Joan: “You promised me my life; but you lied”

What is happening, what every line means, how to perform it, and how to use it in an audition, with the full text.

The Offbook team

Oct 8, 2026

What is happening

Shaw wrote Saint Joan in 1923, three years after the Church declared Joan a saint. Scene 6 is her trial: Rouen, 30 May 1431, in a great stone hall in the castle. Joan, the country girl whose voices sent her to lead the French army, was captured at Compiègne and is held by English soldiers. Now a church court led by the Bishop of Beauvais, Cauchon, and the Inquisitor is trying her for heresy, while the English, who want her dead, watch and wait.

When she is shown the executioner and told the stake is already built in the marketplace, her nerve breaks. She decides that her voices have deceived her and agrees to sign a confession. She cannot write, so Brother Martin Ladvenu guides her hand while she makes her mark. She expects to be set free. Instead, the Inquisitor sentences her to perpetual imprisonment, to eat “the bread of sorrow” and drink “the water of affliction” for the rest of her days.

Joan rises in terrible anger. She rushes to the table, snatches up the confession and tears it to pieces, and tells them to light their fire: her voices were right. When Ladvenu cries her name, this is her answer, to the whole court. It seals her fate. The court declares her a relapsed heretic and hands her over to the English, who take her straight to the stake.

Lines: 9
Words: 282
At 150 wpm: 1.9 min
Form: Prose

The speech, beat by beat

The full text in 5 beats. Under each beat: what it means in plain English, and a note for playing it.

Lines 1–3 · You lied

1Yes: they told me you were fools, and that I was not to listen to your fine words nor trust to your charity.
You promised me my life; but you lied.
You think that life is nothing but not being stone dead.

In plain English Yes: my voices told me you were fools, and warned me not to listen to your clever words or trust your kindness. You promised me my life, but you lied. You think life is nothing more than not being dead.

Acting note “Yes” answers Ladvenu’s cry of her name; she is agreeing with her voices, not with him. In Shaw’s text the word “fools” gives great offence and “you lied” is met by indignant shouting. She says both to a room full of churchmen; let the reaction hit her and drive on through it.

Lines 4–6 · Not the bread and water

4It is not the bread and water I fear: I can live on bread: when have I asked for more?
5It is no hardship to drink water if the water be clean.
Bread has no sorrow for me, and water no affliction.

In plain English It is not the bread and water I am afraid of. I can live on bread; when have I ever asked for more? Drinking water is no hardship, as long as it is clean. Bread holds no sorrow for me, and water no suffering.

Acting note The Inquisitor has just sentenced her to the bread of sorrow and the water of affliction. Line 6 throws his own words back at him. She is almost scornful: they have chosen the wrong punishment.

Lines 7–7 · What would kill her

7But to shut me from the light of the sky and the sight of the fields and flowers; to chain my feet so that I can never again ride with the soldiers nor climb the hills; to make me breathe foul damp darkness, and keep from me everything that brings me back to the love of God when your wickedness and foolishness tempt me to hate Him: all this is worse than the furnace in the Bible that was heated seven times.── 60-second cut ends here ──

In plain English But to shut me away from the light of the sky and the sight of fields and flowers; to chain my feet so I can never ride with the soldiers or climb the hills again; to make me breathe foul, damp darkness, and keep from me everything that brings me back to loving God when your wickedness and foolishness tempt me to hate Him: all that is worse than the fiery furnace in the Bible.

Acting note One huge sentence. Each “to” adds a new thing they would take from her. The heart of it comes near the end: prison would tempt her to hate God. That is the danger she will not accept.

Lines 8–8 · What she could give up

8I could do without my warhorse; I could drag about in a skirt; I could let the banners and the trumpets and the knights and soldiers pass me and leave me behind as they leave the other women, if only I could still hear the wind in the trees, the larks in the sunshine, the young lambs crying through the healthy frost, and the blessed blessed church bells that send my angel voices floating to me on the wind.── 90-second cut ends here ──

In plain English I could do without my warhorse; I could trail around in a skirt; I could let the banners and trumpets and knights and soldiers pass me by and leave me behind like the other women, if only I could still hear the wind in the trees, the larks in the sun, the young lambs crying in the frost, and the blessed church bells that carry my angels’ voices to me on the wind.

Acting note She gives up the very things everyone assumes she cannot live without: the war and the soldier’s clothes. What she needs is simple: air, sound, the bells. This is the softest moment in the speech. Let it be a picture she can see, not a list.

Lines 9–9 · Your counsel is of the devil

9But without these things I cannot live; and by your wanting to take them away from me, or from any human creature, I know that your counsel is of the devil, and that mine is of God.

