Netherland ‘Flanders, then part of the Netherlands’ (Riv)

  25–7 ‘Superfluitie in drinke’ typified northern Europeans, notably the Dutch and Germans (see Nashe, 1.204): bibbing (‘given to drinking’, OED a. 1), epicures (‘glutton[s], sybarite[s]’, OED 2) and swill are words commonly associated with drinking (cf. Nashe, 1.206); frothy = covered with froth; flabby; vain, empty, trifling (OED a. 1a, 2b, 3).

  26 double twice the ordinary strength

  29–30 See 3.8–11n. and 1.147–52 LN.

  29 conjoins unites with; cf. 148 and n.

  30 stalls installs

  31–2 the … victory proverbial (Dent, D35). The principle later applies to the English, faced by overwhelmingly superior French numbers at Crécy and Poitiers. Sams notes transposition of subject and object in 32.

  33 domestic our own native, i.e. French

  34 No historical source specifies either Polish or Danish reinforcements of the French. Since Poland was Catholic, early audiences would have considered it hostile to England. Furthermore, Henry, Duke of Anjou, younger brother of the French King Charles IX, was installed as King of Poland in 1573 (cf. Massacre at Paris, Sc. 10). In contemporary plays, Danes were portrayed as formidable adversaries (see, e.g., Soliman and Perseda, 1.2.59, 61–2; E2, 2.2.167).

  stern Polonian ‘fierce Pole’ (Riv)

  35 *Holinshed, 3.360, mentions Bohemia as a French ally after Sluys: the French King ‘got thither a mightie host’ and there ‘were with him the king of Bohem, the duke of Loreine’; he played a prominent role in the battle of Crécy in 1346, where he was killed (see LR, 35n.). Capell’s metrical adjustment to ‘Boheme’ is supported by 8.73 (see n.). Froissart, 149, devotes a short chapter to Robert, King of Sicily, describing how he tried to act as peacemaker after the sea-battle of Sluys (see LN). Theatrical constraints of casting and costuming may account for his non-appearance.

  * * *

  25 epicures –] Winny subst.; Epicures: Q; Epicures, Q2 27 come –] Winny; come, Q 33 domestic] Capell; drum stricke Q; drumsticke Q2 35 Boheme] Capell; Bohemia Q Sicily] (Cycelie)

  38 music … drums Drums often announce the entry of troops or their commanders in plays of the period.

  39.2 another way This permissive phrase may reflect theatrical conditions in which the standard two doors in the tiring-house wall of professional playhouses were not always available. Cf. 3.0.1–3n. and p. 90.

  40 league alliance (against a common enemy)

  neighbourhood neighbourly feeling; nearness

  43 great … Turk During Elizabeth’s reign, Russia and the Ottoman empire were natural enemies in their desire for control of the East. Cf. Massacre at Paris, 10.10–13, ‘The greatest wars within our Christian bounds – / I mean, our wars against the Muscovites, / And, on the other side, against the Turk, / Rich princes both and mighty emperors’.

  Moscow Q’s ‘Musco’ = Muscovy, i.e. Russia

  fearful causing fear; cf. 5.33, 8.102 (see n.).

  44 lofty exalted in dignity and rank, proud

  45 servitors soldiers; cf. 18.178.

  46 venture risk their lives

  49 crowns from the Fr. couronne, a gold coin with a large crown on one side, issued by Philip VI in 1339; in Elizabethan England, a crown was worth five shillings (OED n. 32a; 32b). Cf. 10.32.

  * * *

  37 SD] Capell 39.1–2]large roman type in Q; Enter BOHEMIA, and Forces; and Aid of Danes, POLES, and Muscovites. Capell 39.1Danes] Danish soldiers and a drummer. Oxf 39.2 other … way] Muscovite and Polish soldiers and a drummer Oxf 40–2]Q2 lines league / any / force. / 43 Moscow] (Musco)

  51 hare-brained reckless, rash (OED a.)

  decked in pride proudly adorned; cf. 2.150n.

