Czcionka:Mniejsze АаWiększe Aa
SCENE II
The same. QUEEN ISABEL, attended by a PAGE.
ISABEL
What must I hear? This fatal strife forbear!
What brain-bewildering planet o'er your minds
Sheds dire perplexity? When unity
Alone can save you, will you part in hate,
And, warring 'mong yourselves, prepare your doom? —
I do entreat you, noble duke, recall
Your hasty order. You, renowned Talbot,
Seek to appease an irritated friend!
Come, Lionel, aid me to reconcile
These haughty spirits and establish peace.
LIONEL
Not I, madame. It is all one to me.
'Tis my belief, when things are misallied,
The sooner they part company the better.
ISABEL
How? Do the arts of hell, which on the field
Wrought such disastrous ruin, even here
Bewilder and befool us? Who began
This fatal quarrel? Speak! Lord-general!
Your own advantage did you so forget,
As to offend your worthy friend and ally?
What could you do without his powerful arm?
'Twas he who placed your monarch on the throne,
He holds him there, and he can hurl him thence;
His army strengthens you – still more his name.
Were England all her citizens to pour
Upon our coasts, she never o'er this realm
Would gain dominion did she stand alone;
No! France can only be subdued by France!
TALBOT
A faithful friend we honor as we ought;
Discretion warns us to beware the false.
BURGUNDY
The liar's brazen front beseemeth him
Who would absolve himself from gratitude.
ISABEL
How, noble duke? Could you so far renounce
Your princely honor, and your sense of shame,
As clasp the hand of him who slew your sire?
Are you so mad to entertain the thought
Of cordial reconcilement with the Dauphin,
Whom you yourself have hurled to ruin's brink?
His overthrow you have well nigh achieved,
And madly now would you renounce your work?
Here stand your allies. Your salvation lies
In an indissoluble bond with England?
BURGUNDY
Far is my thought from treaty with the Dauphin;
But the contempt and insolent demeanor
Of haughty England I will not endure.
ISABEL
Come, noble duke? Excuse a hasty word.
Heavy the grief which bows the general down,
And well you know misfortune makes unjust.
Come! come! embrace; let me this fatal breach
Repair at once, ere it becomes eternal.
TALBOT
What think you, Burgundy? A noble heart,
By reason vanquished, doth confess its fault.
A wise and prudent word the queen hath spoken;
Come, let my hand with friendly pressure heal
The wound inflicted by my angry tongue.
BURGUNDY
Discreet the counsel offered by the queen!
My just wrath yieldeth to necessity.
ISABEL
'Tis well! Now, with a brotherly embrace
Confirm and seal the new-established bond;
And may the winds disperse what hath been spoken.
[BURGUNDY and TALBOT embrace.
LIONEL (contemplating the group aside)
Hail to an union by the furies planned!
ISABEL
Fate hath proved adverse, we have lost a battle,
But do not, therefore, let your courage sink.
The Dauphin, in despair of heavenly aid,
Doth make alliance with the powers of hell;
Vainly his soul he forfeits to the devil,
For hell itself cannot deliver him.
A conquering maiden leads the hostile force;
Yours, I myself will lead; to you I'll stand
In place of maiden or of prophetess.
LIONEL
Madame, return to Paris! We desire
To war with trusty weapons, not with women.
TALBOT
GO! go! Since your arrival in the camp,
Fortune hath fled our banners, and our course
Hath still been retrograde. Depart at once!
BURGUNDY
Your presence here doth scandalize the host.
ISABEL (looks from one to the other with astonishment)
This, Burgundy, from you? Do you take part
Against me with these thankless English lords?
BURGUNDY
Go! go! The thought of combating for you
Unnerves the courage of the bravest men.
ISABEL
I scarce among you have established peace,
And you already form a league against me!
TALBOT
Go, in God's name. When you have left the camp
No devil will again appal our troops.
ISABEL
Say, am I not your true confederate?
Are we not banded in a common cause?
