Go, go, cheer up thy hunger-starved 2 men;
Help Salisbury to make his testament:

This day is ours, as many more shall be.

[Puc. enters the Town, with Sold.

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 Hannibal, 3
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.
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 treacherous 5 from the wolf,
Or horse, or oxen, from the leopard,

As you fly from your oft-subdued slaves.

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.

[A short alarum.

[Alarum. Another skirmish.

[Alarum. Retreat.
Retreat. Exeunt TALBOT and his Forces.

SCENE VI.

The Same.

Flourish. 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. 1

Thus Joan la Pucelle 2 hath perform'd her word.

2) hunger-starved verbesserte Rowe das hungry-starved der Fol., wofür Boswell hungry, starved lesen wollte.

3) Eine Anspielung auf Hannibal's Kriegslist, der den Römern entkam, indem er ihnen Ochsen mit brennenden Zweigen an den Hörnern festgebunden, entgegentrieb.

*) house ist dove-house = Taubenschlag.

5) Wie Sh. häufig das Verglichene mit dem Bilde selbst vermengt, so bezieht sich auch hier das Epitheton treacherous nicht so sehr auf die Schafe, sondern auf die Engländer, die aus Feigheit verrätherisch handeln. Die meisten Hgg. lesen mit Pope timorous

für treacherous.

6) Vgl. A. 1, Sc. 1, Anm. 5.

1) Das in der ersten Fol. ausgelassene wolves ergänzt die zweite Fol.

Malone wollte

dafür zur Vervollständigung des Verses English dreisylbig (Engelish) lesen. 2) Auch hier Joane de Pusel in der Fol.; ebenso nachher in dieser Sc.

Char. Divinest creature, bright 3 Astræa's daughter,

How shall I honour thee for this success?

Thy promises are like Adonis' gardens, 4

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 aloud 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. 5

Char. T is Joan, not we, by whom the day is won,

6

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, or Memphis, ever was:
In memory of her, when she is dead,
Her ashes, in an urn more precious
Than the rich-jewell'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.

7

[Flourish. Exeunt.

Malone las dafür Astraa

3) Mit bright vervollständigt erst die zweite Fol. den Vers. viersylbig (Asteræa). Mit grösserer Wahrscheinlichkeit liesse sich creature dreisylbig (creature) lesen.

*) Die Gärten des von der Venus geliebten Adonis werden schon bei Plutarch neben den eben so fabelhaften des Phaeakenkönigs Alkinous erwähnt.

57 to play the men = sich wie Männer benehmen, Männer vorstellen. So in Tempest (A. 1, Sc. 1) Play the men.

6) Steevens wollte Rodope's of Memphis lesen, weil die von der Rhodope, einer Buhlerin, errichtete Pyramide, von der Sh. wahrscheinlich durch Plutarch Kunde hatte, sich zu Memphis befand. Indess kann Sh. sehr wohl zwei Pyramiden im Sinne haben, die der Rhodope, und eine andere zu Memphis.

") Sh. fand in Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie (1589) Folgendes: In what price the noble poems of Homer were holden with Alexander the Great, insomuch as every night they were laid under his pillow, and by day were carried in the rich jewel coffer of Darius, lately before vanquished by him in battle. Auch aus dem Plutarch kannte Sh. diese Notiz.

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 guard.

1

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.

Enter TALBOT, Bedford, BurguNDY, and Forces, with scaling ladders; their drums beating a dead march. 2

Tal. Lord regent, and redoubted Burgundy,

3

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.
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.

4

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.

1) court of guard entspricht dem jetzigen guard-room.

2) Die Trommeln schlagen im dumpfen Ton, damit der Feind sie nicht höre.

3) Bedford hat auf dem Marsche nach Orleans Artois, das Wallonische Land und die Picardie der Englischen Oberherrschaft gesichert.

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 yon corner.
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

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. [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. 5

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

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

Reig. 'T was time, I trow, to wake and leave our beds,

Hearing alarums at our chamber doors.

Alen. Of all exploits, since first I followed arms,

Ne'er heard I of a warlike enterprize

More venturous, or desperate than this.

Reig.
Alen.

Bast. I think, this Talbot be a fiend of hell.
If not of hell, the heavens sure favour him.
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 fallen.

Char. Duke of Alençon, this was your default,
That, being captain of the watch to-night,
Did look no better to that weighty charge.

5) ready

=

6

--

Diese Bühnenweisung ist

angekleidet, gerüstet, unready das Gegentheil. aus der Fol. In den folgenden Wechselreden ist unready zugleich 6) mich wundert, wie er glücklich davon kam.

= unvorbereitet.

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.
Reig.

Mine was secure.

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,

About relieving of the sentinels:

Then how, or which way, should they first break in?
Puc. Question, my lords, no further of the case,
How, or which may: 't is sure, they found some place
But weakly guarded, where the breach was made.
And now there rests no other shift but this,
To gather our soldiers, scatter'd and dispers'd,
And lay new platforms to endamage them.

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.

The cry of Talbot serves me for a sword;

For I have loaden me with many spoils,
Using no other weapon but his name.

SCENE II.

Orleans. Within the Town.

Enter TALBOT, Bedford, BurguNDY, a Captain, and Others.

Bed. The day begins to break, and night is fled,

Whose pitchy mantle over-veil'd the earth.

Here sound retreat, and cease our hot pursuit.

Tal. Bring forth the body of old Salisbury;

And here advance it in the market-place,

The middle centre of this cursed town.

Now have I paid my vow unto his soul; 1

For every drop of blood was drawn from him,

There hath at least five Frenchmen died to-night.
And that hereafter ages may behold

What ruin happen'd in revenge of him,

[Exit.

[Retreat sounded.

8) ihre Kleider, die sie in der Eile noch nicht angelegt hatten, sondern in den Händen hielten.

1) Vgl. A. 1, Sc. 4, Anm. 12 und 13.