ACT II. SCENE I. The fame. Enter to the Gates, a French Sergeant, and Two Sentinels. SERG. Sirs, take your places, and be vigilant : If any noise, or foldier, you perceive, Near to the walls, by fome apparent fign, Let us have knowledge at the court of guard. 1 SENT. Sergeant, you fhall. [Exit Sergeant.] Thus are poor fervitors (When others fleep upon their quiet beds,) Conftrain'd to watch in darkness, rain, and cold. Enter TALBOT, BEDFORD, BURGUNDY, and Forces, with fcaling Ladders; their Drums beating a dead march. TAL. Lord regent,—and redoubted Burgundy,— By whofe approach, the regions of Artois, Walloon, and Picardy, are friends to us,This happy night the Frenchmen are secure, Having all day carous'd and banqueted: Embrace we then this opportunity; As fitting beft to quittance their deceit, Contriv'd by art, and baleful forcery. 6 court of guard.] The fame phrafe occurs again in Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, &c. and is equivalent to the modern term-guard-room. STEEVENS. BED. Coward of France !-how much he wrongs his fame, Defpairing of his own arm's fortitude, To join with witches, and the help of hell. BUR. Traitors have never other company.But what's that Pucelle, whom they term so pure? TAL. A maid, they fay. BED. A maid! and be fo martial! BUR. Pray God, fhe prove not masculine ere long; If underneath the standard of the French, She carry armour, as the hath begun. TAL. Well, let them practife and converse with fpirits: God is our fortrefs; in whofe conquering name, BED. Ascend, brave Talbot; we will follow thee. BUR. And I to this. TAL. And here will Talbot mount, or make his grave. Now, Salisbury! for thee, and for the right How much in duty I am bound to both. [The English Scale the Walls, crying St. George! a Talbot! and all enter by the Town. SENT. [Within.] Arm, arm! the enemy doth make affault! The French leap over the Walls in their Shirts. Enter, feveral ways, BASTARD, ALENÇON, REIGNIER, half ready, and half unready. ALEN. How now, my lords? what, all unready fo ?7 BAST. Unready?ay, and glad we 'fcap'd fo well. REIG. 'Twas time, I trow, to wake and leave our beds, Hearing alarums at our chamber doors.8 ALEN. Of all exploits, fince firft I follow'd arms, Ne'er heard I of a warlike enterprize More venturous, or defperate than this. 7 BAST. I think, this Talbot be a fiend of hell. unready fo?] Unready was the current word in those times for undreffed. JOHNSON. So, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1638: "Enter Sixtus and Lucrece unready." Again, in The Two Maids of More-clacke, 1609: "Enter James unready in his night-cap, garterlefs," &c. Again, in A Match at Midnight, 1633, is this ftage direction: "He makes himself unready." Why what do you mean? you will not be fo uncivil as to unbrace you here ?” Again, in Monfieur D'Olive, 1606: "You are not going to bed, I fee you are not yet unready." Again, in Heywood's Golden Age, 1611: "Here Jupiter puts out the lights, and makes himself unready." Unready is equivalent to the old French word-li-pret. STEEVENS. • Hearing alarums at our chamber doors.] So, in King Lear: "Or, at the chamber door I'll beat the drum-." STEEVENS. REIG. If not of hell, the heavens, fure, favour him. ALEN. Here cometh Charles; I marvel, how he fped. Enter CHARLES and LA PUCELLE. BAST. Tut! holy Joan was his defensive guard. CHAR. Is this thy cunning, thou deceitful dame? Didst thou at firft, to flatter us withal, Make us partakers of a little gain, That now our lofs might be ten times fo much? Puc. Wherefore is Charles impatient with his friend? At all times will you have my power alike? Or will you blame and lay the fault on me?— CHAR. Duke of Alençon, this was your default; That, being captain of the watch to-night, Did look no better to that weighty charge. ALEN. Had all your quarters been as fafely kept, As that whereof I had the government, We had not been thus fhamefully furpriz'd. REIG. And fo was mine, my lord. CHAR. And, for myself, moft part of all this night, Within her quarter, and mine own precinct, I was employ'd in paffing to and fro, About relieving of the fentinels: Then how, or which way, fhould they first break in? Puc. Question, my lords, no further of the cafe, How, or which way; 'tis fure, they found fome place But weakly guarded, where the breach was made. Alarum. Enter an English Soldier, crying, a Talbot! a Talbot! They fly, leaving their Clothes behind. SOLD. I'll be fo bold to take what they have left. The cry of Talbot ferves me for a sword; 9 -platforms-] i. e. plans, fchemes. STEEVENS. Enter an English Soldier crying, a Talbot! a Talbot!] And afterwards: "The cry of Talbot ferves me for a fword." Here a popular tradition, exclusive of any chronicle-evidence, was in Shakspeare's mind. Edward Kerke, the old commentator on Spenfer's Paftorals, first published in 1579, observes in his notes on June, that Lord Talbot's "nobleneffe bred fuch a terrour in the hearts of the French, that oftimes greate armies were defaited and put to flight, at the only hearing of his name: infomuch that the French women, to affray their children, would tell them, that the TALBOT cometh." See alfo fc. iii. T. WARTON. The fame is faid in Drayton's Miferies of Queen Margaret, of Lord Warwick: "And ftill fo fearful was great Warwick's name, STEEVENS. In a note on a former paffage, p. 40, n. 5, I have quoted a paffage from Hall's Chronicle, which probably furnished the author of this play with this circumftance. It is not mentioned by Holinthed, (Shakspeare's hiftorian,) and is one of the numerous proofs that have convinced me that this play was not the production of our author. See the Effay at the end of The Third Part of King Henry VI. It is furely more probable that the writer |