Thus titely carried with a merry gale

They plough the ocean hitherward amain.

KING OF FRANCE

Dare he already crop the fleur-de-lis?

I hope, the honey being gathered thence,

He, with the spider, afterward approached,

Shall suck forth deadly venom from the leaves.

But where’s our navy? How are they prepared

To wing themselves against this flight of ravens?

MARINER

They, having knowledge brought them by the scouts,

Did break from anchor straight and, puffed with rage,

No otherwise than were their sails with wind,

Made forth as when the empty eagle flies

To satisfy his hungry, griping maw.

KING OF FRANCE (giving money)

There’s for thy news. Return unto thy barque,

And if thou scape the bloody stroke of war

And do survive the conflict, come again,

And let us hear the manner of the fight. Exit Mariner

Mean space, my lords, ’tis best we be dispersed

To several places, lest they chance to land.

(To the King of Bohemia) First you, my lord, with your Bohemian troops,

Shall pitch your battles on the lower hand.

(To the Dauphin ⌈and the Polish captain⌉)

My eldest son, the Duke of Normandy,

Together with this aid of Muscovites,

Shall climb the higher ground another way.

Here in the middle coast, betwixt you both,

Philippe, my youngest boy, and I will lodge.

So, lords, be gone, and look unto your charge,

You stand for France, an empire fair and large.

Exeunt all but the King of France and Prince Philippe

Now tell me, Philippe, what is thy conceit

Touching the challenge that the English make?

PRINCE PHILIPPE

I say, my lord, claim Edward what he can,

And bring he ne‘er so plain a pedigree,

’Tis you are in possession of the crown,

And that’s the surest point of all the law.

But were it not, yet ere he should prevail

I’ll make a conduit of my dearest blood,

Or chase those straggling upstarts home again.

KING OF FRANCE

Well said, young Philippe! ⌈To an attendant⌉ Call for bread and wine

That we may cheer our stomachs with repast

To look our foes more sternly in the face.

Bread and wine are brought forth. The battle is heard afar off. The King and Prince Philippe sup

Now is begun the heavy day at sea.

Fight, Frenchmen, fight! Be like the field of bears

When they defend their younglings in their caves.

Steer, angry Nemesis, the happy helm

That with the sulphur battles of your rage

The English fleet may be dispersed and sunk.

A cannon shot within

PRINCE PHILIPPE

O, father, how this echoing cannon shot,

Like sweet harmony, digests my cates!

KING OF FRANCE

Now, boy, thou hear‘st what thund’ring terror ’tis

To buckle for a kingdom’s sovereignty.

The earth, with giddy trembling when it shakes,

Or when the exhalations of the air

Breaks in extremity of lightning flash,

Affrights not more than kings when they dispose

To show the rancour of their high-swoll’n hearts.

Retreat sounds within

Retreat is sounded—one side hath the worse.

O, if it be the French, sweet fortune turn,

And in thy turning, change the froward winds

That, with advantage of a favouring sky,

Our men may vanquish, and the other fly.

Enter the French Mariner

My heart misgives. (To the Mariner) Say, mirror of

pale death,

To whom belongs the honour of this day?

Relate, I pray thee, if thy breath will serve

The sad discourse of this discomfiture.

MARINER I will, my lord.

My gracious sovereign, France hath ta‘en the foil,

And boasting Edward triumphs with success.

These iron-hearted navies,

When last I was reporter to your grace,

Both full of angry spleen, of hope and fear,

Hasting to meet each other in the face,

At last conjoined, and by their admiral

Our admiral encountered many shot.

By this, the other, that beheld these twain

Give earnest-penny of a further wreck,

Like fiery dragons took their haughty flight;

And likewise meeting, from their smoky wombs

Sent many grim ambassadors of death.

Then ’gan the day to turn to gloomy night,

And darkness did as well enclose the quick

As those that were but newly reft of life.

No leisure served for friends to bid farewell,

And if it had, the hideous noise was such

As each to other seemed deaf and dumb.

Purple the sea whose channel filled as fast

With streaming gore that from the maimed fell,

As did her gushing moisture break into

The cranny cleftures of the through-shot planks.

Here flew a head dissevered from the trunk;

There mangled arms and legs were tossed aloft,

As when a whirlwind takes the summer dust

And scatters it in middle of the air.

Then might ye see the reeling vessels split

And, tottering, sink into the ruthless flood