Enter Talbot with Soldiers and Trump and Drum
before Bordeaux. TALBOT
Go to the gates of Bordeaux, trumpeter.
Summon their general unto the wall. Trumpet sounds. Enter General and Others aloft. English John Talbot, captains, calls you forth,
Servant-in-arms to Harry, King of England,
And thus he would: open your city gates, 5
Be humble to us, call my sovereign yours,
And do him homage as obedient subjects,
And I’ll withdraw me and my bloody power.
But if you frown upon this proffered peace,
You tempt the fury of my three attendants, 10
Lean Famine, quartering Steel, and climbing Fire,
Who, in a moment, even with the earth
Shall lay your stately and air-braving towers,
If you forsake the offer of their love. | Meanwhile, Talbot is back at war. He comes to the French town of Bordeaux and demands surrender. |
GENERAL
Thou ominous and fearful owl of death, 15
Our nation’s terror and their bloody scourge,
The period of thy tyranny approacheth.
On us thou canst not enter but by death;
For I protest we are well fortified
And strong enough to issue out and fight. 20
If thou retire, the Dauphin, well appointed,
Stands with the snares of war to tangle thee.
On either hand thee, there are squadrons pitched
To wall thee from the liberty of flight;
And no way canst thou turn thee for redress 25
But Death doth front thee with apparent spoil,
And pale Destruction meets thee in the face.
Ten thousand French have ta’en the Sacrament
To rive their dangerous artillery
Upon no Christian soul but English Talbot. 30
Lo, there thou stand’st, a breathing valiant man
Of an invincible unconquered spirit.
This is the latest glory of thy praise
That I, thy enemy, due thee withal;
For ere the glass that now begins to run 35
Finish the process of his sandy hour,
These eyes, that see thee now well-colorèd,
Shall see thee withered, bloody, pale, and dead. Drum afar off. Hark, hark, the Dauphin’s drum, a warning bell,
Sings heavy music to thy timorous soul, 40
And mine shall ring thy dire departure out. He exits, aloft, with Others. | Bordeaux says it will fight back, and on top of that, ten thousand French warriors have promised to shoot at no one but Talbot. Good times. The spokesman for the French says he is pretty impressed with Talbot's courage, but Talbot will be dead within an hour. |
TALBOT
He fables not; I hear the enemy.
Out, some light horsemen, and peruse their wings.
Some Soldiers exit.
O, negligent and heedless discipline,
How are we parked and bounded in a pale, 45
A little herd of England’s timorous deer
Mazed with a yelping kennel of French curs.
If we be English deer, be then in blood,
Not rascal-like to fall down with a pinch,
But rather, moody-mad and desperate stags, 50
Turn on the bloody hounds with heads of steel
And make the cowards stand aloof at bay.
Sell every man his life as dear as mine
And they shall find dear deer of us, my friends.
God and Saint George, Talbot and England’s right, 55
Prosper our colors in this dangerous fight! He exits with Soldiers, Drum and Trumpet. | Talbot admits to himself, not to the herald, that things do look pretty
bad for the English. But he rallies the troops and says they can fight
with courage. |