The motto ‘Sic et vos, and so should you’.} Exeunt.

  [

  Sc. 9 ] Enter Lord MONTFORT with a coronet [4.1]

  in his hand, with him the Earl of SALISBURY.

  MONTFORT

  My lord of Salisbury, since by your aid

  Mine enemy, Sir Charles of Blois, is slain,

  And I again am quietly possessed

  In Brittain’s dukedom, know that I resolve,

  5 For this kind furtherance of your King and you,

  To swear allegiance to his majesty;

  In sign whereof, receive this coronet.

  Bear it unto him, and withal mine oath

  Never to be but Edward’s faithful friend.

  SALISBURY

  10 I take it, Montfort. Thus I hope ere long

  The whole dominions of the realm of France

  Will be surrendered to his conquering hand.

  Exit [Montfort.]

  Now if I knew but safely how to pass,

  I would to Calais gladly meet his grace,

  15 Whither I am by letters certified

  That he intends to have his host removed.

  It shall be so; this policy will serve.

  [Calls.] Ho, who’s within? Bring Villiers to me.

  Enter VILLIERS.

  Villiers, thou knowst thou art my prisoner,

  20 And that I might for ransom if I would

  Require of thee a hundred thousand francs,

  Or else retain and keep thee captive still.

  But so it is that for a smaller charge

  Thou mayst be quit, an if thou wilt thyself,

  25 And this it is: procure me but a passport

  Of Charles, the Duke of Normandy, that I

  Without restraint may have recourse to Calais

  Through all the countries where he hath to do –

  Which thou mayst easily obtain, I think,

  30 By reason I have often heard thee say

  He and thou were students once together –

  And then thou shalt be set at liberty.

  How sayst thou, wilt thou undertake to do it?

  VILLIERS

  I will, my lord, but I must speak with him.

  SALISBURY

  35 Why so thou shalt. Take horse and post from hence.

  Only before thou goest, swear by thy faith

  That if thou canst not compass my desire

  Thou wilt return my prisoner back again,

  And that shall be sufficient warrant for me.

  VILLIERS

  40 To that condition I agree, my lord,

  And will unfeignedly perform the same.

  SALISBURY

  Farewell, Villiers. Exit [Villiers].

  Thus once I mean to try a Frenchman’s faith. Exit.

  [

  Sc. 10 ] Enter KING EDWARD and DERBY, [4.2]

  with Soldiers.

  KING EDWARD

  Since they refuse our proffered league, my lord,

  And will not ope their gates and let us in,

  We will entrench ourselves on every side,

  That neither victuals nor supply of men

  5 May come to succour this accursed town.

  Famine shall combat where our swords are stopped.

  DERBY

  The promised aid that made them stand aloof

  Is now retired and gone another way;

  It will repent them of their stubborn will.

  Enter six poor Frenchmen.

  10 But what are these poor ragged slaves, my lord?

  KING EDWARD

  Ask what they are; it seems they come from Calais.

  DERBY

  You wretched patterns of despair and woe,

  What, are you living men, or gliding ghosts

  Crept from your graves to walk upon the earth?

  POOR FRENCHMAN

  15 No ghosts, my lord, but men that breathe a life

  Far worse than is the quiet sleep of death.

  We are distressed poor inhabitants

  That long have been diseased, sick and lame;

  And now, because we are not fit to serve,

  20 The captain of the town hath thrust us forth,

  That so expense of victuals may be saved.

  KING EDWARD

  A charitable deed no doubt, and worthy praise.

  But how do you imagine then to speed?

  We are your enemies. In such a case,

  25 We can no less but put ye to the sword,

  Since when we proffered truce it was refused.

  POOR FRENCHMAN

  An if your grace no otherwise vouchsafe,

  As welcome death is unto us as life.

  KING EDWARD

  Poor silly men, much wronged and more distressed.

  30 Go, Derby, go, and see they be relieved;

  Command that victuals be appointed them

  And give to every one five crowns apiece. [Exit Derby with poor men.]

  The lion scorns to touch the yielding prey,

  And Edward’s sword must flesh itself in such

  35 As wilful stubbornness hath made perverse.

  Enter Lord PERCY.

  Lord Percy, welcome. What’s the news in England?

  PERCY

  The Queen, my lord, commends her to your grace,

  And from her highness and the lord vicegerent

  I bring this happy tidings of success:

  40 David of Scotland, lately up in arms,

  Thinking belike he soonest should prevail,

  Your highness being absent from the realm,

  Is by the fruitful service of your peers

  And painful travail of the Queen herself –

  45 That, big with child, was every day in arms –

  Vanquished, subdued and taken prisoner.

  KING EDWARD

  Thanks, Percy, for thy news, with all my heart.

  What was he took him prisoner in the field?

  PERCY

  A squire, my lord, John Copeland is his name,

  50 Who since entreated by her majesty

  Denies to make surrender of his prize

  To any but unto your grace alone,

  Whereat the Queen is grievously displeased.

