SCENE II.

France. Before Bourdeaux.

Enter TALBOT, with his Forces.

TAL. Go to the gates of Bourdeaux, trumpeter, Summon their general unto the wall.

Trumpet founds a parley. Enter, on the walls, the
General, of the French Forces, and Others.

English John Talbot, captains, calls you
forth,
Servant in arms to Harry king of England;
And thus he would, - Open your city gates,
Be humble to us; call my fovereign yours,
And do him homage as obedient-fubjects,
And I'll withdraw me and my bloody power:
But, if you frown upon this proffer'd peace.
You tempt the fury of my three attendants,
Lean famine, quartering fleel, and climbing fire; 5
Who, in a moment, even with the earth.

Shall lay your flately and air-braving towers,

writers frequently means enmity. Unkind is unnatural. See Vol. VIII. p. 238, n. 3. MALONE.

5 Lean famine, quartering feel, and climbing fire;] The author of this play followed Hall's Chronicle: "The Goddeffe of warre, called Bellona - hath these three hand maides ever of neceffitie attendyng on her; Bloud, Fyre, and Famine; whiche thre damofels be of that force and ftrength that every one of them alone is able and fufficient to torment and afflict a proud prince; and they all joyned together are of puiffance to deftroy the most populous countrey and moft richest region of the world. "

MALONE.

It may as probably be afferted that our author followed Holinfhed, from whom I have already quoted a part of this paffage in a note on the firft Chorus to King Henry V. See Holinfhed, p. 567. STELVENS

If you forfake the offer of their love.

GEN. Thou ominous and fearful owl of death,
Our nation's terror, and their bloody fcourge !
The period of thy tyranny approacheth.
On us thou canst not enter, but by death:
For, I proteft, we are well fortify'd,

And frong enough to iffue out and fight:
If thou retire, the Dauphin, well appointed,
Stands with the fnares of war to tangle thee:
On either hand thee there are fquadrons pitch'd,
To wall thee from the liberty of flight;
And no way canft thou turn thee for redress,
But death doth front thee with apparent fpoil,
And pale deftruction meets thee in the face.
Ten thousand French have ta'en the facrament,
To rive their dangerous artillery'

6 the offer of their love. ] Thus the old editions. Sir T. Hanmer altered it to our. JOHNSON.

1. Their love'

may mean, the peaceable demeanour of my three attendants; their forbearing to injure you. But the expreffion is harsh. MALONE.

There is much fuch another line in King Henry VIII: "If you omit the offer of the time.

I believe, the reading of Sir T. Hanmer should be adopted. STEEVENS.

To rive their dangerous artillery-] I do not understand the phrase to rive artillery; perhaps it might be to drive; we fay to drive a blow, and to drive at a man, when we mean to express furious affault. JOHNSON.

To rive feems to be used, with fome deviation from its common meaning, in Antony and Cleopatra, A& IV. sc. ii :

"The foul and body rive not more parting."

STEEVENS.

Rive their artillery feems to mean charge their artillery so much as to endanger their burfting. So, in Troilus and Creffida, Ajax bids the trumpeter blow fo loud, as to crack his lungs and split his brazen pipe. TOLLET.

t

--

To rive their artillery means only to fire their artillery. To rive is to burt; and a cannon, when fired, las fo much the appearance

Upon no chriflian foul but English Talbot.
Lo! there thou ftand'ft, a breathing valiant man,
Of an invincible unconquer'd fpirit:

8

This is the latest glory of thy praise,
That I, thy enemy, due thee withal;
For ere the glafs, that now begins to run,
Finish the process of his fandy hour,
These eyes, that fee thee now well coloured,
Shall fee thee wither'd, bloody, pale, and dead.
[Drum afar off.
Hark! hark! the Dauphin's drum, a warning bell,
Sings heavy mufick to thy timorous foul;

And mine fhall ring thy dire departure out.

[Exeunt General, &c. from the walls. TAL. He fables not, I hear the enemy;

9

of burfing, that, in the language of poetry, it may be well faid to burft. We fay, a cloud burfts, when it thunders.

