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Summary
Talbot arrives outside the gates of Bordeaux. The French General appears on the city gates and informs Talbot that their fortifications are strong enough to resist his forces. Moreover, he announces, Charles’s armies now prepare to attack Talbot from behind, so he will be unable to retreat. Talbot can hear the approach of Charles’s army, so he knows the General speaks the truth. But the English never die without a fight, he says; they’ll turn on the French forces that surround them.
Elsewhere in France, York asks his messenger where Charles’s troops are, and the messenger announces that they have gone to Bordeaux, where they will overwhelm Talbot. York curses Somerset, who has delayed the supply of horsemen he’d promised to send. Without the cavalry, York’s standing army can’t help Talbot. Another messenger, Sir William Lucy, enters. He also urges York to send troops or Talbot will be doomed, but York says he can’t do anything. York’s distress grows when he learns that Talbot’s son, John, has also arrived in Bordeaux. When he exits, Lucy is left to ruminate on how dissension among the nobles will lead to the loss of France.
Meanwhile, in another part of France, Somerset recognizes that it’s too late to dispatch his cavalry, and he curses York and Talbot for their haste in approaching Bordeaux. Lucy now arrives at his camp and urges Somerset not to let his private disagreements keep aid from reaching Talbot in time. Somerset insists that York is at fault for this dire situation, but he promises to send his horsemen right away. Lucy, however, says it’s too late and declares that the great Talbot’s death will be the disputing noblemen’s shame.
Analysis
As we observe the events that will bring about Talbot’s downfall, it’s hard not to take sides. York seems genuinely distraught that he can’t do his duty and help Talbot. He simply has no troops to send. He curses Somerset for not providing the cavalry that he promised, and he immediately foresees the consequences of their failure to unite their efforts: “[Talbot] dies, we lose; I break my warlike word; / We mourn, France smiles; we lose, they daily get, / All ’long of this vile traitor Somerset” (4.3.31–33). The succinctness of his vision will be echoed by Lucy in the following scene. There, the messenger, now speaking to Somerset, diagnoses the cause of this military failure and predicts what will happen in its wake: “The fraud of England, not the force of France, / Hath now entrapped the noble-minded Talbot. / Never to England shall he bear his life, / But dies betrayed to fortune by your strife” (4.4.36–39). As the audience has intuited for some time now, the dissension amongst the English nobility will lead to major loss.
For his part, Somerset agrees that Talbot will probably die at Bordeaux, but he initially refuses to admit any responsibility. Instead, he persists in his childish obstinacy, reframing the situation as the fault of others. Talbot was “overdaring” (4.4.5) in his bid to lay siege on Bordeaux, and York encouraged the general in his plan so that, “Talbot dead, great York might bear the name” (9). Even now, when the situation couldn’t be more dire, Somerset still can’t see matters clearly. In his mind, Talbot is merely collateral in York’s ongoing attempt to defraud him. Only later does he relent, but seemingly only to appease Lucy—not because he’s let go of his grudge against York. In the lead-up to Talbot’s death, Shakespeare clearly orients the audience to sympathize with York. This is most likely because Queen Elizabeth herself was a descendent of this line. But regardless of whether the playwright had ulterior motives here, the new light he sheds on the lords’ dispute also helps to develop and differentiate these men as dramatic characters.