TALBOT
Thank God! your cause of quarrel is not ours.
We combat in an honorable strife.
BURGUNDY
A father's bloody murder I avenge.
Stern filial duty consecrates my arms.
TALBOT
Confess at once. Your conduct towards the Dauphin
Is an offence alike to God and man.
ISABEL
Curses blast him and his posterity!
The shameless son who sins against his mother!
BURGUNDY
Ay! to avenge a husband and a father!
ISABEL
To judge his mother's conduct he presumed!
LIONEL
That was, indeed, irreverent in a son!
ISABEL
And me, forsooth, he banished from the realm.
TALBOT
Urged to the measure by the public voice.
ISABEL
A curse light on him if I e'er forgive him!
Rather than see him on his father's throne —
TALBOT
His mother's honor you would sacrifice!
ISABEL
Your feeble natures cannot comprehend
The vengeance of an outraged mother's heart.
Who pleasures me, I love; who wrongs, I hate.
If he who wrongs me chance to be my son,
All the more worthy is he of my hate.
The life I gave I will again take back
From him who doth, with ruthless violence,
The bosom rend which bore and nourished him.
Ye, who do thus make war upon the Dauphin,
What rightful cause have ye to plunder him?
What crime hath he committed against you?
What insult are you called on to avenge?
Ambition, paltry envy, goad you on;
I have a right to hate him – he's my son.
TALBOT
He feels his mother in her dire revenge!
ISABEL
Mean hypocrites! I hate you and despise.
Together with the world, you cheat yourselves!
With robber-hands you English seek to clutch
This realm of France, where you have no just right,
Nor equitable claim, to so much earth
As could be covered by your charger's hoof.
– This duke, too, whom the people style the Good,
Doth to a foreign lord, his country's foe,
For gold betray the birthland of his sires.
And yet is justice ever on your tongue.
– Hypocrisy I scorn. Such as I am,
So let the world behold me!
BURGUNDY
It is true!
Your reputation you have well maintained.
ISABEL
I've passions and warm blood, and as a queen
Came to this realm to live, and not to seem.
Should I have lingered out a joyless life
Because the curse of adverse destiny
To a mad consort joined my blooming youth?
More than my life I prize my liberty.
And who assails me here – But why should I
Stoop to dispute with you about my rights?
Your sluggish blood flows slowly in your veins!
Strangers to pleasure, ye know only rage!
This duke, too – who, throughout his whole career,
Hath wavered to and fro, 'twixt good and ill —
Can neither love or hate with his whole heart.
– I go to Melun. Let this gentleman,
[Pointing to LIONEL.
Who doth my fancy please, attend me there,
To cheer my solitude, and you may work
Your own good pleasure! I'll inquire no more
Concerning the Burgundians or the English.
[She beckons to her PAGE, and is about to retire.
LIONEL
Rely upon us, we will send to Melun
The fairest youths whom we in battle take.
[Coming back.
ISABEL
Skilful your arm to wield the sword of death,
The French alone can round the polished phrase.
[She goes out.
SCENE III
TALBOT, BURGUNDY, LIONEL.
TALBOT
Heavens! What a woman!
LIONEL
Now, brave generals,
Your counsel! Shall we prosecute our flight,
Or turn, and with a bold and sudden stroke
Wipe out the foul dishonor of to-day?
BURGUNDY
We are too weak, our soldiers are dispersed,
The recent terror still unnerves the host.
TALBOT
Blind terror, sudden impulse of a moment,
Alone occasioned our disastrous rout.
This phantom of the terror-stricken brain,
More closely viewed will vanish into air.
My counsel, therefore, is, at break of day,
To lead the army back, across the stream,
To meet the enemy.
BURGUNDY
Consider well —
LIONEL
Your pardon! Here is nothing to consider
What we have lost we must at once retrieve,
Or look to be eternally disgraced.
TALBOT
It is resolved. To-morrow morn we fight,
This dread-inspiring phantom to destroy,
Which thus doth blind and terrify the host
Let us in fight encounter this she-devil.
