In both to break it-Soon his foreign crown
Sits loose, his English sceptre beaten down
By party and rebellious civil war,

He proves the splendor of a falling star!

GLOUCESTER as Regent of the realm appears,
During the infant Sovereign's tender years;
BEDFORD in France not destin'd long to stay,
In HENRY's name supports the English sway.
The DAUPHIN, (who when meaning to be merry,
The English styled" the little King of Berry,")
Still of his birthright kept encreasing hold,
Nor let his, surely just, pretence take cold.*
And now to help him with most wond'rous aid,
From fields obscure,† darts forth a village maid;
A shepherdess-her story you may mark,
Told wond'rously in "Southey's JOAN of ARC;"
So well indeed-the Imp of Envy fetch it!
That I'm afraid in outline but to sketch it.

*About this time, at the siege of Orleans, fell the Earl of Salisbury by a cannon shot, being the first English gentleman ever slain thereby."

CAMDEN.

In the Village of Domremi, near Vaucoleurs, on the

borders of Loraine

Poor

Poor JOAN, who cou'd'nt read, "Oh, spite of

spite !"

Has an historian now, who cannot write;

She's to be pitied, but unless I err,

The loss is more to me, than 'twas to her:
Well, be it so, whether I win or lose,
The tale I'll tell, and tell it how I chuse.

JOAN OF ARC.

A Tragedye fulle of Merrie Conceites.

JOAN of ARC, they say, was mad,
Some a conjuror misname her;
And swear she by the Dauphin had

A little-but why here defame her?*

Who against the maid say this?
Enemies I dare assure ye;
And she's no subject well I wis,
For trial by an ENGLISH JURY.

* French authors say she never slept in camp without two of her brothers to guard her; nor in a town without some female, of exemplary character, to bear her company.

Britons

Britons then would jibe, as now,

At men of France, could kill and eat 'em ; Yet contrived, I can't tell how,

To let a French young woman beat 'em.

JOAN, derived of parents poor,

Had nor learning, name, nor riches; Yet did wonders, to be sure,

As ladies will who wear the breeches.

By some 'tis not unshrewdly thought, She by the Dauphin's friends was taught To play her pretty patriotic part;

Well, if she was,

She own'd, that's poz,

Uncommon skill, and most consummate art.

JOAN was a simple shepherd's maid,

Yet nightly visited, she said,

By visions, and by angel sights;

Which told her where, if she'd a mind,

A rare and rusty sword to find, With power to put the English folks to rights.

Then in the stoutness of her soul,

She sent to WILLIAM DE LA POLE,

And

And bid him lead his Britons back;

Or, by the guardian pow'rs of France, She swore to make his people dance, And bang his body like a sack.

I own the simile is very low,

But JOAN would speak her mind you know; And, I know too, a shepherd wench is, (Whether she English girl or French is), Not sheepish when conversing with a foe. Something she must have said, which form derides,

For DE LA POLE

Thought it so droll,

He laugh'd enough to split his Suffolk sides.
But when his armour she began to batter,
The chief declared 'twas no such laughing matter;
Nor knew by what ill-natured names to christen

her,

When, spite of his broad sword, she took him pris'ner.*

TALBOT, and HUNGERFORD, RAMPSTONE, and SCALES,

Fretted like hottest gentlemen of Wales

* Suffolk was taken by Renaud, a French gentleman, whom

he first knighted before he would surrender to him.

When

When they were taken,―swore 'twas very odd,
The French ascribed the power of a God
To sturdy JOAN, while Englishmen less civil,
Declared such treatment was the very Devil*

Towns she relieved, more captives took,

And thro' her valour CHARLES, it seems,
Was crown'd the Sovereign of France at
Rheims t

When by her brilliant star forsook,

A knight of Burgundy o'ercame poor JOAN,

Sent her in irons to be tried at Roan. Where can I without shame relate it? Wicked transaction! how I hate it! Soldiers and nobles, gentlemen of note, Prelates, the story's sticking in my throat, A mean trap laid,

To catch the maid

The Regent, in his letter to the King and Council, speaks of Joan as a Disciple and Lymme of the Fiende that used fals Enchauntments and Sorcerie, the which strocke and discomfiture not onlie lessed in grete Pertie the nombre of youre people there, bote as well withdrowe the courage of the reminant in mervellous wyse." RYMER'S FEDERA.

† After the coronation, she embraced the King's knees, and with tears extorted by pleasure and tenderness, congratulated him in this singular and marvellous event."

HUME.