ACT I SCENE V

King Henry VI, Part I

ACT I SCENE V	The same.
[ Here an alarum again: and TALBOT pursueth the DAUPHIN, and driveth him: then enter JOAN LA PUCELLE, driving Englishmen before her, and exit after them then re-enter TALBOT ]
TALBOT	Where is my strength, my valour, and my force?
	Our English troops retire, I cannot stay them:
	A woman clad in armour chaseth them.
[Re-enter JOAN LA PUCELLE]
	Here, here she comes. I’ll have a bout with thee;
	Devil or devil’s dam, I’ll conjure thee:	5
	Blood will I draw on thee, thou art a witch,
	And straightway give thy soul to him thou servest.
JOAN LA PUCELLE	Come, come, ’tis only I that must disgrace thee.
[Here they fight]
TALBOT	Heavens, can you suffer hell so to prevail?
	My breast I’ll burst with straining of my courage	10
	And from my shoulders crack my arms asunder.
	But I will chastise this high-minded strumpet.
[They fight again]
JOAN LA PUCELLE	Talbot, farewell; thy hour is not yet come:
	I must go victual Orleans forthwith.
[A short alarum; then enter the town with soldiers]
	O’ertake me, if thou canst; I scorn thy strength.	15
	Go, go, cheer up thy hungry-starved men;
	Help Salisbury to make his testament:
	This day is ours, as many more shall be.
[Exit]
TALBOT	My thoughts are whirled like a potter’s wheel;
	I know not where I am, nor what I do;	20
	A witch, by fear, not force, like Hannibal,
	Drives back our troops and conquers as she lists:
	So bees with smoke and doves with noisome stench
	Are from their hives and houses driven away.
	They call’d us for our fierceness English dogs;	25
	Now, like to whelps, we crying run away.
[A short alarum]
	Hark, countrymen! either renew the fight,
	Or tear the lions out of England’s coat;
	Renounce your soil, give sheep in lions’ stead:
	Sheep run not half so treacherous from the wolf,	30
	Or horse or oxen from the leopard,
	As you fly from your oft-subdued slaves.
[Alarum. Here another skirmish]
	It will not be: retire into your trenches:
	You all consented unto Salisbury’s death,
	For none would strike a stroke in his revenge.	35
	Pucelle is enter’d into Orleans,
	In spite of us or aught that we could do.
	O, would I were to die with Salisbury!
	The shame hereof will make me hide my head.
[Exit TALBOT. Alarum; retreat; flourish]

Continue to 1 Henry VI, Act 1, Scene 6