LUCY Too late comes rescue: he is ta'en or slain.
For fly he could not, if he would have fled,
And fly would Talbot never, though44 he might.
SOMERSET If he be dead, brave Talbot, then adieu.
LUCY His fame lives in the world, his shame in you.
Exeunt
[Act 4 Scene 5]
running scene 17
Enter Talbot and his son [John]
TALBOT O young John Talbot, I did send for thee
To tutor thee in stratagems of war,
That Talbot's name might be in thee revived
When sapless age and weak unable limbs
Should bring thy father to his drooping5 chair.
But -- O malignant and ill-boding6 stars --
Now thou art come unto a feast of death,
A terrible and unavoided8 danger:
Therefore, dear boy, mount on my swiftest horse,
And I'll direct thee how thou shalt escape
By sudden11 flight. Come, dally not, be gone.
JOHN Is my name Talbot? And am I your son?
And shall I fly? O, if you love my mother,
Dishonour not her honourable name,
To make a bastard and a slave of me:
The world will say, he is not Talbot's blood,
That basely fled when noble Talbot stood.
TALBOT Fly to revenge my death if I be slain.
JOHN He that flies so will ne'er return again.
TALBOT If we both stay, we both are sure to die.
JOHN Then let me stay and, father, do you fly:
Your loss is great, so your regard22 should be;
My worth unknown, no loss is known in me.
Upon my death the French can little boast;
In yours they will, in you all hopes are lost.
Flight cannot stain the honour you have won,
But mine it will, that no exploit27 have done.
You fled for vantage28, everyone will swear:
But if I bow29, they'll say it was for fear.
There is no hope that ever I will stay,
If the first hour I shrink and run away:
Here on my knee I beg mortality32,
Rather than life preserved with infamy.
TALBOT Shall all thy mother's hopes lie in one tomb?
JOHN Ay, rather than I'll shame my mother's womb.
TALBOT Upon my blessing I command thee go.
JOHN To fight I will, but not to fly the foe.
TALBOT Part of thy father may be saved in thee.
JOHN No part of him but will be shame in me.
TALBOT Thou never hadst renown, nor canst not lose it.
JOHN Yes, your renowned name: shall flight abuse41 it?
TALBOT Thy father's charge42 shall clear thee from that stain.
JOHN You cannot witness for me, being slain.
If death be so apparent44, then both fly.
TALBOT And leave my followers here to fight and die?
My age46 was never tainted with such shame.
JOHN And shall my youth be guilty of such blame?
No more can I be severed from your side,
Than can yourself yourself in twain divide:
Stay, go, do what you will, the like do I;
For live I will not, if my father die.
TALBOT Then here I take my leave of thee, fair son,
Born to eclipse53 thy life this afternoon:
Come, side by side, together live and die,
And soul with soul from France to heaven fly.
Exeunt
[Act 4 Scene 6]
running scene 17 continues
Alarum: excursions, wherein Talbot's son [John] is hemmed about [by French soldiers], and Talbot rescues him
TALBOT Saint George and victory! Fight, soldiers, fight:
The Regent2 hath with Talbot broke his word
And left us to the rage of France his3 sword.
Where is John Talbot? Pause, and take thy breath:
I gave thee life and rescued thee from death.
JOHN O, twice my father, twice am I thy son:
The life thou gav'st me first was lost and done,
Till with thy warlike sword, despite of fate,
To my determined time thou gav'st new date9.
TALBOT When from the dauphin's crest10 thy sword struck fire,
It warmed thy father's heart with proud desire
Of bold-faced victory. Then leaden age,
Quickened with youthful spleen13 and warlike rage,
Beat down Alencon, Orleans, Burgundy,
And from the pride of Gallia15 rescued thee.
The ireful16 bastard Orleans, that drew blood
From thee, my boy, and had the maidenhood17
Of thy first fight, I soon encountered,
And interchanging blows I quickly shed
Some of his bastard blood, and in disgrace20
Bespoke him thus: 'Contaminated, base
And misbegotten22 blood I spill of thine,
Mean23 and right poor, for that pure blood of mine
Which thou didst force from Talbot, my brave boy.'
Here, purposing25 the Bastard to destroy,
Came in strong rescue. Speak, thy father's care:
Art thou not weary, John? How dost thou fare?
Wilt thou yet leave the battle, boy, and fly,
Now thou art sealed29 the son of chivalry?
Fly, to revenge my death when I am dead:
The help of one stands me in little stead.
O, too much folly is it, well I wot32,
To hazard all our lives in one small boat.
If I today die not with Frenchmen's rage,
Tomorrow I shall die with mickle35 age.
By me they nothing gain, and if I stay
'Tis but the short'ning of my life one day.
In thee thy mother dies, our household's name,
My death's revenge, thy youth, and England's fame:
All these and more we hazard by thy stay;
All these are saved if thou wilt fly away.
