For which, I will divide my crown with her: 3 Than Rhodope's,] Rhodope was a famous strumpet, who acquired great riches by her trade. The least but most finished of the Egyptian pyramids (says Pliny, in the 36th Book of his Natural History, ch. xii.) was built by her. She is said afterwards to have married Psammetichus, King of Egypt. Dr. Johnson thinks that the Dauphin means to call Joan of Arc a strumpet, all the while he is making this loud praise of her. Rhodope is mentioned in the play of The Costly Whore, 1633: 66 a base Rhodope, "Whose body is as common as the sea "In the receipt of every lustful spring." I would read: Than Rhodope's of Memphis ever was. STEEVENS. The brother of Sappho was in love with Rhodope, and purchased her freedom (for she was a slave in the same house with Æsop the fabulist) at a great price. Rhodope was of Thrace, not of Memphis. Memphis, a city of Egypt, was celebrated for its pyramids : "Barbara Pyramidum sileant miracula Memphis." MART. De spectaculis Libel. Ep. I. MALONE. The question, I apprehend, is not where Rhodope was born, but where she obtained celebrity. Her Thracian birth-place would not have rescued her from oblivion. STEEVENS. The emendation proposed by Mr. Steevens must be adopted. The meaning is not that Rhodope herself was of Memphis, but-that her pyramis was there. I will rear to her, says the Dauphin, a pyramid more stately than that of Memphis, which was called Rhodope's. Pliny says the pyramids were six miles from that city; and that "the fairest and most commended for workmanship was built at the cost and charges of one Rhodope, a verie strumpet." RITSON. -coffer of Darius,] When Alexander the Great took Transported shall be at high festivals [Flourish. Exeunt. the city of Gaza, the metropolis of Syria, amidst the other spoils and wealth of Darius treasured up there, he found an exceeding rich and beautiful little chest or casket, and asked those about him what they thought fittest to be laid up in it. When they had severally delivered their opinions, he told them, he esteemed nothing so worthy to be preserved in it as Homer's Iliad. Vide Plutarchum in Vitâ Alexandri Magni. THEOBALD. The very words of the text are found in Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie, 1589; "In what price the noble poems of Homer were holden with Alexander the Great, insomuch as everie night they were layd under his pillow, and by day were carried in the rich jewel cofer of Darius, lately before vanquished by him in battaile." MALONE. I believe, we should read, with Puttenham, "jewel-coffer," and not, as in the text, "jewel'd coffer." The jewel-coffer of Darius was, I suppose, the cabinet in which he kept his gems. To a jewelled coffer (i. e. a coffer ornamented with jewels) the epithet rich would have been superfluous. My conjecture, however, deserves not much attention; because Pliny, Lib. II. ch. 29, informs us, that this casket, when found, was full of precious oils, and was decorated with gems of great value. STEEVENS. "Before the kings and queens of France.] Sir Thomas Hanmer supplies the obvious defect in this line, by reading— Ever before the kings &c. STEEVENS. ACT II. SCENE I. The same. Enter to the Gates, a French Sergeant, and Two Sentinels. SERG. Sirs, take your places, and be vigilant : If any noise, or soldier, you perceive, Near to the walls, by some apparent sign, When others sleep upon their quiet beds,) Enter TALBOT, Bedford, BurgUNDY, and Forces, with scaling Ladders; their Drums beating a dead march. TAL. Lord regent,-and redoubted Burgundy,By whose approach, the regions of Artois, Walloon, and Picardy, are friends to us,This happy night the Frenchmen are secure, Having all day carous'd and banqueted : Embrace we then this opportunity; As fitting best to quittance their deceit, Contriv'd by art, and baleful sorcery. 6 -court of guard.] The same phrase occurs again in Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, &c. and is equivalent to the modern term-guard-room. STEEVENS. BED. Coward of France!-how much he wrongs his fame, Despairing of his own arm's fortitude, BUR. Traitors have never other company.But what's that Pucelle, whom they term so pure? TAL. A maid, they say. BED. A maid! and be so martial! BUR. Pray God, she prove not masculine ere long; If underneath the standard of the French, TAL. Well, let them practise and converse with spirits: God is our fortress; in whose conquering name, Let us resolve to scale their flinty bulwarks. BED. Ascend, brave Talbot; we will follow thee. TAL. Not all together: better far, I guess, That we do make our entrance several 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. And I to this. TAL. And here will Talbot mount, or make his grave. Now Salisbury! for thee, and for the right [The English scale the Walls, crying St. George! a Talbot! and all enter by the Town. SENT. [Within.] Arm, arm! the enemy doth make assault! The French leap over the Walls in their Shirts. Enter, several ways, BASTARD, ALENÇON, REIGNIER, half ready, and half unready. ALEN. How now, my lords? what, all unready so ?7 BAST. Unready? ay, and glad we 'scap'd so well. REIG. 'Twas time, I trow, to wake and leave our beds, Hearing alarums at our chamber doors. 8 ALEN. Of all exploits, since first I follow'd arms, Ne'er heard I of a warlike enterprize More venturous, or desperate than this. BAST. I think, this Talbot be a fiend of hell. 7-unready so?] Unready was the current word in those times for undressed. JOHNSON. So, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1638: "Enter Sixtus and Lucrece unready." Again, in The Two Maids of More-clacke, 1609: "Enter James unready in his night-cap, garterless," &c. Again, in A Match at Midnight, 1633, is this stage direc tion: "He makes himself unready." Why what do you mean? you will not be so uncivil as to unbrace you here?" Again, in Monsieur D'Olive, 1606: "You are not going to bed, I see you are not yet unready.” Again, in Heywood's Golden Age, 1611: "Here Jupiter puts out the lights, and makes himself unready." Unready is equivalent to the old French word-di-pret. STEEVENS. • Hearing alarums at our chamber doors.] So, in King Lear: "Or, at the chamber door I'll beat the drum—.” STEEVENS. |