The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 10.0973  Thursday, 10 June 1999.

[1]     From:   Sean Lawrence <
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        Date:   Wednesday, 09 Jun 1999 18:28:38 +0000
        Subj:   Re: SHK 10.0965 Re: Henry VI, pt 1

[2]     From:   Dana Wilson <
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        Date:   Wednesday, 9 Jun 1999 12:35:38 -0700 (PDT)
        Subj:   Henry VI, pt 1

[3]     From:   Dana Wilson <
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        Date:   Wednesday, 9 Jun 1999 12:50:23 -0700 (PDT)
        Subj:   Re: Various Responses

[4]     From:   Dana Wilson <
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        Date:   Wednesday, 9 Jun 1999 14:58:47 -0700 (PDT)
        Subj:   Henry VI, pt 1


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Sean Lawrence <
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Date:           Wednesday, 09 Jun 1999 18:28:38 +0000
Subject: 10.0965 Re: Henry VI, pt 1
Comment:        Re: SHK 10.0965 Re: Henry VI, pt 1

Dana Wilson writes:

>Are these 'fortifications' the 'pales' or 'pallisades' within which
>Talbot found himself trapped like a deer in IV, iii?

In my Riverside2, he finds himself trapped in 4.2.  In any case, Talbot
need not be literally trapped within his siege-works for the metaphor to
apply.  Since the Dauphin's army is just approaching, he probably
wouldn't have had sufficient time to set up fortifications against
counter-siege, anyway.

Rather than linking "pale" to pallisade, I would link it to "park," at
least within the context of Talbot's metaphor towards deer.  There are
additional meanings that imply a closed space without necessarily
requiring walls:  in heraldry, a pale is a band of colour lain across an
armorial device; the use probably closest to Shakespeare's thinking
might be the "Irish pale", the region around Dublin controlled by the
English; the use of "pale" for an enclosed area is also witnessed by the
still-current expression "beyond the pale."  No doubt one could find yet
further examples in the OED2.

Cheers,
Se