Shakespeare, Marlowe, and the politics of France

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Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

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10.1057/9780230285859 - Shakespeare, Marlow and the Politics of France, Richard Hillman

Richard Hillman

Professor of English Universite FrancËois-Rabelais (Tours, France)

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Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

Q Richard Hillman 2002 No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P OLP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2002 by PALGRAVE Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE is the new global academic imprint of St. Martin's Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd). ISBN 0±333±69454±6 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hillman, Richard, 1949Shakespeare, Marlowe, and the politics of France / Richard Hillman. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0±333±69454±6 1. Shakespeare, William, 1564±1616±Knowledge±France. 2. Shakespeare, William, 1564±1616±Political and social views. 3. Marlowe, Christopher, 1564±1593±Political and social views. 4. Marlowe, Christopher, 1564±1593±Knowledge±France. 5. English drama±Early modern and Elizabethan,

1500±1600±History and criticism. 6. Political plays, English±History

and criticism. 7. Political plays, French±History and criticism.

8. English drama±French influences. 9. France±Politics and

government. 10. Kings and rulers in literature.

11. France±In literature. 12. Monarchy in literature. I. Title. PR3069.F66 H55 2002 8220 .309 10 11

9 10

8 09

7 08

6 07

2001050097 5 06

4 05

3 2 04 03

1 02

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Acknowledgements

vi

Textual Note

vii

1

Introduction: the Vasty (Discursive) Fields of France

1

2

The Unfortunate Traveller in (and out of ) France

30

3

Shakespeare's Arthurian Misfortunes

47

4

Marlovian Monarchs and Various Guises

72

5

Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy

112

6

``Of tendyr hertys been Englysche men''

171

Notes

198

Works Cited

227

Index

246

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Contents

I wish to express my appreciation to the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada for its generous funding over a period of years, which enabled me to undertake the extensive library research required to complete this project. Thanks are also due to the numerous librarians, especially in France, who provided assistance sur le terrain. The bulk of Chapter 2 was previously published in Critical Approaches to English Prose Fiction 1540±1640, edited by Donald Beecher (Ottawa: Dovehouse Editions, 1998). I am grateful to the publisher for permission to adapt this material here.

vi

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Acknowledgements

The works of Shakespeare are cited, using the standard abbreviations, from The Riverside Shakespeare, gen. eds G. Blakemore Evans and J. J. M. Tobin, 2nd edn (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997). STC numbers refer to A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, and Ireland and of English Books Printed Abroad 1475±1640, first compiled by A. W. Pollard and G. R. Redgrave, 2nd edn, revised and enlarged, begun by W. A. Jackson and F. S. Ferguson, completed by Katharine F. Pantzer, 3 vols (London: The Bibliographical Society, 1986±91).

vii

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Textual Note

Introduction: the Vasty (Discursive) Fields of France

It is an inescapable paradox that while intertexual study, by definition, operates in the spaces between texts, it must define those spaces by proliferating textual references. More paradoxically still, the narrower the spaces become, the more room they offer for exploration ± exploration, however, that increasingly distances itself from the very concept of ``discovery.'' Replete with textual analysis as this book may be, my chief concern is with intertextual spaces, taken as delimiting and conditioning an inclusive discursive one: the presence of readings enables the process of reading absence. At the same time, the impulse to discover never diminishes ± on the contrary. Intertextual activity remains bound by the desire ± unfulfillable, like all desire ± to demonstrate what lies beyond the reach of evidence, to textualize the intertextual. Perpetual frustration is the price to be paid for not being bound to silence. I am hardly the first to become interested in the imaginative relations between England and France in the Early Modern period. The club remains a relatively small one, however, and I am perhaps the first member to apply a frankly intertextual approach. This may help to account for the size of the group. For the prevailing understanding of influence and allusion has allowed for the combining of texts, and of texts with contexts, only on narrow principles. I propose to profit from intertextual theory, tailored to the exigencies of the subject, by expanding the range of reference. I can thereby deal with some obviously relevant English literary works in new ways, as well as extend the discussion to others that are not, strictly speaking, ``about'' France. I concentrate on the drama, partly because a number of plays (not to mention others now lost, such as Dekker's and Drayton's multi-part dramatization of the French civil wars1) are ``obviously relevant.'' But the theatrical situation and experience also focus the larger question in 1

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Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

two ways. First, it is demonstrable that London theatre audiences were immersed with particular intensity in the discourses of French affairs throughout the last decade of the sixteenth century and the first decade of the seventeenth ± that is, roughly, from the assassination of Henri III (1589) to that of Henri IV (1610). The present volume, for practical reasons, will take as its territory only the first half of this period, when the protracted struggle over royal entitlement and religious expression in France was coming to a head ± and most immediately engaging England. That struggle will be explored in relation to the historical drama of Marlowe and Shakespeare. By the time of James's accession, the situation on both sides of the Channel had altered substantially; Chapman's series of plays on French political themes ± a major but a different phenomenon ± falls on the other side of this divide, and I reserve it for consideration elsewhere. My second reason for singling out the drama is that the period's stagings of symbolically resonant historical ``realities,'' France-related and otherwise, closely match the mechanisms by which political meanings were constructed. Much recent criticism has so argued, often with a confident sense of what those meanings were. I myself am rarely confident, deferring instead to the ``jeu manieÂriste des obnubilations de la culture politique du second XVIe sieÁcle.'' Such is the evocative expression of Denis Crouzet (267) in his discursive study of the 1572 Saint Bartholomew's massacre, a catalytic event in shaping Elizabethan perceptions of France. For Crouzet, one of the most stimulating recent historians of the era, there no ``veÂriteÂ'' to be gleaned from the ``tourbillon ascendant d'informations'' (267) surrounding and representing matters of ``fact,'' but merely a ``prolifeÂrante creÂation d'images.'' Such images, however ``destineÂes aÁ saturer l'imaginaire et donc aÁ le neutraliser,'' are bound to keep imperfect control of the meanings they generate, so that they inevitably reveal ``les deÂsirs contradictoires et les pulsions antagonistes d'une socieÂte en crise'' (268). And to consider the representation of France in England is to engage the dynamic of symbolic exchange between two such societies.

I Only two major studies exist, separated by nearly seventy years, of what the subtitle of the earlier one (1910), by the redoubtable Sidney Lee, terms ``the literary relations of England and France in the sixteenth century.'' Outmoded assumptions and critical habits abound in this work, yet it is a tribute to Lee's thorough and judicious scholarship

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that no literary historian has attempted to supersede it on its own comprehensive terms. Less wide-ranging but more rigorously analytical is Anne Lake Prescott's 1978 account of the impact on various nondramatic English authors of five French ones. Apart from these works, attention to questions of specifically literary indebtedness has been local, sporadic, and sparse ± certainly by comparison with that paid to classical and Italian precursors. Perhaps the most significant, if controversial, recent instance involves A. Kent Hieatt's claims for the pervasive influence of Du Bellay (as mediated by Spenser) on Shakespeare's sonnets. Two early twentieth-century French studies, both reprinted some thirty years ago, remain useful ± not least for their perspective from the other side of the Channel: Du Bartas en Angleterre, by Harry Ashton, and Montaigne et FrancËois Bacon, by Pierre Villey. The latter complements the venerable but vital tradition of connecting Montaigne with Shakespeare.2 For the non-Shakespearean drama, the dimensions (and limitations) of French connections are usefully developed in at least two older works ± by A. M. Witherspoon on Garnier and Ian Maxwell on John Heywood ± but there is relatively little in the subsequent criticism with a sustained literary emphasis. Even in those works that privilege it, however, that category shows signs of the instability with which it is now widely endowed. This reflects the signifying practices of the period's own texts. Anne Dowriche's long-neglected 1589 poem on the Saint Bartholomew's massacre is entitled The French Historie. Moreover, as Randall Martin has usefully emphasized, it draws not only on (highly selective) historical accounts but also on martyrology, even as it pulls generically in the direction of drama. And if by the last route it qualifies as a forerunner ± Martin argues a source ± of The Massacre at Paris, it also, like Marlowe's play, shares common ground with the fierce political texts then proliferating: Dowriche introduces her work, after all, as ``this present pamphlet'' (sig. A2r).3 History, current politics, and religion ± generally inseparable from each other in the period ± are certainly inextricable from English±French literary relations. The religious politics of Du Bartas, militant in the Protestant cause ± ``A canticle of the victorie . . . at Yvry'' was translated by Josuah Sylvester in 1592 ± obviously underpinned his popularity in England and appeal to translators; amongst the latter were Philip Sidney (who probably knew him personally4) and the then-James IV of Scotland, who showed him particular favour. (However much of a literary occasion, the poet's visit to England and Scotland also had a diplomatic purpose [Ashton 22±3].) By the same token, the Catholic partisanship of such figures as

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Introduction: the Vasty (Discursive) Fields of France 3

Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

Ronsard, Garnier, and, for that matter, Du Bellay, implicitly imposed a certain froideur on intellectual enthusiasms. And when, in 1592, Sidney's sister, Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, published her translation of Garnier's Marc Antoine, that work accompanied (and took second billing to) her translation of the Excellent discours de la vie et de la mort by the Protestant intellectual and activist, Philippe de Mornay, seigneur du Plessis-Marly (the Pleshe of Marlowe's Massacre).5 As for Montaigne, the question of his literary influence has always shaded into the history of ideas, as it more recently has into the history of subjectivity, with the encouragement of Lacan (203). If such tendencies destabilize the category of the literary in abstract ways, certain commentators have threatened to concretize it out of existence ± notably, Frances Yates (especially in her studies of John Florio and of Love's Labour's Lost) and Percy Allen (The Plays of Shakespeare and Chapman in Relation to French History). Apart from their common eagerness to read through texts to topicalities, it is unfair to place these two mid-twentieth century critics on the same level. Following a double willo'-the-wisp (he is an enthusiastic Oxfordian), Allen pursues French political allusions across a gamut of mostly unaccommodating texts. His plausibility is not enhanced by regular indulgence in Hollywoodesque metonymy: such and such an actor on the historical stage ``is'' such and such a dramatic character. (Catherine de Medici and Lady Macbeth make one of many such pairs.) Apart from the fact that Allen's main Shakespearean hunting-ground is the comedies and tragedies ± the English history plays are mainly ignored ± conspicuous by its absence is the mediating function of the audience, necessarily the site where the ``literary'' and ``historical'' texts become intertexts of one another. Still, it must be admitted, Allen tells a good story; moreover, he tells so many of them that he nearly succeeds in winning assent that the ``ominous and fatal princes and princesses of the Valois house'' were ``as fecund in providing dramatic material for our English stages as they had been potent to destroy and devastate the unhappy land whose destinies had been committed to their unworthy charge'' (223). And he does sufficiently account for French material, including dramatic texts on political themes, to mitigate the excess of his assertion that ``[w]hen . . . Marlowe, `Shakespeare' [sic], and Chapman set themselves to the poetic dramatizing of great persons of contemporary French history, they were only doing, in another language, and for English audiences, what was already being done by the dramatists of a country which, for a hundred years yet to come, would, in the main, set and lead our English fashions in the domains of literature and of art'' (267±8).

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The interpretative claims of Yates are also sometimes excessive. Shakespeare's Moth will never be universally acknowledged as a stand-in for the French schoolmaster De la Mothe, especially given the longstanding claim (renewed by Charles Nicholl [Cup of News 209±10]) for an allusion to Nashe (``Moth'' is, after all, an anagram of ``Thom'').6 But then Love's Labour's Lost has widely attracted quasi-allegorical readings, with its king of Navarre, its authentic names, and its framing situation akin to more than one on the recent French scene. Even with regard to this play, however, there is a sharp contrast between Yates's scholarship and the associative shallowness of Allen (75±7). More significantly, the breadth, depth, and general responsibility for which Yates's work is renowned endorse her evocation of a little-known milieu of 1590s London ± a demi-monde keenly interested in French affairs, as well as sensitive to the large French population in the capital. That demi-monde brought Nashe, Gabriel Harvey, Chapman, and Shakespeare together, in ways never likely to be fully understood, with such figures as the publisher John Wolfe7 (a principal producer of French topical pamphlets, with whom Harvey both lodged and published) and John Eliot, one of Wolfe's regular translators. Eliot was also the author of Ortho-epia Gallica, where the numerous French schoolmasters active in England are satirically addressed in revealing terms: ``Messires, what newes from Fraunce, can you tell? Still warres, warres . . . '' (sig. A3r). As Yates establishes (see esp. John Florio 139±73), such satire points to the currency of French language instruction; for confirmation, one need only note the impressive number of practical works on the subject, apparently aimed at diverse readerships. We have yet to grasp what it says about the contemporary political±literary nexus that Florio worked as a translator for the French embassy (Yates, John Florio, 61±86); that Anthony Munday, better known for his theatrical connections than for his substantial contribution to France-related propaganda, studied French with ``Claudius Hollyband'' ± i.e., Claude de Sainliens (142), author of language-texts and himself a translator of such material;8 that the Huntingdon Library copy of Du Ploiche's A Treatise in Englishe and French . . . for all young children (1578) is inscribed as a gift from the author to Harvey.

II In any case, my concern is not with the telling of stories but with the overlapping of English and French discursive spaces to produce political meanings ± meanings that define collective subjectivity. Hence, I am

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Introduction: the Vasty (Discursive) Fields of France 5

Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

drawn to those plays of Shakespeare in which English nationhood is constructed and deconstructed. Of course, this process sometimes takes place in explicit conjunction with historical French encounters, the inevitable texts in this regard being King John, Henry VI, Part One, and Henry V. The latter two works, however, produce their political meanings, not in isolation, but through a complex intertextual dynamic played out along the axes of their respective Tetralogies, and I will be proposing, not only that the French dimension plays along, but that it extends its reach into the Elizabethan present. King John, of course, is Shakespeare's only history play of the 1590s to stand outside the historical continuum traced by the Tetralogies (even if one includes Edward III ). It stands out too, in my reading, for its intertextual incorporation of the myth of King Arthur ± a myth that gained significance, at least from Malory on and especially under the Tudors, in opposition to the French promotion of Charlemagne as their emblem of a mystically synthesized chivalry, national destiny, and religious truth. As early as Richard I, there had been efforts to enlist the British Arthur on behalf of England (see below, p. 51). The first great English conqueror of France, Edward III, whose neo-chivalric attitudes are amplified in the eponymous play,9 ``revived and built on his grandfather's cult of King Arthur, and he made the English court a centre of companionship and honour'' (Saul 9). This was no mere courtly fashion but a means of fostering the requisite fervour amongst the nobility. Thus, as Froissart records, Edward decided de faire redefier le grant chastiel de Windesore, lequel il rois Artus fist jadis faire et fonder, et la ou premierement la table Reonde fu commenchie, dont tant de bons et vaillans chevaliers issirent et travillierent en armes et en proeces par le monde. (ed. Diller 595 [Ch. 172] ) So reads, it should be noted, a late revision of the Chroniques, relatively unfavourable to the English. It was an earlier version that Henry VIII caused to be translated by John Bourchier, Lord Berners, then Governor of Calais, so as to kindle a similar spirit of chivalry for his own French wars.10 In the revision's account of ``Proece'' itself (or herself ), Froissart, if he allows for Edward's England as a future temporary habitation (``un temps''), bypasses Arthur entirely, moving from Julius Caesar to the latter's heir and successor, Charlemagne, ``qui fu rois de France et d'Alemagne, et empereur de Ronme'' (38 [Pro.] ). Such exaltation contrasts with the French figure's deployment as a mere backdrop for deeds of

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Introduction: the Vasty (Discursive) Fields of France 7

This is the very right foundation of this hystory / to recount the great entreprises & great featis of armes / that haue fortuned & fallen syth the tyme of the good Charlemaigne kyng of Fraunce there neuer fell so great aduentures. (Froissart, trans. Berners, fol. 2r [Ch. 5] )

III As will already be apparent, I assume that meaningful dramatic encounters between France and England are not restricted to allusion, plot, and setting but occupy the sectors of discourse, culture, and imagination. Elusive as those sectors are, they are anchored in a well-defined political premise: the demonstrable English concern, throughout the 1590s, with national stability and security. And at the centre of those issues ± often to the point of representing them metonymically ± was the state of the monarchy, an institution under anxious scrutiny, as appears from a plethora of politically focused plays.11 Hence the recurrent question of monarchical legitimacy, bound up with issues of competence and continuity: on the one hand, the ruler's capacity to govern justly, to prevent civil strife, and to wage foreign war; on the other, the problem of succession, which came into sharper focus with the Queen's aging. A watershed year was 1583, when the prospective marriage with the duc d'AlencËon (FrancËois-Hercule, since 1576 actually duc d'Anjou) ± in fact, the third of the French royal brothers to be proposed for her ± was decisively broken off.12 A year later, as it happened, the death of this perennial suitor, the sole surviving brother of a childless king, plunged France into its own succession crisis, since the Protestant Henri de Navarre, the new legitimate heir, was anathema to most of the French population. Hence, the virulence of, and support for, the Spanish-supported Holy League under Henri, duc de Guise and head of the House of Lorraine. That House (allied with Mary, Queen of Scots) had its own royal pretensions ± and, as most historians believe, ambitions; the result was the final round of French civil wars, which, apart from engaging the English militarily, offered a potent vision of their own potential future. Throughout Elizabeth's reign, militant Catholicism had menaced the state, and had regularly done so by way of France, directly or indirectly. Recent literary scholarship, at least, has tended to downplay these dangers and play

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derring-do ± especially English ones ± at the outset of Berners' translation:

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Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

Elizabethan England was saved by the channel and a strong, wellserved monarch; otherwise, in spite of England's different social and political structure, these problems of religion, noble factions, control of the council, finance, and an insecure succession were comparable to those concurrently lacerating France and jeopardising her independence. (85) This background throws into relief an ``ungrammaticality'' in Edward III. In a play so heavily indebted to Berners' Froissart that departures have been claimed to be ``few and insignificant'' (Robert Metcalf Smith 92), it stands out that, for the four ambassadors sent by the French king (historically Philippe III, the first Valois), to request Edward's ritual homage for Guyenne (Froissart, trans. Berners, fol. 13v [Ch. 24] ), the English author substitutes the Duke of Lorraine, not mentioned in Froissart. And in the play's second scene, Lorraine, again without historical warrant, is made the go-between for the king of France and the fractious Scottish monarch. In Froissart, the embassy to Edward, coming well before the suasions of Robert of Artois (fol. 17r [Ch. 28] ), begets the friendly assurance that the king will pay a visit to ``his dere cosyn,'' and that ``as touchying his faith and homage he shall do his deuour in euery thynge that he ought to do of ryght'' (fol. 14r [Ch. 23] ).13 It hardly seems ``insignificant'' that the result in Edward III is rhetorical thunder in the tones of Henry V: Lorraine, return this answer to thy lord:

I mean to visit him as he requests,

But how? Not servilely disposed to bend,

But like a conqueror to make him bow.

(I.i.72±5) Undoubtedly, the English of Elizabeth's time regularly overdramatized their relations with the French, both on-stage and off, with ample discursive support from French allies. Audiences were attuned to aspersions like those in Edward III by such pamphlets as the Antisixtus ± probably by the prolific and learned Politique Michel Hurault ± published in translation by John Wolfe in 1590, which prints the Pope's

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up the repressive counter-measures. Yet Nicola Mary Sutherland, considering Saint Bartholomew's day in relation to the ``European conflict,'' abundantly documents the schemes and plots stemming from the militant Catholic movement in Europe, and concludes:

notorious (purported) sermon celebrating the murder, and the murderer, of Henri III, then supplies ``a confutation . . . wherein all the treacherous practises of the house of Lorraine, are largely described and layde open vnto the view of the world.''14 At the same time, the discursive picture includes more detached appreciations of the ethical and religious issues at stake, especially when the focus shifts to the need for peace above all ± witness the following title (a Richard Field publication of 1589, which has also been attributed to Hurault15): The restorer of the French estate discouering the true causes of these warres in France & other countries, and deliuering the right course of restoring peace and quiet to all Christendome: wherein are handled these principall questions touching religion, policie, and iustice: whether it be lawfull to sweare, and keepe promise to heretikes, to force mens consciences for religion sake, to liue with, and dwell nigh heretikes, to breake the order of succession to the Crowne bycause of religion, or no. Who be schismatikes; and of the chiefe poincts of religion. How we are to iudge of the schisme in Christendome at this day. Lastly, the conclusion conteining notable admonitions to the clergie, nobles, magistrates, people, and King of France. Given that the doubtful succession on both sides of the channel occasioned questions of political and religious legitimacy and power, one may confidently posit the discourses of current French politics as inflecting, not only the treatment of French and English history by English playwrights, but the reception and application of those treatments by English audiences. Such responses would necessarily be subjective, multifarious, and dynamic. Indeed, the quasi-magnetic attraction of French intertexts, by bending the English texts ``out of shape'' ± that is, into alternative shapes ± would contribute to that dynamism. It is largely to this root that I trace the signifying multiplicity now increasingly detected even in ``historical'' fictions, such as 1 Henry VI and Henry V, long considered to regard relations between England and France one-sidedly. What liberates this multiplicity is the recognition that one-sidedness is itself a fiction. Lisa Ferraro Parmelee, in Good Newes from Fraunce: French Anti-League Propaganda in Late Elizabethan England ± a valuable supplement to Robert M. Kingdon's study of the prior wave of controversial literature16 ± effectively shows the broad influence of contemporary French affairs on Elizabethan political perceptions. Yet the anti-League propaganda, established by Parmelee as governmentsponsored both tangibly and intangibly, implies its contrary: the

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Introduction: the Vasty (Discursive) Fields of France 9

powerful (dis)information machine operated by the League throughout France. This enormously prolific programme of pamphlet production, reinforced orally by the ``preÂdicateurs,'' has been thoroughly documented by Denis Pallier, who lists (219±433) 872 titles between 1585 and 1594. The interventions of English publishers (often translating, and sometimes producing, French texts17) presume a cultural interchange that we truncate artificially by looking exclusively at English material ± and that Martin, for one, short-circuits when he credits Dowriche's ``fictional reordering'' with giving English readers (including Marlowe) a grasp on French events that ``in general were not well understood'' (72). Parmelee's parallels with English literary texts (which are not really her business) particularly suffer from a neglect of French political discourse. Thus she might have supported her claim (64±6) that Thomas Lodge's The Wounds of Civil War draws on recent French experience by observing that Sulla figures as a common exemplum in French material ± for instance, in Pierre Matthieu's La Guisiade, a text I will be examining at length.18 Likewise, when she cites Daniel's reference (in The Civil Wars) to Richard II as ``this wanton young effeminate'' (69), she omits the abundant discourse of effeminacy surrounding Henri III ± also to the point in Drayton's portrayal of a ``weak ruler's propensity for falling under the domination of favorites'' (71) in Mortimeriados: The Lamentable Civil Wars of Edward the Second and the Barons. (Drayton's familiarity with that discourse seems a reasonable inference from his collaboration on the civil war plays.)

IV Cultural one-sidedness likewise limits Andrew M. Kirk's The Mirror of Confusion: The Representation of French History in English Renaissance Drama. So, in my view, does his exclusion of texts not explicitly dealing with French affairs. These practical restrictions may be related to a theoretical one. Certainly, I share Kirk's view that previous scholarship has tended to ``efface the difference of France'' by failing to reckon with France as England's ``other'' (5). In seeking to restore ``otherness'' to France, however, he assimilates English±French relations to the paradigm of English versus foreign: ``although English portraits of the French were etched with greater knowledge than those of remote and exotic peoples, the apparent inability of the English to identify consistently with the French, a failure often grounded in misunderstanding, opens French history to the exploration of difference'' (5±6). Such a vague

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10 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

notion of ``identification'' elides the entire problematic of subjectivity that ``otherness'' entails. Kirk pays lip-service, at least, to rejecting a schematic binarism, by which ``the French are reduced to the notEnglish'' (6), thence to negative stereotypes, like those applied to other foreigners (and exhaustively documented by A. J. Hoenselaars). Missing, however, is an attempt to theorize specifically French ``difference.'' Such difference is promisingly adumbrated in Kirk's survey of the historical relationship: ``The English view of France was molded by the proximity of these two countries and by the expanse of water between them'' (19). So too, however, are the fixed positions ± England as subject, France as object ± that inform Kirk's adaptation (from Chapman) of the ``mirror of confusion'' motif for France's reflection of ``mutability'' to English eyes. At once to recognize oneself and to deny the resemblance is a mechanism now commonly applied to English relations with various ``otherness'': the New World, the demonized yet awe-inspiring Ottoman Empire, depraved yet cultured Italy, barbaric yet beautiful Ireland. Such mirroring suggests Lacan's ``mirror-stage'' ± the first step in the formation of the human subject, entailing the infant's simultaneous identification with and alienation from its reflection. This model, in fact, is key to Homi K. Bhabha's theory of the ``construction of the colonial subject in discourse, and the exercise of colonial power through discourse'' (67; cf. 77). Hence, too, Lacan tends to get blamed, especially by historicists, for what Daniel J. Vitkus, for one, condemns as ``crude binarism and essentialism'' (98). I sympathize with Vitkus's ideal of a ``properly intricate historicism'' (100). My own idealism no doubt shows in the hope that, at least in the case of the French±English relation, Lacanian principles may illuminate the historical project. Side-stepping binary models, I pass to the second step in Lacan's scheme, whereby the subject moves beyond the Imaginary into the Symbolic Order, the realm of language. Historically speaking, the simultaneous proximity and distance of Early Modern England and France, with their interdependent cultures and politics over hundreds of years, unquestionably make for a distinct relation. I choose to figure that relation as a field of symbolic exchange relations ± a discursive site where subjectivity as such is realized. Of course, there is nothing Real about this realization, according to Lacan. Its essence is desire, lack, and absence, given that the basic property of language is infinitely to defer the meaning it purports to confer. The subject experiences itself through its own regression along an endless chain of signification. The point is formulated with particular clarity in a passage I have long considered central to Lacan's thought:19

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Introduction: the Vasty (Discursive) Fields of France 11

le sujet apparaõÃt d'abord dans l'Autre, en tant que le premier signifiant, le signifiant unaire, surgit au champ de l'Autre, et qu'il repreÂsente le sujet, pour un autre signifiant, lequel autre signifiant a pour effet l'aphanisis du sujet. D'ouÁ, division du sujet ± lorsque le sujet apparaõÃt quelque part comme sens, ailleurs il se manifeste comme fading, comme disparition. (199) Indeed, such a perspective leaks through the interstices of Kirk's own metaphor for the English±French relation: nothing very definitive, surely, can be ``molded'' by an ``expanse of water''; rather, apparently solid entities are subjected to endless erosion, reformation ± and counter-reformation. In fact, the only surviving English work whose title couples the concept of mutability with France ± an anonymous compilation called The mutable and wauering estate of France, from the yeare of our Lord 1460, vntill the yeare 1595. . . . with an ample declaration of the seditious and trecherous practises of that viperous brood of Hispaniolized Leaguers (1597) ± conspicuously tries (and therefore fails) to keep the image in the mirror from behaving like one and drawing the observer through the looking-glass. Obviously, the rhetorical overkill of the title's conclusion belies its detached opening. But equally revealing is that the work itself begins with illusion (through exclusion) and ends with disillusion. Excluded with surgical precision is the Hundred Years War (ended in 1453), the historical stage on which English mutability defined itself in relation to French ± certainly according to Shakespeare. The disillusion comes with Henri IV's 1593 conversion to Catholicism, which the author lamely attempts to gather under the umbrella of sublunary uncertainty but which palpably undermines the spiritual ± and discursive ± structure of his entire enterprise. The political and cultural models offered by England's closest Continental neighbour, one-time (partial) possession, and battleground over hundreds of years figured for the English in complex and conflicting ways ± none of them particularly ``marvellous.''20 We should not take the recourse to stereotypes and hostility as more than a revealing sign of irrationality. Indeed, it was ruefully recognized as such by shrewd French observers: in 1604, Henri IV advised his ambassador in England, with regard to James, ``Il faut craindre qu'aÁ la longue il ne se laisse emporter au torrent de la haine extraordinaire que les Anglais nous portent'' (cited Maurice Lee, Jr., 29); one of Henri's ministers wrote to that ambassador's successor, in 1607, that the English ``preÂfeÁrent aussi imprudemment que malignement leur haine aÁ leur propre bien'' (cited Maurice Lee, Jr., 103).

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12 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

Behind such hatred, infallibly, lurks ambivalence: for the English of the period, France was always, in some measure, their own alienated heritage, a nostalgic reminder of shamefully forfeited but theoretically recoverable glory. Hence it loomed as simultaneously strange and familiar, foreign and domestic, hostile and hospitable, an ambiguous middleground ± and newly so in religious terms, insofar as it buffered England, precariously and contingently, against Europe's unequivocally Catholic south. And as Parmelee effectively demonstrates (53±73), that polyvalent potency was driven home by forty years of savage civil wars (until 1598, with the Edict of Nantes and the Treaty of Vervins). More particularly, France now figured, for a broad range of English society, as a contradictory model at once of national self-destruction and of hope for the quasi-providential triumph of ``true'' religion ± witness the plethora of popular reports promoting Henri IV as heroic champion of the Protestant cause from 1589 to 1593 (a line of propaganda terminated abruptly with his conversion, which Queen Elizabeth greeted with chagrin). The French example acquired a definite edge of menace, moreover, from the involvement of Spain. In turn, this element was inextricable from the uprising against Spanish rule in the Low Countries ± a major preoccupation of Elizabethan foreign policy. It is against this fraught yet variable background that we should read the English fascination with such French ``facts'' as the Salic law against female succession (attacked not only by Edward III and Henry V but by extreme Catholics challenging the right of Henri IV21), the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, and the assassination of Henri, duc de Guise, with his brother Louis, Cardinal de Lorraine.22 The fascination entails, not merely perceiving and drawing lessons from ``otherness,'' but participating in it through the typologically mediated production of meaning. France's civil wars, its religious struggles, its military leaders, its kings and princes, shape the imagining and imaging of English counterparts ± past, present, and future. It is a signifying mechanism conditional on affinity, though enabled by distance. And the distance may equally be that of one's own past ± the operating premise of Early Modern historicizing on both sides of the channel. Thus the author (Nicolas Barnaud?) of one of the most widely disseminated Protestant tracts, Le Reveille-matin des FrancËois et de levrs voisins,23 cites Ronsard as conveying political messages in his Franciade by making old kings stand for new ones (108±14). What Frenchness adds, for the English, is difference at once self-evident and self-denying. Not only does this slippery territory preclude subsuming the French within even Leslie A. Fiedler's catch-all category of ``stranger,''24 but it

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Introduction: the Vasty (Discursive) Fields of France 13

offers no easy footholds to binary models of colonialism and ``alterity,'' which arguably depend on a more fully realized exoticism.25 The distinction remains even if the stereotypes that hold the exotic in place, fixed in the gaze, always hold it precariously, being fraught with the ambivalence of anxiety, as Bhabha insists (66±92 passim). Bhabha so insists in the context of discursive ``processes of subjectification'' (67) ± mechanisms involving the construction of colonial subjects. The Foucauldian double sense of ``subject'' is present here, but the emphasis is on political power. Certainly, the balance between the term's meanings is by no means as delicate as in Louis Montrose's formulation, which posits a process of subjectification that, on the one hand, shapes individuals as loci of consciousness and initiators of action, endows them with subjectivity; and that, on the other hand, positions, motivates, and constrains them within ± subjects them to ± social networks and cultural codes that exceed their comprehension or control. (9) On the model of Lacan, my own usage will tip the balance in the less strictly political direction. Yet the subjectivities I see as produced through discursive exchange are collective ones. And with this orientation, Bhabha's more generally poststructuralist premise, which is not restricted to colonial situations, makes a perfect fit: It is in the emergence of the interstices ± the overlap and displacement of domains of difference ± that the intersubjective and collective experiences of nationness, community interest, or cultural value are negotiated. (2) The fact is that, whatever political vagaries made England temporary master of parts of France during the Middle Ages, and whatever stereotypes concomitantly developed, neither colonialism nor exoticism is really at issue. Consider Hall's account26 of Exeter's oration urging Henry V to assault France rather than Scotland ± a speech that roused the auditory to cries of ``warre, warre, Fraunce, Fraunce'': And this is to be remembred, if you get Scotlande you haue a countree barayne almost of all pleasure and goodnes, you gayne people sauage, waueryng and inconstant, of riches you shall haue litle and of pouertie muche: But if you get Fraunce, you shall haue a countree fertile, pleasant and plentifull, you shall haue people, Ciuill, witty and of good ordre. You shall haue riche citees, beautiful tounes

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14 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

innumerable Castles. xxiiij. puyssaunt Duchies, lxxx. and odde populous Countrees, and an hundred and thre famous bisshoprickes, a. M. and more fat Monastaries, and parishe Churches (as the Frenche writers affirme) x. C. thousande and mo. This conquest is honorable, this gayne is proffitable, this iourney is plesaunte, and therfore nether to be left nor forslewed. (Hall 56) What dominates is a sense of voisinage, of neighbourly familiarity, of a shared cultural heritage, with the Scots effectively relegated to the incipient category of ``colonial subjects.'' The prospective spoils of France are not Edenic fruits ripe for the plucking (or blood for the sucking, to recall Pistol [H5 II.iii.55±6]), but the admired (hence envied) cultivated fruits of ``civilization'' itself. Accordingly, the negative stereotypes of conventional anti-French discourse represent distortions of cultural sophistication: political shrewdness, courtliness, chivalry (witness the French knights before Agincourt). Largely absent are the barbarity, irrationality, and ``natural'' disposition to evil that the English so commonly detected/projected behind the veneer of Italian civilization. Marlowe's Guise is an exception, but he incarnates, after all, the spirit of Machiavelli, while the Italian-derived family of Catherine more straightforwardly proves the rule. If, insofar as France constitutes a ``mirror of confusion,'' it corresponds not to the ``mirror-stage'' but to the Symbolic Order, there is no basis for negatives that imply essential positives: ``inability to identify,'' ``misunderstanding.'' Indeed, representing France, a process that depends on the subject±object binary, becomes radically problematic: on what principle can one separate fact from fiction, ``raw'' material from finished product, the teller from the tale? This issue comes into sharper focus where both a tale and a teller are involved, as is not the case in the drama. Hence my initial brief detour from this study's main business to Nashe's The Unfortunate Traveller. To speak of the subjectifying effect of France on the English imagination is always a metaphorical convenience, an expedient for representing multiple intimations of the instability of identity. What Nashe's text uniquely achieves, for my purposes, is to concretize and animate the abstract principle of English national subjectivity in the ``person'' of its principal character and narrator.

V A useful point of entry into the specifically discursive aspect of my project is the rhetorical function of the herald, that instrument and embodiment

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Introduction: the Vasty (Discursive) Fields of France 15

of the Medieval culture of honour.27 Henry V, in which the French herald plays a particularly telling role, is a textual site where the ideas traced by the present book converge, and to which my discussion will regularly return. It is not the first Shakespearean play in which competing English and French discourses are heraldically mediated. King John assigns competing claims to victory ± couched in nationalist rhetoric absent from the analogue in The Troublesome Raigne of King John (1, iv.670 ff.) ± to French and English heralds addressing the citizens of Angers. Those claims, however, are conspicuously equal and ineffectual. By contrast, the encounters between Henry V and Mountjoy serve, on the model of both the Chronicles and The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth, as an index first of French arrogance, then of French abjection: ``O, give us leave, great King, / To view the field in safety, and dispose / Of their dead bodies'' (H5 IV.vii.81±3). That index is self-reflexively discursive. The French principals pervasively suffer from a virtual inability to speak ± from their initial recourse to tennis balls (a signifier for French moral decadence for at least one English traveller, Robert Dallington 28), to their degrading chatter before the battle, to their broken English. By contrast, Henry's linguistic dexterity measures his efficacity. The English king is conspicuously his own herald; the recognition he offers Mountjoy at their first encounter is quasi-professional: ``Thou dost thy office fairly'' (III.vi.139). And even when he does use an intermediary voice ± a noble one, when Exeter relays ``his claim'' and ``his threat'ning'' to the French court as ``my message'' (II.iv.110) ± his presence threatens to render it redundant: ``Dispatch us with all speed, lest that our King / Come here himself to question our delay; / For he is footed in this land already'' (141±3). Thus, in effect, the royal English herald effaces the French one, denying the principle of mediation, with its implication of slippage between sign and signified, the instability of this (or any) binary system for the production of meaning. Even Dallington's tennis balls carry a positive spin, willy-nilly, but Henry V rhetorically transforms his into ``gun-stones'' (I.ii.282). Maintaining the binary opposition between English and French is essential to Henry's hegemony because he must finally claim to override it on his own terms. This he does by way of Katherine, to whom he can attach the rhetoric of romantic fulfilment and transcendence: No, it is not possible you should love the enemy of France, Kate; but in loving me, you should love the friend of France; for I love France so well that I will not part with a village of it; I will have it all mine. And, Kate, when France is mine and I am yours, then yours is France and you are mine. (V.ii.171±6)

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16 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

This rhetorical tack bears comparison with that of Henri IV during his notoriously brutal siege of Paris (tenaciously loyal to the League) in 1590: ``j'ayme, dit-il, la ville de Paris comme ma fille aisneÂe, ie luy desire et aÁ toute la France plus de bien qu'elle ne demande.''29 The lovediscourse of Henry also implicitly overrides the Salic law, which (as Canterbury's speech superabundantly confirms) had been consistently advanced by the French against English claims (beginning with Edward III). Henry thus apparently succeeds in taking English±French relations beyond the dialectic of conquest and opposition, whose goal is to have an English king ``leading the French King prisoner,'' as Nashe put it in Pierce Pennilesse (1592) ± intriguingly conflating, it would seem, The Famous Victories with some version of Edward III.30 The latter play, which of course has often been attributed at least partly to Shakespeare, makes no pretence of transcending the popular discourse of English±French opposition. Even in its concluding glory, however, it implicitly defers to the more glorious conquest to come. Prince Edward seems to be playing something like the trick of Henry V's final Chorus by looking back to a previous play about the future, when he prays that God ``grant, that many princes more, / Bred and brought up within that little isle, / May still be famous for like victories!'' (V.i.220±2). Certainly, Edward III confirms as paradigmatic of the English conquest of France several distinctive elements that Shakespeare's Henry V adapts ± and complicates. One of these takes on the quality of palindrome: Edward III, by implication, puts his energies into mastering France because he cannot make the Countess of Salisbury his mistress; Henry V achieves Katherine by way of France. There are also multiple heralds, complete with insulting messages from the arrogant French. Two more particular reminiscences form part of the triumphant conclusion: the herald's announcement of English victory (V.i.176 ff.) and King Edward's blaming of the French king for causing suffering by his obstinacy (202 ff.). I hasten to add that these analogues hardly prove Shakespeare's authorship ± a point on which, insofar as I find it pertinent at all, I prefer to keep an open mind. Indeed, they might be taken to point in the contrary direction. The treatment of French±English engagement is rife with ironies even in the First Tetralogy ± or so I will be suggesting. The same author who problematized the us-against-them dualism of popular tradition in both Tetralogies, as well as King John, seems unlikely to have mechanically reproduced it in Edward III. It is the very discursive hegemony of Shakespeare's Henry V, no less than his invincibility on the battlefield, that opens the door to sceptical

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Introduction: the Vasty (Discursive) Fields of France 17

readings, as recent criticism has abundantly shown. I will later be pointing out some discursive gaps through which particular light is thrown on the English±French binarism that Henry ratifies by his very claim to transcend it. The effacement of the herald, of the dialogic by the monologic, may purport to figure a victory over rhetoric, but it is a victory by nature self-defeating ± that is, self-exposing. In fact, the herald does his ``office'' more ``fairly'' than Henry allows simply by performing it, and thereby reminding his auditors of the division between speech and the author of speech, hence between language and meaning. Moreover, insofar as that ``office'' itself is a perceptible throwback to Medieval structures, further exposed is the play's nostalgic co-opting of chivalric conventions, on the model of Edward III, in its nationalistic project. The title of Mountjoy comes from Holinshed, but Shakespeare highlights it, producing an intriguing intersection with Dallington's text of 1598: Mont-ioy is the chiefe [herald] of the rest. Their ancient Office was to bee present at all Iusts, and Tournements, to carrie warre or peace, to summon places, to defie enemie-Princes, to giue armes to men new ennobled: But now they bee onlely vsed at Feastes, Coronations, Solemnities, Funerals, and such like; for they are no more vsed in the treatie and negotiation with forraine Princes. I thinke the reason is, because the Office hath of late yeeres been bestowed vpon vnworthy and insufficient persons. (sig. M1r) Either matters had deteriorated since 1557 or a French narrative of that year falsely lays claim to the neo-chivalric high ground. For according to the Discours de ce qu'a fait en France le Heraut d'Angleterre, et de la responce que luy a fait le Roy, the English herald who came to announce war on behalf of Queen Mary acted more like a spy, not declaring his identity and function until he arrived at the French court. In contrast with Henry V's approval of Mountjoy's professionalism, the Englishman was asked whether he was familiar with a herald's proper duties and behaviour.

VI ``What ish my nation? Who talks of my nation?'' (H5 III.ii.123±4), Macmorris truculently asks, and the establishment of Irishness as a sore point helps to naturalize the play's English nationalism. There is a

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18 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

profound contrast with the interplay of feudal loyalties that dominates history according to, say, Froissart. No doubt, Laurie A. Finke's formulation is broadly accurate: ``The two great conflicts of the fifteenth century ± the one civil, the other foreign ± seemed unintentionally to provide the raw material for representations of the nation which the Tudor monarchs in the sixteenth century were able to forge into a coherent image of the English nation'' (204). She plausibly makes a connection with Shakespeare's choice of historical subject-matter. Yet to a remarkable extent, as I hope to demonstrate, Shakespeare's representations of the English in France show nationalism in process, not from the perspective of ``forged'' coherence. The ``real'' drama is arguably epistemological, rather than historical, with Jeanne d'Arc hovering as the central contested signifier ± and in a way that deconstructs her treatment by Elizabethan chroniclers. French nationalism, too, is at issue in Shakespeare, as it was in the Hundred Years War itself. Finke demonstrates the general popularity of Christine de Pisan in fifteenthcentury England ``[n]otwithstanding her political views'' (201) as an ardent French patriot. One of her works never translated, however, was her last: the Ditie de Jehanne d'Arc. Le deÂbat des heÂraults d'armes de France et d'Angleterre is sometimes attributed to Charles d'OrleÂans, whose imprisonment in England for 25 years after Agincourt would have made him a rare expert on national differences and a participant in the evolution in thinking about them. In the DeÂbat, heralds argue over national superiority before Dame Prudence, with the Frenchman, naturally, getting the rhetorical upper hand: at the core of his case is Charlemagne, the embodiment of French national glory, who subdued England (50) and succoured the Pope. This text effectively bears witness to the consolidation of French territory and power after the Hundred Years' War. But it also points forward to later tendencies in extreme French Catholic nationalism. Hence, Guillaume Postel claims a mystical destiny for the king of France, tracing the royal right from Noah through the ancient Gauls and anticipating a French revivifying of the Papacy: ``Le Roi de France, issu de la Gaule, deÂtient le pouvoir temporel transmis par le droit d'aõÃnesse dans la à le du Roi de France est de reÂtablir le Pape en famille de Japhet. . . . Le ro son siege primitif, qui est JeÂrusalem'' (Dubois, ``Mythologie,'' 259). In 1550, with strange belatedness and even stranger vehemence, a government debt-collector called John Coke31 provided a response in kind to the DeÂbat, rewriting it from an English (and virulently antiCatholic) perspective. In the wake of Henry VIII's less-than-glorious exploits in France, about which Coke's English herald nevertheless

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Introduction: the Vasty (Discursive) Fields of France 19

20 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

les diz Saxons, autrement diz Angloiz, sont grans vantoires et mesprisent tout aultruy fait que le leur, et commencent volentiers guerres, mails ilz ne les savent finer; et sont si oppiniatiz qu'ilz cuident que leur royaume, qui n'est que une ysle, vaille plus que nulle autre terre. (51) Eight years before the final expulsion of the English from France with the capture of Calais, The Debate betwene the Heraldes of Englande and Fraunce attempted rhetorically to turn back the historical tide. It did so by, amongst other means, exalting Arthur over Charlemagne as a national hero, largely for his continental exploits ± including his slaying of the French king and proto-Protestant conquest of ``all Italy'' (72). The latter feat counterbalances Charlemagne's role as protector of the Pope ± a function the French herald had claimed on behalf of French kings generally (63). This point Coke's Englishman is quite willing to grant the French, with the proviso that any success came not ``by theyr owne strength, but by the power and subtiltie of Sathan, who aydeth them in all theyr affaires'' (94). Charlemagne is more aggressively degraded, however, in terms that deny, not merely French achievement, but Frenchness itself. That the stories about him are ``fayned and untrue'' (110) is finally beside the point, since ``this Charlemayne was a Dowcheman'' (65). Indeed, any pro-French evidence is invalid a priori, since the so-called ``French'' are actually offshoots of the Hungarians: such expressions as ``Hungariens now called Frenchemen'' (94) are relentlessly repeated tags. And of the purveyors of false pedigrees seeking to cover these shameful origins, the one who first and foremost attracts Coke's scorn is ``he who translated Orose into french'' (110), ``a good mery felowe'' who ``wold make Englysshmen and Frenchemen coseyns togyther'' (111). The Medieval deÂbat, the essence of binarism, is essentially unwinnable, for its arguments are openly rhetorical inventions; its implicit supplement ± what it heralds ± is trial by combat, as in Richard II. When Richard forestalls such closure, he ensures that closure will come at his own expense. Such is hardly the style of Henry V, who at Agincourt moves seamlessly from words to deeds. But the debates of the French and English heralds are doomed never to reach the decisive battlefield; they will remain abstract exercises in the mediation of deferred signifi-

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blusters a good deal, it is tempting to imagine his defensive ire as especially aroused by French herald's peroration in the DeÂbat. There the arrogance and bellicosity of the English (the preoccupation of much French discourse) contrast with their ultimate ineffectuality:

cance. So much is acknowledged in the inconclusive conclusion to the DeÂbat: after the French herald has declared that only a pitched battle in England between English and French kings could decisively determine superiority (``car celluy qui est le plus fort sur les champs, il se peut dire en estre roy'' [50] ), Dame Prudence reserves judgement indefinitely, ordering that the debate should be registered in ``ung beau petit livre qui se nommera Passe-temps, qui sera moult prouffitable a jeune noblesse et a poursuivans en vostre office'' (52).32 Her eventual decision, moreover, will take into account not only their arguments, duly reconsidered, but the representations of the heralds of other Christian kings ± a gesture, at least, towards multiple voices. Coke insists on having Dame Prudence find on the spot in favour of the English.33 The raison d'eÃtre of the ``pleasaunt book'' called the ``Pastyme of Heralds'' will now be to forestall further debate (123). And for good measure Coke, in his own person, arrogates the last word with a series of incantatory maledictions directed at all enemies of the king and his ``realmes of Englande and Irlande'' (123). In a final discursive twist, he appropriates even the French language for his curses, one of which virtually leaps off the page: may England's enemies, Coke supplicates, be burnt as La Pucelle was by Talbot (125). This strikingly anticipates the discursive violence by which the English of Henry VI, Part One counter, and so despite themselves effectively construct, the witchcraft of Jeanne d'Arc.

VII For Coke, at least, national and religious difference are complacently aligned. By the end of the century, they were often in conflict ± hence a local challenge faced by Sylvester in translating Du Bartas's La CreÂation du monde. For in that section of La Seconde sepmaine where God banishes man from paradise as unworthy, Du Bartas drew a parallel with the expulsion of the English from Calais in 1558. That event had been fulsomely celebrated at the time, with the religious question obscured by England's official Catholicism and alliance with Spain (through Mary's husband, Philip II). Indeed, Du Bellay, a particular partisan of the Guises, might have been borrowing his abuse of Mary from English Protestants: ``ceste Furie & cruelle MegeÁre, / Du sexe feÂminin l'eternel vitupere'' (``Hymne av roy svr la prinse de Callais'' 137±8). Once England was Protestant again, it became acutely disturbing to the English that Protestant Frenchman could unite with Catholic ones against them. This reaction is attributed to a besieged garrison in the 1563 Discours

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Introduction: the Vasty (Discursive) Fields of France 21

22 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

Sortez, dit le Seigneur, sortez race maudite, Du jardin toujours-verd: vuidez, mais viste, viste, Vuidez moy ce verger, gloire de l'Univers, Comme indigne maison de maistres si pervers, Celuy qui fut tesmoin des souspirs et des larmes Des Anglois, qui veincus par les francËoises armes, Quittoient leur cher Calais . . . . . . . . . . . . . Celuy-laÁ peut juger quelles cruelles peines Bourreloient nos parens. . . . (Premier Jour, ``L'Imposture,'' 605±22) Worse yet, from Sylvester's point of view, the achiever of this divinely mandated victory over the English was none other than FrancËois, duc de Guise. The translator's solution is revealingly imperfect. Forcibly realigning nationalist and religious fervour, and fracturing the coherence of Du Bartas' analogy, he substitutes the raid on Cadiz by Essex: Those that (in quarrel of the Strong of Strongs;

And just revenge of Queene, and countries wrongs)

Were witnesses to all the woefull plaintes,

The sighes, and teares, and pitifull complaintes,

Of braving Spaniards, (chiefly brave in word)

When by the valiant, heav'n-assisted sword,

Of Mars-like Essex, Englands Marshall-Earle

(Then Albions Patron, and Eliza's Pearle),

They were expulst from Cad'z their deerest pleasure

Loosing their Towne, their honor, and their treasure:

Woe worth (sayd, they) wo worth our kings ambition;

Woe worth our Cleargie, and their Inquisition. . . .

(Sylvester, trans., Divine Weeks, vol. 1, 355 [lines 611±22] ) After the turbulence of English±French discursive relations associated with the religious wars, the figure of the herald reemerges in a way that

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au vray de la reduction du Havre de Grace en l'obeissance du Roy, and it is equally Sylvester's. For Du Bartas, the taking of Calais figures as the final undoing, on the level of metaphor, of the achievement by Henry V of ``the world's best garden'' (H5 Epi. 7):

crosses national boundaries, while harking back to nationalistic principles. In 1611 appeared The French Herald Summoning All Trve Christian Princes to a generall Croisade, for a holy warr against the great Enemy of Christendome, and all his slaues Vpon the Occasion of the most execreable murther of Henry the Great. The author (now usually identified as Jean Loiseau de Tourval34) was a French Protestant in the service of Prince Henry, whom he attempts to stir to anti-Catholic revenge of his murdered ``God-father . . . appointed to be your second father by your first'' (41). Familiar markers of French nationalism, such as the derivation of ``France'' from ``franchise,'' now serve to figure Henry as reincarnating his ancestor ``Coeur-de-Lyon, a Frenchman by father and mother, and the first Prince, orderly born English, since the conquest'' (42). The latter's conquest of the Holy Land anticipates Henry's prospective conquest of Rome ± the triumph also of Arthur. This voice crying to Prince Henry in what proved to be the political wilderness, a year before the Prince's death, points to issues highly germane to Chapman but beyond the scope of this book. Finally, a faded postscript to the heraldic tradition is provided by another call to anti-Spanish arms a dozen years later: The French herauld sent to the princes of Christendome (1622). This translation from the French is broadly international in orientation, although the glorious state of England under Elizabeth is evoked (12), in contrast with its present degeneration. The late Prince Henry is not mentioned. The untenability of binary oppositions between French and English is reinforced by the tendency of propagandistic commonplaces ± they include atheism, sorcery, and effeminacy ± to straddle the religious camps. For instance, the English habitually associated the French with the Turks (Kirk 6, 20) and deplored the political accommodation between them. It came naturally to John Stubbs, in his notorious 1579 attack on the AlencËon match ± and A Gaping Gulf was ``not his isolated vision'' (Marcus 72) ± to invoke the ``Turkish tyranny of Valois'' (Stubbs 91).35 As a translator of TheÂodore de BeÁze,36 Stubbs was no stranger to French Protestant discourse, which was capable of referring to the 1573 siege of La Rochelle by ``les Iannissairies du Tyran'' (Reveille-matin 130). ``Tyrant'' was a regular epithet for Charles IX and later Henri III (used by Lord Burghley, amongst others [MacCaffrey 180] ); it also figured the menace of the Guises.37 In 1576, La France±Turquie, c'est aÁ dire, conseils et moyens tenus par les ennemis da la Couronne de France pour reduire la royaume en tel estast que la tyrannie Turquesque treated the Saint Bartholomew massacre as part of a plot, instigated by Charles's expert in Oriental languages, to import Turkish techniques for the subjugation of the nobility (Rouillard 414±15).

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Introduction: the Vasty (Discursive) Fields of France 23

Yet, at least from the moment of the Guises' assassination, Henri III also became ``the tyrant'' for Leaguers, who placed Henri III's Turkish and English alliances (and Elizabeth's own with the Turks [Rouillard 413±14] ) in the same basket of irreligious corruption. Thus La Guisiade's hero urges Henri, ``Quittez des Otthomans la perjure alliance, / De l'Anglois, du puant cloaque de la France'' (695±6). The Protestant and Turkish religions have much in common, opined a priest, although Protestants are crueller (Rouillard 413n5). Eliminating heretics at home might actually have positive Oriental repercussions: one League tract fantasizes the miraculous conversion of Sultan Murad to Christianity on the same day as the assassination of Henri III (Rouillard 410).

VIII Pursuing French intertexts in the Early Modern English drama requires avoiding the Scylla and Charybdis of the Old and the New Historicisms, respectively: on the one hand, forcing fictions to yield ``allusions'' to persons and events on the far side of the mimetic gap; on the other, covering over that gap with a synthetically ``materialized'' textuality. Narrativist theories of history ± as espoused, most notably, by Hayden White38 ± are equally synthetic. I share the widespread anxiety of materialist critics about treating history as a text ``comme les autres.'' John Frow properly cautions that an intertextual procedure must remain respectful of ``the hard resistance of other and disparate domains of discourse'' (54). Yet Frow's implicit acceptance of ``discourse'' itself as a common denominator points a potential way out of this impasse. With the encouragement of Crouzet's figuration of readers and readings in contradictory play around facts-made-images ± for instance, the Seine choked with Huguenot corpses ± the present study attempts to recuperate for intertextuality the principle of mimesis: in effect, the active recognition of distinctions amongst kinds of texts, some more ``material'' than others. A theoretical model both for these kinds themselves and for the signifying dynamic connecting them may be found in Paul Ricoeur's Time and Narrative (Temps et reÂcit). Ricoeur posits a hermeneutic whereby the ``emplotment'' of narrative (``mimesis2'') ± that is, the text per se ± ``configures'' historical material. That material, however, is not neutral and unadulterated ``reality,'' because the very perception of it inevitably endows it with pre-textuality, symbolic forms of meaning, according to what Ricoeur labels ``mimesis1.'' After its formal ``emplotment'' or textualization, this material is in turn ``refigured'' by the reader/audience at

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24 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

the level of ``mimesis3,'' which ``marks the intersection of the world of the text and the world of the hearer or reader'' (Time and Narrative 1: 71). Ricoeur's schema will remain largely in the background of my discussions: there is no need to recapitulate the elegant arguments by which he derives his three mimetic stages from the ruminations of Augustine on time and Aristotle on plot. What matters for my purposes is the stages themselves ± especially ``mimesis1,'' which enables Ricoeur to explain how narratives of history may continue to claim ``historical intentionality'': History . . . remains historical to the extent that all of its objects refer back to first-order entities ± peoples, nations, civilizations ± that bear the indelible mark of concrete agents' participatory belonging to the sphere of praxis and narrative. (Time and Narrative 1: 181) The fictions I will be considering qualify as ``historical'' in this sense, their ``emplotment'' occurring within a field of pre-symbolized ``firstorder'' personages and actions. That the raw ingredients of history are ``always already'' cooked ± before the books are ± is evident, not only with such events as the Saint Bartholomew's massacre, but also with the motifs of poisoning, sorcery, atheism, and tyranny that snake through the discourse of the period. The third stage, moreover, by which such elements are taken back from the text into the audience's perception of its own world, carries a suggestion of the Lacanian subject's entry into the Symbolic Order: ``the entry of the work, through reading, into the field of communication marks at the same time its entry into the field of reference'' (Time and Narrative 1: 71). Defined as subject, such a reader effectively defines the site of an intertextual experience. A further theoretical connection may be made with the characteristic Early Modern functioning of typology, that system of symbolic relations ± originally biblical ± that had informed the Medieval understanding and, by and large, lent it coherence. Conspicuous amongst the pressures applied to that system in the sixteenth century ± pressures broadly reflected in the semiotic transition ``From Symbol to Sign,'' in Kristeva's valuable formulation ± are new ways of reading history, including both less coherent and conflicting coherent ones. The stage is thereby set for historically encoded but symbolically charged textual entities, each implying the other(s), to interact dynamically, and with unpredictable results. Hence, the potential for ``ungrammaticalities'' ± violations of textual logic marking the presence of an intertext.39 Typological thinking, in such a semiotic free-for-all, does not disappear. On the contrary,

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Introduction: the Vasty (Discursive) Fields of France 25

it becomes more important, even compulsively so, as a means of ``making sense.'' Indeed, according to Ricoeur, the very signifying mechanisms by which history is produced and reproduced are essentially figural: ``We are following therefore the destiny of a prefigured time that becomes a refigured time through the mediation of a configured time'' (Time and Narrative 1: 54). And those mechanisms are inherently ambiguous: hence, Marie Axton discerns, across the mixed messages of Henry V, ``the very real ambiguity which is the essence of figural history'' (114). A case in point is the Early Modern fascination with anagrams ± intertextuality at the most basic level; this staple technique of the French polemical pamphlets of the 1570s and 1580s, by which the name of the person attacked ± Catherine de Medici, Henri III, the duc d'EÂpernon ± is ``unscrambled'' to reveal the truth behind a deceptive exterior, depends on reading, not the ``spirit'' behind the ``letter,'' but two sets of letters. These comprise, however, a mimetic narrative in three parts: the symbolically charged sign of essence, the obfuscation of that sign, and the pamphleteer's restitution of that essence. Thus extended along the axes of intertextuality and typology, Ricoeur's theoretical model conduces to a more functional understanding of those elusive modes of allegorizing and analogizing by which the encounter of the ``real'' and the ``fictional'' is negotiated in the period ± to the detriment of the purity of both. The practice of Pierre de L'Estoile's journals suggests how closely such a theory matches the spirit of the age. These texts comprise an invaluable source not only of political information but also of political slander, since L'Estoile amassed extensive samples of contemporary satirical pamphlets and poems as they appeared. Gilbert Schrenck has written insightfully on the ``[l]udique'' (``Jeu et theÂorie'' 70) quality of this activity, its generation of a ``transtextualiteÂ'' (73) ± in GeÂrard Genette's sense40 ± that effectively subverts authority itself: La cacophonie des pamphlets, image sonore de l'ancien Babel, ne renvoie plus qu'aÁ sa propre inaniteÂ. Dans ce vaste champ de contradictions, les signes traditionnels et les repeÁres seÂcurisants de l'ancien monde se heurtent et se brouillent sous effet de leur surabondance meÃme. La polyseÂmie pamphleÂtaire creÂe un occlusion de sens: ``Il n'y a plus de veÂriteÂ'' . . . conclut l'auteur, saisi de vertige intellectuel devant l'eÂrosion ideÂologique de son temps. (77) The ultimate evidence of L'Estoile's virtual appropriation by the fictions he appropriates is his own probable authorship of certain verses

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26 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

that he attributes to ``un mauvais garcËon de politique'' (75). One may also cite his raucous illustrated compilation, Les Belles figures et drolleries de la Ligue, which in fact juxtaposes League and anti-League voices.41 The effacement of narrative control, the elevation of the dialogic principle ± such tendencies put a reverse spin on the venerable humanist metaphor of the world-as-stage and contribute to the claim of ``theatre'' to constitute the defining icon of at least this corner of the discursive space of the late sixteenth century. The running title of Antony Colynet's 1591 narrative, after all, is The tragicall historie of the ciuill warres of France.

IX Given their theoretical commitment both to breaking down boundaries and to exploding the Elizabethan World Picture, it is remarkable that the practices of New Historicism and Cultural Materialism with respect to English studies, even studies of English colonialism, have tended implicitly to endorse John of Gaunt's view of England as a ``fortress built by Nature for herself / Against infection and the hand of war'' (R2 II.i.43±4). For these schools perhaps, as in Gaunt's own rhetoric, the positing of an England ``bound in with the triumphant sea'' (61) ± albeit making regular forays beyond it, especially to the westward ± enables an intensive focus on its status as ``bound in with shame'' (63). And insofar as contact with other cultures led to the promulgation of prejudices and derogatory stereotypes, the ``shame'' can be reckoned as all the greater. Contemporary criticism revels in reckoning such shame, and this continues to be the dominant activity with regard to English portrayal of the French ± witness, for example, the recent article by Henry Suhamy in a collection whose title (from the first words of King John), speaks volumes, insofar as it conveys a defensive sense of interpellation: What Would France with Us? The fact remains that the Elizabethans, like their ancestors, had much closer and more intensive contact with France than with any other source of stereotypes, and it is my working premise that the particular sort of ``otherness'' of France in the Early Modern English imagination stands King John's question on its head: ``What would we with France?'' Unanswerable as this question is, it at least directs attention to those who sought France out. This means, however, dealing less with actual travellers than with virtual ones. Our few records of the former have a decidedly one-dimensional quality, by comparison with the imaginative voyages made by Marlowe (who may also have made real ones), Shakespeare, and Nashe.

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Introduction: the Vasty (Discursive) Fields of France 27

Even the actual travellers, however, occasionally reflect English sensibilities in instructive ways, and it seems fitting to accord the last of these first words to two such, who, respectively, transmit the anxieties of the 1590s and recall those anxieties from a ``safe'' distance. Fynes Moryson's account of a journey taken towards the end of the civil wars is profoundly violence-haunted. The evidence of brutal conflict is everywhere, and brigands lurk round every bend in the road: this might as well be ± and the analogy is to the point ± the devastated France portrayed by Shakespeare's Burgundy, the garden gone horrifically to seed. By contrast, when Thomas Coryate made his way from Calais to Paris in 1608, when the rule of law had been largely reestablished, he was more at leisure to savour the beauties of art and architecture ± thanks, it is clear, to the frequent reassuring sight of the gallows awaiting malefactors. He nevertheless felt drawn, simultaneously, to look backward, evoking past battles through reflections on ruins and interspersed retrospectives. One of the latter was occasioned by his favourite emblem of law-and-order: A little on this side Paris, even at the towns end, there is the fayrest Gallowes that ever I saw, built upon a little hillocke called Mount Falcon, which consisteth of fourteene fair pillars of free-stone: this gallowes was made in the time of the Guisian massacre, to hang the Admiral of France Chatillion, who was a Protestant, Anno Dom. 1572. (1: 170) The massacre of Saint Bartholomew was, indeed, an almost universal temporal landmark for Englishmen thinking about France, though a certain fading is suggested by the fact that Coryate needs, in 1608, to identify the Huguenot leader Gaspard de Coligny, of the House of ChaÃtillon, who had been lionized for years in Protestant mythology.42 It nevertheless indicates Coryate's grounding in that mythology that he joins Marlowe in making the massacre ``Guisian.'' I will be returning to this issue. My immediate point is Coryate's reshaping of his witnessed landscape, the basic geography of history, to the contours of the discursive field. In reality, of course, the gallows of Montfaucon preexisted the death of the Admiral. His body (after having been abused in the streets of Paris) was displayed there ± by one foot, with a calf's tail stuck in his anus, according to the widely diffused contemporary report of Camillo Capilupi (442) ± in order to figure his murder as an act of overdue public justice. The sequence of punishments ± execution and public degradation in Paris, followed by display of the body ± precisely fulfilled

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28 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

the terms of his condemnation three years earlier by the Catholicdominated Parliament of Paris.43 Hence, Capilupi, gloating over what he portrays as Charles IX's triumphant Machiavellism, relishes the fact that crowds now flocked to view the Admiral's corpse where they had previously come to see him hanged in effigy (442). His is a very differently historicized geography, though nonetheless an imagined one, since Capilupi did his seeing, literally and figuratively, from the vantage point of Rome.

