Accursed tower! accursed fatal hand, Henry the Fifth he first train'd to the wars; Whilst any trump did sound, or drum struck up, His sword did ne'er leave striking in the field. Yet liv'st thou, Salisbury? though thy speech doth fail, One eye thou hast to look to heaven for grace: He beckons with his hand, and smiles on me; [Thunder heard; afterwards an Alarum. What stir is this? What tumult's in the heavens? Whence cometh this alarum, and the noise? Enter a Messenger. Mess. My lord, my lord, the French have gather'd head: The Dauphin, with one Joan la Pucelle join'd,- Puzzel means a dirty wench or a drab, from puzza, i. e. malus foetor,' says Minsheu. Thus in Steevens's Apology for Your hearts I'll stamp out with my horse's heels, And make a quagmire of your mingled brains.— Convey me Salisbury into his tent, And then we'll try what these dastard Frenchmen dare. [Exeunt, bearing out the Bodies. SCENE V. The same. Before one of the Gates. Alarum. Skirmishings. TALBOT pursueth 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 she comes:-- I'll have a bout with thee; Devil, or devil's dam, I'll conjure thee: Blood will I draw on theel, thou art a witch, 1 thee. Tal. Heavens, can you suffer hell so to prevail? My breast I'll burst with straining of my courage, And from my shoulders crack my arms asunder, And I will chástise this high-minded strumpet. Puc. Talbot, farewell; thy hour is not yet come: I must go victual Orleans forthwith. Herodotus, 1607, Some filthy queans, especially our puzzels of Paris, use this theft. And in Stubbe's Anatomy of Abuses, 1595, 'Nor yet any droye nor puzzel in the country but will carry a nosegay in her hand.' It should be remembered that in the poet's time the word dauphin was always written dolphin. The superstition of those times taught that he who could draw a witch's blood was free from her power. O'ertake me, if thou canst; I scorn thy strength." [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: A witch, by fear, not force, like Hannibal2, lists: So bees with smoke, and doves with noisome stench, Are from their hives, and houses, driven away. They call'd us, for our fierceness, English dogs; Now, like to whelps, we crying run away. [A short Alarum. Hark, countrymen! either renew the fight, Or tear the lions out of England's coat; Renounce your soil, give sheep in lions' stead: Sheep run not half so timorous3 from the wolf, Or horse, or oxen, from the leopard, As you fly from your oft-subdued slaves. [Alarum. Another Skirmishi. It will not be:-Retire into your trenches: For none would strike a stroke in his revenge.- In spite of us, or aught that we could do. O, would I were to die with Salisbury! The shame hereof will make me hide my head. [Alarum. Retreat. his Forces, &c. Exeunt TALBOT and 2 Alluding to Hannibal's stratagem to escape, by fixing bandles of lighted twigs on the horns of oxen, recorded by Livy, lib. xxij. c. xvj. ** 3 Old copy treacherous. Corrected by Pope. SCENE VI. The same. Enter, on the Walls, PUCELLE, CHARLES, REIGNIER, ALENÇON, and Soldiers. Puc. Advance our waving colours on the walls; More blessed hap did ne'er befall our state. town? Dauphin, command the citizens make bonfires, When they shall hear how we have play'd the men. Char. 'Tis Joan, not we, by whom the day is won; For which, I will divide my crown with her: And all the priests and friars in my realm Shall, in procession, sing her endless praise. A statelier pyramis to her I'll rear, Wolves. Thus the second folio, the first omits that word, and the epithet bright prefixed to Astrea in the next line but one. Malone follows the reading of the first folio, and contends that by a licentious pronunciation a syllable was added, thus Engleïsh, Asterea. The Adonis horti were nothing but portable earthen pots, with some lettuce or fennel growing in them. On his yearly festival every woman carried one of them in honour of Adonis, because Venus had once laid him in a lettuce bed. The next day they were thrown away. The proverb seemed to have been used always in a bad sense, for things which make a fair show for a few days and then wither away. The author of this play bas mistakingly made the dauphin apply it as an encomium. There is a good account of it in Erasmus's Adagia. "Than Rhodope's, of Memphis, ever was3: After this golden day of victory. [Flourish. Exeunt. ACT II. SCENE I. The same. Enter to the Gates, a French Sergeant, and Two Sentinels. Serg. Sirs, take your places, and be vigilant; If any noise, or soldier, you perceive, Near to the walls, by some apparent sign, Let us have knowledge at the court of guard1. 1 Sent. Sergeant, you shall. [Exit Sergeant.] Thus are poor servitors (When others sleep upon their quiet beds) Constrain'd to watch in darkness, rain, and cold. 3 The old copy reads:- "Than Rhodophe's or Memphis ever was.* Rhodope, or Rhodopis, à celebrated courtezan, who was a slave in the same service with Esop, at Samos. The brother of Sappho, Charaxes, purchased her freedom and married her. She obtained so much money by selling her favours at Naucrates, that she is said to have erected at Memphis 'the fairest and most commended of the pyramids. Elian relates that she married Psammetichus, king of Egypt, who fell in love with her sandal, which was dropped near him by an eagle, which had carried it off while she was bathing. 4 In what price the noble poems of Homer were holden by Alexander the Great, insomuch that everie night they were layd under his pillow, and by day were carried in the rich jewel coffer of Darius, lately before vanquished by him.' Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie, 1589. 1 The same as guard- room. |