Internet Shakespeare Editions

About this text

  • Title: Henry VI, Part 1 (Modern)
  • Editor:

  • Copyright . This text may be freely used for educational, non-profit purposes; for all other uses contact the Editor.
    Author: William Shakespeare
    Editor:
    Not Peer Reviewed

    Henry VI, Part 1 (Modern)

    675 Enter [on the walls] a Sergeant of a band, with two Sentinels.
    Sergeant
    Sirs, take your places, and be vigilant.
    If any noise or soldier you perceive
    Near to the walls, by some apparent sign
    Let us have knowledge at the court of guard.
    680Sentinel
    Sergeant you shall.
    [Exit Sergeant.]
    Thus are poor servitors,
    When others sleep upon their quiet beds,
    Constrained to watch in darkness, rain, and cold.
    Enter [Lord] Talbot, [the Dukes of] Bedford and Burgundy [and Soldiers], with scaling ladders, their drums beating a 685dead march.
    Talbot
    Lord regent, and redoubted Burgundy,
    By whose approach the regions of Artois,
    Walloon, and Picardy are friends to us,
    This happy night the Frenchmen are secure,
    690Having all day caroused and banqueted.
    Embrace we then this opportunity,
    As fitting best to quittance their deceit,
    Contrived by art and baleful sorcery.
    Bedford
    Coward of France. How much he wrongs his fame,
    695Despairing of his own arm's fortitude,
    To join with witches and the help of hell.
    Burgundy
    Traitors have never other company.
    But what's that "Pucelle" whom they term so pure?
    Talbot
    A maid, they say.
    700Bedford
    A maid? And be so martial?
    Burgundy
    Pray God she prove not masculine ere long.
    If underneath the standard of the French
    She carry armor, as she hath begun.
    Talbot
    Well, let them practice and converse with spirits.
    705God is our fortress, in whose conquering name
    Let us resolve to scale their flinty bulwarks.
    Bedford
    Ascend, brave Talbot. We will follow thee.
    Talbot
    Not altogether. Better far, I guess,
    That we do make our entrance several ways;
    710That, if it chance the one of us do fail,
    The other yet may rise against their force.
    Bedford
    Agreed. I'll to yond corner.
    Burgundy
    And I to this.
    [Exeunt severally Bedford and Burgundy with some Soldiers.]
    Talbot
    And here will Talbot mount, or make his grave.
    715Now Salisbury; for thee, and for the right
    Of English Henry, shall this night appear
    How much in duty I am bound to both.
    [Talbot and some Soldiers assault the walls.]
    Sentinel
    Arm. Arm. The enemy doth make assault.
    [Exeunt above.]
    English Soldiers
    Cry. Saint George! A Talbot!
    720 [Alarum.] The French [Soldiers] leap o'er the walls in their shirts [and exeunt]. Enter several ways [the] Bastard [of Orléans, the Duke of] Alencon, [and] Reignier [Duke of Anjou], half ready and half unready.
    Alencon
    How now my Lords? What, all unready so?
    Bastard
    Unready? Aye, and glad we scaped so well.
    725Reignier
    'Twas time, I trow, to wake and leave our beds,
    Hearing alarums at our chamber doors.
    Alencon
    Of all exploits since first I followed arms
    Ne'er heard I of a warlike enterprise
    More venturous, or desperate than this.
    730Bastard
    I think this Talbot be a fiend of hell.
    Reignier
    If not of hell, the heavens sure favor him.
    Alencon
    Here cometh Charles. I marvel how he sped?
    Enter Charles [the Dauphin] and Joan [la Pucelle].
    Bastard
    Tut, holy Joan was his defensive guard.
    735Charles
    Is this thy cunning, thou deceitful dame?
    Didst thou at first, to flatter us withal,
    Make us partakers of a little gain
    That now our loss might be ten times so much?
    Pucelle
    Wherefore is Charles impatient with his friend?
    740At all times will you have my power alike?
    Sleeping or waking, must I still prevail,
    Or will you blame and lay the fault on me?
    Improvident soldiers, had your watch been good,
    This sudden mischief never could have fall'n.
    745Charles
    Duke of Alencon, this was your default,
    That, being captain of the watch tonight,
    Did look no better to that weighty charge.
    Alencon
    Had all your quarters been as safely kept
    As that whereof I had the government,
    750We had not been thus shamefully surprised.
    Bastard
    Mine was secure.
    Reignier
    And so was mine, my lord.
    Charles
    And for myself, most part of all this night
    Within her quarter and mine own precinct
    755I was employed in passing to and fro
    About relieving of the sentinels.
    Then how or which way should they first break in?
    Pucelle
    Question, my lords, no further of the case,
    How or which way. 'Tis sure they found some place
    760But weakly guarded, where the breach was made.
    And now there rests no other shift but this,
    To gather our soldiers, scattered and dispersed,
    And lay new platforms to endamage them.
    Exeunt.
    765 Alarum. Enter [an English] Soldier, crying.
    Soldier
    A Talbot! A Talbot!
    They [the French] fly, leaving their clothes behind.
    Soldier
    I'll be so bold to take what they have left.
    The cry of "Talbot" serves me for a sword,
    For I have loaden me with many spoils,
    770Using no other weapon but his name.
    Exit [with abandoned clothes].