King edward iii, p.51
King Edward III, page 51
The pelican would fit use of the play as propaganda for military recruitment, fulfilling Whitney’s adaptation of the emblem, ‘The Pellican, for to reuiue her younge, / Doth peirce her brest, and geue them of her blood: / Then searche your breste, and as yow haue with tonge, / With penne proceede to doe our countrie good: / Your zeale is great, your learning is profounde, / Then helpe our wantes, with that you doe abounde’ (Whitney, 87, with the motto, ‘Quod in te est, prome’, ‘What is in you, draw forth’).
9.13–43 Cf. Froissart, 306–7, ‘sir Gaultier [Walter] of Manny fell in communycation with a knyght of Normandy, who was his prisoner, and demaunded of hym what money he wolde pay for his raunsome. The knyght answered and sayde he wolde gladly pay thre M. crownes. Well, quoth the lorde Gaultyer, I knowe well ye be kynne to the duke of Normandy and wel beloved with hym, that I am sure, and if I wolde sore oppresse you, I am sure ye wolde gladly pay x. thousand crownes, but I shall deale otherwyse with you. I woll trust you on your faythe and promyse; ye shall go to the duke your lorde, and by your meanes gette a save conduct for me and xx. other of my company to ryde through Fraunce to Calys, payeng curtesly for all our expenses. And if ye can get this of the duke or of the kyng, I shall clerely quyte you your ransome with moche thanke, for I greatly desyre to se the kynge my maister, nor I wyll lye but one nyght in a place, tyll I come there; and if ye can nat do this, retourne agayn hyder within a moneth, and yelde yourself styll as my prisoner. The knyght was content.’
9.19–43 Cf. ‘This Regulus truely was sent to Rome by them of Carthago, to entreate with the senate for the deliuery of the prysoners: for if he could obtayne it, he should be set fre at libertie. If not, according to his promise he should returne agayn to Carthago. As sone as Regulus came to Rome, it was sayed that he hymselfe counsailed in the senate, that they would not suffre the exchaunge of the prysoners to be done for his sake, but that they woulde rather consyder hee were an old man and feble of body, whiche could lyue not muche longer … The senate at the last folowed his mynde, and hee went to Carthago agayne, where he was tormented with sundry and new maners of tormentes … First is the principall loue of this man toward the commonwelth alowed, namely whose profite he regarded more, than the health of hym or his. His trust and faithfulnesse is praysed also, because he went agayn to Carthago, specially seyng he knew that moste cruel punishmentes were appointed for hym’ (Carion, sig. K5v; for a classical version, see, e.g., Cicero, 3.26.99–32.115).
10.1–9 According to Froissart, the siege started not with a proferred league but abruptly and without negotiation (see 6n.). This detail and the withdrawal of promised aid (7) which leads to the surrender of the town relate to later stages of the siege. In Froissart, after the French King had tried to raise the siege he offered battle on more suitable terrain. Edward refused the offer as he had already spent ‘nyghe an hole yere’ on the siege and Philip ‘might have come hyther soner if he had wolde, but he hath suffred me to abyde here so long, the which hath ben gretly to my coste and charge’. After a failed attempt at negotiation by ‘two cardynalles from pope Clement in legacioun’, ‘the Frenche kynge sawe that he coulde do nothynge, the next day he dysloged betymes and toke his waye to Amyens, and gave every man leave to depart. Whane they within Calays sawe their kynge depart they made great sorowe’ (Froissart, 327–8; see also Holinshed, 3.377).
10.36–56 Cf. Froissart, 311–15, ‘whan the kynge of Englande had besieged Calays and lay there, than the Scottes determyned to make warre into Englande … THE quene of England, who desyred to defende her contrey, came to Newcastell upon Tyne and there taryed for her men, who came dayly fro all partes … than the quene came among her men and there was ordayned four batayls, one to ayde another. The firste had in governaunce the bysshoppe of Dyrham and the lorde Percy … The quene went fro batayle to batayle desyring them to do their devoyre to defende the honoure of her lorde the kyng of Englande, and in the name of God every man to be of good hert and courage, promysyng them that to her power she wolde remembre theym as well or better as thoughe her lorde the kyng were ther personally. Than the quene departed fro them … finally thenglysshmen obtayned the place and vyctorie … And there the kynge was taken, who fought valiantly, and was sore hurt; a squyer of Northumberland toke hym, called John Coplande, and assone as he had taken the kynge, he went with hym out of the felde … than he sayde he wolde nat delyver the kyng of Scottes to no man nor woman lyveyng, but all onely to the kynge of Englande, his lorde … Than the quene wrote to the squyer commaundyng hym to bring his prisoner the kyng of Scottes, and howe he had nat well done to depart with hym without leave … Whan the quenes letter was brought to Johan Coplande, he answered and sayd, that as for the kyng of Scottes his prisoner, he wolde nat delyver hym to no man nor woman lyveng, but all onely to the kynge of Englande his soverayne lord … Thanne the quene sende letters to the kyng to Calays, wherby the kyng was enfourmed of the state of his realme. Than the kyng sende incontynent to Johan Coplande, that he shulde come over the see to hym to the siege before Calays. Than the same Johan dyd putte his prisoner in save kepynge in a stronge castell, and so rode through England tyll he came to Dover, and there toke the see and arryved before Calays’ (see also Holinshed, 3.375–6).
