May. I'll call for clubs, if you will not away. This cardinal's more haughty than the Devil.

Glo. Mayor, farewell: thou dost but what thou

may'st.

Win. Abominable Gloster! guard thy head; For I intend to have it, ere long.

[Exeunt.

May. See the coast clear'd, and then we will de

Good God! these nobles should such stomachs bear!
I myself fight not once in forty year.

SCENE IV. France. Before Orleans.

[Exeunt. 90

Enter, on the walls, the Master-Gunner and his Son. Master-Gunner. Sirrah, thou know'st how Orleans is besieg'd,

And how the English have the suburbs won.

Son. Father, I know; and oft have shot at them, Howe'er unfortunate I miss'd my aim.

M. Gun. But now thou shalt not. Be thou rul'd

by me :

Chief master-gunner am I of this town;

Something I must do to procure me grace.

The Prince's espials have informed me

How the English, in the suburbs close intrench'd,

88 call for clubs, i. e. call for assistance - the old cry in a public affray. (R)

(R)

89 stomachs, angry tempers.

1 The following scene on the siege of Orleans is based on Holinshed and Hall, but the historical sequence is wrenched in the changes the play has undergone. Salisbury died at Orleans

as here given, but Patay (already
described I. i. 110-40) was not
yet fought and Talbot not yet
taken prisoner. The events of
11. 1-97 belong to October, 1428;
those of Scenes v. and vi. some
months later, to April and May,
1429. [on the walls.] Not in folios.
[Son.] Most editions have Boy.

(R)

8 espials, spies. (R)

7

Wont, through a secret grate of iron bars
In yonder tower, to overpeer the city;

And thence discover how, with most advantage,
They may vex us with shot, or with assault.
To intercept this inconvenience,

A piece of ordnance 'gainst it I have plac'd;
And even these three days have I watch'd if I
Could see them.

Now, do thou watch, for I can stay no longer.

If thou spy'st any, run and bring me word,
And thou shalt find me at the governor's.

10

[Exit. 20

Son. Father, I warrant you; take you no care: I'll never trouble you, if I may spy them.

Enter, in an upper Chamber of a Tower, the Lords SALISBURY and TALBOT; Sir WILLIAM GLANSDALE, Sir THOMAS GARGRAVE, and others.

Salisbury. Talbot, my life, my joy! again return'd? How wert thou handled, being prisoner, Or by what means got'st thou to be releas'd? Discourse, I pr'ythee, on this turret's top.

Talbot. The Duke of Bedford had a prisoner, Call'd the brave Lord Ponton de Santrailes;

10 Wont, through a secret grate. The folio has Went, &c. Tyrwhitt's correction. [Cf. I. ii. 14.]

16 And even these three days. This passage is doubtless corrupted, but in a manner which forbids an attempt at conjectural restoration, which, also, is not imperatively demanded. The second folio prints the lines,

"And fully even these three dayes have I watcht

If I could see them. Now Boy doe thou watch,

For I can stay no longer." (w)

22 [in an upper Chamber of a Tower.] Malone's alteration in accordance with 1. 11. Folios, and most editors read, on the turrets. (R)

27 The Duke of Bedford, &c. The folio calls him by the merest carelessness, The Earle, &c. (w)

28 Call'd. So the folio. White's text, Called. Santrailes, mentioned by the Chronicles. (R)

For him I was exchang'd and ransomed.
But with a baser man of arms by far,

Once, in contempt, they would have barter'd me:
Which I, disdaining, scorn'd; and craved death,
Rather than I would be so vile-esteemed:

In fine, redeem'd I was as I desir'd.

But O, the treacherous Fastolfe wounds my heart:
Whom with my bare fists I would execute,

If I now had him brought into my power.

Sal. Yet tell'st thou not how thou wert entertain'd.

Tal. With scoffs, and scorns, and contumelious

taunts.

In open market-place produc'd they me,

To be a public spectacle to all:

Here, said they, is the terror of the French,

The scarecrow that affrights our children so.
Then broke I from the officers that led me,

And with my nails digg'd stones out of the ground,
To hurl at the beholders of my shame.

My grisly countenance made others fly;

None durst come near for fear of sudden death.

In iron walls they deem'd me not secure ;

So great fear of my name 'mongst them was spread,
That they suppos'd I could rend bars of steel,
And spurn in pieces posts of adamant.
Wherefore a guard of chosen shot I had,
That walk'd about me every minute-while,
And if I did but stir out of my bed,
Ready they were to shoot me to the heart.

83 so vile-esteemed. The folio, is misprinted Falstaffe in the so pil'd esteem'd · a misprint folio. (w) which Monck Mason [and Pope] corrected.

35 Fastolfe. Again this name

88 entertain'd, treated. (R)
53 chosen shot, picked marks-

Enter Boy on the walls with a linstock.

Sal. I grieve to hear what torments you But we will be reveng'd sufficiently.

Now it is supper-time in Orleans:

Here, through this grate, I count each one,
And view the Frenchmen how they fortify:

endur'd:

Let us look in; the sight will much delight thee. —
Sir Thomas Gargrave and Sir William Glansdale,
Let me have your express opinions

Where is best place to make our battery next.

Gargrave. I think, at the north gate; for there stand lords.

Glansdale. And I, here, at the bulwark of the bridge. Tal. For aught I see, this city must be famish'd, Or with light skirmishes enfeebled.

[Shot from the town. SALISBURY and Sir THO. GARGRAVE fall.

60

Sal. O Lord, have mercy on us, wretched sinners! 70 Gar. O Lord, have mercy on me, woeful man!

Tal. What chance is this, that suddenly hath cross'd us?

57 [Enter Boy], &c. The old stage-direction here is, Enter the Boy with a Linstock. The Scene is written to be represented in the bare simplicity of our early stage, when "four or five most vile and ragged foils, right ill dispos'd in brawl ridiculous," sufficed to "disfigure or present" the field of Agincourt. The walls of Orleans and the tower which the besieged had raised against it were both supposed to be upon the stage, which could not have been more than seven or eight yards across.

Afterward, for the direction, Shot

from the Town, the folio has, Here they shoot. (w) [The linstock was a stick that held the gunner's match.]

63 Gargrave. Glansdale. The Chronicles give the names. (R)

68 must be, i. e. will have to be (probably). But for 59-61 it might mean "must now be." (R) 69 enfeebled. Here enfeebled is a quadrisyllable. Participles of verbs ending in le were commonly used thus by poets. (w)

Speak, Salisbury; at least, if thou canst speak:
How far'st thou, mirror of all martial men?

One of thy eyes, and thy cheek's side struck off!-
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 thou hast to look to Heaven for grace: eye

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, Nero,
Play on the lute, beholding the towns burn:
Wretched shall France be only in my name.

[An Alarum; it thunders and lightens.

93 As who should say. We should now express it "As much as to say. (R)

95 Plantagenet, I will; and like thee, Nero. Singer correctly remarks that Salisbury's name was not Plantagenet, but Montacute. The old copies omit "Nero," which is clearly required by both the

sense and the measure. The second folio reads, and Nero like will; Steevens, and Nero like. But the mere addition of the omitted word affords the simplest and most satisfactory restoration of the text. (w)

97 only in my name, i. e. merely at hearing my name. (R)