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Edward III: Act I, Scene 1

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Edward III
Act I, Scene 1

London. A room of state in the palace.

  1. Enter King Edward, Derby, Prince Edward, Audley, and Artois.

Edward III

1 - 6
  1. Robert of Artois, banished though thou be
  2. From France, thy native Country, yet with us
  3. Thou shalt retain as great a Seigniorie:
  4. For we create thee Earl of Richmond here.
  5. And now go forwards with our pedigree:
  6. Who next succeeded Philip le Bew?

Robert of Artois

7 - 9
  1. Three sons of his, which all successfully
  2. Did sit upon their father’s regal throne,
  3. Yet died, and left no issue of their loins.

Edward III

10
  1. But was my mother sister unto those?

Robert of Artois

11 - 41
  1. She was, my lord; and only Isabel
  2. Was all the daughters that this Philip had,
  3. Whom afterward your father took to wife;
  4. And from the fragrant garden of her womb
  5. Your gracious self, the flower of Europe’s hope,
  6. Derived is inheritor to France.
  7. But note the rancor of rebellious minds:
  8. When thus the lineage of le Bew was out,
  9. The French obscured your mother’s privilege,
  10. And, though she were the next of blood, proclaimed
  11. John, of the house of Valois, now their king:
  12. The reason was, they say, the realm of France,
  13. Replete with princes of great parentage,
  14. Ought not admit a governor to rule,
  15. Except he be descended of the male;
  16. And that’s the special ground of their contempt,
  17. Wherewith they study to exclude your grace:
  18. But they shall find that forged ground of theirs
  19. To be but dusty heaps of brittle sand.
  20. Perhaps it will be thought a heinous thing,
  21. That I, a Frenchman, should discover this;
  22. But heaven I call to record of my vows:
  23. It is not hate nor any private wrong,
  24. But love unto my country and the right,
  25. Provokes my tongue, thus lavish in report.
  26. You are the lineal watchman of our peace,
  27. And John of Valois indirectly climbs;
  28. What then should subjects but embrace their King?
  29. Ah, where in may our duty more be seen,
  30. Than striving to rebate a tyrant’s pride
  31. And place the true shepherd of our commonwealth?

Edward III

42 - 51
  1. This counsel, Artois, like to fruitful showers,
  2. Hath added growth unto my dignity;
  3. And, by the fiery vigor of thy words,
  4. Hot courage is engendered in my breast,
  5. Which heretofore was raked in ignorance,
  6. But now doth mount with golden wings of fame,
  7. And will approve fair Isabel’s descent,
  8. Able to yoke their stubborn necks with steel,
  9. That spurn against my sovereignty in France.
  10. Sound a horn.
  11. A messenger?—Lord Audley, know from whence.
  1. Exit Audley, and returns.

Audley

52 - 53
  1. The Duke of Lorraine, having crossed the seas,
  2. Entreats he may have conference with your highness.

Edward III

54 - 55
  1. Admit him, lords, that we may hear the news.
  2. Exeunt lords.
  3. King takes his State.
  4. Re-enter lords; with Lorraine, attended.
  5. Say, Duke of Lorraine, wherefore art thou come?

Duke of Lorraine

56 - 66
  1. The most renowned prince, King John of France,
  2. Doth greet thee, Edward, and by me commands,
  3. That, for so much as by his liberal gift
  4. The Guyen Dukedom is entailed to thee,
  5. Thou do him lowly homage for the same.
  6. And, for that purpose, here I summon thee,
  7. Repair to France within these forty days,
  8. That there, according as the custom is,
  9. Thou mayst be sworn true liegeman to our King;
  10. Or else thy title in that province dies,
  11. And he himself will repossess the place.
Edward III

Edward III

From Lacy's dramatic costumes

T.H. Lacy, 1868

Edward III

67 - 86
  1. See, how occasion laughs me in the face!
  2. No sooner minded to prepare for France,
  3. But straight I am invited,—nay, with threats,
  4. Upon a penalty, enjoined to come:
  5. ’Twere but a childish part to say him nay.—
  6. Lorraine, return this answer to thy lord:
  7. I mean to visit him as he requests;
  8. But how? Not servilely disposed to bend,
  9. But like a conqueror to make him bow.
  10. His lame unpolished shifts are come to light;
  11. And truth hath pulled the vizard from his face,
  12. That set a gloss upon his arrogance.
  13. Dare he command a fealty in me?
  14. Tell him, the Crown that he usurps, is mine,
  15. And where he sets his foot, he ought to kneel.
  16. ’Tis not a petty dukedom that I claim,
  17. But all the whole dominions of the realm;
  18. Which if with grudging he refuse to yield,
  19. I’ll take away those borrowed plumes of his,
  20. And send him naked to the wilderness.