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Introduction: the Vasty (Discursive) Fields of France 29

The Unfortunate Traveller in (and out of) France

Let me begin by setting up the (dis)appearing act that paradigmatically defines the Lacanian subject as a lens for viewing the evolution of Jack Wilton's role ± a much-discussed phenomenon in The Unfortunate Traveller. Jack begins as an active and amoral practical joker, flaunting his membership in the Vice- and Trickster-club at the expense of common humanity. He ends as a largely passive observer and recorder, whose wide range of tonal positions ± including those of the scorner, the idealist, the moral philosopher, and even the humanitarian ± marks him as a variable product of changing circumstances. The narrator's increasingly ``discrepant attitudes,'' in G. R. Hibbard's phrase (179), notoriously fail to confer a unified perspective, but they do converge, from their various angles, to locate him at a distance from the increasingly raw material of his reÂcit and, paradoxically, to incorporate him into humanity at large. Initially defined in terms of his superhuman agency and power to expose ± ``Gods scourge from above'' (226), as he styles himself while still in France ± Nashe's narrator-protagonist by stages becomes the helpless overseer of events beyond his control: the halfÈ nster pitying spectator of the nonetheless justified slaughter of the Mu Anabaptists; the sorrow-stricken onlooker, locked in his upper chamber, at the rape and suicide of Heraclide (that epitome of feminine virtue who fails to deter Esdras with the threat of ``a power aboue thy power'' [289] ); and, finally, the ``[m]ortifiedly abjected and daunted'' speaker of unspeakable executioners' torments. In this last capacity, he is reduced to pronouncing, Vnsearchable is the booke of our destinies. One murder begetteth another: was neuer yet bloud-shed barren from the beginning of the world to this daie. (327) 30

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2

In the summary of Madelon S. Gohlke, ``As Jack becomes less of an actor and more of a spectator, his `wit' ceases to be a manipulative agent, evolving into a vehicle of moral vision'' (402). This vision's combination of affective power (Gohlke 413), narrative authority, and resistance to attempts to render it ``coherent'' (a recurrent concern in Nashe criticism) suggests Lacan's fragmented subjectivity. The role played by travel in Jack's development as narrator has received considerable attention1 ± not surprisingly, given the text's selfconsciousness on this point, which led Agnes M. C. Latham in 1948 to include the moral and physical risks of foreign travel among the ``threadbare commonplaces'' (88) parodied in Nashe's text. What has not, I think, been recognized is the not only formative but liminal position of the French experiences. It is in France, of course, that this ``appendix or page'' (209) is first informally interpolated/interpellated into the formal book of history, whose hero is ``Henrie the eight (the onely true subject of Chronicles)'' (209).2 When, with that king, he first returns to England, his ``trauell'' has gained him significant ``signiorie ouer the Pages'' (227) ± a status both social and discursive, since it conspicuously depends on his Frenchified manners, speech, and attitudes. This behaviour is highly self-conscious, presumptively continuing his initial control over modes of signification, especially language. But it also represents the first alteration of Jack's identity in response to circumstances, with the suggestion of an encroaching subjectivity, in which he is ``spoken'' even as he speaks. It is an effect recapitulated years later in Henry VIII (1613), where a long list of the French affectations (``fool and feather'' [I.iii.24] ) imported by courtiers after the Field of Cloth of Gold unrolls from a premise of essential destabilization: ``Is't possible the spells of France should juggle / Men into such strange mysteries?'' (1±2). Jack's alteration is later implicitly corroborated by the banished earl's account of English travellers (to France, as it happens) as having learnt to ``walke melancholy with their Armes folded'' and to speak ``English strangely'' (300). There is an anticipation here of the later stage semiotics of inwardness, as exemplified by Jaques and especially Hamlet,3 while the double meaning of ``strange'' (both ``foreign'' and ``odd,'' as in ``eÂtrange''4) points towards Lacan's reading of language as that which makes all of us strangers to ourselves and each other. (The point emerges in sharper outline against the homesick nobleman's transparently false claim for essential English transparency ± ``the plainest dealing soules that euer God put life in'' [298] ). The next voyage Jack makes, as ``a Martialist in earnest'' rather than ``a demy souldier in iest'' (231), involves the French out of France. The

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The Unfortunate Traveller in (and out of ) France 31

battle of Marignano (1515), at which the newly crowned FrancËois I recovered Milan, precipitated a discourse of neo-chivalric and neoclassical triumph in France at the time5 ± a discourse grounded in the originative mythology of French nationhood. Against this background, it seems particularly ironic that Jack now engages in a new linguistic mode: the verbal expression of human brutality. This mode is further È nster rebellion. Then, it is back to developed in his account of the Mu England until the final expedition to Italy, which conspicuously bypasses French experiences; once Italy is thoroughly revealed as a ``Sodom'' (327), however, and Jack makes an end of travelling, as well as chronicling, his route homeward leads again by way of the English in France, who are now making peace, not war. I will shortly be returning to these events from a specifically historical point of view, for they may be taken at least to qualify the opinion that, as Ann Rosalind Jones puts it, the work's ``fantastic geography and chronology disqualify it as a historical novel'' (63). Similar views are widespread among critics, although expressed in varying forms, such as Margaret Ferguson's reading in terms of the serious ``game'' that Nashe calls ``newes of the maker'' (207). Most profoundly at stake in that game, arguably, is the human subject made by such ``newes.'' For subjectivity fundamentally entails the imaginative experience of mortality, much as, in Lacanian terms, the ``fading'' self-image communicates a ``signification mortifeÁre'' (LeÂger 42). In effect, a new Anatomy of Absurdity is combined with an anatomy of the narrator himself, which becomes ``real'' through Jack's vivid fantasies of the physical dissection menaced by Doctor Zacharie ± a ``reality'' finally displaced upon Cutwolfe. What is thereby ultimately anatomized, perhaps, is the dynamic of exchange relations between the two terms ``history'' and ``orator.'' These are effectively applied in Pierce Penilesse, as Arthur F. Kinney has shown (330), according to the straightforward Ciceronian model: the orator raises events to historical status by memorializing them. That model is most conspicuously undercut here by demonstrations of the sensekilling propensities and sheer irrelevance of oratory in the realms of both the secular (through Vanderhulke [247±9] and the Tully-pilfering academics [251] ) and the divine: The next daie they had solempne disputations, where Luther and Carolostadius scolded leuell coyle. A masse of wordes I wote well they heapte vp agaynst the masse and the Pope, but farther particulars of their disputations I remember not. I thought verily they woulde haue worried one another with wordes, they were so earnest

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The Unfortunate Traveller in (and out of ) France 33

By contrast, Jack's words, excessive in any number of directions, progressively develop him as the subject of the narrative in a double sense, effecting a transformation from mere ``page'' into ``out-landish Chronicler'' (328) and of the rawest of raw experiences into ``newes'' to be imparted and reacted to. As the balance shifts for Jack from ``making news'' in the active sense to ``making'' it in the journalistic one, the relentless mortality pervading events is invested with the ``immortality''6 of historicity, in proportion as history itself is constituted as the perpetual (re)producer of narrating subjects. The shift in Jack's mode of engagement from agency to description thereby fulfils, through ``emplotment,'' what Ricoeur theorizes as the narrative potential of ``first-order entities.'' And insofar as the hermeneutic circle is completed when readers ``refigure'' the material by rereading themselves into and through the resulting narratives, it is especially significant that Jack's narrative, whose sprawling mid-section insouciantly mingles times, places, and persons ± fact and fiction ± concludes, as it began, with well-known events in the recent history of English±French relations.

I My argument, however, does not depend on historical facts: it requires demonstrating the extent to which Nashe's text is interconnected with recognizably ``French'' discourses in contemporary England, discourses ``always already'' charged with symbolic valency. I wish to correlate The Unfortunate Traveller with two discursive sites in particular, one ``literary,'' the other ``historical.'' The former is the Henriad of Shakespeare, which of course culminates with the conquest of France by the preeminent anti-French English hero. The latter comprises the pre-1593 English pamphlets proffering (but in practice ``making'') news of the French civil wars ± especially those celebrating Henri IV. The sheer number of civil war pamphlets ± dozens have survived, the exact number depending on how one counts ± documents the currency of a rhetoric of French warfare during the period when Shakespeare was working on his plays of Henry VI, in which the loss of France modulates into civil strife among the English. This is also the period when a major dramatic source for Henry V, where English civil discord is cured by glorious triumph in France, was presumably in theatrical existence, if

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and vehement. Luther had the louder voyce, Carolostadius went beyond him in beating and bounsing with his fists. (250)

not also in print. The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth is extant only in a rough edition of 1598 but generally supposed to be about ten years older, and it was probably referred to by Nashe himself in 1592.7 That play's title would have resonated with such headings as A true discourse of the most happy victories obtayned by the French King (1589); The true discourse of the wonderfull victorie, obteined by Henrie the fourth . . . neere the towne of Yurie [i.e., Ivry] (1590); A discourse and true recitall of euerie particular of the victorie obtained by the French king, on Wednesday the fourth of March, being Ashwednesday (1590); and A true declaration of the honorable victorie obtained by the French King in winning of Noyan, and ouerthrow of the Duke de Maine his forces. Performed this present moneth of August, 1591. It is a central contention of this study that such resonance develops a profound, if necessarily ambivalent, discursive relation between the French and English Henries so celebrated, and that Shakespeare, nine or so years later, deploys that relation so as to exploit its problematic and elusive aspects. Shakespeare does so with the support of the emphasis placed by the Chronicles on the king's humble piety ± a quality that, in Shakespeare, begins with Prince Hal's rhetorical manipulation of his father in Part One of Henry IV. There, having been called on the carpet for his dissipation and negligence, the Prince vows to redeem himself by vanquishing Harry Percy: ``This in the name of God I promise here, / The which if he be pleas'd I shall perform'' (1H4 III.ii.153±4). The style is close to that in The oration and declaration of the French King, Henrie the fourth of that name, . . . before the citie of Paris (1590): ``and I do promise as a king to performe it as soone as God will giue me leave'' (5). But it is in Shakespeare's Henry V itself that we find, as in various accounts of the pivotal battle of 1590 at Ivry, which ``proved'' Henri's divine entitlement to the throne of France, a prayer to the ``God of battles'' (IV.i.289), a victory frankly miraculous in the overcoming of odds, and afterwards a song of thanksgiving. Henri's prayer began with ``Seigneur mon Dieu, Dieu des armeÂes,''8 and the Old Testament epithet (whose regular equivalent in the early English translations is ``Lord of hosts'') carried an especially potent typological charge for the Huguenots, confirming their destiny as the chosen people and the promise of divine retribution, at God's chosen moment, against their powerful enemies:9 Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire. (Isa. 29:6 [Authorized Version] )

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34 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

The Unfortunate Traveller in (and out of ) France 35

Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. (1 Sam. 17:45) This discursive heritage sharpens the ironic point of the second use of the expression in Henry V: the Constable, astounded at Henry's success, exclaims ``Dieu de batailles!'' (III.v.15), thereby confirming French alienation from God and the power of the English king to make their ``typically French'' idle speech recoil upon them, like the idle ``jest'' (I.ii.295) of the tennis balls (or, for that matter, the ``fool-born'' ones of Falstaff [2H4 V.v.55] ). As the culmination of the divine momentum that builds from the first scenes of the play, indeed from Hal's sparks of greatness in Parts One and Two of Henry IV, the psalm of thanksgiving after Agincourt effectively becomes the theme-song of Shakespeare's royal warrior: ``Let there be sung Non Nobis and Te Deum'' (H5 IV.viii.123). According to the admiring chronicles, the soldiers had to kneel at the verse beginning, ``Non nobis'' (Holinshed 3: 82; Hall 70). In the old play, by contrast, the king merely refers to ``the honourable victorie which the Lord has given us'' (Famous Victories 1229). By respecifying and developing the motif, Shakespeare deepens the resonance with Protestant practice and attitudes in the French civil wars. There is a particularly vivid precedent in the hymn of the French royal army after Ivry, as appended to one of the translated despatches (A Letter sent by the French King vnto M. de la Verune, etc. [1590] ): To thee O Lord belongeth glorie still,

Victorie is thine, to thee all praise is due,

We fought the field with courage bold and free,

But Lord we graunt, that victorie came by thee.

(12±13) Yet as the confrontation between Prince Hal and his father also first intimates, the eloquent piety of Shakespeare's Henry is no less equivocal than the rest of him, and no less bound up with his chameleonlike rhetorical propensities. Moreover, even if we make the maximum

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In the mouth of a warrior-king, moreover, and a righteous underdog, the promise extends to the performance of miracles:

allowance for his just cause and grant him the status of underdog on the night before Agincourt, the intertextual claim in his prayer to be the divinely appointed scourge of infidels, David against Goliath, smacks of wishful thinking verging on imposture. In short, the general discursive line running from the French tracts through the equally unequivocal The Famous Victories, and more specifically from the Protestant French Henry to Shakespeare's English one, hardly runs straight. Let me posit here, as an intertextual force helping to bend that line out of shape, the off-centre attraction of The Unfortunate Traveller. This argument begins from the fact that Nashe, while writing at a time affording plenty of European conflicts in which he might have engaged his ``unfortunate'' hero-page, notably the French wars of religion, in which English soldiers (and soldiers of fortune) were plentifully engaged, set Jack's Continental adventures at an oblique but provocative angle to contemporary reality. He did this by going back in time, but not too far ± just to the era of England's most recent candidate for the role of anti-French warrior-king. That Henry VIII was the self-styled heir to the tradition of Henry V is unmistakable from the royal challenge he aimed at the French king in 1511, two years after his accession: ``the king sent word to deliuer him his lawful inheritance both of the duchie of Normandie and Guien, and the countries of Aniou & Maine, and also of his crowne of France; or else he would come with such a power that by fine force he would obteine his purpose'' (Holinshed 3: 566). (Nor could the later Henry have been unconscious of historical precedent in entrusting the command of his 1513 expedition to ``George Talbot earle of Shrewesburie'' [3: 576], the great hero's great-grandson.) The mere mention of this ``most puissaut emperoure, kyng and conquerour'' turns Coke's French herald pale: ``I perceyve his colour fadeth away, and that this tytle entreth so farre into his french popyshe harte, that I fere me he wyll never dysgest it'' (96).10 The spokesman for Englishness launches into a fulsome account of Henry's various military humiliations of the French over the course of his reign (triumphs for which, of course, there was very little to show). Perhaps an even more conclusive proof of superiority, in Coke's view (92), was Henry's munificent redemption of his great rival FrancËois I (who acceded in 1515) from the captivity to which the latter was consigned after the debacle of Pavia in 1525; these events, too, form part of the ironic background to the glory of Marignano. For French± English affairs, by way of shifting alliances involving the emperor and the Pope, were also very much at play in Italy. The experiences of France that bracket the kaleidoscopic middle action of Nashe's novel are associated with royal assertions of English

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36 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

power: on the first occasion, Henry indeed proves himself the ``terror of the world and feauer quartane of the French,'' as he campaigns (in 1513) against ``Turney and Turwin'' (i.e., Tournay and TeÂrouanne) (209); much later, after fleeing Italy, Jack rejoins that monarch's ``camp twixt Ardes [Ardres] and Guines [Guynes] in France'' (327) ± that is, the so-called Field of Cloth of Gold (located between towns held by the French and English), where a precarious league between Henry and FrancËois I was grandiosely concluded in 1520. (Coke's reading is that ``the french kynge came to Guysnes to seke his majesties favoure'' [98].) There Henry triumphantly feasts the French king, as well as the emperor. These two occasions and glimpses of Henry VIII dovetail neatly with the transformation of Henry V over the course of Shakespeare's play from scourge of France, striking fear into French hearts, to peace-making ``lover'' (at once of France and of its princess). Nashe produces, technically speaking, a roughly equivalent romance structure, with a celebratory ending finally enfolding an unruly episodic mode: ``And so as my storie began with the king at Turnay and Turwin, I thinke meete here to end it with the king at Ardes and Guines'' (328). The analogous note of English political triumph is here explicitly allowed to resonate undisturbed by any ``conclusiue epilogue,'' although Nashe's narrator signs off with the promise, if his work does not please, to ``sweare vpon an English Chronicle neuer to bee out-landish Chronicler more'' (328). The transformation from page to chronicler happens in stages, and its culmination is not calculated to please unequivocally. It was at his previous departure from France that Jack first rose to a narrativizing power very like that of Henry V's Chorus (``sleepe an houre or two, and dreame that Turney and Turwin is wonne, that the King is shipt againe into England . . . '' [227] ). Now, on his final return, this function is qualified by the punning implication of ``out-landish'' that he is not merely dealing with foreign matters but is also, in the familiar double sense, ``strange'' in himself ± that is, estranged from himself.11 There is a perfunctory reminiscence of the original subversive Jack, no doubt, but the narrator's voice ± ``[m]ortifiedly abiected and daunted'' (327) ± effectively foregrounds any true chronicler's doubleness as outsider and insider, at once creator and creature of historyas-language, the ``truth'' that is ``stranger than fiction.'' And to this extent, Jack anticipates the final shift of perspective in Shakespeare's choric Epilogue from looking reverently up to looking cynically down ± from the vision of Henry's disappearance as the ultimate fortunate traveller into a sunset tinged with romantic apocalypse (`` . . . Fortune made his sword, / By which the world's best garden he achieved'' [H5 Epi.6±7] ) to

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The Unfortunate Traveller in (and out of ) France 37

the bird's-eye view furnished by history and history play alike: `` . . . they lost France and made his England bleed, / Which oft our stage hath shown'' (Epi.12±13). As for the apocalyptic status of the Field of Cloth of Gold, the subsequent evolution of English±French relations would have produced for Nashe's reader a piquant irony along the lines of the first scene of Henry VIII. There that legendary aureate ``summit'' discursively dwindles into wasteful extravagance, the corrupt vanity of Cardinal Wolsey, and the untenability of the peace, as signalled by the heavens themselves: Every man, After the hideous storm that follow'd, was A thing inspir'd, and, not consulting, broke Into a general prophecy: that this tempest, Dashing the garment of this peace, aboded The sudden breach on't. (H8 I.i.89±94)

II The romance trajectory of Henry V's career derives, of course, from the myth that Shakespeare inherited, largely by way of the Chronicles and The Famous Victories. But further details in Nashe provocatively intersect with the ``purely'' fictional elements in Shakespeare's, elements that are anticipated in The Famous Victories to illustrate Prince Hal's youthful wildness but that notoriously take on a subversive life of their own. J. J. M. Tobin has assembled verbal correspondences linking Pistol with Nashe's Esdras, ``the vgliest of all blod suckers'' (Traveller 288). To put Pistol into intertextual play is to highlight the ``ungrammatical'' misconduct and self-interest within Henry V's heroic crusade and invite juxtaposition with Nashe's picture of the English army in France. The effect is to bring out Jack's own affinity with the activities of Pistol and his fellows, who also join the expedition ``like horse-leeches, . . . / To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck'' (H5 II.iii.54±5); as Jack puts it, ``the prince could but command men spend their bloud in his seruice, I could make them spend all the mony they had for my pleasure'' (210). But the still irrepressible Jack, true to his trickster heritage (which, especially by way of his verbal style, has earned him comparison with Falstaff [Hilliard 141±2] ) is far more of a practical joker than Pistol ± to

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38 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

the point, indeed, of evoking Prince Hal himself, for whom Pistol initially functions as a sort of unsavoury shadow-self. King Henry's games with his soldiers Williams and Fluellen (not to mention the English traitors) are distinct vestiges of his long-term manipulation of Falstaff; so is the exposure of cowardice that Pistol suffers at the hands of the Welsh captain, who thereby firmly displaces him as Henry's comic alter ego ± one full of ``care and valor'' that are ``a little out of fashion'' (IV.i.83±4) (as opposed, in effect, to ``sound and fury, signifying nothing''). For his part, Pistol imagines returning from France as an agent of social disorder, as so many Elizabethan soldiers actually did (not to mention deserters from Henry V's army12), and there is an oblique precedent in the first home-coming of Jack as an ``out-landish'' French fashion-statement, whose ``Qui passa'' (227) anticipates Pistol's challenge to the disguised Henry, ``Qui vous laÁ?'' (IV.i.35).13 That line plays best as a ludicrous effort at self-protection, should the approaching stranger prove French, and it absurdly rubs shoulders, not only with Pistol's linguistic ignorance (``Le Roy? a Cornish name'' [50] ), but with his social pretensions: ``art thou officer, / Or art thou base, common, and popular'' (37±8). By contrast, Nashe's Jack has actually made himself ``King of the drunkardes'' (228) ± constructed his ``signiorie'' (227) ± by exposing the ``pusillanimity'' (218) of various pretenders, the first two of whom remarkably resemble Falstaff and Pistol, respectively. The former is ``a cauelier of an ancient house'' who has sunk to the state of ``a Lord of misrule'' (210), running a virtual tavern and indulging freely in his own wares. This slovenly drunkard with genteel pretensions ``yong Wilton'' (211) terrifies with a long drawn-out ``holiday lie'' (209), whose gist is that the king suspects him of treachery, and that he can redeem himself only by a carnivalesque show of liberality (``syder in bowles, in scuppets, in helmets'' [216] ). This quasi-tavern scene furnishes a veritable outline for those between Falstaff and Hal, down to the clumsy tapster who calls, ``anone, anone, sir'' (212), when his startled master pounds on the table. Particularly resonant with Shakespeare's portrayal is the old man's style of ordering drink (``bring vs a pint of syder of a fresh tap into the three cups here, wash the pot'' [211]; ``fill the other pint, Tapster'' [215] ), in seamless combination with grandiose self-justification: Oh (quoth he), I am bought and sold for dooing my Countrey such good seruice as I haue done. They are afraid of me, because my good deedes haue brought me into such estimation with the Comminaltie. I see, I see, it is not for the lambe to liue with the wolfe. (214)

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The Unfortunate Traveller in (and out of ) France 39

When he comes desperately to seek the king's favour, this maudlin specimen, in contrast with Falstaff, voluntarily undoes himself. Yet in so doing he combines elements of Falstaff's plea on his own behalf to Halas-Player-King in 1 Henry IV ± ``valiant Jack Falstaff, and therefore more valiant, being as he is old Jack Falstaff'' (IV.ii.476±7) ± with an anticipation of his performance (as actor rather than as warrior) at Shrewsbury field: But in conclusion, my welbeloued Baron of double beere14 got him humbly on hys mary-bones to the King, and complained that he was old and striken in yeres, and had neuer an heire to cast at a dogge, wherefore if it might please his Maiestie to take his lands into his hands, and allowe hym some reasonable pension to liue, he shuld be maruailously wel pleased: as for warres, he was weary of them; yet as long as his highnes ventred his owne person, he would not flinch a foot, but make his wythered bodie a buckler to beare off any blow aduanced against him. (216) It is Hal's youthful body, of course, that actually interposes in this way but the sack-toting Falstaff who claims equivalent credit,15 coming back to life with a combination of Jack Wilton's irrepressibility and the old man's self-abasement: If I be not Jack Falstaff, then am I a Jack. There is Percy. If your father will do me any honor, so; if not, let him kill the next Percy himself. I look to be either earl or duke, I can assure you. (V.iv.139±43) The second victim of Nashe's Jack is ``an vgly mechanicall Captaine'' (217) ± an epithet that would do very well for Pistol ± whom Jack at first cultivates as an accomplice in knavery. He then, however, tricks his dupe into parading his ``glorious bragging humor'' (223) in the French camp with the absurd objective ± but perhaps less absurd for readers a mere four years after the assassination of Henri III at his encampment ± of killing the French king.16 Instead, he is put to the torture ± not to mention the ``Queuela'' (223), louse-by-louse ± and exposed as a ``Rascall'' (224). Finally, he is ``sent home by a Herrald with this message, that so the King his Master hoped to whip home all the English fooles very shortly'' (224); this affords an occasion for the English king ± before summarily hanging Jack's dupe for his ``trechery'' (225) ± to commission the herald with a defiant retort in the manner of Henry V.

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40 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

The Unfortunate Traveller in (and out of ) France 41

These fictional elements would seem to lead far from French facts, whether contemporary with Nashe or with Henry VIII, but in fact they immerse us, through the protagonist, in the symbolically charged materiality of French±English relations, preparing the discursive field for more thoroughly narrativized deployment in the next set of Continental adventures. In fact, it is Nashe's treatment, in quick succession, of two fields of battle beyond his French framework, hence outside the patriotic paradigm of England bringing France to its knees, that most actively engages the English pamphlets. Jack remains, however, an historian very much in the making: his voice and posture are radically unstable; in close combination with his technical detachment, he flaunts a residual participation in the events he describes. The effect is to subvert the binary heroics of the standard English narratives ± indeed, oratory's very power to historicize in terms of ``winners'' and ``losers,'' even ``right'' and ``wrong'' ± by insisting on the dark underside of warfare. This is, again, an element that resonates with Henry V, although it is virtually absent from the play's recognized ``sources'' (except for the slaughter of the French prisoners [see below, p. 191] ). The resonance is most insistent between Nashe's account of the French defeat of the Swiss in Italy ± an encounter that an ``out-landish Chronicler'' need not romanticize ± and the poignant realism of Shakespeare's commonsensical observer, Williams. Williams prepares us to envisage the field of Agincourt, not as Henry's glorious feast of Crispian, the collective triumph of a ``band of brothers'' (H5 IV.iii.60), but as a site where individual lives (including French ones) end in isolated agonies, which will be chronicled at the king's expense ``when all those legs, and arms, and heads, chopp'd off in a battle shall join together at the latter end'' (VI.i.135±7). Jack recounts of Marignano that ``there were more armes and legs scattered in the Field that day than will be gathered vp till Doomes-day'' and pulls no punches in evoking death as the ultimate leveller: here vnweeldie Switzers wallowing in their gore, like an Oxe in his dung, there the sprightly French sprawling and turning on the stained grasse, like a Roach new taken out of the streame. . . . In one place might you behold a heape of dead murthered men ouerwhelmed with a falling Steede in stead of a toombe stone, in another place a bundell of bodies fettered together in their owne bowells . . . the halfe liuing here mixt with squeazed carcasses long putrifide. (231)

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III

42 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

For many of our princes (woe the while!)

Lie drown'd and soak'd in mercenary blood;

So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs

In blood of princes, and their wounded steeds

Fret fetlock deep in gore, and with wild rage

Yerk out their armed heels at their dead masters,

Killing them twice.

(H5 4.7.77±80) In describing the battle of Marignano, which places French warfare outside the historical context of French±English hostility, Jack combines his new observer status with his old subversive posture, transcending politics to revel in mayhem (``a wonderfull spectacle of blood-shed on both sides'' [231] ), like King John's Bastard at Angiers and Falstaff at Shrewsbury: ``I have led my ragamuffins where they are pepper'd . . . '' (1H4 V.iii.35±6). By contrast, Jack's subsequent account of the crushing Ènster, led by ``John Leiden'' (i.e., Jan of the Anabaptist rebellion at Mu van Leyden), mingles its cynical detachment with aggressive partisanship on behalf of nobles against peasants, and, more provocatively, of the ``lawfulnes of . . . authoritie'' (236) ± which here happens to be that of the Holy Roman Empire ± against radical Protestantism.17 This is the attitude deployed through a baroque series of twists and turns in the long quasi-sermon that intervenes between the drawing-up of the Anabaptists on the battlefield ± as ignorant, if not as innocent, as sheep ± and their inevitable extermination by the Imperial troops. Yet Ferguson (173±7), challenging the traditional assumption of Nashe's stable ideological position, has acutely noted the sermon's pervasive ambivalence towards authority, which is grounded in Jack's own subversive status and connected with his recognition of ``their vnpittied and well perfourmed slaughter'' as nevertheless ``[p]ittifull and lamentable'' (240). I would extend the perception that ``Nashe seems to identify both with the perpetrators of the massacre and with their victims'' (Ferguson 177) to the double movement of historicization and subjectification associated with the narrator's evolution. On the one hand, Jack's

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Approached intertextually, such virtual parodies of brotherhood deepen the irony already present in the play's fulfilment of Williams' vision, when the French herald complains about the mingling of slaughtered nobles and commoners:

discourse is newly informed by a moralizing historical sense, which ranges from Roman history to ancient and modern Church history (including the designation of Wolsey, the engineer of the Field of Cloth of Gold, as ``he that first gelt religion'' [238] ). On the other hand, even before the slaughter begins, unhindered by the miracle the zealots had counted on to save them, as the supposedly doomed English were saved at Agincourt, the looming human tragedy inflects his litany of condemnation in a way previously inaccessible. If the signs of worldliness marking the Anabaptists' failure truly to follow Christ include the fact that ``they lookt after their wiues and children'' (239), that sign carries something of the same counterforce as in Williams' list of the worldly thoughts that prevent soldiers from dying good deaths: ``some swearing, some crying for a surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind them, some upon the debts they owe, some upon their children rawly left'' (H5 IV.i.138±41). And in Shakespeare's pre-battle scenes, after all, it is the arrogant French who adopt Nashe's posture of ridicule, comparing the English soldiers to ``[f]oolish curs, that run winking into the mouth of a Russian bear and have their heads crush'd like rotten apples'' (III.vii.143±5). John Leiden may wear ``on his head for a helmet a huge high shooe with the bottome turnd vpwards'' (232), but Shakespeare's French are themselves fools to claim, regarding the English, that ``if their heads had any intellectual armor, they could never wear such heavy head-pieces'' (III.vii.137±9). Again, however ± and paradoxically, since this part of the novel seems to dissociate warfare from France entirely ± the discourse of contemporary French ``news'' focuses the ideological contradiction in Nashe's making of history. This contradiction emerges despite the impeccability, for the vast majority of Nashe's readers, of Jack's revulsion at the Anabaptists. There was a special anathema reserved for those socially radical reformers within militant Protestant English ideology: witness the attack incorporated by John Bale in his revision of King Johan (probably for a 1561 performance before Queen Elizabeth). For Bale, too, the È nster rebellion looms large (``The cytie of Myster was lost though Mu their debate'' [2594] ), epitomizing the subversive threat to the Biblically mandated triumph over ``Antichristes whelpes'' (2616). From the historical perspective of thirty years later, the Anabaptist menace blends into that of English Puritanism, Nashe's beÃte noire: ``Heare what it is to be Anabaptists, to be Puritans, to be villaines'' (241); all three categories are rhetorically gathered under the aegis of Antichrist: ``Did not Christ say that before the Latter day the Sunne shall be turned into darknesse, and the Moone into bloud?'' (235).

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The Unfortunate Traveller in (and out of ) France 43

Still, Jack's sudden decision to ``dilate a litle more grauely than the nature of this historie requires'' (234) problematically appropriates that speech from Sleidanus' chronicle (fol. 57r�v ) in which the leader of the Imperial forces inspires his troops with assurance that they, not the Anabaptists, are doing God's work. And when Jack's scorn, here blatantly making historical meaning out of old ``newes,'' pours forth obsessively on the conspicuous piety of this ragged, hungry, and vastly outnumbered band of mechanical brethren ± one might well term them ``warriors for the working day'' (H5 IV.iii.109) ± contemporaries could hardly have failed to juxtapose this text with the deployment of God's favour on behalf of the Huguenot underdogs in the French wars, as insistently developed by the pamphlets. There the psalmsinging and praying of the Protestant soldiers ± which are true to historical fact18 ± figure regularly as a witness of faith and grace, of direct and absolute reliance on God. Jack, on the other hand, mockingly connects the Anababtists' cultivation of divine sanction (``they pray, they howle, they expostulate with God to grant them victorie'' [234] ) with ``theyre well deserued confusion'' (240). This amounts to an inversion of the narratives of prayer, triumph, and thanksgiving that accrued to such miracles as Ivry ± narratives, moreover, that relegate the Catholic enemy, despite their glorious appearance and overwhelming superiority, to the position of those self-doomed to be massacred, according to Jack, by the ``Emperialls . . . that were their Executioners'' (240): they were first ouerthrowne by their owne consciences before they came ouer to the field to combat, whither they came like criminall persons condemned to die, who by guiltinesse of conscience goe, as it were, halfe dead to the place of execution. (The true discourse of the wonderfull victorie, etc. sig. D4v ) Finally, Nashe's engagement with these chronicles of civil and religious strife seems reflected not least in the injunction to English sectarians to reject Continental models for, in effect, John of Gaunt's Edenic ``fortress,'' beyond the reach of history itself: Ministers and Pastors, sell away your sects and schismes to the decrepit Churches in contention beyond sea; they haue been so long invred to warre, both about matters of Religion and Regiment, that now they haue no peace of minde but in troubling all other mens peace. (237)

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44 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

The Unfortunate Traveller in (and out of ) France 45

'Tis better using France than trusting France. Let us be back'd with God, and with the seas, Which he hath giv'n for fence impregnable, And with their helps only defend ourselves: In them, and in ourselves, our safety lies. (III.iii.42±6) It is significant that the implicit idealizing of ``peace of minde'' in Nashe goes hand-in-hand with the narrator's desire to place himself beyond the reach of discourse by ``rid[ding] his handes'' of his tale, being ``as it were more than duncified twixt diuinity and poetrie'' (241). Such desire is the sign par excellence of the speaking subject, whose sense of self is inextricable from intimations ± whatever oratory he may deploy ± of the inadequacy of language to establish meaning.

IV Let me conclude by way of Shakespeare's Henry V, the brutal ravisher of the French peace (as Burgundy's powerful speech confirms [V.ii.24 ff.] ), who belatedly packages himself as a comic ``out of fashion'' lover. The abuse of piety in support of self-interest, as focused by Nashe's oblique subversion of the French pamphlet paradigm, has obvious application to the double-sided English hero. It also bears on the subsequent course of English history, as Shakespeare had already ``shown'' it. The Epilogue's pointed reminder of the loss of France under Henry's son makes ample room for the imputation that God is recalling to memory precisely what Henry, with Agincourt impending, prayed him to forget, at least ``to-day'': ``the fault / My father made in compassing the crown'' (IV.i.293±4). No deployment of pious rhetoric, even by rhetoric's past master, can hoodwink God ± who really is beyond language ± any more than, according to Nashe's aggressively witty sermon in the voice of history, the ``violence of long babling praiers'' or ``of tedious inuectiue Sermons without wit'' (Traveller 234) could long defer ``the ouerthrow of that vsurper, Iohn Leiden'' (238). The speechless act of murder itself

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The nostalgia in this appeal is exposed by the recourse to an ``us-againstthem'' binarism that has by now been thoroughly destabilized; the effect resembles the ironic undercutting in Henry VI, Part Three, when Hastings, after years of English disasters in France and divisions at home, rejects a pact with the French on the grounds that

generates narrative, hence history, for (from the time of Abel) it ``is widemouthd and will not let God rest till he grant reuenge'' (320). The final scepticism of Nashe's anti-hero ± now so profoundly daunted as to discern ``tragedy'' in the story of Cutwolfe and Esdras, when his own dooming of the captain had elicited only crocodile tears (``Plura dolor prohibet'' [225] ) ± turns out to have a long intertextual reach, forward and backward, as befits a view that is ultimately a bird's-eye one. Indeed, in the end that point of view transcends even that of ``a Crowe that still followes aloofe where there is carrion'' (232) ± that is, as a decidedly interested, if non-partisan, observer. In his close-to-final words, Jack recognizes the human condition itself in the decidedly ``outlandish'' spectacle of Cutwolfe, left broken on the wheel, ``where, yet liuing, he might beholde his flesh legacied amongst the foules of the aire'' (327). From such a perspective, the nationality and religion providing the carrion ultimately seem quite beside the point. Yet birds of prey actually serve in Henry V ± and in at least one other place in the Early Modern drama ± as an extra-linguistic sign of the problematic relation between oratory and the history of the English in France. When Shakespeare's French dismiss the English invaders as mere ``island carrions'' (IV.ii.39), over whom fly ``the knavish crows . . . / . . . impatient for their hour'' (51±2), they are most obviously mistaking the identities of the prospective victims. More profoundly ironic is the fact that their reading is simply a few years premature. In Edward III, which may well mediate chronologically between Henry V and The Unfortunate Traveller, the issue is even more clearly the relation between prophecy and fulfilment. There Edward the Black Prince, Henry's prototype, is about to complete the conquest of France at Poitiers, when the French King John vainly attempts to redirect the previously established omen of France's imminent defeat: the appearance of ravens. Prophetic discourse (notoriously dangerous, after all, in Early Modern political thinking) thus emerges explicitly as a site where symbolically charged ``first-order entities'' may be narrativized before one's very eyes, where fiction and fact may manifestly intersect ± and with subjectifying results. Identity is at stake in both personal and national terms, as John desperately attempts to remake the bad news by pretending, against his better knowledge, that the ill-boding birds ``for the carcases / Of these poore English, that are markt to die, / Houer about'' (IV.v.49±51). As was definitively old news for an audience of the 1590s, it would take the resistant raw material of history itself to impose, in due course, a non-narrative alternative to the recurrent romance of English conquest.

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46 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

Shakespeare's Arthurian Misfortunes

``Odd man out'' among Shakespeare's pre-1600 English history plays, the long-marginalized King John now commonly attracts approval as a repository of historiographical self-consciousness, contrary to the strenuous myth-making of the two Tetralogies.1 Behind this reversal in critical attitude may lie the innovative claim of Sigurd Burckhardt that the play manifests a sceptical ``modernity'' (134), whereas the subsequent histories, ``resolute and stirring'' in a way that serves ``the national cause,'' conduct ``a kind of holding operation'' (153). As commentators have increasingly insisted, however, it is possible to see even the notorious Tudor myth, insofar as it informs the Tetralogies, as dialogized within a nexus of history-writing ± hence, history-making ± processes. Conversely, I propose, the historiographical explorations of King John stand out in stark outline because they are set against fraught and contentious mythical backgrounds. It is suggestive, in these terms, that A. R. Braunmuller, concerned with King John as manifesting the inner workings of Elizabethan historiography, focuses on its two least historically determinate elements: the bringing to life of the Bastard (from a bare hint in Holinshed [2: 275] ) and the death of Arthur Plantagenet. I propose to bring these elements together by way of the legend of King Arthur, then briefly to extend the discussion to the Second Tetralogy, especially its culmination in Henry V. King John and Henry V stand out in Shakespeare's úuvre for their imagistic preoccupation with crossings ± the chief ones being in opposite directions ± between those ``two mighty monarchies, / Whose high, upreared, and abutting fronts / The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder'' (H5 Pro.20±2). This matches Holinshed's typology, according to which Henry restored Normandy ``to the possession of the right heire, which had beene wrongfullie deteined from the kings of England 47

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3

euer since the daies of king Iohn, who lost it about the yeare one thousand two hundred and seauen'' (3: 111). More broadly, with its idealized conquest of France by England and its blatant subordination of historiography to myth, the later play may be seen as turning the method of King John inside-out. I will treat the Arthurian dimension as a site of rapprochement: it bounds the earlier play's historiographical swells and surges, which arise as if to rebut the confidence of Holinshed's Elinor, ``seeing the coast to be cleare on euerie side, without any doubt of tempestuous weather likelie to arise'' (2: 274); in the later one, it serves to cast myth adrift on those troubled waters, destabilizing the Chorus's promise to ``convey you safe, / And bring you back, charming the Narrow Seas / To give you gentle pass'' (II.Cho.37±9).

I The mythic intertexts of King John resonate within the Bastard's final speech, as he invokes a future England eternally invincible and glorious ± but on the precarious condition that it ``rest but true'' to ``itself'' (V.vii.118). Such a prospect is, of course, contrary to the example of this play and others ± Henry VI, Part Three, for instance, where Hastings argues against alliance with France on the grounds that, thanks to its heaven-sent geography, ``of itself England is safe, if true within itself'' (III.iii.39±40). The transcendental rhetoric in King John is all the more striking by contrast with the down-to-earth political moralizing of the character's counterpart in that close dramatic analogue, The Troublesome Raigne.2 Both concluding speeches stress the need for England to be ``true'' to ``itself'' (KJ V.vii.118; Troublesome Raigne 2, ix.1187 [``true within it selfe''] ), but Shakespeare's version ends on this indefinite and conditional note, while the ferociously anti-Catholic analogue goes on to affirm the need for ``Peeres and people'' to ``joyne in one'' against Popery, whether it threatens by way of France or Spain (1196). And while both plays anticipate a triumphant England, The Troublesome Raigne presents this ideal as realized through the succession of John's son, Henry III: ``Thus Englands peace begins in Henryes Raigne, / And bloody warres are closde with happie league'' (1185±6). Indeed, John, truly cursed not for resisting Roman Catholic authority but for yielding to it (``Since John did yeeld unto the Priest of Rome, / Nor he nor his have prospred on the earth'' [viii.1075±6] ), will be further reincarnated in his son's namesake, Henry VIII ± one who, in turn, will realize the promise of the ``once and future king'':

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Shakespeare's Arthurian Misfortunes 49

From out these loynes shall spring a Kingly braunch

Whose armes shall reach unto the gates of Rome,

And with his feete treade downe the Strumpets pride,

That sits upon the chaire of Bablyon.

The conclusion of Shakespeare's version drastically diminishes Henry from a forthright royal presence, capable both of destroying Swinstead Abbey to punish monkish treachery and of defying the invading French, to a mere shadow of his father ± a boy at a loss for words because lost in grief. Almost equally lost, moreover, is the Bastard himself. In The Troublesome Raigne, he continues his active support for political renewal, merely taking two lines off to consign John ``[w]ith obsequies of honor to his grave'' (ix.1194); Shakespeare makes him a prototype of the exhausted Kent, summoned by his master: ``I do but stay behind / To do the office of revenge, / And then my soul shall wait on thee to heaven'' (V.vii.70±2). Renewal, with dramatic closure, is thus deferred into an indefinite and problematic future. In both plays, the political power vacuum is filled by the power of myth, but in such as way as to figure presence in one case, absence in the other. Myth is invoked as presence to ratify the closure of The Troublesome Raigne. Thanks to the new king's name, its ending resonates with key elements sustaining Tudor ideology: Henry VII as reconciling English factions; Henry VIII as the new Arthur, taking up John's struggle against both France and Rome. Such a reading matches the mainly positive (if hardly unflawed) image of John that the play so clearly owes to Protestant Tudor propaganda,3 and if historicizing that image ± in notable contrast with Bale in King Johan ± tends to tarnish it, it is simultaneously polished by demonizing the French. This is uncannily to trace the rhetorical lines of Coke. The latter's English herald, in rebutting his French counterpart's gloating over the invasion of ``Lowes, the Dauphin,'' styles the French king ``protector'' of ``the romishe bysshop, chaplyne to Sathan,'' and serves up a similar celebration of England's invulnerability, were it not for untrue Englishmen: ``unto such tyme as Lowes was sure to be ayded by the sayd lordes, he durst aswell drown him selfe as to set one foote in Englande'' (76). In The Troublesome Raigne, the mythical picture is completed by the Bastard's symbolic rechannelling of the glorious heritage of Richard Coeur-de-Lion ± the founder of English royalty itself, according to Holinshed4 ± into the political mainstream, as if it had merely been temporarily diverted (by a bend sinister, one might say).

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(1084±7)

The myth of Richard is also invoked in Shakespeare yet kept at arm's length. The emergence of the re-baptized Bastard as England's embodiment and spokesman does not undo the genuinely ``sinister'' aspects of his previous textual function ± his Vice-heritage, which is not a factor in The Troublesome Raigne.5 Moreover, Shakespeare's text insists less on the family connection. His Bastard enjoys tweaking the nose of Lymoges (Duke of Austria), who wears Richard's lion-skin, whereas his counterpart in The Troublesome Reign (cleaving more closely to Holinshed [1: 278] ) pursues a deadly serious vendetta, determined to ``live and die in Richards right'' (Part 1, v.933). The latter's vengeance occasions a vaunting neo-Senecan soliloquy (``Thus hath K. Richards Sonne performde his vowes. / And offred Austrias bloud for sacrifice / Unto his fathers everliving soule'' [vi.1044±6] ), while the former sacrifices matterof-factly ± ``Austria's head lie there, / While Philip breathes'' (III.ii.3±4) ± to ``some aery devil'' that ``hovers in the sky / And pours down mischief'' (2±3). In King John, Elinor is palpably seizing on a myth-making opportunity (``The very spirit of Plantagenet! / I am thy grandame, Richard, call me so'' [I.i.167±8] ) and transparently, even blasphemously, coopting that myth for her doubtful crusade: ``Wilt thou forsake thy fortune, / Bequeath thy land to him, and follow me? / I am a soldier, and now bound for France'' (148±50). Her counterpart in The Troublesome Raigne is more tangibly (grand)maternal: Philip, I think thou knewst thy Grandams minde:

But cheere thee boy, I will not see thee want

As long as Elinor hath foote of land;

Henceforth thou shalt be taken for my sonne,

And waite on me and on thine Unckle heere,

Who shall give honour to thy noble mind.

(i.293±8) Shakespeare's Prince Henry, for his part, does not address Philip as ``Sweet Unckle,'' as in the conclusion of The Troublesome Raigne (Part 2, viii.1139), or commission him to level Swinstead Abbey. The myth of Richard, then, is deployed as absence, the sign of the unrealized.

II This is likewise the case, I propose, with that more potent myth of English glory evoked by the young prince who ± contrary to both

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50 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

literary and historical precedent ± supplies the play's centre of gravity. (The two myths, by the way, are far from incompatible: Richard I himself cultivated an Arthurian association [Chambers, Arthur, 124] ). The resonant name of Arthur is made to echo intertextually in the concluding silence and, without displacing that of Henry, to complicate its prophetic function. It is important to this argument that the Arthurian cultural inheritance did not necessarily remain comfortably circumscribed within the main propagandistic purpose to which the Tudors sought to put it ± namely, demonstrating ``that in the Welsh blood of Henry of Richmond the very blood of Arthur had returned to a glorious present of British empire'' (Millican 9). For one thing, this blood had supposedly ``returned'' from the world of historical time itself, which was liable to resist mythologizing. King John, after all, figures that world in a monarch who ``leaves the print of blood where e'er [he] walks'' (IV.iii.26) ± to cite Salisbury's words just before discovering the chief such ``print'' lying dead on the stones. The broader difficulty for the Tudors was that, to confirm the fulfilment of its prophecy, the Arthurian legend needed to be historically re-confined, not left loose to imply the need for future realization. Historians and antiquaries of the period tended both to affirm Arthur's historicity and to set limits to it.6 Particularly vulnerable were the extravagant claims for Arthur's conquests stemming from romance tradition, as well as the superstition concerning his survival. Thus Holinshed dismisses as mere puffery the view, derived ultimately from Geoffrey of Monmouth (and the latter's Welsh sources), that Arthur was about to march on Rome and become emperor when he was forced back from France to deal with Mordred.7 The Chronicles likewise appear anxious to establish Arthur as dead once and for all: the myth of return cannot survive the discovery of his body at Glastonbury during the reign of Henry II (1: 577±9). The radicalism of King John arguably consists, not only in its historiographical scepticism, but in its reinvestment of the Arthurian legend with potent ambivalence. From the recent historical past, the name of Arthur would have evoked the elder brother of Henry VIII, who had been so named to capitalize politically on the Welsh cult of the ancient British king.8 The mythologized promise of Arthur, Prince of Wales, conspicuously yielded to his brother's mythologized fulfilment, as the latter enthusiastically adopted Arthurian authority for his British imperial project, complete with its anti-Roman dimension.9 The momentum carried into the neochivalric medievalism of the militant Protestant party in Elizabeth's time ± notably by way of Sidney and, of course, Spenser.10 Both, to enlist the

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Shakespeare's Arthurian Misfortunes 51

power of the myth, must side-step the historical controversy. As Richard Helgerson deduces from Spenser's claim (in the letter to Ralegh) that the figure of Arthur is immune to factional (mis)construction, ``[t]he present is dangerous and can be approached, if at all, only by the indirection of a pretended universality'' (50). Yet such a pretence hardly cleanses the myth of political accretions, while the timeless setting imperfectly effaces the insinuation that ``once and future'' means ``not present.'' Indeed, Spenser may be seen as addressing the latter dilemma by making Arthur the recurrent redeemer; and if Arthur's perpetual betrothal to the Faerie Queene subtly recuperates the suggestion of deferral, it also implicitly precludes such unsuitable present suitors as AlencËon. Finally, the Stuarts in their turn tapped into the Arthurian connection, both to justify the creation of Great Britain and to reinforce dynastic continuity, although the ultimate result was to offer the Parliamentary party a subversive instrument ± hence, perhaps, Milton's abandonment of his plan for an Arthurian epic (Merriman 49±50, 56±6). Further witness to the political pungency of the myth in Elizabeth's time is The Misfortunes of Arthur, by Thomas Hughes and others. This Gray's Inn entertainment, staged in 1588 before Queen Elizabeth, combines neo-Senecan dramaturgy with the mode of political moralizing familiar from The Mirror for Magistrates (possibly with allegorical allusion to Mary, Queen of Scots). Its ostensible concern is with the troubles of the realm in Arthur's final days, and its view of that king is far from celebratory. His sinfulness makes him, in fact, the author of his own misfortunes, in keeping with the influential negative tradition that paralleled idealizing versions of the myth. The excessive innocence of Shakespeare's Arthur ± a point developed beyond The Troublesome Raigne ± keeps that reading at a distance. Nevertheless, the political moral of the Misfortunes matches the Bastard's concluding one in King John, except that it articulates the name there left unspoken: ``Had they, but lynckt like friendes in Arthurs bandes, / And ioynede their forces against the forren foes: / These warres and ciuill sinnes had soone surceast'' (IV.iii.21±3). Overall, there are fewer sixteenth- and seventeenth-century literary reworkings of Arthurian material than might have been expected. Political sensitivity was certainly one cause. No doubt, too, the stories, along with other romances of the same ilk, fell out of fashion in sophisticated circles, as they demonstrably fell out of favour in moralistic ones: humanist scorn of their fantastic qualities made common cause with Roger Ascham's famous condemnation of their propensity to corrupt the young (Merriman 32±3). On the other hand, they certainly remained

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52 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

active in popular culture: ballads, local myth-making, ``shows'' on festive occasions. One minor dramatic instance points to a popular link with the religious and patriotic preoccupations of the King John story. When You See Me, You Know Me is a loose ``chronicle history'' of Henry VIII, written by Samuel Rowley in 1604 for the Prince of Wales's company. The standard pro-Reformation line is crudely promoted, with Wolsey serving ± so conveniently that his life is prolonged into the time of Catherine Parr ± to embody Roman Catholic corruption, as well as treacherous dealings with the French.11 King Henry's famous fool, Will Sommers, is granted the privilege of obliquely attacking the Cardinal: they say, the great Bell in glassenberie. [sic] Tor has told twise, and that king Arthur, and his Knights of the round Table that were buried in Armour, are aliue again, crying Saint Gorge for England, and meane shortly to conquer Rome. (Rowley 242±7) Still, for a post-Tudor audience, the suggestion that Henry will reincarnate Arthur's anti-Roman heroics remains inherently foolish. Indeed, belief in Arthur's return had long standing as a measure of folly. In Henry II's mid-twelfth-century court, the mythologizing impulse was amply manifested, if not by that king's interest in Arthur's body, certainly by Wace's obliging transformation of Geoffrey of Monmouth into chivalric romance (Dronke 282), complete with the myth of return. Yet there was a counterpoint of jocular references by such poets as Joseph of Exeter and, especially, Peter of Blois (Dronke 308n61). Particularly revealing is the double message attached to such ridicule in a lyric dialogue by the latter, in which a courtier defends his carpe diem outlook against warnings about the afterlife: Neminem ab inferis revertentem vidimus ± certa non relinquimus ob dubia; sompniator animus respuens esencia gaudeat inanibus ± quibus si credideris, expectare poteris Arturum cum Britonibus! (ed. Dronke 304 ff.)12

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Shakespeare's Arthurian Misfortunes 53

Ironically, the speaker discredits himself by his sophisticated scorn, since he thereby also dismisses Christian truth as ``dubia.'' Arthur indirectly emerges as a proto-Spenserian type of Christ. The literary reproduction of Arthurian material in Elizabethan England may have been inhibited, not only by political sensitivity and multifarious disdain, but by the very circumstance most clearly proving that ``the Arthurian tradition still permeated the whole of Tudor society'' (Merriman 34): the monolithic and codifying presence of Malory's Le Morte Darthur, as edited by Caxton and first published in 1485.13 This volume (republished in 1498, three more times in the sixteenth century, then again in 163414), may be taken as embodying the Arthurian legend in its most actively mythical form for producers of English Renaissance culture from ``high'' to ``middle'' to ``low'' ± from Spenser to Rowley to, say, Thomas Deloney.15 It certainly helped to inform Spenser's Arthurianism, at least in ``tone and sensibility'' (Lambert 451).16 Malory's fifth book, a rendering of the fourteenth-century alliterative Morte Arthure, is devoted to the subject of Rowley's allusion, the conquest of Rome.17 Certain adventures from Book Six are crudely versified in a ballad that first appeared in Deloney's The Garland of Good Will (ent. 1592±3)18 and caught the fancy of Falstaff in Henry IV, Part Two ± a point I will return to. The broad trajectory of Malory's work, as transmitted by Caxton, traces the rise and fall of Arthur as founder and sponsor of the Round Table ± the primordial ``band of brothers,'' metonymic of a Britain once indeed ``true'' to ``itself'' (hence, successful in asserting itself abroad) and implicitly capable of being so again. Such an implication inheres in the narrative's refusal of closure: after seeming to establish Arthur as contained within his tomb (592), Malory evokes the legend of his suspended animation. The story thus circles back to the Prologue of Caxton, which enlists Arthur's memorial presence in the cause of his mythic status: ``And in dyuers places of Englond many remembraunces ben yet of hym and shall remayne perpetuelly, and also of his knyghtes'' (2). For Caxton, the locating of the body proves Arthur's existence, as for Holinshed, but, together with other relics and quasi-historical accounts, actually validates the romance tradition, despite the silence of ``somme cronycles'' (Malory, ed. Spisak, 1). The effective anglicizing of the British Arthur ± a practice going back to LaZamon (Dean 68), confirmed at Edward I's Welsh victory in 1282 (Chambers, Arthur, 124), and necessary to Edward III's enlisting of Arthur against the French ± is part of what Holinshed ``historically'' refutes when he pointedly portrays Arthur as an anti-Saxon figure. For his part, Caxton explicitly sets Arthur up to

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54 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

rival two French Worthies (Charlemagne and Godfrey de Bouillon [Malory, ed. Spisak, 1]19) ± an extension, in effect, of ancient British authors' ``vaine desire to aduance more than reason would, this Arthur their noble champion, as the Frenchmen haue doone their Rouland, and diuerse others'' (Holinshed 1: 576).20 According to Malory, the failure to sustain Arthurian truth is linked with the sinful condition of the knights (including Arthur himself) and expressed as division within both the family (Mordred, Arthur's incestuously begotten son, is his nemesis) and the polity. The death of Arthur thus marks the fall of a timeless ideal into human self-destructiveness ± the meat-grinder of historical process. Such is preeminently the milieu of King John, whose pure young Arthur is conspicuously out of place, doomed to fall victim (literally), not just to the sins of others, but to a political version of original sin. He smashes his body on unyielding stones instead of pulling a sword out of one. And insofar as those stones are the building-blocks of history itself ± the raw material of the ``present time'' whose ``ordering'' (V.i.77) the Bastard must undertake as best he can ± the Arthur of Malory, too, meets his end on them: that pre-Tudor mythographer is far from shying away from the implication, built into Arthur's status as ``rex quondam rexque futurus'' (Malory, ed. Spisak, 592 [21, 7] ), that he cannot survive in any English here-and-now: ``for there may nothynge plese vs noo terme'' [585 [21, 1] ).

III The intertextual presence of the Arthurian myth within the history of John's reign is not Shakespeare's innovation. Holinshed's insistent naming of the boy ``Arthur duke of Britaine'' (meaning Brittany) may well reflect the Angevin propaganda that sought to capitalize on the British myth of Arthur's return. According to Millican, ``the untimely death of the hapless young Arthur Plantagenet, `desideratus gentibus,' put a definitive end to Henry II's earlier desire to unite the island'' (8) ± the same desire that produced King Arthur's body.21 Certainly, in Holinshed, where ``Arthur duke of Britaine'' is prominently ``made . . . knight'' (2: 277) by Philip of France, the chivalric and feudal elements associated with the political struggles of Arthur, Philip, and John open up this historical space for medievalizing projection of the very kind the chronicler is concerned to suppress elsewhere. Not only King John but The Troublesome Raigne, I suggest, effectively takes up the possibilities for equivocation offered by Arthur's title. (The question of this title was still very much in political play for

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Shakespeare's Arthurian Misfortunes 55

Elizabethans, since it had implications for the succession, as Axton has shown.) Both plays make this character the symbol of contested succession to King Richard, developing the conflict in terms of English and French nationhood, and transferring Arthur from France to England before his death. These displacements align the story with aspects of Arthurian legend, especially as developed in Le Morte Darthur. Only Shakespeare's version, however, makes Arthur so thoroughly a victim and constitutes his death, not only as the play's emotional and political core, but as its turning point on the level of national subjectivity, for it initiates a turning inward, where nothing but absence is found. In both plays ± and this involves a sharp swerving from history according to the Chronicles ± John's hold on the English throne is shaken by the claim of Arthur, the son of John's elder brother Geoffrey. That claim is barred only by Richard's will, whose validity is disputed by Arthur's supporters, most prominently his mother. The Troublesome Raigne, where John's proto-Protestantism will be transmitted through his lineage, is chary about the question of legitimacy; John and his mother treat Arthur and his allies strictly as a tangible threat. The first scene begins, not with the French ambassador's challenge, as in Shakespeare's version, but with the court in mourning for Richard's death and the newly crowed John presented (albeit by his mother) as ``A King that may in rule and vertue both / Succeede his brother in his Emperie'' (1, i.7±8). Shakespeare's Elinor, speaking privately to her son, memorably (and irreligiously) signals to the audience that his crown depends on ``Your strong possession much more than your right, / . . . / So much my conscience whispers in your ear, / Which none but heaven, and you, and I, shall hear'' (I.i.40±3). There is no corresponding admission from the Elinor in The Troublesome Raigne ± hence, the greater importance to Shakespeare's king and his mother of Richard's bastard as precisely what he can never truly be: a symbol of John's legitimacy. Along with this symbolic projection goes a development of Arthur as a powerful counter-symbol. On this level, he will eventually bond with the Bastard himself. Yet part of this process involves presenting Arthur as essentially passive, innocent, and apolitical ± as if belonging to an ideal world of possibility ± in contrast to The Troublesome Raigne, where he is politically active and aggressively partisan. In both plays, he is pathetically victimized by John, who remains indelibly tainted by Arthur's accidental death; in both, too, he responds with frustration to his mother's aggressive manipulation. Still, it is typical that, at the very moment, before the walls of Angers, when The Troublesome Raigne's

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56 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

Arthur stands up defiantly against the supposed will (``The law intends such testaments as voyd, / Where right discent can no way be impeacht'' [1, ii.526±7] ), Shakespeare's is overwhelmed with self-effacing despair: ``I would that I were low laid in my grave, / I am not worth this coil that's made for me'' (II.i.164±5). Whereas his counterpart raises his voice boldly in the quarrel (``Ye Citizens of Angiers, are ye mute? / Arthur or John, say which shall be your King?'' [718±19] ), Shakespeare's character falls silent among the contesting voices. And when he is captured, his response is lament ± ``O, this will make my mother die with grief!'' (III.iii.5) ± not defiance, as in The Troublesome Raigne: ``I am King / Of England, though thou weare the Diadem'' (1, ix.1097±8). The latter response confirms this Arthur as a political menace for John ± ``Mother, he never will forget his claime, / I would he livd not to remember it'' (1101±2) ± rather than a living symbol of his flawed right. And while this hardly effaces John's cruel attempt or his ultimate responsibility for the boy's death, it helps the text contain the consequences, even John's struggle with his conscience, on the political level. In both plays, of course, John's move against Arthur constitutes a grave error in political judgement, driving his nobles into the arms of the French. The Troublesome Raigne actually goes beyond Shakespeare's version to develop the episode's structural function ironically, ending Part One with John's thankful discovery that Arthur is not dead and beginning Part Two with the fatal fall: the king's fault is thereby partially mitigated by the conspicuous intervention of Fortune. Arthur's fate is ranged alongside the other factors that provoke the nobles' defection, instead of becoming the symbolic centre of them all. In the anonymous play, John begins the final scene of Part One with a speech confidently declaring the French defeated (they have not yet invaded) and the Pope otherwise occupied. The lords' request for Arthur's liberty clearly shakes him, as does the appearance of the five moons, but the sinister implications of the omen are diluted by the extended scene with Peter of Pomfret, whose interpretation supporting Papal authority over England would hardly have gained the audience's approval. At this point, Hubert publicly announces Arthur's supposed blinding and death, and the outraged nobles leave John to his selfrecriminations, until Hubert reveals the truth. The finding of the body in Part Two is presented as the last straw for the nobles, who now decide to invite the French invasion, but it is pointedly not their sole motive; moreover, the other reasons they cite are, from the ``true'' English point of view, patently delusive:

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Shakespeare's Arthurian Misfortunes 57

Besides the Pope, on perill of his cursse,

Hath bard us of obedience unto John.

This hatefull murder, Lewes his true discent,

The holy charge that wee receivde from Rome,

Are weightie reasons, if you like my reede,

To make us all persever in this deede.

(i.86±91)

IV The Troublesome Raigne was published in 1591, two years after the assassination of Henri III by the fanatical Dominican Jacques CleÂment. While the dates of composition and staging remain uncertain, it appears more than coincidental that the text's anti-Catholic offensive extends to a version of John's death that strongly evokes both that event itself and the discourses surrounding it. In portraying the treacherous poisoning of John at Swinstead Abbey, the playwright preferred the more serviceable of the two scenarios offered as alternative possibilities in the Chronicles. (The other involved death from uncertain natural causes ± probably overeating [``surfet''], compounded by ``greÂefe of mind'' [Holinshed 2: 336].) The preferred version, moreover, was tendentiously skewed. In Caxton's account of the poisoning, as incorporated in Holinshed, the monk acts impulsively, provoked by John's threat to punish his rebellious subjects by raising the price of grain (2: 336). By contrast, the monk of The Troublesome Raigne is religiously motivated, taking to heart the persecution of the Church by this ``man whome all the world aborres'' (2, vi.874) and who detests the very friars he expects to succour him. The assassination is a ticket to martyrdom: Now if that thou wilt looke to merit heaven, And be canonized for a holy Saint: To please the world with a deserving worke, Be thou the man to set thy cuntrey free, And murder him that seekes to murder thee. (879±83) It is in identical hagiographic colours that the assassin of Henri III is depicted in such League propaganda as Le Martyre de FreÁre Jacques Clement (Charles Pinselet?) and the Discours veÂritable de l'Estrange et subite mort

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58 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

de Henri de Valois aduenue par permission divine (Edme Bourgoin?). In the eyes of Protestants, of course, as of Catholic Politiques, he was a deluded fanatic, naõÈvely serving the Machiavellian interests of the House of Lorraine, if not actually suborned by them (or the devil himself). Marlowe's treatment in Massacre combines both elements: the Friar presents himself to Dumaine (i.e. Charles, duc de Mayenne, brother of the duc de Guise and successor as chief of the League), as a volunteer regicide ``for conscience' sake'' (xxiii.24), since ``I have been a great sinner in my days, and the deed is meritorious'' (27±8); Dumain then leads him off for further conference. Their interview makes a close parallel to that between The Troublesome Raigne's Monk and his Abbot, who concludes by offering complete absolution, ``[f]or why the deede is meritorious'' (925). The latter term, as has been observed, is a loaded one, associated (as in the excommunication of John by Shakespeare's Pandulph [III.i.176] ) with the notorious papal licence to kill.22 Marlowe makes explicit, by the mouth of the dying king, the need for the English queen to beware of such ``treacherous foes'' (xxiv.51), who enact the ``bloody practices'' of the ``wicked Church of Rome'' (65±6) ± a genuine terrorist menace (that is, complete with irrational exaggeration) on the political scene of late sixteenth-century Europe. A similar caution is implicit in The Troublesome Raigne ± all the more strongly, perhaps, because John's successor is, nominally, another Henri III. The caution is still more pointed because the suicidal poisoning of John by his taster figures as the consequence, indeed the symbolic embodiment, of the revolt of the English nobles, who unwittingly come close to effecting their own destruction (since the Dauphin Lewis intends to liquidate them) along with the subordination of their country to France and Popery. In a protracted scene, the conspirators pervert the religion proper to English nationhood by supplicating ``sweet S. Edmond'' (2, iii.349), to whose shrine they have travelled ``[u]nder the cloke of holie Pilgrimage'' (356). Next, they justify the title of Lewes as entitling him to ``the Usurpers roome'' (429); in attempting to persuade the Bastard Philip to join them, Essex brands John as ``tirant'' numerous times, citing especially ``[h]is Cosens death, that sweet unguilty childe'' (406), though Philip resoundingly repudiates the Pope's right to ``[g]ive charters for the lives of lawfull Kings'' (469) and concludes that, ``if this be cause of our resort, / Our Pilgrimage is to the Devils Shrine'' (484). Notwithstanding, after his angry departure, the rest solemnly swear their confederacy on the altar ± the same one, pointedly, where Lewis will shortly swear to his own lords his intention to eliminate the English

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Shakespeare's Arthurian Misfortunes 59

traitors (609 ff.), boasting that ``[a] smile of France will feed an English foole'' (622). Thanks to the confession of the dying Melun, of course, the English will eventually come to repent the ``frenzie'' that ``moved / Our hearts to yeeld unto the pride of Fraunce'' (v.774±5), thus aborting Lewis's vision of the future, in which ``[t]he poorest peasant of the Realme of Fraunce / Shall be a maister ore an English Lord'' (vii.949± 50) ± a vision that Shakespeare, not in King John but in Henry VI, Part Two, shows an English lord deploying against rebellious peasants (see below, pp. 158±9 ). Lewes' claim to the English throne ``in challenge of his wife'' (2, iii.423), Blanche of Castile (daughter of Alfonso VIII of Castile and John's sister Eleanor), is given far more serious attention in The Troublesome Raigne than in King John. In the latter, it serves as the merest of pretexts for the French invasion, even as, paradoxically, it better matches the text's scepticism with regard to John's title. Given French opposition of the Salic law to English claims on the French crown, it is especially ironic that England is vulnerable in this way. Such an irony would by no means have been lost on the likes of Stubbs, who envisaged England being drawn under the French crown ``by the law Salic'' (54), should a daughter of Elizabeth and AlencËon succeed to the throne. And the issue was indeed a factor in negotiations over that match, to judge from the account first published in 1592 (in Du Bonheur de la Cour et vraye feÂlicite de l'homme) by Pierre de Dampmartin, one of AlencËon's advisers.23 Dampmartin points out (568) that the marriage arrangements between AlencËon and Elizabeth respected the Salic law: if girls and one sole boy resulted from the match, the latter was to become king of France, the eldest girl Queen of England. On the other hand, AlencËon apparently agreed to accept a limited English title in the short term ± he would become a consort rather than a true king ± because he saw this as a stepping-stone to something better (569). Certainly, from the standard English point of view, the Salic law served the French as a mere convenience, to be invoked or not according to expedience, as the tergiversations of the League confirmed. There is no doubt, I believe, that for an English audience of the period, to figure the traitors and would-be regicides of The Troublesome Raigne as ``[s]weete complices in holie Christian acts'' in a ``league of high resolve'' (2, iii.362, 364) would evoke the Sainte Ligue, with its Machiavellian application of religious discourse and ritual to political subversion ± subversion finally extending, after the king's murder of his ``cousin,''24 to regicide. The play's Dauphin makes a particularly vivid stand-in for the chief of the League when he insists on seeing the English lords renew their oaths:

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60 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

Thanks to you all of this religious league, A holy knot of Catholique consent. . . . . . . . . . Yet for a fashion, not for misbeliefe, My eyes must witnes, and these eares must heare Your oath upon the holy Altar sworne. (544±59) In case the analogy has been missed, Salisbury's response reaffirms ``this holy League'' (562). Shakespeare's handling of the English treachery stands out as far more equivocal. Most fundamentally, the key episodes dwelt on in The Troublesome Raigne are radically diminished, with the oath-taking of the lords and the deed of the monk both relegated to fairly neutral background narrative (V.iv.16 ff.; V.vi.23 ff.); so is the pillaging of the monasteries, which is supported in The Troublesome Raigne by the comic stereotype of misbehaving monks and nuns. The exchange between Lewis and Salisbury has an equivalent in King John, but it is displaced to their military encampment, hence distanced from religious ceremony, and Salisbury is made to effuse eloquently on the ``infection of the time'' (V.ii.20) that has produced this doubly unnatural condition ± not only the nobles' combination with France against England, but also the enmity between the two Christian countries. Lewis's appreciation of these ``great affections wrastling in thy bosom'' (41), sham though it proves to be, allows for a positive response, as Salisbury's dream of a panChristian alliance against pagans ± a thoroughly natural ``league'' ± momentarily overrides the national and the religious binarism fostered in The Troublesome Raigne. It does so, moreover, in terms that, by anticipation, deflate the Bastard's concluding ``fortress-England'' rhetoric, rejecting the commonplace celebration of the Channel and imputing value to national self-estrangement: O nation, that thou couldst remove! That Neptune's arms, who clippeth thee about, Would bear thee from the knowledge of thyself, And gripple thee unto a pagan shore, Where these two Christian armies might combine The blood of malice in a vein of league, And not to spend it so unneighborly! (33±9)

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Shakespeare's Arthurian Misfortunes 61

This might be mere naõÈveteÂ, except that it anticipates the imaginative elimination of the Channel in Henry V. Henry's transcendental fantasy of producing with Katherine ``a boy, half French, half English, that shall go to Constantinople and take the Turk by the beard'' (V.ii.207±9) is ratified by the hope of ``Christian-like'' accord (353) between the two nations, as offered successively by the French king and queen. The queen envisages a fusion of national identities beyond mere alliance, the incorporation of ``self'' with ``other'': God, the best maker of all marriages,

Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one!