JOHN The sword of Orleans hath not made me smart42:
These words of yours draw life-blood from my heart.
On that advantage44, bought with such a shame,
To save a paltry life and slay bright fame,
Before young Talbot from old Talbot fly,
The47 coward horse that bears me fall and die:
And like48 me to the peasant boys of France,
To be shame's scorn and subject of mischance49.
Surely, by all the glory you have won,
An if I fly, I am not Talbot's son.
Then talk no more of flight, it is no boot52:
If son to Talbot, die at Talbot's foot.
TALBOT Then follow thou thy desp'rate sire of Crete,
Thou Icarus55: thy life to me is sweet:
If thou wilt fight, fight by thy father's side,
And commendable proved, let's die in pride57.
Exeunt
[Act 4 Scene 7]
running scene 17 continues
Alarum. Excursions. Enter old Talbot led [by a Servant]
TALBOT Where is my other life? Mine own is gone.
O, where's young Talbot? Where is valiant John?
Triumphant death, smeared with captivity3,
Young Talbot's valour makes me smile at thee.
When he perceived me shrink and on my knee,
His bloody sword he brandished over me,
And like a hungry lion did commence
Rough deeds of rage and stern impatience8:
But when my angry guardant9 stood alone,
Tend'ring my ruin and assailed of10 none,
Dizzy-eyed11 fury and great rage of heart
Suddenly made him from my side to start
Into the clust'ring13 battle of the French:
And in that sea of blood my boy did drench14
His over-mounting15 spirit, and there died,
; My Icarus, my blossom, in his pride.
SERVANT O my dear lord, lo17 where your son is borne.
Enter [Soldiers] with [the body of] John Talbot borne
TALBOT Thou antic18 death, which laugh'st us here to scorn,
Anon19, from thy insulting tyranny,
Coupled in bonds of perpetuity,
Two Talbots, winged through the lither21 sky,
In thy despite shall scape mortality22.
To John
O thou whose wounds become hard-favoured23 death,
Speak to thy father ere thou yield thy breath.
Brave25 death by speaking, whether he will or no:
Imagine him a Frenchman and thy foe.
Poor boy, he smiles, methinks, as who27 should say,
'Had death been French, then death had died today.'
Come, come, and lay him in his father's arms:
My spirit can no longer bear these harms.
Soldiers, adieu: I have what I would have,
Now my old arms are young John Talbot's grave.
Dies
Enter Charles, Alencon, Burgundy, Bastard [of Orleans] and [Joan la] Pucelle
CHARLES Had York and Somerset brought rescue in,
We should have found a bloody day of this.
BASTARD How the young whelp of Talbot's, raging wood35,
Did flesh his puny36 sword in Frenchmen's blood.
PUCELLE Once I encountered him, and thus I said:
'Thou maiden38 youth, be vanquished by a maid.'
But with a proud majestical high scorn,
He answered thus: 'Young Talbot was not born
To be the pillage41 of a giglot wench':
So rushing in the bowels42 of the French,
He left me proudly, as unworthy fight.
BURGUNDY Doubtless he would have made a noble knight:
See where he lies inhearsed45 in the arms
Of the most bloody nurser of his harms46.
BASTARD Hew them to pieces, hack their bones asunder
Whose life was England's glory, Gallia's wonder48.
CHARLES O no, forbear: for that which we have fled49
During the life, let us not wrong it dead.
Enter Lucy [with a French herald]
LUCY Herald, conduct me to the dauphin's tent,
To know who hath obtained the glory of the day.
CHARLES On what submissive message53 art thou sent?
LUCY Submission, dauphin? 'Tis a mere54 French word:
We English warriors wot55 not what it means.
I come to know what prisoners thou hast ta'en
And to survey57 the bodies of the dead.
CHARLES For prisoners ask'st thou? Hell our prison is.
But tell me whom thou seek'st?
LUCY But where's the great Alcides of the field,
Valiant Lord Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury,
Created for his rare success in arms
Great Earl of Washford, Waterford, and Valence,
Lord Talbot of Goodrich and Urchinfield,
Lord Strange of Blackmere, Lord Verdun of Alton,
Lord Cromwell of Wingfield, Lord Furnival of Sheffield,
The thrice victorious lord of Falconbridge,
Knight of the noble order of Saint George,
Worthy Saint Michael and the Golden Fleece,
Great Marshal to Henry the Sixth
Of all his wars within the realm of France?71
PUCELLE Here is a silly stately style72 indeed:
The Turk73, that two-and-fifty kingdoms hath,
Writes not so tedious a style as this.
Him that thou magnifi'st with all these titles,
Stinking and fly-blown76 lies here at our feet.
LUCY Is Talbot slain, the Frenchmen's only scourge,
Your kingdom's terror and black Nemesis78?
