If thou spy'ft any, run and bring me word; [Exit. SON. Father, I warrant you; take you no care; I'll never trouble you, if I may spy them. Enter, in an upper Chamber of a Tower, the Lords SAL. Talbot, my life, my joy, again return'd! TAL. The duke of Bedford had a prifoner, And even thefe three days have I watcht Part of this line being in the old copy by a mistake of the tranfcriber connected with the preceding hemiftich, the editor of the second folio fupplied the metre by adding the word-boy, in which he has been followed in all the fubfequent editions. MALONE. As I cannot but entertain a more favourable opinion than Mr. Malone of the numerous emendations that appear in the second folio, I have again adopted its regulation in the present instance. This folio likewise supplied the word-fully. STEEVENS. 3-Talbot,] Though the three parts of King Henry VI. are deservedly numbered among the feebleft performances of Shakspeare, this firft of them appears to have been received with the greatest applaufe. So, in Pierce Penniless's Supplication to the Devil, by Nafh, 1592: "How would it have joyed brave Talbot (the terror of the French,) to thinke that after he had lien two hundred years in his tombe, he fhould triumph againe on the stage, and have his bones new embalmed with the teares of ten thousand spectators at least (at feveral times,) who in the tragedian that reprefents his perfon, imagine they behold him. fresh bleeding?" STEEVENS. For him I was exchang'd and ranfomed. Once, in contempt, they would have barter'd me: Which I, difdaining, fcorn'd; and craved death Rather than I would be fo pil'd esteem'd.4 4fo pil'd esteem'd.] Thus the old copy. Some of the modern editors read, but without authority-fo vile-esteem'd.So pill'd, may mean-fo pillag'd, fo Stripp'd of honours; but I fufpect a corruption, which Mr. M. Mafon would remedy, by reading either vile or ill-esteemed, It is poffible, however, that Shakspeare might have writtenPhiliftin'd; i. e. treated as contumelioufly as Samfon was by the Philiftines.Both Samfon and Talbot had been prisoners, and were alike infulted by their captors. Our author has jocularly formed more than one verb from a proper name; as for inftance, from Aufidius, in Coriolanus: I would not have been so fidius'd for all the chefts in Corioli." Again, in King Henry V. Piftol fays to his prifoner : "Mafter Fer? I'll fer him," &c. Again, in Hamlet, from Herod, we have the verb "out-herod." Shakspeare, therefore, in the prefent inftance, might have taken a fimilar liberty.-To fall into the hands of the Philistines has long been a cant phrafe, expreffive of danger incurred, whether from enemies, affociation with hard drinkers, gamefters, or a less welcome acquaintance with the harpies of the law. Talbot's idea would be fufficiently expreffed by the term-Philiftin'd, which (as the play before us appears to have been copied by the ear,) was more liable to corruption than a common verb. I may add, that perhaps no word will be found nearer to the found and traces of the letters, in pil-esteem'd, than Philiftin'd. Philiftine, in the age of Shakspeare, was always accented on the first fyllable, and therefore is not injurious to the line in which I have hesitatingly 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 spring amid the wilds of fand, let him 66 - bless his stars, and think it luxury." STEEVENS. I have no doubt that we fhould read-o pile-esteem'd: a Latinifm, for which the author of this play had, I believe, no occafion to go to Lily's Grammar: "Flocci, nauci, nihili, pili, ᎠᏎ In fine, redeem'd I was as I defir'd. heart! SAL. Yet tell'ft thou not, how thou wert entertain'd. TAL. With fcoffs, and scorns, and contumelious taunts. In open market-place produc'd they me, Here, faid they, is the terror of the French, My grifly countenance made others fly; &c. his verbis, æftimo, pendo, peculiariter adjiciuntur; ut,Nec hujus facio, qui me pili æftimat." Even if we fuppofe no change to be neceffary, this furely was the meaning intended to be conveyed. In one of Shakspeare's plays we have the fame phrafe, in English,-vile-esteem'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 tranflated it? for what correspondence has pile in English to a fingle hair? Was a fingle hair ever called-a pile, by any English writer? STEEVENS. 5 the terror of the French, The feare-crow that affrights our children fo.] From Hall's Chronicle: "This man [Talbot] was to the French people a very scourge and a daily terror, infomuch that as his person was fearful, and terrible to his adversaries prefent, fo his name and fame was fpiteful and dreadful to the common people absent t; infomuch that women in France to feare their yong children, would crye, the Talbot commeth, the Talbot commeth." fame thing is faid of King Richard I. when he was in the Holy Land. See Camden's Remaines, 4to. 1614, p. 267. MALONE, The So great fear of my name 'mongst them was spread, SAL. I grieve to hear what torments you endur'd; 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 Glansdale, Let me have your exprefs opinions, Where is beft place to make our battery next. GAR. I think, at the north gate; for there stand lords. GLAN. And I, here, at the bulwark of the bridge. TAL. For aught I fee, this city must be famish'd, Or with light fkirmishes enfeebled.? [Shot from the Town. SALISBURY and Sir THO. GARGRAVE fall. SAL. O Lord, have mercy on us, wretched finners! GAR. O Lord, have mercy on me, woeful man! TAL. What chance is this, that fuddenly hath crofs'd us? Speak, Salisbury; at least, if thou canst speak; • 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. enfeebled.] This word is here used as a quadrifyllable. MALONE. How far'ft thou, mirror of all martial men? That hath contriv'd this woeful tragedy! 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 first English gentleman that was flain by a cannon-ball. MALONE. One eye thou haft &c.] A fimilar thought occurs in King Lear: In the old copy, the word Nero is wanting, owing probably to the transcriber's not being able to make out the name. The |