SCENE II.

France. Before Rouen.

Enter LA PUCELLE disguised, and Soldiers dressed like Countrymen, with Sacks upon their Backs.

Puc. These are the city gates, the gates of Roüen, Through which our policy must make a breach: Take heed, be wary how you place your words; Talk like the vulgar sort of market-men, That come to gather money for their corn. If we have entrance, (as, I hope, we shall,) And that we find the slothful watch but weak, I'll by a sign give notice to our friends,

That Charles the Dauphin may encounter them.

1 Sold. Our sacks shall be a mean to sack the city," And we be lords and rulers over Roüen; Therefore we 'll knock.

Guard. [within] Qui est là 27

Puc. Paisans, pauvres gens de France:

Poor market-folks, that come to sell their corn.
Guard. Enter, go in; the market-bell is rung.

[Knocks.

[Opens the Gates. Puc. Now, Roüen, I 'll shake thy bulwarks to the [Puc. c. enter the City. Enter CHARLES, Bastard of Orleans, ALENÇON,

ground.

and Forces.

Char. Saint Dennis bless this happy stratagem! And once again we 'll sleep secure in Roüen.

Bast. Here enter'd Pucelle, and her practisants: Now she is there, how will she specify

6 Our sacks shall be a mean to sack the city,] Falstaff has the same quibble, showing his bottle of sack: "Here's that will sack a city."

Steevens.

7 Qui est là?] Old copy-Che la. For the emendation I am answerable. Malone.

Late editions-Qui va la? Steevens.

8 Here enter'd Pucelle, and her practisants:] Practice, in the language of that time, was treachery, and perhaps in the softer sense stratagem. Practisants are therefore confederates in stratagems.

So, in the Induction to The Taming of the Shrew: 'Sirs, I will practice on this drunken man."

Johnson

Steevens.

Where is the best and safest passage in?

Alen. By thrusting out a torch from yonder tower; Which, once discern'd, shows, that her meaning is,— No way to that, for weakness, which she 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 stands.

Char. Now shine 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 tears,1 If Talbot but survive thy treachery.Pucelle, that witch, that damned sorceress, Hath wrought this hellish mischief unawares, That hardly we escap'd the pride of France.

[Exeunt to the Town.

Alarum: Excursions. Enter, from the Town, BEDFORD, brought in sick, in a Chair, with TALBOT, Burgundy, and the English Forces. Then, enter on the Walls, LA PUCELLE, CHARLES, Bastard, ALENÇON,3 and Others. Puc. Good morrow, gallants! want ye corn for bread?

9 No way to that,] That is, no way equal to that, no way so fit as that. Johnson.

So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

"There is no woe to his correction." Steevens.

1 France, thou shalt rue this &c.] So, in King John:

France, thou shalt rue this hour" &c.

Steevens.

2 That hardly we escap'd the pride of France.] Pride signifies the haughty power. The same speaker says afterwards, Act IV, sc. vi :

And from the pride of Gallia rescu'd thee."

One would think this plain enough. But what won't a puzzling critick obscure! Mr. Theobald says-Pride of France is an absurd and unmeaning expression, and therefore alters it to prize of France; and in this is followed by the Oxford editor. Warburton.

3

Alencon,] Alencon Sir T. Hanmer has replaced here, in

I think, the duke of Burgundy will fast,
Before he 'll buy again at such a rate:
'Twas full of darnel;4 Do you like the taste?

Bur. Scoff on, vile fiend, and shameless courtezan!
I trust, ere long, to choke thee with thine own,
And make thee curse the harvest of that corn.

Char. Your grace may starve, perhaps, before that time.

Bed. O, let no words, but deeds, revenge this treason! 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 despite,
Encompass'd with thy lustful paramours!
Becomes it thee to taunt his valiant age,
And twit with cowardice a man half dead?
Damsel, I'll have a bout with you again,
Or else let Talbot perish with this shame.

Puc. Are you so hot, sir?-Yet, Pucelle, hold thy

peace;

If Talbot do but thunder, rain will follow.—

[TAL. and the rest, consult together. God speed the parliament! who shall be the speaker? Tal. Dare ye come forth, and meet us in the field? Puc. Belike, your lordship takes us then for fools, To try if that our own be ours, or no.

