In 1589 he had twice come forth as the spokesman of the nation: in his Eclogue Gratulatory to the Earl of Essex 'for his welcome into England from Portugal,' and in his fine Farewell, 'Entituled to the famous and fortunate Generals of our English forces: Sir John Norris and Sir Francis Drake.' Later, again, in 1593, he linked the knighthood of his age with that of the past in The Honour of the Garter.[1] His plays of the same period, Edward I and The Battle of Alcazar, are equally filled with the praise of English daring. No known author of 1591 has anything like the same claim on merely extrinsic evidence to be regarded as the author of a play in celebration of the martial exploits of the brave Lord Talbot.[2] General similarities between Peele's Edward I and 1 Henry VI have been often noted, particularly the unhappy resemblance in the defamation of the Spanish Eleanor and the French Joan of Arc. One of the most insular of Britons, Peele was incapable of glorifying his countrymen without slandering the races they opposed. The undramatic line put into Joan's mouth (III. iii. 85),
'Done like a Frenchman: turn, and turn again!'
is fairly characteristic of his bigotry.
The verse of the older portions of the play—saccharine rather than strong, and the loose but animated structure are what one finds in Peele's recognized dramas. The imitation of Marlowe is
- ↑ This poem should be compared with Talbot's speech, 'When first this order was ordained,' etc. (IV. i. 33 ff.).
- ↑ Peele's favorite epigram, which he affixes at least three times to his poems, might well serve as motto for 1 Henry VI:
'Gallia victa dedit flores, invicta leones
Anglia, jus belli in flore, leone suum;
O sic, O semper ferat Anglia laeta (or 'Elizabetha') triumphos,
Inelyta Gallorum flore, leone suo.'