O were mine eyeballs into bullets turned,
That I in rage might shoot them at your faces!
O, that I could but call these dead to life!
It were enough to fright the realm of France.
Were but his picture left amongst you here,
It would amaze84 the proudest of you all.
Give me their bodies, that I may bear them hence
And give them burial as beseems86 their worth.
PUCELLE I think this upstart is old Talbot's ghost,
He speaks with such a proud commanding spirit:
For God's sake let him have them: to keep them here,
They would but stink, and putrefy the air.
CHARLES Go take their bodies hence.
LUCY I'll bear them hence: but from their ashes shall be reared
A phoenix93 that shall make all France afeard.
CHARLES So94 we be rid of them, do with them what thou wilt.
And now to Paris in this conquering vein:
All will be ours, now bloody Talbot's slain.
Exeunt
Act 5 Scene 1
running scene 18
Sennet. Enter King [Henry VI], Gloucester, and Exeter [attended]
KING HENRY VI Have you perused the letters from the Pope,
The Emperor, and the Earl of Armagnac?
GLOUCESTER I have, my lord, and their intent is this:
They humbly sue unto4 your excellence
To have a godly peace concluded of5
Between the realms of England and of France.
KING HENRY VI How doth your grace affect their motion7?
GLOUCESTER Well, my good lord, and as the only means
To stop effusion of our Christian blood
And stablish10 quietness on every side.
KING HENRY VI Ay, marry, uncle, for I always thought
It was both impious and unnatural
That such immanity13 and bloody strife
Should reign among professors of one faith.
GLOUCESTER Beside, my lord, the sooner to effect
And surer bind this knot of amity,
The Earl of Armagnac, near knit17 to Charles,
A man of great authority in France,
Proffers his only daughter to your grace
In marriage, with a large and sumptuous dowry.
KING HENRY VI Marriage, uncle? Alas, my years are young21:
And fitter is my study and my books
Than wanton23 dalliance with a paramour.
Yet call th'ambassadors, and as you please,
So let them have their answers every one:
Exit Attendant
I shall be well content with any choice
Tends to God's glory and my country's weal27.
Enter Winchester [in Cardinal's habit], and three Ambassadors [one a Papal legate]
Aside
EXETER What, is my lord of Winchester installed,
And called unto a cardinal's degree29?
Then I perceive that will be verified30
Henry the Fifth did sometime31 prophesy:
'If once he come to be a cardinal,
He'll make his cap33 co-equal with the crown.'
KING HENRY VI My lords ambassadors, your several34 suits
Have been considered and debated on:
Your purpose is both good and reasonable:
And therefore are we certainly resolved
To draw38 conditions of a friendly peace,
Which by my lord of Winchester we mean
Shall be transported presently40 to France.
To Armagnac ambassador
GLOUCESTER And for the proffer of my lord your master,
I have informed his highness so at large42
As43 liking of the lady's virtuous gifts,
Her beauty and the value of her dower,
He doth intend she shall be England's queen.
KING HENRY VI In argument46 and proof of which contract,
Bear her this jewel, pledge of my affection.
And so, my Lord Protector, see them guarded
And safely brought to Dover, wherein shipped49
Commit them to the fortune of the sea.
Exeunt [all but Winchester and Legate]
WINCHESTER Stay, my lord legate, you shall first receive
The sum of money which I promised
Should be delivered to his holiness
For clothing me in these grave ornaments54.
LEGATE I will attend upon your lordship's leisure.
[Exit]
WINCHESTER Now Winchester will not submit, I trow56,
Or be inferior to the proudest peer:
Humphrey of Gloucester, thou shalt well perceive
That neither in birth or for authority,
The bishop will be overborne by thee:
I'll either make thee stoop and bend thy knee,
Or sack this country with a mutiny62.
Exit
Act 5 Scene 2
running scene 19
Enter Charles, Burgundy, Alencon, Bastard [of Orleans], Reignier and Joan [la Pucelle]
CHARLES These news, my lords, may cheer our drooping spirits:
'Tis said the stout2 Parisians do revolt
And turn again unto the warlike French.
ALENCON Then march to Paris, royal Charles of France,
And keep not back your powers in dalliance5.
PUCELLE Peace be amongst them, if they turn to us,
Else ruin combat with7 their palaces.
Enter Scout
SCOUT Success unto our valiant general,
And happiness to his accomplices9.
CHARLES What tidings send our scouts? I prithee speak.
SCOUT The English army that divided was
Into two parties, is now conjoined in one,
And means to give you battle presently.
CHARLES Somewhat too sudden, sirs, the warning is,
But we will presently provide15 for them.
BURGUNDY I trust the ghost of Talbot is not there:
Now he is gone, my lord, you need not fear.
PUCELLE Of all base passions, fear is most accursed.