Henry VI Part 1

Roles

• Talbot - Adult (36-50), Senior (>50), Male

About this piece

Talbot describes his time as a prisoner

Summary

The setting is the Hundred Years War between the English and the French. Talbot, an English general who was captured by the French and held prisoner, has just been freed. Salisbury, an English soldier, asks Talbot how he escaped the French jail. In his monologue Talbot explains that the Duke of Bedford exchanged him for a French nobleman. He is angry at the French because they would have been willing to trade him for a man of less importance than the nobleman and he would have preferred to die instead of being "so vile esteem'd". He is also angry at Fastolfe, an English soldier who betrayed him during battle. He then describes his time as a prisoner of the French. They were all frightened of him and paraded him in an "open market-place". They were so afraid that he could have escaped that they had soldiers guard him even when he slept.

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