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Edward III: Act III, Scene 1

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Edward III
Act III, Scene 1

Flanders. The French camp.

  1. Enter King John of France, his two sons, Charles of
  2. Normandy, and Philip, and the Duke of Lorraine.

John de Valois, King of France

1 - 6
  1. Here, till our navy of a thousand sail
  2. Have made a breakfast to our foe by sea,
  3. Let us encamp, to wait their happy speed.—
  4. Lorraine, what readiness is Edward in?
  5. How hast thou heard that he provided is
  6. Of martial furniture for this exploit?

Duke of Lorraine

7 - 12
  1. To lay aside unnecessary soothing,
  2. And not to spend the time in circumstance,
  3. ’Tis bruited for a certainty, my lord,
  4. That he’s exceeding strongly fortified;
  5. His subjects flock as willingly to war,
  6. As if unto a triumph they were led.

Charles

13 - 18
  1. England was wont to harbor malcontents,
  2. Blood thirsty and seditious Catelynes,
  3. Spend thrifts, and such as gape for nothing else
  4. But changing and alteration of the state;
  5. And is it possible
  6. That they are now so loyal in themselves?

Duke of Lorraine

19 - 21
  1. All but the Scot, who solemnly protests,
  2. As heretofore I have informed his grace,
  3. Never to sheath his sword or take a truce.

John de Valois, King of France

22 - 39
  1. Ah, that’s the anchorage of some better hope!
  2. But, on the other side, to think what friends
  3. King Edward hath retained in Netherland,
  4. Among those ever-bibbing Epicures,
  5. Those frothy Dutch men, puff’d with double beer,
  6. That drink and swill in every place they come,
  7. Doth not a little aggravate mine ire;
  8. Besides, we hear, the Emperor conjoins,
  9. And stalls him in his own authority;
  10. But, all the mightier that their number is,
  11. The greater glory reaps the victory.
  12. Some friends have we beside domestic power;
  13. The stern Polonian, and the warlike Dane,
  14. The King of Boheme and of Sicily,
  15. Are all become confederates with us,
  16. And, as I think, are marching hither apace.
  17. Drum within.
  18. But soft, I hear the music of their drums,
  19. By which I guess that their approach is near.
  1. Enter the King of Bohemia, with Danes, and a Polish Captain,
  2. with other soldiers, another way.

King of Bohemia

40 - 42
  1. King John of France, as league and neighborhood
  2. Requires, when friends are any way distrest,
  3. I come to aide thee with my country’s force.

Polish Captain

43 - 46
  1. And from great Moscow, fearful to the Turk,
  2. And lofty Poland, nurse of hardy men,
  3. I bring these servitors to fight for thee,
  4. Who willingly will venture in thy cause.

John de Valois, King of France

47 - 61
  1. Welcome, Bohemian king, and welcome all:
  2. This your great kindness I will not forget.
  3. Besides your plentiful rewards in crowns,
  4. That from our treasury ye shall receive,
  5. There comes a hare brained nation, decked in pride,
  6. The spoil of whom will be a treble gain.
  7. And now my hope is full, my joy complete:
  8. At sea, we are as puissant as the force
  9. Of Agamemnon in the haven of Troy;
  10. By land, with Zerxes we compare of strength,
  11. Whose soldiers drank up rivers in their thirst;
  12. Then Bayard-like, blind, overweaning Ned,
  13. To reach at our imperial diadem
  14. Is either to be swallowed of the waves,
  15. Or hacked a pieces when thou comest ashore.
  1. Enter French Mariner.

French Mariner

62 - 78
  1. Near to the coast I have descried, my lord,
  2. As I was buy in my watchful charge,
  3. The proud armado of King Edward’s ships:
  4. Which, at the first, far off when I did ken,
  5. Seemed as it were a grove of withered pines;
  6. But, drawing near, their glorious bright aspect,
  7. Their streaming ensigns, wrought of colored silk,
  8. Like to a meadow full of sundry flowers,
  9. Adorns the naked bosom of the earth:
  10. Majestical the order of their course,
  11. Figuring the horned circle of the moon:
  12. And on the top gallant of the admiral
  13. And likewise all the handmaids of his train
  14. The arms of England and of France unite
  15. Are quartered equally by heralds’ art:
  16. Thus, tightly carried with a merry gale,
  17. They plough the ocean hitherward amain.

John de Valois, King of France

79 - 84
  1. Dare he already crop the Fleur de Luce?
  2. I hope, the honey being gathered thence,
  3. He, with the spider, afterward approached,
  4. Shall suck forth deadly venom from the leaves.—
  5. But where’s our navy? How are they prepared
  6. To wing themselves against this flight of ravens?

French Mariner

85 - 89
  1. They, having knowledge, brought them by the scouts,
  2. Did break from Anchor straight, and, puffed with rage,
  3. No otherwise then were their sails with wind,
  4. Made forth, as when the empty eagle flies,
  5. To satisfy his hungry griping maw.