10.45 ‘[The] military achievements of the women in Edward III are … not unusual … [but] one feature of the Queen’s appearance at the battle might have been regarded as exceptional, and that is the pregnancy … Given the long history in western culture of regarding killing and birthing as mutually exclusive alternatives, their linkage in Edward III seems truly extraordinary’ (Rackin, 82–3). Although the Queen was in fact pregnant with a daughter, the audience is inevitably reminded of Edward’s notable progeny of seven sons: ‘The playwright’s transfer of her pregnancy to the Battle of Newcastle seems designed to associate her best-known role in English history, the “fruitful service” she provided as the mother to Edward’s famous seven sons, with her service to England at the battle where the Scots king was captured’ (81–2).
10.57–9 Cf. Froissart, 315–16, ‘Thane the thyrde day he [Copeland] departed and retourned agayne into Englande, and whan he came home to his own house, he assembled toguyder his frendes and kynne, and so they toke the kyng of Scottes, and rode with hym to the cytie of Yorke, and there fro the kyng his lorde he presented the kyng of Scottes to the quene, and excused hym so largely, that the quene and her counsell were content. Than the quene made good provisyon for the cytie of Yorke … and in all other garysons on the marchesse of Scotlande, and left in those marchesse the lorde Percy and the lorde Nevyll, as governoure there. Thanne the quene departed fro Yorke towardes London. Than she sette the kynge of Scottes in the strong towre of London … Than she went to Dover and there tooke the see, and had so good wynde, that in a shorte space she arryved before Calays’ (see also Holinshed, 3.376).
10.62–6 Cf. Froissart, 328, ‘they within Calays … desyred so moche their captayne sir John of Vyen, that he went to the walles of the towne and made a sygne to speke with some person of the [English] hoost … than sir John of Vyen sayd to them, Sirs, ye be right valyant knyghtes in dedes of armes, and ye knowe well howe the kynge my maister hath sende me and other to this towne, and commaunded us to kepe it to his behofe, in suche wyse that we take no blame nor to hym no dammage; and we have done all that lyeth in oure power. Nowe our socours hath fayled us, and we be so sore strayned that we have nat to lyve withall, but that we muste all dye or els enrage [go mad] for famyn, without the noble and gentyll kyng of yours woll take mercy on us: the which to do we requyre you to desyre hym, to have pyte on us and to let us go and depart as we be, and lette hym take the towne and castell and all the goodes that be therin’.
11.69 Cf. Holinshed, 3.388, ‘this cardinall of Piergort was sent from the pope to trauell betwixt the parties for a peace to be had, … at his setting foorth to go on that message, the said cardinall (as was said) made this answer: Most blessed father … either we will persuade them to peace and quietnesse, either else shall the verie flintstones crie out of it. But this he spake not of himselfe, as it was supposed, but being a prelate in that time, he prophesied what should follow; for when the English archers had bestowed all their arrowes vpon their enimies, they tooke vp pebles from the place where they stood, being full of those kind of stones, and approching to their enimies, they threw the same with such violence on them, that lighting against their helmets, armor, and targets, they made a great ringing noise, so that the cardinals prophesie was fulfilled, that he would either persuade a peace, or else the stones should crie out thereof.’
