SAINT JOAN scene 4

Inside a tent in the English camp, a chaplain (John de Stogumber) is writing, while a nobleman (Richard de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick) reads an illustrated book. The chaplain is concerned that the English have started to lose battles; Orleans went to the French, and a series of similar losses have followed. The nobleman replies, realistically, that only in books and ballads do enemies go always undefeated. The men regard Joan as sorceress. Warwick is more anxious about the proven capabilities of Dunois. Nonetheless, he plans to offer a large sum of money for the betrayal of Joan, who will then be burnt for witchcraft.

A page announces the arrival of the Bishop of Beauvais, Peter Cauchon. Warwick welcomes him warmly. They discuss the imminent coronation of Charles VII. It is agreed that the crowning of the Dauphin is a strategic master-stroke. The Englishmen advocate that Joan should be tried for sorcery, and burned if found guilty. De Stogumber is especially vehement. Cauchon is more measured in his evaluation, and insists that a French court should be involved. He points out that Joan carries the names of Christ and the Virgin Mary on her banner, and suggests that there might conceivably have been divine sanction for her actions, although he favours a theory that the devil has been involved. He is angered by Warwick’s presumptuousness in assuming that he may act as the secular arm of the Church and oversee the burning of Joan. But the men are agreed that she poses a threat to them both and to the interests that they represent.

Warwick refers to Joan’s Protestantism. Cauchon warns against the dangerous rise of nationalistic sentiment, which he regards as anti-Christian in its divisiveness since it amounts to the dethroning of Christ. De Stognumber argues the case for an ‘England for the English’ policy (pg 99). He claims that the English are a privileged people with ‘peculiar fitness to rule over less civilized races for their own good’ (pg 100).