Tal. My thoughts are whirled like a potter's wheel; I know not where I am, nor what I do: A witch, by fear, not force, like Hannibal, 3 [Alarum. Another Skirmish. It will not be :— -Retire into your trenches: You all consented unto Salisbury's death, For none would strike a stroke in his revenge.— Pucelle is enter'd into Orleans, 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 TALBOT and his Forces, &c. SCENE VI. The same. Enter, on the Walls, PUCELLE, CHARLES, Puc. Advance our waving colours on the walls; Rescu'd is Orleans from the English wolves1:— Thus Joan la Pucelle hath perform'd her word. 2 Alluding to Hannibal's stratagem to escape, by fixing bundles of lighted twigs on the horns of oxen, recorded by Livy, lib. xxij. c. xvj. 3 Old copy treacherous. Corrected by Pope. 1 Wolves. Thus the second folio, the first omits that word, Char. Divinest creature, bright Astrea's daughter, How shall I honour thee for this success?. Thy promises are like Adonis' gardens, That one day bloom'd, and fruitful were the next?.France, triumph in thy glorious prophetess ?— Recover'd is the town of Orleans: More blessed hap did ne'er befall our state. Reig. Why ring not out the bells throughout the town? Dauphin, command the citizens make bonfires, . Alen. All France will be replete with mirth and joy, 3 Than Rhodope's, of Memphis, ever was 3 : and the epithet bright prefixed to Astrea in the next line but one. Malone follows the reading of the first folio, and contends that by a licentious pronunciation a syllable was added, thus Engleïsh, Asterea. 2 The Adonis horti were nothing but portable earthen pots, with some lettuce or fennel growing in them. On his yearly festival every woman carried one of them in honour of Adonis, because Venus had once laid him in a lettuce bed. The next day they were thrown away. The proverb seemed to have been used always in a bad sense, for things which make a fair show for a few days and then wither away. The author of this play has mistakingly made the dauphin apply it as an encomium. There is a good account of it in Erasmus's Adagia. 3 The old copy reads: 'Than Rhodophe's or Memphis ever was.' Rhodope, or Rhodopis, a celebrated courtezan, who was a slave in the same service with Æsop, at Samos. The brother of Sappho, Charaxes, purchased her freedom and married her. She obtained so much money by selling her favours at Naucrates, that she is said to have erected at Memphis' the fairest and most In memory of her, when she is dead, After this golden day of victory. [Flourish. Exeunt. ACT II. SCENE I. The same. Enter to the Gates, a French Sergeant, and Two Sentinels. Serg. Sirs, take your places, and be vigilant : If any noise, or soldier, you perceive, Near to the walls, by some apparent sign, Let us have knowledge at the court of guard1. 1 Sent. Sergeant, you shall. [Exit Sergeant.] Thus are poor servitors (When others sleep upon their quiet beds) Constrain❜d to watch in darkness, rain, and cold. commended of the pyramids.' Ælian relates that she married Psammetichus, king of Egypt, who fell in love with her sandal, which was dropped near him by an eagle, which had carried it off while she was bathing. 4 In what price the noble poems of Homer were holden by Alexander the Great, insomuch that everie night they were layd under his pillow, and by day were carried in the rich jewel coffer of Darius, lately before vanquished by him.' Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie, 1589. The same as guard-room. Enter TALBOT, BEDFORD, BURGUNDY, and Forces, with Scaling Ladders; their Drums beating a dead March. Tal. Lord regent, and redoubted Burgundy,- As fitting best to quittance their deceit, 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. But what's that Pucelle, whom they term so pure? Bed. A maid! and be so martial! Bur. Pray God, she prove not masculine ere long; If underneath the standard of the French, She carry armour as she hath begun. Tal. Well, let them practise and converse with God is our fortress; in whose conquering name, Bed. Ascend, brave Talbot; we will follow thee. Bur. And I to this. Tal. And here will Talbot mount, or make his grave. Now, Salisbury! for thee, and for the right [The English scale the Walls, crying St. George! a Talbot! and all enter by the Town. Sent. [Within.] Arm, arm! the enemy doth make assault! The French leap over the Walls in their shirts. Enter, several ways, BASTARD, ALENÇON, REIGNIER, half ready, and half unready. Alen. How now, my lords? what, all unready? so? Bast. Unready? ay, and glad we 'scap'd so well. Reig. 'Twas time, I trow, to wake and leave our beds, Hearing alarums at our chamber doors. Alen. Of all exploits, since first I follow'd arms, Never heard I of a warlike enterprise More venturous, or desperate than this. Bast. I think, this Talbot be a fiend of hell. Reig. If not of hell, the heavens, sure, favour him. Alen. Here cometh Charles; I marvel how he sped. Enter CHARLES and LA PUCELLE. Bast. Tut! holy Joan was his defensive guard. Char. Is this thy cunning, thou deceitful dame? Didst thou at first, to flatter us withal, Make us partakers of a little gain, That now our loss might be ten times so much? Puc. Wherefore is Charles impatient with his friend? 2 Unready is undressed. Thus in Chapman's Monsieur D'Olive, 1606, 'You are not going to bed; I see you are not yet unready.' A stage direction in The Two Maids of Moreclock, 1609, says Enter James unready, in his nightcap, garterless.' So in Cotgrave, Deshabiller, to unclothe, make unreddie, put or take off clothes.' |