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Henry VI, Part 1 - Act 4, scene 7
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Henry VI, Part 1 - Act 4, scene 7Act 4, scene 7
⌜Scene 7⌝
Synopsis:
Talbot, holding his dead son, dies. Sir William Lucy comes to claim their bodies from the victorious French.
Alarum. Excursions. Enter old Talbotled ⌜by a Servant.⌝
TALBOT
2049 Where is my other life? Mine own is gone.
2050 O, where’s young Talbot? Where is valiant John?
2051 Triumphant Death, smeared with captivity,
2052 Young Talbot’s valor makes me smile at thee.
2053 5 When he perceived me shrink and on my knee,
2054 His bloody sword he brandished over me,
2055 And like a hungry lion did commence
2056 Rough deeds of rage and stern impatience;
2057 But when my angry guardant stood alone,
2058 10 Tend’ring my ruin and assailed of none,
2059 Dizzy-eyed fury and great rage of heart
2060 Suddenly made him from my side to start
2061 Into the clust’ring battle of the French;
2062 And in that sea of blood, my boy did drench
2063 15 His over-mounting spirit; and there died
2064 My Icarus, my blossom, in his pride.
Enter ⌜Soldiers⌝ with John Talbot, borne.
SERVINGMAN
2065 O, my dear lord, lo where your son is borne!
TALBOT
2066 Thou antic Death, which laugh’st us here to scorn,
2067 Anon from thy insulting tyranny,
2068 20 Coupled in bonds of perpetuity,
2069 Two Talbots, wingèd through the lither sky,
2070 In thy despite shall scape mortality.—
2071 O, thou whose wounds become hard-favored Death,
2072 Speak to thy father ere thou yield thy breath!
2073 25 Brave Death by speaking, whither he will or no.
2074 Imagine him a Frenchman and thy foe.—
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2075
Poor boy, he smiles, methinks, as who should say2076 “Had Death been French, then Death had died
2077 today.”—
2078 30 Come, come, and lay him in his father’s arms;
2079 My spirit can no longer bear these harms.
2080 Soldiers, adieu! I have what I would have,
2081 Now my old arms are young John Talbot’s grave.
Dies.
⌜Alarums. Soldiers exit.⌝
Enter Charles, Alanson, Burgundy, Bastard,
and Pucelle, ⌜with Forces.⌝
CHARLES
2082 Had York and Somerset brought rescue in,
2083 35 We should have found a bloody day of this.
BASTARD
2084 How the young whelp of Talbot’s, raging wood,
2085 Did flesh his puny sword in Frenchmen’s blood!
PUCELLE
2086 Once I encountered him, and thus I said:
2087 “Thou maiden youth, be vanquished by a maid.”
2088 40 But with a proud majestical high scorn
2089 He answered thus: “Young Talbot was not born
2090 To be the pillage of a giglot wench.”
2091 So, rushing in the bowels of the French,
2092 He left me proudly, as unworthy fight.
BURGUNDY
2093 45 Doubtless he would have made a noble knight.
2094 See where he lies inhearsèd in the arms
2095 Of the most bloody nurser of his harms.
BASTARD
2096 Hew them to pieces, hack their bones asunder,
2097 Whose life was England’s glory, Gallia’s wonder.
CHARLES
2098 50 O, no, forbear! For that which we have fled
2099 During the life, let us not wrong it dead.
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183
Enter Lucy ⌜with Attendants and a French Herald.⌝LUCY
2100 Herald, conduct me to the Dauphin’s tent,
2101 To know who hath obtained the glory of the day.
CHARLES
2102 On what submissive message art thou sent?
LUCY
2103 55 Submission, dauphin? ’Tis a mere French word.
2104 We English warriors wot not what it means.
2105 I come to know what prisoners thou hast ta’en,
2106 And to survey the bodies of the dead.
CHARLES
2107 For prisoners askst thou? Hell our prison is.
2108 60 But tell me whom thou seek’st.
LUCY
2109 But where’s the great Alcides of the field,
2110 Valiant Lord Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury,
2111 Created for his rare success in arms
2112 Great Earl of Washford, Waterford, and Valence,
2113 65 Lord Talbot of Goodrich and Urchinfield,
2114 Lord Strange of Blackmere, Lord Verdon of Alton,
2115 Lord Cromwell of Wingfield, Lord Furnival of
2116 Sheffield,
2117 The thrice victorious Lord of Falconbridge,
2118 70 Knight of the noble Order of Saint George,
2119 Worthy Saint Michael, and the Golden Fleece,
2120 Great Marshal to Henry the Sixth
2121 Of all his wars within the realm of France?
PUCELLE
2122 Here’s a silly stately style indeed.
2123 75 The Turk, that two-and-fifty kingdoms hath,
2124 Writes not so tedious a style as this.
2125 Him that thou magnifi’st with all these titles
2126 Stinking and flyblown lies here at our feet.
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185
LUCY 2127 Is Talbot slain, the Frenchmen’s only scourge,
2128 80 Your kingdom’s terror and black Nemesis?
2129 O, were mine eyeballs into bullets turned
2130 That I in rage might shoot them at your faces!
2131 O, that I could but call these dead to life,
2132 It were enough to fright the realm of France.
2133 85 Were but his picture left amongst you here,
2134 It would amaze the proudest of you all.
2135 Give me their bodies, that I may bear them hence
2136 And give them burial as beseems their worth.
PUCELLE
2137 I think this upstart is old Talbot’s ghost,
2138 90 He speaks with such a proud commanding spirit.
2139 For God’s sake, let him have him. To keep them here,
2140 They would but stink and putrefy the air.
CHARLES
2141 Go, take their bodies hence.
LUCY 2142 I’ll bear them hence.
2143 95 But from their ashes shall be reared
2144 A phoenix that shall make all France afeard.
CHARLES
2145 So we be rid of them, do with him what thou wilt.
⌜Lucy, Servant, and Attendants exit,
bearing the bodies.⌝
2146 And now to Paris in this conquering vein.
2147 All will be ours, now bloody Talbot’s slain.
⌜They⌝ exit.