* * *

  185 mourning, Philippe,] Q2 subst.; mourning Phillip, Q; mourning! Philippe, Collier; mourning, Philippe; Armstrong2; mourning, Philip! Oxf 186.1Flourish] Capell 187 As] Q2; Ki:As Q

  192 the gift Q’s awkward phrasing suggests that the may be an error for ‘this’ (cf. 193 and This gift at 17.57).

  193 i.e. the crown of France (cf. diadem at 183); glancing again at the triumphs of Rome, where victors were crowned with ‘wreaths’ of laurel (cf. 17.31n., 37–8n.).

  194 mickle This old-fashioned poetic synonym for ‘great’ raises the poetic register. Cf. FQ, 3.10.39; also Greene, Farewell, sig. E4v, ‘the gaie coates of kings couers much care, as they haue many pleasures, so they haue mickle perils’.

  195 thing of price valuable object; cf. 2Tam, 5.1.12–14, ‘Is not my life and state as dear to me, / … As any thing of price … ?’

  196 The Prince in effect calls on his father to crown himself.

  your proper right i.e. the kingship of France, symbolized by its crown (to which Edward has the truest claim)

  197–8 This action implicitly links Prince Edward with Copeland; cf. 79–80; also 8.70–2.

  197 herewithal together with this (the crown); not used by Shakespeare

  render deliver; pay as tribute (OED v. 7a; 10a, 11a)

  198 occasion cause (OED n.1 3a)

  200–1 Cf. 123, 13.124.

  201 think for expect (OED v.2 12d)

  202–3 had you … had if you had … would have

  203 civil orderly, well-governed (OED a. 8); cf. 3.58n.

  * * *

  191 SD] Collier subst.; kisse him. Q, opp. 190 195 SD] this edn; presenting him with King John’s Crown. / Capell, after 192; Presenting the Crown of France. / Collier, after 193 202 you … you] ye … ye Q2

  204 ragged rough, jagged (OED a.1 2c). Cf. 2.157; also Tit 5.3.132, ‘on the ragged stones beat forth our souls’.

  205 thou Edward’s shift to the informal pronoun reflects his increasing anger and disdain for the French King, reciprocated in John’s reply. See 1.55, 57n.

  206 untimely prematurely

  210 seas English Channel; cf. 1.52.

  211 entertainment reception, provision (OED n. 11a, b). Melchiori notes Froissart on King John’s captivity in England: ‘the French kyng was removed fro the Savoy to the castell of Wyndsore, and all his householde, and went a huntyng and a haukyng ther about at his pleasur’ (394).

  212 Howe’er it falls in any event

  214–15 Cf. 13.39–40n., 54–5.

  214 Accursed accursèd

  this his journey to England, equivocally prophesied at 11.72–3

  215 misconstrue stressed on second syllable (as in Q’s ‘misconster’): interpret wrongly

  * * *

  205 mightst thou] might you Q2 208 requir’st] (requirest) 214 SD] Capell subst. 215 misconstrue] (misconster)

  216–35 This speech’s rhetoric, not least in its equation of divine purpose with English interests, strongly suggests a context of theatrical defence against the Puritan attack on acting. The theatre’s defenders recommended the celebration of national successes, especially military ones: see LN. On the play as an instrument for recruitment, see 220n. and p. 35.

  216 *Father Prince Edward says simply father on only one occasion (8.73). In speaking directly to his father, he never uses thou, thee and thy, reserving them for his disrespectful speeches to King John (though not to his sons, who receive the polite you in Sc. 17). See 1.55, 57n. Second-person address to a father must accordingly be understood as a direct prayer to God, requiring capitalization here and in the following lines.

  216–35 this … retire As a prayer, this speech moves outwards from the action to approximate the detachment of an epilogue. As in Sc. 1, the Prince’s penultimate passionate speech is followed by his father’s formal closing command. The Prince ostensibly speaks the last word when his father is also onstage only in Sc. 8, itself circumstantial evidence for the view that that speech may be misplaced (see 8.109–13n., LN).

  217 grace favour (OED n. 1b, 2a); contrasting with the material shield with which Artois invests the Prince at 6.198–202

  218 pleasure See 3n.; also 3.42n.

  219 instrument Cf. 3H6 4.6.17–18, ‘I thank God and thee. / He was the author, thou the instrument’.

  220 many princes more i.e. such later figures as King Edward’s brother, John of Gaunt, and Henry V, but a wider appeal to England’s youth is also implied, including those in the audience (cf. the choicest buds of 3.82 and English boys of 17.6). Cf. H5 2.0.1, ‘Now all the youth of England are on fire’. See also p. 35.

