13–15 recalling Philip’s offer of a prayer book at 12.101–9

  13 *good-counsel giver Capell’s ‘counsel-giver’ produces a more familiar compound form, cf., e.g., TGV 3.2.89, ‘direction-giver’, but good seems likelier to qualify counsel than giver.

  * * *

  6 is it] is’t Q2 11.1]Capell 13 good-counsel giver] this edn; good counsell giuer Q; good counsel-giver Capell; good-counsel-giver Moore Smith

  14–17 A rhyming quatrain appropriately completes Prince Edward’s victorious taunting of the French King and his sons.

  16 the proverb verified common phrase: e.g., Anatomy of Absurdity, ll. 11–12, ‘as though in them that Prouerbe had beene verified’ (Nashe, 1.20)

  17 variation of the proverb ‘A red morning foretells a stormy day’ (Dent2, M1175, citing this line)

  17.1 trumpets celebrate the arrival of Audley and signify his importance (see Dessen & Thomson, 237); none is sounded for the entries of King John or his sons.

  17.2*two Squires Their (silent) presence is required by 51. See 16.0.2n.

  18 grim discouragement dreadful disheartening spectacle; grim is often used in personifications of death (as at 12.158), suggesting the extremity of Audley’s plight. See 15.13n. Historically, Sir James Audley survived the wounds he received at Poitiers. The play first exploits the imminence of his death in this scene, then shows his survival long enough to be in Prince Edward’s train at his final triumphant entry in Sc. 18 (see 18.186.2).

  19–20 Implicit in the metaphor of writing is that of weapons as pens, as at 6.194–6 (see n.); see 2.231–3n., 303n. on print. In the most extravagant statement of odds yet, Audley is equated with one thousand Frenchmen; cf. 15.24–5. See also 2.255–7n.

  19 armed armèd

  20 in Audley’s face Although Froissart mentions wounds to Audley’s ‘vysage’ (see 16.1–10n.; not in Holinshed), pallor would suffice. Cf. also 6.126–7, 12.129–30.

  21–3 thou … end See 2.188–9n.

  21 woo’st death Cf. H5 4.6.26. Audley exemplifies the sentiments of 12.134–49 (see n.); cf. also 12.131–2.

  22 merrily … grave an unconscious pun that sums up Audley’s stoicism

  23 enamoured on in love with; cf. 2H4 1.3.102.

  * * *

  14 too] (to) 17‘Too … day.’] WP; Too bright a morning breeds a louring daie. Q 17.1Sound trumpets] om. Capell 17.1–2 supported … Squires] Capell subst. 21 woo’st] (wooest) 23 thine] thy Q2

  27 dead sick sick almost to death

  28 Cf. 1H6 4.2.41, ‘And mine [my drum] shall ring thy dire departure out’.

  29 My … grave Cf. 3.60–1, 12.1; also 1H6 4.4.144, ‘Now my old arms are young John Talbot’s grave’, and 3H6 2.5.114–15.

  30 The Prince’s readiness to take revenge for Audley’s expected death anticipates his father’s threats of vengeance (18.164–5) for Prince Edward’s own presumed death at Poitiers. Cf. also 6.25. The survival of both conforms with the play’s sustained pattern of eleventh-hour escape from potential catastrophe.

  31–3 drink … drink Sams draws attention to the chiasmus on drink, blood, kings and the echo of 12.74.

  31 captive kings Cf. E2, 1.1.173, E1, l. 92 (Peele, 2.75).

  32 Or that as at 6.113, linking overlapping alternatives

  command order (OED v. 3a)

  33 health pun: healing/cure; toast (OED n. 6, citing TS 3.2.169)

  34–5 The speech draws to a close with another chiasmus: honour, death, dying, honour; cf. 2.551–5n.

  34 i.e. if you can have honour without dying; dispense … with = do without (OED dispense v. phr. 6)

  35 never-dying Cf. 13.75.

  day See 4.117n.

  36 Share … thyself i.e. have sole credit for (paradoxical)

  37–8 allusion to Julius Caesar’s victories, primarily to Vercingetorix, King of the Gauls, who was paraded before the people during Caesar’s triumphal procession through the streets of Rome (cf. 62–4; see also 31n.); prepares for the Prince’s triumphal entry at 18.186.1–2 (cf. also 18.180–4 and n.)

  * * *

  29 thy] Q2; the Q 33 health] Capell; Heath Q kings’] Winny; kings Q; king’s Capell 37 Prince –] Capell subst.; Prince, Q 38 kings’] Capell; kings Q; king’s Collier captivity –] Capell subst.; captiuitie; Q

  39 dim death Cf. 2.104n., 312; also Luc 403 and Spanish Tragedy, 4.4.107.

  but … bay only a little further off; a hunting term relating to a hunted animal cornered by hounds (‘baying’ = barking), defending itself just before the kill; cf. VA 877, TS 5.2.57.