  KING EDWARD

  Well then, we’ll have a pursuivant dispatch

  55 To summon Copeland hither out of hand,

  And with him he shall bring his prisoner king.

  PERCY

  The Queen, my lord, herself by this’ at sea

  And purposeth, as soon as wind will serve,

  To land at Calais and to visit you.

  KING EDWARD

  60 She shall be welcome, and to wait her coming

  I’ll pitch my tent near to the sandy shore.

  Enter a [French] Captain.

  CAPTAIN

  The burgesses of Calais, mighty King,

  Have by a council willingly decreed

  To yield the town and castle to your hands,

  65 Upon condition it will please your grace

  To grant them benefit of life and goods.

  KING EDWARD

  They will so! Then belike they may command,

  Dispose, elect and govern as they list.

  No, sirrah, tell them since they did refuse

  70 Our princely clemency at first proclaimed,

  They shall not have it now, although they would.

  I will accept of naught but fire and sword,

  Except within these two days six of them

  That are the wealthiest merchants in the town

  75 Come naked all but for their linen shirts,

  With each a halter hanged about his neck,

  And prostrate yield themselves upon their knees

  To be afflicted, hanged or what I please;

  And so you may inform their masterships.

  Exeunt [all but Captain.]

  CAPTAIN

  80 Why, this it is to trust a broken staff.

  Had we not been persuaded John our King

  Would with his army have relieved the town,

  We had not stood upon defiance so;

  84 But now ’tis past that no man can recall,

  And better some do go to wrack than all. Exit.

  [

  Sc. 11 ] Enter CHARLES[, Duke] of Normandy, [4.3]

  and VILLIERS.

  CHARLES

  I wonder, Villiers, thou shouldst importune me

  For one that is our deadly enemy.

  VILLIERS

  Not for his sake, my gracious lord, so much

  Am I become an earnest advocate

  5 As that thereby my ransom will be quit.

  CHARLES

  Thy ransom, man? Why need’st thou talk of that?

  Art thou not free? And are not all occasions

  That happen for advantage of our foes

  To be accepted of and stood upon?

  VILLIERS

  10 No, good my lord, except the same be just;

  For profit must with honour be commixed,

  Or else our actions are but scandalous.

  But, letting pass these intricate objections,

  Will’t please your highness to subscribe or no?

  CHARLES

  15 Villiers, I will not nor I cannot do it.

  Salisbury shall not have his will so much

  To claim a passport how it please himself.

  VILLIERS

  Why, then I know the extremity, my lord:

  I must return to prison whence I came.

  CHARLES

  20 Return? I hope thou wilt not.

  What bird that hath escaped the fowler’s gin

  Will not beware how she’s ensnared again?

  Or what is he so senseless and secure

  That having hardly passed a dangerous gulf

  25 Will put himself in peril there again?

  VILLIERS

  Ah, but it is mine oath, my gracious lord,

  Which I in conscience may not violate,

  Or else a kingdom should not draw me hence.

  CHARLES

  Thine oath? Why, that doth bind thee to abide.

  30 Hast thou not sworn obedience to thy prince?

  VILLIERS

  In all things that uprightly he commands:

  But either to persuade or threaten me

  Not to perform the covenant of my word

  Is lawless, and I need not to obey.

  CHARLES

  35 Why is it lawful for a man to kill

  And not to break a promise with his foe?

  VILLIERS

  To kill, my lord, when war is once proclaimed,

  So that our quarrel be for wrongs received,

  No doubt is lawfully permitted us;

  40 But in an oath we must be well advised

  How we do swear, and when we once have sworn

  Not to infringe it, though we die therefore.

  Therefore, my lord, as willing I return

  As if I were to fly to paradise. [Offers to leave.]

  CHARLES

  45 Stay, my Villiers. Thine honourable mind

  Deserves to be eternally admired.

  Thy suit shall be no longer thus deferred.

  Give me the paper, I’ll subscribe to it:

  [Signs the passport.]

  And where tofore I loved thee as Villiers,

  50 Hereafter I’ll embrace thee as myself.

  Stay, and be still in favour with thy lord.

  VILLIERS

  I humbly thank your grace. I must dispatch

  And send this passport first unto the Earl,

  And then I will attend your highness’ pleasure.

  CHARLES

  Do so, Villiers: Exit Villiers.

  55 and Charles, when he hath need,

  Be such his soldiers, howsoever he speed.

  Enter KING JOHN.

  KING JOHN

  Come, Charles, and arm thee. Edward is entrapped,

  The Prince of Wales is fallen into our hands

  And we have compassed him; he cannot scape.

  CHARLES

  60 But will your highness fight today?

  KING JOHN

  What else, my son, he’s scarce eight thousand strong,

  And we are threescore thousand at the least.

