though more dramatic than those of Eleanor Cobham.

A

The first wife of Gloucester was Jacqueline of Hainault, niece to the Duke of Bavaria, and married to the Duke of Brabant. Not liking her husband, she ran away from him, and came to England on speculation; where Gloucester married her, and got possession of her vast inheritance. quarrel ensued between the two dukes; the Duke of Burgundy assisted Brabant, who was his cousin ; the people of Mons gave Jacqueline up to Burgundy, but she got away to Holland, "where she was obeyed as countess of the country." All this involved that duke in a quarrel with Gloucester, whom he challenged to single combat; the Duke of Bedford, whose wife was sister to the Duchess of Burgundy, and who desired much to retain Burgundy as a friend, in vain endeavoured to conciliate; and the English parliament thought proper to interfere, to prevent the duel.* As Shakspeare

* Rolls, iv. 277. See Sismondi, xiii. 126. Barante, v. 128.