Or by what means got'ft thou to be releas'd? TAL. The duke of Bedford had a prifoner, Once, in contempt, they would have barter'd me: Which I, difdaining, fcorn'd: and craved death Rather than I would be fo pil'd esteem'd." defervedly numbered among the feebleft performances of Shakfpeare, this firft of them appears to have been received with the greatest applaufe. So, in Pierce Penniless's Supplication to the Devil, by Nath, 1592: "How would it have joyed brave Talbot (the terror of the French,) to thinke that after he had lien two hundred years in his tombe, he fhould triumph againe on the stage, and have his bones new embalmed with the teares of ten thousand spectators at least (at feveral times,) who in the tragedian that reprefents his perfon, imagine they behold him fresh bleeding?" STEEVENS. -fo pil'd efteem'd.] Thus the old copy. Some of the modern editors read, but without authority-fo vile-efteem'd.-So pill'd, may mean-fo pillag'd, fo ftripp'd of honours; but I fufpect a corruption, which Mr. M. Mafon would remedy, by reading either vile or ill-esteemed. It is poffible, however, that Shakspeare might have writtenPhiliftin'd; i. e. treated as contumelioufly as Sampfon was by the Philistines. Both Sampfon and Talbot had been prifoners, and were alike infulted by their captors. Our author has jocularly formed more than one verb from a proper name; as for inftance, from Aufidius, in Coriolanus: “ -I would not have been fo fidius'd for all the chefts in Corioli." Again, in King Henry V. Piftol fays to his prifoner: "Master Fer? I'll fer him," &c. Again, in Hamlet, from Herod, we have the verb "out-herod." Shakspeare therefore, in the prefent inftance, might have taken a fimilar liberty.-To fall into the hands of the Philistines has long been a cant phrafe, expreffive of danger incurred, whether from enemies, affociation with hard drinkers, gamefters, or a lefs welcome acquaintance with the harpies of the law. Talbot's idea would be fufficiently expreffed by the term-Philiftin'd, which (as the play before us appears to have been copied by the car) was more liable to corruption than a common verb. In fine, redeem'd I was as I defir'd. But, O! the treacherous Faftolfe wounds my heart! Whom with my bare fifts I would execute, If I now had him brought into my power. SAL. Yet tell'ft thou not, how thou wert entertain'd. TAL. With fcoffs, and fcorns, and contumelious taunts. In open market-place produc'd they me, Here, faid they, is the terror of the French, I may add, that perhaps no word will be found nearer to the found and traces of the letters, in pil-efteem'd, than Philiftin'd. Philistine, in the age of Shakspeare, was always accented on the firft fyllable, and therefore is not injurious to the line in which I have hefitatingly propofed to infert it. I cannot, however, help fmiling at my own conjecture; and fhould it excite the fame fenfation in the reader who journeys through the barren defert of our accumulated notes on this play, like Addifon's traveller, when he discovers a cheerful spring amid the wilds of fand, let him -bless his stars, and think it luxury." STEEVENS. I have no doubt that we should read-fo pile-esteem'd: a Latinism, for which the author of this play had, I believe, no occafion to go to Lilly's grammar. "Flocci, nauci, nihili, pili, &c. his verbis, aftimo, pendo, peculiariter adjiciuntur; ut,-Nec hujus facio, qui me pili æftimat." Even if we fuppofe no change to be neceffary, this furely was the meaning intended to be conveyed. In one of Shakfpeare's plays we have the fame phrafe, in English,-vile-esteem'd. MALONE. If the author of the play before us defigned to avail himself of the Latin phrafe-pili aftimo, would he have only half translated it? for what correfpondence has pile in English to a single hair? Was a fingle hair ever called-a pile, by any English writer? 7 the terror of the French, STEEVENS. The feare-crow that affrights our children fo.] From Hall's Chronicle: "This man [Talbot] was to the French people a very fcourge and a daily terror, infomuch that as his perfon was fearful, and terrible to his adverfaries prefent, fo his name and fame was Then broke I from the officers that led me; None durft come near, for fear of fudden death. So great fear of my name 'mongst them was spread, Ready they were to fhoot me to the heart. SAL. I grieve to hear what torments you endur'd; But we will be reveng'd fufficiently. Now it is fupper-time in Orleans: Here, through this grate, I can count every one, And view the Frenchmen how they fortify; Let us look in, the fight will much delight thee.— Sir Thomas Gargrave, and fir William Glansdale, Let me have your exprefs opinions, Where is best place to make our battery next. GAR. I think, at the north gate; for there stand lords. GLAN. And I, here, at the bulwark of the bridge. spiteful and dreadful to the common people abfent; infomuch that women in France to feare their yong children, would crye, the Talbot commeth, the Talbot commeth." The fame thing is faid of King Richard I. when he was in the Holy Land. See Camden's Remaines, 4to. 1614, p. 267. MALONE. Here, through this grate, I can count every one,] Thus the fecond folio. The firft, very harshly and unmetrically, reads: Here, thorough this grate, I count each one. STEEVENS. TAL. For aught I fee, this city must be famish'd, Or with light fkirmishes enfeebled. [Shot from the town. SALISBURY and Sir THOGARGRAVE fall. SAL. O Lord, have mercy on us, wretched finners! GAR. O Lord, have mercy on me, woful man! TAL. What chance is this, that fuddenly hath crofs'd us? Speak, Salisbury; at leaft, if thou canst speak; fail, One eye thou haft to look to heaven for grace: enfeebled.] This word is here used as a quadrifyllable. MALONE. 9thy cheek's fide ftruck off!] Camden fays in his Remaines, that the French fcarce knew the ufe of great ordnance, till the fiege of Mans in 1425, when a breach was made in the walls of that town by the English, under the conduct of this earl of Salifbury; and that he was the firft English gentleman that was flain by a cannon-ball. MALONE. 2 One 66 eye thou haft &c.] A fimilar thought occurs in King Lear: my lord, you have one eye left, "To fee fome mifchief on him." STEEVENS. Bear hence his body, I will help to bury it.— gone, He beckons with his hand, and smiles on me; [Thunder heard; afterwards an alarum. What ftir is this? What tumult's in the heavens? Whence cometh this alarum, and the noife? Enter a Meffenger. MESS. My lord, my lord, the French have gather'd head: The Dauphin, with one Joan la Pucelle join'd,-A holy prophetefs, new rifen up, Is come with a great power to raise the fiege. [SALISBURY groans. TAL. Hear, hear, how dying Salisbury doth groan! 3 -and Nero-like,] The firft folio reads: Plantagenet, I will; and like thee STEEVENS. In the old copy, the word Nero is wanting, owing probably to the tranfcriber's not being able to make out the name. The editor of the fecond folio, with his ufual freedom, altered the line thus: I am content to read with the fecond folio (not conceiving the emendation in it to be an arbitrary one) and omit only the needlefs repetition of the verb-will. Surely there is fome abfurdity in making Talbot addrefs Plantagenet, and invoke Nero, in the fame line. STEEVENS. |