  CHARLES

  I have a prophecy, my gracious lord,

  Wherein is written what success is like

  65 To happen us in this outrageous war;

  It was delivered me at Crécy’s field,

  By one that is an aged hermit there.

  ‘When feathered fowl shall make thine army tremble,

  And flint-stones rise and break the battle ’rray,

  70 Then think on him that doth not now dissemble,

  For that shall be the hapless, dreadful day.

  Yet, in the end, thy foot thou shalt advance

  As far in England as thy foe in France.’

  KING JOHN

  By this it seems we shall be fortunate:

  75 For as it is impossible that stones

  Should ever rise and break the battle ’rray

  Or airy fowl make men-in-arms to quake,

  So is it like we shall not be subdued.

  Or say this might be true, yet in the end,

  80 Since he doth promise we shall drive him hence

  And forage their country as they have done ours,

  By this revenge that loss will seem the less.

  But all are frivolous fancies, toys and dreams.

  84 Once we are sure we have ensnared the son,

  Catch we the father after how we can. Exeunt.

  [

  Sc. 12 ] Enter PRINCE EDWARD, [4.4]

  AUDLEY and others.

  PRINCE EDWARD

  Audley, the arms of death embrace us round,

  And comfort have we none, save that to die

  We pay sour earnest for a sweeter life.

  At Crécy field our clouds of warlike smoke

  5 Choked up those French mouths and dissevered

  them;

  But now their multitudes of millions hide –

  Masking, as ’twere – the beauteous burning sun,

  Leaving no hope to us but sullen dark

  And eyeless terror of all-ending night.

  AUDLEY

  10 This sudden, mighty and expedient head

  That they have made, fair Prince, is wonderful.

  Before us in the valley lies the King,

  Vantaged with all that heaven and earth can yield,

  His party stronger battled than our whole;

  15 His son, the braving Duke of Normandy,

  Hath trimmed the mountain on our right hand up

  In shining plate, that now the aspiring hill

  Shows like a silver quarry, or an orb,

  Aloft the which the banners, bannerets

  20 And new-replenished pendants cuff the air

  And beat the winds that for their gaudiness

  Struggles to kiss them; on our left hand lies

  Philip, the younger issue of the King,

  Coating the other hill in such array

  25 That all his gilded upright pikes do seem

  Straight trees of gold, the pendants pendent leaves,

  And their device of antique heraldry,

  Quartered in colours seeming sundry fruits,

  Makes it the orchard of the Hesperides;

  30 Behind us too the hill doth bear his height,

  For like a half moon, opening but one way,

  It rounds us in – there at our backs are lodged

  The fatal crossbows, and the battle there

  Is governed by the rough Chatillion.

  35 Then thus it stands: the valley for our flight

  The King binds in; the hills on either hand

  Are proudly royalized by his sons;

  And on the hill behind stands certain death

  In pay and service with Chatillion.

  PRINCE EDWARD

  40 Death’s name is much more mighty than his deeds.

  Thy parcelling this power hath made it more

  Than all the world and, call it but a power,

  These quarters, squadrons and these regiments,

  Before, behind us and on either hand,

  45 Are but a power. When we name a man,

  His hand, his foot, his head hath several strengths,

  And being all but one self instant strength,

  Why, all this many, Audley, is but one,

  And we can call it all but one man’s strength.

  50 He that hath far to go tells it by miles;

  If he should tell the steps, it kills his heart.

  The drops are infinite that make a flood,

  And yet thou knowst we call it but a rain.

  As many sands as these my hands can hold

  55 Are but my handful of so many sands,

  Easily ta’en up and quickly thrown away:

  But if I stand to count them, sand by sand,

  The number would confound my memory

  And make a thousand millions of a task

  60 Which briefly is no more indeed than one.

  There is but one France, one King of France;

  That France hath no more kings, and that same King

  Hath but the puissant legion of one king –

  And we have one. Then apprehend no odds,

  65 For one to one is fair equality.

  Enter an Herald from King John.

  What tidings messenger? Be plain and brief.

  1 HERALD

  The King of France, my sovereign lord and master,

  Greets by me his foe, the Prince of Wales.

  If thou call forth a hundred men of name,

  70 Of lords, knights, squires and English gentlemen,

  And with thyself and those kneel at his feet,

  He straight will fold his bloody colours up

  And ransom shall redeem lives forfeited.

  If not, this day shall drink more English blood

  75 Than e’er was buried in our Brittish earth.

  What is thy answer to his proffered mercy?

  PRINCE EDWARD

  This heaven that covers France contains the mercy

  That draws from me submissive orisons.

  That such base breath should vanish from my lips

  80 To urge the plea of mercy to a man,

  The Lord forbid. Return, and tell the King

  My tongue is made of steel and it shall beg

  My mercy on his coward burgonet.

  Tell him my colours are as red as his,

  85 My men as bold, our English arms as strong.

  Return him my defiance in his face.

  1 HERALD

  I go. [Exit.]

  Enter another [Herald, from Charles].

 

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