emand Del.

ROAN in FRANCE.

Henry VI Part 1 Act 3. Scene 2.

Take heed, be wary how you place your words;
Talk like the vulgar fort of marker-men,
That come to gather money for their corn.
If we have entrance, (as, I hope, we fhall,)
And that we find the flothful watch but weak,
I'll by a fign give notice to our friends,
That Charles the Dauphin may encounter them.

1. SOL. Our facks fhall be a mean to fack the

city,"

And we be lords and rulers over Rouen;
Therefore we'll knock.

GUARD. [Within.] Qui eft là?"

[Knocks.

Puc. Paifans, pauvres gens de France: Poor market-folks, that come to fell their corn. GUARD. Enter, go in; the market-bell is rung. [Opens the gates. Puc. Now, Roüen, I'll shake thy bulwarks to the ground.

[PUCELLE, &c. enter the city.

The word, confequently, is used as a monofyllable. See Vol. IX. P. 372, n. 7. MALONE.

I do not perceive the neceffity of confidering Rouen here as a monofyllable. Would not the verfe have been fufficiently regular, had the fcene been in England, and authorized Shakspeare to write (with a diffyllabical termination, familiar to the drama)

Thefe are the city gates, the gates of London? STEEVENS.

• Our facks fhall be a mean to fack the city,] Falftaff has the fame quibble, fhowing his bottle of fack: "Here's that will fack a city." STEEVENS.

7 Qui eft là?] Old copy-Che la. For the emendation I am anfwerable. MALONE.

Late editions-Qui va la? STEEVENS.

Enter CHARLES, Baftard of Orleans, ALENÇON, and Forces.

CHAR. Saint Dennis bless this happy ftratagem! And once again we'll fleep fecure in Rouen. BAST. Here enter'd Pucelle, and her practifants: 5 Now she is there, how will fhe fpecify

Where is the best and safeft paffage in?

ALEN. By thrusting out a torch from yonder

tower;

Which, once discern'd, shows, that her meaning is,

No way to that," for weakness, which fhe enter'd.

Enter LA PUCELLE on a battlement; bolding out a torch burning.

Puc. Behold, this is the happy wedding torch, That joineth Roüen unto her countrymen ; But burning fatal to the Talbotites.

BAST. See, noble Charles! the beacon of our friend,

The burning torch in yonder turret ftands.

Here enter'd Pucelle, and her practifants:] Practice, in the language of that time, was treachery, and perhaps in the softer sense Aratagem. Practisants are therefore confederates in ftratagems.

JOHNSON.

So, in the Induction to The Taming of a Shrew:
Sirs, I will practice on this drunken man.' STEEVENS.
Where is] Old copy-Here is. Corrected by Mr. Rowe.

MALONE.

7 No way to that,] That is, no way equal to that, no way so fit as that. JOHNSON.

So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

"There is no woe to his correction." STEEVING.