Saint Joan

them off for so long. La Hire You will miss the fighting. It’s a bad habit, but a grand one, and the hardest of all to break yourself of. Charles Anxiously. Still, we don’t want you to stay if you would really rather go home. Joan Bitterly. I know well that none of you will be sorry to see me go. She turns her shoulder to Charles and walks past him to the more congenial neighborhood of Dunois and La Hire. La Hire Well, I shall be able to swear when I want to. But I shall miss you at times. Joan La Hire: in spite of all your sins and swears we shall meet in heaven; for I love you as I love Pitou, my old sheep dog. Pitou could kill a wolf. You will kill the English wolves until they go back to their country and become good dogs of God, will you not? La Hire You and I together: yes. Joan No: I shall last only a year from the beginning. All the Others What! Joan I know it somehow. Dunois Nonsense! Joan Jack: do you think you will be able to drive them out? Dunois With quiet conviction. Yes: I shall drive them out. They beat us because we thought battles were tournaments and ransom markets. We played the fool while the goddams took war seriously. But I have learnt my lesson, and taken their measure. They have no roots here. I have beaten them before; and I shall beat them again. Joan You will not be cruel to them, Jack? Dunois The goddams will not yield to tender handling. We did not begin it. Joan Suddenly. Jack: before I go home, let us take Paris. Charles Terrified. Oh no no. We shall lose everything we have gained. Oh don’t let us have any more fighting. We can make a very good treaty with the Duke of Burgundy. Joan Treaty! She stamps with impatience. Charles Well, why not, now that I am crowned and anointed? Oh, that oil! The Archbishop comes from the vestry, and joins the group between Charles and Bluebeard. Charles Archbishop: The Maid wants to start fighting again. The Archbishop Have we ceased fighting, then? Are we at peace? Charles No: I suppose not; but let us be content with what we have done. Let us make a treaty. Our luck is too good to last; and now is our chance to stop before it turns. Joan Luck! God has fought for us; and you call it luck! And you would stop while there are still Englishmen on this holy earth of dear France! The Archbishop Sternly. Maid: the king addressed himself to me, not to you. You forget yourself. You very often forget yourself. Joan Unabashed, and rather roughly. Then speak, you; and tell him that it is not God’s will that he should take his hand from the plough. The Archbishop If I am not so glib with the name of God as you are, it is because I interpret His will with the authority of the Church and of my sacred office. When you first came you respected it, and would not have dared to speak as you are now speaking. You came clothed with the virtue of humility; and because God blessed your enterprises accordingly, you have stained yourself with the sin of pride. The old Greek tragedy is rising among us. It is the chastisement of hubris. Charles Yes: she thinks she knows better than everyone else. Joan Distressed, but naively incapable of seeing the effect she is producing. But I do know better than any of you seem to. And I am not proud: I never speak unless I know I am right. Exclaiming together. Bluebeard Ha ha! Charles Just so. The Archbishop How do you know you are right? Joan I always know. My voices⁠— Charles Oh, your voices, your voices. Why don’t the voices come to me? I am king, not you. Joan They do come to you; but you do not hear them. You have not sat in the field in the evening listening for them. When the angelus rings you cross yourself and have done with it; but if you prayed from your heart, and listened to the thrilling of the bells in the air after they stop ringing, you would hear the voices as well as I do. Turning brusquely from him. But what voices do you need to tell you what the blacksmith can tell you: that you must strike while the iron is hot? I tell you we must make a dash at Compiègne and relieve it as we relieved Orleans. Then Paris will open its gates; or if not, we will break through them. What is your crown worth without your capital? La Hire That is what I say too. We shall go through them like a red hot shot through a pound of butter. What do you say, Bastard? Dunois If our cannon balls were all as hot as your head, and we had enough of them, we should conquer the earth, no doubt. Pluck and impetuosity are good servants in war, but bad masters; they have delivered us into the hands of the English every time we have trusted to them. We never know when we are beaten: that is our great fault. Joan You never know when you are victorious: that is a worse fault. I shall have to make you carry looking-glasses in battle to convince you that the English have not cut off all your noses. You would have been besieged in Orleans still, you and your councils of war, if I had not made you attack. You should always attack; and if you only hold on long enough the enemy will stop first. You don’t know how to begin a battle; and you don’t know how to use your cannons. And I do. She squats down on the flags with crossed ankles, pouting. Dunois I know what you think of us, General Joan. Joan Never mind that, Jack. Tell them what you