12.0.2 AUDLEY Audley’s prominence alongside the Prince at Poitiers is described in Froissart, 370–1, ‘the lorde James Audeley’ ‘that day never went fro the prince … but whane he sawe that they shulde nedes fight, he sayd to the prince, Sir, I have served alwayes truely my lorde your father and you also, and shall do as long as I lyve; I say this bicause I made ones a vowe that the first batayle that other the kynge your father or any of his chyldren shulde be at, howe that I wolde be one of the first setters on, or els to dye in the payne; therfore I requyre your grace, as in rewarde for any servyce that ever I dyde to the king your father or to you, that you woll gyve me lycence to depart fro you and to sette my selfe there as I may acomplysshe my vowe. The prince acorded to his desyre and sayde, Sir James, God gyve you this day that grace to be the best knyght of all other: and so toke hym by the hande … This lorde James was a right sage and a valyant knyght, and by hym was moche of the hoost ordayned and governed the day before’. A much briefer mention of Audley occurs in Holinshed, 3.389.
12.12–39 Froissart, 364, describes the ‘thre batayls’ of the French, but the order is different: ‘The first batayle the duke of Orleaunce to govern, with xxxvi. baners and twyse as many penons; the seconde, the duke of Normandy and his two bretherne the lorde Loys and the lorde John; the thirde, the kyng hymselfe’. They did not surround the English, but were drawn up for battle a distance from the English troops, who ensconced themselves ‘in a stronge place’ behind ‘hedges and busshes’ which they strongly fortified (365). See Holinshed, 3.388. The only mountain mentioned by Froissart was used to the advantage of the English, not the French: ‘the Frenchmen … sawe a rowt of Englysshmen commynge downe a lytell mountayne a horsebacke, and many archers with them, who brake in on the syde of the dukes batayle [i.e. Charles, Duke of Normandy]’ (Froissart, 372; see also Holinshed, 3.389).
12.34, 39 Chatillion The name was presumably chosen to give an unseen French general sufficient impact and particularity. Froissart, 364, mentions a ‘lord Chatellon’ at Poitiers (not in Holinshed). He is among the ‘great barownes of France’ but is not in a commanding position. A famous master of the crossbows in France during the later years of Edward III’s reign was Hugh de Châtillon. Froissart dedicates two chapters to his activities in 1369; at 2.258–60, he takes Ponthieu; and at 2.314–17, he is captured: ‘Thus, by great fortune, was sir Hugh of Chastellon, maister at that time of the crosbowes in France and capitayne of Abvyle, taken’ (317; see Holinshed, 3.404). His capture is celebrated in a ballad based on Froissart, honouring Jean de Grailly, Captal de Buch, in Wyrley, sig. V1r. The murder during the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre (1572) of the Huguenot leader Admiral Coligny, the most famous bearer of the name, probably gave it the greatest currency in the late 16th century (cf. Massacre at Paris, 5.38–41, where Guise stamps on the Admiral’s body with the lines, ‘Ah, base Shatillian and degenerate, / … The Duke of Guise stamps on thy lifeless bulk!’). The name thus signifies military prowess but perhaps also implies military defeat. The name is used by Shakespeare for the French ambassador who appears in KJ 1.1.1, 30; 2.1.46, 51, 53, following the precedent of 1TR, 1.16, 23; 2.46, 66, 81; the name (not character) appears in H5 3.5.43, 4.8.94. In all these cases, unlike E3, it is trisyllabic.
12.42–60 *Brooke, 423, records that ‘Mr. Walter Worrall temptingly suggests that line 44 [Q ‘Then all the world, and call it but a power:’] be transposed to follow 41’; such displacement of the line is independently suggested by Jackson, 453–4, leading Sams to adopt Jackson’s proposal, which rearrangement makes sense of ‘Than all the world’. Jackson, however, expresses some unease at ‘and call it but a power’, pointing out that ‘One expects something like “and yet ’tis but a power” or “yet all is but a power” ’. The case for retaining ‘call it but’ is, however, strengthened by repetitions of the phrase at 49 and 53. More radically, there may be further candidates for rearrangement: keeping 41–53 together makes for smoother continuity. Moving the sand metaphor to follow 53 achieves the best transition between sentences at 60–1. See pp. 64–7.
12.67–76 Cf. Froissart’s description of the Cardinal of Périgord’s attempts to avert battle (367), where ‘the Frenche kynge wolde nat agree without he myght have foure of the princypallest of the Englysshmen at his pleasure, and the prince and all the other to yelde themselfe simply … The prince offred to rendre into the kynges handes all that ever he had wonne in that voyage, townes and castels, and to quyte all prisoners that he or any of his men had taken in that season, and also to swere nat to be armed agaynst the Frenche kyng in sevyn yere after; but the kyng and his counsayle wolde none therof: the uttermast that he wolde do was, that the prince and a C. of his knyghtes shulde yelde theymselfe into the kynges prison, otherwyse he wolde nat; the whiche the prince wolde in no wyse agre unto’ (also in Holinshed, 3.388).