  52 spoil valuable goods taken from an enemy in a time of war; pillaging, plundering; arms and armour taken on the battlefield (OED n. 1a; 2a; 5a); spoil of could also suggest ‘injury inflicted on’ (n. 7a).

  treble triple, implying multiple gain, but also, perhaps, because the ‘Bohemian king shall receive the gratitude of the French king, a reward in “crownes,” and the “spoyle” of the English’ (Lapides). Cf. 2.619.

  game prize (OED n. 10); Q2’s widely adopted ‘gaine’ is unnecessary.

  53 full satisfied

  54–5 See 1n.

  54 puissant powerful

  55 Agamemnon led the Greek forces victoriously against Troy; ‘King John has his analogy reversed, … it is the English who, like the Greeks, are invading’ (Riv).

  haven harbour, port

  56 Xerxes Persian King (486–485 BC), who invaded Greece with a huge army but finally lost both at land and sea against the much smaller forces of the Greeks. King John again aligns himself with the invader rather than the invaded (see 55n. on Agamemnon); the Persian defeat makes his analogy doubly unfortunate. See 101–2n.

  57 Xerxes’ army was so large, the soldiers were said to have drunk rivers dry (see Herodotus, 7.21.335). Cf. 1Tam, 2.3.15–17, 2Tam, 3.1.42–3.

  drank up See 2.156n. on make up.

  58 Bayard-like proverbial: blindly reckless (Dent2, B112, ‘Who so bold (As bold) as blind Bayard’). Bayard was originally the name of the ‘magic steed given by Charlemagne to Renaud (or Rinaldo) … famous in mediæval romance’ (OED a., n.1 2c); subsequently referring to any horse. See also LR, 35n.

  Ned Here ‘[t]he diminutive is used derogatorily of King Edward’ (Cam); cf. 1.141, 157n.

  59 our imperial diadem the crown of France. For imperial, cf. 12.154, 18.35, 176. See 104n. Cf. also 18.183.

  60 swallowed of drowned by

  61 hacked a’pieces Cf. 3.111n.

  * * *

  50 treasury] (Treasory) 52 game] gaine Q2 56 Xerxes] (Zerxes) 61 com’st] (comest)

  61.1*MARINER not in Q’s entry SD, but identified by SP at 62 (cf. 2.1 SPn.): able-bodied seaman, here employed as a lookout (see 63n.); soldier at 189 is used to refer to him in the general sense as taking part in military service.

  62 described discerned, sighted; by confusion (common at the time) with ‘descried’ (OED describe v. 7; cf. 2.50n.). Q2’s correction to ‘discride’ has been generally accepted, but lacks authority (Melchiori adopts ‘descried’ on the basis of Holinshed, 3.358, ‘The French nauie laie betwixt Sluise and Blancbergh, so that when the king of England approched, either part descried other’). See 175n. on lively pictured.

  63 watchful charge commission to watch or keep look-out; duty characterized by vigilance (OED watchful a. 3)

  64 armado ‘fleet of ships (variant of “armada”); used with allusion to the Spanish Armada of 1588’ (Riv); see 72 and n. on horned … moon. See pp. 11–12.

  65 at the first i.e. at first sighting

  ken ‘descry at sea, catch sight of’ (Falconer; see OED v.1 6a); cf. 2H6 3.2.101.

  66 grove … pines commonplace simile. Cf. Edward’s first sighting of the French navy in Froissart, 146: ‘he sawe so great a nombre of shippes that their mastes semed to be lyke a gret wood’. For related imagery, cf. 2.52n. on wood … advanced; also Mac 5.5.37, ‘a moving grove’.

  withered pines as initially appearing weak: cf. 18.142n.; also 6.216–18n.

