SCENE V. The fame. Before one of the Gates. Alarum. Skirmishings. TALBOT purfueth 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 fhe comes :-I'll have a bout with thee; Devil, or devil's dam, I'll conjure thee: thee. [They fight. TAL. Heavens, can you fuffer hell so to prevail? My breast I'll burft with ftraining of my courage, And from my fhoulders crack my arms afunder, But I will cháftife this high-minded ftrumpet. Puc. Talbot, farewell; thy hour is not yet come : I muft go victual Orleans forthwith. 4 Blood will I draw on thee,] The fuperftition of those times taught that he that could draw the witch's blood, was free from her power. JOHNSON. O'ertake me, if thou canft; I scorn thy strength. [PUCELLE enters the Town, with Soldiers. TAL. My thoughts are whirled like a potter's wheel;6 I know not where I am, nor what I do : [A Short Alarum. [Alarum. Another Skirmish. It will not be :-Retire into your trenches: You all confented unto Salisbury's death, For none would ftrike a stroke in his revenge. hunger-starved-] The fame epithet is, I think, used by Shakspeare. The old copy has-hungry-ftarved. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. 6 like a potter's wheel;] This idea might have been caught from Pfalm lxxxiii. 13: " Make them like unto a wheel, and as the ftubble before the wind." STEEVENS, 7 by fear, &c.] See Hannibal's ftratagem to escape by fixing bundles of lighted twigs on the horns of oxen, recorded in Livy, Lib. XXII. c. xvi. HoLt White. 8 fo timorous-] Old copy-treacherous. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE. Pucelle is enter'd into Orleans, In fpite of us, or aught that we could do. The fhame hereof will make me hide my head. [Alarum. Retreat. Exeunt TALBOT and his Forces, &c. SCENE VI. The fame. Enter, on the Walls, PuCELLE, CHARLES, Puc. Advance our waving colours on the walls Refcu'd is Orleans from the English wolves:9Thus Joan la Pucelle hath perform'd her word. 9 - from the English wolves: &c.] Thus the second folio. The firft omits the word-wolves. STEEVENS. The editor of the fecond folio, not perceiving that English was ufed as a trifyllable, arbitrarily reads-English wolves; in which he has been followed by all the subsequent editors. So, in the next line but one, he reads-bright Astræa, not obferving that Astrea, by a licentious pronunciation, was used by the author of this play, as if written Asterea. So monftrous is made a trifyllable ;-monsterous. See Mr. Tyrwhitt's note, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Vol. IV. p. 201, n. 5. MALONE. Here again I must follow the second folio, to which we are indebted for former and numerous emendations received even by Mr. Malone. Shakspeare has frequently the fame image. So, the French in King Henry V. fpeaking of the English: They will eat like wolves, and fight like devils." If Pucelle, by this term, does not allude to the hunger or fierceness of the English, the refers to the wolves by which their kingdom was formerly infefted. So, in King Henry IV. P. II. "Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants. CHAR. Divineft creature, bright Aftræa's daugh ter, How fhall I honour thee for this fuccefs? As no example of the proper name-Astræa, pronounced as a quadrifyllable, is given by Mr. Malone, or has occurred to me, I also think myself authorised to receive-bright, the neceffary epithet fupplied by the fecond folio. STEEVENS. I ·like Adonis' gardens,] It may not be impertinent to take notice of a dispute between four criticks, of very different orders, upon this very important point of the gardens of Adonis. Milton had faid: "Spot more delicious than thofe gardens feign'd, "Or of reviv'd Adonis, or which Dr. Bentley pronounces fpurious; for that the Kπo Adwvdos, the gardens of Adonis, fo frequently mentioned by Greek writers, Plato, Plutarch, &c. were nothing but portable earthern pots, with fome lettice or fennel growing in them. On his yearly feftival every woman carried one of them for Adonis's worship becaufe Venus had once laid him in a lettice bed. The next day they were thrown away, &c. To this Dr. Pearce replies, That this account of the gardens of Adonis is right, and yet Milton may be defended for what he fays of them: for why (fays he) did the Grecians on Adonis' feftival carry thefe fmall gardens about in honour of him? It was, because they had a tradition, that, when he was alive, he delighted in gardens, and had a magnificent one: for proof of this we have Pliny's words, xix. 4: Antiquitas nihil priùs mirata eft quàm Hefperidum hortos, ac regum Adonidis & Alcinoi." One would now think the question well decided: but Mr. Theobald comes, and will needs be Dr. Bentley's fecond. A learned and reverend gentleman (fays he) having attempted to impeach Dr. Bentley of error, for maintaining that there never was exiftent any magnificent or Spacious gardens of Adonis, an opinion in which it has been my fortune to fecond the Doctor, I thought myself concerned, in fome part, to weigh thofe authorities alledged by the objector, &c. The reader fees that Mr. Theobald miftakes the very question in difpute between these two truly learned men, which was not whether Adonis' gardens were ever exiftent, but whether there was a tradition of any celebrated gardens cultivated by Adonis. For this would fufficiently juftify Milton's mention of them, together with the gardens of Alcinous, confeffed by the poet himself to be fabulous. But hear their own words. There was no fuch That one day bloom'd, and fruitful were the next.- More bleffed hap did ne'er befall our state. REIG. Why ring not out the bells throughout the town ?2 Dauphin, command the citizens make bonfires, 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; garden (fays Dr. Bentley) ever exiftent, or even feign'd. He adds the latter part, as knowing that that would justify the poet; and it is on that affertion only that his adverfary Dr. Pearce joins iffue with him. Why (fays he) did they carry the small earthen gardens? It was because they had a tradition, that when alive he delighted in gardens. Mr. Theobald, therefore, mistaking the question, it is no wonder that all he says, in his long note at the end of his fourth volume, is nothing to the purpofe; it being to fhew that Dr. Pearce's quotations from Pliny and others, do prove the real existence of the gardens. After thefe, comes the Oxford editor; and he pronounces in favour of Dr. Bentley, against Dr. Pearce, in these words, The gardens of Adonis were never reprefented under any local defcription. But whether this was faid at hazard, or to contradi&t Dr. Pearce, or to rectify Mr. Theobald's mistake of the queftion, it is fo obfcurely expreffed, that one can hardly determine. WARBURTON. not 2 Why ring not out the bells throughout the town?] The old copy, unneceffarily 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 fignification. The difagreeable jingle, however, of out and without, induces me to fuppofe the line originally stood thus: Why ring not bells aloud throughout the town? STEEVENS, |