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Accursed tower! accursed fatal hand,
That hath contriv'd this woeful tragedy!
In thirteen battles Salisbury o'ercame;

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:
The sun with one eye vieweth all the world.-
Heaven, be thou gracious to none alive,
If Salisbury wants mercy at thy hands!-
Bear hence his body, I will help to bury it.
Sir Thomas Gargrave, hast thou any life?
Speak unto Talbot; nay, look up to him.
Salisbury, cheer thy spirit with this comfort;
Thou shalt not die, whiles-

He beckons with his hand, and smiles on me;
As who should say, When I am dead and gone,
Remember to avenge me on the French.-
Plantagenet, I will; and like thee, Nerc, D
Play on the lute, beholding the towns burn:
Wretched shall France be only in my name.

[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,-
A holy prophetess, new risen up,-
Is come with a great power to raise the siege.
[SALISBURY groans.
Tal. Hear, hear, how dying Salisbury doth groan!
It irks his heart, he cannot be revenged.-
Frenchmen, I'll be a Salisbury to you:-
Pucelle or puzzel, dolphin or dogfish,

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:
A woman, clad in armour, chaseth 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,
And straightway give thy soul to him thou serv'st.
Puc. Come, come, 'tis only I that must disgrace
[They fight.

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."
Go, go, cheer up thy hungry, starved men;
Help Salisbury to make his testament:
This day is ours, as many more shall 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:

A witch, by fear, not force, like Hannibal2,
Drives back our troops, and conquers as she

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:
You all consented unto Salisbury's death,

For none would strike a stroke in his revenge.-
Pucelle is enter'd into Orleans,

In spite of us, or aught that we could do.

O, would I were to die with Salisbury!

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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;
Rescu'd is Orleans from the English wolves1:-
Thus Joan la Pucelle hath perform'd her word.
Char. Divinest creature, bright Astrea's daughter,
How shall I honour thee for this success?
Thy promises are like Adonis' gardens,
That one day bloom'd, and fruitful were the next?.
France, triumph in thy glorious, prophetess !—
Recover'd is the town of Orleans:

More blessed hap did ne'er befall our state.
Reig. Why ring not out the bells throughout the

town?

Dauphin, command the citizens make bonfires,
And feast and banquet in the open streets,
To celebrate the joy that God hath given us.
Alen. All France will be replete with mirth and
joy,

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:
In memory of her, when she is dead,
Her ashes, in an urn more precious
Than the rich-jewel'd coffer of Darius,
Transported shall be at high festivals
Before the kings and queens of France.
No longer on Saint Dennis will we cry,
But Joan la Pucelle shall be France's saint.
Come in; and let us banquet royally,

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.

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