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Henry VI, Pt. 1: Act V, Scene 3

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Henry VI, Pt. 1
Act V, Scene 3

France. Before Angiers.

Joan of Arc and the Furies

Joan of Arc and the Furies

William Hamilton, circa 1795

  1. Alarum. Excursions. Enter Joan de Pucelle.

Joan de Pucelle

1 - 29
  1. The Regent conquers, and the Frenchmen fly.
  2. Now help, ye charming spells and periapts,
  3. And ye choice spirits that admonish me
  4. And give me signs of future accidents.
  5. Thunder.
  6. You speedy helpers, that are substitutes
  7. Under the lordly Monarch of the North,
  8. Appear, and aid me in this enterprise.
  9. Enter Fiends.
  10. This speedy and quick appearance argues proof
  11. Of your accustom’d diligence to me.
  12. Now, ye familiar spirits, that are cull’d
  13. Out of the powerful regions under earth,
  14. Help me this once, that France may get the field.
  15. They walk, and speak not.
  16. O, hold me not with silence over-long!
  17. Where I was wont to feed you with my blood,
  18. I’ll lop a member off and give it you
  19. In earnest of a further benefit,
  20. So you do condescend to help me now.
  21. They hang their heads.
  22. No hope to have redress? My body shall
  23. Pay recompense, if you will grant my suit.
  24. They shake their heads.
  25. Cannot my body nor blood-sacrifice
  26. Entreat you to your wonted furtherance?
  27. Then take my soul—my body, soul, and all,
  28. Before that England give the French the foil.
  29. They depart.
  30. See, they forsake me! Now the time is come
  31. That France must vail her lofty-plumed crest
  32. And let her head fall into England’s lap.
  33. My ancient incantations are too weak,
  34. And hell too strong for me to buckle with:
  35. Now, France, thy glory droopeth to the dust.
  1. Exit.
  1. Excursions. Burgundy and York enter and fight hand to hand.
  1. French fly. Pucelle is brought in captive.

Richard, Duke of York

30 - 35
  1. Damsel of France, I think I have you fast:
  2. Unchain your spirits now with spelling charms,
  3. And try if they can gain your liberty.
  4. A goodly prize, fit for the devil’s grace!
  5. See how the ugly witch doth bend her brows,
  6. As if, with Circe, she would change my shape!

Joan de Pucelle

36
  1. Chang’d to a worser shape thou canst not be.

Richard, Duke of York

37 - 38
  1. O, Charles the Dauphin is a proper man,
  2. No shape but his can please your dainty eye.

Joan de Pucelle

39 - 41
  1. A plaguing mischief light on Charles and thee!
  2. And may ye both be suddenly surpris’d
  3. By bloody hands, in sleeping on your beds!

Richard, Duke of York

42
  1. Fell banning hag, enchantress, hold thy tongue!

Joan de Pucelle

43
  1. I prithee give me leave to curse a while.

Richard, Duke of York

44
  1. Curse, miscreant, when thou com’st to the stake.
  1. Exeunt.
  1. Alarum. Enter Suffolk with Margaret in his hand.

Earl of Suffolk

45 - 50
  1. Be what thou wilt, thou art my prisoner.
  2. Gazes on her.
  3. O fairest beauty, do not fear nor fly,
  4. For I will touch thee but with reverend hands.
  5. I kiss these fingers for eternal peace,
  6. And lay them gently on thy tender side.
  7. Who art thou? Say, that I may honor thee.

Margaret

51 - 52
  1. Margaret my name, and daughter to a king,
  2. The King of Naples, whosoe’er thou art.

Earl of Suffolk

53 - 72
  1. An earl I am, and Suffolk am I call’d.
  2. Be not offended, nature’s miracle,
  3. Thou art allotted to be ta’en by me;
  4. So doth the swan her downy cygnets save,
  5. Keeping them prisoner underneath her wings.
  6. Yet, if this servile usage once offend,
  7. Go, and be free again, as Suffolk’s friend.
  8. She is going.
  9. O, stay!
  10. Aside.
  11.          I have no power to let her pass,
  12. My hand would free her, but my heart says no.
  13. As plays the sun upon the glassy streams,
  14. Twinkling another counterfeited beam,
  15. So seems this gorgeous beauty to mine eyes.
  16. Fain would I woo her, yet I dare not speak:
  17. I’ll call for pen and ink, and write my mind.
  18. Fie, De la Pole, disable not thyself.
  19. Hast not a tongue? Is she not here?
  20. Wilt thou be daunted at a woman’s sight?
  21. Ay; beauty’s princely majesty is such,
  22. ’Confounds the tongue and makes the senses rough.