  40 *royal Capell’s emendation of Q’s ‘loyall’ is lexically necessary, as ‘loyalty’, a duty owed to the sovereign and his family, can hardly be an attribute of the King himself (see OED loyal a. 2). ‘Loyal’ and royal are frequently linked in the period, making confusion easily available. Cf. 63.

  41–5 The image of the body (flesh) as a castle for the soul is traditional, fitting a context of siege and warfare. Lambrechts, 167, compares Cornelia, 2.2.326–30. Cf. 2.401–8 and n.

  42 mangled tribute Audley’s lacerated body, both a payment due to his King and an acknowledgement of esteem (OED tribute n. 2a)

  44–7 The Prince is dismayed that the rout of the French may cost him Audley, qualifying any sense of easy victory with divine backing. This effect is reinforced in productions in which Audley dies (e.g. Tocilescu; see p. 107). Cf. also Wyrley, sig. M1v, ‘at Poicters … / Sir Ieams Audley, thrise renowmed knight / Sharpe sicknes tooke, causing him keepe his bed / Wherin he dide’. See 18n.

  thy … sword The sense is complicated by Q’s ‘Should’ at 46. If yield bears its usual sense of ‘surrender’, 46–7 must be considered separately, but Should then has no subject, leading editors to conjecture the loss of one or more lines before 46 (see t.n.). The three lines’ desired meaning would be at once supplied by substituting ‘Or’ for Should. Alternatively Should may rationalize copy ‘Sh’ld’ = ‘She’ld’ (modern ‘She’d’), which would supply the desired subject if 46–7 are considered separately. Cf. F TGV 4.3.3, ‘she’ld’ and F Oth 1.3.150, at the beginning of a line as here, ‘She’l’d’.

  44–5 soul … breach Cf. 13.87–9; breach = literally, Audley’s wound, metaphorically, the gap in the fortification of the city ‘made by a battery’ (OED breach n. 7c). Cf. Luc 469, ‘To make the breach and enter this sweet city’.

  46 divorced divorcèd: furthering the pun on breach at 45, the violation of the ‘marriage’ between soul and body (her spouse), through death; cf. VA 932, ‘ “Hateful divorce of love,” – thus chides she Death’, Luc 809.

  * * *

  40 royal] Capell; loyall Q 43 darkness,] Delius; darkenes Q; darkness’ Capell 44 too] (to) 45–6 breach, / Should] breach; / She’ ld Delius; breach; / And dost thou think ’tis possible that she / Should Hop2; breach: / Should she Winny; breach. / [ … ] / Should Oxf (Moore Smith)

  47 In a context of marital imagery, the line may hint at limits to French virility as well as military prowess.

  temper the tempered steel of a sword (usually hardened rather than softened by the treatment); temperament (here soft, weak). Cf. the pun on temper at 2H6 5.2.70, ‘Sword, hold thy temper; heart, be wrathful still’; also 2.570, 6.222.

  48–59 Froissart seems to be the principal source for these lines: see Sc. 16n. and cf. 20n., 61n. Only at 49 (see n. on in English land) is wording closer to Holinshed.

  48 Lo behold

  repair heal; renew; revive (OED v.2 3a; 2b, c). The offer of money to a dying man as ‘restorative’ (32) has provoked laughter from modern audiences (see Bennett & Proudfoot, 331).

  49 vastly exceeds the ‘fyve hundred markes of yerely revenewes’ specified by Froissart, 381, which amounts to some £330 (see 6.10n.). Cf. 18.96 (and n.). See also 2.255–7n.

  in English land In Froissart, 381, the Prince states that this sum he ‘shall assigne [Audley] on myne herytage in Englande’; Holinshed, 3.390, is clearer: ‘assigned foorth of his lands in England’.

  50–5 See LN.

  51 *two poor squires See 10.49n., 16.0.2n.

  redeemed delivered (continues the mercantile language of 50: pay, debts); see 2.373n.

  52 lusty courageous (OED a. 5a)

  dear brave (OED a.2 1)

  54 lay thy consent agree (with possible further suggestion of ‘in writing’ or ‘with a signature’)

  55 bequeath bequest (OED n. 2a); avoids quadruple repetition of st in 54–5 which would result from the use of ‘bequest’

  * * *

  51, 57 squires] Collier; Esquires Q; ’squires Capell 54 lov’st] (louest)

  56–9 The rhyming couplets clinch Prince Edward’s confirmation of Audley’s wishes.

  56 Renowned renownèd

  57 twice doubled probably tautologous, meaning once to the squires and once to Audley rather than twice to each party. Cf. Froissart, 386, ‘for the valyantnes of these squyers whom ye preyse so moche, I acorde to them your gyft, and I woll render agayne to you vi. C. markes in lyke maner as ye had the other’ (see also Holinshed, 3.390).

