The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works
Page 203
Where is my strength, my valour and my force?
Our English troops retire, I cannot stay them;
A woman clad in armour chaseth them.
[Puzel approaches him.]
Here, here she comes. I’ll have a bout with thee –
Devil, or devil’s dam, I’ll conjure thee.
5
Blood will I draw on thee – thou art a witch –
And straightway give thy soul to him thou serv’st.
JOAN Come, come, ’tis only I that must disgrace thee.
[Here they fight.]
TALBOT
Heavens, can you suffer hell so to prevail?
My breast I’ll burst with straining of my courage
10
And from my shoulders crack my arms asunder,
But I will chastise this high-minded strumpet.
[They fight again.]
JOAN Talbot, farewell. Thy hour is not yet come.
I must go victual Orleans forthwith.
[A short alarum: then Charles passes over the stage and
enters the town with soldiers.]
O’ertake me if thou canst – I scorn thy strength.
15
Go, go – cheer up thy hungry, starved men,
Help Salisbury to make his testament.
This day is ours, as many more shall be. Exit.
TALBOT
My thoughts are whirled like a potter’s wheel,
I know not where I am nor what I do.
20
A witch by fear, not force, like Hannibal,
Drives back our troops and conquers as she lists:
So bees with smoke and doves with noisome stench
Are from their hives and houses driven away.
They called us, for our fierceness, English dogs;
25
Now like to whelps we crying run away.
[A short alarum.]
Hark, countrymen – either renew the fight
Or tear the lions out of England’s coat.
Renounce your soil, give sheep in lions’ stead;
Sheep run not half so treacherous from the wolf,
30
Or horse or oxen from the leopard,
As you fly from your oft-subdued slaves.
[Alarum. Here another skirmish in which the English
attempt to enter Orleans.]
It will not be, retire into your trenches.
You all consented unto Salisbury’s death,
For none would strike a stroke in his revenge.
35
Puzel is entered into Orleans
In spite of us or aught that we could do.
O would I were to die with Salisbury:
The shame hereof will make me hide my head.
Exit Talbot. Alarum. The English sound a retreat
and exeunt. The French sound aflourish.
Enter on the walls JOAN Puzel, CHARLES the
Dolphin, REIGNIER, ALENÇON and soldiers.
[1.6]
JOAN Advance our waving colours on the walls.
40
Rescued is Orleans from the English.
Thus Joan de Puzel hath performed her word.
CHARLES Divinest creature, Astraea’s daughter,
How shall I honour thee for this success?
Thy promises are like Adonis’ garden,
45
That one day bloomed and fruitful were the next.
France, triumph in thy glorious prophetess.
Recovered is the town of Orleans;
More blessed hap did ne’er befall our state.
[10]
REIGNIER
Why ring not out the bells aloud throughout the
town?
50
Dolphin, command the citizens make bonfires
And feast and banquet in the open streets,
To celebrate the joy that God hath given us.
ALENÇON
All France will be replete with mirth and joy,
When they shall hear how we have played the men.
55
CHARLES ’Tis Joan, not we, by whom the day is won:
For which I will divide my crown with her,
And all the priests and friars in my realm
Shall in procession sing her endless praise.
[20]
A statelier pyramis to her I’ll rear
60
Than Rhodope’s or Memphis’ ever was.
In memory of her, when she is dead,
Her ashes, in an urn more precious
Than the rich-jewelled coffer of Darius,
Transported shall be at high festivals
65
Before the kings and queens of France.
No longer on Saint Denis will we cry,
But Joan de Puzel shall be France’s saint.
[30]
Come in, and let us banquet royally,
After this golden day of victory. Flourish. Exeunt.
70
2.1 Enter on the walls a French Sergeant of a band, with two Sentinels.
SERGEANT Sirs, take your places and be vigilant.
If any noise or soldier you perceive
Near to the walls, by some apparent sign
Let us have knowledge at the court of guard.
1 SENTINEL Sergeant, you shall. Exit Sergeant.
Thus are poor servitors,
5
When others sleep upon their quiet beds,
Constrained to watch in darkness, rain and cold.
Enter TALBOT, BEDFORD and BURGUNDY, with three scaling ladders.
TALBOT Lord Regent, and redoubted Burgundy –
By whose approach the regions of Artois,
Wallon and Picardy are friends to us –
10
This happy night the Frenchmen are secure,
Having all day caroused and banqueted.
Embrace we then this opportunity
As fitting best to quittance their deceit,
Contrived by art and baleful sorcery.
15
BEDFORD
Coward of France! How much he wrongs his fame,
Despairing of his own arms’ fortitude,
To join with witches and the help of hell.
BURGUNDY Traitors have never other company.
But what’s that Puzel, whom they term so pure?
20
TALBOT A maid, they say.
BEDFORD A maid? And be so martial?