  67 near Q’s ‘neere’, perhaps = ‘nearer’; see 2.125n.

  aspect aspèct: appearance

  68 streaming ensigns fluttering naval flags. Cf. R2 4.1.95; also Sharrock, sig. B1r, ‘streaming banners’. Cf. 17.0.2, 2.

  68–9 coloured … flowers Cf. 12.28.

  69–70 Cf. 2.150–5.

  69 Like to just like

  sundry many different

  70 Adorns The subject of this verb is properly aspect (67). The English fleet’s approach is enacted by the shift to the present tense.

  71 Cf. H5 3.0.16–17, ‘this fleet majestical, / Holding due course to Harfleur’.

  order formal arrangement (OED n. 13a)

  course ‘Onward movement in a particular path, as of … a ship’ (OED n. 2a)

  * * *

  61.1] Q2 subst.; Enter. Q 62 coast] (cost) described] discride Q2 64 armado] (Armado) 68 coloured] (coulloured)

  72 Figuring displaying the form of, resembling (OED figure v. 7)

  horned … moon hornèd: the crescent moon; anachronistically alludes to the Spanish Armada’s famous formation, ‘after the maner of a Moone cressant, being readie with her horns & hir inward circumference to receiue either all, or so manie of the English nauie, as should giue her the assault, her hornes being extended in widenes about the distance of 8. miles’ (Ubaldini, 7; see 64n., 177n. and pp. 11–12). Cf. also 12.31.

  73–6 See LN.

  73 top-gallant ‘A mast raised at the head of the topmast; the third mast above the deck’ (Falconer)

  admiral flagship, presumably the King’s own ship (see Falconer); cf. 148, 149.

  74 handmaids … train i.e. the rest of the English fleet; his was normal at this date in the neutral sense of ‘its’ for ships. OED 1c defines handmaid as ‘A vessel which attends a larger one’, giving 1599 as its first usage.

  75 unite united (OED unite a.); see Abbott, 342, for the omission of -ed after -te, -d and -t. Cf. 5.28 and 55nn.

  76 quartered equally ‘In heraldry, indicating a shield divided into four sections, alternating hereditary and additional arms’ (Cam). Cf. 12.28. See Fig. 5.

  77 titely speedily (cf. MW 1.3.76); possibly hints at ‘tightly’ = securely or effectively (OED adv. 1) or water-tight (OED tight a. 2c)

  merry favouring

  gale ‘A wind stronger than a breeze but not tempestuous’ (Falconer)

  78 amain at full speed

  79 Cf. 1H6 1.1.80, ‘Cropped are the flower-de-luces in your arms’.

  crop Cf. 6.40, 8.72 and nn.

  fleur-de-lys ‘lily or iris, the heraldic device borne on the royal arms of France’ (Cam); cf. 5.43.

  80–2 Cf. 2.448–51 and n.; also R2 3.2.12–15, ‘Feed not thy sovereign’s foe, my gentle earth, / Nor with thy sweets comfort his ravenous sense, / But let thy spiders that suck up thy venom / … lie in their way.’

  81 afterward approached i.e. that approached the flower after the honey has been taken (leaving only the poison to be harvested)

  82 leaves implicitly contrasted with the flower (fleur-de-lys, 79)

  * * *

  73 admiral] (Admirall) 76 heralds’] Winny; Heralds Q; herald’s Capell 77 titely] tightly Capell 79 SP] Q2 (K. Iohn.); not in Q; K J / MS in Folger fleur-de-lys] (Flewer de Luce), Armstrong2 subst. 81 spider, … approached,] Capell; spider afterward approcht Q

  84 wing themselves sail (antedates OED’s first instance, wing v. 2a); appropriate figurative use with ravens

  flight of ravens i.e. the English ships, imagined as birds of prey and ill omen (anticipating the flight of ravens heard in Sc. 13): cf. 5.50, 13.18 SD, 28, 42, 49.

  85 scouts reconnaissance patrols (OED n.4 2a)

  86–7 puffed … wind For the image of sails puffed with wind, see, e.g., MND 2.1.128–9 and Soliman and Perseda, 4.3.12 (BV). Cf. also 2.445–6, 12.20–1.

