And
yet, forsooth, she is a virgin pure.—
Strumpet,
thy words condemn thy brat and thee:
Use
no entreaty, for it is in vain.
Duke of York
King Henry The Sixth Part I Act
V, scene iv Line 93
Okay, what’ve we got here? This is the Duke of York talking
to Joan, with obvious disdain and scorn. It looks like we covered this scene back on 11/17. Remember?
Joan was talking about being pregnant, and then a virgin, and then this one was
the father, and then that one. She was saying anything and everything, trying to get out of being hanged, or
burnt at the stake, or whatever they were planning on doing to her. Well this
is the Duke’s comment before Joan responds with resignation, and a
certain amount of venom, whilst being led away. So what should we talk about today?
Well here’s that ‘forsooth’ word again. Gotta love forsooth.
And what about ‘strumpet'. That’s a good one. I think you get the idea that strumpet is
not a term of endearment, but let’s take a look in the Shakespeare glossary to
get a proper definition. Ooh, not so good. It’s harlot, prostitute or whore.
Well that’s not very nice at all. As I’ve said before, Joan may have been made
a saint for the French, but I don’t think the English, especially of Will’s
time, thought so highly of here.
Anything else on today’s line? I think I’ll end by giving
you the Duke’s final words spoken to Joan as she’s being led away and leave you
with that. And I’ll let you decide what you think the Brits opinion of Joan is.
Break
thou in pieces, and consume to ashes,
Thou foul accursed minister of hell!
And this is what the French eventually did with that accursed minister of hell. They put her on a postage stamp. No, really. This is a genuine French postage stamp. I'm not sure, but I don't think you'll be finding too many British postage stamps with Joan on them.
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