A woman clad in armour chaseth them.

Here, here she comes.

Re-enter LA PUCELLE.

I'll have a bout with thee;

Devil or devil's dam, I'll conjure thee:

Blood will I draw on thee,-thou art a witch,-
And straightway give thy soul to him thou serv'st.
Puc. Come, come, 'tis only I that must disgrace thee.

[They fight.

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, But I will chastise this high-minded strumpet.

[They fight again. Puc. [retiring] Talbot, farewell; thy hour is not yet come:

I must go victual Orleans forthwith.

O'ertake me, if thou canst; I scorn thy strength.

Go, go cheer up thy hunger-starvèd men ;(51)
Help Salisbury to make his testament:

This day is ours, as many more shall be.

[La Pucelle enters the town with Soldiers.

Tal. My thoughts are whirlèd like a potter's wheel;

I know not where I am, nor what I do:

A witch by fear, not force, like Hannibal,

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;

(51) thy hunger-starved men ;] The folio has "thy hungry-starved men. (As the compound "hunger-starved" occurs in The Third Part of Henry VI. act i. sc. 4, it is, we cannot doubt, the true reading here.— Mr. Collier remarks that "if 'hungry, starved men,' as Boswell would have printed it, had been intended, and not a compound word, the hyphen in the old copy would have been omitted:" but that by no means follows; for afterwards in this play, p. 58, the folio has "his tenderdying eyes,”—p. 77, "his puny-sword:" and see note 107 on King John.

Renounce your soil, give sheep in lions' stead:
Sheep run not half so timorous from the wolf,(52)
Or horse or oxen from the leopard,

As you fly from your oft-subdued slaves.

[Alarum. Another skirmish.

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!

The shame hereof will make me hide my head.

[Alarum; retreat. Exeunt Talbot and Forces.

Flourish. Enter, on the walls, LA PUCELLE, CHARLES, the Bastard of Orleans, REIGNIER, ALENÇON, and Soldiers.

Puc. Advance our waving colours on the walls; Rescu'd is Orleans from the English:

Thus Joan la Pucelle hath perform'd her word.

Char. Divinest creature, Astræa's daughter,(53)

(52) Sheep run not half so timorous from the wolf,] Pope's correction. -The folio has "Sheepe run not halfe so trecherous from," &c. (Mr. Knight, and the Rev. J. Mitford (Gent. Magazine for Nov. 1844, p. 457), conjecture "Sheep run not half so from the treacherous wolf," &c. : but surely the adjective is not to be separated from " so.")-1864. In the preceding line is not the reading "soil" (spelt "Soyle" in the folio) very questionable? I once conjectured "style: " but an heraldic term seems to be required; qy. “scroll”?

(53) Rescu'd is Orleans from the English :—

Divinest creature, Astræa's daughter,]

The editor of the second folio chose to print

Divinest Creature, bright Astræa's Daughter," &c.;

6

and so, among others, the two latest editors, Mr. Collier and Mr. Knight [1864, and Mr. Halliwell].-"The word wolves,"" says Mr. Collier, seems necessary, though Malone strangely contends that English ought to be pronounced as a trisyllable: "-and Malone was right; compare a line in Richard II. act iv. sc. I,

"Than Bolingbroke's return to England;"

and see Walker's Shakespeare's Versification, &c., p. 7, and his Crit. Exam.,

How shall I honour thee for this success?

Thy promises are like Adonis' gardens,(54)

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?(55) 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
Than Rhodope's of Memphis (56) ever was:
In memory of her when she is dead,

&c., vol. i. p. 7.-" Malone," continues Mr. Collier, "goes the absurd length of insisting that 'Astræa' ought to be pronounced Asteraa: in which Malone was mistaken; for here "creature" (see Walker's Shakespeare's Versification, &c., p. 85, and his Crit. Exam., &c., vol. ii. p. 19) is to be read as a trisyllable.

(5) gardens,] The folio has "Garden."

(55) Why ring not out the bells throughout the town?] So Pope.-The folio has "Why ring not out the Bells alowd, Throughout," &c.--Steevens proposes "Why ring not bells aloud throughout," &c.

(56) Than Rhodope's of Memphis] So Capell proposed to read.-The folio has "Then Rhodophe's or Memphis," which is perfect nonsense. "Rhodope [properly Rhodopis (Poowris), the rosy-cheeked] 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 Psammitichus, King of Egypt." STEEVENS. "The brother of Sappho [Charaxus] was in love with Rhodope, and purchased her freedom (for she was a slave in the same house with Esop the fabulist) at a great price. Rhodope was of Thrace, not of Memphis." MALONE. "The emendation proposed by Mr. Steevens [Capell's] 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. Herodotus (ii. 134 sqq.) takes pains to show the absurdity of

Her ashes, in an urn more precious

Than the rich-jewell'd coffer of Darius,
Transported shall be at high festivals.

Ever before the kings and queens of France.(57)
No longer on Saint Denis 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. France. Before Orleans.

Enter, to the gate, 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-guard.

First Sent. Sergeant, you shall. [Exit Sergeant.]

are poor servitors

When others sleep upon their quiet beds—
Constrain'd to watch in darkness, rain, and cold.

Thus

Enter TALBOT, BEDFORD, BURGUNDY, and Forces, with scalingladders, their drums beating a dead march.

Tal. Lord regent, and redoubted Burgundy,

By whose approach the regions of Artois,

Walloon, and Picardy are friends to us,-
This happy night the Frenchmen are secure,
Having all day carous'd and banqueted:

the story of her having built the pyramid; which is certainly a fable. But it would seem that, in consequence of her name (The rosy-cheeked), she was confounded with Nitokris, the beautiful Egyptian queen.

(67) Ever before the kings and queens of France.] So Hanmer.—The folio has merely "Before the Kings and Queenes of France."-Capell, who retains (with the folio) the comma after "Transported," prints "Before the kings and queens of France upborne."-I formerly proposed "Before the kings and queens and peers of France."

Embrace we, then, this opportunity,

As fitting best to quittance their deceit,

Contriv'd by art and baleful sorcery.

Bed. Coward of France !-how much he wrongs his fame,

Despairing of his own arm's fortitude,

To join with witches and the help of hell!
Bur. Traitors have never other company.-
But what's that Pucelle, whom they term so pure ?
Tal. A maid, they say.

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.
Tal. Not all together: better far, I guess,
That we do make our entrance several ways;
That, if it chance the one of us do fail,
The other yet may rise against their force.

Bed. Agreed: I'll to yond corner.
Bur.

And (58) 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

How much in duty I am bound to both.

[The English scale the walls, crying "St. George! a Talbot!" and all enter the town.

Sent. Arm! arm! the enemy doth make assault!

The French leap over the walls in their shirts. Enter, several ways, the Bastard of Orleans, ALENÇON, and REIGNIER, half ready and half unready.

Alen. How now, my lords! what, all unready so?

Bast. Unready! ay, and glad we scap'd so well.

(68) And] Probably an interpolation.