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 wolves: 3Thus Joan la Pucelle hath perform'd her word. Char. Divinest creature, bright Astræa'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.→→ More blessed hap did ne'er befall our state. Reig. Why ring not out the bells throughout the town?9 Dauphin, command the citizens make bonfires, Alen. All France will be replete with mirth and joy, Than Rhodope's,1 or Memphis', ever was: 8 from the English wolves: &c.] Thus the second folio. The first omits the word-wolves. Steevens. If Pucelle, by this term, does not allude to the hunger or fierceness of the English, she refers to the wolves by which their kingdom was formerly infested. So, in King Henry IV, P. II. "Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants." Steevens. 9 Why ring not out the bells throughout the town?] The old copy, unnecessarily as well as redundantly reads Why ring not out the bells aloud &c. But if the bells rang out, they must have rang aloud; for to ring out, as I am informed, is a technical term with that signification. The disagreeable jingle, however, of out and throughout, induces me to suppose the line originally stood thus: Why ring not bells aloud throughout the town? Steevens. In memory of her, when she is dead, 1 Than Rhodope's,] Rhodope was a famous strumpet, who acquired great riches by her trade. The least but most finished of the Egyptian pyramids (says Pliny, in the 36th Book of his Natural History, ch. xii,) was built by her. She is said afterwards to have married Psammetichus, King of Egypt. Dr. Johnson thinks that the Dauphin means to call Joan of Arc a strumpet, all the while he is making this loud praise of her. I would read: Than Rhodope's of Memphis ever was. Steevens. The brother of Sappho was in love with Rhodope, and purchased her freedom (for she was a slave in the same house with Asop the fabulist) at a great price. Rhodope was of Thrace, not of Memphis. Memphis, a city of Egypt, was celebrated for its pyramids: "Barbara Pyramidum sileat miracula Memphis." MART. De spectaculis Libel. Ep. I. Malone. The question, I apprehend, is not where Rhodope was born, but where she obtained celebrity. Her Thracian birth-place would not have rescued her from oblivion. Steevens. The emendation proposed by Mr. Steevens must be adopted. The meaning is-not that Rhodope herself was of Memphis, but -that her pyramis was there. I will rear to her, says the Dauphin, a pyramid more stately than that of Memphis, which was called Rhodope's. Pliny says the pyramids were six miles from that city; and that "the fairest and most commended for workmanship was built at the cost and charges of one Rhodope, a verie strumpet." Ritson. 2 coffer of Darius,] When Alexander the Great took the city of Gaza, the metropolis of Syria, amidst the other spoils and wealth of Darius treasured up there, he found an exceeding rich and beautiful little chest or casket, and asked those about him what they thought fittest to be laid up in it. When they had severally delivered their opinions, he told them, he esteemed nothing so worthy to be preserved in it as Homer's Iliad. Vide Plutarchum in Vitâ Alexandri Magni. Theobald. The very words of the text are found in Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie, 1589: "In what price the noble poems of Homer were holden with Alexander the Great, insomuch as everie night they were layd under his pillow, and by day were carried in the rich jewel cofer of Darius, lately before vanquished by him in battaile." Malone. I believe, we should read, with Puttenham, "jewel-coffer," and not, as in the text, "jewel'd coffer." The jewel-coffer of Darius was, I suppose, the cabinet in which he kept his gems. To a jewelled coffer (i. e. a coffer ornamented with jewels) the epithet rich would have been superfluous. My conjecture, however, deserves not much attention; be Transported shall be at high festivals [Flourish. Exeunt. ACT II.....SCENE I. The same. Enter to the Gates, a French Sergeant, and Twe Serg. Sirs, take your places, and be vigilant: 1 Sent. Sergeant, you shall. [Exit Serg.] Thus are (When others sleep upon their quiet beds) As fitting best to quittance their deceit, cause Pliny, Lib. II, ch. 29, informs us, that this casket, when found, was full of precious oils, and was decorated with gems of great value. Steevens. 3 Before the kings and queens of France.] Sir Thomas Hanmer supplies the obvious defect in this line, by reading Ever before the kings &c. Steevens. court of guard.] The same phrase occurs again in Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, &c. and is equivalent to the modern term -guard-room. Steevens. Contriv'd by art, and baleful sorcery. Bed. Coward of France!-how much he wrongs his fame, Despairing of his own arm's fortitude, Bur. Traitors have never other company. But what's that Pucelle, whom they term so pure? Bed. A maid! and be so martial! Bur. Pray God, she prove not masculine ere long; If underneath the standard of the French, She carry armour, as she hath begun. Tal. Well, let them practise and converse with spirits: God is our fortress; in whose conquering name, Let us resolve to scale their flinty bulwarks. 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 Of English Henry, shall this night appear [The English scale the Walls, crying St. George! a Sent. [within] Arm, arm! the enemy doth make assault! The French leap over the Walls in their Shirts. Enter, several ways, BASTARD, ALENÇON, REIGNIER, half ready, and half unready. Alen. How now, my lords? what, all unready so?5 Bast. Unready? ay, and glad we 'scap'd so well. Reig. 'Twas time, I trow, to wake and leave our beds, Hearing alarums at our chamber doors." 5- unready so?] Unready was the current word in those times for undressed. Johnson. Hearing alarums at our chamber doors.] So, in King Lear: "Or, at the chamber door I'll beat the drum-." Steevens. Alen. Of all exploits, since first I follow'd arms, Ne'er heard I of a warlike enterprize More venturous, or desperate than this. Bast. I think, this Talbot is a fiend of hell. Reig. If not of hell, the heavens, sure, favour him. Alen. Here cometh Charles; I marvel, how he sped. Enter CHARLES and LA PUCELLE. Bast. Tut! holy Joan was his defensive guard. Char. Is this thy cunning, thou deceitful dame? Didst thou at first, to flatter us withal, Make us partakers of a little gain, That now our loss might be ten times so much? Puc. Wherefore is Charles impatient with his friend? At all times will you have my power alike? Sleeping, or waking, must I still prevail, Or will you blame and lay the fault on me?Improvident soldiers! had your watch been good, This sudden mischief never could have fall'n. 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 safely kept, As that whereof I had the government, We had not been thus shamefully surpriz'd. Bast. Mine was secure. Reig. And so was mine, my lord. Char. And, for myself, most part of all this night, Within her quarter, and mine own precinct, I was employ'd in passing to and fro, Then how, or which way, should they first break in? Alarum. Enter an English Soldier, crying, a Talbot! a Talbot! They fly, leaving their Clothes behind. Sold. I'll be so bold to take what they have left. 7 · platforms —] i. e. plans, schemes. Steevens. |