  221 Bred ‘brought forth’, i.e. born (OED a.1 1)

  little isle A familiar Elizabethan astigmatism equates Great Britain with England; cf., e.g., R2 2.1.40, ‘this sceptred isle’. Cf. also 3.190.

  222 Specific allusion to The Famous Victories of Henry V is possible. See 144n.

  still forever

  222 SD *Capell appropriately has Prince Edward kneel in prayer at 217, but it is unlikely that he remains kneeling until the end of the scene; Collier has him rise before the speech’s bellicose peroration.

  223 scars wounds

  * * *

  216 SD] this edn; after Thee, 217 Capell; after 217 Collier; after 216 Riv (Kneels in prayer.) Father]Collier2; father Q 221 that] this Collier 222 SD] Collier2

  224–7 Cf. the injunction of Marlowe’s Tamburlaine to his sons, 2Tam, 3.2.55–8, ‘I’ll have you learn to sleep upon the ground, / March in your armour thorough watery fens, / Sustain the scorching heat and freezing cold, / Hunger and thirst, right adjuncts of the war’; also 3H6 5.7.16–18, Tit 3.1.5, H5 4.0.38.

  224 watched stayed awake; kept watch

  in field on active service

  226 fearful terrifying; cf. 8.102 (see n.), 13.21.

  proffered threatened (OED v. 3)

  227, 233 what whatever

  227 displease See 3n.; also 3.42n.

  228 redoubled twenty-fold forty times greater (hyperbole). Cf. 2.255–7n.; also 7.11.

  229 So on condition

  hereafter later, succeeding. Cf. 3.195 (and n.); also 1H6 2.2.10, R3 4.4.390.

  230 traffic employment, dealings; cf. 1H6 5.2.185.

  of … youth i.e. lacking the strength of age and experience (OED tender a. 4). Cf. Spanish Tragedy, 1.1.7, ‘To gratious fortunes of my tender youth’ (BV).

  232–4 Cf. the final lines of 2TR, ‘If England’s peers and people join in one, / Nor Pope, nor France, nor Spain can do them wrong’, and their counterpart in KJ 5.7.115–18.

  232 territories of lands under the rule of. Cf. 1H6 5.3.139.

  France perhaps specifically the King of France

  233 Spain, Turkey Although Prince Edward was later victorious at Nájera (1367), the reference to Spain here, alongside Turkey, is probably topical. Both countries had expansionist policies in the 1580s and 1590s. See 4.43n. on great … Turk.

  234 Though the word-order introduces possible ambiguity, the Prince’s purport is clearly to attach justly to the response rather than the provocation. Cf. 1.167n. on rightful quarrel.

  235 their refers to many princes (220)

  237 intercession interval (OED n. 5)

  * * *

  237 intercession] interceasing Q2

  238 Sheathe up See 2.156n. on make up. Cf. 4.21.

  239 Peruse Cf. 2.271.

  breathed rested; cf. 8.3n., 14.3, 4n.

  240 day or two See 2.54n.

  haven seaport (OED)

  242 in … hour at a propitious time

  243 The lack of final rhyme (see 8.107–8n.) and the catalogue (cf. TGV 5.4.171, ‘One feast, one house, one mutual happiness’) provide what Winny terms a ‘curiously lame conclusion’. This may understate the impact of the Queen’s presence and participation in the final scene. See 0.4n. and LN. See LN and pp. 32–3.

  three Kings Edward, David and John

  two Princes Edward and Philip

  * * *

  242 I … shall] there shall be seen (Collier2) 243 Arrive:] Winny; Ariue Q; Arrive, Capell SD] Capell subst.

  LONGER NOTES

  TITLE The play was published early in 1596 as ‘THE RAIGNE OF K: Edward the third’, having been entered on 1 December 1595 in the Stationers’ Register to Cuthbert Burby, as ‘A book Intitled Edward the Third and the blacke prince their warres wth kinge Iohn of Fraunce’ (Greg, 1.12). The term ‘book’ may reflect Burby’s submission of a theatrical playbook for licensing. The title must have been changed between 1 December 1595, when the Clerk of the Company would have transcribed it directly from the MS, and the date of issue of the quarto printed by Thomas Scarlet (see p. 115). We can only guess at the motive for the change, made before the start of printing (which began with sheet A). Various considerations suggest themselves: as in Froissart, Prince Edward is nowhere directly named ‘Black Prince’ in the play, a feature not shared with later plays like H5 and Woodstock; a third of the action is devoted not to the war but to the King’s infatuation with the Countess of Salisbury; the new title soft-pedals hostility between England and France. The printed title is, however, the less precise of the two, and carries a misleading suggestion of comprehensive cover of a reign which continued 21 years beyond the play’s dateable action. See Appendix 1.

