King Henry VI, Part I
| ACT IV SCENE V | The English camp near Bourdeaux. | |
| [Enter TALBOT and JOHN his son] | ||
| TALBOT | O young John Talbot! I did send for thee | |
| To tutor thee in stratagems of war, | ||
| That Talbot’s name might be in thee revived | ||
| When sapless age and weak unable limbs | ||
| Should bring thy father to his drooping chair. | 5 | |
| But, O malignant and ill-boding stars! | ||
| Now thou art come unto a feast of death, | ||
| A terrible and unavoided danger: | ||
| Therefore, dear boy, mount on my swiftest horse; | ||
| And I’ll direct thee how thou shalt escape | 10 | |
| By sudden flight: come, dally not, be gone. | ||
| JOHN TALBOT | Is my name Talbot? and am I your son? | |
| And shall I fly? O if you love my mother, | ||
| Dishonour not her honourable name, | ||
| To make a bastard and a slave of me! | 15 | |
| The world will say, he is not Talbot’s blood, | ||
| That basely fled when noble Talbot stood. | ||
| TALBOT | Fly, to revenge my death, if I be slain. | |
| JOHN TALBOT | He that flies so will ne’er return again. | |
| TALBOT | If we both stay, we both are sure to die. | 20 |
| JOHN TALBOT | Then let me stay; and, father, do you fly: | |
| Your loss is great, so your regard should be; | ||
| My worth unknown, no loss is known in me. | ||
| Upon my death the French can little boast; | ||
| In yours they will, in you all hopes are lost. | 25 | |
| Flight cannot stain the honour you have won; | ||
| But mine it will, that no exploit have done: | ||
| You fled for vantage, everyone will swear; | ||
| But, if I bow, they’ll say it was for fear. | ||
| There is no hope that ever I will stay, | 30 | |
| If the first hour I shrink and run away. | ||
| Here on my knee I beg mortality, | ||
| Rather than life preserved with infamy. | ||
| TALBOT | Shall all thy mother’s hopes lie in one tomb? | |
| JOHN TALBOT | Ay, rather than I’ll shame my mother’s womb. | 35 |
| TALBOT | Upon my blessing, I command thee go. | |
| JOHN TALBOT | To fight I will, but not to fly the foe. | |
| TALBOT | Part of thy father may be saved in thee. | |
| JOHN TALBOT | No part of him but will be shame in me. | |
| TALBOT | Thou never hadst renown, nor canst not lose it. | 40 |
| JOHN TALBOT | Yes, your renowned name: shall flight abuse it? | |
| TALBOT | Thy father’s charge shall clear thee from that stain. | |
| JOHN TALBOT | You cannot witness for me, being slain. | |
| If death be so apparent, then both fly. | ||
| TALBOT | And leave my followers here to fight and die? | 45 |
| My age was never tainted with such shame. | ||
| JOHN TALBOT | And shall my youth be guilty of such blame? | |
| No more can I be sever’d from your side, | ||
| Than can yourself yourself in twain divide: | ||
| Stay, go, do what you will, the like do I; | 50 | |
| For live I will not, if my father die. | ||
| TALBOT | Then here I take my leave of thee, fair son, | |
| Born to eclipse thy life this afternoon. | ||
| Come, side by side together live and die. | ||
| And soul with soul from France to heaven fly. | 55 | |
| [Exeunt] | ||
Continue to 1 Henry VI, Act 4, Scene 6