  *squires See 10.49n.

  58–9 See 2.72–3n.

  59 To … theirs Froissart, 383, states that Audley gives his gift ‘to them and to their heyres for ever’ (not in Holinshed).

  lasting freedom stay remain as a privilege in perpetuity (OED freedom 13a); see 2.60n.

  61 easy litter comfortable stretcher, carried by men or beasts, provided with curtains for privacy; in Froissart, 381, Audley is ‘sore hurt and lyeth in a lytter her besyde’, and in 385, ‘the prince sende for hym [Audley], and he was brought in his lytter to the prince’ (not in Holinshed).

  62 toward See 2.116n.

  triumphant pace speed befitting a triumph or victory (presumably brisk). Cf. 18.180–4n.; also 3H6 2.6.87–8.

  64 France his France’s

  * * *

  60 I will] Ile Q2 62 Calais] (Callis) 64 SD] (Ex.), Q2

  Sc. 18

  Sc. 18 ties up many strands: King Edward at the siege of Calais, the arrival of Queen Philippa and the end of the siege; John Copeland’s arrival with the captured King David of Scotland (continued from Sc. 10); Salisbury’s arrival from Poitiers to present the Breton coronet (continued from Scs 9, 13); Prince Edward’s final arrival with the captured King John and Philip of France, though without Charles (despite his capture in Sc. 17)

  0.1–4 *The SD’s order suggests simultaneous entry of the two groups by separate doors at the two sides of the stage, rather than that the citizens should enter first. Q2 places the citizens’ entry after 7, which entails keeping them offstage while Edward utters his final threats at 5–7 (which they must hear, as they respond to them).

  0.1 six Citizens Cf. 10.74n. and LR, 32n.; possibly doubled with the six poor men of Calais (see 10.9.1n.). See Appendix 2. Only one or two in each group have solo speaking parts.

  0.1–2 shirts … necks from Froissart: see 10.67–79n., 76n. Cf. 2H6 4.9.9.1, ‘Enter multitudes with halters about their necks’; ‘shirts’ = undergarments.

  0.4 QUEEN PHILIPPA See LR, 2n. Queen Philippa’s arrival in Calais to coincide with that of Copeland departs from Froissart (see 10.57–9n. and LN), but her role as intercessor for the burghers of Calais is well attested. Her prominence in this scene, and the fact that the play’s final words are a Queen, suggest the likelihood of extra-theatrical allusion to Queen Elizabeth I. See LN.

  1–3 The scene begins in mid-conversation (a familiar Shakespearean technique), economically reminding the audience of John Copeland’s refusal to surrender King David of Scotland to the Queen (10.49–56).

  3 displeasure first of seven variants on pleasure or its opposite in this scene: cf. 17, 88–9 (and n.), 124 (and n.), 218, 227. See 3.42n.

  written … looks See 2.231–3n. Cf. E2, 5.5.73.

  4 proud resisting town i.e. Calais (never directly named in the scene). Cf. KJ 2.1.38, ‘Against the brows of this resisting town’.

  5 stay See 2.60n.

  6 deluded frustrated, cheated

  false delays i.e. stalling: see 10.73n.; but cf. 15.

  * * *

  Sc. 18]Oxf; ACT V. SCENE, Picardy. The English Camp before Calais. Capell; SCENE SIXTEEN Warren 0.1–2]after 7 Q2 0.3at another door] Oxf 0.4 Philippa] (Phillip), Capell 1, 53, 88, 162, 185 Philippe] (Phillip), Capell; PHILIPPA Hop1 2, 64, 76, 83 Copeland] (C[C]opland)

  8–59 See LN.

  9 Contemptuous showing contempt (insolent) and worthy of contempt (despicable) (see OED a. 1a, 3)

  truce Cf. 10.26; also 2.23n.

  10 i.e. I am deaf to your fruitless pleas; cf. Son 29.3, ‘And trouble deaf heav’n with my bootless cries’. Cf. 3.59n.

  11 best scanned with a mid-line pause after alarum; a call to arms, activating the threat voiced at 5–7 (see 7.0.1n.)

  drums drummers

  threatening swords Cf. Tim 5.2.51–2, where Alcibiades ‘shakes his threatening sword / Against the walls of Athens’.

  12 SP *While line 8 may be collective, a seven-line speech could not be spoken in chorus (‘All’ in Q). Editors since Capell have assigned it to a single spokesman, ‘1 CITIZEN’, as implied by Q’s later assignment of two speeches (27, 56) to ‘Two’.

  14, 19promise See 10.72–8.

  15 two days’ respite See 2.54n., 10.73n.

  17 torturing death Cf. Tit 2.2.285. Metre recommends elision to ‘tort’ring’.

  please See 3n.

