Day Seventeen

Henry VI, Part 1

4.2

SYNOPSIS

Talbot shows up at the gates of Burdeaux and asks the General there to accept H6 as his king and if he doesn’t want Talbot to attack:

Talbot

Be humble to us, call my sovereign yours

…

But if you frown upon this proffer’d peace,

You tempt the fury of my three attendants,

Lean famine, quartering steel, and climbing fire

The General responds by telling him Burdeaux is “well fortefied,” and further informs him that Talbot is surrounded:

General

If thou retire, the Dolphin, well appointed,

Stands with the snares of war to tangle tee.

On either hand thee there are squadrons pitch’d,

To wall thee from the liberty of flight

Talbot, hearing the drums of the Daupin’s army, sends “some light horsemen” to check them out, then he laments about getting trapped: “O negligent and heedless discipline!” But suggest that they (the English) will not die without dying Not rascal-like, to fall down with a pinch,/But rather, moody-mad...”

IMPRESSIONS

This play is crazy back-and-forth. In once scene it’s almost certain the English are gonna triumph, the next they have over-reached somehow and I start to sense Talbot’s death. Short scene, in every edition.

...AND THEN SOME

From the outset, I’ve been a little conflicted about the first three plays being Henry VI plays...not that the first one hasn’t been good; it has, in fact exceeding expectations. But, I would like a little variety. So, at work, browsing the Oxford edition we have there, I perused the table of contents and was delighted to see this:

That’s gotta be more reliable than the Wikipedia page, right? Plus, I like the variety here at the beginning. There’s four plays before my current task. Second play will be the Two Gentlemen of Verona. Sweet.