Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

These eyes, that see thee now well coloured,
Shall see thee wither'd, bloody, pale, and dead.
[Drum afar off
Hark! hark! the Dauphin's drum, a warning bell,
Sings heavy musick to thy timorous soul;
And mine shall ring thy dire departure out.

[Exeunt General, &c. from the Walls.

Tal. He fables not, I hear the enemy;
Out, some light horsemen, and peruse their wings.-
O, negligent and heedless discipline!

How are we park'd, and bounded in a pale;
A little herd of England's timorous deer,
Maz'd with a yelping kennel of French curs!
If we be English deer, be then in blood 5:
Not rascal-like, to fall down with a pinch;
But rather moody-mad, and desperate stags,
Turn on the bloody hounds with heads of steel,
And make the cowards stand aloof at bay:
Sell every man his life as dear as mine,
And they shall find dear deer of us, my
friends.-
God, and Saint George! Talbot, and England's right!
Prosper our colours in this dangerous fight!

[Exeunt.

SCENE III. Plains in Gascony.

Enter YORK, with Forces; to him a Messenger. York. Are not the speedy scouts return'd again, That dogg'd the mighty army of the Dauphin?

4 So Milton's Comus :

"She fables not, I feel that I do fear.'

5 In blood is a term of the forest; a deer was said to be in blood when in vigour or in good condition, and full of courage, here put in opposition to rascal, which was the term for the same animal when lean and out of condition. We have the same expression in Love's Labour's Lost:

'The deer was, as you know, in blood.'

The metaphor is continued by using heads of steel for lances, in allusion to the deers' horns.

Mess. They are return'd, my lord; and give it out, That he is march'd to Bordeaux with his power, To fight with Talbot: As he march'd along, By your espials1 were discovered

Two mightier troops than that the Dauphin led; Which join'd with him, and made their march for Bordeaux.

York. A plague upon that villain Somerset ;
That thus delays my promised supply

Of horsemen, that were levied for this siege!
Renowned Talbot doth expect my aid;
And I am louted 2 by a traitor villain,
And cannot help the noble chevalier :
God comfort him in this necessity!
If he miscarry, farewell wars in France.

Enter SIR WILLIAM LUCY.

Lucy. Thou princely leader of our English strength, Never so needful on the earth of France, Spur to the rescue of the noble Talbot; Who now is girdled with a waist of iron3, And hemm'd about with grim destruction:

1 Spies.

2 To lowt may signify to depress, to lower, to dishonour,' says Johnson: but in his Dictionary he explains it to overpower. Steevens knows not what to make of it: to let down, to be subdued, or vanquished, or baffled.' 'To be treated with contempt like a lowt or country fellow,' says Malone. But the meaning of the word here is evidently loitered, retarded: and the following quotation from Cotgrave will show that this was sometimes the sense of to lowt-Loricarder, to luske, lout, or lubber it; to loyter about like a masterless man.' In Mr. Todd's quotation from the Mirror for magistrates, which he thinks confirms the meaning of to overpower; the word means lowered, abased; its most usual sense; but which will not suit with the context of the passage in this play.

3

those sleeping stones
That as a waist do girdle you about.'

King John.

To Bordeaux, warlike duke! to Bordeaux, York!
Else, farewell Talbot, France, and England's honour.
York. O God! that Somerset-who in proud heart
Doth stop my cornets-were in Talbot's place!
So should we save a valiant gentleman,
By forfeiting a traitor and a coward.

Mad ire, and wrathful fury, makes me weep,
That thus we die, while remiss traitors sleep.

Lucy. O, send some succour to the distress'd lord! York. He dies, we lose; I break my warlike word; We mourn, France smiles; we lose, they daily get; All 'long of this vile traitor Somerset.

Lucy. Then, God take mercy on brave Talbot's soul!

And on his son, young John; whom, two hours since,
I met in travel toward his warlike father!

This seven years
did not Talbot see his son;
And now they meet where both their lives are done*.
York. Alas! what joys shall noble Talbot have,
To bid his young son welcome to his grave?
Away! vexation almost stops my breath,
That sunder'd friends greet in the hour of death.-
Lucy, farewell: no more my fortune can,
But curse the cause I cannot aid the man.-
Maine, Blois, Poictiers, and Tours, are won away,
'Long all of Somerset, and his delay.

[Exit.

Lucy. Thus, while the vulture 5 of sedition
Feeds in the bosom of such great commanders,
Sleeping neglection doth betray to loss

The conquest of our scarce-cold conqueror,
That ever living man of memory,

Henry the Fifth :-Whiles they each other cross,
Lives, honours, lands, and all, hurry to loss. [Exit.

4 i.e. expended, consumed. Malone says that the word is still used in this sense in the western counties.

5 Alluding to the tale of Prometheus.

SCENE IV. Other Plains of Gascony.

Enter SOMERSET, with his Forces; an Officer of
TALBOT'S with him.

Som. It is too late; I cannot send them now:
This expedition was by York, and Talbot,
Too rashly plotted; all our general force
Might with a sally of the very town

Be buckled with: the over daring Talbot
Hath sullied all his gloss of former honour,
By this unheedful, desperate, wild adventure:
York set him on to fight, and die in shame,
That, Talbot dead, great York might bear the name.
Off. Here is Sir William Lucy, who with me
Set from our o'ermatch'd forces forth for aid.

Enter SIR WILLIAM LUCY.

Som. How now, Sir William? whither were you sent?

Lucy. Whither, my lord? from bought and sold Lord Talbot 1;

2

Who, ring'd about with bold adversity,

Cries out for noble York and Somerset,

To beat assailing death from his weak legions.
And whiles the honourable captain there
Drops bloody sweat from his war-wearied limbs,
And, in advantage ling'ring, looks for rescue,
You, his false hopes, the trust of England's honour,
Keep off aloof with worthless emulation*.

1 i. e. from one utterly ruined by the treacherous practices of others. The expression seems to have been proverbial; intimating that foul play had been used. Thus in King Richard III. :'Dickon, thy master is bought and sold.'

And in King John:

Fly, noble English, you are bought and sold.' 2 Encircled, environed.

3 Protracting his resistance by the advantage of a strong post. 4 Emulation here signifies envious rivalry, not struggle for supe

Let not your private discord keep away
The levied succours that should lend him aid,
While he, renowned noble gentleman,

Yields up his life unto a world of odds:
Orleans the Bastard, Charles, and Burgundy,
Alençon, Reignier, compass him about,
And Talbot perisheth by your default.

Som. York set him on, York should have sent him aid.

Lucy. And York as fast upon your grace exclaims; Swearing that you withhold his levied host, Collected for this expedition.

Som. York lies; he might have sent and had the horse:

I owe him little duty, and less love;

And take foul scorn, to fawn on him by sending.
Lucy. The fraud of England, not the force of
France,

Hath now entrapp'd the noble-minded Talbot:
Never to England shall he bear his life;

But dies, betrayed to fortune by your strife.
Som. Come, go; I will despatch the horsemen
straight:

Within six hours they will be at his aid.

Lucy. Too late comes rescue; he is ta'en, or slain; For fly he could not, if he would have fled; And fly would Talbot never, though he might.

Som. If he be dead, brave Talbot then adieu! Lucy. His fame lives in the world, his shame in [Exeunt.

you.

rior excellence. Ulysses, in Troilus and Cressida, says the Grecian chiefs were

so every step,

Exampled by the first pace that is sick
Of his superior, grows to an envious fever
Of pale and bloodless emulation.'

See also Act ii. Sc. 2, note 37, in the same play.

« AnteriorContinuar »