  87 No otherwise than just as

  88 empty hungry (OED a. 7b); empty eagle occurs at 2H6 3.1.248 and 3H6 1.1.268.

  89 griping maw voracious gullet or belly

  90 *There’s … news The Mariner’s reward is probably a purse of money. Q’s ‘Thees’ is an unlikely error for ‘these’, which would also produce strained idiom; misreading, ‘foul case’ or omission affords a simple source for the error, supporting Q2’s There’s; cf. 175n.

  91 scape aphetic form of ‘escape’. Cf. 8.15, 11.59; possibly also 6.139.

  94 Mean space in the meantime

  95 several separate; also at 186

  96–102 Cf. 5.64–6 (and n.).

  97 pitch your battles draw up your troops for battle (battles = plural form with singular sense)

  on … hand The French forces appear to be deployed over a sloping section of the shore: hand = direction, quarter (OED n. 4).

  99 aid auxiliary force (described at 43–6)

  * * *

  84 flight] fleete Q2 90 There’s] Q2; Thees Q; There’s ╪ Capell; throwing a purse: There’s Winny news;] Melchiori1; newes, Q; news. Capell; news. Giving money. Riv 91 stroke] (strooke) 93 SD Mariner] Q2

  100 higher ground See 97n. on on … hand; also 5.54n. on the prominence of hills in the play’s battle descriptions.

  101–2 The King, waiting on shore for news of a naval battle, may ominously evoke Xerxes at the battle of Salamis (see Persians, in Aeschylus, 1.67, ll. 465–7). See 56n.

  101 middle coast central position, between wings on higher and lower ground

  102 lodge encamp; cf. 12.32 and dislodge, 2.56.

  103 look … charge carry out your orders

  104 empire … large France is an empire by virtue of its size, but King John emphasizes its sovereignty: ‘A country that is not subject to any foreign authority’ (OED empire n. 3). Cf. 59n.; also 3.11n. on large.

  105 *thy conceit your opinion. Q2’s emendation of Q’s ‘their concept’ to thy conceit supplies the necessary sense (see 2.257n., OED conceit n. 5a). Q’s ‘concept’ means the same, and according to OED is a later alteration after classical Lat. concept- (OED concept n. 5), but its currency in the period is questionable (certainly very rare in the drama of the time: see LION). BV notes the variant spelling of ‘conceit’, ‘conceipt’, in Spanish Tragedy, 3.10.94.

  107–10 Here, as at 1.7–41, 5.35–7 (see n.), vindication of Edward’s claim is expressed by a French character, this time only implicitly.

  108 plain evident

  pedigree genealogy, hereditary claim. Cf. 1H6 2.5.77.

  109–10 proverbial: ‘Possession is eleven (nine) points of the law’ (Dent2, P487). Cf. KJ 1.1.39–40, ‘KING JOHN Our strong possession and our right for us. / ELEANOR Your strong possession much more than your right.’

  112 conduit fountain, channel (OED n. 2a). Cf. Sharrock, sig. C1r, describing Sluys at its climax, ‘So deepe woundes poure bloudstreames amaine: / As liquid water droppes, through broken pipes, and conduites straine, / Besprinkling all the grounde’.

  dearest blood Cf. 1H6 3.4.40, 3H6 5.1.69 and Spanish Tragedy, 3.6.14 (BV).

  * * *

  101 coast] (cost) 104 SD] Capell; opp. 103 Q Exeunt.] (Exunt.) all … Philip] Capell subst.

  105 thy conceit] Q2; their concept Q; thy concept WP 111 yet] om. Q2

  113 straggling upstarts vagrant parvenus

  114–16 Call … face Melchiori points out the irony of John’s repast in relation to his later tirade against the self-indulgence of the English at 6.155–62; cf. also 2n.

