Page:Henry VI Part 1 (1918) Yale.djvu/122

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110
The First Part of

her simply as Pucelle (spelled 'Puzel' or 'Pucell'). The stage direction after line 63 of this scene calls her 'Ioane Puzel,' that after line 103 'Ioane de Puzel' (so also in I. vi. 3 and V. iii. S. d.). In II. i and V. iv she appears as 'Ioane,' but is only twice called Joan of Arc ('Acre' or 'Aire' in the Folio; cf. II. ii. 20 and V. iv. 49). Mr. Fleay attempted to find in these differences of name a clue to the play's authorship.

I. ii. 131. Saint Martin's summer. Summer in the midst of autumn. The reference is to the unseasonably warm weather often occurring about St. Martin's Day (November 11).

I. ii. 138, 139. The allusion is to a common but probably unhistoric story recorded in Plutarch's Life of Cæsar. During the war with Pompey, when the latter's navy commanded the sea, Cæsar embarked on a small pinnace incognito 'as if he had bene some poore man of meane condition,' with the idea of crossing to his army at Brundisium. A storm arose and the commander of the vessel ordered his men to put back. 'Cæsar, hearing that, straight discouered himselfe vnto the Maister of the pynnase, who at the first was amazed when he saw him: but Cæsar then taking him by the hand sayd vnto him, Good fellow, be of good cheare, and forwards hardily, feare not, for thou hast Cæsar & his fortune with thee.' (North's translation, 1579.) Peele mentions the episode in a similar manner in his Farewell to Norris and Drake (1589):

'and let me say
To you, my mates, as Cæsar said to his,
Striving with Neptune's hills; you hear, quoth he,
Cæsar, and Cæsar's fortune in your ships.'

I. ii. 140. Was Mahomet inspired with a dove? This alludes to a trick ascribed to Mahomet by several Elizabethan writers. Thomas Nashe has two references to it, and Nashe's most recent editor quotes the