  18 So on condition

  multitude i.e. the people of Calais; see 6.39n.

  21 that postponed from 20 after require (see Abbott, 285)

  22 grooms manservants (OED n.1 3)

  23 felonious … sea wicked pirates

  * * *

  8 SP] Capell subst. (Cit.); All: Q 11 alarum] Alarum / Capell, as SD threatening] (threatning) 12 SP] Capell subst.; All: Q 12–13]Capell lines prince, / king! / 17 torturing] (tortering) 20 require] requir’d Delius (Capell)

  24–5 Cf. 3.143–5.

  26 overreach outsmart (OED v. 5b)

  27–30 Cf. Seneca, Thyestes, ll. 613–14, ‘Whom the rising sun hath seen high in pride, him the setting sun hath seen laid low’ (see also Dent2, M1174, citing these lines). Cf. E2, 4.7.53–4. This citizen’s rhetoric reflects his sense of his own status.

  27 dread revered

  in … fall setting in the west

  29 orient purple eastern, first, red light of dawn, contrasting with western fall, 27; purple refers to the dawn in Arden of Faversham, 1.60–3.

  30 known worthy of respect; a note in TCC (perhaps by Capell) suggests ‘High’ as an emendation or gloss.

  31 elliptical: if we’re lying may we be damned in hell

  portion lot, destiny (OED n. 2); biblical resonance: cf. Job, 20.29, ‘This is the porcion of the wicked man from God’, and Ecclesiasticus, 25.21, ‘let the porcion of the sinner fall vpon her’ (Geneva).

  damned fiends damnèd: cf. 1Tam, 4.2.26, 2Tam, 2.3.23.

  32 covenant agreement

  34 remorse compassion (OED n. 5)

  35 a direct riposte to 10.63

  imperial refers either to the power vested in Edward by the Emperor (see 3.8–10, 4.29–30) or, more probably, to his own status as supreme ruler. Cf. 176; also 4.59n.

  36 the fate of the dead Trojan hero Hector, dragged round the walls of Troy by Achilles (see the end of Homer, Iliad, Book 22); to drag living men is even more barbarous.

  37 quartering steel See 5.5n. Cf. 1H6 4.2.11.

  38 doom sentence; final fate (OED n. 2; 4b)

  * * *

  27 SP] (Two:), Capell subst. 30–1 known, / Or] known / As citizens of substance and account; / We solemnly protest that this is true, / Or Hop2; known / [ … ] / Or Oxf

  39–59 Cf. Froissart, 331–2, ‘Than the quene beynge great with chylde, kneled downe and sore wepyng, sayd, A gentyll sir, … nowe I humbly requyre you … for the love of me that ye woll take mercy of these sixe burgesses. The kyng … sayd, A dame, I wold ye had ben as nowe in some other place, ye make suche request to me that I can nat deny you … THUS the strong towne of Calays was gyven up to kyng Edwarde of England’ (see Holinshed, 3.378).

  39 Cf. 10.33.

  41–2 The analogy between God’s creation of mankind and the merciful ruler’s gift of life to the condemned was a familiar tenet of the 16th-century theory of kingship. Cf. the proverb ‘It is in their mercy that kings come closest to gods’ (Dent, M898).

  43–6 Cf. Seneca, Phoenissae, ll. 559–66, ‘Nay, thou harmst thine own cause in this very act of harrying the land with hostile arms … No one works such havoc on his own; what thou bidst be plundered with fire and reaped with sword, thou deemst another’s. Question whether of you be king, but let the kingdom stand’ (see Cunliffe, 87–8). Cf. King John’s tyranny in putting his subjects’ lives at risk at 6.114–21.

  45 sword … fire Cf. 10.72 and n.

  46 is not reckoned as belonging to us; i.e. dead subjects are no subjects.

  47 this refers forward to 48–9, asserting the claims of justice before mercy

  50–2 elaboration of the proverb ‘He is not fit to command (govern) others that cannot command (govern) himself’ (Dent2, C552); recalls King Edward’s behaviour in Scs 2 and 3.

  50 insomuch it shall in so far as it must; cf. 6.58 and n.

  52 other others (a collective plural); cf. 4.136n.

  dint stroke, blow

  53–5 Cf. 6.145–8 and nn.

  * * *

  44 her] thy Q2

  54 Cf. Locrine, TLN 703–4, ‘Yet should they not escape our conquering swords, / Or boast of ought but of our clemencie’.

  55 Edward’s underlying proposition is that tyrants should fear inevitable retribution. Cf. Seneca, Oedipus, ll. 705–6: ‘Who harshly wields the sceptre with tyrannic sway, fears those who fear; terror recoils upon its author’s head.’

  56 SP follows Q, but the line could be spoken collectively

  60 might we if I could

  abroad elsewhere