Talbot monologue (Act 1) — King Henry VI, Part 1

With scoffs and scorns and contumelious taunts. In open market-place produced they me To be a public spectacle to all. Here, said they, is the terror of the French, The scarecrow that affrights our children so. Then broke I from the officers that led me, And with my nails digg’d stones out of the ground To hurl at the beholders of my shame. My grisly countenance made others fly; None durst come near for fear of sudden death. In iron walls they deem’d me not secure; So great fear of my name ’mongst them were spread That they supposed I could rend bars of steel And spurn in pieces posts of adamant. Wherefore a guard of chosen shot I had, That walk’d about me every minute while; And if I did but stir out of my bed, Ready they were to shoot me to the heart.