Saint Joan is a historical play
Saint Joan is a historical play in the sense that this drama is based on the facts of history and its chief characters and events are taken from history. But as �Saint Joan� is a drama, it is not a mere transcript of history, but an imaginative treatment of the facts of history blended with fiction. In spite of much authenticity, there is much modification in details and minor matters, much shifting, ordering, condensening and compressing of material. In this way this historic play is a blend of fact and fiction. �Joan of Arc, a village girl from Domr�my, was born in about 1412; burnt for heresy, witchcraft, and sorcery in 1431� declared Blessed in 1908; and finally canonized in 1920. She is the most notable Warrior Saint in the Christian calendar, and the queerest fish among the eccentric worthies of the Middle Ages.� These are Shaw�s words to describe Jeanne d�Arc. She was a teenage peasant girl who crowned a reluctant king, rallied a broken people, reversed the course of a gr