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ARTHUR'S MAGAZINE.

JANUARY, 1845.

For Arthur's Magazine.

SHAKESPEARE GALLERY OF BEAUTY-NO. I.

JOAN OF ARC.*

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bered kingdom. There is faction, too, within derful episodes to as well as a foreign foe The Duke of Burbe found in the his-gundy is powerful, and wages a bitter intestine tory of the world, war against all who declare in favor of Charles, there is none more truly wonder- the Dauphin, who has been crowned in Poictiers ful than the story of Joan of Arc. An English army is in Francein actual possession of the capi-point to set down Joan of Arc as one of Shakespeare's

It may be thought by some rather straining a

characters. But the same objection might be brought against Queen Margaret, Lady Anne, or, indeed, any historical personage introduced by him in his plays. The artist who has presented to the eye with so much life, beauty and spirit the picture of Joan, as given in our magazine of this month, has illustrated that portion of Shakespeare's Henry VI. which represents the inspired Maid, as leading forward, banner in hand, the troops of Charles to the rescue of the besieged city of Orleans.-ED.

The

as king of France. Charles and his friends have made a brave resistance, sometimes with success, yet oftener with defeat; town after town has been taken, and castle after castle, until, step by step they have been driven from the north towards the southern provinces, and often reduced to the greatest straits. The city of Orleans, a post of great importance to Charles, still maintains itself against the besieging army of the Duke of Bedford, regent for Henry VI. but all supplies being cut off, it is in imminent danger of falling into the enemy's hands. possession of this city is of vast moment to Charles, for lying between those provinces which have submitted to the English, and those which still acknowledge his authority, it serves as a gathering point to his adherents, and a strong hold from whence they can, with advantage, sally out and annoy their enemies. Unless this place is subdued, the English cannot with safety pursue King Charles into the southern part of the kingdom; the success of his cause is, therefore, solely dependent upon its possesBut, month after month passes away, and the defence grows weaker and weaker. Charles, with his court, is at Chinon, reduced almost to hopelessness. In every contest with the English, his troops are beaten. Orleans can hold out but a brief space longer, and then the Dauphin must retreat rapidly to Languedoc and Dauphiny, where a few faithful adherents are to be found, to make another feeble stand against the enemy.

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In this crisis, a humble maiden, the daughter of a shepherd in the obscure village of Domremy, who has been a day-dreamer from her childhood, becomes inspired with a wonderful heroism. For years she has imagined that voices" spoke to her, and that she has seen visions of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, and St. Catherine and St. Margaret, two saints whose images she has been accustomed to adorn with flowers.

Now she declares that her "voices" direct her to go to Charles at Chinon; to lead on an army and raise the siege of Orleans-and then to conduct the young king to Rheims, where the anointing oil is kept in the sacred Ampulla, that he might there be crowned according to their custom. At first she is treated as one insane, but her importunities at last meet with respect. She is sent to Charles, at Chinon, and, is, after some hesitation, admitted to an interview. Every attention and honor are paid to her, and, as sne desires, an army is sent under her direction with supplies for the beleagured city. Mounted on horseback in a complete suit of armour, and carrying her banner, which is

white, and fringed with silk, having on it a representation of the Saviour seated on a throne, holding a globe in his hand, with two angels in adoration, one holding a flour-de-lis, which the Saviour seems to bless, with the words Jesus Maria on the border, she leads the army on and successfully enters, with large supplies, the city of Orleans. From this time forth, under the guidance of the inspired MAID, the French gain victory after victory-the king is conducted to Rheims, and there crowned-the English army is seized with a superstitious dread, and retires in confusion whenever she appears with her charmed banner. Thus are the followers of Charles led on, until they advance even to the siege of Paris. But here the maid is wounded, and the army forced to retire. Still many successes continue to crown the advances of the French army, until, at the defence of the town of Compiègne, which is besieged by the Duke of Burgundy, in a sharp contest which takes place beyond the barriers, the Maid is suddenly deserted by her followers. In vain she calls upon them to stand firm; they are in full retreat, and she is left to combat alone with the enemy. She resists bravely, but is soon overcome, and made prisoner! The English get possession of her, and have her tried as a witch by an ecclesiastical court in France, which condemns her to the stake, and she is burnt to death at Rouen and her ashes scattered on the waters of the Seine, to the everlasting disgrace of both the French and English.

Thus, briefly told, we have the strange history of Joan of Arc. After the crowning of King Charles at Rheims, she desired to go back to her quiet obscurity, having accomplished her mission. But, neither the king nor his leading counsellors, who saw the powerful influence she possessed over the army, would listen a moment to her wish. They were not yet done with her.

