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Henry VI, Pt. 1: Act V, Scene 4

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Henry VI, Pt. 1
Act V, Scene 4

Anjou. Camp of the Duke of York.

Cardinal Henry Beaufort

Cardinal Henry Beaufort

J. Parker, 1700s

  1. Enter York, Warwick, Shepherd, Pucelle guarded.

Richard, Duke of York

1
  1. Bring forth that sorceress condemn’d to burn.

Shepherd

2 - 6
  1. Ah, Joan, this kills thy father’s heart outright!
  2. Have I sought every country far and near,
  3. And now it is my chance to find thee out,
  4. Must I behold thy timeless cruel death?
  5. Ah, Joan, sweet daughter Joan, I’ll die with thee!

Joan de Pucelle

7 - 9
  1. Decrepit miser! Base ignoble wretch!
  2. I am descended of a gentler blood.
  3. Thou art no father nor no friend of mine.

Shepherd

10 - 13
  1. Out, out! My lords, and please you, ’tis not so,
  2. I did beget her, all the parish knows.
  3. Her mother liveth yet, can testify
  4. She was the first fruit of my bach’lorship.

Earl of Warwick

14
  1. Graceless, wilt thou deny thy parentage?

Richard, Duke of York

15 - 16
  1. This argues what her kind of life hath been,
  2. Wicked and vile, and so her death concludes.

Shepherd

17 - 20
  1. Fie, Joan, that thou wilt be so obstacle!
  2. God knows thou art a collop of my flesh,
  3. And for thy sake have I shed many a tear.
  4. Deny me not, I prithee, gentle Joan.

Joan de Pucelle

21 - 22
  1. Peasant, avaunt!—You have suborn’d this man
  2. Of purpose to obscure my noble birth.

Shepherd

23 - 33
  1. ’Tis true, I gave a noble to the priest
  2. The morn that I was wedded to her mother.
  3. Kneel down and take my blessing, good my girl.
  4. Wilt thou not stoop? Now cursed be the time
  5. Of thy nativity! I would the milk
  6. Thy mother gave thee, when thou suck’st her breast,
  7. Had been a little ratsbane for thy sake!
  8. Or else, when thou didst keep my lambs a-field,
  9. I wish some ravenous wolf had eaten thee!
  10. Dost thou deny thy father, cursed drab?
  11. O, burn her, burn her! Hanging is too good.
  1. Exit.

Richard, Duke of York

34 - 35
  1. Take her away, for she hath liv’d too long,
  2. To fill the world with vicious qualities.

Joan de Pucelle

36 - 53
  1. First let me tell you whom you have condemn’d:
  2. Not me begotten of a shepherd swain,
  3. But issued from the progeny of kings;
  4. Virtuous and holy, chosen from above,
  5. By inspiration of celestial grace,
  6. To work exceeding miracles on earth.
  7. I never had to do with wicked spirits.
  8. But you, that are polluted with your lusts,
  9. Stain’d with the guiltless blood of innocents,
  10. Corrupt and tainted with a thousand vices,
  11. Because you want the grace that others have,
  12. You judge it straight a thing impossible
  13. To compass wonders but by help of devils.
  14. No, misconceived! Joan of Aire hath been
  15. A virgin from her tender infancy,
  16. Chaste, and immaculate in very thought,
  17. Whose maiden blood, thus rigorously effus’d,
  18. Will cry for vengeance at the gates of heaven.

Richard, Duke of York

54
  1. Ay, ay; away with her to execution!

Earl of Warwick

55 - 58
  1. And hark ye, sirs: because she is a maid,
  2. Spare for no faggots, let there be enow.
  3. Place barrels of pitch upon the fatal stake,
  4. That so her torture may be shortened.

Joan de Pucelle

59 - 64
  1. Will nothing turn your unrelenting hearts?
  2. Then, Joan, discover thine infirmity,
  3. That warranteth by law to be thy privilege.
  4. I am with child, ye bloody homicides!
  5. Murder not then the fruit within my womb,
  6. Although ye hale me to a violent death.

Richard, Duke of York

65
  1. Now heaven forfend, the holy maid with child?

Earl of Warwick

66 - 67
  1. The greatest miracle that e’er ye wrought!
  2. Is all your strict preciseness come to this?

Richard, Duke of York

68 - 69
  1. She and the Dauphin have been juggling.
  2. I did imagine what would be her refuge.

Earl of Warwick

70 - 71
  1. Well, go to, we’ll have no bastards live,
  2. Especially since Charles must father it.

Joan de Pucelle

72 - 73
  1. You are deceiv’d, my child is none of his,
  2. It was Alanson that enjoy’d my love.

Richard, Duke of York

74 - 75
  1. Alanson, that notorious Machevile?
  2. It dies, and if it had a thousand lives.

Joan de Pucelle

76 - 78
  1. O, give me leave, I have deluded you,
  2. ’Twas neither Charles nor yet the duke I nam’d,
  3. But Reignier, King of Naples, that prevail’d.

Earl of Warwick

79
  1. A married man! That’s most intolerable.

Richard, Duke of York

80 - 81
  1. Why, here’s a girl! I think she knows not well
  2. (There were so many) whom she may accuse.

Earl of Warwick

82
  1. It’s sign she hath been liberal and free.

Richard, Duke of York

83 - 85
  1. And yet forsooth she is a virgin pure.
  2. Strumpet, thy words condemn thy brat and thee.
  3. Use no entreaty, for it is in vain.

