Suddenly made him from my side to start
Into the clustering battle of the French;
And in that sea of blood my boy did drench
His over-mounting spirit, and there died,
My Icarus, my blossom, in his pride.

Serv. O my dear lord, lo, where your son is borne !

Enter Soldiers, with the body of young TALBOT. Tal. Thou antic death, which laugh'st us here

to scorn,

Anon, from thy insulting tyranny,

Coupled in bonds of perpetuity,

Two Talbots, winged through the lither sky,
In thy despite shall 'scape mortality.

O thou, whose wounds become hard-favour'd death
Speak to thy father ere thou yield thy breath!
Brave death by speaking, whether he will or no;
Imagine him a Frenchman and thy foe.

Poor boy! he smiles, methinks, as who should say,
Had death been French, then death had died
to-day.

Come, come and lay him in his father's arms:
My spirit can no longer bear these harms.
Soldiers, adieu! I have what I would have,
Now my old arms are young John Talbot's grave.

[Dies

Enter CHARLES, ALENÇON, BURGUNDY, BAS-
TARD, LA PUCELLE, and forces.

Char. Had York and Somerset brought rescue
in,

We should have found a bloody day of this.

18. antic, jester, clown; from the grinning teeth of the skeleton by which Death was

figured.

21. lither, pliant.
23. become, beseem.

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30

Bast. How the young whelp of Talbot's, ragingwood,

Did flesh his puny sword in Frenchmen's blood!

Puc. Once I encounter'd him, and thus I said: 'Thou maiden youth, be vanquish'd by a maid :' But, with a proud majestical high scorn,

He answer'd thus: 'Young Talbot was not born
To be the pillage of a giglot wench :'
So, rushing in the bowels of the French,

He left me proudly, as unworthy fight.

Bur. Doubtless he would have made a noble knight:

See, where he lies inhearsed in the arms

Of the most bloody nurser of his harms!

Bast. Hew them to pieces, hack their bones asunder,

Whose life was England's glory, Gallia's wonder. Char. O, no, forbear! for that which we have fled

During the life, let us not wrong it dead.

Enter SIR WILLIAM LUCY, attended; Herald
of the French preceding.

Lucy. Herald, conduct me to the Dauphin's tent,

To know who hath obtain'd the glory of the day. Char. On what submissive message art thou sent ?

Lucy. Submission, Dauphin! 'tis a mere French word;

We English warriors wot not what it means.
I come to know what prisoners thou hast ta'en
And to survey the bodies of the dead.

35. raging-wood, raging-mad.

36. flesh, initiate.

41. giglot, loose.

54. mere, exclusively.

40

50

Char. For prisoners ask'st thou? hell our prison is.

But tell me whom thou seek'st.

Lucy. But where's the great Alcides of the field,

Valiant Lord Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury,

Created, for his rare success in arms,

Great Earl of Washford, Waterford and Valence ;
Lord Talbot of Goodrig and Urchinfield,

Lord Strange of Blackmere, Lord Verdun of Alton,
Lord Cromwell of Wingfield, Lord Furnival of
Sheffield,

The thrice-victorious Lord of Falconbridge;
Knight of the noble order of Saint George,
Worthy Saint Michael and the Golden Fleece;
Great marshal to Henry the Sixth

Of all his wars within the realm of France ?
Puc. Here is a silly stately style indeed!
The Turk, that two and fifty kingdoms hath,
Writes not so tedious a style as this.
Him that thou magnifiest with all these titles
Stinking and fly-blown lies here at our feet.

Lucy. Is Talbot slain, the Frenchmen's only
Scourge,

Your kingdom's terror and black Nemesis?

O, were mine eye-balls into bullets turn'd,

60

70

That I in rage might shoot them at your faces ! 80 O, that I could but call these dead to life!

It were enough to fright the realm of France:
Were but his picture left amongst you here,
It would amaze the proudest of you all.

Give me their bodies, that I may bear them hence
And give them burial as beseems their worth.

Puc. I think this upstart is old Talbot's ghost, He speaks with such a proud commanding spirit. For God's sake, let him have 'em; to keep them here,

They would but stink, and putrefy the air.

Char. Go, take their bodies hence.

Lucy. I'll bear them hence; but from their ashes shall be rear'd

A phoenix that shall make all France afeard.
Char. So we be rid of them, do with 'em what
thou wilt.

And now to Paris, in this conquering vein :
All will be ours, now bloody Talbot's slain.

[Exeunt.

ACT V.

SCENE I. London. The palace.

Sennet. Enter KING, GLOUCESTER, and EXETER. King. Have you perused the letters from the

pope,

The emperor and the Earl of Armagnac ?

Glou. I have, my lord: and their intent is this: They humbly sue unto your excellence

To have a godly peace concluded of

Between the realms of England and of France.

King. How doth your grace affect their motion?

7. affect their motion, feel disposed in regard to their proposal.

90

Glou. Well, my good lord; and as the only

means

To stop effusion of our Christian blood

And stablish quietness on every side.

King. Ay, marry, uncle; for I always thought
It was both impious and unnatural
That such immanity and bloody strife
Should reign among professors of one faith.
Glou. Beside, my lord, the sooner to effect
And surer bind this knot of amity,

The Earl of Armagnac, near knit to Charles,
A man of great authority in France,
Proffers his only daughter to your grace

In marriage, with a large and sumptuous dowry. King. Marriage, uncle! alas, my years are young!

And fitter is my study and my books
Than wanton dalliance with a paramour.
Yet call the ambassadors; and, as you please,
So let them have their answers every one :
I shall be well content with any choice
Tends to God's glory and my country's weal.

Enter WINCHESTER in Cardinal's habit, a
Legate and two Ambassadors.

Exe. What is my Lord of Winchester install'd,
And call'd unto a cardinal's degree?
Then I perceive that will be verified
Henry the Fifth did sometime prophesy,

13. immanity, ferocity.

17. knit; probably used with a reference to the 'knot' of the previous line: the bond of amity between England and France will be made surer by the new tie with Armagnac, who is already bound to Charles.

ΙΟ

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30

21. my years are young. Henry's apparent age undergoes no change between the beginning of the play, when his historical prototype was nine months old, and the present scene, when he was a man of twenty-four.