Tal. I speak not to that railing Hecaté,

But unto thee, Alençon, and the rest;

Will ye, like soldiers, come and fight it out?

Alen. Signior, no.

stead of Reignier, because Alencon, not Reignier, appears in the ensuing scene. Johnson:

4

darnel;] So, in King Lear:

"Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow

"In our sustaining corn."

"Darnel (says Gerard) hurteth the eyes, and maketh them dim, if it happen either in corne for breade, or drinke." Hence the old proverb-Lolio victitare, applied to such as were dim-sighted. Thus also, Ovid, Fast. I, 691:

"Et careant lolüs oculos vitiantibus agri.”

Pucelle means to intimate, that the corn she carried with her, had produced the same effect on the guards of Rouen; otherwise they would have seen through her disguise, and defeated her stratagem. Steevens.

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. Captains, away: let 's get us from the walls; For Talbot means no goodness, by his looks.

God be wi' you, my lord! we came, sir, but to tell you5
That we are here. [Exeunt La Puc. &c. from the Walls.
Tal. And there will we be too, ere it be long,
Or else reproach be Talbot's greatest fame!
Vow, Burgundy, by honour of thy house,
(Prick'd on by publick wrongs, sustain'd in France,)
Either to get the town again, or die:

And I, as sure as English Henry lives,
And as his father here was conqueror;
As sure as in this late-betray'd town
Great Coeur-de-lion's heart was buried;
So sure I swear, 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,
We will bestow you in some better place,
Fitter for sickness, and for crazy age.

Bed. Lord Talbot, do not so dishonour me:
Here will I sit before the walls of Rouen,
And will be a partner of your weal, or woe.

Bur. Courageous Bedford, let us now persuade you. Bed. Not to be gone from hence; for once I read, That stout Pendragon, in his litter, sick,

6

5 we came, sir, but to tell you] The word-sir, which is wanting in the first folio, was judiciously supplied by the second.

6

-once I read,

Steevens.

That stout 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, says Holinshed, "even sicke of a flixe as he was, caused himselfe to be carried forth in a litter: with whose presence his people were so incouraged, that encountering with the Saxons they wan the victorie." Hist. 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 horse-litter

"To bear him so then unto Verolame,
"Where Ocea lay, and Oysa also in fear,

Came to the field, and vanquished his foes:
Methinks, I should revive the soldiers' hearts,
Because I ever found them as myself.

Tal. Undaunted spirit in a dying breast!-
Then be it so:-Heavens keep old Bedford safe!-
And now no more ado, brave Burgundy,

But gather we our forces out of hand,

And set upon our boasting enemy.

[Exeunt BUR. TAL. and Forces, leaving BED. and Others.

Alarum: Excursions. Enter Sir JOHN FASTOLFE,
and a Captain.

Cap. Whither away, sir John Fastolfe, in such haste?
Fast. Whither away? to save myself by flight;7

We are like to have the overthrow again.

Cap. What! will you fly, and leave lord Talbot?
Fast.

Ay, [Exit.

All the Talbots in the world, to save my life.
Cap. Cowardly knight! ill fortune follow thee! [Exit.
Retreat: Excursions. Enter, from the Town, LA PUCELLE,
ALENÇON, CHARLES, &c. and Exeunt, flying."
Bed. Now, quiet soul, depart when heaven please;
For I have seen our enemies' overthrow.

What is the trust or strength of foolish man?
They, that of late were daring with their scoffs,

7

"That saint Albones now hight of noble fame,
"Bet down the walles; but to him forth they came,
"Where in battayle Ocea and Oysa were slayn.

"The fielde he had, and thereof was full fayne." Steevens.

save myself by flight;] I have no doubt that it was the exaggerated representation of Sir John Fastolfe's cowardice which the author of this play has given, that induced Shakspeare to give the name of Falstaff to his knight. Sir John Fastolfe did indeed fly at the battle of Patay in the year 1429; and is reproached by Talbot in a subsequent scene, for his conduct on that occasion; but no historian has said that he fled before Rouen. The change of the name had been already made, for throughout the old copy of this play, this flying general is erroneously called Falstaffe.

8 Now, quiet soul, depart when heaven please;

Malone.

For I have seen -] So, in St. Luke, ii, 29: "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." Steevens.