Joan de Pucelle

86 - 91
  1. Then lead me hence; with whom I leave my curse:
  2. May never glorious sun reflex his beams
  3. Upon the country where you make abode;
  4. But darkness and the gloomy shade of death
  5. Environ you, till mischief and despair
  6. Drive you to break your necks or hang yourselves!
  1. Exit guarded.
Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare

Bring forth that sorceress condemn’d to burn.

From: Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare

Mary Cowden Clarke, Charles Cowden Clarke, 1870

Richard, Duke of York

92 - 93
  1. Break thou in pieces and consume to ashes,
  2. Thou foul accursed minister of hell!
  1. Enter Winchester, now Cardinal Beauford, attended.

Cardinal Beauford

94 - 101
  1. Lord Regent, I do greet your Excellence
  2. With letters of commission from the King.
  3. For know, my lords, the states of Christendom,
  4. Mov’d with remorse of these outrageous broils,
  5. Have earnestly implor’d a general peace
  6. Betwixt our nation and the aspiring French;
  7. And here at hand the Dauphin and his train
  8. Approacheth, to confer about some matter.

Richard, Duke of York

102 - 112
  1. Is all our travail turn’d to this effect?
  2. After the slaughter of so many peers,
  3. So many captains, gentlemen, and soldiers,
  4. That in this quarrel have been overthrown
  5. And sold their bodies for their country’s benefit,
  6. Shall we at last conclude effeminate peace?
  7. Have we not lost most part of all the towns,
  8. By treason, falsehood, and by treachery,
  9. Our great progenitors had conquered?
  10. O Warwick, Warwick, I foresee with grief
  11. The utter loss of all the realm of France.

Earl of Warwick

113 - 115
  1. Be patient, York. If we conclude a peace,
  2. It shall be with such strict and severe covenants,
  3. As little shall the Frenchmen gain thereby.
  1. Enter Charles, Alanson, Bastard, Reignier, and others.

Dauphin of France

116 - 119
  1. Since, lords of England, it is thus agreed
  2. That peaceful truce shall be proclaim’d in France,
  3. We come to be informed by yourselves
  4. What the conditions of that league must be.

Richard, Duke of York

120 - 122
  1. Speak, Winchester, for boiling choler chokes
  2. The hollow passage of my poison’d voice,
  3. By sight of these our baleful enemies.

Cardinal Beauford

123 - 132
  1. Charles, and the rest, it is enacted thus:
  2. That, in regard King Henry gives consent,
  3. Of mere compassion and of lenity,
  4. To ease your country of distressful war
  5. And suffer you to breathe in fruitful peace,
  6. You shall become true liegemen to his crown.
  7. And, Charles, upon condition thou wilt swear
  8. To pay him tribute and submit thyself,
  9. Thou shalt be plac’d as viceroy under him,
  10. And still enjoy thy regal dignity.

Duke of Alanson

133 - 137
  1. Must he be then as shadow of himself?
  2. Adorn his temples with a coronet,
  3. And yet, in substance and authority,
  4. Retain but privilege of a private man?
  5. This proffer is absurd and reasonless.

Dauphin of France

138 - 146
  1. ’Tis known already that I am possess’d
  2. With more than half the Gallian territories,
  3. And therein reverenc’d for their lawful king.
  4. Shall I, for lucre of the rest unvanquish’d,
  5. Detract so much from that prerogative
  6. As to be call’d but viceroy of the whole?
  7. No, lord ambassador, I’ll rather keep
  8. That which I have than, coveting for more,
  9. Be cast from possibility of all.

Richard, Duke of York

147 - 154
  1. Insulting Charles, hast thou by secret means
  2. Us’d intercession to obtain a league,
  3. And, now the matter grows to compromise,
  4. Stand’st thou aloof upon comparison?
  5. Either accept the title thou usurp’st,
  6. Of benefit proceeding from our king,
  7. And not of any challenge of desert,
  8. Or we will plague thee with incessant wars.

Duke of Anjou

155 - 158
  1. Aside to Charles.
  2. My lord, you do not well in obstinacy
  3. To cavil in the course of this contract.
  4. If once it be neglected, ten to one
  5. We shall not find like opportunity.

Duke of Alanson

159 - 164
  1. Aside to Charles.
  2. To say the truth, it is your policy
  3. To save your subjects from such massacre
  4. And ruthless slaughters as are daily seen
  5. By our proceeding in hostility,
  6. And therefore take this compact of a truce,
  7. Although you break it when your pleasure serves.

Earl of Warwick

165
  1. How say’st thou, Charles? Shall our condition stand?

Dauphin of France

166 - 168
  1. It shall;
  2. Only reserv’d, you claim no interest
  3. In any of our towns of garrison.

Richard, Duke of York

169 - 175
  1. Then swear allegiance to his Majesty,
  2. As thou art knight, never to disobey
  3. Nor be rebellious to the crown of England.
  4. Thou, nor thy nobles, to the crown of England.
  5. Charles and his party give tokens of fealty.
  6. So, now dismiss your army when ye please;
  7. Hang up your ensigns, let your drums be still,
  8. For here we entertain a solemn peace.
  1. Exeunt.
Joan de Pucelle

Joan de Pucelle

Better known in the English speaking world as Joan of Arc

circa 1475

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