As man and wife, being two, are one in love,

So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal,

That never may ill office, or fell jealousy,

Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage,

Thrust in between the paction of these kingdoms,

To make divorce of their incorporate league;

That English may as French, French Englishmen,

Receive each other. God speak this Amen!

(H5 V.ii.359±68) By contrast, the binary logic governing John's hope in The Troublesome Raigne that the marriage of Lewes and Blanche may beget ``concord . . . / To make of mortall foes immortall friends'' (1, v.908±9) endorses the reversion to discord immediately imposed by the Bastard's assertion of English honour and the Pope's claim on the French. In The Troublesome Raigne, the term ``league'' undergoes an evolution ± witness the Bastard's concluding acknowledgement of the ``League'' (2, ix.1179), even the ``happie league'' (1184), between England and France. This remains an arrangement, however, that puts binary nationhood firmly back in place ± witness the Bastard's directions regarding Prince Henry: ``in sight of Lewes, heire of Fraunce, / Lords take the crowne and set it on his head, / That by succession is our lawfull King'' (1182±4). Although Shakespeare uses the term more often in King John than in any other play, and although the Bastard was earlier allowed to deplore the ``inglorious league'' (V.1.65) that John finally made with the Pope, Shakespeare denies the word to his Bastard at the end, as if it might reduce indefinite mythologizing to less ambiguous, ultimately reassuring, matters of fact. His Dauphin, moreover, needs no staged object lesson, having already turned back towards France and thereby left

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Shakespeare's Arthurian Misfortunes 63

England to show how ``true'' to ``itself'' it is capable of being in the absence of its hostile ``other.'' The precedent of Arthur does not bode well.

By quasi-mystical association, King John links uncertainty about Arthur on the part of nobles and commons alike to the invasion of the French and signs of impending disaster for the realm. Not only do the French invade before Arthur actually plunges to his death, but the invasion carries overtones of universal retribution for John's cruelty; it is as if ``all in France'' goes ``[f]rom France to England'' (IV.ii.109±10). The Bastard, significantly, is given the job of confirming the link: The French, my lord; men's mouths are full of it.

Besides, I met Lord Bigot and Lord Salisbury,

With eyes as red as new-enkindled fire,

And others more, going to seek the grave

Of Arthur, whom they say is kill'd to-night

On your suggestion.

(161±6) The discrediting involvement of the Roman church is eliminated from the key sequence; Peter's prophecy is now limited to John's yielding of his crown, and the appearance of the five moons is folded into the extraordinarily comprehensive picture of social disintegration reported to John by Hubert ± who here does not publicly resolve the mystery regarding Arthur: Old men and beldames in the streets Do prophesy upon it dangerously. Young Arthur's death is common in their mouths, And when they talk of him, they shake their heads, And whisper one another in the ear; And he that speaks doth gripe the hearer's wrist, Whilst he that hears makes fearful action With wrinkled brows, with nods, with rolling eyes. I saw a smith stand with his hammer, thus, The whilst his iron did on the anvil cool, With open mouth swallowing a tailor's news,

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V

Who, with his shears and measure in his hand,

Standing on slippers, which his nimble haste

Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet,

Told of a many thousand warlike French

That were embattailed and rank'd in Kent.

Another lean unwash'd artificer

Cuts off his tale and talks of Arthur's death.

(185±202) In reporting the unrest among the ``Britains'' following rumours of ``their souereignes death'' ± for young Arthur was indeed their feudal lord ± the Chronicles state, ``there was no remedie but to signifie abroad againe, that Arthur was as yet liuing and in health'' (2: 286). Again, it is as if Shakespeare's adaptation activates the significance of the term ``Britain'' beyond Brittany. Comparisons between the Chronicles and Shakespeare regarding John's responsibility for Arthur's death have generally stressed a continuity of confusion. Holinshed records, ``it is not throughlie agreed vpon, in what sort he finished his daies: but verelie king John was had in great suspicion, whether worthilie or not, the lord knoweth'' (2: 286). Braunmuller (316±21) supposes that Shakespeare maintained Holinshed's uncertainty for self-protective political reasons but that ``[i]n the matter of Arthur, images and image systems supersede causal logic'' (320). Yet essentially the same confusion exists in The Troublesome Raigne, while the imagistic logic does not. The difference arguably relates to Shakespeare's elevation of Arthur to mythic status ± a process that, paradoxically, also involves eliminating the strictly historical confusion. Holinshed (2: 286) cites as conjecture the story that Arthur fell to his death in the Seine during an escape attempt. Both plays have him jump from the walls of an English castle, but Shakespeare's text makes a great deal more of this death as a symbolic repatriation, now and forever. ``Heaven take my soul, and England keep my bones!'' (IV.iii.10), gasps this Arthur ± a far cry from the anonymous play's ``O God my bones are burst'' (2, i.19). The ``stones'' introduced to cause his death (Braunmuller 317), which are not mentioned in The Troublesome Raigne, are made an emblem of his own land and family turning against him: ``My uncle's spirit is in these stones'' (IV.iii.9). Finally, as Braunmuller points out (319), the Bastard comments, when he enjoins Hubert to take up the body, ``How easy dost thou take all England up / From forth this morsel of dead royalty!'' (IV.iii.142±3).

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64 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

The effect in Shakespeare, I suggest, is to recuperate the mystery of Arthur's death, as adumbrated in the Chronicles, at a higher level, where it resonates intertextually with the legendary King Arthur and refutes the historians, with their insistence that the body was found by Henry II (who, after all, lived before this time ± to adapt the anticipation of Merlin by Lear's Fool [III.ii.95±6] ). For insofar as the Arthurian myth was conditioned, for Elizabethans, by the Malory of Caxton, it was founded precisely on the imprecise circumstances of King Arthur's death, pointedly blurred by the past- and future-pointing shadows of doubt and prophecy. That Arthur's grave, too, is sought but not found: Yet somme men say in many partyes of Englond that Kyng Arthur is not deed, but had by the wylle of Our Lord Ihesu into another place. And men say that he shal come ageyn and he shal wynne the Holy Crosse. I wyl not say that it shal be so, but rather I wyl say here in thys world he chaunged his lyf. (Malory, ed. Spisak, 592 [21, 7] ) Again, the evocation of myth throws historical process into relief. The pointed resolution of factual uncertainty becomes part of the historiographical mechanism of the text by transferring conjecture and interpretation to the English lords who go over to the French. In the anonymous play, the Bastard is not at all involved in the Arthur sequence. In Shakespeare's version, not only has he previously channelled popular concern about Arthur, but he is present at the finding of the body. It is, in fact, uniquely given to him to interpret truly and broadly, believing Hubert's protestations of innocence but displaying a grief of mythic proportions, based on a nostalgic disaffection from history itself ± a world, in effect, without a soul: ``The life, the right, and truth of all this realm / Is fled to heaven; and England now is left / To tug and scramble . . . '' (IV.iii.144±6). He thereby takes up the Arthurian myth together with the other that he has backhandedly inherited, now turning decisively towards his final position as spokesman for the English national ideal of truth and unity, but also confirming that ideal's contingency on a Second Coming. It is central to the mythic dimension that the play's Arthur, while guiltless himself, is as conspicuously a victim of familial treachery ± and more broadly of English self-division and disorder ± as was his legendary namesake. In contrast with Caxton's Prologue, which cushions England's neglect of Arthur with ``the word of God, whyche sayth that no man is accept for a prophete in his owne countreye'' (Malory, ed. Spisak, 2), Malory ± writing from within the same Wars of the Roses that

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66 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

Lo ye al Englisshmen, see ye not what a myschyef here was? For he that was the moost king and knyght of the world, and moost loued the felyshyp of noble knyghtes, and by hym they were al vpholden, now myght not this Englysshmen holde them contente wyth hym. Loo, thus was the olde custome and vsage of this londe, and also men saye that we of thys londe haue not yet loste ne foryeten that custome and vsage. Alas, thys is a grete defaulte of vs Englysshemen, for there may nothynge plese vs noo terme. (Malory, ed. Spisak, 585 [21, 1] ) The decline of the Round Table, then, leads straight to the present day; the fall from political paradise remains unexpiated. Thanks to the pivotal function of Launcelot's affair with Guenever in Malory, France finally comes into his text, as into King John and indeed the Tetralogies, as a national enemy comprising the foil to, and measure of, England's moral and political coherence. Le Morte Darthur virtually depicts Lancelot, after his departure from Britain with a hundred defecting knights, as the mythical founder of the French nation, very much as it was known at the end of the fifteenth century (Vinaver, ed. 3: 1641, n. to 1205): And so they shypped at Cardyf and sayled vnto Benwyk (somme men calle it Bayen and somme men calle it Beaume), where the wyn of Beaume is. But to saye the sothe, Syre Launcelot and his neuewes were lordis of alle Fraunce and of alle the landes that longed vnto Fraunce; he and his kynred reioyced it alle thurgh Syr Launcelots noble prowess. (Malory, ed. Spisak, 577 [20, 18] ) There follows an extensive list ± made endless, in fact (``many mo, that me semeth it were to longe to reherce'' [577 (20, 18) ] ) ± of the French fiefdoms assigned by Launcelot to his knights. Thus, when Malory's Arthur half-heartedly invades France for the second time, at the instigation of the remorselessly vengeful Gawain and contrary to spiritual law, the place of the emperor Lucius, a worthy opponent, is taken by the flower of knighthood, virtually Arthur's second self. The Roman empire gives way to the Roman church, as in Will Sommers' allegory, but with

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comprised Shakespeare's ultimate model of civil strife ± draws a specifically political moral about England's historical incapacity to remain true to itself. The context is the shift of popular favour to Mordred from Arthur when the latter is engaged, unwillingly and self-destructively, in his wars against Lancelot in France:

negative implications for Arthur, who effectively falls into unworthiness by comparison with Charlemagne. For he goes against the bulls of a Pope whose intentions are not self-serving but noble ± namely, ``consyderyng the grete godenes of Kynge Arthur and of Sir Launcelot, that was called the moost noblest knyghtes of the world,'' to command peace between Arthur and Launcelot ``vpon payne of enterdytyng of al Englond'' (571 [20, 13] ). Launcelot's resistance to Arthur's army thus runs roughly parallel with that of the boy Arthur and his French allies to the Mordred-like aggression of his uncle, especially at Angers, capital of Anjou. For there, according to Holinshed, Arthur's right, which he had inherited with the Dukedom of Brittany, was thoroughly entrenched: ``For by generall consent of the nobles and peeres of the countries of Aniou, Maine, and Touraine, Arthur was receiued as the liege and souereigne lord of the same countries'' (2: 273). In both texts, the forced binarism of French invasion figures the production of English national subjectivity through incorporation into the symbolic order, history as opposed to myth, and the evanescence of metaphysical presence. The nation finds its ``soul'' by feeling its loss.

VI The Arthurian French connection can be pursued as far as the only direct allusions to King Arthur in Shakespeare. Remarkably, these are all associated with the downfall, in aid of Henry V's quasi-mythic elevation as conqueror of France, of the ``dry, round, old, wither'd'' knight of the Second Tetralogy. Falstaff's absurd pretension to Arthurian stature is signalled by his singing entrance in the tavern scene of Henry IV, Part Two: `` `When Arthur first in court ± Empty the jordan. ± And was a worthy king' '' (II.iv.33±5). The rest of the ballad thus invoked (entitled ``The Noble Acts of Arthur of the round Table'' in Deloney's collection and to be sung, incidentally, to the tune of ``Flying Fame'' [323] ) is not directly about the young king, newly crowned (following Malory) after his conquest of Rome, but about Sir Lancelot. As in Le Morte Darthur, Lancelot, in slaying ``Tarquin'' (Sir Turquin), not only defeats a declared enemy of the Round Table but redeems numerous imprisoned knights. Falstaff is indirectly glancing, then, at his claim to have saved Hal's throne at Shrewsbury by killing Hotspur and, more broadly, at the heroic role in which he has thereby cast himself. (He is also effectively appropriating a name with more positive phallic implications than his own.) Obviously at issue is his degradation of the heroic and the chivalric, as we are prepared to see from at least the second scene of Part Two.

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Shakespeare's Arthurian Misfortunes 67

There he styles himself a ``true knight'' (I.ii.44) and complains to the Chief Justice that ``it was alway yet the trick of our English nation, if they have a good thing, to make it too common'' (214±16). That Malorylike sentiment is echoed in the next scene by the rebellious Archbishop of York, speaking of King Henry (I.iii.87 ff.). As is confirmed by Hastings' immediately preceding references to the threat from France (70, 79, 84), this is clearly an England that needs an Arthur, and Henry V is slated to supply one ± contrary to the Archbishop's expectations, and well beyond Falstaff's. Falstaff's chivalric pretences are further exposed by the mockery with which the Prince and Poins greet the letter from ``John Falstaff, knight . . . Sir John with all Europe'' (II.ii.109±10, 134). Falstaff has more in common than he realizes with Justice Shallow, who in his youth ``was . . . Sir Dagonet in Arthur's show'' (III.ii.280±1), and whose nostalgic fantasies of chivalric lustiness fall such easy prey to Falstaff's deflating wit: And now is this Vice's dagger become a squire, and talks as familiarly of John a' Gaunt as if he had been sworn brother to him, and I'll be sworn 'a ne'er saw him but once in the Tilt-yard, and then he burst his head for crowding among the marshal's men. (319±24)25 The drunken balladizing of Justice Silence, which furnishes the background music to Falstaff's later scene with Shallow, reprises Falstaff's earlier lusty singing, not least in its incoherent fantasies of the chivalric (``Do me right, / And dub me knight, / Samingo'' [V.iii.73±75] ) and of romantic outlawry (``And Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John'' [103±4] ). We already know where the power of ``right justice'' resides (V.ii.102), and although Falstaff may throw cold water on Pistol's linguistic pyrotechnics (``I speak of Africa and golden joys'' [100] ) with the injunction to speak ``like a man of this world'' (97±8), he will himself shortly be consigned to the past; the fat man is destined to be, not the thin man's blood-sucker, but his crushed and hopeless debtor. This is a world, after all, from which Hotspur's neo-chivalric heroics have already been eliminated, and where the place of the knights of the Round Table is due to be taken by Henry's efficiently mobilized (yet mystically ennobled) ``band of brothers.'' The ``modern'' state thus draws on the chivalric past to provide England with a new virtual soul, to be opposed against the conspicuously soul-less French. Superficially, the dismissive treatment of matters Arthurian in the Tetralogy is consistent with the moralism of Ascham and the scepticism

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68 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

of Holinshed. Hence, too, Guenever's name makes, in Love's Labour's Lost (IV.i.123), a mere prelude to bawdiness. But there is, of course, more to Falstaff than this, not least when he shifts from filling jordans with diseased water to crossing the Jordan himself. When Mistress Quickly protests that the defunct Falstaff is ``not in hell; he's in Arthur's bosom, if ever man went to Arthur's bosom'' (H5 II.iii.9±10), she (typically) does more than get her religion wrong. She inadvertently confers upon that illegitimate aspirant to power ± the Lord of Misrule whose ``heart'' the new ``King has kill'd'' (II.i.88) in aid of royal self-legitimation ± an alternative immortality: the hitherto irrepressible Falstaff, who has already shown a penchant for springing miraculously back to life, effectively passes into myth as emblem of a more inclusive body politic, whose earthly time is out. From her point of view, one might say, God will indeed ``send the companion a better prince'' (2H4 I.ii.201). Meanwhile, Henry's ancient British connection prosaically (if expediently) makes him Fluellen's ``countryman'' (H5 IV.vii.105, 110, 111). Unquestionably, the new king (taking the advice of his once fox-like father) succeeds in using France to ``busy giddy minds / With foreign quarrels'' (2H4 IV.v.213), in spectacular contrast with John, who finds himself re-immersed in domestic ones. But then Henry V, unlike John, takes care to get the church squarely on his side. And before he sets sail, he ensures (contrary to the Epilogue in 2H4) that Falstaff has gone into the widely gaping grave, thereby purging, if also palpably diminishing, the body politic that England needs to be true to. The only real reminiscence of Arthur's unblessed French invasion ± the harbinger of civil discord such as was spawned by the monarch who ``leaves the print of blood where e'er [he] walks'' ± is Pistol, and even he, at first, marches generally the same way as Henry: ``Let us to France, like horse-leeches, my boys'' (H5 II.iii.55). Henry's expedition, then, would appear to recuperate Arthur's first triumphant foreign campaign, sealed by achievement of a new crown and the church's imprimatur. Remarkably, this is to bring myth-making full circle. For the account in Malory's Book Five actually appears to have been skewed in several respects (apart from its severing from the Mordred sequence) so as to develop a parallel between Arthur and the historical Henry V (Vinaver, ed. 3: 1367±8). The story of Malory's Arthur does not end with his youthful victories, however, and Henry's achievement, as the choric Epilogue reminds us, will be similarly vitiated by its sequel ± renewed domestic dissension causing both France to be lost and England to ``bleed'' anew (Epi.12). His union with Katherine ± the very emblem of his happily-ever-after ending, as scripted by Henry himself ± contains the seeds of Malory-like

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Shakespeare's Arthurian Misfortunes 69

disintegration: their son is destined to destroy the kingdom. So indeed, in the best tradition of Merlin, Henry strangely prophesied, according to Holinshed (3: 129), when informed in France of the child's birth at Windsor. It was a prophecy well known enough to be given a contemporary political application by Stubbs, who speculated that the designing French, in case of a son born to Elizabeth and AlencËon, ``would provide that this child should be born in Monmouth and not at Windsor, and then they would think all sure'' (54). Despite his project of making English aggression in France a stepping-stone to a crusade against the Turks, thereby fulfilling the prophecy made of Arthur that he will ``wynne the Holy Crosse,'' a function of time beyond Henry's control is endowed with ultimate prophetic status. If Henry V is King John turned inside-out with respect to cross-channel relations, the principle applies equally to the Henrician myth by way of the Arthurian one: in sound Medieval fashion, death ± history's raw material ± emerges as the true ``rex quondam rexque futurus'' (``Which oft our stage hath shown'' [H5 Epi.14] ), bracketing the fleeting fantasy of Paradise regained (``the world's best garden'' [7] ) within the fallen ``world'' according to King John. Holinshed (3: 134) records that, in Henry's elaborate funeral procession, which was to culminate at Westminster Abbey ± its arrival there begins Henry VI, Part One, of course, and is immediately followed (unhistorically) by news of major losses in France ± one of the horses drawing the wagon with the coffin bore the arms of King Arthur.26 Thus the eponymous concluding sequence of Le Morte Darthur has the final word, albeit sotto voce. The culmination of the Henriad fails to sustain either the geographical hegemony ± verging on the infinite ± or the social harmony achieved in Book Five by Arthur and his ``band of brothers.'' The second aspect is clear, not only from history itself and the death of Falstaff, but from the fact that Pistol will survive, beaten though he is, to renew his blood-sucking at home. In Malory's romance, as in Will Sommers' jest, the interpolated fantasy of Arthur's universal empire is recuperated from failed promise in visionary terms that neither Henry V's concluding Chorus nor the Bastard Faulconbridge nor Tudor society nor Malory's later conclusion could match: And at the day appoynted, as the romaunce telleth, he came into Rome and was crouned Emperour by the Popes hand, with all the ryalty that coude be made, and sudgerned there a tyme, and establysshed all his londes from Rome into Fraunce, and gaf londes and royammes vnto his seruauntes and knyghtes, to eueryche after his desert, in suche wyse that none complayned, ryche ne poure.(ed. Spisak, 136 [5, 12] )

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70 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

King John conjures this castle in the air precisely in order to replace it with one made of inexorable stones. In so doing it inevitably comments on the apocalyptic Protestant fantasy that, in contemporary French rhetoric, was attached early on to the future Henri IV, constructing him, if not as a new Arthur, at least as a veritable anti-Charlemagne: according to the Excellent et libre discours, sur l'estat present de la France (30), the Pope fears that the King of Navarre, if he ever achieves the crown of France, will cross the Alps to become his nemesis. An Arthurian note thus echoes intertextually also in the resounding chord struck by Marlowe's Navarre, as he contemplates the League's royal victim: Come, Lords, take up the body of the King, That we may see it honourably interr'd: And then I vow for to revenge his death As Rome and all those popish prelates there Shall curse the time that e'er Navarre was king And rul'd in France by Henry's fatal death! (xxiv.106±11) As for the more immediate political context of these lines, that will be the main concern of the following chapter.

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Shakespeare's Arthurian Misfortunes 71

Marlovian Monarchs and Various Guises

Studies of source and influence have a habit of relieving their general rigidity in matters of textual evidence by sporadic indulgence of the speculative impulse. In 1942, John Bakeless deduced Marlowe's thinking from a subjective association of his own: ``the frequency with which Marlowe uses the word `minion' in Edward II suggests that the French court was more or less in his mind'' (2: 88).1 This was to endorse the late nineteenth-century impression of J. A. Nicklin that ``Gaveston, as he lived for Marlowe, is the pet and darling of another Henri Trois'' (cited Bakeless 2: 88). True, particular texts lay behind these intuitions, notably a 1588 French pamphlet attributed to the League activist Jean Boucher, a Parisian cure and Doctor of Theology connected with both the book-trade and the university.2 That work had targeted Henri III's controversial ``mignon,'' the duc d'EÂpernon, by way of an English analogy spelled out in its title: the Histoire tragique et memorable de Pierre de Gaverston [sic] Gentil-homme Gascon jadis le mignon d'EdouÈard 2. Roi d'Angleterre, tireÂe des Chroniques de Thomas Walsinghan [sic] & tourneÂe de Latin en FrancËois. DeÂdieÂe aÁ Monseigneur le duc d'Espernon. There was also the latter work's ``original'' ± a roughly accurate description of the pertinent section of Thomas Walsingham's Historia Brevis (68±76) ± which Marlowe ``may also have read'' (Bakeless 2: 88). The constraints of source study did not warrant a direct link, however, and subsequent scholarship has maintained the gap between the amply documentable English origins of Edward II and intuitions that a contemporary French parallel is vaguely relevant. Thus Vivien Thomas and William Tydeman, the authors of a recent compendium of Marlowe's ``sources,'' can cite Bakeless's ``conjecture'' en passant and even sanction the speculation of Julia Briggs ± founded on a judicious appreciation of League propaganda ± that the resemblance of Edward's reign to Henri's 72

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may have led Marlowe to write the play in the first place (Thomas and Tydeman 341; Briggs 264), while they remain unwilling to confer the status of source upon the Histoire tragique by including it. For similar reasons, presumably, the pamphlet itself is not mentioned in the otherwise comprehensive Revels edition of the play by Charles R. Forker. Nor is the analogy it aggressively promotes. This chapter will fill in the middle ground between proof and speculation with evidence that the comparison between Edward II and Henri III, EÂpernon and Gaveston, was in the very discursive air breathed by Marlowe and his audiences. Although Bakeless proposed that Marlowe was engaged in dramatizing his French and English subjects ``[a]lmost simultaneously'' (1: 105), he prudently remained more hesitant than many scholars about dating Massacre (2: 72). More recently, the Revels editor endorses the ``generally agreed'' opinion that ``The Massacre at Paris (performed as a new play in January 1593, the year of Marlowe's death) followed Edward II in order of composition'' (Forker, ed. 14). After surveying the tenuous evidence, he settles on 1591 as the most likely year for the latter. It would be especially useful, in discussing Marlowe and Shakespeare, to be more certain about dates: discursive fields could then be defined with greater precision. Chiefly at issue, to invoke Ricoeur's paradigm, are the two poles of symbolic value between which the fictional world turns: first, the baggage of signification carried by a given ``first-order'' motif in a given context; then, the redistribution and re-application of that baggage by an audience or readership. Massacre poses the problem concisely, especially since, unlike the other English plays at issue, it directly portrays contemporary French affairs. Henri III's assassination, the latest action dramatized, establishes 1 August 1589 as the compositional terminus a quo for the work. If it was staged soon afterwards, not only would that event have had pressing currency (in contrast with the 1572 ``massacre'' itself), but the concluding position of Marlowe's Navarre, as he dedicates himself to revenging Henri's death upon Catholics in general and Pope Sixtus in particular (who lived only until August 1590), would have been coloured by uncertainty about his prospects. On the other hand, if the date is closer to that of the first recorded performance in January 1593, considerable ironic distance would have interposed.3 And this was certainly the case with the flurry of performances in the summer of 1594 ± also the year, probably, of the play's only contemporary edition, which is undated.4 For whereas Navarre was by 1593 emerging victorious in the armed struggle, even if Paris would not yield to him until March 1594, the inevitable ± and for many Huguenots intolerable ± condition of his coronation was his conversion

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to Catholicism, announced in May 1593 and enacted in July of that year.5 (He was crowned in February 1594.) Further to complicate matters, the conversion had been looming for years, especially since the 1584 mission to Navarre by EÂpernon on behalf of Henri III, who, in anticipation of AlencËon's death, proposed to recognize Navarre as heir and successor if he became a Catholic:6 Navarre declined, but there was serious debate amongst his counsellors, recreated in the Double d'une lettre envoieÂe aÁ vn certain personage contenante le discours de ce qui se passa au Cabinet du Roy de Nauarre (1585), a text attributed to Mornay. On the English side of the channel, one may cite two 1591 pamphlets translated by Aggas and published by Wolfe: An answeare to the supplication. Against him, who seeming to giue the King counsel to become a Catholike, indeuoureth to stirre vp his good subiectes vnto rebellion; and A discourse vppon a question of the Estate of this time ± the ``question'' being, ``Why doth not the King become a Catholike?'', which ``is the daily speech of diuers'' (sig. A2).7 The methodological conclusion to be drawn, I believe, is twofold. First, there is no workable alternative (other than silence) to a frankly intertextual practice, in which the critic hypothesizes a set of textual coordinates to map the discursive space occupied by a commensurately hypothetical reader-auditor. Secondly, however, especially when it comes to political and cultural signifiers, the coordinates proposed cannot be unreasonably specific or definitive. Nor can they be held artificially in place by assumptions about authorial position and intent ± even ones that seem liberating. If Marlowe's probable service as an anti-Catholic English agent dealing more or less directly with French affairs ± Kuriyama believes he actually went to Reims (347), Nicholl thinks not (Reckoning 94) ± hardly warrants assimilating the play to simplistic propaganda, neither does it mandate a postmodern reading along the lines of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.8 Such an approach is all the more tempting in the light of Marlowe's eclectic mixing and skewing of apparent ``sources.'' Yet the very elements that, from such a perspective, dissolve into ``muddle'' or resolve into ``black farce'' (Weil 91, 94) radiate with significance, however ambiguously, in light of the contemporary discourses in circulation around them. ``Just why this Jacobin Friar would consider it `meritorious' for him to kill a Catholic king . . . we are not told,'' complains Weil (94). Such a question would never have occurred to Marlowe's audience. The very existence of a popular English dramatic treatment of the French succession question is proof enough that the channel was ``always already'' crossed in both directions.

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Marlovian Monarchs and Various Guises 75

Thanks to several generations of industrious scholars, the ``sources'' of the Massacre have been revealed as abundant, yet still insufficient to account for all elements of the plot. The abundance is not surprising, given the numerous treatments of the key events in extant English, French, and Latin pamphlets, but it points to Marlowe's assimilation of a wide range of material. From the time of Paul Kocher's recognition that the play drew on League versions of certain events (``Contemporary Pamphlet Backgrounds, Part 1''), commentary has convincingly shown that Marlowe's reading extended to Catholic propaganda in French (Briggs 263±7; Thomas and Tydeman 251±60); it has also reinvigorated the long-standing presumption that beyond such reading lies a less formally acquired knowledge of historical details (Briggs 261±3). Inevitably, as details become more difficult to attribute, source studies tend increasingly to invoke the author's originality. For instance, Thomas and Tydeman plausibly speculate that Marlowe went beyond precedent in developing the murder of Pierre Ramus because of his intellectual ``interest'' (255) in that philosopher. An intertextual approach would situate such interest discursively: a great many accounts describe this incident, deploring or celebrating it according to their biases; moreover, the same volume of Jean de Serres's Calvinist history (The three partes of Commentaries [1574] ) that incorporated Marlowe's principal source for the massacre sequence (A true and plaine report of the furious outrages of Fraunce, by FrancËois Hotman) included introductory verses attributing the text to Ramus himself.9 As for the post-massacre phases of the action, the ``range of material available'' to Marlowe is taken by Thomas and Tydeman to render ``[a]ny discussion of the sources . . . tentative and conjectural'' (253), hence to put a further premium on authorial invention. Finally, to shift the ground from elusive presence to unattainable absence, the poor state of the text suggests (and the surviving ``Collier leaf'' manuscript apparently confirms10) that there is less to the play as we have it than as Marlowe wrote it ± a point beyond the reach of source criticism, or any other kind. On the presumption, however, that at least the shape and scope of the action survived the play's reconstruction, something fundamental may be added to the elements that resist source study.11 The Massacre radically yokes what a contemporary audience would have recognized as two distinct historical sequences, separated by a gap of roughly thirteen years: the Saint Bartholomew action effectively ends with the crowning

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of Henri III as successor to Charles IX (Scene xiv), which took place two years later; the political action then jumps to the battle of Coutras (Scene xvi), fought on 20 October 1587, and pursues another two-year course culminating in the regicide. Not only has no precedent been discovered for Marlowe's two-part management of this history, but his demonstrably eclectic adaptation of material for both parts makes such a precedent unlikely. Given the audience's undoubted familiarity with these events, the effect is not ``silently'' to compress chronology in the familiar manner of Elizabethan dramatized history (including Edward II and Tamburlaine). And if Marlowe sutures his two sections by means of Mugeroun's affair with the Duchess of Guise, this suturing, by shifting the balance from political to personal and lending Guise a moment of triumph before his downfall (an episode of Marlowe's invention12), calls attention to itself. At the providential level, by contrast, the structure is seamless. Through the mutual destruction of Guise and Henri, the retributive forces unleashed by the still-vivid wrongs of many years ago bring events full circle, engendering a new order in harmony with the divine will. This reflects the standard Protestant typological reading, in terms of prophecy and fulfilment, of the relation between the Saint Bartholomew murders and those of 1588±9. It is perhaps more than coincidence that the latter was the year of Dowriche's versified history of the earlier event.13 Despite the current critical impulse to read the final scene as a ``dispassionate ironic comment on the cruel fanaticism of both sides'' (Thomas and Tydeman 260), which ``undermines Protestant righteousness by repetitively associating love with blood'' (Weil 101), Navarre's combination of militancy and faith is recognizably the standard stuff of Protestant historical narratives (at least until Henri IV's conversion). ``Mon hevr viendra'' is the title-page motto of Geoffrey Fenton's 1570 translation from Serres, A discourse of the ciuile warres and late troubles in Fraunce14 ± an account that concludes with Protestant fortunes at a low ebb after the defeat at Moncontour (3 October 1569). The immediate echo ± of Christ's reluctance to perform a miracle prematurely (``Mon heure n'est pas encore venue'' [ John 2:4] ) ± typologically installs Henri within the Old Testament discourse of prophecy, supplying a synchronic perspective on the diachronic tribulations of the Reform Messiah, who will in due time come to judgement; the French version of the Biblical promise cited in Chapter Two (above, p. 34) begins, ``C'est de l'EÂternel des armeÂes que viendra le chaÃtiment'' (Isa. 29:6). Only by superimposing the moral opposition between Guise's Machiavellian manoeuvres and Navarre's acceptance of the divine order

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upon the amoral axis of active and passive can Kirk conclude that ``to impose order on chaos, and to survive, Navarre must emulate Guise, abandoning the providential conception of history with which he begins the play'' (84). It is anachronistic to suppose such a conception at odds with the honourable exercise of strength or with just retribution ± any more than the divine will legitimizing Shakespeare's Richard II can be sustained by an army of angels, according to the Bishop of Carlisle (R2 III.ii.27±32). What Kirk sees as the ``rift in Navarre's identity'' (96) at the battle of Coutras might better be taken to affirm his mastery of this lesson. On that occasion, moreover, Navarre's vindictive rhetoric (``The power of vengeance now encamps itself / Upon the haughty mountains of my breast ± / Plays with her gory colours of revenge'' [xvi.20±2] ) is sandwiched between the noble resolution ``to fight / In honour of our God and country's good'' (10±11) and the familiar pious moral afterwards: ``Thus God, we see, doth ever guide the right, / To make his glory great upon the earth'' (xviii.3±4). In fact, Coutras was a turning point for the Huguenots, and a quasi-miraculous one; the dead of note amounted to more than three hundred on the Catholic side, but a mere two Protestants (Chevallier 606). No wonder the rhetoric deployed anticipates that associated with the battle of Ivry three years later ± and Shakespeare's Agincourt.15 Singling out Navarre's transcendent virtue requires differentiating him morally not only from Guise, as can be managed easily enough, but also from Henri III.16 Despite Henri's active participation in the massacre, a well-known fact that Marlowe highlights to the point of having him murder Ramus, this is trickier territory, because Henri must also be confirmed, in the latter part of the play, as legitimately occupying the throne, so that Navarre can legitimately inherit it. One impediment to Henri's claim might have been his renunciation of his right to the French crown on accepting the Polish one: much League propaganda later portrayed him as having broken his oath to the Poles; so, in the mid-1570s, did A mervaylous discourse (139), that influential Huguenot attack on his mother as an all-controlling force of ambitious evil.17 Scene x neatly obviates this argument by having him (unhistorically) insist on a formal escape clause in the contract (21 ff.).18 A greater obstacle, from the Protestant point of view, was the status of ``tyrant'' Henri had earned by persecuting them. Since the massacre, a major shift had occurred in their attitude towards monarchy: as Pierre Chevallier puts it, ``[e]ntre l'observance de la parole de Dieu et l'obeÂisà ne, les liens sont deÂsormais rompus'' (257). (The rupture was sance au tro

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later repeated for partisans of the Holy League, when Henri was excommunicated after liquidating Guise and the Cardinal.) Behind Henri, moreover, stood his demonic mother, as Marlowe emphasizes by having her poison his brother so as to have a more pliable instrument at her disposal.19 Her support remains contingent, however, again in conformity with anti-Catherine propaganda: she is equally prepared to dispose of Henri ``And if he grudge or cross his mother's will'' xi.41), and the play invents the sharpest of rifts between mother and son over the death of Guise. When Henry proclaims (apparently in line with historical fact), ``now I will be king and rule myself'' (xxi.141), the devastated Catherine disclaims him as a ``[t]raitor to God and to the realm of France'' (147).20 Most fundamentally, Navarre's own legitimacy requires him to demonstrate respect for royal precedence ± virtually as a function of time itself. Hence, Navarre physically supports and comforts Charles IX in his dying moments. His armed struggle against Henri becomes an act of selfdefence, and defence of the realm, against Guise, whom he expects to turn on him as heir-apparent (xiii.33 ff.) ± a point the text keeps artificially clear by not mentioning the existence of AlencËon (apart from the possible sensitivities of Elizabeth on that score). Certainly, after Saint Bartholomew's day, Navarre never refers to Henri's role in that event, despite having dismissed his pretensions to innocence at the time; indeed, in confronting Henri with his guilt ± ``But yet, my Lord, the report doth run / That you were one that made this massacre'' (ix.73±4) ± he acted like the Protestant princes who showed the new king of Poland, en route to his realm, paintings of the massacre with himself prominently featured.21 Before the battle, Navarre affirms that his quarrel is not with Henri but only with Guise, who ``for Spain hath now incens'd the King / To send his power to meet us in the field'' (xvi.14±15). By Scene xx, Guise is openly the king's enemy, too, so that Navarre can actually come to Henri's aid; he receives his thanks from the king in Scene xxiv after the death of Guise (on which he notably fails to comment) and seizes the opportunity to declare himself one ``[w]hose service he may still command till death'' (11). That Henri receives his death-blow in the same scene ± some twenty lines later in the extant text ± proves particularly providential.22 To ensure that the cycle of retribution is complete, God works here in particularly mysterious ways ± through the assassin's warped ``conscience'' (xxiii.24), the Pope's assurance that ``the deed is meritorious'' (28), and the minatory prophecy of the Cardinal of Lorraine, when he, too, is about to be killed on Henri's orders:

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Yet lives my brother Duke Dumaine, and many moe,

To revenge our deaths upon that cursed king ±

Upon whose heart may all the Furies gripe,

And with their paws drench his black soul in hell!

The eschatological reach of such a Cardinal's curse, of course, is as limited as that of Papal excommunication. More weight is carried by Henri's last-minute pushing of the standard Protestant buttons: antiPapistry, the virtue of Queen Elizabeth, Navarre's succession.23 He seems at least to have earned the honourable burial ordered by Navarre (xxiv.106±7) ± a further rite of succession. Henri's counter-curse, moreover ± ``let the villain die, and feel in hell / Just torments for his treachery'' (xxiv.35±6) ± carries considerable weight of its own, as indeed did his earlier send-off of Guise: ``Surcharg'd with guilt of thousand massacres, / Monsieur of Lorraine, sink away to hell!'' (xxi.93±4). The later curse appears all the more authoritative, however, because he progressively mitigates its vindictiveness. This is in contrast to his sadistic behaviour at the scene of Guise's murder, where he exulted (with irony at his own expense), ``Ah, this sweet sight is physic to my soul!'' (xxi.91), and had the victim's son summoned to view the corpse ± a fabrication rare even in League propaganda.24 King Henry's legacy of ``revenge'' will be the chastisement of Catholics in this world ± properly so, especially since he has joined Navarre (previously excommunicated) as Sixtus' victim. Yet he is allowed (apparently true to fact [Chevallier 704; Bourassin 202] ) some touches of Christ-like forgiveness of his killer, ``damned villain'' (xxiv.43) though the latter may be. Thus, when Epernoun reiterates (44±5) his wish that the assassin (dead by the king's own hand) might live to suffer further torments, Henry counters that the punishment is sufficient to deter future regicides, although he expresses concern for his ``sister England'' (50).25 And finally, after the double treachery of the poisoned dagger is revealed,26 as Henry's surprise (``A poison'd knife!'' [xxiv.75] ) anticipates Hamlet's (``The point envenom'd too!'' [V.ii.321] ), so does he similarly refocus revenge where it belongs (on Pope Sixtus ± like Hamlet's ``damned / Dane'' [325] the author of the ``villainy'' [311] ), while evincing charity towards the mere instrument. Hamlet, of course, commends Laertes' soul to God's merciful judgement (``Heaven make thee free of it!'' [332] ); in answer to Bartus' outburst, ``The devil of hell torture his wicked soul'' (80), Marlowe's king replies, ``Ah, curse him

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(xxi.8±11)

not, sith he is dead!'' (81). After all, the wretched Friar, though worlds away from Laertes, similarly helps to purge the cycle of vengeance he is caught up in ± hence, despite himself, to effect a legitimate transfer of power: Fortinbras has Hamlet's ``dying voice'' (356), as Navarre has Henri's.27 There is, perhaps, even better reason than she supposes for Sutherland to term the downfall of the historical Henri III ``a truly Shakespearian tragedy'' (213). In general, no doubt, Elizabethans disapproved of curses on souls, even if the response is more strongly cued when Guise urges Henri to the murder of Ramus (``Stab him, I say, and send him to his friends in hell'' [ix.54] ) than when Hamlet longs to damn the praying Claudius. Normally, regicide would compound the evil, but Claudius has a notably shaky claim on the ``divinity doth hedge a king'' (Ham. IV.v.124). The regicidal malediction of Marlowe's Cardinal, on the other hand, casts a thoroughly diabolical reflection upon its speaker, in a way reminiscent of Gloucester's curse in stabbing the legitimate king in Henry VI, Part Three ± a scene with which Marlowe was probably familiar: ``Down, down to hell, and say I sent thee thither'' (V.vi.67). Shakespeare later, on the other hand, in staging the murder of Richard II, effectively brought his scene closer to Marlowe's by lending a metaphysical strain to that monarch's valour and Exton's repentance. Having despatched a previous assailant with ``Go thou and fill another room in hell'' (V.v.107), Richard reacts to Exton's fatal stroke, which Holinshed reports ``rid him out of life, without giuing him respit once to call to God for mercie of his passed offenses'' (3: 14), by affirming, ``That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire / That staggers thus my person'' (108± 9). They are words the murderer immediately takes to heart in terms with implications for Marlowe's fanatical Catholics: ``O would the deed were good! / For now the devil that told me I did well / Says that this deed is chronicled in hell'' (115±17). Meanwhile, in his dying words, Richard moves on to higher things ± and to separating them from lower ones ± as he commends his soul to heaven, his ``gross flesh'' to earth (111±12). All the more clearly from an intertextual perspective, then, what Navarre terms the ``virtuous mind'' (71) of the dying Henri III finally aligns him with his successor's providential destiny, even if the fate of his soul, which nobody directly mentions, remains in doubt.28 The audience is kept aware that he has brought the murder on himself: he may belatedly see the light, but he cannot escape the darkness into which he has allowed himself to be drawn. The roots lie in his bloody role as Guise's henchman during the massacre, and their most obvious

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80 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

new growth is his treachery in eliminating the monster he helped to make, welcome and necessary as the elimination is. Henri's moral degradation is kept subtly active as a counterpart to Navarre's constancy, loyalty, and piety. His coronation, the seal of royal legitimacy, degenerates into the brutal jest of the cutpurse's ear, managed by Mugeroun; this in turn modulates into a reminder of his notorious attraction to his ``minions'' (xiv.45). The latter theme is treated equivocally, however, by interweaving it with Catherine's scheming on behalf of Guise. The credibility of Epernoun, in particular, despite his urging of the dishonourable murder (in line with League propaganda), is maintained; his shrewd awareness of the Catholic menace and his loyalty to Henri are made to feed productively into Navarre's succession. In Marlowe's fiction, contrary to hostile contemporary reports, Henri is actually tainted less by fondness for his minions than by his spiteful glee over Guise's cuckolding. In any case, by the time he plots, executes, and rashly gloats over his murder of Guise, a self-destructive momentum has plainly taken over, which will ensure the fulfilment of Dumaine's vow to ``root Valois his line from forth of France'' (xxii.7). As he anticipates the assassination, Henri ominously becomes caught up in the language of classical tragedy, tinged with Elizabethan sensationalism: ``I am tragical within'' (xix.89); ``Come, Guise, and see thy traitorous guile outreach'd, / And perish in the pit thou madest for me'' (xxi.33±4). Both the perspective and the language remarkably match the treatment of the event in Hurault's An Excellent Discourse vpon the now present estate of France (1592), where God laughs at both Guise and Henri as they plot against each other: The one was deceiued, the other hadde like to haue beene. The one was within two inches of falling into the pit that he had digged for his enemie, whom he preuented but one day. (sig. B3r ) Given the first part of the play, it is patently impossible for Henri to purge his kingship (``I ne'er was King of France until this hour'' [xxi.98] ) even by punishing Guise for a ``thousand massacres'' (93) and ``those bloody broils / To which thou didst allure me'' (95±6). Hurault records his boast, ``This day am I king,'' then comments wryly, ``and yet contrariwise euen the same day hee began not to be so'' (sig. B3v ). The last of the Valois, then, must be purged in his turn, and at his death he acknowledges as much, resoundingly invoking the curse upon the royal bloodline: ``Valois's line ends in my tragedy. / Now let the

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Marlovian Monarchs and Various Guises 81

82 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

And this was the end of Henri the third the French king, and king of Polonia, and the last of the house of Valois: who being bewitched with the sorceries of his mother, and inclyning to euill by his own bad disposition, opposed himselfe against Gods true religion, and being giuen ouer to work his owne destruction, followed the wicked counselles of his notorious and sworne enemies, who spake him fayre to his face, but inwardly hated him, and neuer ceased persecuting of their deuelish deuises, vntill they had brought his state to confusion, and procured his vntimely death and destruction. (133)29 In its infusion of the purging mechanism of classical tragedy into high affairs of state, the Massacre approaches closer to Shakespearean political drama than do the other tragedies of Marlowe ± arguably including Edward II. Along the same lines, the idea of the Scourge of God emerges with greater clarity and conviction than in Tamburlaine (despite coming to Marlowe ready-made in that case) or The Jew of Malta ± plays in which there is such a conspicuously high proportion of scourging to divine presence. The relative balance in the French play coherently reflects the standard Protestant ``take'' on the retributive relation between the assassination of Guise and Guise-as-assassin ± witness Hurault's An Excellent Discourse (B2r�v ) and The Discouerer of France (1590), two further translations by Aggas. The Discouerer revels in the rhetoric of heavenly scourging that creeps into Henri's own exultation but to which he is personally not entitled: O how great are the iudgments of God; he that vpon the great day of blood, that flaming day of S. Bartholmew had fed his eies with so many murders, and had sung the triumph, was in the end beaten downe with the like indeuour. (6)30 But then even the odious Guises themselves, according to La Legende de Charles, Cardinal de Lorraine, et de ses freres (1579), serve as God's instruments to scourge (``fouetter'' [74r ] ) sinners and make them return to him.31

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house of Bourbon wear the crown, / And may it never end in blood, as mine hath done!'' (xxiv.92±4). All in all, the moralizing conclusion of The mutable and wauering estate of France, with its positioning of Henri at the intersection of several distinct discourses, human and supernatural, would require no adjustment to serve as Marlowe's epilogue:

Marlovian Monarchs and Various Guises 83

Despite the recent critical impulse to diminish Marlowe's partisanship, it remains broadly agreed that he altered Hotman's account of the massacre by vastly inflating the responsibility of Guise, transforming him (largely through the extraordinary self-disclosing soliloquy in Scene ii [31 ff.] ) into the wellspring of evil in the realm.32 This emphasis no doubt reflects, as Kingdon proposes (215), the increased political role of the Guises in the years of the League. In fact, however, the notion that the House of Lorraine were not just ``chief authors in that pittious tragedie'' (The mutable and wauering estate of France 90) but arch-plotters, with the king as their dupe and ultimate target, had been available publicly from the first self-exculpatory royal proclamation. It was soon disseminated in Protestant mythology, as Hotman's own volume indicates ± not in the history proper but in one of the letters appended to both the Latin original and the English translation.33 The groundwork for such a perception was already in place. In 1571, Francis Walsingham, then English ambassador in Paris, had reported rumours of an attempt in the offing, sponsored by the Guises, to put the duc d'Anjou on his brother's throne. Sutherland finds these rumours credible (211±13); Crouzet is highly sceptical: he notes, amongst other points (445), that the theory receives slim support from contemporary texts, and suggests rather that a tacit ``contract'' existed between the monarchy and the Guises (452±3), according to which the latter were granted the murder of Coligny in return for accepting the blame for a more general slaughter. The fact remains that Marlowe chose to make Guise the instigator of the massacre, in contradiction to other narratives, including Hotman's own. Goulart, in his Memoires de l'Estat de France sovs Charles IX, has the duc de Guise summoned to the fatal council by Anjou (285), while even in some relatively crude Protestant propaganda such as The Discouerer of France, where the Guises are indelibly tainted by that mythologized event, their responsibility tends to remain indefinite. Hence, too, The Contre-Guyse (1589), a John Wolfe product (from an unknown French original) whose business is to launch all possible ammunition against its target, settles for a vague reference to the bloodshed in the reign of Charles IX, claiming that it does not wish to reopen old wounds (sig. C4v ); thus, indeed, a mere two years or so after the event, Le Reveillematin had accused the chief perpetrators (Catherine, Henri, and Charles) of trying to shift the blame to the Guises.34 To the extent that it seeks to promote Navarre by partially rehabilitating Henri III yet making the king and Guise destroy each other, Marlowe's play kills two birds with

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II

one stone when it portrays Anjou as having been, in effect, Guise's willing dupe thirteen years before. This points up the extent to which the formally ``historical'' set-piece ± the text's raison d'eÃtre, as announced by the printed title ± forms a freely embroidered prelude to more pressing and current matters, prominently including what the subtitle presents as an addendum (``with the death of the Duke of Guise''). Henslowe's references to the play as ``Guise'' may bring us closer, not just to its theatrical impact, but also to its cultural and political immediacy. In the early 1590s, Guise was hardly ``in the news'' as the architect of the massacre of 1572; it was his murder and the ensuing regicide, the precipitating events of a continuing crisis, that invited typologizing retrospectives.

III In the year following Guise's murder (1589), the verse drama La Guisiade ± whose title unabashedly announces at once its classical pretensions and its status as a political tract (confirmed by the dedication to the duc de Mayenne as Lieutenant-General to the League-proclaimed ``king,'' Charles X) ± was published in Lyon in three editions.35 It is a fact generally neglected by English literary historians (and widely underrated by French ones) that, from the 1570s, there had existed in France Âa a veritable ``theÃtre national ou historique'' (Soons 9), whose surviving works include several with trenchant political implications.36 Amongst these was a drama by FrancËois de Chantelouve, La Tragedie du feu Gaspard de Colligny, published three years after the Saint Bartholomew massacre and crudely promoting the ultra-Catholic party-line. Coligny there strangely resembles Marlowe's version of his arch-enemy ± a power-mad Machiavel aiming at the throne, an invoker of demons who cloaks his atheism in religion, and an incorrigible schemer against the noble Charles IX and the heroic duc de Guise. Matthieu's tragedy amounts to a sequel to this dramatic tract, reconstituting the heroic Guise at the point of his downfall ± that is, at the initiating moment of the second part of the Massacre. It reveals the potential for the sudden blurring of hard lines in the volatile world of French religious politics that the author of La Guisiade finally became the next Henri's historiographer and a figure respectable enough in England to have his historical works (as well as a lament for the death of Henri IV) translated by Edward Grimeston. (Grimeston used Matthieu to supplement Serres's Inventaire geÂneÂral de l'histoire de France in the volume comprising Chapman's primary source for the

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84 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

story of Biron.37) Sylvester even rendered some of Matthieu's poetry, cheek by jowl with that of Du Bartas. Under Henri III, by contrast, Matthieu (a jurist by profession) had been the most militant of Catholic partisans. His polemical address (also published) figured prominently in the service held in Lyon to commemorate the assassinated brothers of Lorraine. Prior to that cataclysm, he had already written drama with thinly veiled political meanings. Most notably, prior to the October 1588 opening of the Estates General at Blois, whose convocation Henri had conceded after the Guise-inspired Day of the Barricades in Paris (12 May),38 Matthieu produced a celebration of Catherine de Medici and attack on EÂpernon by reworking a previous dramatization of Esther ± the queen who induces her husband to spare the people of God despite the wicked counsellor Aman. Following the murders of the duc de Guise and the Cardinal of Lorraine on 23 and 24 December, respectively, the outraged playwright dropped the allegorical masks: La Guisiade directly renders the king's conception and accomplishment of his treacherous design (not that EÂpernon is spared, as will become apparent). The assassination, in turn, of Henri himself seemingly led the author to revise his work for its third edition, where divine retribution is more strongly adumbrated. There is no evidence that La Guisiade was performed (or even meant to be), but the publication of three editions within a year attests to its ``fulgurant mais eÂpheÂmeÁre succeÁs de scandale'' (Lobbes 8) as a printed text, an integral part of which are the author's opening ``Discours'' and the arguments preceding each scene. Such a French splash might well have attracted the attention of Marlowe, and indeed of others in England. But then there were numerous such splashes. Whether Marlowe's reading of French Catholic treatments of Guise's murder extended beyond pamphlets like Le Martyre des deux freÁres and La vie et faits notables de Henri de Valois39 to La Guisiade ± all three appeared in the same year ± we are not likely ever to know. He may or may not have known the Histoire tragique, published and republished in the previous year, on which Matthieu and other propagandists clearly drew. Certainly, Matthieu's play occupies a position remarkably like that of Massacre within an overlapping discursive space. For both texts, even as they deploy, from their antithetical positions, the stock-in-trade of the controversial pamphlets, are set apart from the latter by their genre. Both, moreover, in realizing the metaphor of ``tragedy'' pervasive in the nondramatic propaganda, bolster their claim to represent ``histoire veÂritable'' by infusing a dimension of myth. An intertextual approach is amply justified in positing Matthieu's text as a conditioning coordinate

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Marlovian Monarchs and Various Guises 85

for a hypothetical reader/auditor of Marlowe's, and hence of other plays of the early and mid-1590s. And once that coordinate is in place, it becomes possible to define more precisely the concern with monarchical legitimacy, efficacy, and succession that a range of plays ``about'' English history, but evocative of contemporary French ``first order'' realities, share with Massacre. When the two dramatic treatments of the assassination of Guise are viewed along an intertextual axis, that of Marlowe emerges as, in effect, a rewriting ± largely an unwriting ± of Matthieu's. This relation begins with formal organization. In both texts, the king is, to some degree, suspended between extremes of virtue and evil, which Matthieu associates with the Guise and Navarre, respectively (though the latter remains off-stage). Not only does Marlowe reverse these poles, but the two-part structure of Massacre deconstructs the intensive concentration of La Guisiade on the assassination itself, which goes with Matthieu's neo-classicism: in keeping with ``la maniere des Grecs et Latins,'' the verse is uniformly ``grave et coulant'' (65), as the poet affirms in the ``Discours'';40 the action proper takes place off-stage; there are no large shifts in time or place; a moralizing Chorus concludes all scenes except the last, where its place is taken by the lamenting (and cursing) mother of the Guises, Madame de Nemours. The murder of France's selfless hero, its terrestrial and spiritual saviour, is precisely where the tragedy lies for Matthieu. And it is a self-contained event, occupying a definitive and defining moment outside the flux of time, except for the nefarious forces that motivate it (most fundamentally the king's ``envieuse jalousie'' [65] ± the first words of the ``Discours'') and the terrible consequences projected both for himself and for France. The past is invoked only through Guise's noble actions on behalf of true religion, the realm, and the crown. Those actions do not, however, include participation in the Saint Bartholomew's day massacre ± a positive event from Matthieu's perspective, whether or not he supposed Guise to have been heavily implicated. That event is referred to only once, briefly and indirectly, through the voice of Le Peuple, who beg the king to emulate his royal predecessor in protecting them from heresy ± ``ce monstre griffu, monstre trois fois testu, / Par Charles nostre Hercul autrefois abbatu'' (1445±6). Given that this image picks up a previous exchange, in which Guise urged Henri to become a second Hercules by making a trophy of the Huguenot ``monstre aÁ sept testes'' (624), the text seems intent on denying Henri credit for his contribution; nor does he claim any but merely offers Guise a pusillanimous reply suggesting his helplessness despite the massacring efforts of others:

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86 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

Marlovian Monarchs and Various Guises 87

Combien en a on veu au massacre estendus,

Comme espics sur le champ nouvellement tondus?

Ce tige monstrueux regerme par mes villes,

Autant qu'on voit l'este de puantes chenilles.

Henri's language insinuates, to the initiated, that he is ``soft'' on Huguenots. By insistent implication, and in keeping with League propaganda, the only real ``massacre'' ± it is the play's standard term, repeated dozens of times ± took place at Blois and offended a different saint (``le jour S. Thomas estoit destine aÁ ce massacre'' [``Discours'' 68] ). From this perspective, when Marlowe reaches back in time to attach to Guise's recent death the event qualifying, in Protestant eyes, as the true and original ``massacre'' ± indeed, according to Le Tocsin contre les massacrvers, as the primordial ``tragoedie''41 ± he imposes upon Matthieu the supplement of providential history stretching backwards, as well as further forwards. La Guisiade, claiming originary status for the assassination in the cycle of retribution, limits its anticipation to Henri's divine punishment ± notably in the third-edition revisions. For when, at the Estates General, Henri formally rededicates himself to his royal and Catholic mission, he invokes these graphic consequences, should he break his oath: Que contre moy hardy le vassal depite Foule aux pieds le pouvoir de mon authoriteÂ, Que je perde l'exploit de toutes mes batailles, Qu'on me fasse vomir le sang par les entrailles. (1069±72)42 As Lobbes points out (n. to 1069±72), the passage legitimizes not only the assassination but the League's defiance of the monarchy ± a message even more pointedly conveyed slightly earlier: Je m'assubjettiray aux canons de ma loy: Si je la romps, rompez le devoir, et la foy Qui vous oblige aÁ moy, et que jamais personne Ne redoute ma main, ou suive ma coronne. (1053±6)

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(625±8)

Yet to invoke providential intervention is potentially to raise the destabilizing question of its extent. In mandating Henri's death, would Providence not also be endorsing the succession of Navarre? The potential contradiction side-stepped by Matthieu is seized upon and exploited by Marlowe. Matthieu's side-stepping is all the more apparent because the succession has loomed large in references to the monarch's stability and authority, beginning with Guise's admonition to Henri, ``Vostre peuple qui craint son mal veut estre seur, / Qui doit estre apres vous du regne successeur'' (697±8). The issue is foregrounded by the conjuring episode, in which Matthieu adapts the demonic invocations of Colligny in Chantelouve's first scene (``O Manes noircissans es Enfers impiteux, / O mes chers compagnons . . . '' [1±2] ) to the hysterical accusations levelled at EÂpernon in League propaganda after the death of Guise. The play's d'Espernon is not only the source of the court's moral corruption (``J'ai fait flechir la Cour sous ces vices divers, / Comme indigne maison de mignons si pervers'' [839±40] ), but also a heretic and a sorcerer, whose charms work the king to all evils, and ultimately to the murder.43 And d'Esperon's political allegiance is clear. Not only does he summon, amongst other dark forces, ``[d]u party Navarrois les esprits revoltez'' (808), but he marshals them against the Union (between Henri and the party of Guise) on behalf of Navarre's succession: qui fera que l'heros de Bourbon, Mon maistre, mon support, Prince excellent et bon, Ne verra sur son chef la FrancËoise Coronne: Coronne qui son cueur aÁ la guerre esguillonne. (861±4) In Henri's oath-taking scene, the king himself makes clear that Navarre is the focus of the people's fear ± ``La crainte qui vous suit d'estre apres mon trespas, / Subject d'un Apostat ne m'abandonne pas'' (1013± 14) ± even as he assures them that God, ``[s]'il luy plait'' (1016), will grace his marriage with a male heir. Understood, if unspoken ± until the voice of evil counsel throws it in his face (1625±6) ± is the fact no such blessing has been granted over his roughly fifteen-year union with Louise de VaudeÂment, despite their frequent acts of devotion to this end. This, as Chevallier (706) stresses, was the most significant misfortune of Henri's reign, whose consequences became inescapable with the death of AlencËon in 1584. Hence, it befits the Clergy, first to address the

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88 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

Marlovian Monarchs and Various Guises 89

A fin que la fureur d'un superbe Apostat Ne ravisse le lis, la perle de l'Estat.  Le sceptre du FrancËois n'ai jamais sceu permettre  D'avoir un Huguenot, ny un Tyran pour maistre:  L'Heretique est hay de ce sacre fleuron  Comme un Turc, un Payen, un Barbare, un Neron. (1151±6) There is surely an allusion in ``perle'' and ``lis'' to Navarre's previous ``ravishing'' of the Catholic Marguerite, ``fille de France.''44 In the Clergy's view, not only does this connection not enhance his legitimacy as future king of France, but his spiritual illegitimacy takes precedence over the Salic law: Plustot l'air portera les naves porte-voiles

Plustot les cieux seront sans flambeaux, sans estoiles,

Plustost nous quitterons nostre Salique loy,

Que d'endurer sur nous l'Heretique pour Roy.

(1157±60) To Matthieu's right-thinking characters, Navarre is disqualified from inheritance by a virtual diabolism, confirmed by the representation of him by the demon-conjuring d'Espernon ± ``diable incarneÂ'' (346) is Catherine's epithet for the latter ± as ``[m]on maistre, mon support.'' This does not, however, in contrast with Marlowe's version, account for the fact that the same apparent stroke of destiny that strips the crown from the Valois line simultaneously awards it to the Bourbons. Even Marlowe's Catherine sees it as the consequence of Guise's assassination that ``[w]icked Navarre will get the crown of France'' (xxi.157). If Marlowe's text, read against Matthieu's ± and, at a further remove, Chantelouve's ± puts the term ``massacre'' where it belongs, according to Protestant orthodoxy, it does the same with the Machiavel. Only by not looking across the Channel, and assuming that Marlowe did not, can critics credit Marlowe with ``having invented the stage Machiavel.'' So affirms Martin in proposing that Dowriche's ``quasi-theatrical representations of Machiavellian characters and ideas came to influence [Marlowe's] own'' (75). Yet Martin further acknowledges that ``it became

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king during the Estates, to urge holy war against heresy ± at the cost of their lives, if necessary,

axiomatic for Protestant writers to see Machiavelli as the evil genius behind all the machinations of the Guisians and the Catholic League'' (75), and, theatrical precedents aside, it is clear that Marlowe's branding of Guise ± like Dowriche's of Catherine, whom she calls ``a diuelish sorceresse'' (23) ± depends on the receptivity of English audiences, conditioned by a flood of mostly translated material. The Prologue to The Jew of Malta presumes the currency and cultural resonance of the identification, when Machievel declares that he, ``now the Guise is dead, is come from France'' (Pro.3). To survey the controversial texts is to be struck by the particular utility of the Machiavellian imputation, given the spiritual and political stakes, as well as by the reactive quality of the propaganda. Of course, accusations of immorality and brutality are the stock-in-trade of attacks on the House of Lorraine, but behind these lies a need to reduce its religious motivation to a matter of cynical ± atheistic ± ambition, which exploits gullible fanatics. Such a view was shared by many shrewd observers ± L'Estoile, for instance, who described ``la Ligue sainte'' as fondeÂe sur le pretexte de la Religion en apparance, mais en effect sur les pretentions de ceux de la Maison de Lorraine, qui se disoient de la race de Charlemagne, et en ceste qualiteÂ, comme bien fondeÂs, preÂtendoient: Antiquum exscindere Regnum Et magno gentem deductam Rege Capeto. (Registre-Journal 2: 60) Marlowe's text is so thoroughly intent on constituting Guise as the archMachiavel, as if directly inverting Chantelouve's representation of Coligny, that even the Florentine Catherine ± so often (as in Dowriche) Guise's rival for that role, complete with an atheistic contempt for religion45 ± emerges as his instrument and disciple: ``The Mother Queen works wonders for my sake / And in my love entombs the hope of France'' (ii.73±4). She may be willing to liquidate her own sons out of a determination to rule (``all shall die unless I have my will'' [xiv.65] ), but her hunger for power yields to heart-break at the death of a monster with no heart at all.46 The fact that Catherine herself is taken in by Guise throws into relief the ultimate target of Protestant and Politique attacks on the House of Lorraine: its royal pretensions. These depended, not just on a supposed derivation from the ``pure'' race of Charlemagne, in contrast with the Italian-descended Catherine and her sons, but also on its inheritance of a true religious zeal from that legendary champion of the Roman Cath-

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90 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

olic church. The issue of lineage, therefore, was of prime symbolic significance for supporters and detractors of all stripes, and it is at least touched on by most pamphleteers (e.g. Hurault, An Excellent Discourse, A4v ). Particularly pointed is The Contre-Guyse, which bears the following subtitle: wherein is deciphered the pretended title of the Guyses, and the first entrie of the said family into Fraunce, with their ambitious aspiring and pernitious practices for the obtaining of the French Crown. The anonymous writer directly impugns the authentic Frenchness of the family ± a sore point for such champions as Matthieu,47 and one perhaps touched by Marlowe's Henri himself in reducing the great Duke to ``Monsieur of Lorraine,'' a region that Coke had gleefully dismissed as a ``province of Almayne'' (68), just as his ``Charlemayne was a Dowcheman'' (65). Wolfe's pamphleteer also cites the supposed dependence of the claim on the female line, contrary to the Salic law, which is presented (sig. D2v ) as France's traditional barrier against foreign, particularly English, domination. In fact, that statute was regularly invoked against the Guises by their adversaries ± as also, for instance, in Mornay's serious and elaborate Discours svr le droit pretendv par cevx de Gvise sur la Couronne de France (81), whose opening sentence affirms the house's sense of royal entitlement as universally acknowledged (63).48 For their part, Leaguers preferred to maintain that the House of Lorraine descended directly from Charlemagne's male heirs (Chevallier 654), although, especially after the death of AlencËon in 1584, many adherents felt that they had an immediate reason ± the pressing entitlement of Henri of Navarre ± for challenging the Salic law itself, and the argument was energized, as Pallier documents (79±80) and La Guisiade witnesses, by the dramatic events of the end of the decade. Opinion was by no means constant or unanimous; the law was notably reaffirmed, for instance, in 1593, during the League's dying days, by a council presided over by the duc de Mayenne, who sought to exclude the Infanta as a candidate. That the issue was a fraught and complex one for both sides is reflected in the assertion of the Contre-Guyse (sig. D2v ) that long-standing custom should prevail even if the law itself is rejected ± as it is, the author allows, not only by numerous Leaguers but also by some Protestants. La Guisiade's attachment of the image and idea of the atheistic Machiavel to the royal assassin of the Guises begins in the introductory ``Discours,'' where Matthieu explains that his figure of wicked counsel, enigmatically identified only as ``N.N.,'' represents ``diablez incarnez, Machiavelistes, Heretiques, conjurez ennemis de la Religion Catholique'' (67).49 By the time he arrives at his peroration a few

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Marlovian Monarchs and Various Guises 91

pages later, he affirms that Henri, to whom he pointedly accords the title merely of King of Poland, could have learnt such a perfidious lesson only from Machiavelli himself ± or (a point I will return to) ``de quelque È ard second d'Angleterre'' (70). The anti-English element race d'Edou enters the play-text itself through another stark reversal of the standard Protestant line, when Catherine de Medici ± a warm supporter of Guise, as in Marlowe, but for the noblest of reasons ± lectures her son about his reputation as a tyrant and an atheist (361). If he were not godless, she explains, Le Turc, ny l'Alcoran, ny l'Epicurien,

Ny le Calvinien, ny le Lutherien,

Le Machiaveliste, et l'homme de fortune,

Ne trouveroit en voys tant de grace.

(377±80) Neither, she adds, would the English have bestowed on him the Order of the Garter (a sore point also for the author of Les mevrs 86), and ``[v]ous ne caresseriez sa Royne comme seur'' (389) ± the flip side of the ``eternal love'' (xxiv.67) for Elizabeth that partly redeems Marlowe's dying Henri. This plays, of course, to the anti-English vein exploited dramatically as early as Chantelouve, whose Colligny speaks of stirring up the English against his king (49±51). Ironically, Matthieu in effect adapts to his Machiavellian portrayal of Henri, now the standard League line (cf. Les mevrs 22), a long-standing Protestant view of him as the chief urger of Machiavellian doctrines on Charles IX (Barnaud, first Discourse 21, 37, 40). Moreover, the imputation of Machiavellian thought and practice to the king ± or at least to Henri's court, for, as in La Guisiade, his favourites were commonly given much of the blame ± received its major boost in 1576 from the famous treatise by Innocent Gentillet, so influential in promoting Machiavelli's name as a byword for evil amongst the English; it helps to contextualize that influence to consider that its author was a Huguenot jurist who also produced more narrowly polemical tracts on French affairs, at least two of which were also published in England.50 La Guisiade demonstrates that, as is hardly surprising, ideologically opposed dramas in French and English, like Catholic and Protestant French propaganda, could represent villainy and virtue by similar discursive conventions. The common ground extends along the parallel axes of single versus double meanings, public versus private, truth versus

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92 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

lies. At one extreme stands Matthieu's Guise, at the other Marlowe's, with Chantelouve's Colligny mediating the opposition. The soliloquy of Guise in Marlowe's second scene discloses, like that of Colligny in Chantelouve's first, both his consuming royal ambition, seasoned with scorn for the ``gentle king'' (67)51 ± Colligny's Charles IX is ``ce jeune enfant imbecille'' (Chantelouve 50) ± and the atheistic heart of the moral matter; armed with money and a spiritual warrant from the Pope, Guise declares, My policy hath fram'd religion.

