John Copeland See LR, 12n.

  53 displeased Cf. 18.3, 88; see also 3.42n.

  54 pursuivant ‘royal or state messenger, esp. one with the power to execute warrants’ (OED n. 2a)

  dispatch hasten

  * * *

  43 fruitful] faithfull Q2 44 travail] (trauell), Armstrong2 49 A squire] Q2; A Esquire Q; An esquire Winny 54 pursuivant] (Pursiuaunt) dispatch] dispatcht Q2

  55 out of hand at once

  56 he shall he must, ‘I order him to’

  bring … king Copeland did go to the King at Calais, but alone, leaving King David in safe keeping in England (see 36–56 LN). See also 57–9n. These lines prepare for the unhistorical arrival of King David at Calais at 18.62.1 to swell the numbers of captive royalty (18.243). Cf. H5 1.2.161–2, alluding to King David’s capture in the same unhistorical terms as E3, ‘The King of Scots, whom she did send to France, / To fill King Edward’s fame with prisoner kings’.

  57–9 In Froissart, the Queen arrives at Calais only after Copeland has returned to England and delivered King David to her: see LN.

  57 i.e. the Queen herself is already at sea.

  by no later than, before (see OED by prep. 21a, b)

  this’ this is (Abbott, 461); this denotes ‘this time’ or ‘the present moment’ (OED dem. pron. 1e, citing Cor 4.3.38).

  58 1as … serve Crossing the English Channel by sail depended on favourable winds and could be much delayed: see end of 57–9 LN. Holinshed omits mention of the wind here.

  60 wait (transitive) await

  61 near Q’s ‘neere’ could represent ‘nearer’ (see 2.125n.).

  61.1*a French Captain The King’s response at 67–79 identifies this captain as ‘French’. Cam identifies him with ‘the Captain of the town, Jean de Vienne’: see 20n. For theatrical economy, the mediator between the King and the captain in Froissart (Walter de Manny; see 67–79n.) is omitted. The captain may enter ‘above’, i.e. in the gallery above the stage, as in Froissart, 330, ‘Than sir Gaultyer [Walter] retourned and founde sir John of Vyen styll on the wall.’

  62 SP *See 2.1 SPn.

  62–6 See LN.

  62 burgesses elected representatives

  * * *

  57 Queen] Queene’s Q2 herself] herself’s (Capell) this’] this edn; this Q 59, 62 Calais] (C[C]allis) 61.1French] Capell 62 SP] Q2 (Captaine.); not in Q 63 council] (counsell)

  66 goods spontaneously offered to Edward in Froissart, 328; the request for them here seems presumptuous on the part of the burgesses.

  67–79 Cf. Froissart, 329–30, ‘sir Gaultyer of Manny, ye shall goo and say to the capytayne that all the grace that he shall finde nowe in me is that they lette sixe of the chiefe burgesses of the towne come out bare heeded, bare foted and bare legged, and in their shertes, with haulters about their neckes, with the kayes of the towne and castell in their handes, and lette theym sixe yelde themselfe purely to my wyll’ (see Holinshed, 3.377–8). Edward’s lines mirror, with equal disdain, his earlier speech to Lorraine at 1.67–86: from which command, kneel, yield and naked are echoed here (1.79, 81, 84, 86).

  67–8 command … govern This alphabetical catalogue (the rhetorical figure ‘articulus’) heightens Edward’s sarcasm.

  69–71 Cf. 1–9 and LN, and 25–6.

  71 Cf. 2.409–10n.

  72 *I Q’s omission of the word from the first line on sig. G4v may result from setting by formes from cast-off copy; the catchword on sig. G4r has the correct reading, ‘I will’, adopted by Q2.

  fire and sword common collocation (see OED fire n. 5a): death and destruction; cf. 18.45.

  73 two days Froissart specifies no time-scale, suggesting rather that the burgesses were expected to emerge at once from the town, as Manny is asked by the captain to ‘tary here a certayne space’ while he gets the town’s response to Edward’s request (Froissart, 330). The delay serves as a theatrical device to account for the separation of the King’s demand from its outcome in Sc. 18. The delay also covers Salisbury’s receipt of his passport and his journey to Calais via Poitiers, the Queen’s Channel crossing to Calais, as well as that of Copeland with King David, and, finally, Prince Edward’s triumph at Poitiers and return to Calais. And after all this, at 18.15 the audience is informed that ‘The two days’ respite is not yet expired’. See 2.54n.

  74 wealthiest merchants The emphasis on wealth heightens the contrast with the ‘six poor Frenchmen’ earlier in the scene (see 9.1).

  75 linen shirts undergarments

  76 halter rope with a noose; from Froissart (see 67–79n.)

