In fine, redeem'd I was as I defir'd.

But, O! the treacherous Faftolfe wounds my heart! Whom with my bare fifts I would execute,

If I now had him brought into my power.

SAL. Yet tell'ft thou not, how thou wert entertain'd.

TAL. With fcoffs, and fcorns, and contumelious

taunts.

In open market-place produc'd they me,
To be a publick fpectacle to all;

Here, faid they, is the terror of the French,
The fcare-crow that affrights our children fo.

I may add, that perhaps no word will be found nearer to the found and traces of the letters, in pil-efleem'd, than Philiftin`d. Philistine, in the age of Shakspeare, was always accented on the firft fyllable, and therefore is not injurious to the line in which I have hefitatingly proposed to infert it.

I cannot, however, help fmiling at my own conjecture; and fhould it excite the fame fenfation in the reader who journeys through the barren defert of our accumulated notes on this play, like Addifon's traveller, when he discovers a cheerful fpring amid the wilds of fand, let him

-

(6 - blefs his ftars, and think it luxury. STEEVENS. I have no doubt that we should read — fo pile-esteem'd: a Latinism, for which the author of this play had, I believe, no occafion to go to Lilly's grammar. "Flocci, nauci, nihili, pili, &c. his verbis, eftimo, pendo, peculiariter adjiciuntur; ut,- Nec hujus facio qui me pili æftimat. Even if we fuppose no change to be neceffary, this furely was the meaning intended to be conveyed. In one of Shakfpeare's plays we have the fame phrafe, in English, vile-efteem'd. MALONE.

If the author of the play before us defigned to avail himself of the Latin phrase-pili æftimo, would he have only half translated it? for what correfpondence has pile in English to a fingle hair? Was a fingle hair ever called. a pile, by any English writer?

7

the terror of the French,

STEEVENS.

The Scare-crow that affrights our children fo.] From Hall's Chronicle: This man [Talbot] was to the French people a very fcourge and a daily terror, infomuch that as his person was fearful, and terrible to his adverfaries prefent, fo his name and fame was

Then broke I from the officers that led me;

And with my nails digg'd ftones out of the ground, To hurl at the beholders of my fhame.

My grifly countenance made others fly;

None durft come near, for fear of fudden death.
In iron walls they deem'd me not secure;

So great fear of my name 'mongst them was spread,
That they fuppos'd, I could rend bars of steel,
And fpurn in pieces pofts of adamant:
Wherefore a guard of chofen fhot I had,
That walk'd about me every minute-while;
And if I did but ftir out of my bed,

Ready they were to fhoot me to the heart.

SAL. I grieve to hear what torments you endur'd;

But we will be reveng'd fufficiently.

Now it is fupper-time in Orleans:

8

Here, through this grate, I can count every one,
And view the Frenchmen how they fortify;
Let us look in, the fight will much delight thee. -
Sir Thomas Gargrave, and fir William Glanfdale,
Let me have your express opinions,

Where is beft place to make our battery next.

GAR. I think, at the north gate; for there ftand

lords.

GLAN. And I, here, at the bulwark of the

bridge.

fpiteful and dreadful to the common people abfent; infomuch that women in France to feare their yong children, would crie, the Talbot commeth, the Talbot commeth." The fame thing is faid of King Richard I. when he was in the Holy Land. See Camden's Remaines, 4to. 1614, p. 267. MALONE.

Here, through this grate, I can count every one, ] Thus the fecond folio. The firft, very harfhly and unmetrically, reads:

Here, thorough this grate, I count each one. STEEVENS.

TAL. For aught I fee, this city must be famifh'd, Or with light fkirmishes enfeebled. "

8

[Shot from the town. SALISBURY and Sir THO. GARGRAVE fall.

SAL. O Lord, have mercy on us, wretched fin

ners!

GAR. O Lord, have mercy on me, woful man! TAL. What chance is this, that fuddenly hath crofs'd us?