Wide have been the differences of opinion that have existed in regard to this phenomenon of the fifteenth century, and almost innumerable the books written on the subject. M. Chaussard enumerates upwards of four hundred expressly devoted to the life of Joan of Arc, or including details of her history. During her life, and immediately afterwards, the French army believed her miraculously inspired by heaven to lead them on to victory, and considered all the supernatural communications she avowed, to be realities; while the English considered her a witch, and inspired by the devil. So fully was this believed by the latter, that troops actually refused to embark from England for the continent, averring, that they were not afraid to

fight any number of Frenchmen, but were not going to enter the lists with Satan.

The truth is, that Joan, no, doubt, believed that she heard and saw all that she related, and that she was moved on by a pure and noble love of her country,-that the French, in that superstitious age, were inspired by the belief that they were favored by heaven, in the person of the invincible Joan: and, that the English, were dispirited and defeated, from like superstitious feelings.

Voltaire and others have attempted to stain the character of Joan by representing her as of the vilest character. But, history has done ample justice to her self-devotion, her high sense of honor, and her unsullied virtue. She remained pure, even amid the allurements and temptations of a corrupt court. Hume says of her-This admirable heroine, to whom the more generous superstition of the ancients, would have erected altars, was, on pretence of heresy and magic, delivered over alive to the flames, and expiated by that dreadful punishment the signal services she had rendered to her prince and her native country."

The very spirited engraving of the Maid, which we have given in this number of our magazine, represents her as she led forward the French troops against the besiegers of Orleans, and triumphantly entered the town, as described by Shakespeare in the following passage, taken from the first act of King Henry VI.

Talbot.

Where is my strength, my valor, and my force?

Our English troops retire, I cannot stay them?
A woman, clad in armor, chaseth them!

Enter LA PUCELLE (JOAN OF ARc).
Here, here she comes :-I'll have a bout with thee:
Devil, or devil's dam, I'll conjure thee:
Blood will I draw on thee, thou art a witch,
And staightway give thy soul to him thou servest.
Pucelle. Come, come, 'tis only I that must dis-
grace thee.

[They fight.

Tal. Heavens, can you suffer hell so to prevail? My breast I'll burst with straining of my courage; And from my shoulders crack my arms asunder, But I will chastise this high minded strumpet.

Puc. Talbot, farewell; thy hour is not yet come : I must go victual Orleans forthwith. O'ertake me if thou can'st; I scorn thy strength. Go, go, cheer up thy hunger-starved men; Help Salisbury to make his testament: This day is ours, as many more shall be.

[PUCELLE enters the town, with soldiers. Tal. My thoughts are whirled like a potter's wheel;

I know not where I am, nor what I do :
A witch, by fear not force, like Hannibal,
Drives back our troops and conquers as she lists.

Pucelle is entered into Orleans.

In spite of us, or all that we could do.

No one who justly appreciates the character of Joan of Arc, can help feeling regret at the outrageous imputations cast upon her character in this play of Henry VI. where she is not only represented as a witch, but as one of the vilest of the vile. In drawing her portrait, Shakespeare, went no further than the common impression brought over by the English army, and the ordinary scandal of the day, but, in making this a part of one of his plays, he has done La Pucelle great injustice.

The

Schiller, in his Maid of Orleans, assumes, in order to afford himself, as a poet, all the latitude he desired in giving effect to his play, the fact of supernatural agency. All that Joan believed, herself, in regard to the visions and voices," he assumes as true, and works up his plot with this as a leading feature. But, he departs too broadly from history in causing Joan to be slain in battle, just at the moment of victory. fact of her death at the stake is too impressive a finale to her adventurous life, to admit of such an anacronism. In this, Schiller failed. In adopting as true the maid's belief in actual communications from the other world, he was justifiable as a poet; still, the admission of her belief in her own visions, without the poet's assent to the fact, would have left him free, in our view, to have drawn more life-like pictures, in which nature would have spoken to the heart with inconceivable power. There was enough in the real history of Joan for the gifted German bard, without passing beyond the boundary of visible things.

The trial and condemnation to death of the Maid was a most flagrant outrage on justice and humanity. The rules of the church by which she was tried, could not have found her worthy of death. But, the Duke of Bedford determined that she should not be permitted to live. He, therefore, influenced the unprincipled Bishop of Beauvais to act treacherously towards her. He, by false representations, induced her to sign a paper which was actually a confession of henious and impossible crimes at which she would have shuddered, while, as read to her, it merely contained a promise to submit herself in all things to the Church of Rome, no more to carry arms, or use the dress of men-to adopt the dress of women, and let her hair grow. Even after this, the Bishop, who feared the conse quences to himself if he permitted Joan to be put to death, hesitated. But the Duke of Bedford took forcible possession of her person, and used such influence with the Bishop, as

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