  * * *

  72 I will] Q2; Will Q (G4r catchword I will) naught] (nought) 73 these] this Q2

  77–8 Edward concludes his instructions with a jingling rhyming couplet. See Kökeritz, 200, on the knees/please rhyme.

  79 their masterships Cf. punning use at TGV 3.1.275–7.

  80–5 See end of 1–9 LN; also Froissart, 328, ‘AFTER that the Frenche kyng was thus departed fro Sangate, they within Calays sawe well howe their socoure fayled them, for the whiche they were in great sorowe.’

  80 trust … staff proverbial: see Dent2, S805, ultimately derived from Isaiah, 36.6. The Captain begins and ends his speech with proverbs.

  83 stood upon defiance i.e. insisted on refusing Edward’s terms (OED stand v. 10); cf. 11.9.

  84 proverbial: see Dent2, T203, ‘Things past cannot be recalled’, i.e. what’s done is done.

  85 proverbial: see Dent2, O42, ‘Better one die … than all’, from John, 11.50.

  go to wrack die (OED wrack n.1 2b)

  * * *

  79 SD] Collier2 subst.; Exeunt Q; Exeunt. Q2; Exeunt EDWARD, and PERCY. Capell 85 SD] (Exit,)

  Sc. 11

  Sc. 11 continues from Sc. 9 (see n.), based on Froissart (see 9.13–43 LN). Charles’s resistance to Villiers (invented by the playwright(s)) initiates the terms of his later dispute with his father (13.65–103). The battle at Poitiers is introduced at 57 with mainly fictional circumstances, though two of the prophecies derive from the chronicles: the feathered fowl (see 68n.); and the flint-stones, only in Holinshed (see 69 LN).

  0.1 CHARLES appears for the first time in propria persona, though he also performs the acts of his father John: see LR, 21n., LR, 22n.

  0.2 VILLIERS must carry Salisbury’s request for a passport, as he offers it for signature at 14 (see 14, 48n.).

  1–56 The passage elaborates Froissart, 307, ‘The knyght … went to Parys to the duke his lorde, and he obtayned this pasport for sir Gaultier of Manny, and xx. horse with hym all onely: this knyght retourned to Aguyllon, and brought it to sir Gaultier, and ther he quyted the knyght Norman of his raunsome.’

  1, 49Villiers usually disyllabic (but see 9.18n.); here with reduced stress on -iers (see Abbott, 465)

  1 thou Charles uses the informal pronoun to Villiers, as his friend and inferior, while Villiers uses correctly deferential forms throughout the scene, e.g., your highness (14). Cf. 1.55, 57n.

  importune impòrtune: petition

  2 i.e. the Earl of Salisbury

  4 earnest advocate Cf. R3 1.3.86.

  7 occasions opportunities

  8 advantage of advantage over; see 2.490–1n.

  9 stood upon relied on; valued (OED stand v. phr. 4; 11); cf. 10.83.

  * * *

  Sc. 11]Warren; SCENE III. Poitou. Fields near Poitiers. The French Camp; Tent of the Duke of Normandy. Capell 0.1 Duke] Cam 0.2VILLIERS.] Q2; Villiers Q; Villiers with a paper / Oxf 1 wonder] (wounder) shouldst] (shouldest) 6 Why] why, Q2 need’st] (needest)

  10 the same i.e. the occasions, 7

  11 reverses the proverb ‘Honor and profit lie not in one sack’ (Dent2, H569). Regulus, Cicero’s model of honour, exemplifies the principle (see 9.19–43 LN): cf. Cicero, 3.28.101, trans. Nicolas Grimald (1556) as ‘Profit not to be seuered from honour’ (sig. R6r, marginal note). Cf. AC 2.7.76–8, ‘Thou must know / ’Tis not my profit that does lead mine honour; / Mine honour, it’.

  commixed blended, hence tempered (OED v. 1a, b, citing this line)

  13 objections counter-arguments; cf. 3.120.

  14, 48subscribe sign (the passport), signifying assent

  15 Cf. MM 2.2.52, ‘Look what I will not, that I cannot do’; also see 2.409–10n.

  15, 55Villiers disyllabic; cf. 9.18n.

  17, 48 SD, 53passport See 9.25n.

  how … himself ‘at his own convenience’

  18 I … extremity i.e. I face the worst (OED extremity 3b); cf. 4.129.

  21–2 alluding perhaps to the proverbs ‘Birds once snared (limed) fear all bushes’ and ‘Old birds are not caught with chaff (a net, snare)’ (Dent, B394, Dent2, B396)

  21 fowler’s gin birdcatcher’s snare (OED gin n.1 4)

  22 ensnared Cf. 8.28n.

  23 senseless and secure stupid and overconfident; a familiar collocation in sermons of the period: cf., e.g., ‘Sermons … for the senceles Epicure, or secure Worldling, drowned in the cogitations of this world’ (Cooper, sig. A2r).