  115 cheer comfort; gladden; feast

  117 day literal and figurative = battle. Cf. 138; 6.169n., 228; 12.74; 14.7, 17; 15.17, 27, 35; 17.35.

  118–19 The field (battlefield) of bears may allude to 2 Samuel, 17.8–9, ‘thou knowest thy father & his men howe that they be strong men, and they be chafed in their mindes and are euen as a Beare robbed of her whelpes in the fielde: Thy father is a man practised in warre, and wil not lodge with the people. Behold he is hyd nowe in some caue’; also David & Bethsabe, ll. 1210–11, ‘For well thou knowest thy fathers men are strong, / Chafing as shee beares robbed of their whelpes’ (Peele, 3.232).

  120 Cf. 2H6 1.3.101.

  Steer imperative; Q’s ‘Stir’ is a variant spelling.

  Nemesis ‘goddess of retribution or vengeance’ (OED 1a). Cf. Spanish Tragedy, 1.4.16.

  121 sulphur sulphurous; the associations are with hell, of which Nemesis was a divinity, with ‘fiery’ rage, and gunpowder (see 123n.). Cf. OED n. 7, as adj., citing this line and Dido, 2.1.201–2.

  battles force

  122 SD produced in the Elizabethan theatre by offstage firing of small ordnance (see Dessen & Thomson, 195); here apparently a single Shot

  123–4 Cf. 1.160–1.

  123 echoing cannon-shot reverberation of cannon fire; shot = the action of shooting (OED n.1 7a) rather than cannon balls (14a, b); presumably with late 16th-century rather than medieval naval gunnery in mind. Cf. Holinshed, 3.358, ‘they were so inclosed by the Englishmen, that a great number of the Frenchmen could neuer come to strike stroke, nor to vse the shot of their artillerie’. Froissart doesn’t mention gunnery in the battle. Cf. 1H6 3.3.79; also 149n., 13.125, 18.147.

  * * *

  114–15] Q2 lines bread / repast, / 114 Call] To an attendant Call Oxf 116 SD Bread … in] Capell subst. The … off] Capell subst.; opp. 115–17 Q; opp. 117–19 Q2 heard] (hard) 118 the] a Collier2 120 Steer] (Stir) 122 SD] Capell; after 123 Q 123 echoing] (eckoing)

  124 *sweetest Craik suggests ‘Like to sweet’ as another way of rendering this line metrical, but Capell’s conjecture has been generally accepted; like to occurs only five times in the play (1.42, 2.281, 4.69, 5.50, 18.139).

  harmony … cates ‘The cannon fire is like music to Philip’s ears, and music, according to the Elizabethans, aids digestion’ (Lapides).

  cates bought delicacies

  126 buckle grapple (OED v. 3b), as in a naval battle. Cf. conjoined at 148 (see n.), 12.150–1 (and n.).

  127 Cf. 5.75–6; also 13.35n.

  trembling Cf. 18.147n.

  128–9 exhalations … flash archaic use of exhalations often applied to ‘enkindled vapour’ (OED 3). Cf. JC 2.1.44, ‘The exhalations whizzing in the air’.

  129 ‘culminates in a flash of lightning’; OED extremity 4, ‘a violent outburst’, cites this line. Cf. lightning flash, 2.616; also 11.18n.

  Breaks See 2.134n.

  130 dispose determine, decide

  131 Cf. R3 (Q1), 2.2.117, ‘The … rancour of your high-swoll’n hearts [F = hates]’; and Soliman and Perseda, 3.2.14–15 (BV).

  rancour hostility, anger

  high-swoll’n swollen with anger; high is emphatic.

  131 SD an offstage drum or trumpet signifying the end of battle and one side’s retreat; here ambiguous, identified as neither French nor English, as at 8.56. Cf. 8.4 SD, 17.0.3 and nn. Tactical necessity dictates that such signals should be recognizable to each army in battle, but in the theatre ambiguity creates suspense.