  1.22–5 The Lex Salica is in fact more ambiguous, stating ‘that a woman can have no portion of the inheritance of “Salic land” (terra Salica); the precise meaning of this term is disputed, and in the earliest form of the code the word “Salic” is omitted’ (OED salic a.1). See Froissart, 22–3, ‘the twelve piers and all the barons of Fraunce wold nat gyve the realme to Isabell the suster [of Charles IV], who was quene of Ingland, bycause they sayd and maynteyned, and yet do, that the realme of Fraunce is so noble that it ought nat to go to a woman; and so consequently to Isabel, nor to the kyng of Inglande her eldest sonne; for they determyned the sonne of the woman to have no ryght nor succession by his mother, syn they declared the mother to have no ryght; … Thus went the realme of Fraunce out of the ryght lynage as it seemed to many folk, wherby great warres hath moved and fallen.’ See also Holinshed, 3.545–6, in a passage later versified by Shakespeare in H5 1.2.35–95.

  On the death of Charles IV (last son of Philip le Beau), his wife was pregnant and Philip of Valois, nephew to Philip le Beau, was made regent until the birth. When a daughter rather than a son was born, Edward, as Philip le Beau’s grandson through his mother Isabel, was the only surviving male in the direct line from le Beau, and therefore, it could be argued, had more claim to the throne than the late King Charles’s cousin Philip, but French fear of having a King of England on their throne led to the crowning of the regent Philip as king (see Packe, 20–1, 42).

  1.56–86 In 1329 Edward did pay homage to Philip VI: ‘In the third yeare of his reigne, about the Ascension tide, king Edward went ouer into France, and comming to the French king Philip de Valois, as then being at Amiens, did there his homage vnto him for the duchie of Guien’ (Holinshed, 3.348). Froissart, however, suggests a less conclusive outcome: ‘kyng Edwarde of England made his homage to the kynge of Fraunce, all onely by worde, and nat puttyng his handes bytwene the kynge of Fraunce handes, nor none other prince nor prelate lymitted for hym; nor the kynge of Englande wolde nat procede any farther in doyng any more concernyng his homage, but rather he was determyned to returne agayne into Englande; and there was redde openly, the privyleges of auncyent tyme graunted, [in] the which was declared in what maner the kynge shulde do his homage, and howe, and in what wyse he shulde do servyce to the kynge of Fraunce. Than the kynge of Fraunce sayd, Cosyn, we woll nat disceyve you: this that ye have done pleaseth us rightwell, as for this present tyme, tyll such tyme as ye be returned agayne into your realme, and that ye have sene under the seales of your predecessoures, howe, and in what wyse ye shulde do. And so thus the kynge of Englande tooke his leave … There were many as than in Englande that murmured and sayd, how the kyng their lorde was nerer by true succession of herytage to the crowne of Fraunce than Phylippe of Valoys, who was as than kyng of Fraunce. Howbeit the kyng and his counsell wolde nat knowe it, nor speke therof, as at that time. Thus was ther great assemble, and moch ado how this homage shulde be parfourmed.… howbeit finally, the kynge of Englande, … was determyned to write letters in the maner of patentes, sealed with his great seale, knowlegyng therin the homage that he ought to do to the kyng of Fraunce’ (Froissart, 78–9). Froissart (81) later states that ‘These letters the lordes of Fraunce brought to the kyng their lorde, and the kyng caused them to be kept in his chauncery’. For a modern historian’s detailed account of the homage, with some variation from Froissart, see Packe, 43–4, who concludes: ‘True, Edward had done a form of homage, but his homage had looked more like defiance. He had transformed a picturesque feudal observance into a confrontation between kings, between nations; England against France.’

  Lorraine was not the ambassador on this occasion, but was among the nobles who prepared for Edward’s arrival in France: ‘Than was it counselled the kynge of Fraunce, that he shulde receyve the kyng of Englande at the cyte of Amyas [Amiens], … There was chambers, halles, hosteries, and lodgynges made redy, and apparelled, to receyve them all, and their company; and also for the duke of Burgoyne, the duke of Burbon, the duke of Lurren [Lorraine], and syr John of Artoyes’ (Froissart, 77). The unhistorical choice of Lorraine as ambassador to assert the French King’s position may have a further distant resonance. Charles, 1st Duke of Lorraine, was, according to Holinshed, himself supplanted by Hugh Capet’s usurpation of the French crown, on the basis of a claim through the female line (see 133–4 LN and H5 1.2.69–71). For the significance of Lorraine in the 1590s, see pp. 14–15.