  24 dangerous gulf Cf. True Tragedy, sig. E3v, ‘And Ned and I as willing Pilots should / For once with carefull mindes guide on the sterne, / To beare vs through that dangerous gulfe’.

  gulf deep water (OED n. 2a); cf. 8.67 (and n.).

  * * *

  17 please] Delius (Capell); pleaseth Q; pleas’th Capell 18 Why, then] Q2; Why then Q; Why then, Melchiori1 21 fowler’s] (fowlers) 24 hardly] (hardely)

  26–7 Cf. A Mirror for English Soldiers (1595), sig. D4v, ‘By no meanes, nor for no cause violate thine oath to thine enemy: for periury is a most hainous offence before the face of God, for those things must euer be performed wherein God is called for a witnes.’

  27 violate See 2.426n.

  28 Cf. 2.530.

  29–30 Charles invokes the argument of conflicting loyalties used by the Countess at 2.417–36 and by King Edward against Warwick at 2.488–516.

  31–4 Cf. 3.142–7.

  33 covenant agreement

  35–42 Cf. 1.167n. on rightful quarrel, 9.19–43n.

  35–6 The object of both kill and break a promise with is his foe; cf. 3.111–13.

  37–9 The lines glance at a major concern of the play, the just war. See pp. 6–10.

  38 So provided

  quarrel See 1.167n. on rightful quarrel.

  42 infringe it break our oath. Cf. 2.435n.; also, e.g., R3 3.1.41–2, LLL 4.3.141.

  43–4 as … paradise Cf. 4.11–12.

  * * *

  26 mine] my Q2 35 Why] Why, Q2 is it] Qc; it is Qu 42 infringe] Qc; infrienge Qu 44 SD] Capell subst.

  45, 51Stay See 2.60n.

  45 Villiers disyllabic (but see 9.18n.), suggesting that this line has reversed stress in the first two feet, Stày, my Vìlliers

  49 where whereas; see 5.37n.

  loved lovèd

  50 Cf. 2.455–6.

  51 be still continue for ever

  52 dispatch hasten

  54 highness’ See 2.426n. on marriage’, 434n.

  pleasure See 3.42n.

  55–6 The rhyming couplet marks the conclusion of Charles’s dealings with Villiers.

  56 speed prospers

  57–9 Having succeeded to the French crown in 1350, John makes his first appearance in his own person. The Prince’s entrapment is unhistorical, but could stem from Froissart, 367: trying to broker a truce, the Cardinal of Périgord reassures King John that he ‘nede nat to make any great haste to fyght with your ennemyes, for they canne nat flye fro you though they wolde, they be in suche a ground’ (not in Holinshed).

  59 compassed surrounded (OED v.1 6); see 9.37n.

  scape See 4.91n.

  * * *

  45, 49, 55 Villiers] (Villeirs) 45 Thine] thy Q2 46 eternally] Qc; erernally Qu 48 SD] Capell subst. 49 where tofore] (wheretofore) as] Qc; a Qu 55 SD] Winny; after 56 Q (Exit Villeirs.); after 54 Capell 58 fallen] (falne)

  61–2 The phrasing is closer to Holinshed, 3.389, ‘All the princes companie passed not the number of eight thousand men one and other … The French king hauing in his armie three score thousand fighting men’ (see also Froissart, 369).

  63 prophecy Cf. 5.38–45 (and n.): the prediction of French defeat is again put into the mouth of a French character.

  65 outrageous injurious, evil (OED a. 1)

  66 Crécy’s field perhaps reflecting the origin of the prophecy of the feathered fowl in the chronicle accounts of Crécy: see 68n.

  67 is … there has long been a hermit there, and so is aged (agèd). Hermits are familiar as purveyors of prophecy and medicine in chivalric romance.

  68–73 Shakespeare uses this six-line rhyming stanza in VA and intermittently in early plays, including LLL and RJ. The two predictions that provoke King John’s scepticism are soon fulfilled; the third, though read optimistically at 79–82, is equivocal (cf. 18.214–15). Cf. 5.38–45n.

  68 Froissart and Holinshed describe a storm before the battle of Crécy during which crows obscured the sky: see 7.3–11 LN.

  feathered fowl biblical formula (= birds), which fits the speech’s oracular register (see, e.g., Genesis, 1.21); see also 14.10n.

  69 from Holinshed (not in Froissart): see LN.

  flint-stones noted for their hardness. Cf. 14.14, 15.20.

  69, 76break … ’rray break up the order of battle (i.e. make the soldiers retreat in disorder) (Riv)

  71 hapless unlucky; cf. 7.12.

  dreadful day with connotation of Doomsday

  72–3 Cf. the climactic rhyme on advance/France at H5 5.2.348–9.

