Enter Pucelle. Here, here, he comes. I'll have a bout with thee; Devil, or devil's dam, I'll conjure thee. *Blood will I draw on thee, thou art a witch; And straitway give thy foul to him thou serv'st. Pucel. Come, come, 'tis only I, that muft difgrace thee. [They fight. Tal. Heav'ns, can you fuffer hell fo to prevail? My breast I'll burft with ftraining of my courage, And from my fhoulders crack my arms afunder, But I will chaftife this high-minded strumpet. Pucel. Talbot, farewel, thy hour is not yet come, I must go victual Orleans forthwith. [Abort alarm. Then enters the town with foldiers. O'ertake me if thou canft, I fcorn thy ftrength. Go, go, chear up thy hunger-ftarved men. Help Salisbury to make his teftament. This day is ours, as many more fhall be. [Exit Pucelle. A witch, by fear, not force, like Hannibal, [A fhort alarm. As you fly from your oft-fubdued flaves. [Alarm. Here another Skirmish. It will not be. Retire into your trenches; In fpight of us, or aught that we could do, The fhame hereof will make me hide my head. [Exit Talbot. [Alarm, Retreat, Flourish. SCENE XI. Enter on the Wall, Pucelle, Dauphin, Reignier, Pucel. Advance our waving colours on the walls, That them for Adonis' worship; because Venus had once laid him in a lettice bed. The next day they were thrown away, &c. To this Dr. Pierce replies, That this account of the Gardens of Adonis is right, and yet Milton may be defended for what he fays of them: For why (fays he) did the Grecians on Adonis feftival carry these Small earthen Gardens about in honour of him? It was because they had a tradition, that, when he was alive, he delighted in Gar dens, and had a magnificent one: For proof of this we have Pliny's werds, xix. 4. Antiquitas nihil priùs mirata eft quàm Hefperidum HORTOS, ac regum Ado LI NIDIS That one day bloom'd, and fruitful were the next. More bleffed hap did ne'er befal our state. Reig. Why ring not out the bells throughout the town? Dauphin, command the citizens make bonfires, Alan. All France will be replete with mirth and joy, When they fhall hear how we have play'd the men. Dau. 'Tis Joan, not we, by whom the day is won, NIDIS & Alcinoi. One would now think the question well decided: But Mr. Theobald comes, and will needs be Dr. Bentley's fecond. A learned and reverend gentleman (fays he) having attempted to im, each Dr. Eentley of error, for maintaining that there NEVER WAS EXISTENT any mag. nificent or Spacious Gardens of Adonis, an opinion in which it has been my fortune to fecond the Doctor, I thought my felf concerned, in fome fart, to weigh thofe authorities all dged by the objetor, &c. The reader fees that Mr. Theobald miftakes the very question in difpute between thefe two truly learned men, which was not whether Adonis' Gardens were ever exifient, but whether there was a tradition of any celebrated Gardens cultivated by Adonis. For this would fufficiently juftify Milton's mention of them, together with the Gardens of Alcinous, confeffed by the poet himfelf to be fabulous. But hear their own words. There was no fuch Garden (lays Dr. Bentley) ever exiftent, or EVEN FEIGN D. He adds the latter part, as knowing that that would justify the poet; and it is on that affertion only that his adverfary Dr. Pierce joins iffue with him. Why (fays he) did thy carry the Small earthen Gardens ? It was because they had a TRADITION, that when he was alive he delighted in Gardens. Mr. Theobald, therefore, miftaking the question, it is no wonder that all he fays, in his long note at the end of the fourth volume, is nothing to the purpofe; it being to fhew that Dr. Pierce's quotations from Plny and others, do not prove the real existence of the Gardens. After thefe, comes the Oxford Editor; and he pronounces in favour of Dr. Bentley against Dr. Pierce, in these words, The Gardens of Adonis were never reprefented under any local defcrip tion. But whether this was faid at hazard, or to contradict Dr. Pierce, or to rectify Mr. Theobald's mistake of the queftion, it is fo obfcurely expreffed, that one can hardly determine. WARBURTON. For which I will divide my Crown with her, After this golden day of victory. [Flourish. Exeunt. ACT II. SCENE I. Before ORLEANS. Enter a Serjeant of a Band, with two Centinels. SERJEANT. IRS, take your places, and be vigilant, Near to the wall, by fome apparent fign When others fleep upon their quiet beds Conftrain'd to watch in darknefs, rain, and cold. Enter Talbot, Bedford, and Burgundy, with scaling ladders. Their drums beating a dead march. Tal. Lord Regent, and redoubted Burgundy, Walloon, Walloon, and Picardy are friends to us; Bed. Coward of France! how much he wrongs his Defpairing of his own arms fortitude, To join with witches and the help of hell! But what's that Pucelle, whom they term fo pure? Bed. A maid? and be fo martial? Bur. Pray God, fhe prove not mafculine ere long! If underneath the standard of the French She carry armour, as fhe hath begun. Tal. Well, let them practise and converse with spirits; God is our fortrefs, in whofe conqu❜ring name Let us refolve to scale their flinty bulwarks. Bed. Afcend, brave Talbot, we will follow thee. Tal. Not all together; better far I guess, That we do make our entrance feveral 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. I to this. Tal. And here will Talbot mount, or make his grave. Now, Salisbury! for thee, and for the right Of English Henry, fhall this night appear How much in duty I am bound to both. Cent. [within.] Arm, arm; the enemy doth make affault. [The English, fealing the Walls, cry, St. George! A Talbot! SCENE |