Religion: O Diabole!

Fie, I am asham'd, however that I seem,

To think a word of such a simple sound,

Of so great matter should be made the ground!

(62±6) Especially close here, again, is the model of the soliloquizing Colligny, who explicitly rejects God for the devil and avows, ``Je fain d'estre bien fort chrestien reformeÂ, / Pour mieus surprendre ainsi nostre Roy desarmeÂ'' (Chantelouve 45±6). When Marlowe's Guise outwardly bows to the authority of Henry, he signals aside that he ``must dissemble'' (xix.61), then professes his ``true humility, / And simple meaning to Your Majesty'' (62±3). It is a moment and a situation reminiscent of (if not inspired by) Richard III (usually dated 1592±3), whose protagonist, before the king he is scheming to supplant, thanks God for his ``humility'' (II.i.73), having just effected the murder of the ``gentle Duke'' (80), ``[s]imple plain Clarence'' (I.i.18). King Henry, however, meets fire with fire, faking the dupe's part that Guise has cast him in and burying a double meaning of his own within his lines: Cousin, assure you I am resolute ± Whatsoever any whisper in mine ears ± Not to suspect disloyalty in thee: And so, sweet coz, farewell. (xxi.44±7) What prevents Guise from seeing that Henry's resolution implies his murder is the delusion, swelled by his success, that he has monopolized duplicity: ``now sues the King for favour to the Guise, / And all his

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Marlovian Monarchs and Various Guises 93

minions stoop when I command'' (48±9). In characteristic Elizabethan fashion, the Machiavel's ``traitorous guile'' is finally ``outreach'd'' at his moment of apparent triumph, so that, Barabas-like, he falls into his own ``pit'' (33±4). The corresponding figure in La Guisiade is, from ominous start to tragic finish, an emblem precisely of plainness, simplicity, and humility, subordinating all self-interest to the causes of king, country, and especially religion. His lengthy self-disclosing soliloquy, which opens the play, is a mirror-image of its counterpart in Massacre, as if, in this respect as well, the later text is working to restore the ``truth'' effaced by the earlier one. That Matthieu was indeed bent on effacing, if not truth, at least the hostile construction of Guise, is evident from his character's insistent refutation, from his initial lines, of the fundamental accusation that, in effect, his ``policy'' has ``fram'd religion.'' He begins in the negative, stating that ``[u]n cueur haut et Chrestien'' . . . n'escoute jamais les accens charme-espris,

De ceux qui vont cherchant les honneurs aÁ tous prix,

PousseÂs d'ambition, par boissons importunes,

Par un sentier oblique acheptent leurs fortunes,

Ouvrent la porte au vice, et sans crainte et sans front,

Couvrent du sainct manteau de la foy ce qu'ils font.

(1±6)52 Even his strongest affirmations are couched as denials, and they build up to a rendition of the Non Nobis worthy of the Huguenot hymnsters: Ce n'est contre mon Roy, ce n'est pour me bander

Contre le lis FrancËois, ny pour le gourmander:

Ce n'est pour repeter le droict de Carlemaigne,

Ce n'est pour marier la France avec L'Espaigne,

. . . . . . . . . Pour la foy, pour mon Roy, pour defendre ma terre J'ay le fer et le plomb, deux foudres de la guerre. Ã Monarque eternel, Mais l'honneur est aÁ vous, o Je ne suis que soldat, vous estes Coronnel. (27±36) Marlowe's Guise thirsts for ``[a] royal seat, a sceptre, and a crown; / That those which do behold, they may become / As men that stand

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94 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

and gaze against the sun'' (ii.101±5). Matthieu's glories only in the reflected light of his divine commander: ``Sous les rais flamboyans de vostre saincte face, / On me voit rayonner plain d'amour et de grace'' (37±8). This, then, is the discursive line that La Guisiade's anti-Machiavellian hero pursues till the moment of his death and opposes to the duplicitous speech of Henri and his counsellors ± the poisoners in this scenario: ``De son traistre conseil la langue envenimeÂe / Empoisonne l'honneur de nostre renommee'' (105±6). His own refusal to deal in verbal poison is demonstrated, fatally, in his rejection of the warning he has received about Henri's plot. If anything blinds him to his danger, it is the divine glow of his militant innocence and idealism; the word of God, calling him to pursue peace, righteousness, and truth, deafens him to the equivocation in Henri's blandishments, which is even more pointed here than in Marlowe's version: L'autre hier en me plaignant, que je doutoy de luy, Il dit, mon bon Cousin, He Dieu! qui est celuy Que j'ayme mieux que vous? Non, je ne voy personne Qui ayme plus que vous l'honneur de la coronne. (1829±32) There is a final point to be made about villainy and language in the two plays, and Richard III may help to make it. Despite hints of psychological self-manipulation, Richard, like Marlowe's Barabas, is a formidably rational controller of language ± at least until conscience comes back to haunt him. By contrast, Marlowe's soliloquizing Guise more closely resembles Tamburlaine, spoken by his own words even as he speaks them, and in the grip of an ultimately self-consuming drive. In his equivalent of Richard's initial self-revelation, Guise appears as much the object as the subject of hatred and desire: ``Now, Guise, begins those deep-engender'd thoughts / To burst abroad those never-dying flames / Which cannot be extinguish'd but by blood'' (ii.31±3); ``What glory is there in a common good / That hangs for every peasant to achieve? / That like I best, that flies beyond my reach'' (37±9). For Guise, hell is not present lack, to be wilfully supplied by ambition ± as when Gloucester decides to ``make my heaven to dream upon the crown / And whiles I live, t'account this world but hell'' (3H6 III.ii.168±9) ± but, as for Faustus, a future to be dared:

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Marlovian Monarchs and Various Guises 95

96 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

(ii.40±4) These are the same vice-grips that squeeze Harry Hotspur out of mortal shape into delusions of immortal grandeur53 and that Tamburlaine applies to himself when he identifies ``climbing after knowledge infinite'' with the ``sweet fruition of an earthly crown'' (Part 1, II.vii.24, 29). For Gloucester, the distance between him and such a crown may be confidently calculated ± ``were it further off, I'll pluck it down'' (3H6 III.ii.195); the ``murtherous Machevil'' is not his master but his pupil, to be ``set to school'' (193). When Marlowe constructs his French Machiavel, not on the model of linguistic mastery epitomized by Richard and Barabas, but as deluded and finally destroyed by his very eloquence, he again takes up ± intertextually ± the gauntlet thrown down by La Guisiade, where this is conspicuously the condition of Henri III. In the case of Henri, moreover, there is a similar correlation between duplicitous speaking and tragic blindness both to Christian imperatives and to practical danger. So his mother tells him early on, making a further pointed connection with effeminacy: Que vous sert d'estre Roy casanier, inhumain,

Porter mieux un fuseau qu'un sceptre en vostre main,

Penser paistre le cueurs du vent de vos harangues,

Et tenir inconstant en la bouche deux langues,

Aveugle sans prevoir vos journaliers dangers. . . .

(183±7) The king of La Guisiade, ``qui si bien dissimule'' (887), as d'Espernon puts it, is indeed adept at deploying language for manipulative purposes. But those purposes include talking himself into criminality, in the fashion of Shakespeare's tragic rationalizers ± not Richard III, but Richard II. Matthieu's Henri also requires duplicitous counsel, which comes partly from the devil-assisted d'Espernon. His protracted dialogue with ``Le N.N.'' (1509 ff.) sustains the theme, adapting the same Medieval debate structure that Marlowe recreated in supplying Faustus with good and evil angels. In this context, Henri's overprotestations of reconciliation to

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Set me to scale the high Pyramides,

And thereon set the diadem of France,

I'll either rend it with my nails to naught

Or mount the top with my aspiring wings,

Although my downfall be the deepest hell.

Guise (713 ff.) ± even his assurance, ``Je suis Prince de foy, un Roy jamais ne ment'' (710), which savours strongly of Machiavelli ± is perhaps better taken as wishful thinking, overflowing with irony, than as wilful deception. Similar irony turns Henri's pride in his linguistic prowess against him. Early in the play, he boasts to his mother ``[d]'avoir dompte les cueurs des plus fiers d'une harangue, / Ainsi que par chainons attachez aÁ ma langue'' (171±2), and those words echo in the background of his address to the Estates General. This is a virtuoso rhetorical performance, which the author signals as such in the Argument by his own use of the modesty topos: ``il prononcËa son harangue, tout le suject de laquelle le PoeÈte a reduit icy, non avec l'eloquence ny la grace dont elle fut prononcee'' (118). In fact, Henri III was an ``[o]rateur ne et le sachant,'' as Chevallier (343) puts it in discussing the opening address to the Estates General at Blois in 1576. But of course Matthieu is setting Henri up for a fall, and a comparison of the play's version with the king's historical address to the second Estates General reveals not only the suppression of some politically shrewd manúuvres but a heightening (assisted by the versification) of rhetorical subtlety and force, not least when the king elaborately swears the oath he will shortly so brutally violate: Par le corps de mon Christ, sous le sainct sacrement,

Que je prendray demain, immortal aliment,

Antidote aÁ la mort, mes amis, je vous jure

De garder l'Union: et si je suis perjure

L'Eternel d'un grand Roy me face un petit Roy,

Sans sceptre, sans pouvoir, sans cour, sans droict, sans foy.

(1061±6) As Lobbes points out (219±21), Matthieu eliminates both Henri's tribute to his mother as a policy-maker, which would have spoiled her dramatic role as Guise's champion, and his effective appropriation of the leadership of the League itself ± a clever tactic that, at least for the less fanatic, left Guise little ground to stand on. The play's Henri is devious but not clever, and he is made to entangle himself linguistically, as morally, in his blasphemy.

IV I wish now to consider Marlowe's ``English'' history play in the light of the contemporary French discourses that particularize the political

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Marlovian Monarchs and Various Guises 97

project and impact of Massacre. A useful starting point is the concept of the ``minion,'' complete with its sexual overtones, but it seems less fruitful to speculate about Marlowe's inspiration than to recognize that, even if he derived this theme from English historical sources,54 it came to him multiply overlaid and countersigned by the contemporary discourse of French political satire. Not only had the Histoire tragique been reprinted several times, along with various ``spin-offs,'' rebuttals, and counter-rebuttals,55 but that cluster of texts had been supplemented ± with increased vehemence following the murder of Guise and the Cardinal ± with others less restrained in evoking Henri III's supposed sexual proclivities and excesses. And behind such attacks, as Guy Poirier (115±18) has demonstrated, lies the status of ``sodomy'' as one of the marks of degeneracy with which Protestant and Catholic militants labelled (and libelled) each other: thus such attacks on the Catholic clergy ± for instance, by Estienne ± were counterbalanced by accusations against Calvin himself. Poirier relates the sexual charges levelled at the French king and his courtiers to ``une eÂpisteÁme en pleine transformation'' ± a process marked by ``le rejet d'un mode de gouvernement, d'un code courtisan, d'un eÂquilibre entre le prive et le public qui ne correspond plus aux souhaits des sujets'' (161). From a discursive point of view, it matters little whether the real Henri was actively bisexual ± a question on which historians do not agree.56 (He was demonstrably active heterosexually, as were the minions, who participated with him in orgies involving women, and the attacks on his sexual behaviour are by no means limited, or always extended, to homosexuality.57) The question, however, had reality for contemporaries who were not mere propagandists. à me explicitly defends EÂpernon against the charge of being Henri's Branto Gaveston (6: 92), contrary, for instance, to Le Martyre des devx freres, which, in the course of painting Henri as an arch-hypocrite, cloaking his abominable acts in the trappings of religion, smirkingly cites ``ses lascivitez, mechancetez, ordures et sodomies, Jean d'Espernon en scËait bien quelque chose, lequel ne m'en peut deÂmentir'' (63). The hostile contempt of Henri's sister Marguerite for his ``mignons de couchette'' (cited Chaintron 21) is not necessarily better evidence. On the other hand, L'Estoile, while decrying the scurrilous impudence of the verses that attribute sexual licence of all kinds to Henri's courtiers and the king himself, implicitly endorses their gist (Registre-Journal 3: 170).58 Over several years, he recorded (and probably embellished) specimens of vulgar raillery against ``fouteurs, foutants en fesse'' (4: 81). His collection includes particularly salacious texts produced as early as 1578,

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98 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

Marlovian Monarchs and Various Guises 99

Le Roy aiant repudie Saint-Luc, son premier marieÂ, Cherchant une nouvelle queste S'allie avecques La Valette. . . . . . Le Roy estoque ses Mignons, Les fait de son lit compagnons. (cited 3: 171±2) To this picture of perversity, a ``Suitte'' adds an ethnic slur: ``N'est-ce pas une belle mode / De voir les homes se baiser! / Tous les Gascons en font mestier'' (3: 184). Given the prominent and sordid role of the ``minion'' in Edward II, it is notable that the king in Massacre is accused merely of an indefinite attachment to his favourites. Moreover, after the demeaning episode in which Henry taunts the cuckolded Guise with reference to ``our lovely minions'' (xvii.11), his relation with Epernoun takes both a step up in dignity and a step forward in political engagement. During the king's confrontation with Guise (Scene xix), it is Epernoun who exposes the latter's sponsorship by Spain and the Pope; when alone with Henry, he counsels him ± dishonourably, perhaps, but not diabolically ± to undertake the murder in self-defence.59 Henry's swan-song pairs Epernoun with Navarre, not just structurally but in tearful fidelity: Weep not, sweet Navarre, but revenge my death.

Ah, Epernoun, is this thy love to me?

Henry thy King wipes off these childish tears

And bids thee whet thy sword on Sixtus' bones

That it may keenly slice the Catholics.

He loves me not that sheds most tears

But he that makes most lavish of his blood.

(xxiv.95±101) Navarre and EÂpernon, then, are constituted as associates in the political cause promoted by Marlowe's text. In fact, the two had been linked ± and would be again from time to time ± by a temporary community of self-interest, though hardly as promulgated in the League's vitriolic

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apparently by Ronsard himself, on ``[c]es culs devenus cons'' (cited 2: 184), and the ``Pasquil Courtizan 1581'':

attacks. Indeed, L'Estoile (ReÁgne de Henri III 644) reports that EÂpernon left the new king in the lurch, taking a large part of the army with him and affirming, in imagery that virtually refutes the dying Henri's injunction, that, although he was no Leaguer and would never be one, ``pour un roi heÂreÂtique, son eÂpeÂe ne pouvait bien trancher'' (644).60 La Guisiade traces the party-line of the League in mounting a doublebarrelled attack on Henri's relation with EÂpernon, joining the political and religious menace posed by the latter in himself, and through his connection with Navarre, to the well-established cluster of moral themes involving the king's debauchery, effeminacy, and general incapacity.61 After the murder of Guise and the Cardinal, such personal failings deepened the imputation of political unfitness. Underpinning such assaults, as Chevallier (432) and Crouzet (85±91, 474±81) emphasize, lies the neo-Aristotelian concept propounded by Erasmus in The Education of a Christian Prince, according to which a prince reigns by virtue of a contract with both God and the people.62 Militants, both Protestant and Catholic, extended the notion to justify eliminating a monarch whose breaking of that contract deprives him of divine grace (like Cain, invoked at the conclusion of La Guisiade) and consigns him to the category of tyrant.63 The failure to control appetite was, of course, an established part of the discourse of tyranny ± witness Alexander's drunken slaying of Cleitus (applied backhandedly to Henry V by Fluellen [IV.vii.34±9] ) and the perennially popular Cambises, King of Persia (Thomas Preston). In this context, sexual degeneracy became an especially useful signifier. Critiques of Henri's sexuality also came from the Protestant side ± witness AubigneÂ's blistering attacks on ``des Rois ce douteux animal'' in Les Tragiques (2, 777). Like Marlowe, however, Aubigne largely spares EÂpernon, never naming him and making his only apparent allusion relatively innocuous.64 Other ``mignons'' come in for harsher treatment, in terms that turn back on their master, linking his private immorality with his public criminality: ``Un NeÂron marie avec son Pythagore'' (2, 820). Ultimately, the focus is on Henri himself as embodying a double sexual nature, to which his minions are merely accessory. The point is vividly conveyed in AubigneÂ's acid account of a public occasion when Henri made his appearance grotesquely made up and garbed in an ``habit monstrueux, pareil aÁ son amour'' (794),65 so that he seemed ``une putain fardeÂe'' (784) and bystanders wondered whether they beheld ``un Roi femme ou bien un homme Reine'' (796). This remark complements the evocation, a few lines before, of Catherine de Medici as a virago:

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Marlovian Monarchs and Various Guises 101

Bienheureux les Romains qui avaient les CeÂsars Pour tyrans, amateurs des armes et des arts; Mais malheureux celui qui vit esclave infaÃme Sous un femme hommace et sous un homme-femme!

As in Massacre (and in contrast with La Guisiade, where she tries her best to make a proper man of her son), Catherine is here being cast in her common role as the evil power behind the throne ± a role regularly linked, by way of her national origin, with the proliferation of Italian court fashions and courtiers.66 It signals a specifically political decadence, therefore, not merely a generic moral one, that Henri's androgynous costume includes an Italian head-piece worn over his pearl-draped coiffure (``De cordons emperleÂs sa chevelure pleine, / Sous un bonnet sans bord fait aÁ l'italienne'' [2, 779±80] ) ± not to mention a ``corps satin noir / Coupe aÁ l'espagnole'' (787). Apparently, such gender-transgressive displays by Henri took place ``ordinairement'' in masquerades held during the first Estates General at Blois in early 1577.67 Frank Lestringant (426, n. to 2, 796) has observed the colouring of Aubigne's account by a reminiscence of Juvenal. With regard to Marlowe, Bruce R. Smith (212) has stressed the echoes of Roman decadence in Gaveston's vision of ``Italian masques'' (I.i.54) featuring boys dressed as nymphs and goddesses (``a lovely boy in Dian's shape, / . . . / Crownets of pearl about his naked arms'' [60±2] ). It should now be clear that Mortimer Junior's portrait of Edward's minion intertextually engages French polemics: ``He wears a short Italian hooded cloak / Larded with pearl, and in his Tuscan cap / A jewel of more value than the crown'' (I.iv.412±14).68 Elsewhere, after all, Gaveston is pointedly designated an embodiment of French defects: ``that peevish Frenchman'' (I.ii.7); ``that sly inveigling Frenchman'' (57). ``Mort Dieu!'' (I.i.90), Gaveston's reaction to the denigration he overhears, was a stigmatizing tag deployed on both sides of the Channel: it characterizes Guise in Massacre (xii.31), the Duke of Britain in Henry V (III.v.11), Wolsey in When You See Me You Know Me,69 but also, insistently, the ``tyrant'' Charles IX in the Reveillematin.70 In sum, for a contemporary audience Edward II's insistent evocation of the French model would have linked gender-transgression and political perversion in precisely the emblematic synthesis that some modern critics resist: Jonathan Goldberg, for instance, maintains that because ``[n]either Gaveston nor Edward wears dresses'' (Sodometries 115) on stage, Gaveston's ``parts . . . do not cross gender lines but

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(757±60)

transgress the limits of status and class'' (116); Smith finds that ``the role of `minion' does not quite fit Gaveston'' because he is not a mere boy and ``enjoys tremendous power, politically over other men and psychologically over his supposed `master' Edward'' (213). Such power was consistently the target of attacks on Henri's minions, who were certainly not boys. League comparisons of Henri III's reign to Edward's deployed a range of more or less ingenious parallels, beginning with the fact that the French king, in keeping with his perfidious inclination, had been christened EÂdouard, after Edward VI of England.71 Henri's ``true'' nature was further revealed by anagrams, signs of ``ce qui est veritable au nom'' (Responce aÁ l'Antigaverston de Nogaret sig. Aiir ); so was the link between Gaveston and EÂpernon.72 Another point of contact was that Gaveston, too, was an upstart native of Gascony (his first place of exile, hence the setting of Marlowe's first scene ± ``votre pays de Gascogne'' [sig. Aiir ] in the Histoire tragique's address to EÂpernon).73 Apart from any sexual stigma, Gascons were generally thought of, from the northern French perspective at the time, as violent and rude, as well as inclined to Protestantism.74 Against this background, EÂpernon made a natural partner in heretical crime for Henri of Navarre (contemptuously known as ``le BeÂarnais''), while Henri III's Gascon guardsmen were disposed to undertake the murder of that ``pure'' Frenchman, the duc de Guise. All in all, the particular amalgam of foreign perversity attached to Gaveston in Edward II remarkably resonates with the similar pollution projected on Henri's court on behalf of the House of Lorraine. In the play, such foreignness also helps transform the initially sympathetic Queen Isabella into a monster of near-Medicean proportions. Gaveston's perversion at once of Edward's sexuality and of the barons' prerogatives constitutes him as her sexual and political rival, and her vengeance includes both spheres. When, as ``regent,'' Isabella finally joins with Mortimer to engineer the murder of her royal husband, she emerges as an avatar of Marlowe's Catherine, whose ruthlessness at her sons' expense is inseparable from an erotically charged alliance with an even more ruthlessly ambitious strongman. (Indeed, Catherine's sexual appetite was also sometimes insinuated.75) The parallel lends trenchancy to Deats's bland claim that Marlowe's ``commanding queens . . . validate the alleged contemporary queasiness concerning female sovereigns'' (Deats 116). But then, even setting aside John Knox's The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women (1558), which so offended the young Elizabeth,76 ``alleged contemporary queasiness,'' hardly does justice to, for instance, Hotman's diatribe in

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102 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

Francogallia (478±95), which is squarely (if obliquely) aimed at Catherine, or the invocation of the Salic law against her in the A mervaylous discourse. At the same time, again in keeping with the Florentine Catherine, the much-emphasized Frenchness of Edward's queen tends to shift the weight from female to foreign influence. Edward's label of ``strumpet'' sticks loosely, applied as it is when Isabella most longs for his love; by being coupled with ``French'' (I.ii.145), however, it gains in authority (if also in irony, since it is more immediately suitable for Gaveston).77 The effect is not wholly dissipated by the queen's subsequent soliloquy, pathetic though it is, in which she regrets her departure from ``sweet France'' (171). Indeed, her subsequent political machinations in France, although ultimately thwarted, help to lend her ensuing invasion (from Flanders) a familiar edge of alien menace. The danger to English royalty of intermarriage with the foreign ``other'' is, of course, another Elizabethan commonplace, energized by the religious question; it is foregrounded in texts as diverse as Peele's Edward I (where the queen is a thoroughly evil Spaniard, for whom a gulf literally gapes) and The Gaping Gulf of Stubbs, who, in warning against ``another French marriage,'' cites (41±5, 87) the disastrous precedent of Edward II (along with those of Richard II and Henry VI). Henry VI's match with Margaret of Anjou, as depicted by Shakespeare ± a topic for the following chapter ± probably exerted direct influence on Marlowe's text (Forker, ed. 27±8). And yet, seen against the historical continuum, the disruptive influence of Edward's troublesome French wife challenges even such binary thinking. For Isabella also contributed positively, despite herself, to English national destiny. As the opening scene of Edward III spells out, it was she who made possible her son's claim to the crown of France, hence England's glorious conquests (if eventually, too, its humiliating losses). Indeed, insofar as Edward III's claim required defending the female right to rule, contrary to the Salic law ± a point regularly stressed by French commentators (Hotman, Francogallia 470±1; The Contre-Guyse sig. D2v ) ± even Elizabeth's ``regiment'' is ultimately implicated. It is highly ironic, then, that Edward III must consolidate his power in England by abjecting the maternal source of his future French claim, and that only thus can he rekindle the ideal of English chivalry triumphing in France ± a spark still faintly glowing in his father's prison: ``Tell Isabel, the queen, I looked not thus / When for her sake I ran at tilt in France / And there unhorsed the Duke of Cleremont'' (V.v.68±70).78 However simplistically and remotely presented in the play, by comparison with the Chronicles, the dissipation of English influence in

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France under Edward II serves as an index of self-division, itself the inevitable consequence of ineffectual monarchy. The pattern was already familiar to audiences from Shakespeare's First Tetralogy. Yet so, therefore, was the knowledge that Edward III's recuperation of those losses ± with glorious interest ± merely defined a new height from which to measure renewed decline; inherent in the promise of Marlowe's Edward III is the same epilogue supplied by the Chorus in Henry V, and with the same ironic self-reflexivity regarding past depiction of the future (``which oft our stage hath shown''). Indeed, the First Tetralogy extends England's degeneration, in the last pre-Tudor years, to the outright tyranny of Richard III, from which it can be rescued only by another invasion with French associations. Such futures foreclose any possibility that Edward III will define England neatly and cleanly by opposition to a French ``otherness.'' By a circuitous route, then, which reaches as far forward as Elizabeth's French interventions effectively endorsing the Salic law on behalf of Henri IV, questions of female sovereignty and French influence turn indeterminately back on themselves. As in Shakespeare's histories, the representation of English±French relations in Edward II becomes less a mirror-imaging spectacle than a ticket of admission to the maze of collective subjectivity, where the ``soul'' of the nation is simultaneously found and lost ± notably by its governors, and at the expense of the common people. After all, had Marlowe sought simply to promote an English/French dichotomy along the axis of virtue and vice, he could readily have added to the grievances against Gaveston an action singled out in Holinshed: he tooke out of the iewell-house a table, & a pair of trestels of gold, which he deliuered vnto a merchant called Aimerie de Friscobald, commanding him to conueie them ouer the sea into Gascoine. This table was iudged of the common people, to belong sometime vnto king Arthur, and therefore men grudged the more that the same should thus be sent out of the realme. (3: 550)79

V It is worth concluding this chapter with more particular evidence that, even in his English history, Marlowe is manipulating ± counterfeiting? ± the common currency of contemporary French political discourse. When Marlowe's exiled Gaveston, in the play's opening lines, eagerly

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104 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

reads the king's summons ± ``come, Gaveston, / And share the kingdom with thy dearest friend'' (I.i.1±2) ± he might almost be responding to Henri III's cri de coeur in La Guisiade: ``Retourne mon Mignon, retourne et reconforte / Du Roy ton bon seigneur, la personne my-morte'' (351± 2). Henri has been only half-alive in d'Espernon's absence (``Je ne vis qu'aÁ regret sans luy en ceste Cour'' [350] ), according to the same Neoplatonic model of united souls invoked by Edward: Knowest thou not who I am? Thy friend, thy self, another Gaveston! Not Hylas was more mourned of Hercules Than thou hast been of me since thy exile. (I.i.141±4) Gaveston's second banishment gives Edward an occasion actually to display such living death: He's gone, and for his absence thus I mourn.

Did never sorrow go so near my heart

As doth the want of my sweet Gaveston;

. . . . . . . . Ah, had some bloodless Fury rose from hell, And with my kingly sceptre struck me dead When I was forced to leave my Gaveston! (I.iv.304±6, 315±17) Edward's Neoplatonism, of course, is homoerotically inflected, and similar overtones emerge more clearly from Matthieu's text when the two plays are juxtaposed. The unhealthy emotional interdependence of the French king and his minion were a standard feature of League propaganda. Thus the dying Henri's farewell to EÂpernon, as depicted by the hostile Discours veÂritable des derniers propos qu'a tenus Henry de Valois aÁ Jean d'Espernon (1589), has Henri claiming to feel more regret at parting with his minion than the latter does at the death of his master (394); this substantially matches the king's tenderness toward Epernoun in the final scene of Massacre (xxiv.89 ff.) ± an episode purged of the ridicule supplied by the League.80 It is, in effect, part of a parallel defence à me restores the Neoplaof Henry's relation with EÂpernon that Branto tonic image to respectability: ``le plus favory du roy, qu'il tenoit comme un second soy-meÃme'' (9: 649).

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Marlovian Monarchs and Various Guises 105

Like Marlowe's Edward, who operates wholly on the principle that ``[t]hey love me not that hate my Gaveston'' (II.ii.37), the infatuated Henri in La Guisiade strips his favourite's banishment (imposed by the Guises) of political concerns and attributes it wholly to personal rivalry and resentment ± hence the terms in which he apostrophizes the absent d'Espernon, interrupting the dialogue with his mother: . . . ces Guisards envieux Te font hayr de tous en la terre et aux cieux, Desesperez, jaloux, de passion extreÂme, Pource que tu me suis, et pource que je t'ayme: Ils n'ont autre suject pour t'accuser, sinon Que tu m'es tresloyal, que tu es mon mignon. (353±8) Henri blames his subjects' perverse callousness for his own alienation of them (``personne ne vos ayme'' [372], insists Catherine); so does Edward, in a closely parallel exchange with Mortimer Junior, who has demanded, ``Why should you love him whom the world hates so?'' (I.iv.76): ``Because he loves me more than all the world. / Ah, none but rude and savage-minded men / Would seek the ruin of my Gaveston'' (77±9). In threatening to eliminate the offending peers (``If I be king, not one of them shall live'' [I.iv.105] ), Edward moves into the same tyrannical sphere that is currently occupied by Henri, as the latter's mother insists. This is precisely the basis on which Matthieu compares Henri with Edward in his introductory ``Discours.'' Even before the murder of Guise and the Cardinal, the Histoire tragique had condemned Edward's entrapment of the English peers at ``ses Estates,'' which gave him the opportunity of arresting and executing twenty-two of them (49±50).81 The new turn of events energized the analogy. Like Henri, Matthieu claims, Edward II of England, en l'assemblee generale des Estats, sans aucune congoissance de cause, fit trancher la teste aÁ vingtdeux des plus graves Princes et Seigneurs du Royaume, et par l'ordonnance des mesmes Estats fust destitue de sa RoyauteÂ, et confine en une estroicte prison. (70) A version of the latter fate was the utmost openly intended by the League for Henri ± at least until his execution of the brothers of

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Lorraine. It is understandable that, even in the version of his text postdating the French regicide, Matthieu would have preferred not to mention Edward's subsequent murder. Yet that element, complete with sexual overtones, was a well-known part of the story. The Histoire tragique (sig. Biir , 40) traces the broad contours of Walsingham's narrative (77) in portraying the king as consoled for his loss of Gaveston by the birth of his son, although it stresses the miraculous nature of the event ± a reflection of Henri's hopes for a similar miracle ± and the general reconciliation that followed. Such a hint, however ephemeral, of a possible fairy-tale conclusion was presumably an inducement to Henri to rid himself of EÂpernon. Then, like Walsingham, the Histoire tragique brusquely gets on with the sequel, in which Hugh le Despenser takes over as the misleader of Edward, with both of them finally brought to their deaths. The chronicler, however, omits the sexual elements: the cutting off of Le Despenser's genitals is not mentioned in the account of his execution (106);82 the gruesome manner of the king's death is attributed (108) only to a concern for secrecy. In the Histoire tragique (51), by contrast, the favourite's genitals are prominently cut off as a punishment for his sodomy, while the language used for the king becomes insistently suggestive: ``vitieux & depraueÂ'' (46), ``se plongeant en delice'' (47), ``faits enormes'' (47), ``fol et effemineÂ'' (51). By the point where Edward's shameful death is said to have befitted his life (50), it seems clear where the core of that shame lies. The same tack is pursued even further in that most extreme of extreme texts, Les choses horribles. There EÂpernon's nocturnal intimacy with Henri is sensuously imagined, and Gaveston is evoked as a similar devil in disguise (and another Gascon), who was likewise responsible for the death of good lords, ``dont pour sa juste recompense, ce Roy Edouard fut vif embroche en fer brulant'' (9). (``Embrocher,'' often used, like modern English ``skewer,'' for piercing with a weapon, could also have a sexual application.83) All in all, the sexual accusations against Henri and his minions in such crude propaganda amply mandate the most fundamental alteration made by Marlowe to his English chronicle sources, where the analogy between Gaveston and Spencer is barely touched on and the king's homosexuality is veiled.84 In his editorializing ``Discours,'' Matthieu does not blur the focus on Henri's tyranny by mentioning Gaveston. As for EÂpernon, a bare outline of his role in the action is offered, with an emphasis on his sorcery, although he is branded as one of the ``harpies de la Cour'' (66) responsible for the oppressive taxes that have ruined the economy and alienated the people. These financial abuses are amongst the evils Guise

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Marlovian Monarchs and Various Guises 107

is determined to redress and a reason why EÂpernon has been forced from court ± the immediate cause of his murderous resentment. Once the play-text itself takes over, however, Henri's favouritism is strongly eroticised, beginning with his mother, who asks, rhetorically, ``Que vous sert-il d'avoir esclave vos espris, / A l'erreur des mignons, et aux jeux de Cypris'' (191±2). Clearly, then, more than the bond of friendship is at stake when he affirms, ``[d]' Espernon sur tout a gaigne mon amour'' (349). Henri's private and public misgovernment are regularly referred to in the same breath, and there is one extraordinarily graphic, if veiled, allusion on his own part to his sexual deviance ± the equivalent of Edward's casting himself as Hercules to Gaveston's Hylas, or as DanaeÈ's lover (II.ii.52 ff.). Temporarily speaking with the voice of his own good angel in the fourth act, Henri couches the enslavement cited by his mother in terms vividly blending financial with sexual manipulation: Aussi-tost que pippe d'une parolle douce

D'Espernon mania mes thresors aÁ son pouce,

Que par le doux appast des chatouilleux thresors,

Il fut content de perdre et l'esprit et le cors:

Que sans un d'Espernon rien ne me pouvoit plaire,

BigarreÂ, loup-garou, ombrageux, solitaire . . .

(1549±54) The point is nailed down by an echo of Du Bartas's epic of the creation. When Henri speaks of himself as being, without d'Espernon, a wretched and lonely malcontent, he borrows the language used by that Protestant poet to characterize man as he would have been, had God not fashioned woman as his companion: . . . qu'un Loup garou du soleil ennemi, Qu'un animal sauvage, ombrageux, solitaire, Bigarre, frenetique, aÁ qui rien ne peut plaire Que le seul desplaisir . . . (La Sepmaine 6: 950±3) In sum, EÂpernon's propensity for casting spells, a staple of League propaganda, implicitly extends to the sort of amorous enchantment with which Gaveston is said to have been ``bewitched'' (I.ii.55) Ã me testifies to a widespread opinion concerning Edward.85 Even Branto EÂpernon

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Marlovian Monarchs and Various Guises 109

In Edward II, the effect of Edward's obsession is to drive Isabella into miserable isolation ± a detail that seems ultimately derived from Froissart (Diller, ed. 48 [Ch. 3], 92 [Ch. 14] ), who, however, associates it with Hugh le Despenser. When Mortimer Junior asks the queen where she is going, she replies, Unto the forest, gentle Mortimer,

To live in grief and baleful discontent;

For now my lord the king regards me not,

But dotes upon the love of Gaveston.

He claps his cheeks and hangs about his neck,

Smiles in his face and whispers in his ears,

And when I come, he frowns, as who should say

``Go whither thou wilt, seeing I have Gaveston.''

(47±54) In Matthieu's play, the place of Henri's queen (to whom, in his way, he actually remained devoted) is largely occupied by his mother, whose frustration and anger are tinged with a personal alienation like Isabella's. In one respect, however, the queen mother cannot take the queen's place. Against the background of his homoeroticism, Henri's expressions of hope that God will bless him with a son ironically draw attention to his wife's banishment to the textual wilderness. In intertextual terms, the sexual deviance in Edward II, including its terrible symbolic punishment, literally fleshes out the moral corruption of Henri in La Guisiade, while the political emphasis of the latter text, including its anticipation of Henri's downfall, develops the tyrannical dimension of Edward's royal irresponsibility. The relation between the works, then, is complementary rather than antagonistic, unlike that between La Guisiade and Massacre. A nuanced rewriting, as opposed to an unwriting, is possible because the English historical subject, however laden with French symbolic significance, obviates the tricky project of recuperating Henri III's image from the hands of the League so as to wrest from tragedy the divine comedy of Navarre's succession. By

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qu'il soit feÂe, ou qu'il ayt quelque deÂmon ou esprit familier qui le guide; car, estant hay en France plus qu'homme qui fut jamais favory de roy (si croy-je), il a este guetteÂ, cavalle [i.e., poursuivi], vendu, attente et conjure en toutes facËons, et blesseÂ, et pourtant eschappe jusques icy. (6: 97)

effectively recuperating the ultra-Catholic line on Henri at a ``safe'' distance, Edward II liberates the tragic political consequences of the French monarch's personal misgovernment. Even so, implicit limits are placed on those consequences by the anticipated glory of the next Edward. The looming succession of one of England's greatest anti-French heroes, together with the reiterated ``otherness'' of France, helps to maintain the detachment of Marlowe's text from current French politics, including positions that might be recognized as Catholic and anti-English. Such detachment is arguably as important as the confinement of the critique of effeminate rule within the relatively ``neutral'' territory of the past and, especially, the stigma of homosexuality. The prominence of the latter element would alone have rendered Edward II far less suited than Richard II to Essex's purposes on the eve of rebellion; one cannot imagine Elizabeth complaining that she was being figured as Edward. It is nevertheless worth bearing in mind that the League considered Elizabeth to be not only Henri III's ally but, to a great extent, his likeness ± disqualified from sovereignty by heresy, of course, but also because of supposed sexual immorality. In at least some Catholic circles, the ``Virgin Queen'' was derogated as a ``putain publique.'' Such was the expression, ironically, of none other than the future Henri III during negotiations over his possible marriage to Elizabeth in 1571 (Chevallier 144; Crouzet 282). Still, I propose that, despite Edward II's distancing and containment mechanisms, its political and moral binarism is complicated by the fraught intertextuality of Marlowe's material. To grasp the threads tying the text to French issues ± to refigure, in effect, the Channel as the Manche ± is one way of unravelling Marlowe's tightly woven oppositions into tangled contradictions and shifting half-truths. Contemporary criticism has discovered other ways ± notably, by tracking the ambivalence of gender issues: the play is rarely read nowadays as a straightforward treatise on private vice infecting the public sphere. But neither is it widely seen, especially given the diffuse treatment of history and the focus on Edward's ``perverse'' character, as evoking a sense of tragedy on neo-Aristotelian principles. Of this king's Two Bodies, ``natural'' and ``politic,'' the first does not so much struggle with as eclipse the other. The stakes seem too petty, the link between macrocosm and microcosm too tenuous, to justify a universalizing response of ``pity'' and ``fear,'' the perception of human self-destruction as at once physical and metaphysical. Yet arguably, for its first audiences, the play's very foreign resonances, by filling in this middle-ground to conspicuous excess with the current horrors of civil war, with urgent religious and

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political questions without answers ± in sum, by introducing the ``other'' as the aphanitic ``self'' ± would have supplied such a kind of ``high'' tragedy. And such a reception would have aligned Edward II even more closely with La Guisiade.

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Turning and Turning Again:

Shakespeare's First Tetralogy

In taking up Edward II before the First Tetralogy, and so departing from the widely accepted order of composition, I have sought not only to examine Marlowe's English history play in close relation to The Massacre at Paris, but also ± paradoxically ± to establish it more firmly as a pivotal text between the First Tetralogy and the Second.1 Such a function matches the text's presumed date and obvious affinity with Richard II. Within a broadly delineated ``discursive space,'' however, fine points of chronology, like questions of filiation and authorship, are ultimately immaterial, even where they may be decided with reasonable confidence ± as is far from the case with all aspects of the First Tetralogy.2 Regardless of such circumstances, Edward II remains pivotal for me because, in developing its portrait of an ineffectual monarch, as modelled in Henry VI, it attaches a virtual cliche of contemporary French political discourse ± the analogy between Edward and Henri III ± to qualities shared by the League's Henri and Shakespeare's Richard II: irresponsibility, tyrannical highhandedness, and personal self-indulgence. It has always seemed symptomatic of English anxieties that the historical drama of the 1590s makes so much of sovereigns who fostered civil war in their times (and, in Richard's case, long after) by an inability to govern justly, wisely, and authoritatively. In light of the network of French topoi evoked by Edward II, I wish to read first backward, then forward, from that text, to suggest some ways in which Shakespeare's tetralogies, too, might have been inflected in their reception by images of incoherence and disfunctionality issuing from the very site where his England regularly measures its vexed nationhood. Such measuring of nationhood, linked more or less loosely with ``manhood,'' has received a good deal of critical attention in the two plays of the eight that actually depict England at war with France: Henry 112

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5

VI, Part One and Henry V; the former, moreover, has often been approached with an emphasis, which my discussion will endorse, on the compelling figuration of ``French'' and ``feminine'' identity in Joan de Pucell.3 Yet too often, arguably, the second three plays of the First Tetralogy and the first three of the Second have been unduly cut off from what may be seen as, respectively, their French origins and destinations. The inward-focusing of the remaining plays is real enough ± witness the titles of the separately published Quartos affiliated (in whatever way one prefers to suppose) with Parts Two and Three of Henry VI: namely, The First part of the Contention betwixt the two famous Houses of Yorke and Lancaster and The true Tragedie of Richard Duke of Yorke. Parts Two and Three together set only a single scene in France (3H6 III.iii, where Warwick is provoked by the jilting of Lady Bona to form his sudden alliance with Margaret). Edward IV's invasion of that country falls silently into the historical gap elided between Henry VI, Part Three, and Richard III (thereby leaving Heywood's later Edward IV room to bustle in). Still, to bring the four earlier texts together (again?), and then to read the Second Tetralogy, along with Elizabethans, both retrospectively and teleologically, is to be struck by the thorough conditioning of English affairs by French encounters past, present, and prospective. It is important, in this light, that the two works largely set in France bracket both the broad historical continuum represented in the Tetralogies and, in chronologically inverse fashion, the large segment of Shakespeare's career engaged with that representation. To these structural perspectives may be joined, moreover, the provocative historical juxtaposition of these two plays themselves, which is reinforced from both compositional extremes (to speak intertextually now) by the effective presence of each text within the other: in 1 Henry VI, the funeral and frequent mention of England's supreme conqueror of France; in Henry V, the Chorus's anticipation of foreign and domestic disaster. The textual interrelationship, which extends to echoes of various kinds, is effectively summarized by the ill-divining Exeter: And now I fear that fatal prophecy

Which in the time of Henry nam'd the Fift

Was in the mouth of every sucking babe,

That Henry born at Monmouth should win all,

And Henry born at Windsor lose all.

(1H6 III.i.194±8)

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Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy 113

I wish to fill in and build on such structural supports by accentuating some textual elements within the ``non-French'' histories that are likely to have kept the French background current for Elizabethans ± not least by implicitly updating it. Prophecies, after all, may be fulfilled, but, as discourses intrinsically in want of supplementation, they can never be filled: witness, again, Stubbs, who raises the spectre of ``one or two houses in France'' with royal ambitions ± that of Lorraine is clearly at the top of the list, if not alone on it ± and, fearing that the Queen and AlencËon might leave an infant child with ``two overgreat scepters to play withal, even as Henry the Sixth had,'' suggests, ``perhaps these men would provide that this child should be born in Monmouth and not at Windsor, and then they would think all sure'' (54). Although the issue is not topicality of a narrow kind, critical intimations of a contemporary French allusion in Henry VI, Part One may conveniently introduce this discussion. From an historical point of view, it stands out as a highly symbolic ``ungrammaticality'' that the first of these plays unhistorically makes ``Roan'' (Rouen) ± Normandy's rich and then-secure capital, which had been starved into submission by Henry V in 14184 ± the site of a richly significant military encounter between the English, under the incomparable Talbot, and Joan de Pucelle, who first captures the town by a duplicitous stratagem, then loses it to a bold assault (III.ii). In effect, this invented episode establishes the city of Rouen as a symbolic prize; further, as I will be arguing, it points outside the text to herald the ultimate appropriation of that symbolism, in spite of English power, on behalf of the historical Jeanne d'Arc, who was tried and executed there. It has been widely accepted (Bullough 3: 24±5; Baldwin 333±4; Jackson, 44±5) that the locale carried significance of a different kind for the play's first audiences. Rouen was very much ``in the news'' during 1591±2, when it was besieged by Henri IV's army, commanded by the mareÂchal Biron and supported by a substantial English contingent under the Earl of Essex. Naturally, then, Essex would likewise have been evoked in the later prophecy that from the ashes of the slain Talbots (father and son) ``shall be rear'd / A phoenix that shall make all France afeard'' (IV.vii.92±3).5 There is room in this allusion for considerable irony, depending on the date of performance: despite heroic posturing on Essex's part, the siege was conducted in lacklustre fashion and was ingloriously abandoned in April 1592.6 These allusions rub shoulders, intertextually, with what is usually taken to be a glance, in the Chorus's introduction to Act V of Henry V, at Essex's Irish expedition, launched with great fanfare in March 1599.7

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114 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

There the population of London is pictured as rushing forth to greet the triumphant king, just as it would if ``the general of our gracious Empress'' were to return from Ireland, ``[a]s in good time he may, . . . / Bringing rebellion broached on his sword'' (V.Cho.30±2). Presumably, the allusion predates at least the actual return of Essex in disgrace just six months later, while, if delivered following Essex's own rebellion of 1601, with its dismal failure to rally Londoners as intended, the lines would have seemed ironic to the point of absurdity. But Graham Holderness, for one, finds good reason ± as part of his general interpretation of the play as ``demystifying historiography'' and ``drama of alienation'' (141) ± to resist an heroic reading of the passage in any case, in part because of the comparison of Henry to Caesar (142): The Mayor and all his brethren in best sort,

Like to the senators of th'antique Rome,

With the plebeians swarming at their heels,

Go forth and fetch their conqu'ring Caesar in.

(25±8)8 The question of whether ``their conqu'ring Caesar'' belongs to ``them'' or ``they'' to him hangs in more than the grammatical air, thanks in part to the image (developed in the virtually contemporary Julius Caesar) of the fickle Roman mob blind to its own best interests. Beyond the hollowness of Caesar's actual triumph as a harbinger of further civil war (Holderness 142), lies the stubborn ambiguity of Caesar-as-signifier current in political discourse, where Caesar may personate a tyrant (the strongman that is Marlowe's Guise) or a martyred hero (the strong man that is Matthieu's), or both at once. For Henry, as for Caesar (of whom it was regularly claimed, in effect, that ``Fortune made his sword'' [Epi.6] ), the glory of what Pistol terms the ``Gallia wars'' (V.i.89) is already becoming background to a looming struggle of domestic interests, to which Pistol and his like will make their own contribution. The door is thereby more widely opened (for Pistol and even Williams have set it ajar already) to the larger proposition that, if domestic harmony makes for successful foreign conquest, the inverse does not necessarily hold. To ``busy giddy minds / With foreign quarrels'' is not to render them less giddy in the long run. Regardless of an Elizabethan audience's feelings about Essex at a given moment, the drastic decline in English fortunes in France within the First Tetralogy makes the notion of reincarnating the heroic Talbots

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Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy 115

sputter with futility. Such futility, in turn, fosters the interrogation of national myth-making. After all, the ``nature'' of the phoenix is not merely to engender endless successors but to undergo endless selfimmolations. Talbot's demise marks the ultimate exhaustion of Henry V's conquering influence as surely as it does the self-destructive divisiveness of the English nobility, but it also highlights the inherent limitations of mortality. So does the premature ``natural'' death of the warrior-king himself. That event is essentially no different from Tamburlaine's fatal bellyache, and it similarly lends itself to moralizing in terms of the divine scourge scourged. Such moralizing does not, needless to say, occur within Shakespeare's texts, but it hovers on the margins ± notably, in the self-serving providentialism of Richard of York in the principal source: For although Henrie of Lancaster earle of Derbie took vpon him the scepter and the crowne, and wrongfullie bare the name and stile of a king . . . yet was he neuer in suertie of himselfe, nor had or inioed any profit & quietnesse either in mind or in bodie. . . . His sonne also called king Henrie the fift, obteined notable victories, and immortal praises for his noble acts done in the realme of France: yet God (for the offense of his untrue parent) suddenlie touched him, vnbodieng his soule in the flower of his youth, and in the glorie of his conquest. And although he had a faire sonne and a yoong heire apparant: yet was this orphan such a one (as preachers say) that God threatned to send for a punishment to his vnrulie and vngratious people. . . . (Holinshed 3: 263±4)9 Upon the Yorkist ± some would add ``or any'' ± teleology, the Second Tetralogy conspicuously superimposes the ebbing and flowing of political tides. Richard II's political and moral debility, which undercuts the French triumphs of Edward III, is felt virtually to engender the initially formidable counterforce of Henry IV. Likewise, at the conclusion of the First Tetralogy, the self-enfeebling tyranny of York's last surviving son, Richard III, enables a counter-myth ± the Tudor one, whose founder (not so incidentally) sails from France with the support of its monarch, Charles VIII.10 It is reasonable to perceive, with Kirk and others, conflicting ideas of history ± as divinely ordained or as humanly produced.11 Certainly, contemporary events in France offered a continuing and pressing challenge to providentialism, despite the best efforts of English propaganda. Nevertheless, a strictly historiographical analysis ± even one grounded

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116 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

in Machiavelli's observation that recurrent human causes tend to reproduce similar human effects12 ± may not fully allow for the cyclical, quasi-organic movements, structural and discursive, that emerge from and condition Shakespeare's treatments of history. The Tudor ``myth'' makes a broad target because it is not really a myth at all. We by no means recuperate the ahistoricism of, say, Northrop Frye when we insist that beneath the ideologically vexed thematics of Shakespeare's historical depictions lies a more elusive mythologizing couched in profoundly typological, yet intensely political, habits of thought, which the playwright shared with his audience. These are essentially modes of reading, and they equally define the rules of engagement between the Tetralogies and such intertexts as The Massacre at Paris, Edward II, and the French political tracts. ``Literary'' and ``non-literary'' texts meet naturally on this methodological common ground, even if the latter tend to determine (or overdetermine) what the former ± as a condition of survival ± tend to leave indeterminate. Hence, in contrast to Spenser, who retained his right hand (if not political favour), Stubbs cannot contain his critique of ``another French marriage'' within the analogies he deploys; hence, too, the free-wheeling polemicist of Le Reveille-matin, in appropriating Ronsard's account of royal delinquents in La Franciade, reduces the poet's textured allusiveness to naõÈve allegory in thin disguise: ``qui vit jamais descrire mieux les choses dessous noms couuerts[?]'' (114).

I The topicality of the city of Rouen for Elizabethans may be provocatively juxtaposed with the timelessness claimed for it in Henry VI, Part One. That real enough place is (re)constructed by the play's English as a castle in the air, the centre of their cult of transcendent heroism. The list of Talbot's titles recited by Lucy (IV.vi.60 ff.), even before he is informed of the general's death, comes (by one route or another) from his tomb in Rouen.13 Talbot is ``eternally'' installed, then, in the place from which the treacherous French briefly expelled him but which he promptly reclaimed. The latter feat, moreover, is itself of mythical proportions: it is graphically inspired by the memory of Henry V's conquest and by the knowledge that Rouen contains the heart (hence the leonine essence) of England's first great foreign-conquering king. These, for Talbot, are truths to swear (if not conjure) by, as he makes his own life depend on recovering at once the town for the English and the English past for the present:

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118 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

(III.ii.80±4) Shakespeare's audience is perhaps already being encouraged to extend the heroic line to their own present by way of Essex, whether in an ironic spirit or not. In any case, the line could not have run straight, since the issue was no longer French against English but Catholic against Protestant. Essex was as much a Protestant champion as a national one, and he had inherited that mantle less from Henry V than from Philip Sidney, killed in 1586 fighting against the Spanish at Zutphen. It may have especially complicated the picture for the audience, therefore, that Joan's ``betrayal'' of Rouen recalls a stratagem used at Zutphen by the English (Baldwin 333±4). In January 1591, moreover, Henri IV had himself mounted an unsuccessful surprise attack on Paris, using soldiers disguised as flour merchants ± a deÂbaÃcle memorialized in song by his adversaries.14 Such parallels focus an ideological contradiction inherent in the historical narratives ± especially when the latter draw on both French and English accounts ± and ineffaceable in Shakespeare's text, despite the best efforts of his English characters to override it rhetorically. The contrast between French treachery and English heroism epitomized at Rouen has ample precedent in the Chronicles, although some of the key material regarding Jeanne d'Arc appears neither in Hall nor in Holinshed's first edition (1577). The loss and recapture of Le Mans (Holinshed 3: 159±60) ± also a basis, clearly, for the fictitious English victory at OrleÂans depicted in Act II, Scene i ± makes an especially close analogue,15 and there really was a failed attempt against Rouen itself in 1433 involving an infiltration in disguise (3: 178). Yet the particular deception used by Joan and her followers to enter the city (they are disguised as country folk carrying grain) is attached in the Chronicles, as Boswell-Stone observed (224), to the English surprise of a French stronghold, after seizing which ``they set fire in the castell, and departed to Rone'' (Holinshed 3: 198). This account is preceded by mention of a previous success by means of ``treason of a fisher.'' The behaviour of the English palpably troubles the chronicler. He feels compelled to rationalize their deception by invoking their righteous cause:

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. . . as sure as English Henry lives

And as his father here was conqueror,

As sure as in this late-betrayed town

Great Cordelion's heart was buried,

So sure I swear to get the town, or die.

This exploit they had not atchiued peradventure by force (as happilie they mistrusted) and therefore by subtiltie and deceit sought to accomplish it, which meanes to vse in warre is tolerable, so the same warre be lawfull; though both fraud & bloodshed otherwise be forbidden euen by the instinct of nature to be put in practise and vse. (3: 198) This is at least to stake out, if not to enter, the ethical minefield warily negotiated with his common(sensical) soldiers by Henry V, who begins by posting a large disclaimer: ``his cause being just and his quarrel honorable'' (IV.i.127±8). For Holinshed, the same premises are required to keep the bravery-treachery opposition properly in place. Accordingly, in accounting for the loss of France, the Chronicles register less unease when deploring division amongst the English than when accounting for anti-English sentiment on the part of the French. The staple explanation ± innate French lack of loyalty ± is hardly a stable one, since such loyalty depends on remote and abstract feudal conventions, not national allegiance, the very force so vigorously promoted by the chroniclers. Once ``natural'' inclination is made the issue, as with nature's abhorrence of ``fraud & bloodshed,'' the supposed unnaturalness of the French is liable to self-subversion ± witness the bluster deployed against the Norman insurrection of 1433: the blacke Morian will sooner become white, than the people bred in France will heartilie loue an English borne. For it standeth not with their enuious nature to alter their malicious maners; as the old prouerbe saith truelyie of them: Celtica natura semper sequitur sua iura. (3: 179) The inherent truth-claim of proverbs is here invoked to block the obvious question: what reason could French people conceivably have had ± prior to the advent of religious difference ± for ``loving'' English invaders? Other discursive barriers likewise render themselves porous ± when, for instance, the Chronicles anticipate the imperialistic newspeak heard in the British nineteenth century and the American twentieth. Little conviction is conveyed by the claim that the English easily regained control of the country around Bordeaux, ``for the people alreadie wearied of the French seruitude, and longing sore to return to the English libertie, seemed to desire nothing more than to haue the earle [i.e., Talbot] to receiue them into the English obeisance'' (3: 235). A

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Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy 119

certain feudal nostalgia should perhaps be understood here, given Guyenne's status as a long-standing, and generally compliant, English fief, acquired by inheritance rather than conquest.16 The rhetorical effort to counter French legitimacy, moral as well as legal, is more active, and more strained, in numerous marginal notes ± as when Louis XI, who made peace with Edward IV and entertained him courteously, is credited with the shrewd (but hardly unkind) remark, `` . . . his progenitors haue been too long and too often both in Paris and Normandie. On this side the sea I loue neither his sight nor his companie; but when he is at home I loue him as my brother, and take him as my friend'' (2: 340). A gloss attempts to dismiss this in two words: ``French loue.''17 To return to the period of Henry VI, Part One, a further marginal note labels the 1436 uprising that cost the English Paris as showing ``[t]he treson of the Parisiens'' (3: 186), and readers (beginning with those of the 1577 edition, where the gloss also appears [1258] ) might well have made a connection with that city's virulent Catholicism in their own day. Nevertheless, the vivid picture of bourgeois heroism, especially given the French king's promise to restore ``all their old liberties, and ancient privileges,'' is disturbingly close to the Elizabethan discourse of populist patriotism: and women and children cast downe stones and scalding water on the Englishmens heads, and the citizens in armour fought with them and chased them from street to street, and from lane to lane. . . . (3: 186) The fact remains that the Chronicles have margins at their disposal, as well as narrative voice(s) to frame and manage refractory historical details. When ``us-against-them'' polemic is launched into dramatic form, it is even more liable to misbehave. For one thing, the same formulas are available to both sides, and the French abundantly have their say, however their credibility might have been discounted. In fact, the only reference to the Paris uprising in Henry VI, Part One is assigned to them, and the undertones of heroism in the ``treson''-coloured account of the Chronicles become dominant in the Dauphin's speech; nothing discredits his rhetoric, except its origin: `` 'Tis said the stout Parisians do revolt, / And turn again unto the warlike French'' (V.ii.3±4). It is further arguable that the discourses of loyalty and honour by which the Chronicles try to keep good and evil aligned along the English±French axis came to Shakespeare and his audience in especially blurred and scrambled form. They had been filtred, after all, through

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120 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

the brutal give-and-take of the prolonged French civil wars, where nationality was not the primary issue and where the mandate conferred by a higher truth superseded, for both sides, chivalric codes and terrestrial standards of the ``lawful.'' Stratagems like Joan's at Rouen were the everyday recourse of both sides, and the only measure of their validity offered in most narratives is their success. Among countless instances, one may cite Serres' Fourth parte of Co[m]mentaries (55±7), where Protestants gain underground entry to a town in the Languedoc ± an account that has been signalled as one of the analogues for Barabas' practices in The Jew of Malta (Thomas and Tydeman 301, 333±4). Perhaps even more germane to the latter play, given the double-dealing involved, is an episode from the same author's first three parts of commentaries (A discourse of the ciuile warres). There Serres (213 ff.) recounts the thwarting of a Protestant scheme to slip into the town of Bourges with the connivance of one of its defenders; the latter led them into a trap prepared with trains of powder and soldiers in ambush, so that a number of Protestants were killed or captured. Such abundant plots ± and the narrative sense of the term is highly functional here ± are hardly confined to French affairs: there is, notably, the Christian sleight for blowing up Turks from Foxe's Acts and Monuments (Bawcutt; Thomas and Tydeman 301± 2). But for Elizabethans, the nearby civil wars uniquely rendered the paradigm at once more immediate and more banal, tending to strip it of the imputation of Machiavellian wickedness. The Jew of Malta selfreflexively restores that imputation, with the effect of putting it into subversive circulation when the Christian Ferneze plays the final fatal trick on Barabas ± and saves the Turkish commander into the bargain.18 The unstable speech associated in Henry VI, Part One with loyalty and honour, hence with allegiance and royal legitimacy, obviously extends into the divided English camp and anticipates the subsequent plays, with their proliferation of promise-breaking and coat-turning amongst the English. While the discursive dice are undoubtedly loaded against the French ± like those used to play for English prisoners at Agincourt ± and presume the audience's complicity, the English win the verbal battle at the cost of losing that war, as well as the real one. The abundant derogatory references to the French national character ultimately turn back upon their utterers, like the action of the plays themselves, with the help of two conspicuous breaches of faith to Frenchwomen on the part of English kings: when Henry VI breaks his contract with the daughter of the Earl of Armagnac (1H6 V.v.26 ff.), and when Edward IV rejects the Lady Bona, they might as well be choosing war over peace.

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122 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

II Again, I wish to stress the collective subjectifying effect behind such conditioning. For the English gazing in the French ``mirror,'' the recognition of self-as-``other'' precipitates the realization of self-as-absence, according to the Lacanian paradigm. If French mutability enables the English to ``make sense'' of their world, by showing them what is to be avoided at all costs, there is a hidden cost ``always already'' paid. In these plays, I suggest, that lack is figured in the continual evanescence, or present-absence, of that which purports to be the universal object of desire: peace, which painfully eludes England for many years ± until the self-declared and emblematic arch-enemy of ``this weak piping time of peace'' (R3 I.i.24) is abjected, thanks to a glittering Tudor ``presence.'' And while, for the most part, the elusiveness of peace is reflected in its lack of definition, on the most significant occasions when a positive discourse of peace appears, that discourse is informed by an association with France and with the feminine that becomes, for better or worse, a measure of English manhood. Henry VI's prospective marriage to the Earl of Armagnac's daughter, designed as the instrument of a ``godly'' and a ``friendly peace'' (1H6 V.i.5, 38), is shunted aside by the divisive desires of Suffolk and Margaret, which engender a match destined to become grist for Stubbs's mill.19 (Holinshed gives ample warrant for Stubbs's judgement, marginally labelling the marriage ``ominous'' and blaming it for the loss not only of Maine, Anjou, and Le Mans in dowry but of England's patrimony Aquitaine, through the enmity of the Earl of Armagnac [3: 208].) Henry's usurper ironically commits a version of his error, self-indulgently spurning alliance with the implicit signifier for ``good woman'' and ``good things'' ± a union that might shore up the shaky peace. The immediate effect is to turn France hostile, reinvigorating the ``[s]he-wolf of France'' (3H6 I.iv.111) by way of Warwick and a French army, and to give malcontents, with Richard of Gloucester as their standard-bearer, a focus for discontent. I have previously cited Hastings' argument against the French alliance. It should now be clearer that the alternative, urged by Montague, hints at a model of English national selfhood as incorporating its French ``other'':

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Such a coming home to roost of discursive chickens is effectively documented by Parmelee and Kirk, from their differing but overlapping perspectives, when they demonstrate the conditioning of the English discourse of civil war by the French ``other.''

Montague Yet, to have join'd with France in such alliance Would more have strength'ned this our commonwealth 'Gainst foreign storms than any home-bred marriage. Hastings Why, knows not Montague that of itself England is safe, if true within its self? Montague But the safer when 'tis back'd with France. Hastings 'Tis better using France than trusting France. Let us be back'd with God, and with the seas, Which he hath giv'n for fence impregnable, And with their helps only defend ourselves: In them, and in ourselves, our safety lies. (3H6 IV.i.36±46) Thanks to the looming disaster of the near future, even if the past is discounted, irony pervades Hastings' speech. This appeal to an England ``true within its self'' savours less of myth than of intrinsic impossibility. An impartial reader of Holinshed might supply the gloss, ``English love.''

III The anti-French discourse of the English has its most notable apparent triumph in the First Tetralogy, and with the seeming backing of God, when it has the personification of the French national identity to operate on. It is suggestive, therefore, that Joan's most ``damning'' moment, at least before the eventual confirmation of her traffic with devils, involves the discourse of peace ± in a way, moreover, that intertextually spans the two Tetralogies. Having proved herself potently dangerous to the English on the battlefield, Joan does the same on the field of symbolic exchange relations by ``enchant[ing]'' (1H6 III.iii.40) Philip of Burgundy into a renunciation of the Burgundian±English alliance, a cornerstone of English policy in France firmly in place since the Treaty of Troyes (1420).20 This scene epitomizes in radically fictional form ± for the real Jeanne had been burnt in 1431, four years before Burgundy's defection ± a pivotal historical event, duly emphasized in the Chronicles, where the ensuing riots in London against Flemings, Hollanders, and Burgundians are also mentioned (3: 183±4).21 The play further departs from history to give Joan the argument ± without contradicting it ± that England first showed disloyalty towards Burgundy by releasing his enemy, Charles d'OrleÂans. By contrast, the Chronicles stipulate that the English freed Charles to ``displeasure'' (3: 196) Burgundy only after the

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Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy 123

latter had changed sides, and that Burgundy nevertheless undertook to reconcile the two houses. Within the play-text, however, not only are historical complications occluded, but Joan's verbal spell-casting threatens to escape from its immediate political context, even from the framework of witchcraft, as Burgundy's consternation testifies: ``Either she hath bewitch'd me with her words, / Or nature makes me suddenly relent'' (III.iii.58±9). For the audience, the speech heightens its impact by resonating within a distinctive discursive tradition ± the rhetoric of peace, which mandates the maternal encoding of the war-ravaged country and the motif of its unnaturally curtailed fertility: Look on thy country, look on fertile France,

And see the cities and the towns defac'd

By wasting ruin of the cruel foe:

As looks the mother on her lowly babe,

When death doth close his tender-dying eyes,

See, see the pining malady of France!

Behold the wounds, the most unnatural wounds,

Which thou thyself has given her woeful breast.

O, turn the edged sword another way. . . .