13.56–126 Cf. Froissart, 307–8, ‘Than anone after, sir Gaultier toke his way and xx. horse with hym, and so rode through Auvergne and whan he taryed in any place, he shewed his letter and so was lette passe but whan he came to Orleaunce, for all his letter he was arested and brought to Parys, and there put in prison in the Chatelet. Whan the duke of Normandy knewe therof, he went to the kynge his father and shewed him howe sir Gaultier of Manny had his save conduct, wherfore he requyred the kynge as moche as he might to delyver hym, or els it shulde be sayde howe he had betrayed hym. The kyng answered and sayd howe he shulde be put to dethe, for he reputed hym for his great ennemy. Than sayd the duke, Sir, if ye do so, surely I shall never bere armour agaynst the kynge of Englande, nor all suche as I may let [prevent]. And at his departyng, he sayd, that he wolde never entre agayn into the kynges host: thus the mater stode a certayne tyme.… Finally, the kyng was so counselled, that he [Manny] was delyverd out of prison and all his costes payed: and the kynge sende for hym to his lodgyng … and there he dyned with the kynge, and the kynge presented hym great gyftes and jewels, to the value of a thousand floreyns. Sir Gaultier of Manny receyved them on a condycion, that whan he cam to Cales, that if the kyng of Englande his maister were pleased that he shulde take them, than he was content to kepe them, or els to sende them agayne to the Frenche kyng, who sayd he spake lyke a noble man. Thane he toke his leave’.
17.11.1 ARTOIS Melchiori claims that Artois’s (posthumous) presence here arises from an error involving the name of King John’s captor at Poitiers in Froissart, 379, ‘Denyce of Morbecke, a knyght of Arthoys’ (see also Holinshed, 3.389). The knight describes himself as serving ‘the kyng of Englande bycause I am banysshed the realme of Fraunce and I have forfaytedde all that I had there’ (not in Holinshed). While this matches the circumstances of Artois, and may have inspired the idea of his arrival with Philip as his prisoner, the playwright(s) knew he was Robert, not Denis (see 1.1), and Froissart’s full description of the knight (banished for a murder) makes it clear that they are not the same person. The demands of the plot (e.g. separating Audley from the Prince) and casting are more plausible reasons for his entrance (see Appendix 2). He serves as a constant French presence on the side of the English, though his role is briefly forgotten at the end of Sc. 8 (see 8.104–5n.), which may reflect his decreasing importance as an integral part of the plot towards the end of the play.
17.50–5 Cf. Froissart, 383, ‘beholde here these foure squyers, who hath alwayes served me truely, and specially this day; that honour that I have is by their valyantnesse. Wherfore I woll rewarde them: I gyve and resigne into their handes the gyft that my lorde the prince hath gyven me … to them and to their heyres for ever, in lyke maner as it was gyven me’; then later (386), ‘at this last batayle they served me in suche wyse that and [if] they had never done nothynge els, I was bounde to rewarde theym … I am but a man alone: but by the ayde and confort of them I toke on me to acomplysshe my vowe … I had ben deed in the batayle and [if] they had nat ben’ (see also Holinshed, 3.390).
18.0.4 QUEEN Philippa Earlier allusions to Queen Philippa have stressed the resemblance of Prince Edward to his mother (3.74–5; see 3.106n.) and the Queen’s own military prowess, as well as her fertility (10.44–5, see nn., and obliquely 8.23–4, ‘We have more sons / Than one’). Her appearance can stress the feminine, possibly extending to visible pregnancy, or the military, perhaps in her costume (Tocilescu; see Fig. 10), or both (see 10.45n.). She brings to this scene human qualities of compassion, family affection and maternal sorrow, together with powerful indignation (against Copeland). These roles are compatible with allusion to the Queen Elizabeth of the Armada and the Tilbury oration, as well as to her maternal role towards her kingdom (imaginably the origin of the obscure lines at the end of Sc. 8 which expound the pelican emblem). The Queen’s role in the play partly illustrates an attempt to reconcile the male world of military conquest with the nation’s growing anxiety under the rule of an heirless, ageing queen. This attempt is undermined, however, for any reader or spectator with knowledge of the subsequent career and premature death of Prince Edward and of the English loss of Calais over two centuries later, in 1558 (see Hackett, 112–51).
