 The CBS radio workshop dedicated to man's imagination the theater of the mind Tonight the eternal Joan The story of Jean Dark as provided by historians novelists and playwrights of different nationalities and points of view Narrated on tape by Lewis Cronenberger author playwright and critic and dramatized by Henry E. Fritch with Elspeth Eric as Joan Oh A saint this was the old market square in the French city of Rouen on the morning of the 30th of May 1431 The occasion was the burning of a young peasant girl not much past her 19th birthday Her name was Jeanette her family name was dark First without an apostate then with one after Joan had got her family a noble We now know her as John dark or in the English equivalent Joan of Arc Joan died a fearful death on that pleasant May morning more than five centuries ago She was tied to a wooden stake standing on a pile of kindling and firewood and slowly charred She had first been excommunicated by her church We having seen and weighed all there is to see and weigh Have said and decreed that in the simulation of your revelations and apparitions you have been pernicious seductive presumptuous of light belief rush superstitious a witch a Blast femur of God a despiser of him in his sacraments a Provaricator these are actual quotations from the official record of the trial of Joan of Arc before an ecclesiastical court at rule Very gravely at our faith and by this means having rashly trespassed against God in the holy church Therefore we denounced she was a rotten member which must be cast out and given over to the secular power The secular power to which Joan was given over by her own countrymen That is the English army of occupation did not even take the trouble to hold a trial or to make formal charges Her sentence took less than a minute What now priest are you going to keep us here to dinner? English soldier broke a stick in half and tied it together in the form of a cross Joan kissed the makeshift emblem and clutched it tightly to her body a Short time later. She was dead Yet only 25 years later Joan was cleared of all the accusations that have been brought against her and she was officially declared a saint in 1920 More than 40,000 statues have been erected to her in France alone plus many others in other lands including our own United States Why? Thousands of books and plays have been written about her in various languages Why? Here is our own Samuel Clemens Caesar carried conquest far But he did it with the trained and confident veterans of Rome and he was a trained soldier himself Napoleon swept away the disciplined armies of Europe But he also was a trained soldier and he began his work with Patriot battalions inspired by the miracle-working new breath of liberty Joan a mere child in years ignorant Unlettered a poor village girl Unknown and without influence Found a great nation lying in chains Helpless and hopeless under an alien domination Its king was cowed resigned and preparing to flee the country and Joan laid hands upon this nation this corpse and it rose and Followed her But this point alone is not enough to explain the universal appeal which Joan the maid has had for all the world Yes, even for the Marquesas Islanders in the Pacific Who to this day are convinced that the English ate Joan or else? Why would they have wanted to roast her there's little doubt about the bear facts since? Fortunately complete records of Joan's long trials have come down to us But for the touchstones of human understanding we have to turn to those who have tried to interpret Joan on the basis of individual insight Her historians novelists and playwrights of different nationalities and points of view I'll start at the beginning It's always nicer at the beginning I'll begin with my father's house when I was still very small I'm in the meadow now watching my sheep It's the first time I hear the voices after the evening Angelus That was the voice of Joan herself describing her first experience with the mystic powers that controlled the rest of her short life The scene is taken from the clay the lark written by Jean Annoui of France and adapted by Lillian Hellman. I Still wear my hair in a thick braid. I'm not thinking of anything. I Know only that God is good and that he keeps me pure and safe in this little corner of the earth near Dom Remy This one little piece which has not yet been destroyed by the English invaders. I live here happy with my father my mother and my brothers and suddenly Someone behind me touched my shoulder. I know very well. There is no one behind me. I Turn There is a great Blinding light the voice is grave and sweet. I never heard that kind of voice before That day the voice only said Be a good girl Joan and go off into church Well, I was good and I did go off into church So I didn't understand why the voice spoke that way and I was frightened But I didn't tell anybody I don't know why the second time it was the noon Angeles Came over the Sun and was stronger than the Sun There he was I saw him an Angel in a beautiful white robe that must have been ironed by someone very careful He didn't tell me his name that day, but later I found out he was more senior the Blessed Saint Michael Joan Go to the aid of the King of France and give him back his kingdom You will go first to Monsieur de Baudrecourt. He will give you men's clothes and have you taken to the dofa St. Catherine St. Margaret will go along to help you The dofan of course was Charles son and presumably legal heir of the last French King Charles VI Charles the father was generally regarded as mad and had signed a treaty with England This avowing his son and recognizing Henry the fifth of England as his heir He had also seated all of France north of the River Roire, which gave the English justification for their French campaigns The dofan was weak Yet this was demand for whose coronation at Rance as Charles the seventh of France Joan was to give her life Her voices had told her that so Joan received her mission. She didn't leave her native. Don't rain me right away She was 17 before she felt ready to set out into the unknown world to help rescue France For a poetic view of Joan's farewell to her beloved countryside There is nobody better to turn to than that German romanticist to end all romanticists Friedrich Schiller and his play the maid of Orleans Well, you mountains your beloved glades