(44±52) This tradition had earlier and later English offshoots ± from Gower's ``In Praise of Peace,'' addressed to Henry IV (3: 481±92), to Chapman's 1609 Euthymiñ Raptus; or The Teares of Peace. Certainly, too, its classical origins and watershed formulation by Erasmus (Querela Pacis) were common European cultural property. But as James Hutton's erudite survey establishes, ``[t]he poetry of peace seems to be a French specialty'' (73). And whereas Hutton traces its roots to ``fourteenth-century humanism'' (73), his own evidence documents its implication in the two French ``firstorder entities'' with which Henry VI mimetically engages: the Hundred Years War and the Wars of Religion. Civil war, of course, is supposed to be particularly unnatural, and Joan's casting of Burgundy's actions in this light is part of her project to promote national above feudal loyalties ± something she manages more efficiently than either the chroniclers or Shakespeare's English. For the English, the already-brewing Wars of the Roses will constitute a throwback, after the nation-building interlude of Henry V, to the collapse of his usurping father's sly but futile dream of uniting factious nobles in a

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crusade. Shakespeare's character will vow: ``No more the thirsty entrance of this soil / Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood'' (1H4 I.i.6±7); ``The edge of war, like an ill-sheath'd knife, no more shall cut his master'' (17±18). (Variations of the latter image also turn up in the discourse of the French civil wars ± witness Pierre Boton's panegyric on Henri IV as the pacifier and unifier of France, Les trois visions de Childeric Quatriesme [1595]: ``Et dans leur propre sang leurs cousteaux tremperont'' [25].) Shakespeare's version of the English nation-builder will himself signal the imminent historical jolt precisely by falling prey to similar wishful thinking, when he envisages producing with Katherine ``a boy, half French, half English, that shall go to Constantinople and take the Turk by the beard'' (H5 V.ii.207±10). Ironies accrue, moreover, beyond those supplied by English history alone, given that, for Henry, the necessary condition for pan-Christian action against Constantinople, a theme of many advocates of peace amongst Christians, has been the reduction of France to the abject state evoked by that play's Burgundy. The ironies further accrue by way of French intertexts. I have elsewhere proposed setting the last three plays of the Second Tetralogy against Jacques de Lavardin's 1576 biography (based on the Latin of Barlezio) of the Albanian Christian hero known as ``Scanderbeg'' (that is, ``Alexander the Great,'' a model for Henry V and Henri IV alike).22 This work (an English version of which was printed in 1596 by Richard Field) contains a preface urging Scanderbeg's anti-Turkish heroism as a remedy for France's internal divisions. Such an argument would have fed into the twin motifs of France's controversial relations with the Turks and its supposed tendencies towards Turkish tyranny (La France-Turquie also dates from 1576), and it evidently had staying power, to judge from Henri IV's flirtation with the idea of a crusade as an alternative to an anti-Hapsburg campaign in 1607±8 (Rouillard 140±1). It is further to the point that the first known dramatic celebration of Jeanne d'Arc, Fronton Du Duc's L'Histoire tragique de la Pucelle d'OrleÂans (1580) ± a text I will be exploring below ± correlates the English aggression with the contemporaneous attack on Constantinople by the Turk Bajazeth, and indeed with the latter's subsequent chastisement at the hands of Tamburlaine (here, as in Marlowe and elsewhere, ``ce fleau de genre humain'' [Pro.(n.p.) ] ). Hutton's instances of French sixteenth-century peace poetry cluster round the 1559 Peace of Cateau-CambreÂsis, which brought to an end the war against England and Spain. The Treaty of Vervins in 1598, following the Edict of Nantes, occasioned a milder flurry (Hutton 163± 4), which would have been very much in the air at Henry V's first performance. But Hutton perhaps undervalues the immediacy and

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Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy 125

concreteness that the civil wars could lend even to poetic applications of the stock abstract motifs. Jacques Yver, in Le Printemps d'Yver, reissued in several editions after its posthumous publication in 1574 (the author may have been killed in the Saint Bartholomew massacre), provided companion poems entitled ``La Complainte sur les miseÁres de la guerre civile'' and ``Hymne pour le bienviennement de la paix'' (Printemps 524± 8). The former's horrific vision of fields and rivers running with blood is wishfully reversed in the latter, where the poor peasant musters the courage to work his fields under the auspices of Peace, celebrated in conventional style as the restorer of fecundity (``Tu . . . rends la vigne fertile'') and natural order (``Tu accordes les saisons'' [528] ). The rhetorical tradition also pervades, and gains materiality from, civil war prose. Serres, for instance, has that unequivocally positive figure for most Elizabethans, Jeanne d'Albret, declare her solicitude ``that Fraunce the mother countrey and nursse of so many sorts of people become not barreyn, and so suffer her children to die . . . '' (Serres, A discourse of the ciuile warres, 24). In 1569, the canon Charles Sevin pronounced a sermon (published in the following year as La Merveilleuse complainte de la Paix pardevant notre dieu), in which Peace laments her expulsion from France and links war's devastation of the countryside (``[l]e plat pays tout ruine et destruit'' [34] ) with its deleterious social consequences. Derivative though this exhortation is from Querela Pacis, Hutton seems overly dismissive in terming it ``only lightly adapted to the times'' (146). There are a non-Erasmian specificity and potent nostalgia in Sevin's evocation of France as formerly florrisant & abondant en toutes graces & benedictions, . . . [c]omme de belles, riches & fortes villes . . . grandes quantiteÂs de terres labourables, fertiles & fructueuses en toutes especes de nourriture, abondance de vignes & d'arbres fruictiers, gouuernement maintenu par iustes loix & sainctes ordonnances, institution d'honnestes disciplines. . . . (39±40) Twenty years later The restorer of the French estate (Hurault?) brings Peace's plea so thoroughly down to earth, in terms of ``every thing that seems unnatural'' (H5 5.2.62), that even the tired topos of the disrupted seasons is made a practical human function: All my villages & champion soyles are conuerted into sepulchres, monuments and churchyardes: my poore Villagers doo resemble goblins, ghoastes forpined of skin and bone, without flesh; so many Pesants, so many Anatomies: they be labourers no more, they be all

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126 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

counsellers of Estate, they obserue no longer the seasons of the yeere, the motions and alterations of the ayre; and they haue reason: since that they sow no more, the iniuries of th'ayre can hurt them no more: but they are busie to marke the motions and alterations that happen in the Estate and common wealth; for from this quarter comes the tempest on that little which is left them. . . . Finally, on what side soeuer I turne mine eyes, I see nothing but deformitie. (3) As the civil wars dragged on, the perennial elusiveness of peace in France tended to infuse the transcendence of time inherent in visions of the Golden Age with the pressing futility of endless desire. And when Henry V elaborates essentially the same language as Henry VI's Joan for the same Burgundy, now himself pleading to England and France for peace ± ``[d]ear nurse of arts, plenties, and joyful births'' (V.ii.34) ± the eternal impossibilities of pastoral are likewise infused with a sense of peace as ``too long . . . chas'd'' (38) from France. This Peace is no ethereal exile, as in so many cases, but a refugee, ``naked, poor, and mangled'' (34) ± despoiled by the mechanisms of history, whose mere agent Henry, in effect, professes himself to be. Burgundy might appear to be urging Henry to take responsibility for those mechanisms, but he is actually speaking for the English king himself, since peace obviously depends on abandoning resistance. Thus Henry asks the citizens of Honfleur, in detailing his horrific punishments for resistance, ``What is't to me, when you yourselves are cause?'' (III.iii.19). Henry's evocation does its job at Honfleur, enabling him to retain his claim to clemency. Edward III dares not only to put such language into violent action but to pit it directly against the rhetoric of peace. There a French peasant is allowed to warn his countrymen that ``[s]weetflow'ring peace, the root of happy life, / Is quite abandon'ed and expuls'd the land (III.ii.47±8), then to describe the effect of two of the three weapons with which the Chorus endows Henry V (``sword'' and ``fire''); the third (``famine'' [H5 Pro.7] ) will implicitly follow: I might perceive five cities all on fire,

Cornfields and vineyards burning like an oven;

And, as the reeking vapor in the wind

Turn'd but aside, I likewise might discern

The poor inhabitants, escap'd the flame,

Fall numberless upon the soldiers' pikes.

(Edward III III.ii.56±61)

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Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy 127

This frank displacement of French peace by English war has nothing to do with irony, it seems, but rather depends on a more secure sense than Henry V displays that the terrestrial ``ministers of wrath'' (Edward III III.ii.62) viewed by the peasant serve, as he himself halfintuits, a celestial master; there is nothing in Edward III to qualify the Prince's concluding certainty, expressed in prayer, that ``Thy pleasure chose me for the man / To be the instrument to show Thy power'' (V.i.218±19). That such divine favour was regularly attached by French and English Protestants to Henri of Navarre in his march towards the crown makes it worth comparing the latter's self-conscious deployment of the rhetoric of peace in an open letter following the assassination of Guise and the Cardinal, when war was a foregone conclusion; Henri moves from the sickness of the body politic, which has collectively chosen civil war over the conquest of other nations or the defeat of the Turks (Lettre du Roy de Nauarre 248), to the prospects for healing: Quel remede? Nul autre, que la paix: la paix, qui remet l'ordre au coeur de ce royaume: qui par l'ordre lui rend sa force naturelle, qui par l'ordre chasse les desobeissances et malignes humeurs: purge les corrumpues: & les remplit de bon sang, de bonnes intentions, de bonnes volontez: qui, en somme, le fait viure. C'est la paix, qu'il faut demander aÁ Dieu, pour son seul remede, pour sa seule guerison. Qui en c[h]erche d'autre: au lieu de guerir, le veut empoisonner. (251) War, clearly, is provoked by others; it is up to them to choose peace, the universal desideratum. Neither the choice nor the responsibility is his. It is hardly surprising that the praise of peace reaches back, in the French tradition, to the Hundred Years War. Still, it makes an intriguing coincidence, at least, that the widely diffused Lay de Paix of Alain Chartier ± the virtual wellspring of the genre, as Hutton demonstrates (63±4) ± is closely associated with the same Philip of Burgundy staged by Shakespeare; indeed, it was probably addressed to him (Laidlaw, ed. 11) and so in a sense models the appeal of Joan. This work combines a plea for the return of ``Paix eureuse, fille du Dieu des dieux'' (1), now ``[e]xilliee de France'' (5), with a contrast between the fertile past, when the land was cultivated (``Labourer faisoie'' [126] ), and present devastation, depicting essentially the same effects of war as Shakespeare's Henry attaches to the Dolphin's ``mock'' (H5 I.ii.284 ff.):

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128 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

Quantes dames en veufvages,

Orphenins sans heritage

Ne mesnages;

Labourages

Et villages,

Bourgs, villes, chasteaulx, passages

Ars, destruis, et mis au bas!

(92±8) War's perversion of the social order, with the ``[m]eschans mis en haulx estages'' (107), entails moral degeneration, as in Burgundy's vision of a people who ``grow like savages'' (H5 V.ii.59). The consequences extend to the debasing of language itself from a vehicle of timeless truth to a time-serving instrument of oppression: ``Foulx messages, / Faulx langages'' (109±10). It is a point that Katherine comes close to scoring upon her conqueror: ``Your Majestee ave fausse French enough to deceive de most sage demoiselle dat is en France'' (218±19). As with the civil war texts, to look beyond the strictly ``literary'' treatments of peace in the fifteenth century expands the discourse in Shakespeare's direction. The ethical and theological deÂbat in which Bates and Williams engage Henry V (IV.i.130 ff.) is anticipated with some specificity in a fictional conversation, composed in Latin, between an English and a French soldier. In the two-part Dialogus Cujus Collocutores Sunt Milites Duo, Unus Francus, Alter Anglicus, attributed (probably in error) to the prominent Parisian theologian Jean Gerson, the erstwhile enemies meet in a monastery in the Vaucluse, where both have come in quest of spiritual solace. The Englishman maintains that a subject cannot judge the actions of his king, to whom he owes absolute obedience, and hence is not accountable for his own actions. The Frenchman, for whom the injustice of the English is manifest ± the devil and the treacherous Robert of Artois having incited their challenge to the Salic law ± insists that a subject's higher duty is to the pacific teachings of Christ, and that soldiers, not just their monarchs, will be divinely punished for their wicked actions. This process is already underway amongst the English in France, and the Frenchman looks forward to its completion on the Judgement Day, which Williams imagines, of course, as vindicating obedient soldiers at their king's expense (H5 IV.i.134 ff.). And if the Frenchmen humbly accepts the Englishman's proposal that God is using the war as his scourge ± his ``beadle'' or ``vengeance'' in Henry's phrase (169) ± to punish the French, he drily adds, ``vae tamen

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Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy 129

illis per quos scandala veniunt [woe nevertheless to those through whom scandals come]'' (col. 846).23 The timeless tendencies of the language of peace foster the impression, from an intertextual perspective, that the Burgundy of Henry V, as if still bewitched, is at once strangely anticipating and recapitulating Joan's suasions to him in the earlier (but ``later'') play. Momentarily suspended are the charged politics of the situation, even if they lurk in the background and step forward abruptly when Henry states, as a matter of cold fact, ``you must buy that peace'' (H5 V.ii.70). It would be up to auditors with a fair knowledge of history, if only by way of Holinshed, to colour the apparent neutrality of this Burgundy with an awareness of his original's shifting involvement with both the English and the French.24 But anyone might register the fact that the ``best garden of the world'' (36), according to Burgundy's vision of peace, is appropriated on Henry's behalf by the Chorus, however tenuously, as the spoils of war, the index of empire: ``Fortune made his sword; / By which the world's best garden he achieved, / And of it left his son imperial lord'' (Epi.6±8). Such appropriation is enacted by Henry's capacity, indivisible from his military dominance (``She is our capital demand . . . '' [V.ii.96] ) to woo and win the female emblem of the French nation (``my fair flower-de-luce'' [210] ), one whose ``witchcraft'' need not be destroyed because it resides safely in her ``lips'' (275±6): there is more eloquence in a single touch of them than in the tongues of the French council; and they should sooner persuade Harry of England than a general petition of monarchs. (276±9) This witchcraft is not merely safe but compliant, as Henry effectively underlines, precisely because it consists not in eloquence but in a sexuality that her very broken English ± an element absent from the equivalent encounter in the Famous Victories (1360 ff.) ± renders charming, docile, and fertile. This is French ``peace'' in English possession: ``I love France so well that I will not part with a village of it'' (V.ii.173±4). It is an effect recapitulated, though in the faded tones of obsolescence, when Talbot tames the shrewish Countess of Auvergne (1H6 II.iii).

IV Joan is never given broken English to speak, and so it is up to the English to break it. The process is built into the text at a basic level, but so is resistance ± even when she gloats, after the success of her eloquence,

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130 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

``Done like a Frenchman ± turn and turn again!'' (1H6 III.iii.85). For while it superficially confirms ± by internalizing ± the English stereotype of the French (perhaps with a glance at Henri IV's conversion, as has been suggested25), the remark more profoundly reinstates Joan as a cynical manipulator of language. Her closest resemblance is to Richard III, whose triumphant comments on his wooing speeches stake out a position beyond discourse itself: ``Was ever woman in this humor won?'' (R3 I.ii.228); ``Relenting fool, and shallow, changing woman!'' (IV.iv.431). Such a position is potently magical, because humanly impossible, and it is one in which a number of subversives in Renaissance drama, especially female ones, find themselves placed.26 Here, its menace is reflected in the urgency of York in silencing Joan when she begins to curse after her capture. Anticipating Mercutio's access of bitter wisdom (``A plague a' both your houses!'' [Rom. III.ii.88±100, 106] ), she again places herself outside the discourse of us-against-them: A plaguing mischief light on Charles and thee!

And may ye both be suddenly surpris'd

By bloody hands, in sleeping on your beds!

(V.iii.39±41) The massacre of Saint Bartholomew, the ambush of Guise, might seem to mark this ``plague'' as typically French, but the immediate historical sequel will instead portray abundant massacres of the English by the English ± more turning and turning again (Warwick is the outstanding example) than Burgundy ever dreamt of. The distinct touch of panic in York's reply suggests that the curse is already striking home: ``Fell banning hag, enchantress, hold thy tongue'' (V.iii.42). A powerfully ironic moment of transition, noted by modern editors as a matter of course, follows immediately: the exit of York with his prisoner is separated only by an ``Alarum'' from the entrance of Suffolk, who has captured ± but is actually captured by ± a shape-changing enchantress of his own. When Margaret appears for the first time, she proffers, in Suffolk's imagination, the spectral promise of peace: Be what thou wilt, thou art my prisoner.

O fairest beauty, do not fear nor fly,

For I will touch thee but with reverend hands.

I kiss these fingers for eternal peace. . . .

(45±8)

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Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy 131

It is by now a well established point (Fiedler 48; Marcus 89) that Margaret's dramatic destiny is to take over Joan's subversive Frenchness, complete with aberrant sexuality, virago status, and at least metaphoric witchcraft.27 By the end of the Tetralogy, the last of these elements has developed grotesquely, as if to compensate for the loss of the other two. Still, Margaret's witchcraft is so closely linked to the civil wars (including the cold-blooded murder of her son), and finally finds such a fitting object in Richard of Gloucester, that it comes to carry authority bordering on the moral. We are gratified to see Richard daunted, when he is driven to echo the demand of York: ``Have done thy charm, thou hateful with'red hag'' (R3 I.iii.214). Instead of trying to expunge her more-than-human menace, however, Richard, at least for a time, succeeds in assuming it. So he does symbolically when he supplies Margaret's name in lieu of his own at the end of her curse (I.iii.233 ff.). Perhaps the most telling measure of Joan's extra-discursive menace is a negative one ± the exultation with which, as she is finally led to execution, York, now joined by Warwick, mocks the reduction of her Protean speech to fragile inventions aimed at saving her life. She denies her grief-stricken father; and, whether a virgin or not ± a cherished but troubling question for the English, to judge from both the Chronicles and the play ± she is driven to declare herself pregnant: ``Strumpet, thy words condemn thy brat and thee. / Use no entreaty, for it is in vain'' (V.iv.84±5). English power ± not just physical, in (unhistorically) capturing her, but discursive, for she is ``condemn'd'' (1) by law ± prevails in revealing her as nothing but Doll Tearsheet after all. In a world without Henry V, there is no question of taming her eloquence or her sexuality. Rather, both of these, which go with the unstable territory, not merely of France, but of signification itself, must be reduced to their lowest ± unequivocally human ± form, before being consumed by fire and scattered to the winds. The play-text collaborates, of course, by exposing Joan's collaboration with evil powers ``objectively.'' It does so belatedly, however ± not until Act V, Scene iii, and after varied exercises of her energy have been allowed to make their impression independently. Those manifestations notably include the death of the Talbots ± the most drastic chronological dislocation of all, since that event occurred in 1453, over twenty years after Jeanne's burning. Shakespeare makes the confrontation between his two mythologized figures the culmination of a contest, both military and discursive, going back to the siege of OrleÂans. After his initial defeat there, the disconcerted Talbot posed the resonant question, ``Heavens, can you suffer hell so to prevail?'' (I.v.9); before his

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132 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

counterattack, he established the stakes in the same terms, which his success appeared to validate: ``Well, let them practice and converse with spirits. / God is our fortress, in whose conquering name / Let us resolve to scale their flinty bulwarks'' (II.i.24±6). By this token, Talbot's ultimate downfall puts divine favour in doubt, and certainly, with the dubious exception of the ineffectual king himself, there is nothing godly about the play's English ± on the contrary, especially given the Cardinal of Winchester. In any case, the course of events after Joan's death confirms their vulnerability to evil spirits conjured only by themselves. Meanwhile, by revealing and dismissing Joan's spirits, the text paradoxically enacts a de facto exorcism; thereafter, to portray her as reconstructed ± captured ± by the English, is to insist on her ``otherness'' as part of them, the part that defines them through lack. Hastings' dim echo of Talbot's lines in Henry VI, Part Three (``Let us be back'd with God . . . ''), at a point when England has been thoroughly humiliated by the French, implicitly exposes an Anglophile divinity as a discursive construction. This is a point that even Henry V makes difficult to miss, precisely by showing that king in thorough charge of his pious rhetoric ± a discursive muscle he has been flexing since his time as Hal. The ultimate sign of this mastery is his insistent assignment of credit for Agincourt to God, in keeping with English historical tradition. In effect, Henry, of whom Talbot is himself a pale imitation, is there established as the guarantor of the transcendental signified ± the anchor, for the English, of an entire semiotic system. What happens discursively in Henry VI, as well as militarily and socially, may therefore be seen as the inevitable fragmentation produced by his disappearance. Even an audience without benefit of the Second Tetralogy arguably had access to such a reading, thanks not only to the recurrent reminiscences of Henry but also to conflicting appropriations of divine favour by the play's English and French (the latter by way of Joan). And that discursive chaos, with the transcendental signified up for grabs, had a pressing model in the contemporary French conflicts. An inevitable corollary of the appropriation of God, moreover, was each side's imputation of witchcraft to the other, as a means of accounting for the enemy's successes and objectifying their evil. Given the gender of most of the political players ± Catherine de Medici, figured as Medea by Estienne (158), is a prominent exception ± the motif could have hardly have been limited to women. Thus Elizabeth's suitor AlencËon, according to Stubbs, was a ``sorcerer by common voice and fame,'' as well as, like Joan for the English, a sexual transgressor ± ``an instrument in France of uncleanness'' (92).28

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Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy 133

So was EÂpernon for Leaguers, and the protracted conjuring of Matthieu's d'Espernon in La Guisiade provides the closest contemporary dramatic analogue to the scene of Joan's traffic with spirits. It makes, up to a point, a remarkable mirror image, for both sorcerers are perverse idealists, sufficiently deluded to sacrifice themselves body and soul ± hardly an empty formula in the context ± for their respective causes: ``Then take my soul ± my body, soul, and all'' (1H6 V.iii.22); ``Je vous offre mon ame, et mes biens, et my vie'' (Matthieu 809). D'Espernon is appealing, however, not just to generalized fiends but specifically to ``[d]u party Navarrois les esprit revoltez'' (808), for his ultimate aim is the accession of ``l'heros de Bourbon, / Mon maistre, mon support, Prince excellent et bon'' (861±2). Still, in popular Machiavellian style, he remains fully cognizant of his overdetermined evil and committed to it for its own sake. By comparison, remarkably, there is nothing Machiavellian or vicious about Joan's witchcraft; its very diabolism is tempered with dignity (``the lordly Monarch of the North'' [1H6 V.iii.6] ), and its objective is merely to free France from the English. Even more important, it fails, at least in the short term: the spirits leave her in despair at the prospect that ``France must vail her lofty-plumed crest / And let her head fall into England's lap'' (25±6). Her response resoundingly confirms her as sincere, and if the image of France is sexualized so as to imply continuing ``feminine'' menace for the English, that menace is of the psychological kind inherent in intimacy, which incarnates the dependence of the ``self'' on the ``other''. The vitriol of Matthieu's propaganda, as epitomized in his demonization of EÂpernon, presumes an audience of Catholic extremists. However strong the general English biases against France, the propagandistic elements in Henry VI, Part One are not merely softened but multiply problematized by the distance of history. In this context, Joan, even as defined by her own ostensibly damning words, remains stubbornly indefinite and elusive. On the other hand, the play's English remarkably mimic, mutatis mutandis, the project of d'Espernon, which entails destroying the champion of Catholic France, sowing discord amongst the French, and finally, as Matthieu strongly intimates, (re)delivering France into the English camp. The discursive opposition between godliness and sorcery, then, like those between loyalty and treachery, virginity and whoredom, is destabilized not only intra- but intertextually. Talbot vows defiance, over the fallen Salisbury, of ``Pucelle or puzzel, Dolphin or dogfish'' (I.iv.107). He presumably means ``puzzel'' in the slang sense of ``slut,'' as editors agree, but his word-play blurs the very distinctions he seeks to impose, at the expense

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134 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

of his own discursive authority.29 What emerges most distinctly is a quality of frustrated bluster ± enhanced, perhaps, by the modern sense of ``puzzle.''30 The discursive instability surrounding Joan extends even to the mocking Englishmen who, in overseeing her execution, uncannily evoke the executioners of Christ in the Cycle plays. Such lines as, ``Now heaven forfend, the holy maid with child?'' (V.iv.65), combine with her lapse into fearful humanity, even her denial of her father, to lend resonances of the crucifixion to her last moments ± resonances more subversive for their grotesque parody. These, in turn, attach themselves to her recovered resolution in language reinfused with magical potency: Then lead me hence; with whom I leave my curse: My never glorious sun reflex his beams Upon the country where you make abode; But darkness and the gloomy shade of death Environ you, till mischief and despair Drive you to break your necks or hang yourselves! (87±91) The evocation of Cain and of Judas enhances the force of this malediction, whose reach extends geographically from France back to England. Metaphysically, Joan's curse carries anywhere on the face of the earth, because it is the curse of self-division ± that is, ultimately and universally, of the irremediably divided subject. This is to give voice to the unspoken curse that Coke, in his heralds' Debate, sought to turn back in French upon La Pucelle by invoking Talbot, just as his English herald sought to turn back the fact of English discord upon his French accuser: ``it is truth: we have often tymes warres, and that amongest our selves, which alwayes moveth by the falsed and treason of the Frenchmen'' (92). There is no equivalent to Joan's curse ± far from it ± in Shakespeare's English sources; not even her dying prophecy of the English expulsion from France in Fronton Du Duc's play possesses the same mysterious authority. In effect, Shakespeare is recuperating the remark that concludes her story in the Grandes croniques de Bretaigne (where she has already predicted her betrayal and death in Christ-like fashion [Bouchart 2: 307] ): ``Oncques puis les Anglois ne prospererent en France'' (2: 309).31

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Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy 135

The ``brat'' that the English half-acknowledge Joan as carrying ± the child, they also half-acknowledge, of the entire French nation, for whom they want ``Alanson, that notorious Machevile'' (1H6 V.iv.74), to stand ± will be delivered in the form of England's incapacity to be ``true within itself.'' For it is equally the child of English hatred and denial. Joan's spiritual offspring, (de)formed in the crucible of bloody domestic division, will be one who can ``[c]hange shapes with Proteus for advantages, / And set the murtherous Machevil to school'' (3H6 III.ii.192±3): Richard of Gloucester, born with teeth, at once bewitched and bewitching.32 Joan's last scene, after all, is on the verge of another ironic transition: York's verbal attempt to keep her fragmented, demonic, and extinct (``Break thou in pieces and consume to ashes, / Thou foul accursed minister of hell!'' [V.iv.92±3] ) appears virtually to conjure up the Cardinal of Winchester, a fitting harbinger of what Holinshed terms the ``diuilish division that reigned in England'' (3: 228). Joan's dream, therefore ± like her heart, in the hagiographic accounts ± does not go up in smoke. The Dauphin's extravagant evocation of her immortal memory after the victory at OrleÂans is not, in the end, discredited; nor is his anticipation of Henry V: `` `Tis Joan, not we, by whom the day is won'' (I.vi.17). And when, in the first scene of Henry VI, Part Two, Warwick rages over the continued loss of English possessions in France, we find him finally speaking, or spoken by, Joan's language: ``Mort Dieu!'' (I.i.123). All in all, between Talbot and Joan, it is the Frenchwoman who makes the more plausible phoenix ± complete with ashes ± as her replacement by Margaret suggests.33 The miraculous legends, including those of her survival, are thus ironically recuperated. Lucy's appropriation of the phoenix image for the English hero finally makes a lame retort to Joan's insistence on the conspicuous mortality of his remains: ``Him that thou magnifi'st with all these titles / Stinking and fly-blown here lies at our feet'' (IV.vii.75±6). The image of themselves that the English view in their French mirror includes, as I have suggested, the carrion-crow ± ``signification mortifeÁre,'' indeed ± which does not readily yield to myths of immortality. The dying Talbot, having lost the hope of seeing his ``name . . . reviv'd'' (IV.v.3) in his offspring, may plausibly invoke the standard Christian consolation, asserting that the ``winged'' souls of himself and his son shall ``scape mortality'' (IV.vii.21±2) in spite of death, the terrestrial tyrant. Less convincing are his efforts to defeat that tyrant rhetorically on the battlefield of symbolic exchangerelations:

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Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy 137

Brave Death by speaking, whether he will or no;

Imagine him a Frenchman, and thy foe.

Poor boy, he smiles, methinks, as who should say,

Had Death been French, then Death had died to-day.

Even Henry V's normally irresistible rhetoric goes soft when he purports to turn, not mere tennis balls, but slain Englishmen into gunstones: A many of our bodies shall no doubt

Find native graves; upon the which, I trust,

Shall witness live in brass of this day's work.

And those that leave their valiant bones in France,

Dying like men, though buried in your dunghills,

They shall be fam'd; for there the sun shall greet them,

And draw their honors reeking up to heaven,

Leaving their earthly parts to choke your clime,

The smell whereof shall breed a plague in France.

Mark then abounding valor in our English:

That being dead, like to the bullet's crasing,

Break out into a second course of mischief,

Killing in relapse of mortality.

(H5 VI.iii.95±107) Talbot's bones will be duly installed in their monument at Rouen (though Lucy does not name the place), for the moment under firm English control, and will duly bear their much-reported inscription. Joan's will become part of the elements themselves, dependent on no rotting parts to reinscribe continual ``mischief'' for the living English. In this way, despite the capture of her mortal person ± ``Damsel of France, I think I have you fast'' (V.iii.30) ± she escapes from English hands forever. The point would have been far less evident had the play followed historical fact, as specified in the Chronicles (3: 171) and virtually all other narratives, by having Jeanne burned at Rouen. As it is, the playtext protests too much in making Joan's capture and execution, not just an exclusively English matter but a geographically ``ungrammatical'' one. An audience is aware only that the French army is marching from the region of Bordeaux towards Paris when it is encountered by the English, presumably in Anjou ± a setting obviously intended to facilitate

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(25±8)

the historically absurd juxtaposition of Joan and Margaret.34 (As the Chronicles accurately record, it was in 1444±5 that Suffolk engineered the marriage of King Henry with Marguerite d'Anjou, who was born in 1430, the year before Jeanne's death; nor had she been captured by the English.) Joan's trial and burning evidently follow in very short order and more or less on the spot ± a far cry from history, including history according to Hall (157 ff.) and Holinshed (3: 170±1), both of whom document her trial, imprisonment, and burning in Rouen. Even apart from the chronicles, an audience that knew about Talbot's tomb might be expected to have known, too, of the powerful association of Jeanne with that city in her contemporary capacity as emblem, not only of the eventual French triumph over the English, but of the ``pure'' French Catholicism that, at least prior to 1593, refused royalty to Henri IV. It was, in fact, from Rouen, where he had resided since his solemn entrance on 29 July 1430,35 that Henry VI issued a series of letters justifying the condemnation of La Pucelle. Her statue was erected there around 1515 (Contamine 251).36 In sum, here, too, Shakespeare is not just expediently compressing history but violently dislocating it. The Elizabethan chroniclers make it clear that they are writing squarely against the potent myth of Jeanne. Hall stridently complains that, despite her manifest imposture, as demonstrated by the Church, ``diuerse French writers affirme her to be a saincte in heaven'' (159). He also makes her ± in line with official accounts and structurally in keeping with Shakespeare's representation ± acknowledge her spirits to be devils just before her execution. Needless to say, she leaves no unburnt heart behind; on the contrary, specificity and eye-witness testimony eradicate mystery. Even the price of morally redeeming Jeanne, albeit in small measure, is worth paying in order to forestall her redemptive pretensions: ``And so beying in good mynde, she was by the Iustices caried to the olde market, within the citee of Roan, and there by the fire, consumed to asshes, in the sight of all the people'' (159). Holinshed's second edition, on which Shakespeare evidently drew, goes Hall one better, adding Jeanne's claim to be pregnant, as well as a localizing detail that carries the authority of eye-witness: she was, we are told, ``executed by consumption of fire in the old market place at Rone, in the self same steÂed where now saint Mechaels church stands, hir ashes afterward without the towne wals shaken into the wind'' (3: 171). As in Hall, Jeanne's continuing grip on the imagination is dismissively attributed to ``French stories'' and ``books'' (3: 163) typically full of exaggerations and distortions.37 It is particularly suggestive that, with regard to Jeanne, the second edition of Holinshed, in both tone and substance, outdoes the first,

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138 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

which, restricting its account in both scope and tone, suggests a reluctance to dignify her with excessive attention: `` . . . of whiche woman yee maye finde more written in the French historie, touching her birth, estate, & qualitie'' (Holinshed [1577] 1241). There is a world of difference between such passive contempt and the intense aggression of ten years later. When Hall's Chronicle appeared in 1548, the memory of Henry VIII's futile assertion of himself as ``inheritor to the realme of Fraunce by blood and also so confirmed by diuers Charters in the tyme of kyng Charles the vii'' (678) was fresh. This may help to explain why active debunking of Jeanne (``this peuishe painted Puzel'' [159] ) was then in order: the gullibility of the French is stressed (148), as well as the ecclesiastically sanctioned justice of her condemnation (157) ± a point further confirmed by including the justificatory letter of Henry VI (157± 9). It is tempting to link the extreme hostility of Holinshed's revisers with the ascendancy of Jeanne as spiritual patroness of the House of Lorraine ± a point I will shortly be documenting. Hall mistakenly located her native village in Burgundy (148); in Holinshed, it is precisely situated ``vpon Meuse in Loraine within the diocesse of Thoule'' (3: 163). Now she is violently scorned as the ``great goddesse'' of the enemy, whose vulnerability to harm and disgrace (as when she falls into the filthy ditch at Saint Denis) gives occasion for gloating (3: 168). The chroniclers' discursive antagonists are regularly cited in the margins. One actually makes it into the main text (``this tale of Tillets'' [3: 172]38) to assist in ridiculing Jeanne's 1456 rehabilitation (171±2). Indeed, despite its historical remoteness, the rehabilitation comes in for particular scorn in the 1587 Chronicles, with the French king's willingness to countenance ``diuelish practises with misbeleeuers and witches'' earning him the snide marginal dismissal, ``Christianissimus rex'' (3: 171). The sarcasm reaches its zenith at the conclusion, when the writers purport to let the absurdity speak for itself: ``And thus much of this gentle Ione, and of her good oratours that haue said so well for hir: now iudge as ye list'' (3: 172). The real target, surely, is the instauration of Jeanne's myth, which may be documented from at least that moment ± Philippe Contamine effectively traces the process into the early sixteenth century ± as an essential feature of the national consciousness of France. By the late sixteenth century that myth had become fodder, in particular, for mystical Catholic fantasies of national destiny, such as those of Guillaume Postel, who was encouraged by the Guise faction and finally suppressed by royal authority. It also inspired more moderate Catholics, amongst them Estienne Pasquier and Marie de Gournay, and even the Protestant Serres, whose acceptance of her

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Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy 139

divine mission to rescue France from English oppression marks the same nationalist crossing of religious lines as Du Bartas's celebration of the capture of Calais by the duc de Guise.39 Certainly, for Boton, writing in 1595, there is no contradiction ± quite the contrary ± in celebrating Jeanne's victories against ``l'insulaire inhumain'' (22) alongside those of the newly Catholic Henri IV against the Spanish. In this context, an especially subversive contribution of Henry VI, Part One is actively to seek out that myth from the margins of English history and put it back into play ± however backhandedly ± as part of the discursive currency of English±French relations. There, of course, it already was ± and remains to this day, to judge from French popular histories, guidebooks, and monuments. Indeed, a de facto sequel to Henry VI, Part One was supplied in 1629 by La Rocheloise, part of a later wave of Catholic pamphlets.40 This one, whose author is identified only by initials (``P. M.'') is in dramatic form; the subject is the recent defeat of the French Protestants and their English allies by the forces of Louis XIII (Henri IV's son) at La Rochelle ± the town that had served as a focal point and emblem of Protestant resistance throughout the Wars of Religion. The treatment of history is less strictly factual even than Shakespeare's: the English themselves are depicted as paying tribute to the strength, courage, and virtue of Jeanne d'Arc.

V It is still another French ``book,'' however, one published in 1581 ± thus between the first and second editions of Holinshed ± that enters most productively into intertextual dialogue with Shakespeare's treatment of Jeanne (again, on the condition that the question of ``influence'' remains indeterminate). Fronton Du Duc's L'Histoire tragique de la Pucelle d'OrleÂans, written for performance in 1580, was no abstract literary exercise but a pointed political intervention harking back to Chantalouve's tragedy of Coligny and anticipating Matthieu's of the duc de Guise. La Pucelle's ideological orientation may be inferred from both internal and external indicators, beginning with its dedication to Charles III, duc de Lorraine. (Intriguingly, another play by Chantelouve, Pharaon [pub. 1577], was also so dedicated, despite that author's lack of a regional connection: he was a Gascon, who felt constrained to apologize to Charles for his crude French.41) Fronton Du Duc was a Jesuit at the then-university of Pont-aÁ-Mousson, founded by Charles in 1572, the year of the Saint Bartholomew

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140 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

massacre, at least partly to support his radical Catholic activities. The staging of plays by students was a regular feature of university life, but this work is said to have been composed for a prospective visit in May 1580 by Henri III and his queen, who were due to visit the spa at nearby PlombieÁres. That expedition was cancelled, however, ostensibly because of outbreaks of plague in the region, and the first (and only recorded) representation took place in September of the same year, according to the nineteenth-century editor of the single post-sixteenth century edition, ``devant les princes de la maison de Lorraine et plusieurs seigneurs et geÂneÂraux de l'armeÂe de France'' (Introd. [n.p.] ).42 The AvantJeu however, suggests more than a command performance for select nobles: Messieurs, c'est aÁ l'honneur du Pays de Lorraine Au fruict de la jeunesse, affin qu'elle s'aprenne Aux artz et aux vertus, que ce peuple joyeux Est venu pour ouyr . . . (n.p.) The Prologue's conclusion seems to point in the same more popular direction; the audience is asked to listen respectfully to the high-ranking personages represented: Or, je crois qu'il est tamps qu'il me faille cesser,

Seullement donc (Messieurs), je vous prie, de grace,

Qu'aÁ ceux, qui me suyvront, ung chacun de vous fasse

L'audience qu'il fault. Ce sont Princes et Roys:

Ilz tiendront pour le moing et leurs lieux et leurs voix.

Or, vous savez bien tous qu'il est raison qu'on fasse

Tel honneurs comme au Roy, aÁ cil qui tient sa place.

(n.p.) The tone and subject-matter here make for a parallel, less with the pageant of the Nine Worthies in Love's Labour's Lost, which indeed proves fodder for mockery by its noble audience, than with the Prologue of Henry V (`` 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings'' [Pro.28] ). The publication at Nancy of Du Duc's work was supervised by Jean Barnet, counsellor and secretary to Charles III; the latter is named on the title page as patron of the performance. Whatever the precise

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Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy 141

composition of the audience, or audiences, one may confidently posit the sponsorship of the ``powerful territorial dynasty'' then constituting ``an alternative royal house'' and controlling ``a large part of northern and eastern France'' (Buisseret 15). With Navarre consolidating his power in the southwest and the king ineffectually temporizing as usual, the war of the ``three Henries'' (1584±9) was already in the cards, even if it would take the death of AlencËon, the heir apparent, as well as a formal alliance between Spain and the Guises, to supply the final impetus. Charles (brother-in-law to Henri III) openly declared for the League in 1584, the year of a conspiratorial council held at Nancy; the first such council, however, is recorded in 1580 (Dictionnaire de biographie francËaise ``Charles III''), and it is tempting to associate the first performance of La Pucelle with this gathering. Certainly, such a political context resonates insistently throughout the text. The Avant-Jeu, after staking the claim of the Lorraine to the socalled ``Pucelle . . . d'Orleans,'' first draws the compound lesson that will be hammered home: Lorraine's unwavering loyalty to the French crown and its divinely mandated salvation of the French nation. Evidently, the first has been wrongly impugned, while the second continues into the present: . . . Affin qu'on n'oye ceux qui ont ose escrire, Dentelant son honneur, et d'icelle mesdire Contre la veÂriteÂ: non, ce n'est de ce temps, Que l'estat des FrancËois, Lorraine, tu deffendz. (n.p.) This is unmistakably to join the polemical debate over the position of the House of Lorraine vis-aÁ-vis the French monarchy. The ``tragedy'' of Jeanne was ideally suited to promoting the protoLeague view that Henri III lacked true religious zeal and was prepared to betray France to foreigners ± including the notorious reõÃtres, but chiefly the traditional English enemy, who were now also openly the enemies of God and the allies of French heretics (like Chantelouve's Colligny). This is essentially the same position that La Guisiade would dramatize by way of a freshly minted martyr in the same tradition. Matthieu's play gives the duc de Guise, in his initial soliloquy, the opportunity of aligning himself with his ancestors, whose exploits on behalf of France illustrate their selfless devotion to God and king. Those exploits notably include his father's triumph at Metz (in the Lorraine)

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Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy 143

Qui resista plus fort aÁ la superbe armee

De Cesar qui foula toute la renommee

Des genereux FrancËois? qui a fait plus d'hazards

Pour sauver nostre lis de la rage de Mars?

Qui a reprins Calais deux cents ans imprenable,43

Effroyant de l'Anglois l'exercite effroyable?

Qui fit tarir le Rhin, qui cassa l'Aigle aÁ Mets,

Que le bras Guisien, boulevart de la pais?

Qui s'est mieux oppose aÁ la guerre civile,

Des terre-nez geans du cinquiesme Evangile?44

Qui a mieux dissippe les dangereux complots

Des rebelles felons, des mutins Huguenots,

Que moy? targue de foy, et creste d'esperance,

Pour mon Dieu, pour mon Roy: mais quelle recompence?

Le Roy couve en son cueur un desir inhumain,

De paistre ses mignons de tout le sang Lorrain.

(89±104) This passage is worth quoting at length because La Pucelle anticipates, along with Matthieu's politics, the inspirational rhetoric used to render them transcendental: ``targue de foy, et creste d'esperance, / Pour mon Dieu, pour mon Roy'' is language worthy of Du Duc's Jeanne herself. Predictably enough, in her play, too, the English are cruel, arrogant, and illegal occupiers of French territory, and Jeanne's dream of expelling them is shared by all patriotic French. As spokesman for the latter, Du Duc chooses a ``Gentilhomme de Rouen'': ``Quand verrons nous la fin de ceste tyrannie / Et ceste gent cruelle hors de France bannye, / Qui nous afflige tant[?]'' (V.iii [95] ). The effect is to redeem that city ± which in fact eventually revolted against the English ± from the infamy of Jeanne's trial and execution (as well, perhaps, as from earlier lapses in fidelity, including a revolt against French royal authority prior to Henry V's siege45). The Gentilhomme serves as horrified interlocutor for the pathetic account of her execution, which concludes with the double miracle of her unburnt heart (``[t]esmoignage certain'' of her purity) and the rising of a white dove ``hors du feu'' (100), which not only signals the ascent of her soul but hints at a phoenix-like successor. It is, in fact, thanks to Jeanne's

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and completion of Jeanne's mission ± the expulsion of the English from France:

successor as heaven-sent warrior from the Lorraine that a post-fallof-Calais audience would have the ``final'' answer to the Gentilhomme's question. In Du Duc's play, as in Matthieu's, the English are fomenters of civil discord, and their Medieval alliance with French collaborators and the Burgundians foreshadows their future links with the Huguenots. The Guise's triumphs over the latter are glanced at, with greater royal gratitude than King Henri has displayed, by the play's delighted monarch, whom, in the aftermath of her victory at OrleÂans, Jeanne has ``faict entrer / Ez villes qui m'estoient auparavant rebelles,'' creating a climate in which various defiers of royal authority, ``baissant leur chefs felons, / Vindrent tous aÁ mes pieds rendre humble obeissance'' (III.i [51] ). And while the English of La Pucelle are nominally Catholic, they are nonetheless perverters and corrupters of religion, applying money and power to turn local church authority against the instrument of God himself, causing true miracles to be misnamed the spoils of sorcery. The play takes pains ± like Henry V, though less equivocally ± to use churchmen from the start to show whose side God is really on: following French sources, Du Duc has Jeanne's validity, after her presentation to the king, confirmed by authoritative theologians. She is compared by them to Deborah and to the Amazons (30, 31) ± points also contained in the acknowledgement of Joan's miraculous strength by Shakespeare's Charles (``Thou art an Amazon / And fightest with the sword of Deborah'' [I.ii.104±5] ). These comparisons, incidentally, are central to the arguments of Jackson (47±61) and Marcus (52±5) connecting Shakespeare's Pucelle with Queen Elizabeth. English audiences might have made such an association, but the play is following French tradition. Shakespeare would have found the analogy between Jeanne and Deborah cited in the second edition of Holinshed (3: 172), who sneeringly attributed it to Du Tillet; like comparison with the Amazons, it was a virtual commonplace. Nevertheless, Shakespeare and Du Duc stand out for associating both references with the crucial step of convincing Charles that Jeanne is heaven-sent.46 In contrast with La Guisiade, La Pucelle is in a position to show how a right-minded French monarch should welcome his proffered saviour from Lorraine ± a message Henri III would surely have understood had he managed to make the first performance. The last of the Valois might have been pleased to hear the rightful sovereignty of his line defended, as it regularly is in Du Duc's text. Still, the Prologue manages to allude to the fairly recent installation of that line and the troubles that immediately followed:

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Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy 145

Vous vous souviendrez tous, qu'au temps que des FrancËois En France fut faict Roy Philippes de Valois, DeÁs lors se commencËa ceste sanglante guerre Du Roy de ce Royaume avec cil d'Angleterre.

As Du Bellay signalled to readers of his ``Hymne'' on the capture of Calais, it would take the initiative of Henri's more warlike father and a duc de Guise to ``vanger Philippe de Valois'' (116). Henri might or might not have been reassured by the effusive protestations of loyalty to the crown proffered to his ancestor by Rene d'Anjou, whom Du Duc prematurely makes duc de Lorraine.47 The gratitude of the Medieval Valois unmistakably points forward into the present, when there is more even than the English to worry about: ``tousjours les lis, / Quoyque de toute part se voyant assaillis, / Ne se verront jamais delaissez de vostre ayde'' (III.ii [55] ). Perhaps even less pleasingly, Henri would also have been reminded of his house's intermarriage with, and dependence on, that of Lorraine; the massive support tendered to Charles VII by ReneÂ, also married to the king's sister, hardly comes with no moral strings attached, or without reference to the political future: Sire, ce m'est plaisir, puis qu'il a pleu aÁ Dieu Ceste fille choisir issue d'ung tel lieu, Que Lorraine et Barrois conjoinct par ses frontieres; Car non pas ung seul chef, mais les villes entieres, Et tous leurs habitants, je vouldroye envoyer A vous faire service et aÁ ce employer De tous mes allieÂs les forces emprunteÂes Pour punir des Anglois les fureurs effronteÂes, Affin que pour jamais en bonne liaison On voye la maison de France et la maison De Lorraine estre ensemble estroitement conjoinctes Et jamais nos Nepveux ne les voyent disjoinctes; Ce que j'espere bien que jamais n'adviendra, Tant que de la Pucelle un renom durera. (57±8) The play manages, with some historical basis (De la Marche 1: 68 ff.), to present Rene as Jeanne's fervent supporter ± an idea also present in Henry

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(Pro. [n.p.] )

VI, Part One, where (as Reignier) he appears with her on the walls of OrleÂans (I.vi), then at Rouen (III.ii). In fact, Rene was not at the siege of OrleÂans,48 the scene at Rouen is invented, and no such displays appear in Hall or Holinshed ± or, for that matter, in Du Duc. What the French playwright generally did with Jeanne and ReneÂ, however, in glorifying her connection with Lorraine, may productively be juxtaposed with Shakespeare's manipulations, which figuratively construct Reignier's daughter Margaret as Joan's successor. While the historical record does not show Charles VII as devastated by the loss of Jeanne, in La Pucelle it is evident that, without his saviour from Lorraine, the king is quite incapable of maintaining his sway. When Charles learns of Jeanne's capture, the text comes close to evoking Henri III's image in Guisian propaganda. ``O mon cas est perdu,'' he despairs, and his accusatory self-pity anticipates that of Matthieu's Henri, Marlowe's Edward II ± not to mention Shakespeare's Richard II ± as he blames his soldiers for allowing the enemy to capture ``[c]elle qui seule avoit aÁ me servir plaisir'' (62). Here he fails to accept the divine will, but subsequently, in remonstrating with the deity, he effectively endorses the League's explanation for the troubles of Henri III (``heÂlas, tu la nous ostes / Comme encor offense du nombre de nos faultes'' [63] ). That the French are suffering for their sins is insisted upon, indeed, from the beginning of Du Duc's play. If La Pucelle thus adapts the figure of Jeanne to the cause of England's main antagonists on the French political scene of the 1580s and 1590s, it also projects into dramatic discourse the discrediting elements entrenched in the hostile chronicles: the questioning of her chastity and the imputation of sorcery. On these points its positions and proofs are uncompromising and predictable enough: as in Henry VI, Part One, Jeanne's historically indeterminate ``voices'' are given definitive form ± here an angelic one (Saint Michael). The accusations themselves are shown as inventions of English malice and fear ± specifically discursive counter-weapons. The immediate instrument of Jeanne's persecution is a French lawyer, another traitor corrupted by English bribes and threats, who is shown in cynical action, deploying a smokescreen of words to thwart the Word. There is a venerable tradition, to be sure, of deeming precisely this to be a lawyer's stock-in-trade. But in a particularly fascinating twist, pulling the strings is none other than a thoroughly despicable Talbot, who oversees La Pucelle's destruction. Of course, Talbot could have had nothing to do with the case, which was actually managed by Bedford; having been captured at Patay after the relief of OrleÂans, the English general remained in French hands until

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146 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

an exchange of prisoners some months after Jeanne's burning. But then Shakespeare, too, obviates this fact when he has Bedford rush off to redeem Talbot immediately after hearing of his capture (1H6 I.i.148 ff.). If Du Duc's invention conceivably began as a simple historical error,49 it takes on immense symbolic weight, and the precedent (in the enemy's own langage) at the conclusion of Coke's Debate is striking enough to suggest at least a shared popular tradition:50 may anyone who intends ill to England, Coke implores ± and it as much a curse as Joan's own in Shakespeare ± ``bruele soit ainsi que la pucelle / Fuist per Talbot pour sa falce querelle'' (125). The French play's fiction inversely matches that which makes Joan responsible for Talbot's death in Henry VI, Part One. Clearly, for Du Duc, as in the English nationalist shorthand problematically transcribed by Shakespeare, Talbot represents the essence of Englishness, defined by opposition to France. Here he is no heroic idealist, however, but a cynical, indeed atheistic, politician, capable of wryly commenting on his lawyer-lackey as more than a match for Jeanne's supposed devils: ``Je croy que ces demons son tous dedans voz lacs, / Et qu'ilz sont sous liez aux cordes de voz sacs'' (IV.iii [79] ). Du Duc's Talbot is also a vengeful sadist, whose determination to torture Jeanne (''Il fault qu'elle demeure en maulx si longement / Qu'elle nous a donne de crainte et de torment'' [IV.ii [74] ) leads him to resist Somerset, who wants her executed immediately: Il falloit que bien tost on delivrast le monde D'une peste si griefve, et beste tant immonde. . . . . . . . . . Il fault nous delivrer d'ung si meschant poison. Il me faict mal qu'encore vive ceste charogne Qui nous a tant cause de malheur et vergogne. (75, 77) There is an anticipation here of York's ``she hath liv'd too long, / To fill the world with vicious qualities'' (1H6 V.iv.34±5), whereas Talbot's argument (``elle avoit merite plus grand peine / Que de passer le pas par une mort soudaine'' [74] ) looks forward to the fury of Joan's offended father: ``O, burn her, burn her! hanging is too good'' (33). Even when it finally comes, accordingly, the death of the heroine of La Pucelle is brutally prolonged ± to the point where the appalled onlookers cry out to the executioner, ``Tu l'as asseÂs rostie'' (99). This is in keeping with primitive Christian martyrology but without warrant in the extant accounts of

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Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy 147

Jeanne.51 It is also in contrast with Shakespeare, who has Warwick mercifully order her death to be hastened (V.iv.55 ff.). The fact is that, amongst the accounts in circulation at the time, only the two playwrights ± in effect, rewriting each other intertextually ± draw attention to her final torture. Somerset is absurdly caricatured by Du Duc, according to French stereotypes of the English as brutal and stupid. Yet he uncannily resembles Shakespeare's own English in his desperation to resolve Jeanne's mystery and menace, so as to blunt the impact, less of her actions, than of her very indeterminacy. There is palpably a sort of refuge, for Somerset, in branding her a ``femme meschante'' (73), and a Nazi-like conviction that all lies are justified in the cause of ridding the world of her. He evinces the same English compulsion to scapegoat La Pucelle for failure in France ± a tack officially taken by none other than the Duke of Bedford in 1434 (Boswell-Stone, ed. 238n3) ± that Henry VI, Part One carries to the point of self-exposing absurdity, when it falsifies the historical facts to make her responsible for the ``treachery'' of Burgundy, the death of Talbot. In La Pucelle, naturally, Burgundy's alliance with the English is seen as unnatural ± that is, from the perspective of Shakespeare's Joan, with the king's historical narrative containing a similar appeal to rise above feudal quarrelling and return to ``national'' roots: . . . le Bourguignon par desir de vengeance Auroit trop oblie l'estoc de sa naissance, à t affin de se venger En pourchassant plusto Qu'aÁ son propre parent, le regne aÁ l'estranger. (I.iii [13] ) The play develops, with regard to the French, essentially the same correlation between internal division and external weakness that is applied to the English throughout the First Tetralogy. No punches are pulled in portraying the Burgundian role in capturing and handing over La Pucelle. In the context of the incipient war of the ``three Henries,'' moreover, Burgundy specifically takes on the colouring of the Englishbacked ``BeÂarnais,'' as viewed through Guisard spectacles: ``ce Duc parjure / Et rebelle aÁ son Roy nous oppresse aÁ toute heure'' (III.ii [54] ), having put aside ``[t]oute crainte de Dieu, de Justice et des Loix'' (III.iii [59] ). The resemblance seems strongest at the very moment when the text takes pains to produce, as if in pointed contrast, examples of loyal

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148 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

Gascons: La Hire (``Gascon de nation, d'esprit prompt et gaillard'') and Barbazon, ``l'honneur de la Gascongne, / Et le fleau redoubte de la faulse Bourgongne'' (III.ii [54] ). French nationalism in La Pucelle, however ``natural,'' remains essentially defensive ± a response to a ferocious English imperialist drive, as articulated by Somerset: Desja doncques je voys le sceptre de nos Roys Estendre son pouvoir presque de tous endroictz: J'apercËoy jaÁ desjaÁ presque toute la terre Se courber soubs le joug de la noble Angleterre. (IV.ii [71] ) Thus begins a speech that deploys at length a vision of English ambition as mandated racially ± by a ``virile'' (72) Norman inheritance52 ± and by a supposedly natural desire for Lebensraum. Given the balance of power in 1580, this looks like a displacement upon France's ancient (hence ``natural'') adversary of the designs and mentality that at the time were widely attributed to Spain, the ally and sponsor of the House of Lorraine. As a contribution to the discourse of English±French relations, however, Somerset's speech subversively exposes the religiously tinged Arthurian revivalism of recent English history. After all, when Shakespeare's Henry V, in wooing Katherine, imaginatively transports their son to Constantinople, he is effectively casting as a United Nations ``police action,'' bathed in Erasmian pan-Christianity, the unabashed nationalism of the Prince in Edward III, who wishes . . . that hereafter ages, when they read

The painful traffic of my tender youth,

Might thereby be inflam'd with such resolve,

As not the territories of France alone,

But likewise Spain, Turkey, and what countries else

That justly would provoke fair England's ire,

Might at their presence tremble and retire.

(V.i.229±35) Somerset goes on, in his truculent fashion, to denounce the Salic law as unjustly opposing English rights in France (IV.ii [72±7] ).53 Against the background of La Pucelle, Henry V's elaborate grounding of his cause in the same argument might seem another case of the English getting

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Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy 149

corrupt clergymen to put moral and legal polish on their dirty-work. Certainly, the sacrosanct quality of the Salic law as an expression of a nation ``qui ne peut soustenir / Une femme pour Roy'' (4) is one of Du Duc's preoccupations, as it is of much contemporary propaganda on both sides of the religious fence. Edward III's defiance of it is termed (I.iii [22] ) an act of perjury (since he had previously renounced his claim), instigated by yet another French turncoat, Robert of Artois ± a point consistent with the opening scene of Edward III, where none other than the Duke of Lorraine castigates Robert as ``[r]egenerate traitor, viper to the place / Where thou wast fost'red in thine infancy'' (I.i.105±6). According to La Pucelle, continual war has followed from that king's awakening of ``le Dieu des Armes'' (22) to the time of ``les deux Henrys parjures'' (23). But then, more broadly, the English are consistently portrayed as flouters and manipulators of law ± even of their own. For, in keeping with the common French reading, the latest round of English depredations had their origin when ``le faux Henry, contre tout droict et loy, / Ayant tue Richard, des Anglois se fit Roy'' (I.iii [12] ). All in all, La Pucelle, in promoting the rehabilitation of Jeanne so virulently attacked in the second edition of Holinshed's Chronicles a few years later, puts into play, with contemporary political spin, a remarkable number of the discursive tennis balls that are bandied back and forth in Henry VI, Part One, then decisively sent back across the channel as gun-stones in Henry V. These extend, it may be noted, even to the duc d'AlencËon, Jean de Valois. The very ``Machiavel'' whose father was slain by Henry at Agincourt, whom Shakespeare's Joan would make the father of her child, and who was actually later attainted for treason with the English (!),54 here appears in an impeccably loyal and patriotic light, as Jeanne's sympathetic supporter and the king's respected uncle.55 As Elizabeth's own reign bore witness, it was difficult indeed to exclude the title of AlencËon from the field of English±French symbolic relations. Finally, to extend the reach of La Pucelle to Henry V is to focus the most fundamental discursive opposition of all ± that between the English warrior-hero, whose sword ``Fortune made'' but who gave the credit to God, and the French warrior-heroine who subverts his achievements and literally tramples into the dust the heir to his glory, Talbot. In Du Duc's view, of course, she effects this subversion by divine assistance, and the author provides her with a long moment of solitary communion with God prior to her spectacular relief of OrleÂans (abetted by a miraculous change in the wind).56 To a remarkable degree, the scene makes an anticipatory mirror-image of that on the eve of Agincourt,

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150 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

when Henry, about to humiliate the arrogant French (incapable of gaining the favour of the ``Dieu de batailles'' [H5 III.v.15] ), prays, ``O God of battles, steel my soldiers' hearts'' (IV.i.288), and humbly begs forgiveness for, in effect, Lancastrian ``parjures.'' For her part, Jeanne, with at least equal humility ± and without having to negotiate with God à grand Dieu des ArmeÂes . . . / over her father's ``fault'' ± beseeches, ``o Donne moy un conseil qui regisse et conforte / Le courage viril de ma brave cohorte,'' so that they may ``par moy des Anglois l'arrogance briser'' (II.3 [38] ). Next, addressing her soldiers,57 Jeanne applies the theme of the Non Nobis, enjoining them not to suppose that she is more than a mere instrument: ``Non, non, ce n'est pas moy, mais c'est l'ayde divine'' (39). Jeanne, like Henry, is concerned about God's punishment of sin, but her concern is closer to that expressed by Williams, who complains that soldiers may die in a wicked state (``some swearing, some crying for a surgeon . . . '' [H5 IV.i.138±9] ), only to be instructed by Henry that ``war'' is God's ``beadle'' (169). Jeanne urges her men, ``Fuyez dans vos propos la blasphemante voix / De ceulx qui son Sainct Nom deschirent tant de fois,'' then enjoins them to avoid sins of the flesh, ``pour lequel plustost la divine Justice / Darde du Ciel sur nous le merite supplice'' (39). She even anticipates Henry's orders against oppressing the local population: Ne veuillez point porter aux paõÈsans dommages, . . . . . . . . . Affin que ceulx pour qui le harnois vous chargeÂs Ne se voyent par vous les premiers oultrageÂs. (40) The scene ends when Jeanne's meditations, like Henry's, are cut short (if the expression suits her monologue of over seventy lines) by word that her presence is required. Jeanne is informed by a page, ``Messieurs les Mereschaulx de Boussac et de Rays, / Et Monsieur l'Admiral sont ja tous prepareÂs / Qui n'attendent que vous pour pouvoir faire voile'' (40). Henry's nobles, too, have been seeking him, according to Sir Thomas Erpingham (IV.i.285±6); now they are assembled, Gloucester is calling, and ``[t]he day, my friends, and all things stay for me'' (309). This is as close as Jeanne gets to a Saint Crispin's day speech, and her conclusion, humbly but confidently committing them to God's will, is close enough to Henry's ``[y]ou know your places. God be with you all''

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152 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

Rendez, selon de droict de la Salique loy Nostre Roy aÁ la France, et la France aÁ son Roy, Et aÁ vostre pays redonnez la franchise. (II.v [46] ) Like Henry, the Admiral promises his men enduring glory amongst their countrymen, since their heroic story will be heard with wonder and recounted with admiration by succeeding generations: . . . une vie mortelle Eschangeant au loyer d'une gloire immortelle, Que de nos successeurs les bouches nous rendront, Lors que tous esbays de nous ilz entendront, Que par nostre vertu nous osasmes remestre Es mains de nostre Roy sa couronne et son sceptre: Et la moitie de France affranchir des liens De ces traistres bourreaux qui retiennent nos biens. (46) Indeed, memory itself is the discursive battlefield, for the English ``[v]eulent du nom FrancËois abolir la memoire'' (46). The concluding exhortation is especially Henrician, though the closest analogue is rather with ``Once more unto the breach . . . '' (H5 III.i.1 ff.): ``Courage donc, Soldats, donnez, donnez dedans: / Gaignons le pont-levis, leur embusche fendans'' (46).

VI It should now be apparent that what is ultimately chronicled in Henry VI, Part One by the modes of speech representing France as England's ``other'' is the instability of the unitary discourse of English nationhood ± the discourse that was/will be resoundingly established by Henry V as the correlative of dominance. I want now to follow the course of the First Tetralogy back into English territory, where such ``otherness'' is no longer directly engaged, while positing an audience's continuing eye on

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(IV.iii.78). The latter's soldierly voice, however, has already been more clearly heard in the Admiral's address to their troops. There the rallying cries are the familiar ones ± the sacrosanct Salic law and the etymologically mandated ancient freedom of the French:

English±French historical relations and continuing ear for contemporary French political discourses. The first of these elements obviously still figures in the production of meaning. Symbolically, France remains England's quasi-official ``other'' ± no less so for remaining mainly offstage ± and it makes frequent textual interventions as such. These extend from the discord-sowing landing of Margaret, who is figured virtually as an elemental force (not as partially egged on by her father, as in the Chronicles [3: 210] ), to the harmony-producing one of Henry of Richmond, who has been waiting in the French wings. The stage itself, on the other hand, now thoroughly ``Englished'' to the point of eliding Edward IV's French campaign, can perhaps offer more room to the operations of the second element, which depend wholly on an audience's ``imaginary forces'' (H5 Pro.18). Arguably, the lack of even a precarious political hold on French ``otherness'' enables the freer play of allusions reaching across the Channel to the France of the 1590s. Whether such allusions derive from intrusions of France into the consciousness of English characters or from ``purely English'' elements, they echo within an imaginative structure framed by contemporary French events and personages. Such echo-effects are part of the mimetic mechanisms ± to return to Ricoeur's terminology ± by which the dramatic representations of the past engage the English present and menacingly shadow the possible English future. As echoes, however, their nature is to be intermittent and indistinct, open to divergent interpretations, or none at all. Given that the remainder of this chapter (like much of the next one) posits some possible associations, it is especially important to disavow definitive or sustained allegory. I seek to endow an audience less with specific responses than with ways of responding ± the only means, after all, of reconciling indeterminate individual experience with the notion of collective subjectivity. It is in terms of such subjectivity that the project of the First Tetralogy increasingly defines itself, as what is still called the ``theatre'' of war shifts to the home front. Now the ``French connection,'' by pointing to the ``other''-as-self, insistently intimates the self-as-``other.'' Thus witchcraft, an important point of continuity, is no longer a French aberration, but, thanks initially to the Duchess of Gloucester, an ``English condition'' (Gower's expression in H5 V.i.79). Thus, too, the effeminacy often associated with the French ± an association due to be pushed to the limit in Henry V ± comes home to roost. From the Dauphin and Burgundy, who are putty in Joan's hands, we move immediately to an English monarch dominated by his French wife and ultimately to one whose weakness for women provokes political division and provokes perverse

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154 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

Look how I am betwitch'd; behold, mine arm

Is like a blasted sapling, wither'd up;

And this is Edward's wife, that monstrous witch,

Consorted with that harlot, strumpet Shore,

That by their witchcraft thus have marked me.

(R3 III.iv.68±72) This dynamic, too, would have been blurred had Edward's French invasion been represented.58 Ultimately, the Tetralogy's exploration of national turning inward, self-immolation, and expiation through the tyranny of Richard III makes Lacan's most basic points about the interdependence of self and Other ± that is, about the unconscious. A ``split'' subjectivity emerges as the corollary of the splitting-off of France from England. If, in Henry V, the brilliance of the ``star of England'' (H5 Epi.6) imbues the signifying system with a sustaining and validating presence, enabling ``flat unraised spirits'' to ``bring forth / So great an object'' (Pro.9± 11), the implosion of signification in Parts Two and Three of Henry VI marks a veritable black-hole in the discursive universe. In Henry VI, Part One, the obvious youth and naõÈvete of Henry VI foreground the failure of his fractious counsellors to keep him king of France ± a point underlined by the normally shrewd Gloucester's delusion that crowning him in Paris will please his French subjects (III.i.178 ff.). The transition from Part One to Part Two combines a symbolic entry into manhood (through marriage) with a particularly clear signal, provided by Suffolk, that the challenge will henceforth be to keep this ``unmanly'' figure king of England: ``Margaret shall now be Queen, and rule the King; / But I will rule both her, the King, and realm'' (1H6 V.v.107±8). Henry's career as the emblem of nothing at the centre of the English political system ± precisely what Gloucester accuses Winchester of desiring, ``an effeminate prince, / Whom like a schoolboy you may overawe'' (I.i.35±6)59 ± is already underway. In the subsequent texts, the superabundance of dramatic energy and action devoted to showing the English at destructive cross-purposes furnishes perhaps the starkest Shakespearean instance of

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retribution from an unlikely royal wooer (``Ay, Edward will use women honorably . . . '' [3H6 III.ii.124] ). If Richard of Gloucester proves more able than he initially supposes to ``witch sweet ladies with my words and looks'' (150), that power is a projection of his own supposed victimization:

``sound and fury, signifying nothing.'' The Chorus's concluding reference, in Henry V, to that ``[w]hich oft our stage hath shown'' (Epi.13) anticipates/recapitulates the collapse of presence into absence, as reflected in a fictional universe where definition and distinction survive as precariously as lives and loyalties. Hence, the tendency of concrete identities and events to revolve in vicious rhetorical circles ± ``Tell over your woes again by viewing mine: / I had an Edward, till a Richard kill'd him . . . '' (R3 IV.iv.39 ff.) ± and to resolve into anonymous (or nearanonymous) abstraction: the counterfeit blind man (2H6 II.i); the armourer and his apprentice (II.iii); the country squire historically interpellated to kill a rebel (IV.x); the keepers that poach a king (3H6 III.i); above all, the successive killings of a father by a son, a son by a father (II.v). These last tableaux mourants are, of course, quintessentially emblematic of social self-destruction, the propensity of the ``ill-sheath'd knife'' to ``cut his master.'' We may compare Yver's ``Complainte sur les miseÁres de la guerre civile'': . . . tous confits En aveugleÂe vengeance, Du devoir envers son fils Le peÁre n'a connoissance, Et l'enfant, pour son confort, Donne le coup de la mort A son miseÂrable peÁre. (Printemps 526) Equally significant in Shakespeare's staging, however, is the presentabsence of the monarch before whose eyes the killings are enacted, and on whom its larger meaning depends. Not only does the observing Henry remain aloof, failing to intervene in the mechanisms of discovery and grieving, but his solipsistic commentary assimilates these intense personal losses to his own world-weariness, negating them along with himself. He opens the scene by virtually enacting Richard II's fantasized desire to ``sit upon the ground / And tell sad stories of the death of kings'' (R2 III.ii.155±6). It is the first of the pastoral longings for inner peace that Shakespeare puts in the mouths of royal Henries ± a subspecies of soliloquy, incidentally, that has at least as much in common with the precedent of Chantelouve's Charles IX as with contemporary English models.60 This Henry wishes that he could die or, failing that,

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Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy 155

lead a shepherd's life, free from the responsibilities belonging, not to kingship in the abstract, but to kingship within time ± in effect, to the sphere of history. His glimpse of the responsibility he nevertheless bears for the horrors he witnesses (``[t]he red rose and the white are on his face, / The fatal colors of our striving houses'' [97±8] ) ± proves intolerable, and he proceeds to appropriate and generalize his subjects' grief, thereby dissipating its impact: Son How will my mother for a father's death Take on with me, and ne'er be satisfied! Father How will my wife for slaughter of my son Shed seas of tears, and ne'er be satisfied! King Henry How will the country for these woeful chances Misthink the King, and not be satisfied! (3H6 II.v.103±8) Once rid of the passionate actors who had temporarily up-staged him, Henry can be sure of enacting the Passion itself, crowning himself with their sorrow, as if with thorns: ``Sad-hearted men, much overgone with care, / Here sits a king more woeful than you are'' (123±4). The idea of Henry as an empty signifier unable to inscribe the proper relation between prince and subjects, and thereby inciting others to reinscribe it, hardly depends on postmodern theory; it is already present in the Chronicles' description of the ``rent regiment of king Henrie,'' who (besides the bare title of roialtie and naked name of king) had little apperteining to the port of a prince. For whereas the dignitie of princedom standeth in souereigntie; there were of his nobles that imbecilled his prerogatiue by sundrie practises, speciallie by maine force; as seeking either to suppresse, or to exile, or to obscrure, or to make him awaie. (Holinshed 3: 272±3) Distinctively pre-modern, by contrast, is the idea of the King's Two Bodies underpinning this account, which enables due praise to be given to Henry's personal virtues, notably to his piety, even as his power to govern is disparaged. Thus the rebellious lords, led by Richard of York, determine to leave Henry to ``reigne still in name and dignitie, but neither in deed nor in authoritie,'' so as to placate the common people, who admire his ``holiness of life, and abundant clemencie''

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(3: 242). The account of his death modulates into the portrait of a veritable saint ± in spirit, at least, ``princelie qualified'' (3: 325). Indeed, Henry VII projected his canonization (until, we are dryly informed, the cost proved excessive [3: 325] ). As a rule, Shakespeare's dramatic applications of the King's Two Bodies ± not just in the much-discussed negative cases (Richard II, King Lear) but also in that of Henry V ± stress their interdependence: private and public virtues and vices go hand in hand, in keeping with humanist principles. To apply this perspective to Henry VI, however, entails a sharper than usual deviation from source material, accompanied by a certain undercutting of saintliness itself. After the displays of impeccable Christian sentiments in Part One, which match the new king's youthful innocence, his piety becomes inseparable from his political ineffectuality, hence a focus for alienation. Not surprisingly, that alienation begins with Henry's chief political enemy, Richard of York, who is persuasive in claiming that his ``church-like humors fits not for a crown'' (2H6 I.i.247) and later in defying him directly: ``Thy hand is made to grasp a palmer's staff / And not to grace an aweful princely sceptre'' (V.i.97±8). The ironic culmination of the motif is Gloucester's stabbing of Henry while cursing him to hell (3H6 V.vi.67) ± only to excuse himself eventually (to the Lady Anne) on the grounds that the king is with the ``King of Heaven . . . For he was fitter for that place than earth'' (R3 I.ii.105, 108). Henry's most intimate enemy pointedly extends her contempt for Henry's political impotence to the Body Natural, complaining to her lover Suffolk, I thought King Henry had resembled thee

In courage, courtship, and proportion;

But all his mind is bent to holiness,

To number Ave-Maries on his beads;

His champions are the prophets and apostles,

His weapons holy saws of sacred writ,

His study is his tilt-yard, and his loves

Are brazen images of canonized saints.