If she oppose her person to our sword,
Trust me, she never will molest us more;
If she avoid our stroke – and be assured
She will not stand the hazard of a battle —
Then is the dire enchantment at an end?
LIONEL
So be it! And to me, my general, leave
This easy, bloodless combat, for I hope
Alive to take this ghost, and in my arms,
Before the Bastard's eyes – her paramour —
To bear her over to the English camp,
To be the sport and mockery of the host.
BURGUNDY
Make not too sure.
TALBOT
If she encounter me,
I shall not give her such a soft embrace.
Come now, exhausted nature to restore
Through gentle sleep. At daybreak we set forth.
[They go out.
SCENE IV
JOHANNA with her banner, in a helmet and breastplate, otherwise attired as a woman. DUNOIS, LA HIRE, knights and soldiers appear above upon the rocky path, pass silently over, and appear immediately after on the scene.
JOHANNA (to the knights who surround her while the procession continues above)
The wall is scaled and we are in the camp!
Now fling aside the mantle of still night,
Which hitherto hath veiled your silent march,
And your dread presence to the foe proclaim.
By your loud battle-cry – God and the maiden!
ALL (exclaim aloud, amidst the loud clang of arms).
God and the maiden!
[Drums and trumpets.
SENTINELS (behind the scene)
The foe! The foe! The foe!
JOHANNA
Ho! torches here. Hurl fire into the tents!
Let the devouring flames augment the horror,
While threatening death doth compass them around!
[Soldiers hasten on, she is about to follow.
DUNOIS (holding her back)
Thy part thou hast accomplished now, Johanna!
Into the camp thou hast conducted us,
The foe thou hast delivered in our hands,
Now from the rush of war remain apart!
The bloody consummation leave to us.
LA HIRE
Point out the path of conquest to the host;
Before us, in pure hand, the banner bear.
But wield the fatal weapon not thyself;
Tempt not the treacherous god of battle, for
He rageth blindly, and he spareth not.
JOHANNA
Who dares impede my progress? Who presume
The spirit to control which guideth me?
Still must the arrow wing its destined flight!
Where danger is, there must Johanna be;
Nor now, nor here, am I foredoomed to fall;
Our monarch's royal brow I first must see
Invested with the round of sovereignty.
No hostile power can rob me of my life,
Till I've accomplished the commands of God.
[She goes out.
LA HIRE
Come, let us follow after her, Dunois,
And let our valiant bosoms be her shield!
[Exit.
SCENE V
ENGLISH SOLDIERS hurry over the stage.
Afterwards TALBOT.
1 SOLDIER
The maiden in the camp!
2 SOLDIER
Impossible!
It cannot be! How came she in the camp?
3 SOLDIER
Why, through the air! The devil aided her!
4 AND 5 SOLDIERS
Fly! fly! We are dead men!
TALBOT (enters)
They heed me not! They stay not at my call!
The sacred bands of discipline are loosed!
As hell had poured her damned legions forth,
A wild, distracting impulse whirls along,
In one mad throng, the cowardly and brave.
I cannot rally e'en the smallest troop
To form a bulwark gainst the hostile flood,
Whose raging billows press into our camp!
Do I alone retain my sober senses,
While all around in wild delirium rave?
To fly before these weak, degenerate Frenchmen
Whom we in twenty battles have overthrown?
Who is she then – the irresistible —
The dread-inspiring goddess, who doth turn
At once the tide of battle, and transform
The lions bold a herd of timid deer?
A juggling minx, who plays the well-learned part
Of heroine, thus to appal the brave?
A woman snatch from me all martial fame?
SOLDIER (rushing in)
The maiden comes! Fly, general, fly! fly!
TALBOT (strikes him down)
Fly thou, thyself, to hell! This sword shall pierce
Who talks to me of fear, or coward flight!
[He goes out.
SCENE VI
The prospect opens. The English camp is seen in flames.