In plain English But without these things I cannot live. And by wanting to take them away from me, or from any human being, you have shown me that your advice comes from the devil, and mine comes from God.

Acting note This is her verdict on them. “Or from any human creature” widens it past herself. It is the line that condemns her, and she knows it as she says it.

Hard words

Word	Line	Meaning
fine words	1	clever, persuasive talk
charity	1	kindness; Christian love
stone dead	3	completely dead
affliction	6	suffering, misery (an echo of the Inquisitor’s sentence)
the furnace in the Bible that was heated seven times	7	the fiery furnace in the Book of Daniel, which King Nebuchadnezzar ordered heated seven times hotter than usual
drag about in a skirt	8	trail around dressed as a woman (wearing men’s clothes was one of the charges against her)
my angel voices	8	the voices of the saints she hears and follows
counsel	9	advice, guidance

How to perform it

Play the objective. She is no longer trying to save her life; she is trying to make her judges see what they have done, and she is taking back her own soul. The terror of a few minutes earlier is gone. Play the clarity of someone who has just understood the truth.
Find the logic under the anger. Shaw has her rise in “terrible anger,” but the speech is an argument with a conclusion: you lied (lines 1 to 3); the punishment you think is hard is easy (4 to 6); here is what would really kill me (7); here is what I could give up (8); so your counsel is of the devil (9).
Plan your breath. Lines 7 and 8 are each one long sentence built from a list. Breathe at the semicolons and let each new item add pressure. The payoff sits at the end of each sentence (“heated seven times,” “on the wind”), so do not run out of air before you get there.
Keep her voice plain. Joan is practical and down to earth: “I can live on bread,” “if the water be clean.” Avoid a grand, saintly tone. Her strength is her common sense.
Play against the room. She is surrounded by churchmen, English soldiers and the executioner, and Shaw marks the offence that “fools” gives and the shouting after “you lied.” In an audition, imagine those reactions and push through them rather than stopping for them.
Common mistakes: playing her as a victim; shouting all the way through (line 8 is a memory of the things she loves and needs tenderness); and rushing the last line, which is the sentence she passes on herself.

Using it in an audition

A defiant, clear and complete prose speech for a young woman, with a real turn from rage to tenderness and back. Joan says she is seventeen in Scene 1, so it suits actors from their late teens up who can play that youth and directness. The whole speech runs a little under two minutes at a conversational pace. The 60-second cut marked in the text ends at line 7, “heated seven times,” which is a strong stop. The 90-second mark at line 8 ends on the church bells, a softer, lyrical ending that drops her final verdict; if you use it, make the bells the thing she cannot give up. The full version is best when you have the time. Pair it with something light and comic, such as Helena’s “How happy some o’er other some can be!” or the Gaoler’s Daughter’s “Why should I love this gentleman?”

Joan, Saint Joan, Scene 6. George Bernard Shaw. Public domain text.

How long it runs

Pace	Words a minute	Run time
Deliberate	130	2.2 minutes
Conversational	150	1.9 minutes
Brisk	170	1.7 minutes

These are speech times before pauses. To time your own run, paste the text into the monologue timer. The cut marks in the text stop at a full sentence near 60 seconds (line 7) and 90 seconds (line 8).

Practice it: first-letter version

Each word is cut to its first letter. Say the whole line from the letters, then check the text. Make cues from any script with the first-letter memorizer.

Y: t t m y w f, a t I w n t l t y f w n t t y c.

Y p m m l; b y l.

Y t t l i n b n b s d.

I i n t b a w I f: I c l o b: w h I a f m?

I i n h t d w i t w b c.

B h n s f m, a w n a.

B t s m f t l o t s a t s o t f a f; t c m f s t I c n a r w t s n c t h; t m m b f d d, a k f m e t b m b t t l o G w y w a f t m t h H: a t i w t t f i t B t w h s t.

I c d w m w; I c d a i a s; I c l t b a t t a t k a s p m a l m b a t l t o w, i o I c s h t w i t t, t l i t s, t y l c t t h f, a t b b c b t s m a v f t m o t w.

B w t t I c l; a b y w t t t a f m, o f a h c, I k t y c i o t d, a t m i o G.

More lists: Monologues for women, Dramatic monologues, Monologues for teens, Monologues from modern classics.

Sources

Questions actors ask

How long is Joan’s You promised me my life; but you lied speech?

9 lines and 282 words. At 150 words a minute it runs about 1.9 minutes; a slower, more deliberate delivery at 130 takes about 2.2 minutes. Pauses add time, so time a full run out loud.

Is it a good audition monologue?

What is the fastest way to memorize it?

Learn it in sense units, not line by line: say each thought out loud until you can do it without looking, then add the next. The first-letter version below keeps the shape of every line in view while you test yourself.