I wish the college of the Cardinals

Would choose him Pope and carry him to Rome,

And set the triple crown upon his head ±

That were a state fit for his holiness.

(2H6 I.iii.53±64)

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However it discredits her, Margaret's contempt is nonetheless confirmed by a pointed evocation of Catholic idolatry. Holinshed, by contrast, stresses the king's devotion, not his shows of devotions, and even offers the excuse of pre-Reformation custom for the latter: ``He was religiously affected (as the time then was) that at principall holidaies, he would weare sackecloth next his skin'' (3: 325). The ``molehill'' scene ultimately pits itself against such allowance-making and, through direct presentation, cuts through the tendentious discourses clouding the figure of the king. The effect is not only to support Henry's enemies in associating his religiosity with his unfitness but to invest that religiosity with a large component of self-delusion, if not hypocrisy; it becomes a sign of absence, not presence. After all, Henry dies at Richard's hands, not full of the charity and forgiveness that Holinshed assigns him as a hallmark, but himself cursing and goading, discursively damning himself. It makes a further swerving from Holinshed that the piety of Shakespeare's Henry does not render him popular with the common people ± witness Jack Cade's rebellion. The commons' revolt is fuelled, via Cade's anti-rhetorical rhetoric, by resentment (displaced onto Say) over the loss of France: ``What canst thou answer to my Majesty for giving up of Normandy unto Mounsieur Basimecu, the Dolphin of France?'' (2H6 IV.vii.27±9); ``Now part them again, lest they [the heads of Say and Cromer] consult about the giving up of some more towns in France'' (133±4). And the crowd is swayed from revolt, not by any appeal to the personal qualities of their monarch, but only by the argument that his father (one who put his own displays of piety to more effective political use) defeated the French ``other'' and thereby mystically ennobled all the English, levelling them ``up'' rather than ``down,'' as Cade proposes to do.61 To hate the king, Clifford suggests, is to dishonour that hero (IV.viii.16). Will Cade, he rhetorically asks the mob, ``conduct you through the heart of France, / And make the meanest of you earls and dukes?'' (37±7). Clifford then inverts the allusion by conjuring the menace, linguistically charged (though the effect apparently requires recourse to Italian), of the French as turning the tables, at once politically and socially: Were't not a shame that, whilst you live at jar,

The fearful French, whom you late vanquished,

Should make a start o'er seas and vanquish you?

Methinks already in this civil broil

I see them lording it in London streets,

Crying ``Villiago!'' unto all they meet.

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Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy 159

Better ten thousand base-born Cades miscarry Than you should stoop unto a Frenchman's mercy. To France, to France, and get what you have lost!

The lack incarnated in Henry VI is momentarily supplied by this nostalgic invocation of his father as the transcendental signified, as Cade ruefully acknowledges. The ``name of Henry the Fift'' (56±7) is still able to hold chaos at bay ± if only tenuously and for the conspicuously ignorant ± by abjecting French ``otherness.'' Yet reality reasserts itself when the king reaches for that signified again to maintain his legitimacy against York: ``I am the son of Henry the Fift, / Who made the Dolphin and the French to stoop, / And seiz'd upon their towns and provinces'' (3H6 I.i.107±9). Warwick unceremoniously bursts the discursive bubble ± and calls it one: ``Talk not of France, sith thou has lost it all'' (110).

VII For more than one modern historian, Henri III has evoked Shakespearean personages ± essentially, on Sutherland's premise that his is ``a truly Shakespearian tragedy.'' In effect, I have been reading this perception back into Shakespeare, and it is now time to do so more explicitly. Not surprisingly, Hamlet is the common object of comparison. Thus Schrenck characterizes the French monarch as ``le pitoyable Hamlet perdu entre la parole qui veut et L'acte qui ne peut'' (``L'Image'' 24). It is an attitude that he finds (24n.) succinctly expressed by Catherine de Medici herself, as well as by L'Estoile. The former concluded a fulsome letter of advice by exclaiming, ``Il peut tout, mais qu'il veuille'' (cited Champion, Henri III, 137); she thus put her finger, according to Champion, on ``ce manque de volonte qui fut son vice veÂritable'' (137). As for L'Estoile, when he comments on one of Henri's resolutions to take action against the League, ``mais le pis estoit que tout se passait en paroles'' (MeÂmoires-Journaux 3: 132), he is echoing remonstrances by the League itself ± witness a sonnet, recorded by L'Estoile, attacking Henri's speech to the Estates General of 1588: ``Cesse de tant parler et commence aÁ bien faire: / D'un bon Roy l'office est bien faire et peu parler'' (cited 3: 222). There is, of course, another Shakespearean royal ± this one actually ``put on'' ± who notoriously exemplifies such a gap between words and actions: I have already had occasion to relate Richard II to

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(41±9)

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Cousin germain du prince de Danemark par une certaine faiblesse et meÂlancolie ± ainsi que le disait de lui-meÃme Hamlet ± et aussi d'Henri VI d'Angleterre par sa pieÂteÂ, sa deÂvotion et son inclination pour les religieux, ce furent les circonstances autant que sa personne et les responsabiliteÂs propres de ses sujets qui firent de Henri de Valois, sur Âa la theÃtre politique, un personnage shakespearien. (705) à When, in La Guisiade, the voice of Le Peuple is assigned the outcry, ``O France en tes boyaux / Ensanglantant tes mains dresses-tu tes cousteaux?'' (1353±4), Henri III might as well be sitting on a nearby molehill, impotently observing his country's self-immolation and wishing himself elsewhere. Indeed, according to Dodu, who attests the point from a variety of contemporary sources, ``[p]osseÂdant la France, il avait souhaite `ne posseÂder que dix mil livres de rentes et vivre en repos' '' (37 and n. 4). There is good reason, evidently, for Matthieu to have given him, in the agony of his political helplessness, some decidedly proto-Shakespearean soliloquizing along these lines: ``J'aymeroy beaucoup mieux que le ciel m'eut fait naistre / Un petit laboureur: au moins je seroy maistre / Sous mon rustique toict que j'auroy pour palais'' (1921±3). Le Peuple complain that, despite having both the power and the responsibility to act as ``la vive image'' (1329) of God, the king's toleration of heresy has produced civil war, while his permissiveness towards his minions has led to oppressive taxation. These are essentially sins of omission, and, in fact, contemporary polemical discourse, both Catholic and Protestant, turns on the virtual abdication of Henri with respect to his royal dignity ± a point reinforced by citing his personal excesses, both devotional and sexual. An especially telling anagram of the early 1580s figured him as ``H.RIEN'' (L'Estoile, RegistreJournal, 4: 84). On the question of Henri's hypocrisy in religious matters, a Politique like Pasquier was willing to grant him the benefit of the doubt (Lettres historiques 437), while L'Estoile actually defended him as sincere (Schrenck, ``L'Image,'' 19±20), although he amply considered the contrary view (Registre-Journal 2: 51±2), voicing it through the voices of others:

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Henri, and I will be developing that relation later. More immediately to the point, however, is the further comparison made by Chevallier, who actually subtitles his monumental biography of Henri III, ``Roi shakespearien'':

Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy 161

Il a choisi la Bonne Dame

Pour la patrone de ses voeux:

Mais il aime mieux, sur mon ame,

Un jeune fils aux blonds cheveux.

Ostentatious piety and effeminacy here go hand-in-hand, as in Margaret's complaint about her Henry. A professional politician, the Savoyard ambassador de Lucinge, presumed (243±4) in 1586 that Henri's devotions were a mere tactic, while more extreme League propaganda, such as Les mevrs, had no hesitation in dismissing his religious ``parades et fictions'' (21), his ``parades de deuotions et papelardises'' (112), as wholly ``affecteÂes, tout en vn mot vn amuse veau'' (113) ± indeed, a cover for his immorality. Hence the bitter irony of one of his scornful sobriquets, ``Hermite'' (Histoire admirable 8). This is precisely the view of his own mother, as represented in La Guisiade, where it is crucial to distinguish his adversaries' profound faith from his religious posturing, an atheistic ``hypocrisie'' that, she warns, risks destroying ``la Religion de vos ayeux'' (277±8). And so, when the king asks Catherine, ``Ne monstre-je pas bien mes Chrestiennes È illans, aux Battus?'' (393±4) ± that vertus / Aux cloistres reformez, aux Feu is, to the reformed Cistercians and Flagellants ± she replies scathingly, ``Ainsi l'hypocrisie, et le faux, et le vice, / S'arment de pieteÂ, du vray, et de justice'' (395±6). Logically, from this perspective, the just recompense of his image as a ``roi-moine,'' who had so betrayed the hopes of his subjects for a ``roi-soldat'' (Dodu 24), went even beyond making him ``[u]n Roy de quelque cloistre'' (Matthieu 428), as Henri accurately devines the Guises' intention: for this false monk, the ultimate act of retribution, at once divine and poetic, was to be his murder by a true one (Pinselet 43). Yet in many eyes other than those of the League, of course, CleÂment's delusions of divine mission confirmed him as the devil's instrument ± an avatar of the murdering Richard: ``For this, amongst the rest, was I ordain'd''; ``Down, down to hell, and say I sent thee thither'' (3H6 V.vi.58, 67). Widely appropriated for the discourse of royal irresponsibility ± for instance, as part of the Histoire tragique's attack on Henri by way of Edward II (44) ± were the terms ``faineÂant,'' or ``fait-neÂant,'' and ``faineÂantise.'' ``FaineÂant'' was apparently first used by Ronsard in La Franciade (published, by coincidence, just after the massacre of Saint Bartholomew) in recounting the French people's refusal to tolerate three ruinous kings (4, 1447±51 [CeÂard et al., eds 1: 1144] ).62 At this historical moment, such

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(4: 81)

an implicit assertion of the popular prerogative to limit sovereignty was grist to the mill of Protestant theorists such as Hotman and Hubert Languet,63 while the appeal to propagandists for the cause may be gathered from the fact that Le Reveille-matin of 1574 (which has itself sometimes been attributed to Hotman) not only cites the same passage but enlists Ronsard as an advocate of regicide (108±15), wishing that there might be found ``quelque coeur masle issue de noble race'' to ``donner eschek ± & mat [sic] aÁ la maison de Valois'' (115). The lines thus inadvertently made their contribution to more radical Protestant calls for a new Brutus to eradicate the tyrant (Chevallier 258). It was the League, however, that eventually seized, as a near-obsession, on the notion of repeating history ± and there were several precedents amongst the early French kings ± by making a monk out of Henri III. To cite only the most sustained of numerous examples, this is the consummation devoutly wished (18±19) by the author of the Histoire admirable a la posterite des faits et gestes de Henri de Valois. Comparez en tous poincts avec ceux de Loys Faineant (1589). Paradoxically, it is with this threat, introduced through the image of ``Chilperic le moine'' (1602), that the nefarious N.N. goads La Guisiade's Henri into his murderous action. Henri at first denies that the model has any relevance to him: ``Chilperic l'estourdi, indigne de paroistre / Entre les Roys FrancËois fut ferme dans un cloistre: / . . . / . . . suis Roy debonnaire: / Je porte des Capets le sceptre hereditaire'' (1605±10). From the historical perspective promoted by the League ± the same view that infiltrates Henry V through the reference to ``the usurper Capet'' (I.ii.78) ± to appeal to the Capets carries no more weight than do Henry VI's claims to legitimacy through his Lancastrian grandfather. Matthieu allows the question of legitimacy to speak for itself, insisting instead ± while slyly attributing the thought to the Machiavellian N.N. ± on the king's affinity with his ``faineÂant'' predecessor, which threatens, in effect, to bring Guise into existence as his replacement: . . . Sire, l'on vous menasse Que le peuple mettra de Guise en vostre place, Qu'on vous enferma, comme inutile, et sot, Un second Chilperic, en un cloistre devot. (1613±16) While it is risky to build on passing verbal suggestions, Margaret's complaint to Suffolk seems to play on the title of the late French hero/

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162 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

villain (and champion of another foreign Catholic queen ± Mary Stuart): ``My Lord of Suffolk, say, is this the guise, / Is this the fashions in the court of England'' (2H6 I.iii.42±3).64 And although it is the triple crown of the Popes that Margaret sarcastically desires for her husband, the allusion resonates with Henri III's aspiration, inscribed in his motto, to a third heavenly crown, which the League was ready to accord him in the form of a tonsure.65 Even Suffolk's death at the hands of the Margaret-hating seamen, as he attempts to make his way to France for succour, may recall, thanks to his ``ungrammatical'' appeal to the model of Brutus and Caesar (2H6 IV.i.136±7), the analogy between Caesar and the Guise that was commonly applied to the latter's assassination. One of the numerous points of textual contact between the Henry VI plays and Marlowe's Massacre reinforces this link. The arrogant raving of the stricken Guise, lamenting first that he lacks ``immortality to be reveng'd'' (xxi.80), then, ``[t]o die by peasants, what a grief is this! (81), closely resembles the sequence in which the murderer punctures Suffolk's comparison of himself to Jove, pointing out that he lacks immortality (2H6 IV.i.48±9), and provokes the outburst, Obscure and lousy swain, King Henry's blood,

The honourable blood of Lancaster,

Must not be shed by such a jaded groom.

(50±2)66 The representation of Suffolk and Margaret may well have resonated, for contemporary audiences, with the unholy alliance of Guise and Catherine. Still, analogy by no means hardens into allegory. For one thing, these figures are hardly the only contenders for power in the England of the First Tetralogy. Richard of York, less Machiavellian than Suffolk yet with a formidable claim to the throne, effectively enacts the challenge of Guise in more positive terms ± although, again, only up to a point. The constant is the dynamic by which the ineffectuality of the monarchy engenders claimants, aspirants, and sowers of discord ± a dynamic kept current for English audiences by contemporary French events. And as Gloucester swiftly evolves, in Shakespeare's dramatic treatment, from hitman of the House of York to devourer of his brothers, the ineffectuality appears naturally to extend from Henry VI to his successor. The chief flaw in the successive Bodies Natural radically yet smoothly shifts from saintliness to licentiousness, with Richard as bitterly resentful of one as of the other. These forms of personal

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Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy 163

self-indulgence coincide precisely with the twin images of Henri III attacked in the propaganda. And if the vice of Edward IV is amply warranted by the Chronicles, Shakespeare's fidelity to his source in this respect again throws into relief his elliptical handling ± to say the least ± of Edward's reign, which Holinshed portrays as long and successful, at home and in France. The political forces arising in equal and opposite reaction to such weakness would arguably have continued, for a contemporary audience, to resonate with French models. This is easiest to see in the redemptive power of Henry of Richmond, who arrives from France with very much the same heroic impact as Henri IV of Navarre after his successor's demise, and with similar prospects for at once imposing and inducing reconciliation. The apocalyptic overtones attached by many, including L'Estoile, to the new French king betoken a bleak perspective on the world closely akin to that evoked by the First Tetralogy (or, for that à me et matter, King Lear): ``[f]ace au vide laisse par un pouvoir fanto parce qu'il n'y a plus de veÂrite . . . en la terre'' (Schrenck, ``L'Image,'' 25). Thus the much-touted Tudor union of the Red Rose and the White anticipates/recapitulates a similar resolution of factionalism across the Channel ± factionalism, as it happens, that was similarly colour-coded. For in the French civil wars the Catholic royal army regularly wore red (with a white cross), the Protestants white, according to their allegiance to the House of Bourbon (Chevallier 118). Hence, Chantelouve has Colligny refer to his supporters revolting ``contre leur mere France / . . . souz l'habit d'innocence'' (80). The most immediate consequence of monarchical failure in the Tetralogy, however, is not Henry Tudor but Richard III, whose tyranny extends most horrifically to England's more immediate best hope: it is more than child's play that the young Prince Edward, due to be murdered by his uncle, vows, ``And if I live to be a man, / I'll win our ancient right in France again'' (III.i.91±2). Apart from his duplicity, discursive and otherwise, Richard of Gloucester might not appear for a modern audience to carry French associations. After all, he had been a well-established villain in English historical legend since More's biography. There is, however, one element prominent in Shakespeare's dramatization, yet wholly absent from the accounts of More and the Chronicles, that may well have evoked associations with the single ``French'' episode, fresh in the Elizabethan memory, that had impinged most directly on English political life and most acutely focused fears about the independence and efficacy of the monarchy. For essential to Richard's dramatic impact, as to his royal ambitions, are his grotesquely

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164 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

flamboyant impersonations (first with Anne, later with Queen Elizabeth as a proxy for her daughter) of a ``jolly thriving wooer'' (R3 IV.iii.43). And this takes us back to Henry VI, Part One. The topical resonances of the title ``AlencËon'' can hardly be excluded from the moments preceding Joan's burning, as Marcus has observed (68, 71±2). Of the two men named as fathers of her supposed child (Reignier being the other), ``Alanson'' is the one that unmistakably touches a raw English nerve ± ``Alanson, that notorious Machevile? / It dies, and if it had a thousand lives'' (V.iv.74±5). I propose that Joan's eloquent final curse would thereby have acquired even greater ``carrying power'' ± in effect, ``a thousand lives'' ± to the point where that ``Alanson'' becomes the French father, in a structural sense, of Richard's English Machiavelism. Nor is it contradictory that the English have presumed the father to have been the Dauphin ± that is, symbolically, the realm of France itself. While the impact of AlencËon's title is wholly out of proportion to his minor role in the play, an intertextual web ± which extends to his idealized counterpart in La Pucelle ± supports his casting as a precursor of Stubbs's demonized spider. While there appears to be nothing notably Machiavellian about him in the English sources, the Chronicles single him out as an obdurate and resourceful enemy of the English: ransomed after his capture at the battle of Verneuil, he refused to acknowledge the king of England as his sovereign (3: 156) and spurred the Dauphin to an attack on Le Mans (159). Surprisingly, Hall actually pays tribute to AlencËon's ``natural'' patriotism: ``but neither for release of all or abatement of part of his raunsome, he woulde in no wise acknowledge the kyng of Englande, to be his liege and souereigne Lorde: Suche affeccion bare he to the Dolphyn, and suche trouth shewed he to his natural country'' (139). It says much about the project of Holinshed's Chronicles that, in their transcription of Hall, they omit the latter part of this sentence (3: 156). Joan's naming of AlencËon at once falls into place and stands out against this background. Holinshed records her claim to be pregnant as merely general (and successful ± she gains a nine-month reprieve): ``seeking to eetch out life as long as she might) [she] stake not (though the shift were shamefull) to confess hir selfe a strumpet, and (vnmaried as she was) to be with child'' (3: 171). Only one earlier allusion in the Chronicles emerges as a candidate for inspiring Shakespeare's detail, thanks to a provocative grammatical ambiguity: the French king is said to have ``sent Iohn duke of Alanson, and his sorceresse Ione la Pusell'' (3: 168) to attack Saint Denis. The ambiguous pronoun reference

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Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy 165

corresponds with some precision to the uncertain paternity of Joan's prospective child in the play. Finally, it is to the point that years later, in a closely related text, Shakespeare may be playing on the standard Elizabethan resonances of the title ``AlencËon.'' For in Henry V (IV.vii.154 ff.) he appears to cast another bearer of it ± the father, killed at Agincourt, of the figure in Henry VI, Part One ± in the roles not only of the English hero's personal opponent (an element taken from Holinshed, where Henry was indeed ``almost felled'' by him [3: 81] ) but also of a lover. In playing his practical joke on Fluellen and Williams, Henry claims that AlencËon wore a glove in his helm (IV.vii.155±6). Knights might wear such a token as a challenge, as Henry's actions illustrate, or as a lady's favour (as in Tro. IV.iv.71); to do so on the battlefield suggests the latter, as an audience would be predisposed to presume after hearing the French nobles speak of their mistresses (III.vii). Shakespeare's most conspicuous addition to Richard's machinations in the sources is the astonishing seduction of the Lady Anne. This is notoriously part of an aggressive misogyny, which is anchored in his opening image of himself as ``want[ing] love's majesty / To strut before a wanton ambling nymph'' (R3 I.i.14±15). Cutting even deeper in the same vein is his response to his brother's pursuit of Lady Grey in Henry VI, Part Three: Well, say there is no kingdom then for Richard;

What other pleasure can the world afford?

I'll make my heaven in a lady's lap,

And deck my body in gay ornaments,

And witch sweet ladies with my words and looks.

O miserable thought! and more unlikely

Than to accomplish twenty golden crowns!

Why, love foreswore me in my mother's womb . . .

(III.ii.146±53) If Richard cannot physically change his shape, he can certainly do so discursively, not least when he disclaims that ability: Because I cannot flatter and look fair,

Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive, and cog,

Duck with French nods and apish courtesy,

I must be held a rancorous enemy.

(R3 I.iii.47±50)

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166 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

Such bewitching ``French'' courtship looks not only backward ± to the Pucelle ± but forward (in compositional terms) to the ``fellows of infinite tongue'' (H5 V.ii.156) with whom Henry V pleases to imagine himself competing for Katherine. There, of course, it is Henry's ``true English,'' rather than his ``false French'' (220±1), that prevails, and the effect is to close a discursive gap that has lain open in the Second Tetralogy since the Duke of York, problematically pleading against his wayward son, urged Henry IV to subvert his plain English with French double-talk: Speak it in French, King, say, ``pardonne moy.''

Duchess. Dost thou teach pardon pardon to destroy?

Ah, my sour husband, my hard-hearted lord,

That sets the word itself against the word!

Speak ``pardon'' as 'tis current in our land,

The chopping French we do not understand.

(R2 V.iii.119±25) Richard's success with Anne gives him a contemptuous sense of triumph over a women ``woo'd'' (227) against all odds, hence of himself as deserving a looking-glass after all (255). All this is ironically expressed, of course, but nonetheless linked with his later misplaced confidence in courting Queen Elizabeth's daughter by way of the queen herself (IV.iv.204 ff.): Now for I know the Britain Richmond aims At young Elizabeth, my brother's daughter, And by that knot looks proudly on the crown, To her go I, a jolly thriving wooer. (IV.iii.40±3) Richard deludes himself this time when he crows, in the tones of Joan after her emblematically ``French'' seduction of Burgundy, ``Relenting fool, and shallow, changing woman!'' (IV.iii.431). I mentioned this echo earlier in comparing the two characters as magical manipulators of discourse. It should now be possible to appreciate the parallel more profoundly. The grotesque spectacle of Richard-as-wooer might well have encouraged audiences to connect this ``notorious Machiavile'' with the physically repulsive AlencËon who had sought to bewitch their Elizabeth ± in effect, to get her to look ``not with the eyes but with the mind'' (MND

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Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy 167

I.i.234) ± by proffering sweet visions of political (not to mention personal) alliance. His Machiavellian designs were a given, if not an obsession, for many militant Protestants. Such a view, on the other hand, rubbed shoulders with AlencËon's plausibility, in the eyes of some, as a bearer of political solutions.67 He was associated with Protestant hopes, after all, in the Reveille-matin, A mervaylous discourse, Le Tocsin contre les massacrevrs (64), and ± most ironically of all ± the Discours . . . Contre N. Machiavel. The second edition of Gentillet's work in 1576 (only three years before Stubbs's attack) actually contained a dedication to the duke as, in effect, a latter-day Jeanne d'Arc, sent by God to free France from ``la sanglante et barbare tyrannie des estrangers'' (cited CleÂment 38). There may have been a certain urgency, in such a context, about proving that AlencËon was really a witch, and his physical defects offered ocular proof of divine disfavour. Precisely such a link between his deformity and his evil is deployed against him by Bussy d'Ambois in Chapman's play (III.ii.375 ff.). It was well known that ``il supportait mal sa disgraÃce physique au point d'en devenir violent'' (Lazard, Agrippa d'AubigneÂ, 84). The account of Chevallier, which reflects objective descriptions of the time (if somewhat extravagantly), is worth quoting at length, so remarkable is the correspondence with key physical, moral, and psychological aspects of Shakespeare's character, including his basic operating principle, ``I have no brother, I am like no brother'' (3H6 V.vi.80): . . . FrancËois n'eÂtait qu'un avorton. Il eÂtait de petite taille alors que ses freÁres eÂtaient de haute stature, et la petite veÂrole avait fait de son visage un repoussoir au centre duquel l'extreÂmite de son nez avait la forme d'un bourgeon fendu en son milieu. Peu apte aux exercices à t, il ne pouvait rivaliser physiques pour lesquels il n'avait gueÁre de gou avec aucun de ses freÁres. Ses manieÁres d'eÃtre eÂtaient loin d'eÃtre avenantes. Les contemporains attestent tous qu'il eÂtait sans geÃne, volontiers blessant et meÂprisant. Sa mentalite et ses reÂactions eÂtaient, au fond, celles d'un infirme qui entend se revancher sur autrui de ses disgraÃces physiques. Lippomano eÂcrit ainsi, au sujet d'un des passages du duc aÁ la Court et de son retour aÁ Angers: ``L'on vit alors que le diable n'est pas aussi laid qu'on le peint.'' (Chevallier 451) Queen Elizabeth wryly referred to AlencËon as her ``frog.'' (Simier, his smooth-talking negotiator, was, punningly, her ``ape'' ± did she think of him as borne on his master's shoulders [cf. R3 III.i.130±1]?). To figure Richard rather as a ``toad'' adds, or reveals, the element of venom.

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168 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

``Never hung poison on a fouler toad'' (R3 I.ii.147), says Anne, after spitting on him, and the image sticks for others well after it is lost to her: ``Thou toad, thou toad . . . '' (IV.iv.145).68 The central question on which Richard challenges Anne ± and which is ironically enfolded within the same psychological mechanism sketched by Chevallier ± is whether his murderous practices follow from, hence expose, a degenerate nature. If they do, of course, his repulsive outside is a valid sign of what lies within. Hence, Richard attempts to de-essentialize his conduct by attaching the excuse of love to his acts of hate. AlencËon, from the standard English perspective (and indeed various French ones) had a whole string of questionable deeds and attitudes to his charge. Frustrated by his brother's precedence (he was, in fact, suspected of trying to poison the king,69 in keeping with the constant insinuations of Chapman's Bussy), constant in nothing but his opportunism, and widely suspected by Protestants of merely pretending sympathy for their cause (one recalls Richard's moments of feigned holiness), he was clearly, to many observers, out for nothing but power, however and wherever he could get it. To those so minded, his death in 1584, like the bloody one of Shakespeare's ``bloody dog'' (R3 V.v.2), set the seal on a semiotic conjunction of appearance and reality, outward and inward: ``Dic mihi, cur crudum vomuit Dux iste cruorem? / Quem nimium biberat concoquere haud potuit [Tell me, why did that Duke vomit raw blood? / He had drunk too much of it and was scarcely able to cook it]'' (cited L'Estoile, Registre-Journal, 4: 143). The sentiment would certainly have been shared by Stubbs, who encouraged the queen carefully to consider her wooer's physical appearance. Even while proclaiming an open mind about the correspondence between inward and outward qualities, Stubbs advances much the same argument as a third party might have offered the Lady Anne: And for the presence or show of this man's person, although I wot well that as for most part the sweet and amiable or crooked conditions of mind been (as I may say) written in the lines of a lovely or ill shape of body or face, so contrariwise that sometime a virtuous mind is meanly lodged and dwells in a homely cottage, yet do I not gladly meddle with this particular, but will also refer it to Her Majesty's interview, if it must needs come to that point. Only this I humbly beseech her, that she will view it and survey it, and in viewing she will fetch her heart up to her eyes and carry her eyes down to her heart. And I beseech God grant her at that time to have her eyes in her head even in that sense in which Solomon placeth a wise man's

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Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy 169

170 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

Stubbs, of course, had many more strings to his bow (so many that he would shortly lack a hand to draw a bow with), and one of them, mentioned earlier ± the almost inevitable accusation that AlencËon is a ``sorcerer by common voice and fame'' (92) ± brings us full circle to Richard's remarkable power to ``witch sweet ladies,'' and men too. For he is by no means just a perverse ``besom that must sweep the court clean'' (2H6 IV.vii.31), Jack-Cade-like, as punishment (for, amongst other things, the loss of Normandy [27±9] ). Rather, in the intricate and evocative signifying structure that informs the sound and fury of the First Tetralogy, he carries the symbolic potency of the imaginary offspring of Joan de Pucelle ± the revenge of the ``otherness'' imposed upon her ± and ultimately of horror narrowly averted. For in the view of Stubbs and many others, England would again have been drenched in blood, had the present Queen Elizabeth betrayed her unifying heritage (the legacy of her namesake in Richard III) by allowing herself to be blinded by French blandishments. The question remains, however ± hanging in the air after the curt dismissal of the ``bloody dog'' and the scattering of Joan's ashes ± as to whether abjection of the ``other'' is not the very mechanism of monstrosity, bringing it ever closer to home and teaching it to speak plain English. And in this regard there is a further ironic twist to the symbolism of parentage, otherness, and belonging whose nexus is her imaginary child: for Richard Duke of York, the Englishman who thinks he has her ``fast'' but palpably fears her curse, whose deflationary mockery helps swell the fiction of her pregnancy to mythical dimensions, and who is almost desperately committed to her obliteration, is himself, of course, that monster's ``real'' ± historical ± father.

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eyes in his head, and then I doubt not but, upon conference of her wise heart and her eyes together, he shall have his dispatching answer. (70±1)

``Of tendyr hertys been Englysche men''

All the plays of the Second Tetralogy have entered into this discussion from time to time, usually at the heels of Henry V. To provide a more coherent context for those scattered references, it is necessary, in the first instance, to shift backward to Richard II ± that is, to political and dramatic ``origins.'' A new dynamic of signification may be set in motion by reconsidering two familiar points from a ``French'' perspective: first, Marlowe was probably acquainted with the three parts of Henry VI, as well as with Richard III, when he wrote Edward II;1 secondly, the latter play obviously comprises a precursor text for Richard II. It will now, I hope, seem reasonable to postulate Marlowe's alertness to associations between English historical models and contemporary French politics in the First Tetralogy. In this light (and even apart from Massacre), it appears almost a matter of course that he should then have chosen for his sole English historical drama a subject charged with similar significance. To identify such common ground, however heuristically, is to open a new way of looking at Richard II. For if the dramatic treatments of Henry VI and Edward II both evoke the disastrous reign of Henri III, and caution the English accordingly, the very modifications that Marlowe made to his precursor's approach help to make visible the French colouring, too, of Edward's theatrical successor. In seizing on Edward's relation with Gaveston, well established as a model for Henri's sexual decadence and political irresponsibility, Marlowe wholly jettisoned the penitential and hypocritical side of Henri reflected in Henry VI ± the image of the dubious ``roi-moine.'' Shakespeare may be seen as doing likewise in Richard II, although hardly so as to foreground the monarch's sexuality.2 Still, it is a small step from the extravagant speeches of Edward, especially regarding Gaveston, to Richard's chronic substitution of grandiose discourse for action ± one 171

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6

of the key accusations against Henri, which notably justified the label ``faineÂant.'' At the same time, some vices exemplified by Richard but not prominent in Edward are also likely to have evoked Henri for contemporary audiences: the susceptibility to flattery, the assurance of divine favour, and the abuse of power ± notably the power of taxation. All these elements, I hasten to add, are warranted by English accounts of Richard's reign, not to mention generic cautionary models of monarchy verging on tyranny. The picture is further blurred by an important dramatic intertext. For the anonymous Woodstock (or Thomas of Woodstock, or even, for some editors, The First Part of Richard II ) may itself be seen as effectively skewing the English historical material in a French direction. This play, preserved only in an imperfect manuscript, can be dated only between 1591 and 1595. It may therefore precede or follow Edward II; it may even postdate Richard II, although that seems unlikely.3 From my point of view, what matters is the circulation of all three texts within a common discursive space, which, moreover, continues to include La Guisiade. For in developing the sustained conflict between the king and his formidable political rival, Shakespeare produces yet another set of provocative intersections with Matthieu's drama.

I In its treatment of English±French relations, Woodstock, like Edward III, sustains the stereotypical binarism that proves unsustainable in Shakespeare's canonical histories. That binarism is applied, however, in service to a very different project, which actually runs counter to the chronicle sources. For the eponymous hero, and by association the Lancastrians generally, are constructed as truly English at the expense of a French-tainted ruler.4 This view culminates in the insulting epithet, ``Richard of Bordeaux,'' applied by the ghost of Richard's grandfather (V.i.86) ± as in the conclusion of Richard II, when Exton so identifies his victim (V.vi.33).5 In both cases, the designation circumvents royal standing: despite his better knowledge (``As full of valure as of royal blood! / . . . / This dead king to the living king I'll bear'' [R2 V.v.113±17] ), Exton is claiming that he has not really killed a king (and thereby offering his patron the same ``out''). Woodstock's Edward III is portraying Richard as a virtual usurper: Seven warlike sons I left, yet being gone No one succeeded: in my kingly throne, Richard of Bordeaux, my accursed grandchild,

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172 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

``Of tendyr hertys been Englysche men'' 173

Cut off your titles to the kingly state And now your lives and all would ruinate.

The same tactic was regularly applied by the League to that descendant of the usurping Capet whom they preferred to term ``Henri de Valois'' and stigmatize as less authentically French than the House of Lorraine. Thus a technical usurpation would amount to an ethical restoration. Richard's status as ``degenerate from his noble father'' (I.i.29) is introduced and sustained in terms both of failures in France and personal ``Frenchness,'' in contrast with ``plain Thomas'' and his brothers. The first scene, against the background of the attempted poisoning of Richard's uncles by ``his flattering minions'' (48) and ``that sly machiavel Tresilian'' (63), moves from evocation of the Black Prince's victories over the ``trembling French'' (30) to the Earl of Arundel's capture of enough French shipping ``that a tun of high-priced wines of France / Is hardly worth a mark of English money'' (89±90). The imputation of ``frenchified'' (I.ii.74) manners to Richard's court is commonplace enough; more trenchant is Lancaster's contempt for Richard as not a true Englishman, having been born in France, where the ``soil is fat for wines, not fit for men'' (V.iii.103). National origin is enlisted to support the open rebellion of Richard's virtuous uncles; in the highly Shakespearean exchange of accusations before the battle in Act V, Lancaster interjects with bitter sarcasm when York challenges the king's reliance on France instead of his ``native country'' (V.iii.95): His native country! why, that is France my lords! At Bordeaux was he born, which place allures And ties his deep affections still to France. Richard is English blood, not English born. (97±100) Binary ``othering'' has overtaken the syncretic possibility earlier proposed, when Richard's correction seemed possible, by the quintessentially English Gloucester, who welcomed ``Anne a Beame'' to be the queen of A wild-head . . . yet a kingly gentleman . . . A youth unsettled; yet he's princely bred

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(V.i.84±8)

174 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

Descended from the royal'st bloods in Europe, The kingly stock of England and of France.

But then Anne herself established her credentials by rejecting such syncretism, indeed foreignness itself: My native country I no more remember

But as a tale told in my infancy,

The greatest part forgot: and that which is,

Appears to England's fair Elysium

Like brambles to the cedars, coarse to fine,

Or like the wild grape to the fruitful vine.

And, having left the earth where I was bred

And English made, let me be englisheÁd:

They best shall please me shall me English call.

(41±9) An association of Richard with France does, in fact, figure in some historical discourse ± chiefly in Froissart (Duls 235±8), but also in the anonymous Chronicque de la TraõÈson et Mort de Richart Deux Roy Dengleterre and Jean CreÂton's Histoire du Roy d'Angleterre Richard II, both of which Herschel Baker suspects of inspiring some ``sympathetic touches'' (842) in Shakespeare's play.6 Certain modern historians still present the Lancastrian usurpation in terms of Englishness versus Frenchness: Mollat, for instance, states that Richard ``n'avait . . . rien d'anglais,'' while Bullingbrook, by contrast, ``sachant parler l'anglais, exposa en cette langue devant le Parlement ses droits aÁ deÂpouiller le francophile Richard II'' (161). Seward (7), relating Richard's unpopularity to the anti-French feeling stirred up by Woodstock, amongst others (partly on the basis of French coastal raids), instances the people's resentment, recorded by Froissart, of the king's French ``heart.'' The corollary is French enmity ± amply justified in retrospect, at least ± towards the House of Lancaster. The sixteenth-century Grandes croniques de Bretaigne observe sarcastically that Bullingbrook paid back the king of France for the ``biens, honneurs et advantaige'' he had received during his exile by initiating the subversion of the French crown (Bouchart 2: 250). That the family was perceived as more ``foreign'' by the French is confirmed by the fact that the 1395 substitution of John of Gaunt for Richard as feudal lord of Guyenne was bluntly rejected by the

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(I.iii.25±8)

inhabitants (Holinshed 2: 824, 830±1); Richard's murder, according to Holinshed, thoroughly alienated the Gascons and encouraged the French to foment revolt amongst them (3: 15±16) ± unsuccessfully, gloats the chronicler, ``for the people vnderstanding that the English yoke was but easie in comparison to the French bondage, determined to abide rather in their own subiection, than for a displeasure irrecouerable to aduenture themselves of a new doubtfull perill'' (3: 15). Generally, the fortunes of the Lancastrians are correlated with the ``othering'' of France across the two Tetralogies, as well as in Woodstock. Their most fortunate scion may ask God to overlook ``the fault / My father made in compassing the crown'' (H5 IV.i.293±4), but it is more practically in his interest to promote a radical differentiation between his (pan-British) soldiers and their opponents. Of course, he more than gets away with it in the short term, and the measure of his confident strength is his willingness to breed his English royal stock with a French female ± syncretism under control, or so he vainly supposes. For the First Tetralogy (again, ``[w]hich oft our stage has shown'') links the eventual untenability of English efforts to impose a reductive ``otherness'' upon France with the House of Lancaster's failure to maintain either its French conquests or its control of England. The strength of the strongman who ultimately redeems Richard II's usurpation, Henry Tudor, is based on inclusion, not exclusion, and includes a specifically French component. It is particularly ironic that, in vindicating its heroic opponent of Richard, Woodstock largely leaves English history behind to serve up a figure resembling the Guise of League propaganda, notably La Guisiade. The resemblance is nowhere more evident than in Woodstock's strident insistence on its hero's purity of motive. As in Matthieu, the obvious intention is to dispel the clouds of ambiguity trailed by the historical record. In Holinshed, Gloucester's conspiracy is real enough ± and extends to his own brothers (2: 836). The play makes Richard's assertion of royal prerogatives merely petulant and destructive ± part of his preference for upstart favourites over the ancient nobility. His imputation of ambition to Woodstock is a flimsy cover for jealous resentment, which finally issues in treacherous assassination. These are the same terms in which La Guisiade represents the dynamic between Guise and Henri III. Woodstock's virtual mirror-imaging ± however produced ± of Matthieu's doomed hero extends even to the symbolism of Calais, whose recapture by Guise's father, himself assassinated by the enemies of true Frenchness, figures amongst the glories of the House in the French play's opening monologue (93±4). Gloucester's murder, by an irony bitterly savoured by the victim himself (V.i.155±66), takes place in that English

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``Of tendyr hertys been Englysche men'' 175

bastion, which Woodstock helped Edward III to gain and whose ultimate loss Richard is making inevitable. By staging Woodstock's murder there, Richard effectively converts Calais from a proud monument of English conquest to a shameful witness of his un-Englishness: ``This town of Calais,'' intones the Governor Lapoole, himself enmeshed in conflicting loyalties and fears, ``shall for ever tell, / Within her castle walls Plain Thomas fell'' (V.i.54±5). In vain, the ghosts of the Black Prince and Edward III intermingle their warnings with litanies of English triumphs over France (V.iii.67±72, 91±5); Woodstock awakes ± like Lear supposing himself in France rather than in his ``own kingdom'' (Lr IV.vii.75) ± to prayerful helplessness and alienation: ``Lighten my fears, dear Lord. I here remain / A poor old man, thrust from my native country, / Kept and imprisoned in a foreign kingdom'' (V.iii.121±3).

II Richard II preserves the memory of Woodstock in pristine reverence, but in the absence of the man himself, this is a matter, hence at the mercy, of words ± particularly, the words of Gloucester's descendants and partisans, who include a rival to the king with far more equivocal motivation. And that rival is, of course, finally responsible for Richard's murder. This is indirectly to stage the recent French sequel, as well as the distant English one: by an analogous retributive mechanism, Guise's murder engendered the assassination of the king himself. Shakespeare's presentation, however, is sufficiently equivocal to accommodate both League and royalist readings. Unlike that of Woodstock, Bullingbrook's popularity with the commons is not made to seem solidly grounded; in the absence of trustworthy self-declaration, such as authorizes both Woodstock and Matthieu's Guise, his attacks on taxation and the royal favourites smack of opportunism. Richard's reading of his ``craft of smiles'' (R2 I.iv.28) emerges, not as mere jealous fabrication, but as shrewdly accurate. It happens to match an often-noted aspect of Guise's ``Caesarism''; the Excellent et libre discours describes the latter's placating of certain critics, ``lesquelles il caressoit par beaucoup de priuauteÂ, de douceur, de facËons populaires: premieres & plus certaines marques d'vn esprit qui aspire aÁ la Tyrannie'' (11). Indeed, Richard's perception, encouraged by his followers, that Bullingbrook so cultivates the common people ``[a]s were our England in reversion his, / And he our subjects' next degree in hope'' (I.iv.35±6) bears comparison with the ``take'' on Guise in Massacre ± witness the

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176 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

``Of tendyr hertys been Englysche men'' 177

Epernoun But trust him not, my Lord, for had Your Highness Seen with what a pomp he enter'd Paris, And how the citizens with gifts and shows Did entertain him And promised to be at his command ± Nay, they fear'd not to speak in the streets That the Guise durst stand in arms against the King, For not effecting of His Holiness' will.

King Henry Did they of Paris entertain him so?

Then means he present treason to our state.

(xix.67±76) The scornful desperation of Marlowe's Henry ± ``Guise, wear our crown, and be thou King of France'' (55) ± sounds the authentic Riccardian strain: ``What says King Bullingbrook?'' (R2 III.iii.173). Certainly, when Shakespeare turns the balance of sympathy in Richard's favour, with his deposition and murder, a shadow is cast into the future ± as far as Henry V's glorious achievements in France and, beyond them, the Wars of the Roses. To the extent that Bullingbrook's cause retains overtones of Woodstock's, the triumph of Lancastrian Englishness proves as destructive to the polity in the long run as French Protestants and Politiques feared would be the case for their own country, should the House of Lorraine gain power in the name of pure Frenchness, anti-Englishness ± and, above all, the divine will. It is, after all, Bullingbrook's appropriation of heavenly sanction, ``In God's name I'll ascend the regal throne'' (IV.i.113), that triggers the Bishop of Carlisle's pious interjection, ``Marry, God forbid!'' (114), and precipitates his accurate prophecy that the ``blood of English shall manure the ground'' (137). The intertextual relation between Richard II and La Guisiade bears on elements often cited as marking a new direction in Shakespeare's dramaturgy: the mixture of tragedy and history, the ambivalent treatment of the monarch ± especially of his presumed contract with God ± and the exceptionally ``high style,'' which rules out the Vice-like extravagance of the favourites in Woodstock. To begin with style, the deliberate neo-classicism of La Guisiade extends to an absence of any but verbalized action and a reliance on highly rhetorical set-speeches, whether in soliloquy or in two-way confrontations. Similar tendencies set Richard II apart from

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conclusions drawn by King Henry and Epernoun from the duke's popularity with the Parisians:

Shakespeare's other histories and buttress the play's implicit claim to be supplying the origins of the ``future,'' even if that claim is called in question by intrusions of the past ± Richard's murder of Woodstock and his failure to sustain the France-measured glory of Edward III. The play's formal speech and patterning help to characterize the transfer of power from Richard to Bullingbrook as not only a major dynastic transition but also the beginning of a political paradigm shift from an entropic feudal monarchy to a ``progressive'' one centred on the nation-state ± a process destined to be realized, however precariously, through renewed French conquest. This is familiar critical territory for Shakespeareans. La Guisiade, however, furnishes a lens through which these political and cultural developments take on, if not new significance, at least fresh immediacy. The core of the political and moral issue common to both plays is, of course, shared also by Woodstock and Edward II: the monarch is viewed, by rightthinking nobles and commoners alike, as weakening the country ± not least through unjust taxation ± in order to indulge decadent personal tendencies and with the encouragement of exploitative flatterers. This is the standard stuff, too, of League attacks on Henri III, with or without comparison between EÂpernon and Gaveston; thus the Histoire admirable speaks, in terms perfectly adapted to Richard II in both English plays, of Henri's favour to those who devised new means of exploiting the people: ``il les a cheri, ami & recherche [sic] . . . a toujours chasse loing de soy les hommes experimentez, et s'est accoste de jeunes ignorants, et alterez du bien d'autruy, qui finablement l'ont perdu'' (13). The minions are regularly figured as ``sangsues'' (Histoire tragique sig. Aiiiiv; Le Martyre des devx freres 84). The discourse of parasitism is, in fact, the common currency of all four dramatic texts, although such imagery lacks significant precedent in the English historical sources. Gaveston is a ``canker'' in Edward II (II.ii.18); Woodstock rails indignantly against the flatterers as ``cankers,'' with York and Arundel chiming in, ``Ay, cankers! caterpillars!'' (Woodstock I.iii.155 ff.). Bullingbrook more calculatingly complains of ``Bushy, Bagot, and their complices, / The caterpillars of the commonwealth, / Which I have sworn to weed and pluck away (R2 II.iii.165±7).7 In Richard II, however, the image is not merely evoked in passing: it is at once contextualized and generalized in the emblematic gardening scene (III.iii), which again characterizes the out-of-control flatterers as ``caterpillars'' (47). The effect is to align Shakespeare's play more closely with La Guisiade, where the central political conflict is pervasively played out in terms of destructive devouring.

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178 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

Matthieu insists, in his introductory ``Discours,'' that Guise aimed in good faith at effecting ``la diminution des tailles, et impos extraordinaires, pernitieuse invention des harpies de la Cour'' (65±6). For the queen mother, taking the Guise's side, the ``mignons'' are again ``ces gourmandes harpies'' (339), then ``[e]sponges de la Cour, . . . / Polypes inconstans, graduez en tous vices'' (343±4). Guise himself later makes them ``ces trouble-repos, / Ces sangsues du peuple, et ces forgeurs d'impos'' (685±6). Even Henri himself, when his conscience momentarily surfaces, is capable of seeing the justice of popular revolt: reacting against his own shameful excess and the taxes that finance it, the people ``se ligue, il s'assemble, et vaillant se resout, / De tuer les Mignons qui s'emparent de tout'' (1571±2). Particularly telling, however, is an earlier exchange when Henri is attempting to convince his rival (though he hardly persuades the audience) of his equal commitment to purifying the kingdom of heresy: ``je desire / De ceste infection purger tout mon empire'' (671±2). Disingenuously, he transfers the blame for corrupting the royal garden from the parasites he has nurtured to the Huguenots he has tried to eliminate. The latter, he insists, are ``puantes chenilles'' (628), but an audience might rather have associated the epithet with, as one anonymous versifier put it, . . . une petite Vermine De Mignons, venus en trois nuits, Qui, comme la chenille, paissent Nos Fleurs, aussitost qu'elles naissent, Et mangent en herbe nos fruits. (cited L'Estoile, Registre-Journal, 2: 44) Henri's defensiveness in the face of his irresponsibility, as Guise confronts him with it (all the while professing loyalty ± like Bullingbrook, but honestly), also appears in his appeals to his divine right to rule. There are frequent variations on this theme, which he introduces in speaking with his mother: ``Si le peuple me fuit, le ciel me favorise'' (399). Far more insistently than in Woodstock (Edward II does not raise the issue at all), this is the recourse of Shakespeare's Richard in justifying both his actions and his inaction. He is cautioned not to rely on it even by his well-wishers, as when York warns him against seizing Lancaster's inheritance:

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``Of tendyr hertys been Englysche men'' 179

180 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

You pluck a thousand dangers on your head,

You lose a thousand well-disposed hearts,

And prick my tender patience to those thoughts

Which honor and allegiance cannot think.

Comparable is the rebuttal, by the queen mother, of Henri's threat to punish opponents with God's ``flambantes coleres'' (436): Il est vray: mais j'ay peur que si vous n'appaisez Tant de cueurs contre vous justement embrasez, Que regnerez tout seul, et n'aura personnne, Sinon quelque Mignon, qui serve la Couronne. (437±40) Henri's fantasies of divine empowerment nevertheless persist, like Richard's. They are likewise mingled, moreover, with both a susceptibility to his own extravagant rhetoric and an acute resentment of his treacherous subjects, whom he views as provoked to disobedience by a demagogue who professes the public welfare but really aims at the throne. The often-noted ``poetic'' quality of Richard's discourse, which is intimately linked to his delusions of divine grandeur, has its counterpart in Henri's formidable eloquence, for which Matthieu gives him due credit, if only to highlight the discrepancy between appearance and reality, words and deeds. As Henri substitutes, in his mother's view, the distaff for the sceptre (``Porter mieux un fuseau qu'un sceptre en vostre main'' [184]), so does Richard effectively prefer the warder to the sceptre in dealing with Mowbray and Bullingbrook (I.iii.118). His interruption of their trial by combat emblematizes the deferral of decisive action with ultimately futile display, even if the challenger is initially awed by ``the breath of kings'' (215). Richard is well known for verbally manufacturing castles ± and sceptres ± in the air, all the more extravagantly when he imaginatively renounces royal power: I'll give my jewels for a set of beads, My gorgeous palace for a hermitage, My gay apparel for an almsman's gown, My figur'd goblets for a dish of wood, My sceptre for a palmer's walking staff, My subjects for a pair of carved saints,

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(II.i.205±8)

``Of tendyr hertys been Englysche men'' 181

And my large kingdom for a little grave, A little little grave, an obscure grave.

The same tendency is conspicuous in Matthieu's Henri, who is incapable of distinguishing, in his self-pity, between loss of his glorious capital (through Guise-inspired revolt) and its loss of him. His effusive mingling of inflationary bluster with despair is worth quoting at some length (it is twice again as long) for its Riccardian timbre ± even if we pass over the resemblance to Prospero's vision of evanescence (``The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces, / The solemn temples . . . '' [Tmp. IV.i. 152±3] )8: Paris trois fois chetif, qui estois l'ornement

De tout ce qui se voit sous ce bas element;

La perle des citez, du monde la Princesse,

Par moy mise en honneur, par moy mise en detresse.

Tes tours qui vont cachant leur front dedans les cieux,

Tes palais eslevez pour les Roys mes ayeux,

Tes superbes maisons, tes sacrez edifices,

Ma cour ton Ilion, mon Louvre tes delices,

. . . . . . . . . . Bref tout ce que tu as de saint, d'esquis, de beau, Se perd puis que tu perds de ton Roy le flambeau. (219±32) Henri's confusion of poetic inspiration with the wielding of thunderbolts is glaring in the lengthy soliloquy opening Act II, Scene ii. He first speaks of his return (from Poland) to his native soil, then fantasizes his power to impose order by the mere splendour of his royal presence. The sequence of ideas, the combination of anguish and bravado, and the imagery are all anticipatory of the vacillating Richard upon his return from Ireland (III.ii). Richard, drawing on the emblematic tradition of thieves fleeing the light, develops an extended comparison of himself to the sun, whose rising will strike Bullingbrook with fear (36 ff.). Likewise, Henri, addressing France, proclaims, ``Je vis tes ennemis s'enfuir aÁ mon ombre, / Comme aux rais du soleil se cache la nuict sombre'' (491±2), then figures himself as a source of beneficent warmth to loyal subjects, an avenging flame to rebels: Mais j'ay pour mes amis une douce lumiere, Autant que le soleil luisante et singuliere,

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(III.iii.147±54)

Qui leur esclaire l'ame, et fait voir d'un costeÂ

Ma clemence et mon cueur vaisseau de pieteÂ:

De l'autre il leur descouvre, et benin fait paroistre

Leur crime, et leur fera ma grace recognoistre.

Mais pour ces desloyaux un flambeau de rigueur

Je brandis en ma main. C'est mon foudre vengeur,

Et l'esclair menacËant, avorton du tonnerre,

Signal tresasseure d'un livrement de guerre.

(519±28) At the core of the hollow confidence of both kings lies the conviction that, as Richard puts it, Not all the water in the rough rude sea

Can wash the balm off from an anointed king;

The breath of worldly men cannot depose

The deputy elected by the lord.

For every man that Bullingbrook hath press'd

To lift shrewd steel against our golden crown,

God for his Richard hath in heavenly pay

A glorious angel; then if angels fight,

Weak men must fall, for heaven still guards the right.

(54±7) La Guisiade's equivalent is couched in analogous terms, although the ``angels'' here are explicitly aspects of the royal dignity: Je suis l'Oinct du Seigneur, je suis Roy grand et fort,

Je suis sur les FrancËois juge en dernier ressort,

Ma poictrine et mon dos, comme d'une cuirasse,

S'arme de mon bon droict, j'ai l'amour en la face,

J'ay en main le pouvoir, et le courage au cueur,

Asseurez instruments pour me rendre vainqueur:

L'inexpugnable escu qui mon bras environne,

Est la droicte equiteÂ, qui ne cognoit personne,

à mutins, contre vous Et pour lance cruelle, o

J'ay le commandement qui vous estonne tous. (505±14) The irony at the expense of Henri's self-inflation, it should be noted, doubles that applied to Richard by Shakespeare, since according to

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182 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

much League propaganda, the divine entitlement of Guise eclipsed Henri's feeble claim. Richard's rhetoric in Act III, Scene ii, is largely preparation for his imminent confrontation with Bullingbrook. Such is the case, too, with Matthieu's Henri and Guise. Both kings address their outwardly humble ``cousins'' sarcastically, insisting on an ambition that the other denies: Et bien que dictes-vous, mon cousin? Vous avez Plus de feux allumez qu'assoupir n'en pouvez, Chacun dit que ce feu se nourrit de la flamme De quelque ambition, qui brasille en vostre ame: L'on me dit tous les jours qu'en me faussant la foy Vous liguez mes subjects de nouveau contre moy. (549±54)

Fair cousin, you debase your princely knee

To make the base earth proud with kissing it.

Me rather had my heart might feel your love

Than my unpleased eye see your courtesy.

Up, cousin, up, your heart is up, I know,

Thus high at least [touching his crown], although

your knee be low. (III.ii.190±5) While Matthieu's premise, unlike Shakespeare's, is the selfless idealism of the king's adversary, he cannot help portraying the popular support of his hero as a threat to Henri's authority. When Catherine assures her son that the Guisards recognize him as king, a French public could hardly have missed the truth in the retort of the ``Hermite'': ``[u]n Roy de quelque cloistre'' (428). Richard leaps to the same image in figuring the goal to which Bullingbrook's manúuvres tend: the exchange of his ``gorgeous palace for a hermitage'' (III.ii.148). Deposition looms for Richard as the ``natural'' consequence of the favour enjoyed by his rival, entering into painful counterpoise with his conviction of divine protection. The prospect defines itself only with the defection of his armies and the angelic one's failure to appear ± ``Must he be depos'd? / The King shall be contented'' [III.ii.144±5] ) ± but it has infiltrated his thoughts since Bullingbrook's departure into exile:

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``Of tendyr hertys been Englysche men'' 183

. . . 'tis doubt When time shall call him home from banishment, Whether our kinsman come to see his friends. Ourself and Bushy, Bagot here and Green, Observ'd his courtship to the common people, How he did seem to dive into their hearts With humble and familiar courtesy. (I.iv.20±6) The seeds are sown here for the flocking of ``young and old'' (III.ii.119) to Bullingbrook's standard when he returns before his time, according to Scroop's later account ± a point that bears comparison with Guise's triumphal return to Paris, contrary to the king's direct command, before the Day of the Barricades (Bourassin 63 ff.). Finally, behind Richard's sense of imminent deposition lies a keen cognizance, however distanced by self-dramatics, that, despite his sacred status, his life is at stake: ``A little little grave, an obscure grave'' (III.iii.154). In La Guisiade, essentially the same ideas combine during Henri's confrontation with his virtual evil angel, who successfully persuades the king that there is more to Guise's ambition than to ``tuer les Mignons qui s'emparent de tout.'' Henri's thoughts, too, are thereby led from deposition ± a threat to which he can oppose only the blessing of the ``souverain pouvoir du ciel'' (1619) ± to what must be Guise's murderous intentions, nurtured by popular affection and sanctioned by religious authority: Ouy, de Guise veut Vous tuer pour regner, si vaincre il ne vous peut. . . . . . . . . . De Guise veut regner, de Guise se resout Pour estre Roy de France aÁ l'hasard mettre tout: Il a gaigne le cueur du people et de l'Eglise: On leve le chapeau quant on parle de Guise. (1663±4, 1667±70) Even at the point where La Guisiade and Richard II diverge most conspicuously in structure, they remain intertextually engaged. The historical ``given'' that Shakespeare's king is deposed and murdered by his rival spoils the parallel with Henri III and his great antagonist, but only insofar as such parallels are inevitably spoiled. Within a common discursive field, such ``false'' tracks ultimately circle back into the ``true''

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path of each text, complicating and destabilizing ``truth'' itself. The very skewing of the model of La Guisiade illuminates complications in Richard II that infiltrate the Tetralogy as a whole. These derive, in essence, from the reversion of the audience's sympathy towards the victimized Richard ± his emergence, however ephemerally, as a species of tragic hero, so that the text gestures beyond the mode of chronicle history. Meanwhile, the new Henry IV notoriously takes Richard's place in more senses than one: he immediately attracts conspiracies and, after the murder, verges on becoming personally discredited and politically ineffectual, like his predecessor. This structural evolution intertextually transfers the role of Henri III from Richard to Henry IV ± complete with the curse of Cain, effectively incurred by Henry in the very process of projecting it upon Exton. Meanwhile, Richard veers sharply in the direction of Matthieu's Guise, suddenly acquiring an ethical core, actively demonstrating his legitimacy in the broadest sense, and undergoing a martyrdom with, in his last moments, heroic overtones. Finally, to enlarge for a moment the referentiality of Richard II, it complements Shakespeare's pivotal dramatic use of the Riccardian loyalist and traitor to Henry, the Duke of ``Aumerle'' (the old form of Albemarle) ± although that role derives in essence from the Chronicles ± that one of the Guise's vengeful relations was his cousin Charles de Lorraine, duc d'Aumale, Governor of Paris under the League. In La Guisiade (1766), Henri III anticipates having to deal with Aumale, who was particularly active within the English frame of French reference at two points spanning the gap between that play's composition and Richard II's: in 1589, after the murder of Guise and the Cardinal, when Henri sought to suppress the insurrection led by him and Mayenne;9 and in 1595, when, under the new king, he was condemned in absentia and executed in effigy for seditious conspiracy with Spain. These were important and highly public affairs, as is reflected in Chapman's The Conspiracy of Biron, where Aumale appears in exile in Brussels as the last major hold-out against Henri IV (I.ii.53 ff.), even Mayenne having conceded. His symbolic punishment also occasioned a pamphlet, Discours sur l'exeÂcution du duc d'Aumale; this work, on the one hand, praises Henri IV in terms evoking Shakespeare's Henry V ± divinely victorious, producing miracles that posterity will scarcely believe, his name striking terror to his enemies (12) ± while, on the other, it punningly establishes the duke's very title as a synonym for treachery: ``amis EspagnoliseÂs, ses coeurs couverts & dissimulez au mal'' (10; my emphasis). As an ungrateful and intractable rebel against a godlike master, Aumale epitomizes those ``mauvaises plantes & venimeuses, desquelles on ne pourroit faire

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186 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

III Broadly speaking, the sequels to Richard II recapitulate its political rhythm: the emergence of chaos, the reimposition of order. The challenges posed by Hotspur and Falstaff enable Prince Hal to amass the political and moral capital required for his thorough subjugation of England ± a process encoded as the forging of national identity and solidarity. Setting the seal on this success, Henry's conquest of France starkly reverses the failures accumulated over the First Tetralogy. Yet Shakespeare again produced his sharp image by cropping the blurred edges. In particular, he suppressed Henry IV's protracted and vexed dealings with France, which extensively occupy, and sometimes preoccupy, the Chronicles. A partial list includes the negotiations over Queen Isabelle (3: 16, 18), which finally resulted in her return to France and marriage with Charles d'OrleÂans; the French invasion of the Isle of Wight (3: 27); the duc d'OrleÂans's challenge to a mass tournament (3: 28); the military moves around and against Calais (3: 34±6); the French fleet's support of Owen Glendower (3: 39); the English expedition to France of 1413 (3: 55). In the Henriad, the French signifier is held in abeyance for its destined decisive function. Its very suspension, however, nurtures the intertextual presence of French political patterns within English ones. Insofar as Bullingbrook, after liquidating Richard, makes the structurally logical candidate for comparison with Henri III, that comparison extends over the two parts of ``his own'' play. The brief remainder of Henri's reign after his assassination of Guise was tainted by the paradox with which La Guisiade concludes: in outwardly achieving political hegemony, fulfilling the ``desir de regner sans compagnon'' (1954), the monarch both incurred the mark of Cain ± an ironic fulfilment of his penitential pretensions ± and guaranteed his punishment. He thereby realized the image with which N.N. had goaded him: ``plus rien qu'un Roy par fantaisie'' (1517). In the depths of the deposition scene, Richard had longed to be ``a mockery king of snow'' (R2 IV.i.260); in death, paradoxically, he shines like a ghostly sun, before which it is Bullingbrook's lot to ``melt'' himself ``away in water-drops'' (262).

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changer la nature quelque artifice qu'on y puisse apporter'' (16). To this extent, he makes a model even for Caliban, whose insurrection provokes Prospero to brand him ``a born devil, on whose nature / Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains, / Humanely taken, all, all lost'' (Tmp. IV.i.188±90).

The monarchical parallel extends to the realms themselves. The elimination of Guise implicitly leaves the way clear for d'Espernon, the incarnation of both moral and political menace. The frank picture of his own influence delivered by that character, Vice-like, in the conjuration scene, may be juxtaposed with Henry IV's nightmare vision of the England, ``sick with civil blows'' (2H4 IV.v.133), that he fears he will leave behind him: Cour que j'ay illustre de tout ce qui abonde

Du meschant, d'imparfaict, en tous les coigns du monde:

Á jaÁ serf de la peine, et captif du pecheÂ,

Ou

Avec moy tout exces, tout malheur s'est cacheÂ.

Á j'ay fait la lecËon des actes plus infames,

Ou

Proufit de vos butins, entretien de vos flammes.

Par le pendant glace de mon vicieux trac,

J'ay eu pour mes valets gens de corde et de sac,

De volupteÂ, d'inceste, et d'Amour je descouvre

L'effect prodigieux aux cabinets du Louvre.

J'ay fait flechir la Cour sous ces vices divers,

Comme indigne maison de mignons si pervers.

(829±39) Harry the Fift is crowned! Up, vanity!

Down, royal state! All you sage counsellors, hence!

And to the English court assemble now,

From every region, apes of idleness!

Now, neighbor confines, purge you of your scum!

Have you a ruffin that will swear, drink, dance,

Revel the night, rob, murder, and commit

The oldest sins the newest kind of ways?

Be happy, he shall trouble you no more.

England shall double gild his treble guilt,

England shall give him office, honor, might.