  * * *

  61] Q2 lines sonne? / strong, / 66 Crécy’s] (Cresses) 68‘When] Capell subst.; when Q; Reads. / When Tyrrell 73 France.’] Capell subst.; Fraunce, Q; France. Q2

  75–6 impossible … rise Cf. Mac 4.1.91–3, for the impossible prophecy of a moving wood, prosaically fulfilled.

  77 airy fowl birds of the air; airy also suggests insubstantial, imaginary (OED a. 6a), hence easily disregarded. Cf. 13.33.

  men-in-arms well-mounted soldiers. Cf. 1.141 (and n.).

  quake also in proximity to airy at 13.35

  81 forage plunder. Cf. foragement, 2.562; also H5 1.2.109–10 (describing Edward III at Crécy), ‘Stood smiling to behold his lion’s whelp, / Forage in blood of French nobility’.

  82 that loss defeat in the coming battle

  seem the less Cf. Cornelia, 2.1.223 (BV), and Spanish Tragedy, 1.5.34.

  83 *frivolous fancies Q2’s removal of Q’s comma after frivolous makes it appropriately modify fancies, toys and dreams. Cf. Terrors of the Night, ll. 16–17, ‘that which is portentiue in a King is but a friuolous fancie in a beggar’ (Nashe, 1.362).

  toys trivia

  84–5 The line-endings son/can may rhyme (Cercignani, 96).

  84 ensnared Cf. 8.28n.

  85 how by whatever means

  * * *

  83 frivolous] Q2; fryuolous, Q

  Sc. 12

  Sc. 12 French power is described from the English point of view, reversing the dynamic of Sc. 4, but like it drawing on accounts of the Spanish Armada for some details (see 31 and 4.72n. on horned moon). The description of the encircling French army is not from the chronicles, and stacks the odds heavily against the Prince (cf. 11.57–9n.). The First Herald’s embassy may derive from the Cardinal of Périgord’s attempted peace negotiations in Froissart. The three heralds recall the arming of the Prince in Sc. 6, and echo the three urgent requests to save Prince Edward in Sc. 8.

  0.2 AUDLEY For his role alongside Prince Edward at Poitiers, see LN.

  others English soldiers in the Prince’s company

  1 arms … round Cf. Prince Edward’s promise to Audley at 17.29. Perhaps punning on arms, weapons (Riv). Once again, the play fuses metaphors of war and love, here in a commonplace image; cf. 3.60–1 and see 2.188–9n.

  2 to die by dying (see Abbott, 356). See 2.433n.

  3 i.e. we pass through the bitterness of death to the joys of heavenly life.

  earnest pledge, deposit; cf. earnest-penny at 4.151 and n.

  4 smoke i.e. cannon-smoke; used elsewhere of the sea-battle (cf. 4.153–4) and the battle of Poitiers (cf. 13.125–6, 14.2, 18.153–4), rather than Crécy.

  5 Choked … mouths metonymic: i.e. the French soldiers were smothered by the smoke of battle. Cf. 13.125–6, 14.2 (smoke and choke); also 2.471–3 (choke and tongue; see 2.472n.) and choked at 3.137. See also 2.156n. on make up.

  dissevered dispersed the French forces (cf. KJ 2.1.388); severed the link of soul to body. Cf. 1.123 and n.

  6–7 hyperbole: the French soldiers on hills surrounding the Prince and his force are so numerous that they are Masking the sunrise. Cf. Froissart, 368, ‘on the Monday in the mornynge the prince and his company were redy apayrelled as they were before, and about the sonne rysing in lyke maner were the Frenchmen’ (also Holinshed, 3.388).

  6 multitudes of millions hyperbolic: cf. 6.39n. on multitudes; millions is used at 2.110, and at 5.33–4 to characterize the strength of the French against the English handful (see also 55, 59). The mythology of English chivalry demanded the opposition by overwhelming odds described by the chronicles: ‘the cardinall of Piergort came in great hast to the [French] king … [and] sayde, Sir, ye have here all the floure of your realme agaynst a handfull of Englysshmen’ (Froissart, 366). See also 11.61–2n.

  * * *

  Sc. 12]Warren; SCENE IV. The same. The English Camp. / Capell 4 Crécy] (Cressey) 6 hide –] Winny; hide Q; hide, Q2

  8 sullen dark suggests death (dark implies the sleep of death, night, the underworld). Relevant senses of sullen are: unyielding; gloomy; of dismal aspect (OED a. 1b; 3a; 4a). Cf. 2.362 and n.

  9 eyeless i.e. as a skull (OED a. 3a, citing RJ 5.3.126); sightless (3c); dark (4, first cited from 1607)