Page:Henry VI Part 1 (1918) Yale.djvu/132

120 indicate the practicability of that by which she entered.

 Talbonites. A derivative formed from a Latinized version of Talbot's name: Talbo, Talbonis (though Talbottus is the form used by Camden). Modern editors seem all to accept Theobald's cacophonous emendation, 'Talbotites.' N. E. D. recognizes neither word.

 the pride of France. Compare the pride of Gallia (IV. vi. 15). These sonorous phrases mean hardly more than 'the French.' They are echoes of Marlowe, who had rung the changes upon 'the pride of Asia,' 'the pride of Graecia.'

 Alençon. The Folios make Reignier enter here, not Alençon, and for the speaker's name in lines 23 and 33 above they have Reig., not Alen. This, probably, is only a careless slip. It is not at all likely that Alençon and Reignier were both on the walls (upper stage) in addition to Charles, Joan, and the Bastard; and the three cases just noted are the only mentions of Reignier in this scene or the next.

 good grey-beard. John, Duke of Bedford, third son of Henry IV, was only about forty-five years of age when he died in 1435. Here his death is antedated, being thrown back into the lifetime of Joan, whom he actually survived by four years, and his age is greatly exaggerated. Bedford is called by Hume 'the most accomplished prince of his age, a skilful politician, as well as a good general.' Shakespeare, in the second part of Henry IV, paints an unfavorable portrait of him in his youth, as Prince John of Lancaster.

 And as his father here was conqueror. Henry V captured Rouen in 1518, after a long siege. Shakespeare's play of Henry V does not allude to this conquest.

 Holinshed tells how Richard I