alone in peaceful valleys Very well Through you Johanna never more may stray Johanna goes and there returns again Such is to me the spirits high behest To galls heroic sons deliverance brings Relieve beleaguered worlds and crown thy King And so instructed by a power higher than any earthly authority Jeanette reluctantly left her childhood home in Don Ray me to become the maid a few months later in Rance Joan saw her great dream come true The dofan her dofan was anointed with the heaven sent oil and formally crowned King Charles the seventh of France When Joan left home Papa Jacques and Mama Isabel knew only that their daughter was going to visit her favorite uncle in the village of Bury But Bury was near vocular the residents of Messiah Robert de Bodricure when the archangel had directed Joan to see as the first step in her mission The actual meeting when it took place may well have been one of the most hilarious interviews of all time Here is the version of Bernard Shaw whose place ain't Joan is generally regarded as the classic Interpretation of Joan's character and behavior the loud voice is that of the captain sire Robert de Bodricure But the first voice is that of his unhappy steward fresh out of eggs Sir, I tell you there are no eggs There will be none not if you kill me for it as long as the maid is at the door the maid What maid what are you talking about the girl from Lorraine sir from Don Ray me 30,000 thunders. I told you to throw her out You have 50 men at arms and a dozen lumps of able-bodied servants to carry out my orders. Are they afraid of her? She is so positive sir positive now see here. I'm going to throw you downstairs. No, sir, please Well, stop me by being positive. It's quite easy any sloth of a girl can do it sir Sir, you cannot get rid of her by throwing me out you see sir. You are much more positive than I am But so is she you parcel of curse you are afraid of her no, sir We are afraid of you, but she puts courage into us. She really doesn't seem afraid of anything Perhaps you could frighten her sir perhaps Where is she now down in the courtyard sir talking to the soldiers as usual She shall talk to me a bit And up you there come up here you soldiers show other way and Shove her along quick. She wants to go and be a soldier herself. She wants you to give her soldiers clothes Armors her and a soul Good morning captain Squire Captain you were to give me a horse and armor and some soldiers and send me to the dofile Those are your orders from my lord orders from your lord and who may your lord be? Go back to him and tell him that I am neither duke nor peer at his orders I am Squire of Vodricor and I take no orders except from the king. Yes, that's all right My lord is the king of heaven. Why the girls mad. They all say I'm mad till I talk to them squire But you will see that it is the will of God that you were to do what he has put in my mind It is the will of God that I shall send you back to your father with orders to put you under lock and key and fresh the madness out of you Thank you will squire, but you'll find it all coming quite different You said you would not see me, but here I am now listen to me. I am going to a suit myself. Please do squire The horse will cost 16 francs. It's a good deal of money, but I can save it on the armor I shall not want many soldiers the dofile will give me all I need to raise the siege of all y'all to raise the siege of all Yes, that is what God is sending me to do. Well, I am damned no squire God is very merciful You will go to paradise and your name will be remembered as my first helper Joan got her horse her equipment and her escort But when her small party arrived at she know after a hard ride through 350 miles of winter landscape She's still faced her main problem How was she a poor illiterate country girl going to get an audience with the Dauphin himself? News of her arrival at she know finally reached even the ears of the Dauphin and Joan was in the end admitted to the court But to make sure that she was really divinely inspired Charles and his courtiers decided to play a trick on her Someone else would sit on the throne and pretend to be the Dauphin While Charles himself would hide in the crowd of attendants making himself inconspicuous Here are two versions of what happened when Joan entered the royal hall the chateau at she know The first is that of sure as Joan enters She surveys the resplendent hall and looks up at the army commander dune Wah who in this version is impersonating the Dauphin on his throne Dune Wah welcomes her now the wondrous me Dune Wah more Leon thou will tempt thy God This place abandoned which becomes the knot To this more mighty one the maid is sent Joan walks firmly toward the Dauphin who is peering from behind the back of a knight She kneels before him Charles is understandably surprised maiden Donner has seen my face before Whence hast thou this knowledge the I saw when none besides save God in heaven saw thee Be think the doffer in the bygone night when all around lay buried in deep sleep Thou from thy couch didst rise and offer up an earnest prayer to God disclosed to me my prayer and I shall doubt no more that God inspired thee God is pray that if there were appended in this crown unjust possession Or if heavy guilt occasioned this most lamentable war God would accept thee as a sacrifice Have mercy on thy people and pour forth upon thy head the chalice of his wrath Who art thou mighty one? Whence comes thou? Shall I indeed withstand mine enemies friends? I will lay submissive at thy feet and all he answers Thou will not be surrendered the law shall sooner run its waters back shall I in triumph enter Rass I through 10,000 foes will lead thee In the modern a new a helman play the doffer is no storybook king as the scene opens Charles is lolling indolently on his throne playing with one of those cup and ball toys that still delight children today Enter the Archbishop of Rass watch Bishop You have arrived just in time. I am on the point of governing. There is not time for gesture majesty We are faced with a dangerous problem of this peasant girl The people are in love with her they're convinced that God has sent her to you and that she alone can save France They think she works miracles. I have sympathy for them. They are as desperate as I am As for this girl. I have no curiosity about her. I Know too many people