(2H4 IV.v.120±9) D'Esperon, too, is looking to the future, in which the crown will go to ``[m]on maistre, mon support,'' who promises to be a ``Prince excellent et bon'' for him but who looms for Matthieu and his constituency as a godless reprobate. D'Espernon's lip-smacking is akin to Falstaff's dreams of glory. Yet by the mid-1590s, as Matthieu himself came to realize, the

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king-in-waiting had risen above his dubious reputation ± morally unsavoury even for some of his partisans ± to fulfil his destiny as heroic saviour of his nation, albeit at the cost of much Protestant good will. My previous demonstrations that Shakespeare partially modelled Henry V on Henri IV have relied chiefly on pamphlet accounts of the ``miraculous'' victories at Coutras and Ivry. More broadly, Shakespeare's choric distillation, ``Fortune made his sword'' (Epi.6), resonates with the discourse of fortune attached to Henri. Cocula comments on Montaigne's charged use, in a letter to Henri, of le maõÃtre mot que les partisans d'Henri IV se plaisent alors aÁ reÂpeÂter comme une assurance de la preÂdestination du premier roi Bourbon, celui de ``fortune''. Les eÂtonnants succeÁs militaires d'Henri de Navarre et d'Henri IV de France sont pour eux le signe d'une eÂlection divine qui le fait triompher de tous des obstacles qui ont jalonneÂ, tels les à ne. (``Montaigne'' traveaux d'Hercules, sa longe marche vers le tro 30)10 Cocula does not fail to note that such succession is promised by ``fortune'' from the moment of the death of AlencËon, and ``au nom de la loi salique'' (31). It is worth adding that Henri, at least prior to 1593, was often endowed by Protestant writers with personal qualities, apart from the piety by which he acknowledged and manifested his ``fortune,'' that extend the overlap with Shakespeare's anti-French hero. I have already adduced Mornay's A letter written by a French Catholike gentleman, which testifies to Henri's lack of vengefulness: he was renowned for his mercy to prisoners.11 The same encomium dwells on his capacity to inspire devotion (14) and the ``wonderful grace'' with which he is able to win men's minds. Similar qualities had been stressed twenty years earlier in Serres's Discourse, as when, before the battle of Montcontour, the Princes [Navarre and CondeÂ] visiting in person euery ranke as well of horssemen as footemen, whose pleasant aspect, & specially in the prince of Nauarre, gaue cause of singular corage to the soldiors, whose stomackes besides they were firmly setled in the goodnesse of the cause, yet they seemed to redouble in desire, the rather at the gratious view and persuasion of the yong Prince. (158±9) Anticipated here is Henry V's informal encouragement of his troops (an episode not derived from the historical accounts):

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188 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

For forth he goes, and visits all his host,

Bids them good morrow with a modest smile,

And calls them brothers, friends, and countrymen.

Upon his royal face there is no note

How dread an army hath enrounded him,

. . . . . . . . . . But freshly looks, and overbears ataint With cheerful semblance and sweet majesty; That every wretch, pining and pale before, Beholding him, plucks comfort from his looks. (IV.Cho.32±42) Even after their defeat, the Protestant Princes cheered their followers with a ``joyful countenance'' (165). On another occasion, Navarre's exchange of pledges with his army recalls Henry V's vow not to be ransomed and his forging of his army into a ``band of brothers'': It was openly red there to al the horsmen, that the prince of Nauar declared himselfe chief of the armie, with promise not to leaue the Campe till a good and happie peace, and muche lesse to spare his lyfe and goods in that behalfe. This being published, the horsemen likewise protested by othe not to departe the armie without his leaue, nor forbeare life or liuing in the assistance of the quarell. (67±8) However inflated by panegyric in such accounts, Henri's ability to inspire and persuade was real enough. Buisseret speaks of his relatively tranquil period in Guyenne, after fleeing the surveillance of the king in Paris (1576), as involving the cultivation of an ``easy familiarity with his subjects'' that was to stand him in good political stead. He was known to solicit the views of common people incognito, ``sometimes receiving startling answers'' (11). Beneath the impression of pleasure-loving idleness (which led Henri III to underrate him, as Henry IV does his son), he was clearly ``developing his own distinctive style of governing ± and of publicizing it ± which he would one day practise on a larger scale.'' It is a picture that, all in all, recalls the preparations of Prince Hal for his eventual accession.

IV If Shakespeare's audience of 1599 would have ``refigured'' his Henry V in terms of Henri IV, and vice-versa, with the concluding English±French

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reconciliation shadowing the Treaty of Vervins and the Edict of Nantes, interpretative room must be made for the enabling condition of that combination of victory and harmony: the conversion to Catholicism. It may be argued that the ironic distance now available on the heroics of Henri, thanks certainly to that conversion, but perhaps also to harder scrutiny of his personal behaviour (especially his womanizing) once in power, supports those textual elements that expose Shakespeare's ostensibly flawless hero to sceptical interrogation.12 Fundamental, from this point of view, is the mutually expedient arrangement whereby the bishops, alarmed by the anti-clerical disposition of the Commons, support his French project with both money and moral authority. The church's lack of principle is hard to miss and can hardly help tinging with irony the king's ostentatious piety. The detail is taken from the Chronicles, where the oration of the Archbishop of Canterbury, including his discrediting of the Salic law, flows even more explicitly from self-interest (Holinshed 3: 65).13 But Shakespeare further focuses the symbiotic accommodation between the English church and Henry's ambitions by suppressing the historical fact that the spokesman for the French ambassadors was also an archbishop (of Bourges, the centre of resistance to the English in the latter part of the Hundred Years War). This fact (though not the self-interest of the English church) is retained in The Famous Victories, from which Shakespeare seems to have taken the unhistorical association between this embassy and the Dauphin's supposed gift of tennis balls.14 Indeed, in the anonymous play, a shade of proto-Protestant indignation (``Priest of Bourges . . . '' [856] ), mandated by Holinshed (``A proud presumptuous prelat'' [3: 69]15), inflects Henry's ire at the ungracious ambassador. Both Shakespeare and The Famous Victories suppress the historical account of the French churchman's opening address, which at least began with a Christian-sounding oration in praise of peace (Holinshed 3: 68±9) ± not only the polar opposite of Canterbury's speech but an anticipation of the one that Shakespeare, without historical warrant, assigns to Burgundy late in the play.16 It will be clear by now that Canterbury's traditional English argument against the Salic law ± and at this point Shakespeare chooses to follow Holinshed exactly (3: 65±6)17 ± amounts to a slap in the face for Henri IV. His title was still at stake ± witness Boton's celebration of the defeat of Spain and the League in 1595: Ce Roy comme vn Hercules, & Thebain et Gallique, Doit faire authoriser l'ordonnance Salique,

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``Of tendyr hertys been Englysche men'' 191

Que le Marron d'Espaigne, & le FrancËois leger, Bande contre son Roy voudra faire abroger.

Moreover, the slap is aimed with precision: to speak of Hugh Capet as having ``usurp'd the crown / Of Charles the Duke of Lorraine, sole heir male / Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great'' (H5 I.ii.69±71) is to echo ± and not remotely ± League claims for the House of Lorraine's true lineage. To strike one's mirror-image, however, is to strike oneself, even if the blow is not felt: Lancastrian legitimacy, too, is up for grabs. The model of Henri IV, then, finally does not say much for Henry V's divine favour, just cause, or honourable quarrel. Ironically, however, it is English intertexts, thanks partly to their admixture of French historical material, that impugn Henry's implicit appropriation of his counterpart's legendary mercy and magnanimity. They do so with such effect, I suggest, as to call in question the general assumption that, despite the insistent shadows of brutality infiltrating Shakespeare's panegyric, the playwright (and, presumably, his audience) ``could not know what had happened in France'' (Seward 216) during the English conquest.18 The Chronicles frankly record the ``lamentable slaughter'' (3: 82) of French prisoners commanded by Henry at Agincourt ± however ``worthily,'' according to Gower (IV.vii.9), and ``contrarie to his accustomed gentleness'' (Holinshed 3: 81).19 Other negative suggestions are more shadowy but show insistently in an intertextual light, such as is reflected, not merely by Turkish ``otherness,'' but also by English material conspicuously bypassed, redeployed, or otherwise neutralized in the dramatization. We may begin with the most resonant ``fact'' regarding Agincourt itself. When the king is told that, besides four men ``of name,'' only ``five and twenty'' (IV.viii.105±6) Englishmen died, the text is seizing on Holinshed's first statistics, which in the Chronicles are not only qualified (``as some doo report'') but instantly rejected: ``but other writers of greater credit affirme that there were slaine aboue fiue or six hundred persons'' (3: 83). Hall is even more sceptical ± and explicit about the implications, inviting the reader to accept the low figure only ``if you wil geue credite to such as write miracles'' (72). At stake, then, is Henry's special relation with God ± the premise of his myth, as of Protestant discourse on behalf of Henri de Navarre. Elsewhere, as with the prisoners, the issue is cruelty. The historically literate would have appreciated the distortion in Henry's posture of gentleness after the fall of Honfleur: ``[u]se mercy to them all for us, dear

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uncle'' (III.iii.54). In fact, as Holinshed reports, ``[t]he souldiors were ransomed, and the towne sacked, to the great gaine of the Englishmen'' (3: 73); worse, in keeping with Henry's strategy of making the town a second Calais (Mollat 61), the population were driven from their homes (subsequently offered gratis to English colonists) in a scene of appalling suffering. In a passage virtually marked for special attention (``Some writing of the yeelding vp of Harflue, doo . . . make mention . . . '' [3: 73] ), this suffering is portrayed in Holinshed (73±4)20 no less vividly than it had been at the time by Jean Le Febvre: ``C'eÂtait piteuse chose . . . d'ouõÈr les regrets et lamentations des habitants, deÂlaissant ainsi leur ville avec tous leurs biens'' (cited Mollat 61). The reflection cast by the Chronicles here highlights the terrible consequences menaced should the inhabitants reject Henry's ``best mercy'' (III.ii.2). In deciding to ``yield our town and lives to thy soft mercy'' and adding, ``dispose of us and ours'' (48±9), Shakespeare's Governor calls attention to that mercy's fictional standing. At other points, certainly, Holinshed records the king's ``bountie to captiues'' and ``fauourable vsing of those that submitted themselues to his grace'' (3: 93); these phrases accompany Henry's capture of Caen two years later, where he also supposedly restored the inhabitants' wealth ± a ``worthie & rare example of equitie in king Henrie'' (3: 92).21 Even in this account, however, practical advantage tinges the king's clemency: all the neighbouring towns spontaneously surrender. More decisively illustrated, then, is his political acumen: ``when lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentler gamester is the soonest winner'' (III.vi.112±13). Indeed, when Henry with these words endorses the execution of Bardolph, he is recycling Holinshed's observation that the population responded to such ``maintenance of iustice'' (3: 77) by (illegally) provisioning Henry's army. What stands out in the play-text, moreover, is less Henry's ``lenity'' vis-aÁ-vis the local population than his enforcement of discipline; there is ultimately little distance between Bardolph's punishment ± effectively extended to Nym in the Boy's soliloquy (IV.iv.70) ± and the king's exemplary hanging, according to the Chronicles, of two soldiers who strayed outside the boundary of the camp at the siege of Rouen (3: 102). Finally, Holinshed's complete narrative contains conspicuous (and conspicuously unmoralized) instances where Henry's unyieldingness unmistakably shades into vindictiveness: at the surrender of Louviers, he insisted, as part of the articles of surrender, that all the gunners who had shot at the English should be put to death (3: 99); at the siege of ``Monstreau'' (Montereau) he hanged twelve men in retribution for certain ``opprobrious words'' delivered to his herald (3: 120) ± behaviour that decisively out-heralds heralds.

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``Of tendyr hertys been Englysche men'' 193

Shakespeare's most radical excision from the ``complete narrative'' is intertextually the most telling. The dramatic movement ± ostensibly in firm control of the Chorus22 ± has Henry striding swiftly and manfully from the siege of Honfleur (1415) to the climactic victory at Agincourt (in the same year) to the Treaty of Troyes (1420), which he collects as his reward. An audience gets virtually no sense of intervening military or diplomatic action, much less of any impediment to English arms. Nor, despite the precedent of Henry VI, Part One, backed by the Chronicles, does the play-text acknowledge the Dauphin's continuing resistance after the treaty.23 Shakespeare's drastically foreshortened account lends itself, of course, to panegyric; he appears to have taken his cue from The Famous Victories. Still, even as he drew the line at reproducing that play's wishful-thinking by having the ``Dolphin'' sworn to ``fealty,'' as Nashe recorded with satisfaction,24 Shakespeare effectively opened up historical and ideological issues that in the precursor play had been signed, sealed, and delivered. Key to this process is the Chorus opening Act V, which draws attention to the chronological gap by conspicuously obfuscatory preterition: Now in London place him ± As yet the lamentation of the French Invites the King of England's stay at home; The Emperor's coming in behalf of France, To order peace between them ± and omit All the occurrences, what ever chanc'd, Till Harry's back-return again to France. There must we bring him; and myself have play'd The interim, by remembr'ing you 'tis past. (V.Cho.35±43) This ``ungrammaticality'' signposts a sharp intertextual detour. For what most notably occurred in the interval between Agincourt and Troyes was the laborious step-by-step conquest of Normandy, including the single most difficult and protracted military project in which Henry engaged: the siege of Rouen.25 That siege, abundantly documented by Hall and Holinshed, began in late July 1418 and lasted beyond mid-January 1419. Thus what brings the Second Tetralogy full circle, compelling its juxtaposition with the First, is not just the backward-forward perspec-

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tive of the concluding Chorus but the suppression, again, of the central role of Rouen. This goes to confirm that city's potent symbolic value, in distant and recent history, as a marker at once of English glory and failure in France. Hall's introduction to his account of Henry's expedition makes clear ± in suggestively mingled terms ± both the intangible and the tangible stakes: After kyng Henry had thus victoriously obteined so many tounes and so many fortresses from the possession of his enemies, and that his great fame and litle personage was the whole terror and feare of the Frenche nacion, he ymagined with hymself that he had nothyng doen nor any thyng gotten excepte he brought the famous citee of Roan beying the Empery and diademe of the Duchy of Normandy into his possession & dominion, to the whiche out of euery parte the Normans had conueighed their money Iewelles and houshold stuffe. (81) Not surprisingly, the English thoroughly plundered Rouen when it finally fell (Holinshed 3: 100). Shakespeare redeploys at least one distinctive element from the Chronicles' account of the siege. An Irish contingent is singled out for good service (3: 104), and their arrival at ``Honfleur'' (then a secure English port) may have suggested where they would be dramatically useful. More significant intertextually, however, are several highly subversive variations on Shakespearean themes. Besides the plundering that crowns Henry's success, these include a resonant reminder that the church assuring him of divine favour is not only self-interested but partisan. After taking the city, Henry caused to be imprisoned ``till he died'' a prominent ecclesiastic who had offered Henry a curse, not a blessing (Holinshed 3: 105). The detail is juxtaposed with Henry's greeting by the more compliant clergy upon his triumphal entrance into the city; it is also relegated to the margin. More generally, the valour of the defenders of Rouen intertextually problematizes by its absence, even more than Pistol does by his presence, the play's binary opposition between solid English heroics and hollow French braggartism: ``The Frenchmen in deed preferring fame before worldlie riches, and despising pleasure (the enimie to warlike prowesse) sware each to other neuer to render or deliuer the city, while they might either hold sword in hand or speare in rest'' (Holinshed 3: 102). If this last sentence evokes the chivalric heroism of, say, Chaucer's Trojans (though hardly of Shakespeare's in Troilus), the sequel suggests the practicality of the besieging Greeks: ``The king of England aduertised

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of their haultie courages, determined to conquer them by famine, which would not be tamed with weapon'' (3: 102). This is standard military procedure, but it is hardly the style of Shakespeare's Henry in action, despite the promise of the Prologue that, if his Mars-like proportions could be recreated on stage, ``at his heels / (Leash'd in, like hounds) should famine, sword, and fire / Crouch for employment'' (Pro. 6±8). This image gains poetic force from the discourse of divine retribution, the stock-in-trade of Henri IV. The historical record, according to the Chronicles, is more equivocal. True, the king confronts the French ambassador with his intention of conquering with ``blood, sword, and fire'' (3: 69), but he is echoing the Archbishop's cold-blooded injunction ``to spare neither bloud, sword, nor fire'' (3: 66). Matter-of-fact brutality likewise dominates when the king affirms he will ``with all diligence enter into France, and destroie the people, waste the countrie, and subuert the townes with blood, sword, and fire'' (3: 69).26 ``Famine,'' however, is another matter, specifically contributed by the siege of Rouen. By displacing this element, centred within Holinshed's text, to the Shakespearean margins ± for ``famine'' is never mentioned again ± the Chorus opens the door wide to intertextual subversion. The chronicler does not shrink from acknowledging ± in unusually personal terms ± the enormity of the suffering of the Rouennais, even as he distances himself rhetorically: If I should rehearse (according to the report of diverse writers) how deerelie dogs, rats, mise, and cats were sold within the towne, and how greedilie they were by the poore people eaten and deuoured, and how the people dailie died for fault of food, and yoong infants laie sucking in the streets on their moothers breasts lieng dead, starued for hunger; the reader might lament their extreme miseries. A greet number of poore sillie creaturs were put out at the gates, which were by the Englishmen that kept the trenches beaten and driuen backe again to the same gates, which they found closed and shut against them. And so they laie betweene the wals of the citie and the trenches of the enimies, still crieng for helpe and releefe, for lack whereof great numbers of them dailie died. (3: 102±3) To send the wretches he was starving a Christmas dinner ``in the honor of Christes Natiuitie,'' as Henry evidently did, having been ``mooued with pity,'' may seem a hollow gesture, even if it earns him the marginal tag of ``vertuous and charitable prince'' (3: 103).27 Had he dramatized the event, Shakespeare would have had to accommodate the contrast

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``Of tendyr hertys been Englysche men'' 195

196 Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Politics of France

he declared that the goddesse of battell called Bellona, had three handmaidens, euer of necessitie attending vpon her, as blood, fire, and famine. And whereas it laie in his choise to vse them all three; yea, two, or one of them at his pleasure, he had appointed onelie the meekest maid of those three damsels to punish them of that citie, till they were brought to reason. (3: 104)29 The business of relieving Shakespeare's Henry of responsibility for the horrors of war (whether the ``hounds'' of Mars or Bellona's ``handmaidens'') may begin with the Chorus, but it continues under Henry's personal management. Canterbury is virtually required to take any sin incurred ``upon my head'' (I.ii.97); the Dolphin's ``mock . . . / Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones, and his soul / Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance / That shall fly with them'' (280±3); the citizens of Honfleur will bring their own destruction upon them, for ``[w]hat is't to me, when you yourselves are cause . . . ?'' (III.iii.19); Williams is taught that war is God's ``beadle'' and ``vengeance'' (IV.i.169), so that ``every man that dies ill, the ill upon his own head, the King is not to answer it'' (186±7) ± even if the Dolphin's ``soul / Shall stand sore charged'' for provoking the effects of Henry's wrath. In sum, from Shakespearean start to finish, peace itself ``lies'' not in the power of this most potent of English kings, but in the ``answer'' (V.ii.76) of the French. This virtual arrogation by rhetoric's past master of a position outside discourse points back to the second part of Henry's self-justification at Rouen: And as for the poore people lieng in the ditches, if they died through famine, the fault was theirs, that like cruell tyrants had put them out of the towne, to the intent he should slaie them; and yet had he saued their liues, so that if anie lacke of charitie was, it rested in them, and not in him. (Holinshed 3: 104) Here, too, Henry scores a rhetorical coup with practical results. First, his ``answer put the French ambassadors in a great studie, musing much at his excellent wit and hawtinesse of courage'' (3: 104). It actually led, however, to a truce, then to the capitulation, which included the condi-

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with Edward III, who in the precursor play had displayed greater charity to the expelled poor of Calais (Edward III IV.ii.10 ff.).28 What Shakespeare did effectively dramatize, however, is the historical Henry's defence of his actions, when a French spokesman begged him to allow these victims to pass his lines and find succour elsewhere:

tion that the excluded poor should immediately be taken in and fed by the townspeople ± acknowledged, that is, as their responsibility, not Henry's. Add to this the provision that the king should be paid ``three hundred thousand scutes of gold, whereof alwaies two should be woorth an English noble'' (3: 105), and this peace, like that of Troyes in Henry V, fully gives the impression of being bought materially by the French, but spiritually by the English ± that is, at the cost of conscience. Rouen is intertextually constituted as the symbol of that conscience. Shakespeare's Henry may forge by main force a virtual soul for himself and his nation at French expense, while keeping ``[f]ive hundred poor . . . in yearly pay'' (IV.i.298) to pray for Richard's. He can do so, however, only by avoiding Rouen, a place ``sore charged'' with meanings that threaten to destabilize English±French binarism ± as befits the city destined to be possessed, once and for all, by the death-defying witchcraft of Jeanne d'Arc. In the end, the ``English scourge'' (1H6 I.ii.129) and martyr proved more potent dead than alive ± conspicuously unlike the English hero. Henry's claim to have God on his side was ultimately, as history played out, no match for hers.

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``Of tendyr hertys been Englysche men'' 197

1 Introduction: the Vasty (Discursive) Fields of France 1 See Henslowe's Diary 98±103, where the two authors are connected with three plays on this subject in entries between September and December 1598. The success of these works may have led Henslowe to commission a fourth from Dekker alone, to judge from a subsequent entry (for 20 January 1598, Old Style), which records a loan to ``mr dickers in earneste of his playe called the firste Intreducyon of the syvell wares of france'' (103). Several other plays with French themes are mentioned in the Diary. An especially regrettable loss is a play known only as Guise, which John Webster mentioned as his in the Dedication to The Devil's Law-Case. Cf. Forker, Skull, 134±7. 2 The venerability of the Montaigne±Shakespeare connection may be fairly represented by Robertson; its vitality by Ellrodt and Dollimore 173±4. 3 The term ``pamphlet'' was already associated with interventions on topical matters (OED 2), and the association is hard to exclude from Dowriche's usage, given her subject and partisan approach. 4 See Osborn 35, whose main subject is Sidney's reception in France. 5 A Discourse of Life and Death; the treatise had been rendered some sixteen years previously (as The Defence of Death) by Edward Aggas, one of the most prolific Elizabethan translators from the French. On the adoption of Garnier as a literary model in the Countess's ``circle,'' see Witherspoon 65±83. 6 See Yates, A Study of Love's Labour's Lost, 69; her candidate is also in contention with the French ambassador, La Mothe-FeÂneÂlon. 7 On Wolfe and other publishers of French material in the context of European Protestant printing, see Kingdon 7±27, esp. 21. 8 He signed the translator's preface to The declaration of the King of Nauarre, touching the slaunders published against him, etc. (1585). 9 Witness esp. the ritualistic arming and knighting of Prince Edward (III.iii.179 ff.; III.v.88 ff.). 10 See Robert Metcalf Smith 32, who traces the continuity of neo-chivalric mythologizing between the reigns of Edward III and Henry VIII. Years later Froissart was still thought capable of inspiring such ideas ± witness a 1604 letter to Henry, Prince of Wales, from an officer serving the Protestant cause in the Low Countries: I hope in God, that you shall follow the footsteps of the Prince of Wales King Edward the third's son, who not only did subdue France, but also reduced the proud Spaniards in their own country. I shall bring with me also the book of Froissart, who will shew your Grace, how the wars were led in those days; and what just title and right your Grace's father has beyond the seas. (cited Birch 43) 11 Cf. Manheim esp. 10. 198

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Notes

12 For the sake of clarity, I use the title ``AlencËon'' throughout. A match with Charles had been proposed by Huguenot interests in 1563, attracting some interest from Catherine de Medici (Sutherland 133±4). Discussions with a reluctant Henri (then Anjou) extended from 1567 until the year of the massacre: interest was heightened, both for the English and for Catherine, by cardinal Charles de Lorraine's scheme to marry Anjou to Mary, Queen of Scots, thereby attaching to that prince, increasingly militant in the Catholic cause, Mary's claim to the English throne (Sutherland 72±3, 216, et passim). 13 Froissart does suggest (trans. Berners, fol. 14r [Ch. 23]) that the homage was performed half-heartedly. 14 The pamphlet of ``Martine Mar-Sixtus'' (R. Wilson?) in the following year, which included a different translation of the papal text, constituted A second replie. On Hurault's popularity in England, see Parmelee 106±8. 15 The attribution depends on the claim in the Preface that this work continues the same author's A discourse vpon the present estate of France (STC 14003, etc.). It does not correspond to the second part of that work, however, as translated in STC 14005, and no corresponding French text appears to be known. (The stance of The restorer, moreover, is generally less partisan than is characteristic of Hurault.) 16 A still earlier wave associated with the murder of FrancËois, duc de Guise, in 1563, had been legally suppressed ± see Beaupre 23. 17 One especially notable example, because not listed in the STC, is the Discours brief, mais tressolide, monstrant clairement qu'il est loisible, honneste, utile et necessaire au Roy, de s'allier avec le Roy de Navarre, published by Richard Field (along with an English version [STC 12105.5]) in 1589. Field, Shakespeare's publisher and fellow Stratfordian, who married the widow of the Huguenot printer Thomas Vautrollier (associated closely with Arthur Golding ± see Kingdon 22), had a long and active career publishing France-related works, from political and moral treatises to language texts. (No wonder Shakespeare seems to have dubbed him Richard du Champ in Cym. IV.ii.377.) 18 Lodge had first-hand knowledge of France, having obtained a medical degree at Avignon. 19 Cf. my Self-Speaking 19±20. 20 I allude, of course, to Greenblatt's exploration of ``the European encounter with the New World'' (128). 21 It was chiefly certain Leaguers, closely allied with Spain, who called the law into question (Barrachina and Gomez-GeÂraud 231±4), especially after the assassination of the duc de Guise (1588) and the death, a year later, of the ``official'' League candidate, the cardinal de Bourbon (``Charles X''). See Buisseret 42±3 on attempts to promote the claim of the Infanta, Isabella Clara Eugenia, when ``married to some convenient French noble'' (42). Nevertheless, the League's own Estates General of 1593 (the inspiration for the Satyre MeÂnipeÂe) wound up, in anticipation of Henri IV's conversion, affirming the Salic law and declaring the House of Lorraine barred by foreignness from the French crown. (See also below, 91.) Even in Guise's lifetime, the League flirted with putting the Infanta on the throne and scrapping the Salic law, on the grounds of Hugh Capet's usurpation; Philip II was widely perceived to be behind these designs, as by Hurault in the Excellent et libre discours, sur l'estat present de la France: ``Car quant aÁ lui, il ne pense point que la loy Salique,

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Notes 199

22

23 24

25

26

27 28

l'honneur de nos Roys, soit faite pour luy'' (31). At a greater remove from the immediate political situation lies the attack on the law by Pierre de Bourdeille, à me (8: 46±56) as part of his celebration of Marguerite de Valois abbe de Branto for, amongst other things, her capacity to govern. Like the massacre, the assassination resonated in the English dramatic imagination well beyond the civil wars. Not only does Chapman revisit the subject in The Revenge of Bussy d'Ambois (1609±10), but so, in 1682, do Dryden and Nathaniel Lee (the latter already the author of The Massacre of Paris). The Duke of Guise makes the point, for its editors, that ``the French wars of religion, their events, personalities, and the political theory they generated, proved continuously relevant to the constitutional debates and conflicts of seventeenth-century England'' (Dearing and Roper 493). On this work's history and propagandistic function, see Kingdon 70±87, who argues for composite authorship (73). Fiedler has been influential in defining ``Shakespeare's mythological geography'' (54) with reference to threatening ``others'' ± ``women, Jews, blacks, and Indians'' (16) ± and in attaching Frenchness to femininity, especially through Joan de Pucelle. See below, Ch. 5, n. 3. Cf. Gillies' history of exoticism in Western culture (1±39). When it comes to Shakespeare, Gillies makes the concept essentially non-European, with the partial exception of Italy (``Shakespeare's Venice is somehow complicit with the `exotic' '' [123]). Nevertheless, two of Gillies' key defining terms ± ``outlandish'' and ``strange'' (99) ± are prominent in Nashe's discourse of European travel. The speech is foreshortened in Holinshed (3: 66). In general, however, I use the 1587 second edition of the latter (``Chronicles''), to represent the Elizabethan histories, citing others only where variations are pertinent. While I use the label ``Holinshed'' for convenience, it will be clear that I by no means undervalue its ``multivocality,'' as brought out by Patterson (esp. 35±55). The heraldic function discussed here may usefully be set against the background of the herald's diminishing role as registrar of ``honourable'' status over the Early Modern period ± see James 332±9. Dallington's The View of Fraunce was presumably composed in 1598; its circulation in manuscript and pirated publication in 1604 testify to the interest it aroused (Barrett, Introd., vi). The mixture of admiration and moral indignation regarding tennis is characteristic: I know not how many hundred [tennis courts] there be in Paris: but of this I am sure, that if there were in other places the like proportion, ye should haue two Tennis Courts, for euery one Church through France. Methinks it is also strange, how apt they be here to play well, that ye would thinke they were borne with Rackets in their hands, euen the children themselues manage them so well, and some of their women also, as we obserued at Blois. There is in this one great abuse in this exercise, that the Magistrates do suffer euery poore Citizen, and Artificer to play thereat, who spendeth that on the Holyday, at Tennis, which hee got the whole weeke, for the keeping of his poore family. A thing more hurtfull then our Ale-houses in England, though the one and the other be bad ynough. And of this I dare

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200 Notes

29 30

31

32 33

34 35 36 37

38 39 40

assure you, that of this sort of poore people, there be more Tennis Players in France, then Ale-drinkers, or Malt-wormes (as they call them) with vs. (sig. V1v ) Cf. H8 I.iii.30 (on Frenchified courtiers): `` . . . [t]he faith they have in tennis and tall stockings.'' Attributed to Henri in Denys Latrecey's funeral oration (cited Hennequin 238). On the suffering of the Parisians, see The Coppie of a letter sent into England, etc. (1590), Part 2. It is in his well-known defence of plays that Nashe, after praising the depiction of ``braue Talbot (the terror of the French)'' (Pierce Penilesse 212) ± presumably a reference to 1H6 ± seemingly alludes to The Famous Victories, disparaging those who fail to appreciate ``what a glorious thing it is to haue Henrie the fifth represented on the Stage, leading the French King prisoner, and forcing both him and the Dolphin to sweare fealty'' (213). In the only extant version of The Famous Victories (as, of course, in the historical record), the defeated French king is not a prisoner; moreover, it is Burgundy and the Dolphin who are made to swear. Composition of Edward III is usually placed between 1590 and 1595. The first page terms him ``clarke of the recognysannce of . . . the Kynge, provyded for the recovery of debtes'' (55). Coke put his knowledge of French to use again some three years later by translating a treatise on astrology (STC 3204). ``Poursuivant'' was the technical term for a herald's assistant. The woodcuts of the French and English heralds at the beginning of Coke's volume (reproduced here as frontispiece) not only prejudge the debate by showing Lady Prudence's award (of stars) to the Englishman but put the competitors in their relative discursive places. The sour-faced French herald gestures upwards with one hand but has his head turned back over his shoulder, towards his opponent; he is also chained by the other hand. The Englishman has a radiant look, gazes at the star before his eyes, and gestures upward with both hands, which are conspicuously free. Ironically, given the stereotype of decadent French finery, his triumph requires him to be garbed far more ornately. Tourval's sympathies may be gathered from his translations into French: moral works by Bishop Joseph Hall, James I's defence of the oath of allegiance, and a fragment of Sidney's Arcadia (printed by Osborn). One of Stubbs's themes is the ``continual amity'' between ``this house of Valois in France'' (64) and the Ottoman Turks; see also 76. See STC 2004, 2005 and 2017. The Politique pamphlet, Conseil salutaire d'un Bon FrancËois aux parisiens, warning against the ambition and hypocrisy of the duc de Guise, claims that he would gladly turn Turk, and convert the entire League, if the sultan gave him the crown (334). On the other hand, Protestants sometimes rebuked Catholics with the example of Turkish religious tolerance (Rouillard 412±13). See esp. The Content of the Form. Both ``ungrammaticality'' and typology are discussed in my Intertextuality, passim. See Genette 7.

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Notes 201

202 Notes

2 The Unfortunate Traveller in (and out of ) France 1 See esp. Edwards, Kinney 329±60, and Leggatt. 2 One wonders whether Nashe was struck by a remark in Holinshed concerning the warlike efficiency of the English invading France under Edward IV in 1474 ± that is, in the last major invasion preceding that of Henry VIII. As evidence that the army was ``one of the best appointed that had passed out of England into France in manie yeares before,'' the chronicler mentions that ``[i]n all this armie was there not one page'' (3: 331). By contrast, when Shakespeare's Henry VIII looks back sceptically at the Field of Cloth of Gold, where Nashe's Jack Wilton makes his last appearance, the decadent display indulged in by both the French and the English is epitomized by the observation that ``[t]heir dwarfish pages were / As cherubins, all gilt'' (I.i.22±3). 3 This is my chief concern in Self-Speaking; on Hamlet, see esp. 133±9 and 267±79. 4 Nashe's fondness for the pun, as well as his engagement with contemporary journalism regarding foreign affairs, is attested by the title of his attack on Gabriel Harvey, Strange Newes, of the intercepting certaine Letters, and a Convoy of Verses, as they were going Priuilie to victuall the Low Countries (1592). 5 Witness the representation of FrancËois as the second Caesar (Le Coq 217±99).

6 Cicero's term in De Oratore 2.9.36, as cited and discussed by Kinney 330.

7 See Bullough 4: 167, and above, Ch. 1, n. 30.

8 The battlefield prayer, as recorded in the funeral elegy of FrancËois Vrevin (a

Jesuit, but author of a Dissertation contre le tyrannicide in 1611), is notable for making victory ``today,'' as for Henry V, a measure of entitlement; in place of the latter's excuse-making, however, there is a thoroughly humble abandonment of human desire to the divine will: ``Seigneur mon Dieu, Dieu des armeÂes, si vous me cognoissez propre pour vous seruir aÁ cest estat, et aÁ la couronne de France, selon le droit que m'en avez donneÂ, monstray le aujourd'huy s'il vous plaist, et me donnez la victoire contre ceux qui m'en empeschent la possession: sinon, faites de moy & de tous ceux qui me suivent ce qu'il vous plaira, aÁ votre plus grande gloire et honneur.'' PrieÁre veritablement accomplie, & autant reiglee de resignation & de modestie qui se puisse trouver . . . (Vrevin 659) 9 Cf. The true discourse of the wonderfull victorie sig. B3r�v . The form, ``Dieu des exercites,'' was also common (cf. the Vulgate's recurrent ``dominus exercituum'') ± see, e.g., L'Estoile, Les belles figures, 342. Although such Old Testament providentialism lent itself especially to the Protestant outlook, Catholic discourse was capable of appropriating it, as in Matthieu, La Guisiade, 765, and FrancËois de Sales 47. 10 It makes ironic background to Henry VIII's initial hostilities against the French that they were provoked, as Holinshed affirms, in defence of the

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41 This work is most conveniently, if imperfectly, available in MeÂmoires-Journaux, vol. 4. 42 See Kingdon 28±50. 43 See Arrest de la covrt de parlement contre Gaspart de Colligny, etc., esp. 378±9.

11 12 13

14

15

16 17 18

Pope, then the king's ``freend and confederat'' (3: 566), a figure who by midcentury was firmly installed, for the likes of Coke, as ``Antichrist, the french god, bysshop of Rom'' (78). The OED's illustrations indicate that ``outlandish'' in this period is acquiring the overtones of ``strange'' dominant in modern usage. On this phenomenon, which led to searches for soldiers without passports (cf. IV.iii.36), see Seward 126. Pistol's plan to ``steal'' (V.i.87) to England hardly suggests an honourable discharge. Hutson observes that ``Jack's invention of the `order of passing into the Court' ( [Traveler 227] ) disturbingly conflates such social consequences of war as the rash of knighthoods distributed after Essex's campaigns in France with the imposition of martial law upon disbanded soldiers who were troubling her Majesty during the plague of 1593'' (232). Given ``baron'' and ``beer,'' this passage seems to mark as disingenuous Nashe's objection (in the address prefacing the second issue of Christ's Tears over Jerusalem) to ``certaine busie wits'' who imagine hidden allusions, especially in The Unfortunate Traveller: ``if of beere he talkes, then straight he mocks the Countie Beroune in France'' (182). Nicholl (Cup of News 161±2) juxtaposes this disclaimer with the ridiculing of Berowne in LLL ± a play that he dates from 1593 but considers to allude to The Unfortunate Traveller (seen by Shakespeare in MS). As to why Henri IV's former adversary but current ally Armand de Gontaut, mareÂchal de Biron, was a candidate for mockery, the obvious explanation is the aging soldier's ineffectual siege of Rouen (see below, p. 114). Cf. the journal of Thomas Coningsby, who served there: during a skirmish, we find ``the Marshall interteyning my Lord with a busy tale or two'' (cited Poole 533); while hunting with the Earl, ``the ould Marshall (to shew what a gallant he had been) managed his horse very bravly'' (536). Falstaff's offer of a ``pistol'' to Hal (1H4 V.iii.51) uncannily recalls an episode during the battle of Fontaine-FrancËaise (1595), when one of Henri's followers furnished him with ``a pistol when he most needed one,'' thereby earning a knighthood in a brevet published two days later (Buisseret 58). That the French king prudently has a ``minion'' (225) stand in for him points to Henri III. Nashe's ``Intelligencer'' conspicuously lacks Jeanne d'Arc's inspired sense of royalty. McKerrow, ed. 4: 267±8, n. to 2: 232.5, discusses Nashe's conflation of the È nster (1534) with the 1525 defeat of Thomas Muntzer at Fransiege of Mu kenhausen; the source is Sleidanus' chronicle. Cf. Buisseret 24 on the battle of Coutras (1587): ``as the Protestant army saw the gorgeously appointed line roll towards them they broke into their battlehymn: La voici l'heureuse journeÂe Que Dieu a faite aÁ plein deÂsir . . . ''

3 Shakespeare's Arthurian Misfortunes 1 See, e.g. Kastan 7±8, Robinson 38, and Braunmuller. 2 The relation of this anonymous two-part play to Shakespeare's work remains unresolved, although my discussion would support the majority

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Notes 203

204 Notes

Here may be thought that the reigne of the Normans and French men ouer the realme of England tooke end, a hundred twenties two yeares after the comming in of the Conquerour; for those that reigned after this Henrie the second, we may rightlie esteeme to be Englishmen, bicause they were borne in England, and vsed the English toong, customes, and maners, according to the nature and qualitie of the countrie. A declaration in large type follows: ``Thus farre the succession and regiment of the Frenchmen ouer this Iland; namelie, Stephan of Bullongne and Henrie the second'' (2: 202). 5 Cf. my Shakespearean Subversions 39±47. 6 See Merriman 35±8. This position was anticipated in the mid-fourteenth century by Ralph Higden, a source for Robert Fabyan in his New Chronicles of England and France (1516), who in turn largely set the tone for subsequent chroniclers; see Fletcher 181±2 and 255. 7 See Geoffrey of Monmouth, ed. Griscom 496. John Hardyng's pre-1450 verse Chronicle, published in 1543 with a prose continuation by Richard Grafton, retains the Medieval fusion of romance and history in its treatment of Arthur. Here, as in Malory, who drew on Hardyng (Spisak, ed. 622), Arthur is crowned emperor of Rome ``at Peters churche'' (fol. lxxvv), although the Pope is not mentioned. Even in Hardyng's account of King John, incidentally, the death of young Arthur marks a turning point for English claims in France: Wherfore most part, of al his landes that day Beyonde the sea, forsoke him then for ay Returnyng to the kyng of Fraunce in hye To holde of him and his perpetually. (fol. cxlixv) 8 See Rowse 62 on Prince Arthur's installation at Ludlow, where Christmas games included Arthurian impersonation as late as 1596 (81). See also Millican 17±22 and Hughes et al., Misfortunes, ed. Corrigan, 38±40. 9 See MacLachlan 66 and Millican 22±28, who notes that in 1517 Henry VIII ordered the repair of the Round Table at Winchester, which his father had appropriated as a Tudor icon. 10 On Sidney, see Merriman 33 and 197n13; on Spenser, see Millican, Merriman 38±44, Dean 123±5, Van-Ten Bensel 160±7, and Axton 74±5. 11 Wolsey was notorious for his ``ordinarie inclination . . . towards the French king'' (Holinshed 3: 701). 12 Dronke translates:

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view of it as a source rather than a derivative. My approach is most closely anticipated by Axton 108±11, whose emphasis, however, is on the legal issues associated with the English succession and who, despite elsewhere discussing the Arthurian myth in that regard, does not apply it to these texts. 3 Cf. Levin.

4 Hence the Chronicles' valediction to the reign of Henry II:

We've never seen anyone coming back from the world below ± we shan't abandon certainties for dubious tales; let the spirit sunk in dreams reject the life's that's here and enjoy empty hopes ± if you can believe in those, you might as well expect the return of Arthur with his British Legions! 13 See Dean 105±6. On Caxton's adaptation of Malory to produce one book out of many, see Vinaver, ed. 1: xxxiv±lvi, although the view of Caxton as a heavy reviser (notably of the Roman wars sequence) is questionable (Spisak, ed. 604±5, 618±19). 14 See Vinaver, ed. 1: c±ci and ccxxvii±cxxxi; cf. Spisak, ed. 617±18. 15 Given the ``learned'' authorship and audience, it is not surprising that Misfortunes bypasses Malory and reaches back to chronicle sources (Corrigan, ed. 7±11). 16 See also Merriman 40±1 and 202n74. 17 Vinaver, ed. 3: 1366±7, notes the innovation of separating Arthur's Roman triumph from the death-sequence, presumably in order to produce a less problematic heroic figure. Cf. Morris 65±9, who concludes that Malory took his cue from the Vulgate Merlin. Of all the Arthurian writers, Malory carries farthest the fantasy of Arthur as ruler of Rome, which actually becomes a province of Britain. 18 Deloney's text closely paraphrases Malory, Bk. 6, esp. Chs. 1 and 7±9; see Mann ed. 570±2. 19 Cf. Morris: ``The great French prose cycles tend to diminish the importance of the Roman war very radically, perhaps because it tends to elevate Arthur to a status very near that of the French Charlemagne'' (67). On Henry VIII's promotion of Arthur as a ``counterpoise'' to Charlemagne, see Anglo 195±6; Dean 43±5 further documents the Tudor entrenchment of Arthur among the Worthies. For Coke, not only was Charlemagne a ``Dowcheman'' (5), but Godfrey ``was borne in Loreyne, a province of Almayne, and was duke of the sayde countrey, varyeng fare both from the language and nature of the Frenchmen''; the non-Frenchness of Godfrey is especially important because the kings of England descended from him by marriage and therefore ``ought of ryght to be kynges of Jerusalem and Surry [i.e., Syria]'' (68). 20 Cf. Axton 105 on Huon of Bordeaux. 21 See Millican 148±9n2; cf. Chambers, Arthur, 110±13. Also notable is the transfer of elements of the Arthurian legend to Anjou in the Chroniques d'Anjou et du Maine of Jehan de Bourdigne (1529) ± see Fletcher 233±5. In the first extant account of Arthur in English, LaZamon adapts Wace so as to accentuate the myth of return, and Tatlock finds, in the Brut's reference to ``an Arthur'' coming to succour the English, a definite ``allusion to Arthur of Brittany'' (504), to whom Bretons, at least, attached that myth (504±5). During the reign of Richard I, such an allusion would hardly have been

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Notes 205

22 23 24 25

subversive, since Arthur had been designated heir apparent in 1190 (Tatlock 505). Bennett ed., The Massacre at Paris, n. to xx.29, also cites the 1591 English pamphlet by ``Martine Mar-Sixtus,'' where the Pope deems Henri's murder ``meritorious.'' I cite the 1642 Paris edition, entitled La Fortvne de la Covr.

This term is prominent in Matthieu's La Guisiade (see below, pp. 95 and 183).

In fact, the usual fate of Sir Dagonet, Arthur's fool in Le Morte Darthur, is to

be beaten; his first appearance seems especially germane to Shallow as at once a pretender to chivalric status, a dupe, and an unwitting means of duping: Thenne Sire Kay ordeyned Sir Dagonet, Kynge Arthurs foole, to folowe after La Cote Male Taile; and there Sir Kay ordeyned that Sir Dagonet was horsed and armed, and bad hym folowe La Cote Male Taile and profer hym to iuste, and soo he dyd. And whan he sawe La Cote Male Tayle, he cryed and badde hym make hym redy to iuste. Soo Sir La Cote Male Tayle smote Sir Dagonet ouer his hors croupe. Thenne the damoysel mocked La Cote Male Tayle and said, fy for shame, now art thou shamed in Arthurs courte, whan they sende a foole to haue adoo with the, and specially at thy fyrst iustes. (ed. Spisak, 245 [9, 3] )

26 The extent to which the historical Henry V modelled himself on Arthur has perhaps been neglected. For instance, while Henry was doubtless ``determined to have Harfleur'' (Seward 65) as his first French conquest for strategic reasons, his invasion also thereby acquired resonance with Arthur's in, say, Bouchart, where, having provided for the governing of the realm in his absence, ``Arthur passa la mere avecques son armee et vint descendre aÁ Harfleu'' (1: 266). (Arthur's first notable feat, incidentally, was conquering a giant who had arrived in Normandy from Spain ± a remarkable, if aleatory, presage of the Duke of Parma!)

4 Marlovian Monarchs and Various Guises 1 For a vivid contemporary account of the ``mignon'' phenomenon, see L'Estoile, Registre-Journal, 2: 42±3. 2 On Boucher, known for his inflammatory preaching, see Pallier 58, 66, 67, et passim; also Bourassin 77. Boucher seems to have been indefatigable, as well as implacable, and is credited with a number of other vitriolic attacks, including La vie et faits notables de Henry de Valois (1589) and, obviously for a less popular audience, De Ivsta Henrici Tertii Abdicatione e Francorum Regno, Libri Qvatvor [Four books on the justified abdication of Henri the Third as King of the French] (1591). (The latter, completed after the wonderful sign of divine judgement that was Henri's assassination, runs to about 450 pages; a previous edition had appeared in 1589.) 3 Briggs (257), for one, presumes that such irony is intended. Information on early performances is gathered from Henslowe's Diary, on the common presumption that the play cited by variations of the name ``Guise'' and signalled

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206 Notes

4

4

5

6

7 8

9

10

as new (``ne'') on 30 January 1593 (20) is the same as that identified by variations of ``massacre.'' Oliver's preference is for 1602 (Oliver, ed. xlviii±xlix), following a revival. Presumably, this revival furnished the French with their ready counterargument to the English ambassador, when he complained in 1602 about the pending performance there, by Italian actors, of the otherwise unknown L'Histoire Angloise contre la Roine d'Angleterre; see Bakeless 2: 95. Marlowe's play was printed ``by E[dward] A[llde] for Edward White.'' The latter had also published Tamburlaine, but Allde and White were notably associated in producing non-fictional French material, ranging from Protestant ``news'' pamphlets during the civil wars (e.g. A breefe description of the battailes, victories and triumphes, atchiued by the D. of Parma, and the Spanish armye, etc. [trans. Edward Aggas, 1591] ), to a 1605 language text by Pierre Erondelle, whose title savours of ``the world's best garden'' enjoyed in peaceful circumstances: The French garden: for English ladyes and gentlewomen to walke in. Or, A sommer dayes labour. . . . White had been a purveyor of militant Protestant texts with a French connection from at least 1582, when he published Munday's A breefe aunswer made vnto two seditious pamphlets, the one printed in French, and the other in English, etc. White was also the vendor of, e.g., STC 11287.5 and 13116.5. On Huguenot reaction, see Buisseret 46. Typical of the extreme response was the revulsion of Henri's former comrade-in-arms, Agrippa d'AubigneÂ, who apostrophizes him as ``[d]eÂgeÂneÁre Henri, hypocrite, bigot'' in Les Tragiques (2, 985), that epic (though often satiric) chronicle of the lost Protestant cause. Cf. BailbeÂ. On this mission (during which there were signs that a romantic relation might develop between EÂpernon and Navarre's sister Catherine, who was of an ``intransigently Protestant spirit'' [Buisseret 10] ), see Chaintron, 30. Cf. L'Estoile, Registre-Journal, 4: 138±9. Cf. Michael Wolfe: ``[t]he possibility of Navarre's conversion assumed mythic proportions for all parties'' (49). Thus Nicholl, Reckoning, 170: ``the play is straight anti-Catholic propaganda, but it is full of contradictory signals which ± particularly the equivocal portrait of the Protestant champion, Henri of Navarre ± tend to blur the propaganda into a general dark comment about the cynical pragmatism of these religious wars'' (170). Cf. Weil's treatment in terms of ``Mirrors for Foolish Princes'' (82±104), which matches Kirk's in The Mirror of Confusion. The author of the first part of this set of commentaries was actually Pierre de La Place, and his work, like Hotman's own, had been published in translation separately the year before (The fyrst parte of commentaries), again with an attribution to Ramus. While the printer of both these works was apparently Henry Bynneman, another producer of numerous France-related texts (see Kingdon 21±2), the more controversial nature of Hotman's is suggested by its first appearance in English translation under a false imprint. As for Ramus himself, he had ventured into the public (hence political) domain ± witness his Advertissement sur la reÂformation de l'UniversiteÂ, addressed to the king. This single leaf, now generally deemed genuine (if probably not autograph), gives Guise a Machiavellian soliloquy, aimed at the king, after Mugeroun's death (Scene xix); see Bennett ed. 253±5, and Briggs 258.

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Notes 207

11 My approach to the play's structure runs roughly parallel with Briggs 267±70. 12 Thomas and Tydeman (257±8) point out that, apart from confusing the historical Maugiron here with Saint-MeÂgrin, another of Henri's favourites (perhaps because La vie et faits notables linked them as similar), Marlowe varied the facts in having Guise himself undertake the revenge, rather than his brother, the duc de Mayenne. Dumain's resolution to avenge the Guise is reserved for the end of the play. Maugiron and Saint-MeÂgrin are also mentioned in the same breath in The Contre-Guyse, where the Guises are claimed to have murdered the latter ``with their horns'' (C4v ) and to have commissioned one of their followers to kill the former, as occurred in the notorious three-against-three duel instigated by Caylus (or QueÂlus); on this affair, see Chevallier 468. 13 Martin brings out the typological element in Dowriche's narrative, but ties it to the ``process of assimilating French history into English providentialism'' (72). 14 This work was dedicated to Sir Henry Sidney (father of Philip) and, like those of Hotman and La Place mentioned above, was printed by Bynneman. 15 See, e.g. the triumphal hymn, attributed to Navarre, appended to A letter written by a French Catholike gentleman, to the maisters at Sorbonne, etc. (1588) ± an effort by Mornay to convince the theologians that Navarre's eventual victory is justified and inevitable, while they themselves are mere dupes of the League: ``You haue but the fooles part in the tragedie that they plaie vpon the Theater of France'' (51). In the course of his argument, incidently, Mornay says of Navarre, ``hee taketh reuenge, but being iniured'' (76). Cf. also the ``Chant de victoire'' (after Coutras) and the ``Cantique aÁ l'honneur de Dieu'' (after Ivry) in Le Chansonnier Huguenot. Finally, see the Relation de la bataille de Coutras and Goulart's Preface to Le Second recveil, sig. 7r , both of which stress God's intervention on behalf of the Protestant underdogs. 16 Needless to say, Marlowe drops no hint of Navarre's close friendship with Guise during his enforced sojourn at court several years after Saint Bartholomew (see Chevallier 319) ± that is, during the historical gap elided by the play. 17 The Discours merveilleux de la vie, actions, et deportemens de Catherine de Medicis, a meÂlange of satire and history generally attributed to Henri Estienne, the Geneva-based humanist scholar and publisher, appeared when Catherine had assumed the regency pending Henri III's return from Poland; it was published in at least ten editions in several languages during 1575±6. See Huchon, CleÂment 29±40, and Kingdon, who detects ``a coordinated publishing strategy'' (201). Intriguingly, the author presents himself as a moderate Catholic, who favours keeping faith with the Protestants and remaining on good terms with England. With seeming sincerity, he actually defends the Guises (an element parallelled in the Reveille-matin ± see below, p. 83). The House of Lorraine is deemed worthy of alliance to the crown of France (86±7); the blaming of the Guises for the Saint Bartholomew's massacre, like the massacre itself, is attributed to Catherine (102±6), the fomenter of all civil strife. Even the Genevan authorities condemned this pamphlet, ostensibly because it spoke ill of princes. For whatever reason, publishing it in England was evidently risky: the first edition of the translation carried the false imprint of Heidelberg, while a reissue in the following year (STC 10551) claimed, for a more obvious reason, to have been printed in Cracow.

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14

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

Meanwhile, the English government conducted diplomatic business as usual, if warily, with Catherine, and, at least in France, she had plenty of public and private admirers. Crouzet stresses the Neoplatonic discourse constituting her as a force of peace and harmony (225±40) ± a view broadly à me, in his Recueil justified by her efforts to avoid civil and foreign war. Branto des dames, used a refutation of the Discours merveilleux as a springboard for encomium (7: 332±402). All in all, she was figured in a range of ways remarkably corresponding to the figurations of Elizabeth ± to the point where her demonization by certain English writers might suggest an anxious refutation of resemblance. In fact, Catherine shrewdly arranged matters so that, on the day when the Polish ambassadors arrived with the offer of the crown, Henri was officially recognized by Charles as his successor (Chevallier 199±200). On Marlowe's representation of Anjou, cf. Kocher, ``FrancËois Hotman,'' 367±8, and Thomas and Tydeman 256. A mervaylous discourse hints strongly at Catherine's poisoning of Charles ± see 138 and 179 (`` . . . such presumptions as I could alleadge concerning the death of the last king . . . ''). Cf. La Vie et faits notables 9±10, which insinuates Charles's poisoning by a remembrance ring given him by Henri, but then refers to Catherine's supposed assurance to Henri that he would not be long in hearing of his brother's death; the poisoning is finally confirmed. Catherine's mortal sorrow over Guise's death is part of contemporary disà me 7: 401 and Le Triomphe de la Ligue, tragoedie course ± witness Branto nouvelle, p. 127, an obscure anti-Catholic drama, which otherwise has little in common with Marlowe's, attributed to Richard Jean de NereÂe and published in Leyden in 1607. Ehrmann 9, citing Matthieu. The fictional Henry's perfunctory effort to exculpate himself (``I have done what I could to stay this broil'' [ix.72] ) gestures at the real one's revisionism, which was hardly accepted by the Huguenots ± witness the insistence on his guilt at several points in Le Tocsin contre les massacrevrs (1579), esp. 27±9, 50, 54, 63±4. Cf. L'Estoile's observation that, although Navarre declared he would avenge Henri's death, ``il ne [la] pleura gueÁres . . . (jamais tous le Huguenos et Catholiques associeÂs ne lui aians fait . . . en cinquante ans, le service que lui fist en ung quart d'heure, sans y penser, la Ligue, par ce frippon de Moine, avec son petit meschant cousteau)'' (MeÂmoires-Journaux 3: 306). In keeping with Protestant accounts (e.g., Colynet and The mutable and wauering estate of France), Marlowe fails to mention that the dying king urged Navarre to convert to Catholicism ± the only hope of forestalling the ending of Navarre's line, too, ``in blood'' (xxiv.94). See Chevallier 706; Bourassin 201; Briggs 271±2 and n. 38. Cocula (``Montaigne'') comments on the ``dramatique'' (33) transfer of power, during which powerful nobles stated their conditions for supporting the new king. It figures in at least one particularly rare text, Les cruauteÂs sanguinaires exerceÂes envers feu Monseigneur le Cardinal de Guise, etc. (cited Thomas and Tydeman, 259 and 286), but not in the accounts reviewed by Bourassin (144±6) or in La Guisiade, which does, however, have the king kicking the fallen duke in the face (2082); so L'Estoile reports, linking this element with Guise's treatment of the Admiral (MeÂmoires-Journaux 3: 337 [MS. variant for 3: 199] ), although

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25 26

27

28

29

30 31 32 33

even the rabidly partisan Histoire au vray, which widely diffused the story through several editions in 1589, speaks only of a push to see if Guise was really dead. Guise's son does not figure even in the extreme version offered by Le Martyre des devx freres, which not only insists on Henri's sexual deviance but deploys the same metonymy for cowardice applied by Shakespeare to Falstaff on Shrewsbury field: having kicked Guise in the stomach, neck, and face, the king gave him a ``coup d'estoc au travers le corps, et commanda aÁ Lognac, l'un des deux nouveaux mignons et bougres de ce cruel sodomite, nouvelles mouches et sangsues du pauvre people, faire le semblable'' (84). Henry's sentiment is remarkably anticipated by the French exile's concern for Elizabeth at the conclusion of Dowriche's poem (38). This element, analogous to the poisoning of King John, is hardly a feature of the League hagiographies of CleÂment, or even of more sober histories (cf. L'Estoile, MeÂmoires-Journaux, 3: 304±5); it belongs to the Protestant strain of demonization ± e.g., Colynet (405) and The mutable and wauering estate of France (132±3). Such parallels lend piquancy to the absence of the Ur-Hamlet, especially given the close (if vexed) relations between Marlowe and Kyd. It is presumably from France, after all, that Laertes brings with him, not only the swordsmanship praised by ``Lamord,'' but his poison. Der Bestrafte Brudermord suggests that the French elements in Hamlet (including the name Fortinbras) derive substantially from Shakespeare's putative original. Even the controversial literature generally sticks at pronouncing on the fate of souls, however liberally it insinuates. Thus, e.g., the Discours veritable de l'estrange et subite mort de Henri de Valois elaborates obviously damnable facts but ``en laisse le iudgement aÁ Dieu'' (sig. B4r�v ). This text comes closer than any other I know to Marlowe's multi-faceted presentation of Henri; given the dates (events covered through 1595, publication in 1597), it is conceivable that the writer actually took his cue from the play. Essentially the same elements are found elsewhere ± notably, in Colynet ± but not similarly synthesized. Colynet, incidentally, concludes by mythologizing Catherine's responsibility; all three brothers, he insists, were ``polluted with that accursed woman'' (410). Cf. also Colynet 409, who paints Henri as the ``procurer'' of the Admiral's murder. This pamphlet, probably by Louis ReÂgnier de la Planche (``FrancËois de l'Isle''), was first published in 1574 (Brown ed. 12n26). See, e.g. Thomas and Tydeman 254. In the first Latin edition, the letter (in French) appears on pp. 129±31, headed, ``Response des Gentils-hommes, Capitaines, Bourgeois & autre estants en la ville de la Rochelle, aux commandemens qui leur ont este faits soubs le nom du Roy de receuoir des garnisons.'' In it the defenders of the Protestant stronghold explain their refusal to accept a royal garrison, citing the king's claim to have been unable to resist the Guisards during the massacre and affirming the latters' ambition to take over the kingdom, ``comme ils ont tacheÁ [sic] des long temps'' (130) ± the view of numerous texts ranging from Mornay's earnest Discours svr le droit pretendv to La Legende (73v ). Crouzet also finds this letter significant (557±8n4).

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210 Notes

34 See esp. Dialogue 1, 68; this volume also contains a curious introductory letter addressed to the duc de Guise, purportedly from a partisan, urging him to pursue his just claim to the throne and arguing that the Huguenots will find his rule less objectionable than that of the House of Valois. The letter might seem mere inflammatory invention were it not echoed in the first Dialogue (104±5). Kingdon, who believes that the letter originated in Lorraine, takes it as ``further evidence of the complexity of the composition of the work'' (74). 35 For the history of this text, I draw heavily on Lobbes's informative introduction. 36 Allen (267) mentions Matthieu's play (as well as Chantelouve's on Coligny) but does not discuss it. Briggs finds it ``amusing to note that Marlowe's subject-matter had been anticipated'' by this ``plodding neo-classical tragedy,'' which, however, was ``most unlikely to have reached Marlowe's notice'' (257±8). 37 Matthieu's historiography is usefully discussed by Kirk 37±9, who, however, seems unaware of the historian's radically pro-League past or of his authorship of plays. 38 On these developments and the political interests at stake, see Chevallier 607±50. 39 Cf. Thomas and Tydeman 254±60. 40 References to Matthieu's ``Discours'' and ``Arguments'' are by page numbers; for dialogue, continuous line numbers are cited. 41 ``Or, estant ce theÂatre de ceste tragoedie ainsi bien preÂpare . . . '' (35); `` . . . Pour commencer aÁ jouer ceste tragoedie'' (43). Cf. Briggs 268±9 and 268n32 on the Protestant and Catholic applications of the term ``massacre.'' 42 Given the specific death envisaged here, the play was no doubt revised to reflect the regicide, as Lobbes believes, although Henri's punishment was widely anticipated in League propaganda. 43 Even apart from the theatrical precedents of Chantelouve and Matthieu, Dowriche is participating in an established French tradition when she brings Satan onto her poetic stage. The anti-EÂpernon material collected by L'Estoile in Les belles figures includes portraits of him as a devil, both visual and verbal. In the full version of Les choses horribles, which L'Estoile excerpts, this devil incarnate (his body is actually too hot, it seems, to be human) conjures ``gendarmes Sataniques'' (13) in a way reminiscent of Matthieu's character. Matthieu does not go as far as most such propaganda in diabolizing Henri himself ± see, e.g. Les mevrs 74±6, Pinselet 39, and Les Sorcelleries de Henry de Valois. (Cf. Briggs 264n22.) In the dramatic tradition, the motif of diabolic inspiration extends at least as far as La Mort d'Henri IV, which was played at court before Marie de Medici in the year of that king's assassination. This play by Billard de Courgenay, the author of seven previous tragedies on classical and French themes, begins with a monologue by Satan, resentful of the peace Henri has brought. The work is pointedly Catholic, and indeed seems intent on defusing rumours of a conspiracy involving the Jesuits and perhaps the duc d'EÂpernon: it features a loyal priest and a positive EÂpernon, who praises the king's rejection of the religion of BeÁze and Calvin. Since the days of the League, the ideological wheel had come full circle.

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Notes 211

Á l'unique 44 Cf. Ronsard, La Charite, with its introductory sonnet addressed ``A perle, Marguerite de France, Royne de Navarre'' (1: 577); in the principal poem she is identified with various flowers, including the ``lis'' (74); in ``L'Amour Amoureux,'' she is the ``[p]erle et fleur des FrancËois'' (28). Cf. Magnien-Simonin on the ``paradigme Marguerite-Fleur-Perle'' (146). Shakespeare's Henry V, of course, lays claim to Katherine as ``my fair flower-de-luce'' (V.ii.210). 45 See A mervaylous discourse 40, 178. 46 On Catherine's loss of ``personal autonomy'' through her dependence on Guise, cf. Martin 80. Thomas and Tydeman state that Catherine's ``partiality'' for Guise, while having some historical warrant, is ``not accounted for in Marlowe's written sources'' (254). The idea was promulgated, however, complete with sexual innuendo, by some Protestant propaganda; thus Le Tocsin contre les massacrevrs claims that she has ``eu de tout temps une estroite et souvent peu honorable familiarite et communication avec ceux de Guise'' (38±9). In fact, her relations with the Guises seem always to have been governed by her ``machiaveÂlisme pratique'' (Chevallier 643) and sense of danger; hence, the ailing queen's reaction to the murder, according to the most reliable sources: Ah! Le malheureux, qu'a-t-il fait? Priez pour lui, qui en a plus besoin que jamais et que je vois se preÂcipiter aÁ sa ruine, et je crains qu'il ne perde le corps, l'aÃme et le royaume. (cited Chevallier 672) 47 Her sense of cataclysm, at least, is echoed by Marlowe's character (``Pray God thou be a king now this is done! . . . all goes to wrack'' [xviii.140, 159] ). Thomas and Tydeman (254) aptly compare the account in Le Martyre des deux freÁres, but it is risky to speak of anything as ``authenticated'' by that polemic, which goes on to claim that Catherine died the next day and that Henri, Nero-like, had her body cut open to see where he had come from (Le Martyre 90). The extreme Catholic view of Catherine, by the way, could be as negative as the Protestant one ± see Les mevrs 3. 47 Hence his defence of their French nationality in his Pompe funebre des penitens de Lyon (cited Lobbes, ed. 31n1). Cf. Du Duc's representation of Lorraine, in defiance of unspecified slanders, as, effectively, more French than France (see below, p. 142). 48 This treatise went through several editions in the early to mid-1580s and was published (and probably translated) by Aggas in 1586 as A necessary discourse, etc. 49 It deepens the enigma, if the fact is not mere coincidence, that the dedication of Le Triomphe de la Ligue is signed ``N.N.'' 50 A declaration concerning the needfulnesse of peace to be made in Fraunce (1575); An apology or defence for the Christians of Frau[n]ce which are of the eua[n]gelicall or reformed religion (1579). As for the Discours . . . contre Nicolas Machiavel itself, whose title is clearly played on by the Contre-Guyse, it was probably translated into English in 1577 from the Latin version of that year, although the translation first appeared only in 1602 (STC 11743) ± see Bakeless 1: 348±9. Apart from the likelihood that the English translation circulated widely in manuscript, the Latin version and multiple French editions made for considerable accessibility.