Margaret

73 - 75
  1. Say, Earl of Suffolk—if thy name be so—
  2. What ransom must I pay before I pass?
  3. For I perceive I am thy prisoner.

Earl of Suffolk

76 - 77
  1. Aside.
  2. How canst thou tell she will deny thy suit,
  3. Before thou make a trial of her love?

Margaret

78
  1. Why speak’st thou not? What ransom must I pay?

Earl of Suffolk

79 - 80
  1. Aside.
  2. She’s beautiful; and therefore to be wooed:
  3. She is a woman; therefore to be won.

Byam Shaw, 1901

Margaret

81
  1. Wilt thou accept of ransom, yea or no?

Earl of Suffolk

82 - 83
  1. Aside.
  2. Fond man, remember that thou hast a wife,
  3. Then how can Margaret be thy paramour?

Margaret

84
  1. I were best to leave him, for he will not hear.

Earl of Suffolk

85
  1. Aside.
  2. There all is marr’d; there lies a cooling card.

Margaret

86
  1. He talks at random; sure the man is mad.

Earl of Suffolk

87
  1. Aside.
  2. And yet a dispensation may be had.

Margaret

88
  1. And yet I would that you would answer me.

Earl of Suffolk

89 - 90
  1. Aside.
  2. I’ll win this Lady Margaret. For whom?
  3. Why, for my king. Tush, that’s a wooden thing!

Margaret

91
  1. He talks of wood; it is some carpenter.

Earl of Suffolk

92 - 97
  1. Aside.
  2. Yet so my fancy may be satisfied,
  3. And peace established between these realms.
  4. But there remains a scruple in that too;
  5. For though her father be the King of Naples,
  6. Duke of Anjou and Maine, yet is he poor,
  7. And our nobility will scorn the match.

Margaret

98
  1. Hear ye, captain? Are you not at leisure?

Earl of Suffolk

99 - 101
  1. Aside.
  2. It shall be so, disdain they ne’er so much.
  3. Henry is youthful and will quickly yield.—
  4. Madam, I have a secret to reveal.

Margaret

102 - 103
  1. Aside.
  2. What though I be enthrall’d, he seems a knight,
  3. And will not any way dishonor me.

Earl of Suffolk

104
  1. Lady, vouchsafe to listen what I say.

Margaret

105 - 106
  1. Aside.
  2. Perhaps I shall be rescu’d by the French,
  3. And then I need not crave his courtesy.

Earl of Suffolk

107
  1. Sweet madam, give me hearing in a cause.

Margaret

108
  1. Aside.
  2. Tush, women have been captivate ere now.

Earl of Suffolk

109
  1. Lady, wherefore talk you so?

Margaret

110
  1. I cry you mercy, ’tis but quid for quo.

Earl of Suffolk

111 - 112
  1. Say, gentle Princess, would you not suppose
  2. Your bondage happy, to be made a queen?

Margaret

113 - 115
  1. To be a queen in bondage is more vile
  2. Than is a slave in base servility;
  3. For princes should be free.

Earl of Suffolk

116 - 117
  1.                             And so shall you,
  2. If happy England’s royal king be free.

Margaret

118
  1. Why, what concerns his freedom unto me?

Earl of Suffolk

119 - 122
  1. I’ll undertake to make thee Henry’s queen,
  2. To put a golden sceptre in thy hand,
  3. And set a precious crown upon thy head,
  4. If thou wilt condescend to be my—

Margaret

123
  1.                                   What?

Earl of Suffolk

124
  1. His love.

Margaret

125
  1. I am unworthy to be Henry’s wife.

Earl of Suffolk

126 - 129
  1. No, gentle madam, I unworthy am
  2. To woo so fair a dame to be his wife
  3. And have no portion in the choice myself.
  4. How say you, madam, are ye so content?

Margaret

130
  1. And if my father please, I am content.

Earl of Suffolk

131 - 134
  1. Then call our captains and our colors forth,
  2. And, madam, at your father’s castle walls
  3. We’ll crave a parley, to confer with him.
  4. Sound a parley. Enter Reignier on the walls.
  5. See, Reignier, see, thy daughter prisoner!