M. MASON.

due thee withal; ] To due is to endue, to deck, to grace.

JOHNSON. Johnson fays in his Didionary, that to due is to pay as due: and quotes this paffage as an example. Poffibly that may be the true meaning of it. M. MASON.

It means, I think, to honour by giving thee thy due, thy merited elogium. Due was fubftituted for dew, the reading of the old copy, by Mr. Theobald. Dew was fometimes the old fpelling of due, as Hew was of Hugh. MALONE.

Te-old copy reads - dew thee withal; and perhaps rightly. The dew of praife is an expreffion I have met with in other poets. Shakspeare uses the fame verb in Macbeth:

To dew the fov'reign flow'r, and drown the weeds." Again, in the second part of King Henry VI:

give me thy hand,

"That I may dew it with my mournful tears.

He fables not,] This expreffion Milton has Mafque at Ludlow Cafle:

"She fables not, I feel that I do fear It occurs again in The Pinner of Wakefield, 1599: good father, fable not with him.

STEEVENS. borrowed in his

Out, fome light horsemen, and perufe their wings.O, negligent and heedlefs difcipline!

2

How are we park'd and bounded in a pale;
A little herd of England's timorous deer,
Maz'd with a yelping kennel of French curs!
If we be inglifh deer, be then in blood: "
Not rafcal-like, to fall down with a pinch;
But rather moody-mad, and defperate flags,
Turn on the bloody hounds with heads of fteel,“
And make the cowards fland aloof at bay:

'3

Sell every man his life as dear as mine,

5

And they fhall find dear deer of us, my friends. God, and faint George! Talbot, and England's

right!

Profper our colours in this dangerous fight!

[Exeunt.

be then in blood: ] Be in high fpirits, be of true mettle.

JOHNSON.

This was a phrafe of the foreft. See Love's Labour's Loft, Vol. VII. p. 259, n. 8.

The deer was, as you know, in fanguis, blood.' Again, in Bullokar's English Expofitor, 1616: “ Tenderlings. The foft tops of a deere's horns, when they are in blood.

MALONE.

3 Not rafcal-like,] A rafcal deer is the term of chase for lean poor deer. JOHNSON.

See Vol. XIII. p. 78, n. 3. STEEVENS.

4 - with heads of fleel,] Continuing the image of the deer, he fuppofes the lances to be their horns.

4

STEEVENS.

dear deer of us,} The fame quibble occurs in King Henry IV. Part I:

"Death hath not ftruck fo fat a deer to-day,

Though many dearer," &c. STEEVENS.

SCENE III.

Plains in Gafcony.

Enter YORK, with Forces; to him a Meffenger.

YORK. Are not the speedy scouts return'd again, That dogg'd the mighty army of the Dauphin? MESS. They are return'd, my lord; and give it

out,

That he is march'd to Bourdeaux with his power,
To fight with Talbot: As he march'd along,
By your efpials were difcovered

Two mightier troops than that the Dauphin led;
Which join'd with him, and made their march for
Bourdeaux.

YORK. A plague upon that villain Somerset; That thus delays my promifed fupply Of horsemen, that were levied for this fiege! Renowned Talbot doth expect my aid; And I am lowted by a traitor villain,

6 And I am lowted] To lowt may fignify to deprefs, to lower to difhonour: But I do not remember it fo used. We may read And I am flouted. I am mocked, and treated with contempt.

JOHNSON.

To lout, in Chaucer, fignifies to fubmit. To fubmit is to let down. So, Dryden:

"Sometimes the hill fubmits itself a while

"In fmall defcents, &c.

To lout and underlout, in Gawin Douglas's verfion of the Eneid, fignifies to be fubdued, vanquished. STEEVENS.

A lowt is a country fellow, a clown. He means that Somerset treats him like a bind. RITSON.

I believe the meaning is; I am treated with contempt, like a lowt, or low country fellow. MALONE.