Saint Joan

Scene 2 occurs in Chinon at the Dauphin’s palace. The Archbishop of Rheims and the Lord Chamberlain, Monseigneur de la Trémouille, are waiting for the Dauphin to meet with them in an antechamber beside the throne room. Trémouille is angry and impatient, complaining that the Dauphin owes him a lot of money. Gilles de Rais, a young nobleman called Bluebeard for his dyed facial hair, enters alongside Captain La Hire. La Hire is frightened because of an incident involving a soldier named Foul Mouth Frank. Frank was about to die after falling into a well, and in his last moments he told La Hire not to swear anymore, implying that his death is a punishment for swearing. Foul Mouth Frank said another soldier had warned him not to swear, but La Hire believes the soldier was actually an angel, since only a miracle would have allowed her to make her way from Champagne to Chinon without meeting any conflict on the dangerous roads.

The Dauphin, Charles VII, enters. He is childishly excited, but then becomes sulky when the Archbishop and Trémouille lecture him, complaining that they treat him with no respect because he owes them money. The Dauphin tells them that Baudricourt has sent him a saint and he intends to use her to prove his legitimacy, evoking the long history of saints allied with the French king, and to refute his mother’s

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