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Henry VI, Pt. 1: Act IV, Scene 7

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Henry VI, Pt. 1
Act IV, Scene 7

Another part of the battlefield.

The death of Lord Talbot and his son, John

The death of Lord Talbot and his son, John

Alexandre Bida, 19th century

  1. Alarum. Excursions. Enter old Talbot led by his Servant.

Lord Talbot

1 - 16
  1. Where is my other life? Mine own is gone.
  2. O, where’s young Talbot? Where is valiant John?
  3. Triumphant Death, smear’d with captivity,
  4. Young Talbot’s valor makes me smile at thee.
  5. When he perceiv’d me shrink and on my knee,
  6. His bloody sword he brandish’d over me,
  7. And like a hungry lion did commence
  8. Rough deeds of rage and stern impatience;
  9. But when my angry guardant stood alone,
  10. Tend’ring my ruin and assail’d of none,
  11. Dizzy-ey’d fury and great rage of heart
  12. Suddenly made him from my side to start
  13. Into the clust’ring battle of the French;
  14. And in that sea of blood my boy did drench
  15. His overmounting spirit; and there died
  16. My Icarus, my blossom, in his pride.
  1. Enter Soldiers with John Talbot borne.

Talbot’s Servant

17
  1. O my dear lord, lo where your son is borne!

Lord Talbot

18 - 32
  1. Thou antic Death, which laugh’st us here to scorn,
  2. Anon, from thy insulting tyranny,
  3. Coupled in bonds of perpetuity,
  4. Two Talbots, winged through the lither sky,
  5. In thy despite shall scape mortality.
  6. O thou whose wounds become hard-favored Death,
  7. Speak to thy father ere thou yield thy breath!
  8. Brave Death by speaking, whether he will or no;
  9. Imagine him a Frenchman, and thy foe.
  10. Poor boy, he smiles, methinks, as who should say,
  11. Had Death been French, then Death had died today.
  12. Come, come, and lay him in his father’s arms,
  13. My spirit can no longer bear these harms.
  14. Soldiers, adieu! I have what I would have,
  15. Now my old arms are young John Talbot’s grave.
  1. Dies.
  1. Enter Charles, Alanson, Burgundy, Bastard, and Pucelle with
  2. forces.

Dauphin of France

33 - 34
  1. Had York and Somerset brought rescue in,
  2. We should have found a bloody day of this.

Bastard of Orléans

35 - 36
  1. How the young whelp of Talbot’s, raging wood,
  2. Did flesh his puny sword in Frenchmen’s blood!

Joan de Pucelle

37 - 43
  1. Once I encount’red him, and thus I said:
  2. “Thou maiden youth, be vanquish’d by a maid!”
  3. But with a proud majestical high scorn
  4. He answer’d thus: “Young Talbot was not born
  5. To be the pillage of a giglot wench.”
  6. So rushing in the bowels of the French,
  7. He left me proudly, as unworthy fight.

Duke of Burgundy

44 - 46
  1. Doubtless he would have made a noble knight.
  2. See where he lies inhearsed in the arms
  3. Of the most bloody nurser of his harms!

Bastard of Orléans

47 - 48
  1. Hew them to pieces, hack their bones asunder,
  2. Whose life was England’s glory, Gallia’s wonder.

Dauphin of France

49 - 50
  1. O no, forbear! For that which we have fled
  2. During the life, let us not wrong it dead.
  1. Enter Lucy attended, Herald of the French preceding.

Sir William Lucy

51 - 52
  1. Herald, conduct me to the Dauphin’s tent,
  2. To know who hath obtain’d the glory of the day.
Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc

1901

Dauphin of France

53
  1. On what submissive message art thou sent?

Sir William Lucy

54 - 57
  1. Submission, Dauphin? ’Tis a mere French word;
  2. We English warriors wot not what it means.
  3. I come to know what prisoners thou hast ta’en,
  4. And to survey the bodies of the dead.

Dauphin of France

58 - 59
  1. For prisoners ask’st thou? Hell our prison is.
  2. But tell me whom thou seek’st.

Sir William Lucy

60 - 71
  1. But where’s the great Alcides of the field,
  2. Valiant Lord Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury,
  3. Created, for his rare success in arms,
  4. Great Earl of Washford, Waterford, and Valence,
  5. Lord Talbot of Goodrig and Urchinfield,
  6. Lord Strange of Blackmere, Lord Verdon of Alton,
  7. Lord Cromwell of Wingfield, Lord Furnival of Sheffield,
  8. The thrice-victorious Lord of Faulconbridge,
  9. Knight of the noble Order of Saint George,
  10. Worthy Saint Michael, and the Golden Fleece,
  11. Great marshal to Henry the Sixth
  12. Of all his wars within the realm of France?

Joan de Pucelle

72 - 76
  1. Here’s a silly stately style indeed!
  2. The Turk, that two and fifty kingdoms hath,
  3. Writes not so tedious a style as this.
  4. Him that thou magnifi’st with all these titles
  5. Stinking and fly-blown lies here at our feet.

Sir William Lucy

77 - 86
  1. Is Talbot slain, the Frenchmen’s only scourge,
  2. Your kingdom’s terror and black Nemesis?
  3. O, were mine eyeballs into bullets turn’d,
  4. That I in rage might shoot them at your faces!
  5. O, that I could but call these dead to life,
  6. It were enough to fright the realm of France!
  7. Were but his picture left amongst you here,
  8. It would amaze the proudest of you all.
  9. Give me their bodies, that I may bear them hence
  10. And give them burial as beseems their worth.

Joan de Pucelle

87 - 90
  1. I think this upstart is old Talbot’s ghost,
  2. He speaks with such a proud commanding spirit.
  3. For God’s sake let him have ’em; to keep them here,
  4. They would but stink, and putrefy the air.

Dauphin of France

91
  1. Go take their bodies hence.

Sir William Lucy

92 - 93
  1. I’ll bear them hence; but from their ashes shall be rear’d
  2. A phoenix that shall make all France afeard.

Dauphin of France

94 - 96
  1. So we be rid of them, do with ’em what thou wilt.
  2. And now to Paris in this conquering vein,
  3. All will be ours, now bloody Talbot’s slain.
  1. Exeunt.
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