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Dauphin, I am by birth a shepherd’s daughter,
My wit untrained in any kind of art.
Heaven and our Lady gracious hath it pleased
To shine on my contemptible estate.
Lo, whilst I waited on my tender lambs,
And to sun’s parching heat displayed my cheeks,
God’s Mother deignèd to appear to me,
And in a vision, full of majesty,
Willed me to leave my base vocation
And free my country from calamity. (1.3.51–50)
These are Joan la Pucelle’s first words in the play, and she addresses them to the Dauphin Charles, whom she’s just identified without ever having met him before. Her speech here offers a characteristically plainspoken account of her origins as well as the visions that have inspired her “to leave my base vocation / And free my country from calamity.” The details of her origins and visions are particularly noteworthy, since they will be contradicted later in the play. For one thing, she claims here to be “by birth a shepherd’s daughter,” but when her shepherd father shows up at her trial, she denounces him and claims to be “the progeny of kings” (5.6.38). For another thing, she says that her visions come from the Virgin Mary, but in act 5, scene 3, we see her conjuring demonic “fiends” (SD 5.3.7), not speaking to the Mother of God.
Dismay not, princes, at this accident,
Nor grieve that Rouen is so recoverèd.
Care is no cure, but rather corrosive
For things that are not to be remedied.
Let frantic Talbot triumph for a while,
And like a peacock sweep along his tail;
We’ll pull his plumes and take away his train,
If Dauphin and the rest will be but ruled. (3.7.1–8)
These lines reflect the cold pragmatism that defines Joan as a military leader. They also show her boldness—she is, after all, a woman who has assumed a conventionally male role, and she now commands both Charles and his entourage of lords to “be but ruled” by her. Her commanding tone, as well as her boast about eventually defeating Talbot, reveals a masculine swagger that has perturbed the English, causing them to condemn her as a witch. But among the French, she has proven herself sufficiently so that she now has the full confidence of Charles and his lords.
Will nothing turn your unrelenting hearts?
Then Joan, discover thine infirmity,
That warranteth by law to be thy privilege:
I am with child, ye bloody homicides.
Murder not then the fruit within my womb,
Although you hale me to a violent death. (5.6.59–64)
Joan utters these lines during her trial, where she becomes increasingly desperate to save herself. Prior to this scene, Joan experienced a reversal of fortune when the demonic “fiends” she summoned refused to help her—a turn of events that led directly to her capture. That earlier scene revealed that she isn’t just the figurative witch the English have accused her of being; she’s an actual sorceress. That scene also undermined her previous claim to receive holy visions from the Virgin Mary. These revelations set the audience up to distrust everything Joan has said about herself. This distrust grows during the trial scene as she contradicts her prior emphasis on her virginity. (Recall that Joan la Pucelle means “Joan the Virgin.”) In these lines, she suddenly claims to be pregnant, hoping that this will spare her life. The English lords scoff at her contradictions and suppose that Charles is the father. But Joan says the father is Alençon, then she says it’s René. Here, in the eyes of the English, Joan la “Pucelle” effectively becomes Joan the “Puzel”—that is, “Joan the Whore.”
