CHAR. A parley with the duke of Burgundy. BUR. What say'st thou, Charles? for I am marching hence. CHAR. Speak, Pucelle; and enchant him with thy words. Puc. Brave Burgundy, undoubted hope of France! Stay, let thy humble handmaid speak to thee. BUR. Speak on; but be not over-tedious. Puc. Look on thy country, look on fertile France, And see the cities and the towns defac'd By wasting ruin of the cruel foe! As looks the mother on her lowly babe, Behold the wounds, the most unnatural wounds, Strike those that hurt, and hurt not those that help! One drop of blood, drawn from thy country's bosom, Should grieve thee more than streams of foreign gore; Return thee, therefore, with a flood of tears, And wash away thy country's stained spots! BUR. Either she hath bewitch'd me with her words, Or nature makes me suddenly relent. Puc. Besides, all French and France exclaims on thee, 6 As looks the mother on her LOWLY babe,] It is plain Shakspeare wrote-lovely babe, it answering to fertile France above, which this domestic image is brought to illustrate. WARBURTON. The alteration is easy and probable, but perhaps the poet by lowly babe meant the babe lying low in death. Lowly answers as well to towns defaced and wasting ruin, as lovely to fertile. JOHNSON. Doubting thy birth and lawful progeny. Who join'st thou with, but with a lordly nation, See then! thou fight'st against thy countrymen, And join'st with them will be thy slaughter-men. Come, come, return; return, thou wand'ring lord; Charles, and the rest, will take thee in their arms. BUR. I am vanquished; these haughty words of hers Have batter'd me like roaring cannon-shot, They set him free, &c.] A mistake: The Duke was not liberated till after Burgundy's decline to the French interest; which did not happen, by the way, till some years after the execution of this very Joan la Pucelle; nor was that during the regency of York, but of Bedford. RITSON. 8 these HAUGHTY words of hers Have batter'd me like roaring cannon-shot,] How these lines came hither I know not; there was nothing in the speech of Joan haughty or violent, it was all soft entreaty and mild expostulation. JOHNSON. Haughty does not mean violent in this place, but elevated, high-spirited. It is used in a similar sense, in two other passages in this very play. In a preceding scene Mortimer says: “But mark; as in this haughty, great attempt, 66 They laboured to plant the rightful heir-." And again, in the next scene, Talbot says: 66 Knights of the Garter were of noble birth, "Valiant, and virtuous; full of haughty courage." At first interview with Joan, the Dauphin says: "Thou hast astonish'd me with thy high terms; " And made me almost yield upon my knees.- CHAR. Welcome, brave duke! thy friendship makes us fresh. BAST. And doth beget new courage in our breasts. ALEN. Pucelle hath bravely played her part in this, And doth deserve a coronet of gold. CHAR. Now let us on, my lords, and join our powers; And seek how we may prejudice the foe. [Exeunt. meaning, by her high terms, what Burgundy here calls her haughty words. M. MASON. That haughty signifies elevated or exalted, may be ascertained by the following passage in a very scarce book entitled, A Courtlie Controversie of Cupid's Cautels, &c. Translated out of French, by H. W. [Henry Wotton] Gentleman, 4to. 1578, p. 235: 66 Among which troupe of base degree, God forbid I should place you deare lady Parthenia, for both the haughtie bloud whereof you are extraught, and also the graces wherewith the heauens with contention have enobled you, worthily deserueth your person should be preferred of all men, among the most excellent Princesses." STEEVENS. 9 Done, like a Frenchman; turn, and turn again!] The inconstancy of the French was always the subject of satire. I have read a dissertation written to prove that the index of the wind upon our steeples was made in form of a cock, to ridicule the French for their frequent changes. JOHNSON. So afterwards: "In France, amongst a fickle wavering nation." In Othello we have the same phrase: Sir, she can turn, and turn, and yet go on, "And turn again." STEEVENS. MALONE. SCENE IV. Paris. A Room in the Palace. Enter King HENRY, GLOSTER, and other Lords, VERNON, BASSET, &c. some of his Officers. To them TALBOT, and TAL. My gracious prince, and honourable peers, Hearing of your arrival in this realm, I have a while given truce unto my wars, In sign whereof, this arm-that hath reclaim'd Twelve cities, and seven walled towns of strength, Lets fall his sword before your highness' feet; First to my God, and next unto your grace. When I was young, (as yet I am not old,) Is this the lord Talbot, uncle Gloster,] Sir Thomas Hanmer supplies the apparent deficiency, by reading "Is this the fam'd lord Talbot," &c. So, in Troilus and Cressida : "My well fam'd lord of Troy-." STEEVENS. 2 I do remember how my father said,] The author of this play was not a very correct historian. Henry was but nine months old when his father died, and never even saw him. MALONE. Long since we were resolved of your truth3, [Exeunt King HENRY, GLOSTER, TALBOT, VER. Now, sir, to you, that were so hot at sea, Disgracing of these colours that I wear' In honour of my noble lord of York,— Dar'st thou maintain the former words thou spak'st? VER. Sirrah, thy lord I honour as he is. BAS. Villain, thou know'st, the law of arms is such, That, who so draws a sword, 'tis present death"; 3 RESOLVED of your truth,] i. e. confirmed in opinion of it. So, in the Third Part of this play: I am resolv'd "That Clifford's manhood lies upon his tongue." STEEVENS. 4 Or been REGUERDON'D-] i. e. rewarded. The word was obsolete even in the time of Shakspeare. Chaucer uses it in the Boke of Boethius. STEEVENS. 5 — these COLOURS that I wear -] This was the badge of a rose, and not an officer's scarf. So, in Love's Labour's Lost, Act III. Scene the last : "And wear his colours like a tumbler's hoop." TOLLET. 6 That, wнo so draws a sword, 'tis present death;] Shakspeare wrote: 66 draws a sword i' th' presence 't's death;" i. e. in the court, or in the presence chamber. WARBURTON. |