John de Valois, King of France

90 - 106
  1. There’s for thy news. Return unto thy bark;
  2. And if thou scape the bloody stroke of war
  3. And do survive the conflict, come again,
  4. And let us hear the manner of the fight.
  5. Exit French Mariner.
  6. Mean space, my lords, ’tis best we be dispersed
  7. To several places, least they chance to land:
  8. First you, my lord, with your Bohemian troops,
  9. Shall pitch your battailes on the lower hand;
  10. My eldest son, the Duke of Normandy,
  11. Together with the aide of Muscovites,
  12. Shall climb the higher ground another way;
  13. Here in the middle cost, betwixt you both,
  14. Philip, my youngest boy, and I will lodge.
  15. So, lords, be gone, and look unto your charge:
  16. You stand for France, an empire fair and large.
  17. Exeunt.
  18. Now tell me, Philip, what is thy concept,
  19. Touching the challenge that the English make?

Philip

107 - 113
  1. I say, my lord, claim Edward what he can,
  2. And bring he ne’er so plain a pedigree,
  3. ’Tis you are in the possession of the crown,
  4. And that’s the surest point of all the law:
  5. But, were it not, yet ere he should prevail,
  6. I’ll make a conduit of my dearest blood,
  7. Or chase those straggling upstarts home again.

John de Valois, King of France

114 - 122
  1. Well said, young Philip! Call for bread and wine,
  2. That we may cheer our stomachs with repast,
  3. To look our foes more sternly in the face.
  4. A table and provisions brought in. The battle hard a far
  5. off.
  6. Now is begun the heavy day at sea:
  7. Fight, Frenchmen, fight! Be like the field of bears,
  8. When they defend their younglings in the caves!
  9. Stir, angry nemesis, the happy helm,
  10. That, with the sulphur battles of your rage,
  11. The English fleet may be dispersed and sunk.
  1. Shot.

Philip

123 - 124
  1. O Father, how this echoing cannon shot,
  2. Like sweet harmony, digests my eats!

John de Valois, King of France

125 - 140
  1. Now, boy, thou hearest what thundering terror ’tis
  2. To buckle for a kingdom’s sovereignty:
  3. The earth, with giddy trembling when it shakes,
  4. Or when the exhalations of the air
  5. Breaks in extremity of lightning flash,
  6. Affrights not more than kings, when they dispose
  7. To shew the rancor of their high swollen hearts.
  8. Retreat.
  9. Retreat is sounded; one side hath the worse;
  10. O, if it be the French, sweet fortune, turn;
  11. And, in thy turning, change the forward winds,
  12. That, with advantage of a favoring sky,
  13. Our men may vanquish, and the other fly!
  14. Enter French Mariner.
  15. My heart misgives:—say, mirror of pale death,
  16. To whom belongs the honor of this day?
  17. Relate, I pray thee, if thy breath will serve,
  18. The sad discourse of this discomfiture.

French Mariner

141 - 184
  1. I will, my lord.
  2. My gracious sovereign, Franch hath ta’en the foil,
  3. And boasting Edward triumphs with success.
  4. These iron-hearted navies,
  5. When last I was reporter to your grace,
  6. Both full of angry spleen, of hope, and fear,
  7. Hasting to meet each other in the face,
  8. At last conjoined; and by their admiral
  9. Our admiral encountered many shot:
  10. By this, the other, that beheld these twain
  11. Give earnest penny of a further wrack,
  12. Like fiery dragons took their haughty flight;
  13. And, likewise meeting, from their smoky wombs
  14. Sent many grim ambassadors of death.
  15. Then ’gan the day to turn to gloomy night,
  16. And darkness did as well enclose the quick
  17. As those that were but newly reft of life.
  18. No leisure served for friends to bid farewell;
  19. And, if it had, the hideous noise was such,
  20. As each to other seemed deaf and dumb.
  21. Purple the sea, whose channel filled as fast
  22. With streaming gore, that from the maimed fell,
  23. As did her gushing moisture break into
  24. The crannied cleftures of the through shot planks.
  25. Here flew a head, dissever’d from the trunk,
  26. There mangled arms and legs were tossed aloft,
  27. As when a whirl wind takes the summer dust
  28. And scatters it in middle of the air.
  29. Then might ye see the reeling vessels split,
  30. And tottering sink into the ruthless flood,
  31. Until their lofty tops were seen no more.
  32. All shifts were tried, both for defense and hurt:
  33. And now the effect of valor and of force,
  34. Of resolution and of cowardice,
  35. We lively pictures; how the one for fame,
  36. The other by compulsion laid about;
  37. Much did the Nonpareille, that brave ship;
  38. So did the Black Snake of Bullen, then which
  39. A bonnier vessel never yet spread sail.
  40. But all in vain; both sun, the wind and tide,
  41. Revolted all unto our foe men’s side,
  42. That we perforce were fain to give them way,
  43. And they are landed.—Thus my tale is done:
  44. We have untimely lost, and they have won.

John de Valois, King of France

185 - 189
  1. Then rests there nothing, but with present speed
  2. To join our several forces all in one,
  3. And bid them battle, ere they range too far.
  4. Come, gentle Philip, let us hence depart;
  5. This soldier’s words have pierced thy father’s heart.
  1. Exeunt.
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