as it is and a messenger from God doesn't sound very amusing But I want to be a good king and please my people therefore I shall see this girl I think I might like to play a trick on her. Let's put a page upon the throne Let's clothe him in the royal doublet with the fewest patches He'll look better than I do and let us enjoy the sight of God's envoy pleading her cause to a page boy And so when Joan timidly enters the throne room, it's a young court attendant who is impersonating the doffer She sees through the deception. However, just as quickly she did in the case of Dunois in Schiller's play She surveys the crowd and will walk straight to Charles who tries to run from her. What do you want? No, but I am Joan the maid The king of heaven has sent me to tell you that you must be anointed and crowned in the city of France Well Well, that is splendid mademoiselle, but Rance is in the hands of the English as far as I know How shall we get there? We will fight our way there noble doffer First we will take all y'all and then we will walk to Rance God told me noble doffer You haven't come here to kill me No No, of course not You have an honest face I've lived so long with these pirates that I've almost forgotten what an honest face looks like Are there many people who have honest faces many sides, and I never see them But all right start boring me. Tell me that I ought to be a great king Yes, Charles in the end Joan gets what she wants her army her appointment And a dazzling white suit of armor especially made for her Joan's effect upon the English troops who had been just about invincible until she appeared is described by Schiller The voices are those of English soldiers except for the rather heart-rending lament of their commander to John Talbot Impossible it cannot be how come she in the tank I threw the air the devil aided her why They heed me not They stain out at my call the sacred bonds of discipline are loosed Cannot rally in the smallest troop Wish she then be irresistible the dread inspiring goddess who does turn it once the tide of battle and Transform to lion's boulder heard of timid deer a woman snatched from me all Marshal fame Well as we know The army with which Joan took the field did liberate Orleans and within a few months had cleared the road to Rance So that the Dauphin could be properly consecrated King of France Joan's army then turned to liberate Paris, but the siege of Paris was called off Joan wounded for the third time in a year was captured some months later by Burgundian soldiers Who were then allied with the English the Burgundian soldier to the English command for 10,000 French pounds a Some normally paid only for the highest nobles The English in turn handed Joan over to a French ecclesiastical court convened in English occupied Rouen For trial on charges of sorcery witchcraft or anything else that would lead to excommunication The idea was that once Joan had been convicted on any such charge by her own countrymen The English would be free to condemn an executor for the damage. She had caused them and That's the way it worked out Joan Commonly called the maid Having been captured within our diocese of Beauvais and having been surrendered Dispatched given and delivered to us as a person vehemently suspected of heresy after weeks of badgering Joan exhausted and terrified of death by fire Finally put her mark to a paper which she was unable to read Admitting all the sins charged against her and for swearing them for the future She even resumed female clothing for a short time But when she found out that her promised acquittal would mean only life imprisonment on a diet of bread and water The bread of sorrow and the water of affliction as the judges put it She decided that she preferred a swifter death. However horrible Bernard Shaw describes her so-called relapse like this They told me you were fools You promised me my life, but you lied You think that life is nothing but not being stoned dead. It is not the bread and water I fear Bread has no sorrow for me and water no affliction But to shut me from the light of the sky and the sight of the fields and flowers To chain my feet to make me breathe foul damp darkness and Keep me from everything that brings me back to the love of God. I could do without my war horse I could drag about in a skirt I could let the banners and the trumpets and the nights and soldiers pass me and leave me behind as they leave the other women If only I could still hear the wind and the trees Locks and the sunshine The young lambs crying through the healthy frost And the blessed church bells But without these things I cannot live What I am I will not denounce What I have done I will not deny and We still have from Joan what is perhaps the most touching answer ever given to a life-and-death question in the history of Inquisition Joan do you now believe yourself to be in a state of grace? If I am not May God put me there if I am may God so keep me that was Joan of Arc Did anyone ever understand her? Do we understand her today? Perhaps Sean on newy said it best you cannot explain Joan Anymore than you can explain the tiniest flower growing by the wayside There's just a little living flower That has always known ever since it was a microscopic seed How many petals it would have and how big they would grow? Exactly how blue its blue would be and how its delicate scent would be compounded There is just the phenomenon of Joan as there is the phenomenon of a daisy or the sky Or a bird What pretentious creatures men are if that is not enough for them You have been listening to the CBS radio workshop and the eternal Joan a treatment of the Joan of Arc story Written by Henry E. Fritch with Elspeth Eric as Joan and Louis Cronenberger drama critic for Time magazine as tape narrator The eternal Joan was produced and directed by Paul Roberts Music composed and conducted by Alexander Steinert Included in tonight's cast were Alan Hewitt as Baudrecourt and Jack Manning as the dofan Also heard were John Gibson Daniel Acoe Bob Dryden Louis Van Rooton Roger Decoven Ed Prentice Guy Rep Ellen Muir Gladys Holland and Ruth Tobin This is Bob Height inviting you to join us next week when from Hollywood We'll present a portrait of Paris a Word picture of the French capital recorded by David Shonebrunn chief of the Paris Bureau of CBS News America listens most to the CBS radio network