Drums, flight, and pursuit. After a while MONTGOMERY enters.
MONTGOMERY (alone)
Where shall I flee? Foes all around and death! Lo! here
The furious general, who with threatening sword, prevents
Escape, and drives us back into the jaws of death.
The dreadful maiden there – the terrible – who like
Devouring flame, destruction spreads; while all around
Appears no bush wherein to hide – no sheltering cave!
Oh, would that o'er the sea I never had come here!
Me miserable – empty dreams deluded me —
Cheap glory to achieve on Gallia's martial fields.
And I am guided by malignant destiny
Into this murderous flight. Oh, were I far, far hence.
Still in my peaceful home, on Severn's flowery banks,
Where in my father's house, in sorrow and in tears,
I left my mother and my fair young bride.
[JOHANNA appears in the distance.
Wo's me! What do I see! The dreadful form appears!
Arrayed in lurid light, she from the raging fire
Issues, as from the jaws of hell, a midnight ghost.
Where shall I go? where flee? Already from afar
She seizes on me with her eye of fire, and flings
Her fatal and unerring coil, whose magic folds
With ever-tightening pressure, bind my feet and make
Escape impossible! Howe'er my heart rebels,
I am compelled to follow with my gaze that form
Of dread!
[JOHANNA advances towards him some steps; and again remains standing.
She comes! I will not passively await
Her furious onset! Imploringly I'll clasp
Her knees! I'll sue to her for life. She is a woman.
I may perchance to pity move her by my tears!
[While he is on the point of approaching her she draws near.
SCENE VII
JOHANNA, MONTGOMERY.
JOHANNA
Prepare to die! A British mother bore thee!
MONTGOMERY (falls at her feet)
Fall back, terrific one! Forbear to strike
An unprotected foe! My sword and shield
I've flung aside, and supplicating fall
Defenceless at thy feet. A ransom take!
Extinguish not the precious light of life!
With fair possessions crowned, my father dwells
In Wales' fair land, where among verdant meads
The winding Severn rolls his silver tide,
And fifty villages confess his sway.
With heavy gold he will redeem his son,
When he shall hear I'm in the camp of France.
JHANNA
Deluded mortal! to destruction doomed!
Thou'rt fallen in the maiden's hand, from which
Redemption or deliverance there is none.
Had adverse fortune given thee a prey
To the fierce tiger or the crocodile —
Hadst robbed the lion mother of her brood —
Compassion thou might'st hope to find and pity;
But to encounter me is certain death.
For my dread compact with the spirit realm —
The stern inviolable – bindeth me,
To slay each living thing whom battle's God,
Full charged with doom, delivers to my sword.
MONTGOMERY
Thy speech is fearful, but thy look is mild;
Not dreadful art thou to contemplate near;
My heart is drawn towards thy lovely form.
Oh! by the mildness of thy gentle sex,
Attend my prayer. Compassionate my youth.
JOHANNA
Name me not woman! Speak not of my sex!
Like to the bodiless spirits, who know naught
Of earth's humanities, I own no sex;
Beneath this vest of steel there beats no heart.
MONTGOMERY
Oh! by love's sacred, all-pervading power,
To whom all hearts yield homage, I conjure thee.
At home I left behind a gentle bride,
Beauteous as thou, and rich in blooming grace:
Weeping she waiteth her betrothed's return.
Oh! if thyself dost ever hope to love,
If in thy love thou hopest to be happy,
Then ruthless sever not two gentle hearts,
Together linked in love's most holy bond!
JOHANNA
Thou dost appeal to earthly, unknown gods,
To whom I yield no homage. Of love's bond,
By which thou dost conjure me, I know naught
Nor ever will I know his empty service.
Defend thy life, for death doth summon thee.
MONTGOMERY
Take pity on my sorrowing parents, whom
I left at home. Doubtless thou, too, hast left
Parents, who feel disquietude for thee.
