How far'ft thou, mirror of all martial men? That hath contriv'd this woeful tragedy! fail, One eye thou haft, to look to heaven for grace:9 He beckons with his hand, and fmiles on me; 8 thy cheek's fide ftruck off!] Camden fays in his Remaines, that the French scarce knew the use of great ordnance, till the fiege of Mans in 1455, when a breach was made in the walls of that town by the English, under the conduct of this earl of Salisbury; and that he was the firft English gentleman that was flain by a cannon-ball. MALONE. 9 One Lear: I eye thou haft &c.] A fimilar thought occurs in King my lord, you have one eye left, "To fee fome mifchief on him." STEEVENS. 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 transcriber's not being able to make out the name. The Play on the lute, beholding the towns burn: [Thunder heard; afterwards an Alarum. What ftir 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 gather'd head: The Dauphin, with one Joan la Pucelle join'd,A holy prophetefs, new rifen up,- Is come with a great power to raise the fiege. [SALISBURY groans. TAL. Hear, hear, how dying Salisbury doth groan! It irks his heart, he cannot be reveng'd.- editor of the second 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 word-will. Surely there is fome abfurdity in making Talbot addrefs Plantagenet, and invoke Nero, in the fame line. STEEVENS. 2 Pucelle or puzzel, dolphin or dog fish,] Puffel means a dirty wench or a drab, from puzza, i. e. malus fætor, fays Mintheu. In a translation from Stephens'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 hand." 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 these daftard Frenchmen dare.3 [Exeunt, bearing out the Bodies. Again, in Ben Jonfon's Commendatory Verfes, prefixed to the works of Beaumont and Fletcher: "Lady or Pufill, that wears mask or fan.” As for the conceit, miserable as it is, it may be countenanced by that of James I. who looking at the statue 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. 3 And then we'll try what thefe daftard Frenchmen dare.] Perhaps the conjunction-and, or the demonftrative pronounthefe, 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. 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 strength, my valour, and my force? Our English troops retire, I cannot stay them; Enter LA PUCELLE. Here, here the comes: -I'll have a bout with thee; Devil, or devil's dam, I'll conjure thee: thee. [They fight. TAL. Heavens, can you fuffer hell so to prevail? My breast I'll burft with ftraining of my courage, And from my fhoulders crack my arms afunder, But I will cháftife this high-minded ftrumpet. Puc. Talbot, farewell; thy hour is not yet come: I must go victual Orleans forthwith. ♦ 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. O'ertake me, if thou canft; I fcorn thy ftrength. [PUCELLE enters the Town, with Soldiers. TAL. My thoughts are whirled like a potter's wheel:6 I know not where I am, nor what I do : [A Short Alarum. 8 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 ftroke in his revenge. shunger-ftarved-] The fame epithet is, I think, ufed by Shakspeare. The old copy has-hungry-ftarved. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. 6 like a potter's wheel;] This idea might have been caught from Pfalm lxxxiii. 13: " Make them like unto a wheel, and as the ftubble before the wind." STEEVENS. 7 by fear, &c.] See Hannibal's ftratagem to escape by fixing bundles of lighted twigs on the horns of oxen, recorded in Livy, Lib. XXII. c. xvi. HOLT White. 8 fo timorous-] Old copy-treacherous. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE. |