Speak, Salisbury; at leaft, if thou canft speak;
How far'ft thou, mirror of all martial men?
One of thy eyes, and thy cheek's fide ftruck off! 9.
Accurfed tower! accurfed 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:
Whilft any trump did found, or drum ftruck up,
His fword did ne'er leave ftriking in the field.
Yet liv'ft thou, Salisbury? though thy fpeech doth

fail,

One eye thou haft to look to heaven for grace:*
The fun with one eye vieweth all the world.
Heaven, be thou gracious to none alive,
If Salisbury wants mercy at thy hands! -

enfeebled.] This word is here used as a quadrifyllable.

MALONE.

9 thy cheek's fide fruck off!] Camden fays in his Remaines, that the French fcarce knew the ufe of great ordnance, till the fiege of Mans in 1425, when a breach was made in the walls of that town by the English, under the condu& of this earl of Salisbury; and that he was the firft English gentleman that was flain by a cannon-ball. MALONE.

2 One eye thou haft &c.] A fimilar thought occurs in King Lear : my lord, you have one eye left,

"To fee fome mifchief on him.' STEEVENS.

Bear hence his body, I will help to bury it.
Sir Thomas Gargrave, haft thou any life?
Speak unto Talbot; nay, look up to him.
Salisbury, cheer thy spirit with this comfort;
Thou shalt not die, whiles

He beckons with his hand, and fmiles on me;
As who fhould fay, When I am dead and gone,
Remember to avenge me on the French.
Plantagenet, I will; and Nero-like, 3

-

Play on the lute, beholding the towns burn:
Wretched fhall France be only in my name.

[Thunder heard; afterwards an alarum. What fir is this? What tumult's in the heavens? Whence cometh this alarum, and the noise?

Enter a Meffenger.

MESS. My lord, my lord, the French have ga-
ther'd head:

The Dauphin, with one Joan la Pucelle join'd,—
A holy prophetefs, new rifen up,—

Is come with a great power to raife the fiege.
[SALISBURY groans.
TAL. Hear, hear, how dying Salisbury doth
groan!

and Nero-like, ] The firft folio reads: Plantagenet, I will; and like thee

STEEVENS.

In the old copy, the word Nero is wanting, owing probably to the tranfcriber's not being able to make out the name. The editor of the fecond folio, with his ufual 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 needlefs repetition of the verb -will. Surely there is some absurdity in making Talbot addrefs Plantagenet, and invoke Nero, in the fame line. STEEVENS.

It irks his heart: he cannot be reveng'd.
Frenchmen, I'll be a Salisbury to you:
Pucelle or puzzel, dolphin or dogfish, 4

4

Your hearts I'll ftamp out with my horfe's heels, And make a quagmire of your mingled brains. — Convey me Salisbury into his tent,

And then we'll try what thefe daftard Frenchmen dare. [Exeunt, bearing out the bodies.

5

Pucelle or puzzel, dolphin or dogfish,] Puffel means a dirty wench or a drab, from puzza, i. e. malus fætor, fays Minfheu. In a tranflation from Stephen's Apology for Herodotus, in 1607, p. 98, we read "Some filthy queans, especially our puzzles of Paris, use this other theft. TOLLET.

.་

So, Stubbs, in his Anatomie of Abuses, 1595: "No nor yet any droye nor puzzel in the country but will carry a nofegay in her

Again, in Ben Jonfon's Commendatory Verfes, prefixed to the

works of Beaumont and Fletcher:

66

Lady or Pufill, that wears mask or fan. "

As for the conceit, miferable as it is, it may be countenanced by that of James I. who looking at the flatue of Sir Thomas Bodley in the library at Oxford, "Pii Thomæ Godly nomine infignivit, eoque potius nomine quam Bodly, deinceps merito nominandum effe cenfuit. See Rex Platonicus, &c. edit, quint. Oxon. 1635, p. 187. It should be remembered, that in Shakspeare's time the word dauphin was always written dolphin. STEEVENS.

There are frequent references to Pucelle's name in this play: "I fcar'd the dauphin and his trull.

Again:

"Scoff on, vile fiend, and fhameless courtezan!"

MALONE.

5 And then we'll try what thefe daftard Frenchmen dare.] Perhaps the conjun&ion - and, for the fake of metre, fhould be omitted at the beginning of this line, which, in my opinion, however, originally ran thus:

Then try we what thefe daftard Frenchmen dare.

STEEVENS.