Enter CHARLES, Bastard of Orleans, ALENÇON, and Forces. CHAR. Saint Dennis blefs this happy ftratagem! And once again we'll fleep fecure in Rouen. BAST. Here enter'd Pucelle, and her practisants: 5 Now the is there, how will fhe specify 6 Where is the beft and fafeft paffage in? ALEN. By thrufting out a torch from yonder tower; Which, once difcern'd, fhows, that her meaning is, No way to that,' for weakness, which fhe enter'd, Enter LA PUCELLE on a battlement; holding out a torch burning. Puc. Behold, this is the happy wedding torch, That joineth Rouen unto her countrymen; But burning fatal to the Talbotites. BAST. See, noble Charles! the beacon of our friend, The burning torch in yonder turret ftands. 5 Here enter'd Pucelle, and her practifants:] Practice, in the language of that time, was treachery, and perhaps in the fofter sense fratagem. Practifants are therefore confederates in fratagems. JOHNSON. So, in the Induction to The Taming of a Shrew: Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. 7 No way to that,] That is, no way equal to that, no way to fit as that. JOHNson. So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona : There is no woe to his correction." STEEVENS. CHAR. Now thine it like a comet of revenge, A prophet to the fall of all our foes! ALEN. Defer no time, Delays have dangerous ends; Enter, and cry-The Dauphin !-presently, And then do execution on the watch. [They enter. Alarums. Enter TALBOT, and certain English. TAL. France, thou shalt rue this treason with thy If Talbot but furvive thy treachery.- 9 [Exeunt to the town. Alarum: Excurfions. Enter, from the town, BEDFORD, brought in fick, in a chair, with TALBOT, BURGUNDY, and the English forces. Then, enter on the walls, LA PUCELLE, CHARLES, BASTARD, ALENÇON, and Others. 2 Puc. Good morrow, gallants! want ye corn for bread? France, thou shalt rue this &c.] So, in King John: "France, thou shalt rue this hour" &c. STEEVENS. • That hardly we escap'd the pride of France. ] Pride fignifies the haughty power. The fame speaker fays afterwards, A& IV. fc. vi: "And from the pride of Gallia refcu'd thee." One would think this plain enough. But what won't a puzzling critick obscure! Mr. Theobald fays-Pride of France is an abfurd and unmeaning, expreffion, and therefore alters it to prize of France; and in this is followed by the Oxford editor. WARBURTON. 3 Alençon, ] Alençon Sir T. Hanmer has replaced here, inftead of Reignier, because Alençon, not Reignier, appears in the enfuing fcene. JOHNSON. I think, the duke of Burgundy will faft, 'Twas full of darnel; 9 Do you like the tafte? BUR. Scoff on, vile fiend, and fhameless cour tezan! I truft, ere long to choke thee with thine own, BED. O, let no words, but deeds, revenge this treafon! Puc. What will you do, good grey-beard? break a lance, And run a tilt at death within a chair? TAL. Foul fiend of France, and hag of all defpite, Encompass'd with thy luftful paramours! Becomes it thee to taunt his valiant age, 'And twit with cowardice a man half dead? Damfel, I'll have a bout with you again, Or else let Talbot perish with this fhame. Puc. Are you fo hot, fir?-Yet, Pucelle, hold thy peace; If Talbot do but thunder, rain will follow. [TALBOT, and the reft, confult together. God fpeed the parliament! who shall be the speaker? "Darnel (fays Gerard) hurteth the eyes, and maketh them dim, if it happen either in corne for breade, or drinke." Hence the old proverb-Lolio viditare, applied to fuch as were dim-fighted. Thus alfo, Ovid, Faft. I. 691: Et careant lolüs oculos vitiantibus agri." Pucelle means to intimate, that the corn the carried with her, had produced the fame effect on the guards of Rouen; otherwise they would have feen through her disguise, and defeated her ftratagem. STEVENS. TAL. Dare ye come forth, and meet us in the field? Puc. Belike, your lordship takes us then for fools, if that our own be ours, or no. To try TAL. I fpeak not to that railing Hecaté, Will ye, like foldiers, come and fight it out? TAL. Signior, hang!-base muleteers of France! Like peasant foot-boys do they keep the walls, And dare not take up arms like gentlemen. Puc. Away, captains: let's get us from the walls; For Talbot means no goodness, by his looks.— God be wi' you, my lord! we came, fir, but to tell you That we are here. 7 [Exeunt LA PUCELLE, &t. from the walls. TAL. And there will we be too, ere it be long, Or elfe reproach be Talbot's greatest fame!Vow, Burgundy, by honour of thy houfe, (Prick'd on by publick wrongs, fuftain'd in France,) Either to get the town again, or die: And I, -as fure as English Henry lives, And as his father here was conqueror; As fure as in this late-betrayed town Great Coeur-de-lion's heart was buried; So fure I fwear, to get the town, or die. BUR. My vows are equal partners with thy vows. TAL. But, ere we go, regard this dying prince, The valiant duke of Bedford :-Come, my lord, 7 we came, fir, but to tell you] The word-fir, which is wanting in the firft folio, was judicioufly fupplied by the fecond. STEEVENS. We will beftów you in fome better place, BED. Lord Talbot, do not fo difhonour me: BUR. Courageous Bedford, let us now perfuade you. BED. Not to be gone from hence; for once I read, 2 That ftout Pendragon, in his litter, fick, TAL. Undaunted spirit in a dying breast! Then be it fo-Heavens keep old Bedford fafe!— And now no more ado, brave Burgundy, But gather we our forces out of hand, [Exeunt BURGUNDY, TALBOT, and Forces; leaving BEDFORD, and Others. once I read, That tout Pendragon, in his litter, &c. ] This hero was Uther Pendragon, brother to Aurelius, and father to King Arthur. Shakspeare has imputed to Pendragon an exploit of Aurelius, who, fays Holinfhed, " even ficke of a flixe as he was, caufed himfelfe to be carried forth in a litter: with whose prefence his people were fo incouraged, that encountering with the Saxons they wan the victorie." Hift. of Scotland, p. 99. Harding, however, in his Chronicle (as I learn from Dr. Grey ) gives the following account of Uther Pendragon. For which the king ordain'd a horfe-litter ،، Where Ocea lay, and Oyfa alfo in fear, STEEVENS. |