JOHANNA
Unhappy man! thou dost remember me
How many mothers of this land your arms
Have rendered childless and disconsolate;
How many gentle children fatherless;
How many fair young brides dejected widows!
Let England's mothers now be taught despair,
And learn to weep the bitter tear oft shed
By the bereaved and sorrowing wives of France.
MONTGOMERY
'Tis hard in foreign lands to die unwept.
JOHANNA
Who called you over to this foreign land,
To waste the blooming culture of our fields,
To chase the peasant from his household hearth,
And in our cities' peaceful sanctuary
To hurl the direful thunderbolt of war?
In the delusion of your hearts ye thought
To plunge in servitude the freeborn French,
And to attach their fair and goodly realm,
Like a small boat, to your proud English bark!
Ye fools! The royal arms of France are hung
Fast by the throne of God; and ye as soon
From the bright wain of heaven might snatch a star
As rend a single village from this realm,
Which shall remain inviolate forever!
The day of vengeance is at length arrived;
Not living shall ye measure back the sea,
The sacred sea – the boundary set by God
Betwixt our hostile nations – and the which
Ye ventured impiously to overpass.
MONTGOMERY (lets go her hands)
Oh, I must die! I feel the grasp of death!
JOHANNA
Die, friend! Why tremble at the approach of death?
Of mortals the irrevocable doom?
Look upon me! I'm born a shepherd maid;
This hand, accustomed to the peaceful crook,
Is all unused to wield the sword of death.
Yet, snatched away from childhood's peaceful haunts,
From the fond love of father and of sisters,
Urged by no idle dream of earthly glory,
But heaven-appointed to achieve your ruin,
Like a destroying angel I must roam,
Spreading dire havoc around me, and at length
Myself must fall a sacrifice to death!
Never again shall I behold my home!
Still, many of your people I must slay,
Still, many widows make, but I at length
Myself shall perish, and fulfil my doom.
Now thine fulfil. Arise! resume thy sword,
And let us fight for the sweet prize of life.
MONTGOMERY (stands up)
Now, if thou art a mortal like myself,
Can weapons wound thee, it may be assigned
To this good arm to end my country's woe,
Thee sending, sorceress, to the depths of hell.
In God's most gracious hands I leave my fate.
Accursed one! to thine assistance call
The fiends of hell! Now combat for thy life!
[He seizes his sword and shield, and rushes upon her; martial music is heard in the distance. After a short conflict MONTGOMERY falls.
SCENE VIII
JOHANNA (alone)
To death thy foot did bear thee – fare thee well!
[She steps away from him and remains absorbed in thought.
Virgin, thou workest mightily in me!
My feeble arm thou dost endue with strength,
And steep'st my woman's heart in cruelty.
In pity melts the soul and the hand trembles,
As it did violate some sacred fane,
To mar the goodly person of the foe.
Once I did shudder at the polished sheath,
But when 'tis needed, I'm possessed with strength,
And as it were itself a thing of life,
The fatal weapon, in my trembling grasp,
Self-swayed, inflicteth the unerring stroke.
SCENE IX
A KNIGHT with closed visor, JOHANNA.
KNIGHT
Accursed one! thy hour of death has come!
Long have I sought thee on the battle-field,
Fatal delusion! get thee back to hell,
Whence thou didst issue forth.
JOHANNA
Say, who art thou,
Whom his bad genius sendeth in my way?
Princely thy port, no Briton dost thou seem,
For the Burgundian colors stripe thy shield,
Before the which my sword inclines its point.
KNIGHT
Vile castaway! Thou all unworthy art
To fall beneath a prince's noble hand.
The hangman's axe should thy accursed head
Cleave from thy trunk, unfit for such vile use
The royal Duke of Burgundy's brave sword.
JOHANNA
Art thou indeed that noble duke himself?
KNIGHT (raises his visor)
I'm he, vile creature, tremble and despair!
The arts of hell shall not protect thee more.
Thou hast till now weak dastards overcome;
Now thou dost meet a man.