SCENE V. The fame. Before one of the gates. Alarum. Skirmishings. TALBOT purfueth the Dauphin, and driveth him in: then enter JOAN LA PUCELLE, driving Englishmen before her. Then enter TALBOT. TAL. Where is my ftrength, my valour, and my force? Our English troops retire, I cannot stay them; A woman, clad in armour, chafeth them. Enter LA PUCELLE. Here, here fhe comes: thee; I'll have a bout with Devil, or devil's dam, I'll conjure thee: 5 Blood will I draw on thee, thou art a witch, And ftraightway give thy foul to him thou ferv'ft. Puc. Come, come, 'tis only I that must disgrace thee. [They fight. TAL. Heavens, can you fuffer hell fo to prevail? My breast I'll burft with ftraining of my courage. And from my fhoulders crack my arms afunder, But I will châftife this high-minded ftrumpet. Puc. Talbot, farewell; thy hour is not yet come: I must go victual Orleans forthwith. O'ertake me, if thou canft; I fcorn thy ftrength. Go, go, cheer up thy hunger-ftarved men; Blood will I draw on thee,] The fuperftition of those times taught that he that could draw the witch's blood, was free from her power. JOHNSON. 6 hunger-farved ] The fame epithet is, I think, used by Shakspeare. The old copy has-hungry-ftarved. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. Help Salisbury to make his teftament: This day is ours, as many more fhall be. [PUCELLE enters the town, with Soldiers. TAL. My thoughts are whirled like a potter's wheel; I know not where I am, nor what I do : 5 A witch, by fear, not force, like Hannibal, Drives back our troops, and conquers as fhe lifts: So bees with smoke, and doves with noifome ftench, Are from their hives, and houses, driven away. They call'd us, for our fiercenefs, English dogs; Now, like to whelps, we crying run away. [A fhort alarum. Hark, countrymen! either renew the fight, Or tear the lions out of England's coat; Renounce your foil, give fheep in lions' flead: Sheep run not half fo timorous from the wolf, Or horfe, or oxen, from the leopard, 6 As you fly from your oft-fubdued flaves. [Alarum. Another Skirmish. It will not be: Retire into your trenches: You all confented unto Salisbury's death, For none would ftrike a stroke in his revenge. In fpite of us, or aught that we could do. The flame hereof will make me hide my head. [Alarum. Retreat. forces, &c. 4 Exeunt TALBOT and his like a potter's wheel; ] This idea might have been caught from Pfalm lxxxiii. 13: as the ftubble before the wind. 5 Make them like unto a wheel, and by fear, &c.] See Hannibal's ftratagem to efcape by fixing bundles of lighted twigs on the horns of oxen, recorded in Livy, Lib. XXII. c. xvi. HOLT WHITE. -fo timorous-] Old copy Mr. Pope. MALONE. SCENE VI. The fame. Enter, on the walls, PUCELLE, CHARLES, REIGNIER, ALENÇON, and foldiers. 7 Puc. Advance our waving colours on the walls; Refcu'd is Orleans from the English wolves: — Thus Joan la Pucelle hath perform'd her word. CHAR. Divineft creature, bright Aftræa's daugh ter, How fhall I honour thee for this fuccefs? ༡ - from the English wolves: &c.] Thus the fecond folio. The firft omits the word wolves. STEEVENS. The editor of the fecond folio, not perceiving that English was ufed as a trifyllable, arbitrarily reads English wolves; in which he has been followed by all the fubfequent editors. So, in the next line but one, he reads - bright Afræa, not observing that Aftræa, by a licentious pronunciation, was ufed by the author of this play, as if written Afteræa. So monstrous is made a trifyllable; - monsterous. See Mr. Tyrwhitt's note, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Vol. IV. p. 191, n. 7. MALONE. Here again I muft follow the fecond folio, to which we are indebted for former and numerous emendations received even by Mr. Malone. Shakspeare has frequently the fame image. So, the French in King Henry V. fpeaking of the English: "They will eat like wolves, and fight like devils. If Pucelle, by this term, does not allude to the hunger or fiercenefs of the English, the refers to the wolves by which their kingdom was formerly infefted. So, in King Henry IV. Part II: Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants. As no example of the proper name- Aftræa, pronounced as a quadrifyllable is given by Mr. Malone, or has occurred to me, I alfo think myself authorifed to receive-bright, the neceffary epithet fupplied by the fecond folio. STEEVENS. 