These eyes, that see thee now well coloured, [Exeunt General, &c. from the Walls. Tal. He fables not, I hear the enemy; How are we park'd, and bounded in a pale; [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 ; Of horsemen, that were levied for this siege! 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 King John. To Bordeaux, warlike duke! to Bordeaux, York! Mad ire, and wrathful fury, makes me weep, 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, This seven years [Exit. Lucy. Thus, while the vulture 5 of sedition The conquest of our scarce-cold conqueror, Henry the Fifth :-Whiles they each other cross, 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 Som. It is too late; I cannot send them now: Be buckled with: the over daring Talbot 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. 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 Yields up his life unto a world of odds: 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. Hath now entrapp'd the noble-minded Talbot: But dies, betrayed to fortune by your strife. 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 See also Act ii. Sc. 2, note 37, in the same play. |