30 Dauphin, command the citizens make bonfires, Alen. All France will be replete with mirth and joy, (Flourish. Exeunt. Than Rhodope's,] Rhodope was a famous ftrumpet, who acquired The least but most finished of the Egyptian great riches by her trade. pyramids (fays Pliny in the 36th book of his Natural Hiftory, ch. xii.) She is faid afterwards to have married Pfammetiwas built by her. chus, king of Egypt. Dr. Johnson thinks that the Dauphin means to call Joan of Arc a ftrumpet, all the while he is making this loud praise of her. I would read: "Than Rhodope's of Memphis, ever was.' STEEVENS. The brother of Sappho, was in love with Rhodope, and purchased her freedom (for the was a flave in the fame houfe with fop the fabulist) at a great price. Rhodope was of Thrace, not of Memphis. Memphis, a city of Egypt, was celebrated for its pyramids : 3 "Barbara Pyramidum fileat miracula Memphis." MART. De fpectaculis Libel. Ep. 1. MALONE. ceffer of Darius,] When Alexander the Great took the city of Gaza, the metropolis of Syria, amidst the other fpoils and wealth of Darius treasured up there, he found an exceeding rich and beautiful little cheft or casket, and asked thofe about him what they thought When they had feverally delivered their opifittest to be laid up in it. nions, he told them, he esteemed nothing fo worthy to be preferved in it as Homer's Iliad. Vide Plutarchum in Vitâ Alexandri Magni. THEOBALD. ACT ACT II. SCENE I. The fame. Enter to the gates, a French Serjeant, and two Sentinels Near to the walls, by fome apparent fign, Let us have knowledge at the court of guard. 1. Sent. Serjeant, you fhall. [Exit Serjeant.] Thus are poor fervitors (When others fleep upon their quiet beds) Enter TALBOT, BEDFORD, BURGUNDY, and forces, Bed. Coward of France!-how much he wrongs his fame, Despairing of his own arm's fortitude, To join with witches, and the help of hell. Bur. Traitors have never other company. But what's that Pucelle, whom they term fo pure? Tal. A maid, they fay. . Bed. A maid! and be so martial! Bur. Pray God, the prove not masculine ere long; If underneath the standard of the French, She carry armour, as fhe hath begun. Tal. Well, let them practife and converse with spirits: God is our fortrefs; in whofe conquering name, Let us refolve to scale their flinty bulwarks. Bed. Afcend, brave Talbot; we will follow thee. Tal. Tal. Not all together: better far, I guess, Bur. And I to this. Tal. And here will Talbot mount, or make his Now, Salisbury! for thee, and for the right Of English Henry, fhall this night appear How much in duty I am bound to both. grave. [The English Scale the walls, crying St. George! a Talbot! and all enter by the town. Sent. [within.] Arm, arm! the enemy doth make asfault! The French leap over the walls in their fhirts. Enter, feveral ways, BASTARD, ALENÇON, REIGNIER, half ready, and half unready. Alen. How now, my lords? what, all unready fo3? Baft. Unready? ay, and glad we 'fcap'd fo well. Reig. 'Twas time, I trow, to wake, and leave our beds, Hearing alarums at our chamber doors. Alen. Of all exploits, fince first I follow'd arms, Ne'er heard I of a warlike enterprize More venturous, or defperate, than this. Baft. I think, this Talbot be a fiend of hell. Reig. If not of hell, the heavens, fure, favour him. Baft. Tut! holy Joan was his defenfive guard. Make us partakers of a little gain, 3-unready fo?] Unready was the current word in thofe times for andrefs'd. JOHNSON. So, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1638: "Enter Sixtus, and Lucrece unready." Again, in The two Maids of More-clacke, 1609: "Enter James unready, in his night-cap, garterlefs," &c. STEEVENS. That That now our lofs might be ten times fo much? Or will you blame and lay the fault on me?— Reig. And fo was mine, my lord. Char. And, for myself, most part of all this night, About relieving of the fentinels: Then how, or which way, fhould they firft break in? Alarum. Enter an English Soldier crying, a Talbot! @ Talbot! They fly, leaving their cloaths behind. Sol. I'll be fo bold to take what they have left. The cry of Talbot serves me for a sword; *For 4 Enter an English foldier crying, a Talbot! a Talbot!] And after wards: "The cry of Talbot ferves me for a fword." Here a popular tradition, exclufive of any chronicle-evidence, was in Shakspeare's mind. Edward Kerke, the old commentator on Spenfer's Paftorals, first published in 1579, obferves in his notes on June, that lord Talbot's "nobleneffe bred fuch a terrour in the hearts of the VOL. VI. D French, For I have loaden me with many spoils, Ufing no other weapon but his name. [Exit. Enter TALBOT, BEDFORD, BURGUNDY, a Captain, and Others. Bed. The day begins to break, and night is fled, [Retreat founded. I mufe, we met not with the Dauphin's grace; French, that oftimes great armies were defeated and put to flight, at the only bearing of his name: infomuch that the French women to affray their children, would tell them, that the TALBOT cometh." See alfo Sc. iii. T. WARTON. In a note on a former paffage, p. 24, n. 8, I have quoted a paffage from Hall's Chronicle, which probably furnished the author of this play with this circumstance. It is not mentioned by Holinfhed, (ShakIpeare's hiftorian,) and is one of the numerous proofs that have convinced me that this play was not the production of our author. See the Effay at the end of the third part of King Henry VI. It is furely more probable that the writer of this play fhould have taken this circumstance from the chronicle which furnished him with his plot, than from the Comment on Spenfer's paftorals. MALONE. |