1 Thy promises are like Adonis' gardens, That one day bloom'd, and fruitful were the next. 8 like Adonis gardens, ] It may not be impertinent to take notice of a difpute between four critics, of very different orders, upon this very important point of the gardens of Adonis. Milton had faid: "Spot more delicious than thofe gardens feign'd, แ Or of reviv'd Adonis, or —— which Dr. Bentley pronounces fpurious; for that the Koi Adávidos, the gardens of Adonis, fo frequently mentioned by Greek writers, Plato, Plutarch, &c. were nothing but portable earthen pots, with fome lettice or fennel growing in them. On his yearly feftival every woman carried one of them for Adonis's worship; because Venus had once laid him in a lettice bed. The next day they were thrown away, &c. To this Dr. Pearce replies, That this account of the gardens of Adonis is right, and yet Milton may be defended for what he fays of them: for why (fays he did the Grecians on Adonis' feftival carry thefe Small gardens about in honour of him? It was, because they had a tradition, that, when he was alive, he delighted in gardens, and had a magnificent one for proof of this we have Pliny's words xix. 4. "Antiquitas nihil priùs mirata eft quàm Hefperidum hortos, ac regum Adonidis & Alcinoi. One would now think the queftion well decided but Mr. Theobald comes, and will needs be Dr. Bentley's fecond. A learned and reverend gentleman (fays he) having attempted to impeach Dr. Bentley of error, for maintaining that there never was exiftent any magnificent or Spacious gardens of Adonis, an opinion in which it has been my fortune to fecond the door, I thought myself concerned, in fome part, to weigh thofe authorities alledged by the objector, c. The reader fees that Mr. Theobald miftakes the very question in dispute between these two truly learned men, which was not whether Adonis' gardens were ever exiftent, but whether there was a tradition of any celebrated gardens cultivated by Adonis. For this would fufficiently juftify Milton's mention of them, together with the gardens of Alcinous, confeffed by the poet himself to be fabulous. But hear their own words. There was no fuch garden (fays Dr. Bentley) ever exiflent, or even feign'd. He adds the latter part, as knowing that that would juftify the poet; and it is on that affertion only that his adversary Dr. Pearce joins iffue with him. Why (fays he did they carry the Small earthen gardens? It was because they had a tradition, that when alive he delighted in gardens. Mr. Theobald, therefore, mistaking the queftion, it is no wonder that all he says, in his long note at the end of his fourth volume, is nothing to the purpofe; it being to fhew that Dr. Pearce's quotations from Pliny and others, de not France, triumph in thy glorious prophetefs! Recover'd is the town of Orleans: More bleffed hap did ne'er befall our state. REIG. Why ring not out the bells throughout the town?9 Dauphin, command the citizens make bonfires, When they fhall hear how we have play'd the men. won; For which, I will divide my crown with her; Than Rhodope's, or Memphis', ever was: prove the real existence of the gardens. After thefe, comes the Oxford editor; and he pronounces in favour of Dr. Bentley againft Dr. Pearce, in thefe words, The gardens of Adonis were never reprefented under any local defcription. But whether this was faid at hazard, or to contradi& Dr. Pearce, or to redify Mr. Theobald's miftake of the queftion, it is fo obfcurely expreffed, that one can hardly determine. WARBURTON. 9 Why ring not out the bells throughout the town?] The old copy, unneceffarily as well as redundantly, reads Why ring not out the bells aloud c. But if the bells rang out, they must have rang aloud; for to ring out, as I am informed, is a technical term with that fignification. The difagreeable jingle, however, of out and without induces me to suppose the line originally food thus: Why ring not bells aloud throughout the town? STEEVENS. 2 Than Rhodope's, ] Rhodope was a famous ftrumpet, who acquired great riches by her trade. The leaft but moft finished of the 36th book of his Natural She is faid afterwards to have the Egyptian pyramids (fays Pliny, in Hiftory, ch. xii.) was built by her. |