Day Six

Henry VI, Part I

1.5—1.6

The final two scenes of the first act are so short, I decided to combine them for this blog entry.

SYNOPSIS

1.5

The French and English are in full-out war. Joan of Arc leads the French and pushes the English back, much to Talbot's chagrin/surprise:

Talbot

Where is my strength, my valor, and my force?

Our English Troops retire; I cannot stay them;

A woman clad in armor chaseth them.

The English are driven back and lose Orleans to the French.

1.6

Upon the walls of Orleans, Joan, Charles (Duaphin), and others gather after Joan's resounding victory. The Dauphin heaps praise where praise is due:

Dauphin

'Tis Joan, not we, by whom the day is won;

I think he proposes immediately thereafter, I'm not sure; my “English” isn't what it should be.  It's vague enough so it could be a proposal.

Dauphin

For which I will divide my crown with her

He spends the rest of the scene talking about the praise she has earned, the tributes he will make to her: a pyramid, ashes once she passes (awkward, morbid) will be stored in a precious urn, she will be the saint of France rather than Saint Denis:

Dauphin

No longer on Saint Denis will we cry,

But Joan la Pucelle shall be France's saint.

IMPRESSIONS

1.5

A super-short scene but important as it shows us first hand the greatness of Joan of Arc. She even goes head-to-head with Talbot. In fact, she taunts him once he realizes he cannot defeat her

Talbot

My breast I'll burst with straining of my courage

Joan

Talbot, farewell. Thy hour is not yet come (ouch, Talbot, you are the plaything here)

O'ertake me if thou canst! I scorn thy strength. (Talbot just got played, and Joan is B.A.).

1.6

Another remarkably short scene, I am left to wonder how some editions managed to make eight scenes out of this one act. This is a two-page victory scene where we get to see how astonished the French are for their victory, and how grateful they are for Joan's intervention.

...AND THEN SOME

Doing some Joan/Shakespeare Google searches, I found the Open Source Shakespeare, as it says, An Experiment in Literary Technology.  It has the text of every play and poem, with a concordance and advanced searches.  You can spend hours (I haven't...yet), and I was pleased to see their first act had six scenes also, so vindication.  There's a character list!  An alphabetical character list that, when you select one of the names, you get a list of every bit of dialogue in order of occurrence with a contextual link.  Amazing.