BURGUNDY
Pray God she prove not masculine ere long –
If underneath the standard of the French
She carry armour, as she hath begun.
TALBOT
Well, let them practise and converse with spirits.
25
God is our fortress, in whose conquering name
Let us resolve to scale their flinty bulwarks.
BEDFORD Ascend, brave Talbot. We will follow thee.
TALBOT Not altogether. Better far, I guess,
That we do make our entrance several ways:
30
That if it chance that one of us do fail
The other yet may rise against their force.
BEDFORD Agreed; I’ll to yond corner.
BURGUNDY And I to this.
TALBOT
And here will Talbot mount, or make his grave.
Now, Salisbury, for thee and for the right
35
Of English Henry, shall this night appear
How much in duty I am bound to both.
[The English cry, ‘ Saint George, a Talbot’
as they enter Orleans.]
1 SENTINEL
Arm, arm, the enemy doth make assault.
Exeunt French Sentinels.
The French leap over the walls in their shirts. Enter several ways the BASTARD, ALENÇON, REIGNIER, half ready and half unready.
ALENÇON How now, my lords? What, all unready so?
BASTARD Unready? Ay, and glad we scaped so well.<
br />
40
REIGNIER
’Twas time, I trow, to wake and leave our beds,
Hearing alarums at our chamber doors.
ALENÇON Of all exploits since first I followed arms,
Ne’er heard I of a warlike enterprise
More venturous or desperate than this.
45
BASTARD I think this Talbot be a fiend of hell.
REIGNIER If not of hell, the heavens sure favour him.
ALENÇON Here cometh Charles. I marvel how he sped.
Enter CHARLES and JOAN.
BASTARD Tut, holy Joan was his defensive guard.
CHARLES Is this thy cunning, thou deceitful dame?
50
Didst thou at first, to flatter us withal,
Make us partakers of a little gain,
That now our loss might be ten times so much?
JOAN Wherefore is Charles impatient with his friend?
At all times will you have my power alike?
55
Sleeping or waking, must I still prevail,
Or will you blame and lay the fault on me?
Improvident soldiers, had your watch been good,
This sudden mischief never could have fallen.
CHARLES Duke of Alençon, this was your default,
60
That, being captain of the watch tonight,
Did look no better to that weighty charge.
ALENÇON Had all your quarters been as safely kept
As that whereof I had the government,
We had not been thus shamefully surprised.
65
BASTARD Mine was secure.
REIGNIER And so was mine, my lord.
CHARLES And for myself, most part of all this night
Within her quarter and mine own precinct
I was employed in passing to and fro
About relieving of the sentinels;
70
Then how, or which way, should they first break in?
JOAN Question, my lords, no further of the case
‘How, or which way?’; ’tis sure they found some place
But weakly guarded, where the breach was made.
And now there rests no other shift but this –
75
To gather our soldiers, scattered and dispersed,
And lay new platforms to endamage them.
Alarum. Enter an English Soldier, crying, ‘A Talbot, a Talbot’;they fly, leaving their clothes behind.
SOLDIER I’ll be so bold to take what they have left.
The cry of ‘Talbot’ serves me for a sword –
For I have loaden me with many spoils,
80
Using no other weapon but his name. Exit.
2.2 Enter TALBOT, BEDFORD, BURGUNDY with a Captain, and soldiers carrying the body of Salisbury, their drums beating a dead march.
BEDFORD The day begins to break, and night is fled,
Whose pitchy mantle overveiled the earth.
Here sound retreat and cease our hot pursuit.
[They sound retreat.]
TALBOT Bring forth the body of old Salisbury,
And here advance it in the market-place,
5
The middle centre of this cursed town.
Now have I paid my vow unto his soul.
For every drop of blood was drawn from him
There hath at least five Frenchmen died tonight.
And that hereafter ages may behold
10
What ruin happened in revenge of him,
Within their chiefest temple I’ll erect
A tomb wherein his corpse shall be interred,
Upon the which, that everyone may read,
Shall be engraved the sack of Orleans,
15
The treacherous manner of his mournful death,
And what a terror he had been to France.
But, lords, in all our bloody massacre
I muse we met not with the Dolphin’s grace,
His new-come champion, virtuous Joan of Aire,
20
Nor any of his false confederates.
BEDFORD
’Tis thought, Lord Talbot, when the fight began,
Roused on the sudden from their drowsy beds,
They did, amongst the troops of armed men,
Leap o’er the walls for refuge in the field.
25
BURGUNDY Myself, as far as I could well discern
For smoke and dusky vapours of the night,
Am sure I scared the Dolphin and his trull,
When arm in arm they both came swiftly running,
Like to a pair of loving turtle-doves
30
That could not live asunder day or night.
After that things are set in order here
We’ll follow them with all the power we have.
Enter a Messenger.