Duke of Anjou

135
  1. To whom?

Earl of Suffolk

136
  1.          To me.

Duke of Anjou

137 - 139
  1.        Suffolk, what remedy?
  2. I am a soldier, and unapt to weep,
  3. Or to exclaim on fortune’s fickleness.

Earl of Suffolk

140 - 145
  1. Yes, there is remedy enough, my lord.
  2. Consent, and for thy honor give consent,
  3. Thy daughter shall be wedded to my king,
  4. Whom I with pain have wooed and won thereto;
  5. And this her easy-held imprisonment
  6. Hath gain’d thy daughter princely liberty.

Duke of Anjou

146
  1. Speaks Suffolk as he thinks?

Earl of Suffolk

147 - 148
  1.                              Fair Margaret knows
  2. That Suffolk doth not flatter, face, or feign.

Duke of Anjou

149 - 150
  1. Upon thy princely warrant, I descend
  2. To give thee answer of thy just demand.
  1. Exit from the walls.

Earl of Suffolk

151
  1. And here I will expect thy coming.
  1. Trumpets sound. Enter Reignier below.

Duke of Anjou

152 - 153
  1. Welcome, brave Earl, into our territories!
  2. Command in Anjou what your honor pleases.

Earl of Suffolk

154 - 156
  1. Thanks, Reignier, happy for so sweet a child,
  2. Fit to be made companion with a king.
  3. What answer makes your Grace unto my suit?
Margaret of Anjou

Margaret of Anjou

John William Wright, circa 1826

Duke of Anjou

157 - 162
  1. Since thou dost deign to woo her little worth
  2. To be the princely bride of such a lord,
  3. Upon condition I may quietly
  4. Enjoy mine own, the country Maine and Anjou,
  5. Free from oppression or the stroke of war,
  6. My daughter shall be Henry’s, if he please.

Earl of Suffolk

163 - 165
  1. That is her ransom; I deliver her,
  2. And those two counties I will undertake
  3. Your Grace shall well and quietly enjoy.

Duke of Anjou

166 - 168
  1. And I again, in Henry’s royal name,
  2. As deputy unto that gracious king,
  3. Give thee her hand, for sign of plighted faith.

Earl of Suffolk

169 - 176
  1. Reignier of France, I give thee kingly thanks,
  2. Because this is in traffic of a king.
  3. Aside.
  4. And yet methinks I could be well content
  5. To be mine own attorney in this case.—
  6. I’ll over then to England with this news,
  7. And make this marriage to be solemniz’d.
  8. So farewell, Reignier! Set this diamond safe
  9. In golden palaces, as it becomes.

Duke of Anjou

177 - 178
  1. I do embrace thee, as I would embrace
  2. The Christian prince, King Henry, were he here.

Margaret

179 - 180
  1. Farewell, my lord! Good wishes, praise, and prayers
  2. Shall Suffolk ever have of Margaret.
  1. She is going.

Earl of Suffolk

181 - 182
  1. Farewell, sweet madam! But hark you, Margaret,
  2. No princely commendations to my king?

Margaret

183 - 184
  1. Such commendations as becomes a maid,
  2. A virgin, and his servant, say to him.

Earl of Suffolk

185 - 187
  1. Words sweetly plac’d and modestly directed.
  2. But, madam, I must trouble you again,
  3. No loving token to his Majesty?

Margaret

188 - 189
  1. Yes, my good lord, a pure unspotted heart,
  2. Never yet taint with love, I send the King.

Earl of Suffolk

190
  1. And this withal.
  1. Kiss her.

Margaret

191 - 192
  1. That for thyself; I will not so presume
  2. To send such peevish tokens to a king.
  1. Exeunt Reignier and Margaret.

Earl of Suffolk

193 - 201
  1. O, wert thou for myself! But, Suffolk, stay,
  2. Thou mayest not wander in that labyrinth,
  3. There Minotaurs and ugly treasons lurk.
  4. Solicit Henry with her wondrous praise;
  5. Bethink thee on her virtues that surmount,
  6. And natural graces that extinguish art;
  7. Repeat their semblance often on the seas,
  8. That, when thou com’st to kneel at Henry’s feet,
  9. Thou mayest bereave him of his wits with wonder.
  1. Exit.
Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare

Then take my soul—my body, soul, and all, before that England give the French the foil.

From: Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare

Mary Cowden Clarke, Charles Cowden Clarke, 1870

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