Duke of Lorraine

87 - 88
  1. Then, Edward, here, in spite of all thy lords,
  2. I do pronounce defiance to thy face.

Prince Edward

89 - 97
  1. Defiance, Frenchman? We rebound it back,
  2. Even to the bottom of thy master’s throat.
  3. And, be it spoke with reverence of the king,
  4. My gracious father, and these other lords,
  5. I hold thy message but as scurrilous,
  6. And him that sent thee, like the lazy drone,
  7. Crept up by stealth unto the eagle’s nest;
  8. From whence we’ll shake him with so rough a storm,
  9. As others shall be warned by his harm.

Earl of Warwick

98 - 100
  1. Bid him leave of the lion’s case he wears,
  2. Least, meeting with the lion in the field,
  3. He chance to tear him piecemeal for his pride.

Robert of Artois

101 - 104
  1. The soundest counsel I can give his grace,
  2. Is to surrender ere he be constrained.
  3. A voluntary mischief hath less scorn,
  4. Than when reproach with violence is borne.

Duke of Lorraine

105 - 107
  1. Degenerate traitor, viper to the place
  2. Where thou was fostered in thine infancy,
  3. Bearest thou a part in this conspiracy?
  1. He draws his sword.

Edward III

108 - 114
  1. Lorraine, behold the sharpness of this steel:
  2. Drawing his.
  3. Fervent desire that sits against my heart,
  4. Is far more thorny pricking than this blade;
  5. That, with the nightingale, I shall be scared,
  6. As oft as I dispose myself to rest,
  7. Until my colors be displayed in France:
  8. This is my final answer; so be gone.

Duke of Lorraine

115 - 117
  1. It is not that, nor any English brave,
  2. Afflicts me so, as doth his poisoned view,
  3. That is most false, should most of all be true.
  1. Exeunt Lorraine, and Train.

Edward III

118 - 122
  1. Now, lord, our fleeting bark is under sail;
  2. Our gage is thrown, and war is soon begun,
  3. But not so quickly brought unto an end.
  4. Enter Mountague.
  5. But wherefore comes Sir William Mountague?
  6. How stands the league between the Scot and us?
Rhiannon Lattimer as Ned, the Black Prince with Ben Forer as his father Edward III

Rhiannon Lattimer as Ned, the Black Prince with Ben Forer as his father Edward III

Jon Ciccarelli, 2016

Mountague

123 - 131
  1. Cracked and dissevered, my renowned lord.
  2. The treacherous King no sooner was informed
  3. Of your with drawing of your army back,
  4. But straight, forgetting of his former oath,
  5. He made invasion on the bordering Towns:
  6. Barwick is won, Newcastle spoiled and lost,
  7. And now the tyrant hath begirt with siege
  8. The castle of Rocksborough, where enclos’d
  9. The Countess Salisbury is like to perish.

Edward III

132 - 134
  1. That is thy daughter, Warwick, is it not?
  2. Whose husband hath in Britain served so long
  3. About the planting of Lord Mountford there?

Earl of Warwick

135
  1. It is, my lord.

Edward III

136 - 159
  1. Ignoble David, hast thou none to grieve
  2. But silly Ladies with thy threatening arms?
  3. But I will make you shrink your snaily horns!
  4. First, therefore, Audley, this shall be thy charge,
  5. Go levy footmen for our wars in France;
  6. And, Ned, take muster of our men at arms:
  7. In every shire elect a several band.
  8. Let them be Soldiers of a lusty spirit,
  9. Such as dread nothing but dishonor’s blot;
  10. Be wary, therefore, since we do commence
  11. A famous war, and with so mighty a nation.
  12. Derby, be thou ambassador for us
  13. Unto our father in law, the Earl of Henalt:
  14. Make him acquainted with our enterprise,
  15. And likewise will him, with our own allies
  16. That are in Flanders, to solicit to
  17. The Emperor of Almaigne in our name.
  18. Myself, whilst you are jointly thus employed,
  19. Will, with these forces that I have at hand,
  20. March, and once more repulse the traitorous Scot.
  21. But, Sirs, be resolute: we shall have wars
  22. On every side; and, Ned, thou must begin
  23. Now to forget thy study and thy books,
  24. And ure thy shoulders to an armor’s weight.

Prince Edward

160 - 169
  1. As cheerful sounding to my youthful spleen
  2. This tumult is of war’s increasing broils,
  3. As, at the coronation of a king,
  4. The joyful clamors of the people are,
  5. When “Ave, Caesar!” they pronounce aloud.
  6. Within this school of honor I shall learn
  7. Either to sacrifice my foes to death,
  8. Or in a rightful quarrel spend my breath.
  9. Then cheerfully forward, each a several way;
  10. In great affairs ’tis nought to use delay.
  1. Exeunt.
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