  1.105 *Degenerate OED cites a further example to suggest ‘regenerate’ might conflate ‘renegade’ and ‘degenerate’: ‘I have heard a story of an Englishman in Barbary which turned Moor, and lived in the Kings Court, on a day it was said in his presence that there was a Lion within a little space of the Court … The Englishman being more then half drunk, offered to go and kill the Lion hand to hand … so forth went this regenerate English Moor, more like a mad man then an advised Champion to kill this Lion’ (Topsell, ‘Of the Lion’, 360 (1658)). ‘Regenerate’ here appears to suggest both apostasy – from Christianity to Islam (‘English Moor’) – and personal debasement or degradation (the ‘Moor’ is ‘half drunk’); in the play, Lorraine may be referring to Artois’s desertion of one nation for another. OED points out that in the first (1607) edition of Topsell the word appears as ‘renegate’ (presumably meaning ‘renegade’; see Topsell (1607), 462). This could suggest that the 1658 reading ‘regenerate’ is actually an error or miscorrection. The occurrence in E3 may equally be an error. An early reader of Bod altered it to ‘degenerate’. Tyrrell’s conjectural emendation to Degenerate (accepted by Delius and many later editors) recommends itself, as ‘degenerate’ occurs frequently in other plays of the period (e.g. KL 1.4.245, ‘Degenerate bastard, I’ll not trouble thee’). Misreading, by a copyist or compositor, could have been induced as an alliterative echo of 104: reproach/violence, ‘Regenerate’/Viper. Semantic distinction between ‘de-’ and ‘re-generate’ is the basis for the comic use of ‘regenerate’ as a malaprop for ‘degenerate’ in Jews’ Tragedy (sig. F3r). On balance it seems likely that Q ‘Regenerate’ is an error.

  1.108 SD Many editors since Capell have added a SD for Lorraine too to draw his sword. Melchiori justifies this by stating that ‘no king would draw first against an ambassador’ (an observation supported by, e.g., Segar, Military, sig. D2r: ‘Ambassadours ought be in all countreys inuiolable … no man should dare to lay hold on them; & who so offred them violence, was thought to haue done contrary to law of Nations’). But the King’s words (108–13) indicate that he does not draw his sword overtly against anyone but uses it (literally) to illustrate a point, and to counter the violent escalation of the dialogue. In Clark’s production, Lorraine merely reached for his sword, threatening Artois, to be at once confronted by the drawn swords of King Edward and the English lords. In Steckel’s production, Prince Edward passed a two-handed sword to his father.

  1.122–8 In 1332, three years after David II was crowned King of Scotland and had married King Edward’s sister Joan to seal a peace treaty between Scotland and England, the Scots seized the town of Berwick, and the young King David refused to do homage to the King of England. ‘YE have harde here before recited, of the truce bitwene Inglande and Scotland, for the space of iii. yere; and so the space of oone yere, they kept well the peace, so that in CCC. yere before, there was nat so good peace kept: howbeit, kyng Edward of Ingland was enformed, that the yong kyng David, of Scotland, who had wedded his suster, was seaced of the towne of Berwyke, the whiche ought to apperteyn to the realme of Ingland … Also the kyng was enformed, that the realme of Scotlande shulde holde in chiefe of the Crowne of Inglande, and how the yong kyng of Scottis had nat done as than his homage’ (Froissart, 83). The English entered Scotland, driving the Scots before them and laying siege to Berwick. As King David had sent no relief for the town, Edward regained it (and consequently won most of Scotland); see Froissart, 85–7. Edward Balliol, son of John Balliol (and thus the rival claimant to the Scottish throne, as leading noble of all the Scots and English nobility), disinherited when David became king, was restored as a puppet king by King Edward – ‘a capitayn’ to ‘helpe to kepe the landis, that he [Edward] had conquered of the Scottis’ (Froissart, 87). For nine years skirmishes with the Scots persisted. King David (who had been sent to France in 1334 under the protection of Philip VI) returned to Scotland ‘to confort his people’ only in 1341, having heard how ‘his realme was sore distroyed’ by the English (187). King Edward had recently made a new ‘trewse to endure foure monethes’ with the Scots, agreeing to withdraw from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where he had gathered a great force to restrain the Scots, ‘on the condycion that they of Scotlande shulde sende sufficyent embassadours into France to kyng Davyd, that without he wolde come within the moneth of May next folowing, so puyssantly as to resyst and defende his realme, els they clerely to yelde themselfe Englysshe, and never to take hym more for their kyng’ (187). David therefore returned in order to resume wars with England, starting with an assault on Newcastle-upon-Tyne, but by this time ‘the truse was as than expyred’ (188).