France. Before Rouen.
[Enter JOAN LA PUCELLE disguised, with
four Soldiers with sacks upon their backs]
JOAN LA PUCELLE
These are the city gates, the gates of Rouen,
Through which our policy must make a breach:
Take heed, be wary how you place your words;
Talk like the vulgar sort of market men
That come to gather money for their corn.
If we have entrance, as I hope we shall,
And that we find the slothful watch but weak,
I’ll by a sign give notice to our friends,
That Charles the Dauphin may encounter them.
First Soldier Our sacks shall be a mean to sack the city,
And we be lords and rulers over Rouen;
Therefore we’ll knock.
[Knocks]
Watch [Within] Qui est la?
JOAN LA PUCELLE Paysans, pauvres gens de France;
Poor market folks that come to sell their corn.
Watch Enter, go in; the market bell is rung.
JOAN LA PUCELLE Now, Rouen,
I’ll shake thy bulwarks to the ground.
[Exeunt]
[Enter CHARLES, the BASTARD OF ORLEANS,
ALENCON, REIGNIER, and forces]
CHARLES Saint Denis bless this happy stratagem!
And once again we’ll sleep secure in Rouen.
BASTARD OF ORLEANS
Now she is there, how will she specify
Where is the best and safest passage in?
REIGNIER By thrusting out a torch from yonder tower;
Which, once discern’d, shows that her meaning is,
No way to that, for weakness, which she enter’d.
[Enter JOAN LA PUCELLE on the top,
thrusting out a torch burning]
JOAN LA PUCELLE Behold, this is the happy wedding torch
That joineth Rouen unto her countrymen,
But burning fatal to the Talbotites!
[Exit]
REIGNIER Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends;
Enter, and cry ‘The Dauphin!’ presently,
And then do execution on the watch.
[Alarum. Exeunt]
[An alarum. Enter TALBOT in an excursion]
TALBOT France, thou shalt rue this treason with thy tears,
If Talbot but survive thy treachery.
Pucelle, that witch, that damned sorceress,
Hath wrought this hellish mischief unawares,
That hardly we escaped the pride of France.
[Exit]
[An alarum: excursions. BEDFORD, brought in sick
in a chair. Enter TALBOT and BURGUNDY without:
within JOAN LA PUCELLE, CHARLES, BASTARD OF
ORLEANS, ALENCON, and REIGNIER, on the walls]
JOAN LA PUCELLE
Good morrow, gallants! want ye corn for bread?
I think the Duke of Burgundy will fast
Before he’ll buy again at such a rate…
BURGUNDY Scoff on, vile fiend and shameless courtezan!
I trust ere long to choke thee with thine own
And make thee curse the harvest of that corn.
CHARLES Your grace may starve perhaps before that time.
BEDFORD O, let no words, but deeds, revenge this treason!
JOAN LA PUCELLE
What will you do, good grey-beard? break a lance,
And run a tilt at death within a chair?
TALBOT Foul fiend of France, and hag of all despite,
Encompass’d with thy lustful paramours!
Becomes it thee to taunt his valiant age
And twit with cowardice a man half dead?
Damsel, I’ll have a bout with you again,
Or else let Talbot perish with this shame.
JOAN LA PUCELLE
Are ye so hot, sir? yet, Pucelle, hold thy peace!
TALBOT Dare ye come forth and meet us in the field?
JOAN LA PUCELLE
Belike your lordship takes us then for fools,
To try if that our own be ours or no.
TALBOT I speak not to that railing Hecate,
But unto thee, Alencon, and the rest;
Will ye, like soldiers, come and fight it out?
ALENCON Signior, no.
TALBOT Signior, hang! base muleters of France!
Like peasant foot-boys do they keep the walls
And dare not take up arms like gentlemen.
JOAN LA PUCELLE Away, captains! let’s get us from the walls;
For Talbot means no goodness by his looks.
God be wi’ you, my lord! we came but to tell you
That we are here.
[Exeunt from the walls]
TALBOT And there will we be too, ere it be long,
Or else reproach be Talbot’s greatest fame!
Vow, Burgundy, by honour of thy house,
Prick’d on by public wrongs sustain’d in France,
Either to get the town again or die:
And I, as sure as English Henry lives
And as his father here was conqueror,
As sure as in this late-betrayed town
Great Coeur-de-lion’s heart was buried,
So sure I swear to get the town or die.
BURGUNDY My vows are equal partners with thy vows.
TALBOT But, ere we go, regard this dying prince,
The valiant Duke of Bedford. Come, my lord,
We will bestow you in some better place,
Fitter for sickness and for crazy age.
BEDFORD Lord Talbot, do not so dishonour me:
Here will I sit before the walls of Rouen
And will be partner of your weal or woe.
BURGUNDY Courageous Bedford,
let us now persuade you.
BEDFORD Not to be gone from hence; for once I read
That stout Pendragon in his litter sick
Came to the field and vanquished his foes:
Methinks I should revive the soldiers’ hearts,
Because I ever found them as myself.
TALBOT Undaunted spirit in a dying breast!
Then be it so: heavens keep old Bedford safe!
And now no more ado, brave Burgundy,
But gather we our forces out of hand
And set upon our boasting enemy.
[Exeunt all but BEDFORD and Attendants]
[An alarum: excursions. Enter
FASTOLFE and a Captain]
Captain Whither away, Sir John Fastolfe, in such haste?
FASTOLFE Whither away! to save myself by flight:
We are like to have the overthrow again.
Captain What! will you fly, and leave Lord Talbot?
FASTOLFE Ay,
All the Talbots in the world, to save my life!
[Exit]
Captain Cowardly knight! ill fortune follow thee!
[Exit]
[Retreat: excursions. JOAN LA PUCELLE,
ALENCON, and CHARLES fly]
BEDFORD Now, quiet soul, depart when heaven please,
For I have seen our enemies’ overthrow.
What is the trust or strength of foolish man?
They that of late were daring with their scoffs
Are glad and fain by flight to save themselves.
[BEDFORD dies, and is carried in by two in his chair]
[An alarum. Re-enter TALBOT, BURGUNDY, and the rest]
TALBOT Lost, and recover’d in a day again!
This is a double honour, Burgundy:
Yet heavens have glory for this victory!
BURGUNDY Warlike and martial Talbot, Burgundy
Enshrines thee in his heart and there erects
Thy noble deeds as valour’s monuments.
The noble Duke of Bedford is deceased…
TALBOT A braver soldier never couched lance,
A gentler heart did never sway in court;
But kings and mightiest potentates must die,
For that’s the end of human misery.
But see his exequies fulfill’d in Rouen..
Now will we take some order in the town,
Placing therein some expert officers,
And then depart to Paris to the king,
For there young Henry with his nobles lie.
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