Page 241 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

ALENÇON

Seigneur, no.

T ALBOT

Seigneur, hang! Base muleteers of France,
Like peasant footboys do they keep the walls
And dare not take up arms like gentlemen. [70]

PUCELLE

Away, captains; let’s get us from the walls,
For Talbot means no goodness by his looks.
Goodbye, my lord; we came but to tell you
That we are here.

Exeunt from the walls.

T ALBOT

And there will we be too, ere it be long, [75]
Or else reproach be Talbot’s greatest fame.
Vow, Burgundy, by honour of thy house,
Pricked on by public wrongs sustained in France,
Either to get the town again or die.
And I, as sure as English Henry lives, [80]
And as his father here was conqueror,
As sure as in this late-betrayèd town
Great Cœur-de-lion’s heart was burièd,
So sure I swear to get the town or die.

BURGUNDY

My vows are equal partners with thy vows. [85]

T ALBOT

But, ere we go, regard this dying prince,
The valiant Duke of Bedford. - Come, my lord,
We will bestow you in some better place,
Fitter for sickness and for crazy age.

BEDFORD

Lord Talbot, do not so dishonour me; [90]
Here will I sit, before the walls of Rouen,
And will be partner of your weal or woe.