But we will be reveng'd sufficiently. Here, through this grate, I can count every one,5 Let us look in, the sight will much delight thee.— Where is best place to make our battery next. [Shot from the Town. SAL. and SirTHO. GAR. full. Speak, Salisbury; at least, if thou canst speak; How far'st thou, mirror of all martial men? One of thy eyes, and thy cheek's side struck off!7Accursed tower! accursed fatal hand, That hath contriv'd this woful tragedy! In thirteen battles Salisbury o'ercame; Henry the fifth he first train'd to the wars: Whilst any trump did sound, or drum struck up, * His sword did ne'er leave striking in the field.— Yet liv'st thou, Salisbury? though thy speech doth fail, One eye thou hast, to look to heaven for grace: The sun with one eye vieweth all the world. - 5 Here, through this grate, I can count every one,] Thus the second folio. The first, very hastily and unmetrically, reads: 6 Here, thorough this grate, 1 count each one. Steevens. • enfeebled.] This word is here used as a quadrisyllable. Malone. thy cheek's side struck off!] Camden says in his Remaines, that the French scarce knew the use of great ordnance, till the siege of Mans in 1425, when a breach was made in the walls of that town by the English, under the conduct of this earl of Salis. bury; and that he was the first English gentleman that was slain by a cannon-ball. Malone. 8 One eye thou hast, &c.] A similar thought occurs in King Lear: my lord, you have one eye left, ་་ "To see some mischief on him." Steevens. Heaven, be thou gracious to none alive, He beckons with his hand, and smiles on me; Play on the lute, beholding the towns burn: [Thunder heard; afterwards an Alarum. What stir is this? What tumult 's in the heavens? Enter a Messenger. Mess. My lord, my lord, the French have gather'd head: The Dauphin, with one Joan la Pucelle join'd,- Is come with a great power to raise the siege. [SAL. groans. Tal. Hear, hear, how dying Salisbury doth groan! It irks his heart, he cannot be reveng'd.- 9 and Nero-like,] The first folio reads: Plantagenet, I will; and like thee Steevens. In the old copy, the word Nero is wanting, owing probably to the transcriber's not being able to make out the name. The editor of the second folio, with his usual freedom, altered the line thus: I am content to read with the second folio (not conceiving the emendation in it to be an arbitrary one) and omit only the needless repetition of the word-will. Surely there is some absurdity in making Talbot address Plantagenet, and invoke Nero, in the same line. Steevens. 1 Pucelle or puzzel, dolphin or dog fish,] Pussel means a dirty wench or a drab, from puzza, i. e. malus fætor, says Minshieu. In a translation from Stephens's Apology for Herodotus, in 1607, p. 98, we read "Some filthy queans, especially our puzzles of Paris, use this other theft." Tollet. Your hearts I'll stamp out with my horse's heels, And make a quagmire of your mingled brains.— And then we 'll try what these dastard Frenchmen dare.2 [Exeunt, bearing out the Bodies. SCENE V. The same. Before one of the Gates. Alarum. Skirmishings. TALBOT pursueth the Dauphin, and driveth him in: then enter JOAN LA PUCELLE, driving Englishmen before her. Then enter TALBOT. Tal. Where is my strength, my valour, and my force? Our English troops retire, I cannot stay them; Enter LA PUCELLE. Here, here she comes:- -I'll have a bout with thee; Blood will I draw on thee,3 thou art a witch, [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, farewel; thy hour is not yet come: O'ertake me, if thou canst; I scorn thy strength. There are frequent references to Pucelle's name in this play: "I'scar'd the dauphin and his trull.” Again: "Scoff on, vile fiend, and shameless courtezan!" Malone. 2 And then we'll try what these dastard Frenchmen dare.] Perhaps the conjunction-and, or the demonstrative pronoun-these, for the sake of metre, should be omitted at the beginning of this line, which, in my opinion, however, originally ran thus: Then try we what these dastard Frenchmen dare. Steevens. 3 Blood will I draw on thee,] The superstition of those times taught that he that could draw the witch's blood, was free from her power. Johnson. Help Salisbury to make his testament: This day is ours, as many more shall be. [Puc. enters the Town, with Soldiers. Tal. My thoughts are whirled like a potter's wheel;5 I know not where I am, nor what I do: 6 A witch, by fear, not force, like Hannibal, Drives back our troops, and conquers as she lists: [A short Alarum. {Alarum. Another Skirmish. It will not be:-Retire into your trenches: In spite of us, or aught that we could do. O, would I were to die with Salisbury! The shame hereof will make me hide my head. [Alarum. Retreat. Exeunt TAL. and his Forces, &c. 4 - hunger-starved-] The same epithet is, I think, used by Shakspeare. The old copy lias-hungry-starved. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. Malone. 5 like a potter's wheel;] This idea might have been caught from Psalm lxxxiii, 13: “ Make them like unto a wheel, and Steevens. as the stubble before the wind." 6 by fear, &c.] See Hannibal's stratagem to escape by fixing bundles of lighted twigs on the horns of oxen, recorded in Livy, Lib. XXII, c. xvi. H. White. 7 so timorous] Old copy-treacherous. Corrected by Mr. Pope. Malone. SCENE VI. The same. Enter, on the Walls, PUCELLE, CHARLES, REIGNIER, ALENÇON, and Soldiers. Puc. Advance our waving colours on the walls; That one day bloom'd, and fruitful were the next. More blessed hap did neʼer befall our state. Reig. Why ring not out the bells throughout the town?9 Dauphin, command the citizens make bonfires, Alen. All France will be replete with mirth and joy, Than Rhodope's, or Memphis', ever was: 8from the English wolves: &c.] Thus the second folio, The first omits the word-wolves. Steevens. If Pucelle, by this term, does not allude to the hunger or fierceness of the English, she refers to the wolves by which their kingdom was formerly infested. So, in King Henry IV, P. II. "Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants." Steevens. 9 Why ring not out the bells throughout the town?] The old copy, unnecessarily as well as redundantly reads→ Why ring not out the bells aloud &c. But if the bells rang out, they must have rang aloud; for to ring out, as I am informed, is a technical term with that signification. The disagreeable jingle, however, of out and throughout, induces me to suppose the line originally stood thus: Why ring not bells aloud throughout the town? Steevens. |