|
| The First part of King Henry the Sixth |
|
Shakespeare homepage
| Henry VI, part 1
| Act 2, Scene 1
Previous scene | Next scene |
|
Enter a Sergeant of a band with two SentinelsSergeant
Sirs, take your places and be vigilant:First Sentinel
If any noise or soldier you perceive
Near to the walls, by some apparent sign
Let us have knowledge at the court of guard.
Sergeant, you shall.TALBOT
Exit Sergeant
Thus are poor servitors,
When others sleep upon their quiet beds,
Constrain'd to watch in darkness, rain and cold.
Enter TALBOT, BEDFORD, BURGUNDY, and Forces, with scaling-ladders, their drums beating a dead march
Lord Regent, and redoubted Burgundy,BEDFORD
By whose approach the regions of Artois,
Wallon and Picardy are friends to us,
This happy night the Frenchmen are secure,
Having all day caroused and banqueted:
Embrace we then this opportunity
As fitting best to quittance their deceit
Contrived by art and baleful sorcery.
Coward of France! how much he wrongs his fame,BURGUNDY
Despairing of his own arm's fortitude,
To join with witches and the help of hell!
Traitors have never other company.TALBOT
But what's that Pucelle whom they term so pure?
A maid, they say.BEDFORD
A maid! and be so martial!BURGUNDY
Pray God she prove not masculine ere long,TALBOT
If underneath the standard of the French
She carry armour as she hath begun.
Well, let them practise and converse with spirits:BEDFORD
God is our fortress, in whose conquering name
Let us resolve to scale their flinty bulwarks.
Ascend, brave Talbot; we will follow thee.TALBOT
Not all together: better far, I guess,BEDFORD
That we do make our entrance several ways;
That, if it chance the one of us do fail,
The other yet may rise against their force.
Agreed: I'll to yond corner.BURGUNDY
And I to this.TALBOT
And here will Talbot mount, or make his grave.Sentinels
Now, Salisbury, for thee, and for the right
Of English Henry, shall this night appear
How much in duty I am bound to both.
Arm! arm! the enemy doth make assault!ALENCON
Cry: 'St. George,' 'A Talbot.'
The French leap over the walls in their shirts. Enter, several ways, the BASTARD OF ORLEANS, ALENCON, and REIGNIER, half ready, and half unready
How now, my lords! what, all unready so?BASTARD OF ORLEANS
Unready! ay, and glad we 'scaped so well.REIGNIER
'Twas time, I trow, to wake and leave our beds,ALENCON
Hearing alarums at our chamber-doors.
Of all exploits since first I follow'd arms,BASTARD OF ORLEANS
Ne'er heard I of a warlike enterprise
More venturous or desperate than this.
I think this Talbot be a fiend of hell.REIGNIER
If not of hell, the heavens, sure, favour him.ALENCON
Here cometh Charles: I marvel how he sped.BASTARD OF ORLEANS
Tut, holy Joan was his defensive guard.CHARLES
Enter CHARLES and JOAN LA PUCELLE
Is this thy cunning, thou deceitful dame?JOAN LA PUCELLE
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?
Wherefore is Charles impatient with his friend!CHARLES
At 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.
Duke of Alencon, this was your default,ALENCON
That, being captain of the watch to-night,
Did look no better to that weighty charge.
Had all your quarters been as safely keptBASTARD OF ORLEANS
As that whereof I had the government,
We had not been thus shamefully surprised.
Mine was secure.REIGNIER
And so was mine, my lord.CHARLES
And, for myself, most part of all this night,JOAN LA PUCELLE
Within her quarter and mine own precinct
I was employ'd in passing to and fro,
About relieving of the sentinels:
Then how or which way should they first break in?
Question, my lords, no further of the case,Soldier
How or which way: 'tis sure they found some place
But weakly guarded, where the breach was made.
And now there rests no other shift but this;
To gather our soldiers, scatter'd and dispersed,
And lay new platforms to endamage them.
Alarum. Enter an English Soldier, crying 'A Talbot! a Talbot!' They fly, leaving their clothes behind
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,
Using no other weapon but his name.
Exit
|
Shakespeare homepage
| Henry VI, part 1
| Act 2, Scene 1
Previous scene | Next scene |
 | Ahoy Mates! We're happy to announce that 2006 is the year of Moby Dick. Join us before the mast! For more information, please check out Moby Dick or email Drake. Free downloadable copies are available at Moby Dick, and we hope that ye join us in discussing the novel at the Moby Dick Campfire. Invite yer friends! We would like to unite the world in reading what is perhaps the greatest work of fiction ever penned on the American shores. Written in the rich context of Shakespeare and the Bible, Moby Dick was Herman Melville's definitive masterpiece. If you've already read the epic, we invite you to read it again. And be sure to pick up Hamlet and the Bible throughout November, as the novel shall only be enhanced by the deeper context. The White Whale, symbolic of the truth and freedom which the greatest spirits in Western Civilization have ever pursued, yet swims free. Concerning Moby Dick, Melville wrote, "It ... is of the horrible texture of a fabric that should be woven of ships' cables and hausers. A Polar wind blows through it, & birds of prey hover over it. Warn all gentle fastidious people from so much as peeping into the book..." Moby Dick was the first "Great Book" posted at jollyroger.com, over six years ago, and Melville's masterpiece has inspired a lot of our poetry and prose. Check out Drake's new film at Moby Dick Film and Moby Dick.  Amazon Computers | |