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212 Notes

51 It matches Marlowe's deflection of the most inflammatory accusations against Henri III that his Guise imputes to Charles the kind of sexual dissipation for which Henri was more often condemned (``pleasure uncontroll'd / Weak'neth his body and will waste his realm'' [67±8] ); Catherine's subsequent reference (xiv.45 ff.) to Henry's minions and pleasure is less pointed. 52 Marlowe effectively refutes the disclaimer of ``[b]oissons importunes'' by having Guise poison Jeanne d'Albret, who was generally believed (and by her own son [Chaintron 16] ) to have been murdered. Moreover, while Marlowe follows the usual Protestant line in making scented gloves the instrument, to accuse Guise is a departure. Hotman insinuates the king's responsibility (by way of his ``apothecary, an Italian, that hath a shop . . . near unto the palace'' [cited Thomas and Tydeman 262] ), while A mervaylous discourse (99) blames Catherine, as does Goulart's Memoires de l'Estat de France sovs Charles IX 221±2, where she acts prior to the massacre because ``ceux de Guise . . . n'auoyent rien aÁ desmesler auec la Royne de Nauarre'' (222). 53 Cf. 1H4 I.iii.201 ff. 54 See Forker, ed. 41±66. 55 The Replique aÁ l'antigaverston, in the last category (it begins by defying EÂpernon as ``Mignon . . . ''), includes a veritable list of rebuttals, whose printer, it claims, has been imprisoned. Such works indeed seem to have been effectively suppressed; I have located no surviving examples. 56 Chevallier's scepticism seems a minority view; cf. Dodu. 57 Les mevrs 82 and 89; Histoire admirable, passim. 58 L'Estoile provides invaluable documentation of the sexual discourses surrounding Henri III; see Poirier 129±45 passim. 59 In fact, the League had already engineered plots to kill EÂpernon and capture the king (Chevallier 618±19). 60 This passage on the king's presentation of Navarre as his successor does not appear in the MeÂmoires-Journaux. EÂpernon's relations with Henri IV were never unproblematic, and he attracted accusations of involvement in the 1610 assassination (La Rencontre de M. d'Espernon et de FrancËois Rauaillac [1615] ); see Chaintron, 55 ff., esp. 92±5. 61 My discussion of the polemical discourses draws on Chevallier, esp. 432, and Salmon, 76±94. 62 The Prince, as ``the likeness of God and his vicar,'' must ``live up to that wonderful archetype'' (Erasmus 220); moreover, ``[t]here is a mutual interchange between the prince and the people'' (236). 63 This logic had been most influentially deployed in Vindiciae contra tyrannos, pseudonymously authored by ``Stephanus Junius Brutus'' and putatively by Hubert Languet and/or Mornay. Probably written between 1574 and 1576, this work first appeared in 1579, with a French translation in 1581. See Crouzet 85±91 and Nicollier-De Weck 465±87. 64 See 2, 1148 ff. and Lestringant, ed. 431, n. to 2, 1148. 65 Lestringant (425±6, n. to 794) points out the echo in ``[c]et habit monstrueux'' of Ronsard's ironic reference (in Remonstrance au peuple de France) to the monk's habit rejected by Luther; the allusion suits Henri III's penchant for penitential binges. 66 Poirier (111), noting that Catherine was labelled a castrator of Frenchmen (131), expounds the association between the Italianate and the effeminate,

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Notes 213

214 Notes

For if the mother, being a foreigner to France, where all manner government is denied her by their laws, can depose natural magistrates and help her countrymen to the richest offices, promote an Italian to be High Chanceller there, and make her half Italians to be marshals of France, you may be sure a French husband will easily advance his Italianate Frenchmen to our English preferments. (89) 67 L'Estoile, Registre-Journal, 2: 104; see also Dodu 30±1 and 31n1. 68 On the evocation of an Italianate political and sexual deviance, see Deats 177 and 254n24. Forker, ed. n. to I.iv.412, compares the foreign fashions of Richard II's corrupt favourites in Woodstock. 69 When Wolsey, a double-dealer with France throughout, exclaims, ``Mor dieu'' shortly before his disgrace, Will Sommers comments, ``Mor divell ist not? . . . But I pray you my Lord, call vppon Mor dieu no longer, but speake plaine English, you have deceived the king in French and Latine long enough a conscience'' (2810±15). 70 Its particular association with Charles in this text suggests a real habit of speech; cf. that intriguing satirical text, LeÂgende de Domp Clavde de Guise, Abbe de Cluny (1581), which has him exclaiming, ``Par la digne mort dieu'' (201). 71 Les mevrs 3 and 116; La vie et faits notables 4. Actually baptized AlexandreEÂdouard, the young Henri was commonly known as EÂdouard (Chevallier 35). His name heated up as a political issue when Catherine de Medici caused him to abandon it at his confirmation, largely as a sop to Spain; the English ambassador reacted angrily (Chevallier 68). 72 In the Histoire admirable, e.g., ``HENRRY DE VALOIS'' becomes ``HA RUINE LE LIS D'OR'' (20); he could also be ``VILAIN HERODES'' (L'Estoile, Registre-Journal, 4: 107) or ``O CRUDELIS HYENA'' (cited Poirier 149). For Gaveston and EÂpernon, the locus classicus is the Histoire tragique, where ``PIERRE DE GAUERSTON'' yields ``PERIURE DE NOGARETS,'' with the ``s'' added to ``Nogaret'' ingeniously explained as figuring the hangman's rope after the gallows-shaped ``t''; see also Les mevrs 116 and the seven-page Responce aÁ l'Antigaverston de Nogaret. A Monsieur d'Espernon, sur quatre Anagrammes de son nom. 73 Cf. Les mevrs 116. To judge from the Replique aÁ l'antigaverston (13), rebuttals of the Histoire tragique had presented Gaveston as a loyal Frenchman stigmatized by the English for being foreign (and unjustly, since the kings of England were dukes of Guyenne from 1259 to 1453). 74 The same stereotype could lead to praise of Gascon soldiership ± by the Ãme, for instance; see Lazard, BrantoÃme, 337±42. Gascon Branto 75 E.g., in A mervaylous discourse (``immoderate passions'' [159] ) and the Reveillematin 130, where she is accused of misconduct with the king's ``mignons.''

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which figures, e.g, in the Reveille-matin (see Kingdon 85). Cf. Chevallier 414± 15. Anti-Italian bias pervades A mervaylous discourse and informs its endorsement of the Salic law (41, 159) in passages sometimes attributed to Gentillet (CleÂment 39); cf. Crouzet 127±41. Stubbs, too, while occluding the spectre of feminization behind that of a double foreignness, perceptibly aligns himself with French Protestant gratitude for the Salic law ± an element hardly likely to mitigate the anger of Elizabeth:

76 The Blast was aimed chiefly at ``that cruell monstre'' Mary Tudor, by whom England was ``betrayed (alas) to the proud spaniarde,'' and the Queen Regent of Scotland, Marie de Guise, ``a craftie dame'' responsible for handing over Scotland ``likewise, vnder title of mariage in to the power of France'' (Knox 45) ± a reference to Mary Stuart's match with the dauphin. Since the terms of that marriage respected the Salic law by barring any daughter from entitlement to the throne of France, it is not surprising that Knox resisted any temptation to invoke that statute in his cause. Nor did he mention Catherine de Medici, then neither so powerful nor the bane of Protestants. Nonetheless, a rebuttal of Knox in French by David Chambers of Ormond, who defended women's right to govern, was dedicated to Catherine in 1579 (Arber, ed.). 77 The designation of Isabella as ``sole sister to Valois'' (II.ii.171) ± historically inaccurate, since the Capets were then on the throne ± is usually attributed to confusion stemming from the subsequent initiation of the Valois line by Isabella's cousin (Forker, ed. n. to II.ii.171). The sister of the last Valois, incidentally, was widely considered a ``French strumpet.'' 78 Forker cites (62) a reference in Fabyan to French tournaments as entertainment in Edward's younger days but traces this passage to 2H6 I.iii.50 ff., where Margaret, ``another unfeeling French queen'' (Forker, ed. 28), reminisces about Suffolk. 79 Cf. Archimago's proposal to steal Arthur's sword for Braggadocchio (FQ 2.3.18) ± a detail that may be paralleled with Spenser's seeming attack on AlencËon in Mother Hubberd's Tale (Bednarz 15). 80 Hence, the Discours veÂritable des derniers propos makes EÂpernon dolefully lament that ``il avait perdu la plus belle rose de son chapeau, ce que je ne doubte point'' (395), while, according to the Discours veÂritable de l'Estrange et subite mort de Henri de Valois, ``Espernon de se contrister & pleurer comme vn veau'' (sig. B4r ). In fact, neither Navarre nor EÂpernon was present when CleÂment struck, and although both hastened to the king's side, only EÂpernon (with a few other favoured gentlemen) witnessed his demise. In depicting their impeccable conduct as witnesses of the assassination, Marlowe is again not merely inventing material but refuting League assertions: e.g., La vie, moeurs et deportemens de Henry bearnois (1589) endorses the rumour that Navarre himself killed CleÂment for self-serving reasons (68). 81 This detail derives not from Walsingham but from Froissart, whom the Histoire tragique also cites (42) on Edward's ``fayneÂantise''; cf. Froissart, trans. Berners, fol. 2rv (Ch. 6), where, however, Hugh le Despenser is blamed for the murders and no Parliament is mentioned. See also Les mevrs 116. The closest analogue in the Chronicles is the execution of rebels after the royal victory at Boroughbridge, Yorkshire (16 March 1322), which was followed by a Parliament at York (Holinshed 2: 568±70). Cf. Edward II, III.ii and IV.iii. 12±32, where Forker, like some previous editors, supplies Holinshed's list (2: 569) for Edward to read aloud. In their summary of Edward's reign, the Chronicles blame him for having executed a total of 28 barons and knights (Holinshed 2: 587). Bouchart (2: 30) observes only that his beheading of the greatest men of the realm, together with his homosexual relation with Hugh le Despenser, led to Queen Isabella's rebellion; he fails to mention Edward's death.

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Notes 215

82 The detail does figure in the accounts of Froissart and Bouchart (2: 30±1). In Froissart, the punishment is rather obscurely said to have been imposed ``bycause they reputed hym as an heretyk'' (trans. Berners, fol. 5v [Ch. 13] ) ± grist, nevertheless, for the League propaganda mill. In Bouchart, the retribution for sodomy is explicit. 83 Cf. Ronsard, ``GayeteÂ'' 92 (CeÂard et al., ed., 2: 880). 84 Cf. Forker ed. 51±2, and n. to V.iii.41±2. 85 There is warrant in Stow's Chronicle for the idea that Gaveston had cast a spell on Edward ± see Forker ed. n. to I.ii.55.

5 Turning and Turning Again: Shakespeare's First Tetralogy 1 The term ``pivotal'' is taken from Forker ed. 19, and I am distilling, with an emphasis on the texts of particular concern to me, his summary and analysis (17±41) of the probable interrelationship of Marlowe's and Shakespeare's works. 2 A particularly problematic issue is the relation of Parts Two and Three of Henry VI to their two mid-decade Quarto cognates, The Contention and The true Tragedie, respectively. As to authorship, the Riverside editors believe that ``no general consensus . . . can ever be achieved on the extent of Shakespeare's role in the composition of 1 Henry IV'' (664). 3 See Kirk 131±42, Rackin 146±200, Marcus 51±96, and Jackson. Behind such approaches lies Fiedler's intuition that this ``vilest of all Shakespeare's undutiful daughters'' (79) possesses a potent ``witchcraft'' that transcends her textual extermination. 4 Formally ceded under the Treaty of Troyes two years later, the city continued to serve the English as a major administrative centre until finally yielding to the French in 1449, largely because of popular insurrection (Holinshed 3: 216). Rouen's practical importance is reflected in its prominence in the records examined by Jouet. Its symbolic importance for English kings related to their Norman inheritance, although Holinshed deems the Norman rulers of England prior to Richard I properly to be ``Frenchmen,'' those thereafter ``Englishmen, because they were borne in England, and vsed the English toong, customes, and maners, according to the nature and qualitie of the countrie'' (2: 202). Richard I himself no sooner assumed the throne than he travelled to Rouen to be proclaimed Duke of Normandy (Holinshed 2: 202). 5 Jackson (44±5) extends the image to Elizabeth. 6 The account of Laffleur de Kermaingant establishes that, despite occasional heroic feats on the part of Essex and the English (27), the campaign was bungled, largely because of the desultory support of Elizabeth, but also because of vacillation by Essex, Henri, and Biron. The siege was finally raised by the Duke of Parma's army. 7 The alternative theory of an allusion to Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, which would imply a later date for the Chorus's speeches (lacking in the 1600 Quarto), has not met with general favour; see Craik ed. 1±3. 8 Cf. Goldberg, James I, 162±3. 9 In Hall's account of York's address to parliament, from which that of Holinshed derives, such divine retribution is even more closely tied to King

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216 Notes

10 11 12 13

14 15 16

17 18

19 20 21

22

23 24

Richard's murder (246). Hall's Chronicle begins, however, with the first Lancastrian king. Holinshed praises the latter monarch (``a prince for his victories obteined with great dangers called Happie'' [3: 426] ), whose prosperous realm is implicitly contrasted with Richard III's England. See Levy passim. See the Discourses, Bk. 1, Ch. 39. See Riverside n. to IV.7.61 and Chambers, William Shakespeare, 1: 293. The epitaph was reproduced in several (later) works, the earliest of which, Roger Cotton's An Armor of Proof (1596), reinforces the idea of its availability to travellers (sig. A3v ). That reference appears, incidentally, in a dedication to the current Earl of Shrewsbury, Lord Talbot, whose ancestor's exploits Cotton recalls as inspiration for attacking Spain. ``Chanson nouvelle des Farrignez'' (L'Estoile, Les Belles figures, 228±31). On these points, cf. Boswell-Stone ed. 217 and 225. Cf. Mollat on the different situations in Normandy, where the English tried to impose dependence on the English crown, as well as the use of English, and Guyenne, where there was no question of forcing English on the Gascons, ``avec qui, le vin aidant sans doute, on s'eÂtait toujours compris'' (161). Cf. Stubbs's warning that AlencËon's suit ``must needs come of a very French love to our Queen and land'' (51). It suits the expedient Christianity of Ferneze, as well as his alliance with Spain, that his name is likely to have evoked the formidable Duke of Parma, Alessandro Farnese, who commanded forces in the Netherlands and fought against Navarre in France. (He was much in the news around 1590 for this reason.) Parma was a nephew of the notoriously ambitious Don John and had fought under him against the Turks. Kirk (21) aptly compares the treatment of Margaret by Samuel Daniel in The Civil Wars. See Holinshed 3: 114±20. Burgundy's defection was formalized in the FrancoBurgundian Treaty of Arras (1435). The play's manipulation of history in having Joan persuade Burgundy needs to be sustained by having Burgundy and York fight hand to hand when Joan is captured (V.iii), so that her capture clearly belongs to the English; in fact, and essentially as recorded by Holinshed (3: 170), Jeanne was captured at CompieÁgne by the Burgundians, who, under heavy diplomatic pressure, sold her to the English. The general English image of Burgundians as mercenary side-changers (also present in Heywood's Edward IV ) appears to colour ``wat'rish Burgundy'' in Lr (I.i.258). Intertextuality 26±57. The model of Alexander carried with it, of course, the potential for admonishing princes: cf. H5 IV.vii.34 ff. and Hurault, An Excellent Discourse, who says that he will flatter Henri IV, ``not to perswade him as the Philosopher did Alexander after the death of Clitus, That his good fortune made all thinges lawfull for him'' (sig. B2v ), but that he has always enjoyed divine favour. An adaptation of Christ's words in Luke 17:1; cf. Matt. 18:7. Holinshed's account (3: 107±20) provides an ample political context for Philip of Burgundy's peace-brokering, including his interest in avenging his

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Notes 217

25

26 27

28

29

30 31

32 33 34 35 36

father, John, murdered during a meeting intended to reconcile him with the Dauphin (3: 111). Riverside ed., n. to III.iii.85. Given the widespread anticipation of that event (see above [p. 74] ), such a reference would not necessarily date the text at 1593 or later; Navarre's temporary conversion to save his life in 1572 would also be hard to exclude from the allusive picture, although it was not generally held against him. See my Self-Speaking, esp. 174±83 and 239±46. Marcus, following Fiedler (48), stresses Joan's role as ``symbolically. . . Joan's daughter. . . in that she is child to Anjou, whom Joan has named among her lovers'' (89). The fact that Margaret ``of Anjou'' was also, in fact, another ``fille de Lorraine'' is not necessarily beside the point, given the line promoted by Du Duc's play, which celebrates her father as Duke of Lorraine and Jeanne's ally (without mentioning his eventual alliance with the English through Margaret's marriage). When Stubbs goes beyond insinuation (``vile sins of the body'' [70], ``monstrously wicked'' [71]) to invoke the ``marvelous licentious and dissolute youth passed by this brotherhood'' (70) ± that is, Charles, Henri, and FrancËois-Hercule ± he echoes the accusations of incest found in propaganda ranging from the Reveille-matin (Dialogue 1: 44) to the early seventeenthcentury Divorce satyrique (237). Homosexual practice may also be implied: by contrast with the allegations against Henri, Chevallier (435) finds cogent evidence on this score concerning AlencËon. Although Fiedler prefers to derive ``puzzel'' from Italian ``puzzare'' (52), ``Pucelle'' and ``puzzel'' (``Puzel'' and ``pussel,'' respectively, in the First Folio text) apparently have a common origin, and how different they were in pronunciation seems doubtful, given that Joan (regularly ``Pusell'' in Holinshed) figures indifferently as ``Pucelle'' (148), ``the Puzel'' (150, 156) or ``the Puzell'' (156) in Hall. (The OED gives ``pussel,'' ``pussle,'' ``puzel,'' ``puzzel,'' and ``puzzle'' as forms of ``pucelle.'') Fiedler notes the near-``hysteria'' (53) of Talbot's diatribe. OED documents the verb from 1595, the noun from 1612. Shakespeare might have known the Grandes croniques, published in five editions between 1514 and 1541 and amongst the French sources cited by Holinshed. Arguably, its admiring account of Jeanne's mastery of arms (``manioit hache et espee aussi bien que si elle y eust este nourrie de son enfance'' [2: 303] ) makes a better basis for her swordplay with Shakespeare's Dauphin than does anything in the English texts. On Richard's embodiment of the Wars of the Roses, see my Shakespearean Subversions 47±55. Cf. Marcus 89. The widely adopted setting for V.iv, ``Camp of the Duke of York in Anjou,'' originated with Capell. Contamine 234; Holinshed (3: 172) has Henry voyage to France and enter Rouen in 1431. The quasi-organic association of Jeanne with Rouen has continued into modern times. Michelet's nineteenth-century romantic account has her addressing the city itself in her last moments (145).

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218 Notes

37 Holinshed's frequent dismissals of French exaggeration (e.g., ``Of Englishmen were lost . . . six hundred persons, or thereabout, though the French writers multiplie this number to thousands, as their maner is'' [3: 164] ) inevitably reflect on military ``miracles'' generally, including Agincourt. 38 Jean du Tillet (d. 1570), greffier of the Parlement of Paris, not only produced mammoth historical works with a royalist and French nationalist bias but also defended the ultra-Catholic position against Huguenot ``heretics'' in polemical tracts and enjoyed the patronage of the Guises; see Brown, ed. esp. 1±66. He was thus at once an indispensable source for, and a natural antagonist of, the compilers of the Chronicles. 39 See Dubois, ``Fonction,'' 149, and ``Mythologie'' 259, on Postel, for whom Jeanne emblematized the redemption of the French monarchy (supposedly destined for world domination) through the force of the feminine. Pasquier, in Les Recherches de la France (530±5 [Bk. 6, Ch. 4] ), as in one of his Lettres familieÁres of 1612 (373±8), gives due credit to Jeanne's miracles, and especially to her rescue of the French nation from the English, though he was sceptical about her cult (Thickett ed. 379n4). Gournay's poetic praises of Jeanne (see Ilsley 292±3) unite the nationalistic element with a feminist tradition stemming from Christine de Pisan ( Jeanne's contemporary) and Martin Le Franc (Le Champion des dames) toward the mid-fifteenth century. Grimeston, adapting Serres in 1607, preserves that historian's encomiastic line, including marginal affirmations of Jeanne's virtue and condemnation of the churchmen corrupted by the English: ``And as the Oracle of Apollo spake according vnto the money that was given . . . so the Diuines (being pensioners to the English in this acte) made their diuinitie English'' (168). In Grimeston's 1611 edition, however, the marginal gloss, ``Joan the virgin'' (151), becomes, ``Joan the Virgin, or rather, witch'' (324). 40 I follow the description provided by Lancaster (367) of this work, which I have been unable to see. 41 See Chantelouve, Cameron, ed., xvi. 42 The authority for this claim is unclear. The pages of the Introduction and ``Avant-Jeu'' are unnumbered. For citations from the body of the play, I supply page numbers following those of the act and scene. 43 Lobbes ed. n. to 93, notes the echo of Du Bellay's ``Hymne av roy svr la prinse de Callais'' (``Vous avez prins CALLAIS, deux cens ans imprenable'' [37]) but does not observe that, in deflecting into a rhetorical question the ``[v]ous'' with which the Du Bellay addressed the king (Henri II), Matthieu's Guise reassigns credit for the feat. 44 As noted by Lobbes ed. n. to 98, the reference is to Calvin, compared to the Titans who rose against the gods (a common image for religious innovation ± see, e.g., Montaigne 2.12.533B). 45 Thus Bouchart: ``En celuy temps les habitans de Rouen se rebellerent contre le roy de France et occirent leur bailly. . . . et les Angloys tyrerent aÁ Rouen et y misdrent le siege'' (2: 255). 46 Du Duc's possible Latin theological sources, especially a treatise on Jeanne attributed to Gerson and found in the same manuscript as the Dialogus, are considered by Soons 87±90. But Jeanne recalled Deborah even for Christine de Pisan in the Ditie de Jehanne d'Arc (1429), whose editors detect an incipient

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Notes 219

47 48

49 50

51

52 53

commonplace (67, n. to l. 217). The analogy with the Amazons was diffused through praises of heroic women. Le Franc celebrates the Amazons (16488 ff.), as well as Deborah (16761 ff.), just before an extended vindication of Jeanne (16817 ff.); the parallel is explicit in Agrippa (88). By 1612, for Pasquier, she is ``nostre Amazone'' (Lettres familieÁres 374). In fact, Rene inherited that title only on his brother's death in 1434. Rene seems still have been playing a double game, perhaps under duress; he rallied to the French cause only with Charles VII's coronation (De la Marche 1: 70±3). His presence on that occasion is stated by Hall (150) and Holinshed (3: 166) and implied by Shakespeare: ``The Dolphin Charles is crowned king at Rheims;/ . . . /Reignier, Duke of Anjou, doth take his part'' (I.i.92±4±the Folio's ``Reynold'' being one of its variants of ``Reignier''). (Shakespeare also makes the 1429 coronation contemporaneous with the funeral of Henry V [1422], when Rene was actually thirteen years old.) In fact, the English chronicles follow French sources (e.g., Bouchart 2: 305) in speaking of the dukes of Lorraine and Bar. This is problematic, for whereas ReneÂ, then duc de Bar, had not yet inherited Lorraine from his father-in-law, Charles II, it seems impossible that the latter attended the coronation, since he favoured the English and Burgundians (De la Marche 72±3n3). In collapsing his sources, two dukes into ``Reignier, Duke of Anjou,'' Shakespeare seems to be displaying, if not a sense of the historical issues, at least an eye for dramatic advantage and an ear for topically significant titles (Marcus 68). For AlencËon, not named in the English chronicles but important in Shakespeare's version, effectively takes the second duke's place: ``The Duke of AlencËon flieth to his side'' (95). (AlencËon is, however, mentioned in Bouchart 2: 305.) Soons (116n2) proposes confusion with one William Talbot, one of Jeanne's guards at Rouen (Champion, ProceÁs, 1: 35, 2: n. 112, 30). To Coke and Nashe on the English side (the latter's apparent reference to 1H6 was cited earlier [Ch. 1, n. 30] ), may be added E. K.'s evocation of Talbot's terrible name in glossing ``Frendly faeries'' in The Shepheardes Calender (``June,'' pp. 115±16) ± a passage that Tribble (79±80) connects with the AlencËon match. Cf. Montaigne, seemingly recalling Prudentius: `` . . . quand nous oyons nos martyrs crier au Tyran au milieu de la flamme: C'est assez rosti de ce coste laÁ'' (2.2.374). The closest parallel that Soons (130) can adduce from accounts of Jeanne is not very close. Cf. H5 III.v.5±10.

There is an intriguing anticipation of Shakespeare's Edmund (Lr I.ii.6 ff.):

Fault il pas que l'enfant soit du bien de sa mere L'heritier comme il est de celluy de son pere? Sont ilz doncques bastards? ou bens si estans neÂs En nos terres, ilz sont pirement facËonneÂs Et de corps, et d'esprit, que silz naissoient en France? (73)

54 See the ProceÁs de Jean II, duc d'AlencËon, etc. 55 By various accounts, he was indeed closely associated with Jeanne ± see, e.g., Chronique de la Pucelle, 300±1, 306±7, et passim.

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220 Notes

56 This traditional element of Jeanne hagiography is preceded by no such private moment in Chronique de la Pucelle, although she enjoins her men to put themselves in a state of grace and makes them leave ``leurs fillettes'' (283). 57 The inspirational and practical turn taken by Jeanne's speech suggests that she may not be addressing them merely in her own mind but moving into an equivalent of Henry's Saint Crispin's day oration; this seems a possible staging, though the text does not clearly require it. 58 The connection between Edward's sexual dissipation at home and his lessthan-triumphant policy in France is effectively developed in Heywood's twopart Edward IV, where Gloucester's misogyny also figures (with particular reference to Jane Shore). The inverse relation between effeminizing desire and anti-French manliness is epitomized by Edward III; cf. Kirk 111±23. 59 Forker ed. 24, observes that these lines (and related ones in 2H6 [II.iii.28±9] ) seem to lie behind Edward II III.i.28±31. 60 The impeccable King Charles in Colligny opens the second act by registering his insomniac care for his subjects, even the rebellious ones ± a care akin to that of a ``bon pere/de famille'' (336±7). So great is his distress that he wishes, if he cannot see peace in France, to find repose in death (356±8). 61 Cf. H5 IV.viii.61±3: ``For he to-day that sheds his blood with me / Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, / This day shall gentle his condition.'' 62 ``FaineÂants'' finally made its way into Serres's Inventaire (137), whose first of many editions appeared in 1597; see Ronsard, ed. CeÂard et al., 1: 1653, n. 2 to p. 1144. In Grimeston's 1607 adaptation, the standard rendering is ``idle'' (e.g., 95). 63 See esp. Languet 228. 64 The word ``guise'' occurs only three times in Shakespeare's oeuvre, the two other instances being in much later works (Mac. and Tim.). 65 The sister of the duc de Guise, Catherine Marie de Lorraine, duchesse de Montpensier, boasted of wearing at her belt the scissors that would give the third ± heavenly ± crown to ``brother'' Henri (Chevallier 613); in justifying his liquidation of the Cardinal of Lorraine, Henri attributed the same intention to him (Bourassin 154). Cf. Les mevrs 63 and Histoire admirable 19, which discerns a symbol of the three kingdoms Henry has offended: Celuy qui sur ce Roy a mis double couronne, Luy a ia l'vne osteÂe, & l'autre va tomber, Le barbier luy fera, s'il ne doit succomber La tierce de ce poil qui sa teste enuironne. 66 Whether Henri might ``succomber'' by yielding or by dying seems an intentional ambiguity. 66 Another parallel, enumerated by Oliver ed. (lv±lvi) and Esche (301±3) ± ``the deed is meritorious'' (Massacre xxiii.28, 2H6 III.i.270) ± associates the fanaticism of Henri III's assassin with the conspiracy of Suffolk, Margaret, and others to murder Gloucester. The latter scene, in turn, recalls the machinations against Coligny involving Guise and Catherine (Massacre iv). For Oliver, Esche, and others, the numerous verbal echoes of Henry VI, as indeed of Edward II, prove the reportorial origin of Massacre's printed text. However

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Notes 221

they originated, they also reinforce the contemporary French allusiveness of the English history plays. 66 Audiences may even have associated Suffolk's severed head with a French story that later became well known (thanks chiefly to Stendhal in Le Rouge et le noir). As with other material, the Divorce satyrique (238) may well be recording, rather than inventing, the garish legend that Queen Margaret's namesake, wife of Henri of Navarre and a plausible candidate for the role of ``French strumpet,'' retrieved from the scaffold the head of her lover La Mole (executed in 1574 for conspiracy on behalf of the duc d'AlencËon) and took it away for burial. The Chronicles have Suffolk's body, which his murderer ``left . . . with the head lieng there on the sands,'' discovered and taken to be buried by ``a chapleine of his'' (3: 220); Shakespeare substitutes a Gentleman who carries the body to the king, anticipating that the death will be revenged at least by ``the Queen, that living held him dear'' (IV.i.147). Walter Whitmore, however, has previously declared, ``There let his head and liveless body lie, / Until the Queen his mistress bury it'' (142±3). 67 See Chevallier 166±71 and Jacqueline Boucher. 68 Three toads were the symbol of pre-Christian France (Le Coq 199), according to a legend widespread enough to figure in Coke's abuse: as for theyr thre flower de lyces which the frenche heralde sayth was sent to Clowes from heaven, I answer, it was sent hym from Sathan, for the said Clowes, his ancetours and people out of Sacambria, a shyre in Hungary, . . . gave in theyr armes the vyle blacke poysoned spralying todes, who, beynge therof most ashamed, and for pryde to avaunce his glory, devysed and caused a payntour to make in a baner thre flower de lyces, common flowres in every felde, which armes the frenche kynges have ever syhen borne, and yet bere unto this present time. (64) 69 See, e.g. the MeÂmoires of Louis de Gonzague, duc de Nevers, Part 1, 79.

6

``Of tendyr hertys been Englysche men''

1 Forker, ed., can claim ``a certain scholarly consensus'' (18) for this conclusion. 2 There would have been warrant for doing so in the Chronicles, which speak of ``abhominable adulterie, speciallie in the king'' (2: 868). 3 See the account of Rossiter, in his edition (47±71), of Woodstock's possible and probable relations to R2, Edward II, and 2H6. 4 There may indeed be a glance at the rumour that Richard was a French priest's bastard ± see Rossiter, ed. 216, n. to II.i.100 f. Woodstock, unlike the Chronicles (2: 798), also represents Richard as falsely claiming to have reached his majority (II.i.97 ff.; II.ii.87 ff.). A similar issue had surfaced in France after the conspiracy of Amboise (1560), when the Guises defended their influence over FrancËois II, aged fifteen, on the grounds that ``the king was of age and thus capable of choosing his own councilors ± the Guises rather than the princes of the blood, who were jealous of the power exercised by `foreigners' from Lorraine'' (Brown, ed. 12). In 1560, Du Tillet produced two tracts supporting this position (Brown, ed. 11±12).

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222 Notes

5 Holinshed merely states, ``he was named Richard of Burdeaux, bicause he was borne at Burdeaux in Gascoigne, whilest his father ruled there'' (2: 712). The Chronicles do not emphasize the king's weakness in supporting English interests against France. On the other hand, the favourable French reception of the banished Hereford is mentioned (2: 848), together with the Duke of Brittany's support for his invasion (2: 852). 6 On the relation of these texts to Shakespeare, see Duls 231±4; Black, ed. passim, esp. 466±73; and Bullough 3: 370, who cites the widespread existence of a proRiccardian, anti-Lancastrian perspective. Such an perspective joins with French national feeling in CreÂton's assertion that Richard was deposed on account of his affection for the French king, his father-in-law (Bullough 3: 372). John Dee's signature on a copy of CreÂton's work (Bullough 3: 372) identifies it as the ``French pamphlet'' ± drawn on mainly for Richard II's defeat by Bullingbroke ± ''that belongeth to master John Dee,'' according to the marginal notes in Holinshed (2: 850; cf. 2: 854, 856). See Duls 231 and Black, ed. 472. 7 According to OED, ``caterpillar'' had been applied for roughly a century to social parasites; playwrights may have especially relished the term, given Stephen Gosson's 1579 polemic, The Schoole of Abuse, Conteining a plesaunt inuectiue against Poets, Pipers, Plaiers, Iesters, and such like Caterpillers of a Commonwelth. Still, the instances collected in Black, ed. n. to II.iii.175, where the Biblical precedents are also signalled, include only one from an English historical text, where the reference, as in Gosson, looks socially downward. This contrasts with the dramatic instances cited, to which may be added Shakespeare's evocation of Cade's rebels (``All scholars, lawyers, courtiers, gentlemen, / They call false caterpillars, and intend their death'' [2H6 IV.iv.36±7]) and Chapman's Bussy d'Ambois, where Bussy accuses Monsieur of entrapping the country's most promising leaders (''[t]he prime of all fruits the Kingdom yields'' [III.ii.391] ) through his ``caterpillars'' (390). Incidentally, if the original form ``piller'' is associated with (if not necessarily derived from) the French ``piller'' (''plunder'') (OED), the use of ``chenille'' for Henri III's mignons in La Guisiade evinces a link not dependent on etymology. 8 It is widely accepted that behind Prospero's speech lies a passage from Darius (1603) by William Alexander. Alexander's lines are certainly close to Shakespeare's, and closer for making the same point about earthly ``pomp'' that ``fades, and scarcelie leaves behind a token'' (cited Kermode, ed., lxxiv). Still, the ``sky-encountering walles'' of Alexander stand at a greater distance from Prospero's words than do Matthieu's ``tours qui sont cachant leur front dedans les cieux,'' while only Shakespeare and Matthieu mention churches. Hardly a casual point in either case, it is especially fraught for Matthieu, thanks to a reminiscence of Du Bartas, whose English, expelled from Calais, lament, Adieu clochers poinctus, adieu temples voutez, OuÁ Dieu, sourd maintenant, aÁ nos cris escoutez Deux cens ans pour le moins: adieu natale terre: Adieu port trafiqueur: adieu murs qu'Angleterre Rempara contre soy: adieu ciel alme et dous: Adieu palais bastis par nous, mais non pour nous. (La Seconde semaine, Premier Jour, 2: 615±20)

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Notes 223

9 See A Trve Discovrse of the Discomfitvre of the Dvke of Avmalle (1589) and esp. The French kinges declaration vpon the riot, felonie, and rebellion of the duke of Mayenne, & the duke and knight of Aumalle, and all their assistants (1589), the French original of which had been published in England (STC 13098.4, likewise by R. Ward for T. Cadman), as well as in France. The latter pamphlet aims to refute the rebels' representation of themselves as the successors and avengers of a martyr (esp. 4±5). The duc d'Aumale had long been treated in Protestant propaganda as a Guisean villain, and, given Shakespeare's decision to adapt the scene of Aumerle's incriminating letter from Holinshed, the 1579 Legende of ReÂgnier de la Planche stands out for its section marginally labelled ``Lettres de conspiration du duc d'Aumale'' (60r ). Tracts justifying the assassination tend to have d'Aumale's wife revealing conspiratorial documents (Discours de ce qui est arrive aÁ Blois 143; Relation de la mort de Messieurs le duc et Cardinal de Guise 119±20). In refuting that claim as another deceitful invention of ``le tyrant,'' the author of Le Martyre des devx freres makes Aumale's participation in conspiracy as equivocal as that of Shakespeare's character, who claims his ``heart is not confederate with [his] hand'' (R2 V.iii.53): madame d'Aumalle luy [i.e., aÁ Henri] avoit monstre lettres que luy avoit escriptes monseigneur le duc d'Aumalle, par lesquelles il luy mandoit comme il seÂtoit trouveÂ, non d'esprit, mais seulement de corps, en un conseil ouÁ il avoit este conclud et arreste que doresnavant monsieur de Guise feroit toutes choses; que la puissance du Roy seroit si petite qu'il ne feroit plus rien qu'avec la volunte dudit sieur de Guyse, et qu'il seroit seulement Roy en chiffre. (99±100) 10 The complaints regarding his recent reverses that Chantelouve assigns to Coligny ± anticipating the ``atheism'' of Edmund, the latter addresses Fortune as ``souveraine Royne, & princesse du monde'' (63) ± seems calculated to counter the Protestant discourse of providential victory. Such discourse had not yet crystalized round Henri de Navarre, but it was built into the special relation with God claimed by those of ``the religion'' ± a status confirmed by their frequent martyrdom; see Crouzet passim. 11 See, e.g. Goulart, MeÂmoires de la Ligue, 2: 243, and Relation de la bataille de Coutras 263. 12 That Henri's failure to control his sexual appetite threatened to become a public liability appears from the effort of Boton 26±7 to excuse him by claiming that this is a common weakness of great warriors. 13 Even so, the account of Holinshed tones down the virulent anticlericalism of Hall, who embellishes the anxiety aroused by the proposed bill: ``the fat Abbotes swet, the proude Priors frouned, the poore Friers curssed the sely Nonnes wept'' (49). 14 Hall (57) pronounces this story doubtful. In representing the insulting gift and Henry's response, Shakespeare apparently drew eclectically on Holinshed, Hall, and Caxton (Bullough 4: 352). 15 This marginal gloss is supplied where the archbishop responds to Henry's curt dismissal with ``brags blustered out with impatience.'' The Chronicles seem particularly anxious to discredit this embassy, and they cannot use the tennis balls to do it.

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224 Notes

16 In recasting Burgundy's participation in the Treaty of Troyes, Shakespeare softens into disinterested neutrality what the Chronicles represent as the active promotion of self-interest (3: 112±20) and what The Famous Victories depicts simply as the submission to Henry of another untrustworthy foreigner (1519 ff.). 17 However, the Chronicles also have Henry, after the treaty of Troyes, invoking the law of nature, which, paradoxically, makes him more French than English, ``being by lineall descent of the womans side (which is the surest) rather a Frenchman than an Englishman'' (3: 120). Axton (112±13) sees the stance against the Salic law in H5 as specifically supporting the Stuart succession. 18 Seward notes Shakespeare's evocation of Henry's brutality, despite the fact that ``[n]o account . . . conveys how widespread and how savage was the misery which he inflicted on the French people'' (216). Given the abundant French records, some of which influenced Holinshed ± given, indeed, the persistence of French regional memories of Henry's depredations into the twentieth century, as Seward documents ± an absolute Elizabethan ignorance need hardly be presumed. 19 Cf. Hall 69. See my Intertextuality 30. 20 Hall merely mentions that ``a greate part of the women and children he expelled the toune'' and adds in mitigation that ``euery poore creature'' was given ``fiue sowse'' (63). 21 Holinshed does state that some of the town's ``magistrats & gouernors . . . for their wilfull stubbornesse were adiudged to die'' (3: 91), but omits the massacre, recounted in French sources, of thousands of soldiers and civilians, which closely matched the horrible threats of Shakespeare's Henry at Honfleur; see Seward 104±5. 22 In fact, there is recurrent tension, sometimes radical dislocation, between choric commentary and represented action ± beginning with the disjunction between the Prologue and the bishops' conversation. 23 The Chronicles make clear that the Dauphin (Charles, the future Charles VII, at the time of the treaty, his brother Louis having died in 1415) had nothing to do with the peace: indeed, Henry and Philip of Burgundy made a secret agreement intending his capture and punishment for the murder of Philip's father (3: 119). 24 See The Famous Victories 1529, and above, Ch. 1, n. 30. 25 Bullough notes the play's omission of the siege of Rouen (4: 369). He also, however (4: 337n3), supposes that Henry in The Famous Victories refers to it when he declares himself ``content peaceably to leave my siege, / And to depart out of your land'' (1317±18) if ``the right of my Countrey'' (1316) can be denied. That declaration, however, immediately follows Agincourt and leads directly to the peace, as in Shakespeare. This ``siege,'' therefore, is more probably that of France generally ± what Henry has just termed ``[m]y comming into this land'' (1315). 26 These callous particulars are absent from Hall. 27 Hall's account (83±4) is notably more laudatory than Holinshed's. The encomiastic narrative of the siege by the contemporary minstrel John Page ± testimony to the event's long-standing prominence within the popular myth of Henry ± incorporates this gesture into a pattern of English charity towards

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Notes 225

the suffering French, who duly conclude, ``Of tendyr hertys been Englysche men'' (p. 21). 28 This detail derives from Froissart (trans. Berners, fol. 66r [Ch. 133] ). Edward's eventual mercy to the burghers of Calais comes across more equivocally, being pressed on him by his queen (V.i.39 ff.), but the scene is structured to show his warrior's fierceness stopping short of tyranny (''Tyranny, strike terror to thyself'' [V.i.55] ). One may compare Marlowe's Tamburlaine and Zenocrate. Katherine may have come into Henry V's life rather too late. 29 Boswell-Stone, ed. (165±6) also relates this passage to Shakespeare's image, although he attaches no importance to the context.

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226 Notes

Early texts and editions Agrippa, Henricus Cornelius. Declamation on the Nobility and Preeminence of the Female Sex, trans. and ed. Albert Rabil, Jr. The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. An answeare to the supplication. Against him, who seeming to giue the King counsel to become a Catholike, indeuoureth to stirre vp his good subiectes vnto rebellion, trans. Edward Aggas. London: John Wolfe, 1591. STC 664. Arrest de la covrt de parlement contre Gaspart de Colligny, qui fut Admiral de France, mis in huict langues, aÁ scËavoir, FrancËois, Latin, Italien, Espagno, Allemant, Flament, Anglois et EscocËois, [Paris: Jean Dallier, 1596]. Archives curieuses de l'histoire de France, ed. L. Cimber and C. Danjou, ser. 1, vol. 6. Paris: Beauvais, Membre de l'Institut Historique, 1835. 375±93. AubigneÂ, Agrippa d'. Les Tragiques, ed. Frank Lestringant. Paris: Gallimard, 1995. Bale, John. John Bale's King Johan, ed. Barry B. Adams. San Marino, CA: Huntington Library, 1969. Barnaud, Nicolas (attrib.; pseud. EuseÁbe Philadelphe, Cosmopolite). Le Reveillematin des FrancËois et de levrs voisins: Compose par Eusebe Philademphe Cosmopolite, en forme de Dialogues, ``Edinburgh: Jaques James'' [i.e. Strasbourg: Bernard Jobin], 1574; fac. rpt. Paris: EÂditions d'Histoire Sociale, 1977. (Also STC 1464.) Bennett, H. S. (ed.). The Massacre at Paris. The Jew of Malta and The Massacre at Paris, by Christopher Marlowe. Works and Life of Christopher Marlowe, vol. 3. gen. ed. R. H. Case. 1931; rpt. New York: Gordian, 1966. Billard de Courgenay, Claude. La Mort d'Henri IV, trageÂdie en 5 actes et en vers. 1610; rpt. Paris: LeÂopold Collin, 1806. Black, Matthew W., ed. The Life and Death of King Richard the Second, by William Shakespeare. A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare, gen. ed. Hyder Edward Rollins. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1955. Boswell-Stone, W. G. (ed.). Shakespeare's Holinshed: The Chronicle and the Plays Compared, 2nd edn. 1907; rpt. New York: Dover, 1968. Boton, Pierre. Les trois visions de Childeric Quatriesme Roy de France, pronostics des guerres civiles de ce Royaume: et la Prophetie de Basine sa femme, sur les victoires et conquesstes de Henry de Bourbon Roy de France et de Navarre, et sur le rencontre fait aÁ Fontaine-FrancËoise. Plus le Triomphe de la liberte Royalle sur la prinse des villes de Bourgoigne. Paris: Frederic Morel (''Imprimeur Ordinaire du Roy''), 1595. Bouchart, Alain. Grandes croniques de Bretaigne, ed. Marie-Louise Auger and Gustave Jeanneau, under the direction of Bernard GueneÂe, 3 vols. Paris: Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique, 1986±98. Boucher, Jean (attrib.). De Ivsta Henrici Tertii Abdicatione e Francorum Regno, Libri Qvatvor, etc. Lyon: J. Pillehotte, 1591. ÐÐ (attrib.). Histoire tragique et memorable de Pierre de Gaverston [sic] Gentil-homme Gascon jadis le mignon d'EdouÈard 2. Roi d'Angleterre, tireÂe des Chroniques de 227

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Works Cited 245

Aggas, Edward, 74, 82, 198 n 5, 207 n 4, 212 n 48 Agincourt (Azincourt), battle of, 15, 19, 41±3, 45, 191, 193, 219 n 37 Agrippa, Henricus Cornelius (Declamation on the Nobility and Preeminence of the Female Sex), 220 n 46 Albret, Jeanne d' (Queen of Navarre), 126, 213 n 52 AlencËon, FrancËois-Hercule, duc d' (latterly duc d'Anjou), 7, 23, 52, 60, 70, 78, 88, 91, 114, 133, 142, 165, 167±70, 188, 199 n 12, 210 n 29, 215 n 79, 217 n 17, 218 n 28, 222 n 67 AlencËon, Jean I de Valois, duc d', 150, 166 AlencËon, Jean II de Valois, duc d', 150, 165, 220 n 54 Alexander the Great, 125, 217 n 22 Alexander, William (Darius), 223 n 8 Alfonso VIII (King of Castile), 60 Allde, Edward, 207 n 4 Allen, Percy, 4, 5, 211 n 36 Amboise, conspiracy of, 222 n 4 Anglo, Sydney, 205 n 19 Anjou, FrancËois-Hercule, duc d', see AlencËon, FrancËois-Hercule, duc d' Anjou, Henri, duc d', see Henri III (King of France) An answeare to the supplication, etc., 74 Antisixtus, see under Hurault, Michel Aristotle, 25 Armagnac, Earl of (comte d'), 122 Arras, Treaty of, 217 n 20 Arthur, King, 6, 20, 23, 47±71 passim, 149, 204 n 6, 204 n 7, 204 n 8, 204 n 9, 204 n 10, 204±5 n 12, 205 n 13, 205 n 14, 205 n 15, 205 n 16, 205 n 17, 205 n 18,

205 n 19, 205 n 21, 206 n 25, 206 n 26 Arthur, Prince of Wales (son of Henry VII), 51, 204 n 8 Arthur Plantagenet, Duke of Brittany, 55±6, 64, 65, 67, 204 n 7, 205±6 n 21 Artois, Robert of, 129, 150 Ascham, Roger, 52, 68 Ashton, Harry, 3 AubigneÂ, Agrippa d' (Les Tragiques), 100±1, 207 n 5, 213 n 64 Augustine, Saint, 25 Aumale, Charles de Lorraine, duc d', see Lorraine, Charles de, duc d'Aumale Axton, Marie, 26, 56, 204 n 2, 204 n 10, 205 n 20, 225 n 17 Azincourt, see Agincourt Bacon, Francis, 3 BailbeÂ, Jacques, 207 n 5 Bajazeth (Bayezid) I (Ottoman Sultan), 125 Bakeless, John, 72, 73, 207 n 4, 212 n 50 Baker, Herschel, 174 Baldwin, T. W., 114 Bale, John (King Johan), 43, 49 Barlezio, Marino, 125 Barnaud, Nicolas (pseud. EuseÁbe Philadelphe) (Le Reveille-matin des FrancËois et de levrs voisins, etc.), 13, 23, 83, 92, 101, 117, 162, 168, 200 n 23, 208 n 17, 211 n 34, 214 n 66, 214 n 75, 218 n 28 Barnet, Jean, 141 Barrachina, M.-A., 199 n 21 Barrett, W. P., 200 n 28 Barricades, Day of the (12 May 1588), 85, 181, 184 Bartholomew, Saint, massacre of, 2, 3, 8, 13, 23, 28, 75, 76, 78, 82, 83, 84, 86, 87, 126, 131, 140, 141, 161,

246

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Index

200 n 22, 208 n 13, 208 n 16, 208 n 17, 209 n 21, 210 n 31 Bawcutt, N. W., 121 Bayezid, see Bajazeth BeaupreÂ, Jean-Nicolas, 199 n 16 Bedford, John, Duke of, 146, 148 Bednarz, James P., 215 n 79 Bennett, H. S., 206 n 22, 207 n 10 Berners, John Bourchier, Lord, see Bourchier, John, Lord Berners Der Bestrafte Brudermord, 210 n 27 BeÁze, TheÂodore de, 23, 211 n 43 Bhabha, Homi K., 11, 14 Bible, the 34, 35, 46, 76, 202 n 9, 217 n 23, 223 n 7 Billard de Courgenay, Claude (La Mort d'Henri IV ), 211 n 43 Biron, see Gontaut Black, Matthew W., 223 n 6, 223 n 7 Blanche of Castile (Queen of France), 60 Blount, Charles, Lord Mountjoy, 216 n 7 Boswell-Stone, W. G., 118, 148, 217 n 15, 226 n 29 Boton, Pierre (Les trois visions de Childeric Quatriesme), 125, 140, 190, 224 n 12 Bouchart, Alain (Grandes croniques de Bretagne), 135, 174, 206 n 26, 215 n 81, 216 n 82, 218 n 31, 219 n 45, 220 n 48 Boucher, Jacqueline, 222 n 67 Boucher, Jean, 206 n 2 De Ivsta Henrici Tertii Abdicatione e Francorum Regno, Libri Qvatvor, 206 n 2 Histoire tragique et memorable de Pierre de Gaverston, etc., 72, 73, 85, 98, 102, 106, 107, 161, 178, 214 n 72, 214 n 73, 215 n 81 La vie et faits notables de Henry de Valois, 85, 206 n 2, 208 n 12, 209 n 19, 214 n 71 Bourassin, EÂmmanuel, 79, 184, 206 n 2, 209 n 23, 209 n 24, 221 n 65 Bourbon, cardinal Charles de (``Charles X''), 84, 199 n 21

Bourbon, Henri I de, prince de CondeÂ, see CondeÂ, Henri I de Bourbon, prince de Bourbon, House of, 89, 164, 188 Bourchier, John, Lord Berners, 6 translation of Froissart's Chroniques, 6±7, 8, 199 n 13, 215 n 81, 216 n 82 Bourdeille, Pierre de, abbe de Ãme, see Branto Ãme, Pierre de Branto Bourdeille, abbe de BourdigneÂ, Jehan de (Chroniques d'Anjou et du Maine), 205 n 21 Bourgoin, Edme, 59 à me, Pierre de Bourdeille, abbe Branto de, 98, 105, 108, 109, 200 n 21, 214 n 74 Recueil des dames, 209 n 17, 209 n 20 Braunmuller, A. R., 47, 64, 203 n 1 A breefe description of the battailes, victories and triumphes, atchiued by the D. Of Parma, and the Spanish armye, etc., 207 n 4 Briggs, Julia, 72, 73, 75, 206 n 3, 207 n 10, 209 n 11, 209 n 23, 211 n 36, 211 n 41, 211 n 43 Brown, Elizabeth A. R., 210 n 31, 219 n 38, 222 n 4 Brutus, Marcus Junius, 162, 163 Brutus, Stephanus Junius (pseud.) (Vindiciae contra tyrannos), see Languet, Hubert Buisseret, David, 189, 199 n 21, 203 n 15, 203 n 18, 207 n 5, 207 n 6 Bullough, Geoffrey, 114, 202 n 7, 223 n 6, 224 n 14, 225 n 25 Burckhardt, Sigurd, 47 Burghley, William Cecil, Lord, 23 Burgundy, John, Duke of, 218 n 24, 225 n 23 Burgundy, Philip (``the Good''), Duke of, 123±4, 128, 130, 217 n 20, 217±18 n 24, 225 n 16, 225 n 23 Bynneman, Henry, 207 n 9, 208 n 14 Caesar, Julius, 6, 115, 163, 202 n 5 Calvin, Jean, 98, 211 n 43, 219 n 44 Cameron, Keith, 219 n 41 Capell, Edward, 218

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Index 247

Capet, Hugh (Hugues) (King of France), 191, 199 n 21 Capilupi, Camillo (Le Strategeme, ou la ruse de Charles IX, Roy de France, contre les Huguenots rebelles aÁ Dieu et aÁ luy), 28, 29 Castriota, George (``Scanderbeg''), 125 Cateau-CambreÂsis, Peace of, 125 Catherine of Navarre (sister of Henri IV, King of France), 207 Caxton, William, 58, 224 n 14 as editor and printer of Malory, Le Morte Darthur, 54±5, 65, 205 n 13, 205 n 14 Caylus, Jacques de LeÂvis, comte de, 208 n 12 CeÂard, Jean, 161, 221 n 62 Cecil, William, see Burghley Chaintron, Maria, 98, 207 n 6, 213 n 52, 213 n 60 Chambers, David, 215 n 76 Chambers, E. K., 51, 54, 205 n 21, 217 n 13 Champion, Pierre, 159 ``Chanson nouvelle des Farrignez,'' 217 Chantelouve, FrancËois de, 140 Pharaon, 140 La Tragedie du feu Gaspard de Colligny, 84, 88, 89, 90, 92, 93, 140, 142, 155, 164, 211 n 36, 211 n 43, 221 n 60, 224 n 10 Chapman, George, 2, 4, 5, 11, 23 Bussy d'Ambois, 168, 169, 223 n 7 The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Byron, 84, 85, 185 Euthymiñ Raptus; or The Teares of Peace, 124 The Revenge of Bussy d'Ambois, 200 n 22 Charlemagne, 6±7, 19, 20, 55, 67, 71, 90±1, 205 n 19 Charles II, duc de Lorraine, 220 n 48 Charles III, duc de Lorraine, 140±2 Charles VI (King of France), 201 n 30 Charles VII (King of France), 120, 139, 146, 193, 220 n 48, 225 n 23 Charles VIII (King of France), 116, 217 n 10

Charles IX (King of France), 7, 23, 29, 76, 83, 92, 101, 199 n 12, 207 n 9, 209 n 18, 209 n 19, 210 n 33, 213 n 51, 213 n 52, 214 n 70, 218 n 28 ``Charles X'' (pretender to the crown of France), see Bourbon, cardinal Charles Charles, duc d'OrleÂans, 19, 123, 186 Chartier, Alain (Lay de Paix), 128±9 ChaÃtillon, see Coligny Chaucer, Geoffrey (Troilus and Criseyde), 195 Chevallier, Pierre, 77, 79, 88, 97, 100, 110, 160, 162, 164, 168, 169, 208 n 12, 208 n 16, 209 n 18, 209 n 23, 211 n 38, 212 n 46, 213 n 56, 213 n 59, 213 n 61, 214 n 66, 214 n 71, 218 n 28, 221 n 65, 222 n 67 Les choses horribles contenues en une lettre envoyeÂe aÁ Henri de Valois, etc., 211 n 43 Christine de Pisan (Ditie de Jehanne d'Arc), 19, 219 n 39, 219 n 46 Chronicque de la TraõÈson et Mort de Richart Deux Roy Dengleterre, 174, 223 n 6 Chronique de la Pucelle, 220 n 55, 221 n 56 Cicero, Marcus Tullius (De Oratore), 33, 202 n 6 CleÂment, Jacques, 9, 58, 59, 161, 210 n 26, 215 n 80 CleÂment, Louis, 208 n 17, 214 n 66 Cocula, Anne-Marie, 188, 209 n 23 Cocula-VallieÁres, Anne-Marie, see Cocula Coke, John (The Debate betwene the Heraldes of Englande and Fraunce), 19±21, 36, 37, 49, 91, 135, 201 n 31, 201 n 33, 203 n 10, 205 n 19, 220 n 50, 222 n 68 Coligny, amiral Gaspard de (also ChaÃtillon), 28±9, 83, 90, 140, 202 n 42, 202 n 43, 209 n 24, 210 n 30, 211 n 36 ``Collier leaf,'' 75, 207 n 10

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248 Index

Colynet, Anthony (The true history of the ciuill warres of France, etc.), 27, 209 n 23, 210 n 26, 210 n 29, 210 n 30 CondeÂ, Henri I de Bourbon, prince de, 188±9 Coningsby, Thomas, 203 n 14 Conseil salutaire d'un Bon FrancËois aux parisiens, 201 n 37 Contamine, Philippe, 138, 139, 218 n 35 The Contre-Guyse, etc., 83, 91, 103, 208 n 12, 212 n 50 The Coppie of a letter sent into England, etc., 201 n 29 Corrigan, Brian Jay, 204 n 8, 205 n 15 Coryate, Thomas (Coryat's crudities, etc.), 28 Cotton, Roger (An Armor of Proof, etc.), 217 n 13 Coutras, battle of, 76, 77, 188, 203 n 18, 208 n 15 Craik, T. W., 216 n 7 CreÂton, Jean (Histoire du Roy d'Angleterre Richard II ), 174, 223 n 6 Crouzet, Denis, 2, 24, 83, 100, 110, 209 n 17, 210 n 33, 213 n 63, 214 n 66, 224 n 10 Les cruauteÂs sanguinaires exerceÂes envers feu Monsieigneur le Cardinal de Guise, etc., 209 n 24 Cycle plays, 135 Dallington, Robert (The View of Fraunce), 16, 18, 200±1 n 28 Dampmartin, Pierre de (Du Bonheur de la Cour), 60, 206 n 23 Daniel, Samuel (The Civil Wars), 10, 217 n 19 De la Marche, Albert Lecoy, 145, 220 n 48 De la Mothe, G., 5 De Vere, see Oxford Dean, Christopher, 54, 204 n 10, 205 n 13, 205 n 19 Dearing, Vinton A., 200 n 22 Deats, Sara Munson, 102, 214 n 68 Dee, John, 223 n 6 Dekker, Thomas, 1, 198 n 1

Deloney, Thomas (The Garland of Good Will ), 54, 67, 205 n 18 Despenser, Hugh le, 107, 109, 215 n 81, 216 n 82 Devereux, Robert, Earl of Essex, see Essex Dialogus Cujus Collocutores Sunt Milites Duo, Unus Francus, Alter Anglicus, etc., 129, 130, 219 n 46 The Discouerer of France, etc., 82, 83 Discours au vray de la reduction du Havre de Grace en l'obeissance du Roy, 21±2 Discours brief, mais tressolide, etc., 199 n 17 Discours de ce qu'a fait en France le Heraut d'Angleterre, etc., 18 Discours de ce qui est arrive aÁ Blois, etc., 224 n 9 Discours merveilleux de la vie, actions, et deportemens de Catherine de Medicis, see Estienne, Henri, A mervaylous discourse Discours sur l'exeÂcution du duc d'Aumale, 185±6 Discours veÂritable de l'Estrange et subite mort de Henri de Valois advenue par permission divine, 58±9, 210 n 28, 215 n 80 Discours veÂritable des derniers propos qu'a tenus Henry de Valois aÁ Jean D'Espernon, etc., 105, 215 n 80 A discourse and true recitall of euerie particular of the victorie obtained by the French king, etc., 34 A discourse vppon a question of the Estate of this time, 74 Divorce satyrique, etc., 218 n 28, 222 n 66 Dodu, G., 160, 213 n 56, 214 n 67 Dollimore, Jonathan, 198 n 2 Dowriche, Anne (The French Historie, etc.), 3, 10, 76, 89±90, 198 n 3, 208 n 13, 210 n 25, 211 n 43 Drayton, Michael, 1, 198 n 1 Mortimeriados, 10 Dronke, Peter, 53, 204±5 n 12 Dryden, John (The Duke of Guise), 200 n 22

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Index 249

Du Bartas, Guillaume de Salluste, seigneur, 3, 85, 140, 149 ``A canticle of the victorie . . . at Yvry,'' 3 La CreÂation du monde, 21±2, 108, 223 n 8 Du Bellay, Joachim, 3, 4, 21 ``Hymne av roy svr la prinse de Callais,'' 21, 145, 219 n 43 Du Duc, Fronton (L'Histoire tragique de la Pucelle d'OrleÂans), 125, 135, 140±152, 212 n 47, 218 n 27, 219 n 46, 220 n 49, 220 n 51, 220 n 53, 221 n 56, 221 n 57 Du Plessis-Mornay, Philippe, see Mornay, Philippe de Du Ploiche, P. (A Treatise in Englishe and French . . . for all young children), 5 Du Tillet, Jean, 139, 144, 219 n 38, 222 n 4 Dubois, Claude-Gilbert, 219 n 39 Duls, Louisa Desaussure, 174, 223 n 6 Edward I (King of England), 54 Edward II (King of England), 73, 92, 102, 103, 106±7, 112, 161, 171, 215 n 77, 215 n 78, 215 n 81, 216 n 82, 216 n 85 Edward III (King of England), 6, 13, 17, 54, 103, 104, 107, 110, 116, 150, 176, 178, 198 n 10, 199 n 13 Edward III (anonymous play), 6, 8, 17, 18, 46, 103, 127±8, 149, 150, 172, 196, 198 n 9, 201 n 30, 221 n 58, 226 n 28 Edward IV (King of England), 113, 120, 153, 164, 202 n 2 Edward VI (King of England), 102 Edward, Prince of Wales (the Black Prince, son of Edward III), 198 n 10 Edwards, Philip, 202 n 1 Ehrmann, Jean, 209 n 21 Eleanor of Aquitaine (Queen of England), 48 Eleanor Plantagenet (Queen of Castile), 60 Eliot, John, 5 Ortho-epia Gallica, 5

Elizabeth (Queen-Consort of Henry VII, King of England), 170 Elizabeth I (Queen of England), 7, 8, 13, 23, 24, 43, 52, 60, 70, 78, 102, 103, 104, 110, 114, 133, 144, 150, 167±170, 203 n 13, 209 n 17, 214 n 66, 216 n 5, 216 n 6, 217 n 17 Ellrodt, Robert, 198 n 2 EÂpernon, Jean-Louis de Nogaret de La Valette, duc d', 26, 72, 74, 85, 88, 98, 99±100, 105, 107, 108±9, 134, 178, 207 n 6, 211 n 43, 213 n 55, 213 n 59, 213 n 60, 215 n 80 Erasmus, Desiderius, 149 The Education of a Christian Prince, 100, 213 n 62 Querela Pacis, 124, 126 Erondelle, Pierre (The French garden: for English ladyes and gentlewomen to walke in, etc.), 207 n 4 Esche, Edward J., 221 n 66 Essex, Robert Devereux, Earl of, 22, 110, 114±15, 118, 203 n 13, 216 n 6 Estienne, Henri, 98, 208 n 17 A mervaylous discourse vpon the lyfe, deedes, and behaviours of Katherine de Medicis, Queene mother, etc., 77, 103, 133, 168, 208 n 17, 209 n 19, 212 n 45, 213 n 52, 214 n 66, 214 n 75 Exeter, Thomas Beaufort, Duke of, 14±15 Fabyan, Robert (New Chronicles of England and France), 204 n 6, 215 n 78 The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth, 17, 33±4, 35, 36, 38, 130, 190, 193, 201 n 30, 225 n 16, 225 n 24, 225 n 25 Farnese, Alessandro, Duke of Parma, 206 n 26, 207 n 4, 216 n 6, 217 n 18 Fay, Michel Hurault de l'Hospital, seigneur du, see Hurault, Michel Fenton, Geoffrey (A discourse of the ciuile warres, etc.), 76, 208 n 14 Ferguson, Margaret, 32, 42 Fiedler, Leslie A., 13, 132, 200 n 24, 216 n 3, 218 n 27, 218 n 29

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250 Index

The Field of Cloth of Gold, 37, 38, 43, 202 n 2 Field, Richard, 9, 125, 199 n 17 Finke, Laurie A., 19 The First Part of Richard II, see Woodstock The First part of the Contention betwixt the two famous Houses of Yorke and Lancaster, 113, 216 n 2 Fletcher, John, see Shakespeare, William, and John Fletcher Fletcher, Robert Huntington, 204 n 6, 205 n 21 Florio, John, 5 Fontaine-FrancËaise, battle of, 203 n 15 Forker, Charles R., 73, 103, 198 n 1, 213 n 54, 214 n 68, 215 n 77, 215 n 78, 215 n 81, 216 n 1, 216 n 84, 216 n 85, 221 n 59, 222 n 1 Foucault, Michel, 14 Foxe, John (Acts and Monuments), 121 La France-Turquie, etc., 23, 125 FrancËois de l'Isle (pseud.), see ReÂgnier de la Planche FrancËois de Sales, Saint (Oraison funebre sur le trespas de Philippe Emmanuel de Lorraine, duc de Mercoeur), 202 n 9 FrancËois I (King of France), 32, 36, 37, 202 n 5 FrancËois II (King of France), 202 n 5, 215 n 76, 222 n 4 The French Herald Summoning All Trve Christian Princes to a generall Croisade, etc., see Tourval, Jean Loiseau de The French herauld sent to the princes of Christendome, 23 Froissart, Jehan (Chroniques), 6±8, 19, 109, 174, 198 n 10, 199 n 13, 215 n 81, 216 n 82, 226 n 28 Frow, John, 24 Frye, Northrop, 117 Garnier, Robert, 3, 4, 198 n 5 Marc Antoine, 4 Gaunt, John of, see Lancaster, John of Gaunt, Duke of,

Gaveston, Piers de, Earl of Cornwall, 73, 98, 107, 171, 178, 214 n 72, 214 n 73, 216 n 85 Genette, GeÂrard, 201 n 40 Gentillet, Innocent, 212 n 50, 214 n 66 Discours . . . contre Nicolas Machiavel, 92, 168, 212 n 50 Geoffrey of Monmouth, 51, 53, 204 n 7 Gerson, Jean, 129, 219 n 46 Gillies, John, 200 n 25 Glendower, Owen (i.e., Owain Glyn à r), 186 Dw Gloucester, Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of, 178 à r, Owain, see Glendower, Glyn Dw Owen Godfrey de Bouillon, 55, 205 n 19 Gohlke, Madelon S., 31 Goldberg, Jonathan, 101±2, 216 n 8 Golding, Arthur, 199 n 17 Gomez-GeÂraud, M.-C., 199 n 21 Gontaut, Armand de, mareÂchal de Biron, 114, 203 n 14, 216 n 6 Gontaut, Charles de, mareÂchal de Biron, 85 Gosson, Stephen (The Schoole of Abuse, etc.), 223 n 7 Goulart, Simon Memoires de l'Estat de France sovs Charles IX, 83, 213 n 52

MeÂmoires de la Ligue, 224 n 11

Le Second recveil, 208 n 15

Gournay, Marie le Jars de, 139, 219 n 39 Gower, John, 124 Grafton, Richard, 204 n 7 Greenblatt, Stephen, 199 n 20 Grimeston, Edward, 84, 219 n 39, 221 n 62 Guise, cardinal de, see Lorraine Guise, duc de, see Lorraine Guise, Marie de (Queen of Scotland), 215 n 76 Hall, Bishop Joseph, 201 n 34 Hall, Edward (Chronicle), 14±15, 35, 118, 138, 139, 146, 165, 194, 216±17 n 9, 218 n 29, 220 n 48, 224 n 13, 224 n 14, 225 n 19, 225 n 20, 225 n 26, 225 n 27

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Index 251

Hardyng, John (Chronicle), 204 n 7 Harvey, Gabriel, 5, 202 n 4 Helgerson, Richard, 52 Henri II (King of France), 145, 219 n 43 Henri III (King of France), 2, 7, 9, 10, 23, 24, 26, 40, 58±9, 71, 72±3, 74, 76±85 passim, 88, 92, 97, 98, 100±2, 105±10 passim, 112, 175, 176, 141, 142, 144, 145, 146, 148, 159±64, 169, 171±3, 178, 183, 185, 186, 189, 199 n 12, 199 n 17, 203 n 16, 206 n 2, 206 n 22, 208 n 12, 208 n 17, 209 n 18, 209 n 19, 209 n 21, 209 n 22, 209 n 23, 209±10 n 24, 210 n 28, 210 n 29, 210 n 30, 211 n 42, 211 n 43, 212 n 46, 213 n 51, 213 n 56, 213 n 57, 213 n 58, 213 n 59, 213 n 60, 213 n 61, 213 n 65, 214 n 67, 214 n 71, 214 n 72, 215 n 77, 215 n 80, 218 n 28, 221 n 65, 221 n 66, 224 n 9 The French Kinges declaration vpon the riot, felonie, and rebellion of the duke of Mayenne, & the duke and knight of Aumalle, etc., 224 n 9 Henri IV (King of France), 2, 12, 13, 17, 23, 34±5, 36, 71, 73±4, 76, 84, 89, 91, 99±100, 102, 104, 109, 114, 118, 125, 128, 131, 138, 140, 142, 148, 164, 185±6, 188±89, 191, 195, 199 n 17, 199 n 21, 201 n 29, 202 n 8, 203 n 14, 203 n 15, 207 n 5, 207 n 6, 207 n 7, 207 n 8, 208 n 15, 208 n 16, 209 n 22, 209 n 23, 211 n 43, 213 n 60, 215 n 80, 216 n 6, 217 n 18, 217 n 22, 218 n 25, 222 n 66, 224 n 10, 224 n 11, 224 n 12 A Letter sent by the French King vnto M. de la Verune, etc., 35 Lettre du Roy de Nauarre aux trois estats de ce royaume, etc., 128 The oration and declaration of the French King, etc., 34 Henri, duc d'Anjou, see Henri III (King of France)

Henry II (King of England), 51, 53, 55, 204 n 4 Henry III (King of England), 48, 59 Henry IV (King of England), 116, 124±5, 150, 162, 174, 217 n 9, 223 n 5, 223 n 6 Henry V (King of England), 13, 14, 22, 34, 36, 39, 69, 70, 114, 117±18, 124, 143, 150, 158±9, 191±7 passim, 206 n 26, 220 n 48, 225 n 17, 225 n 18, 225 n 19, 225 n 20, 225 n 21, 225 n 23, 225 n 26, 225 n 27, 226 n 28, 226 n 29 Henry VI (King of England), 103, 114, 122, 138, 139, 156, 218 n 35 Henry VII (King of England), 49, 157, 204 n 9 Henry VIII (King of England), 19, 21, 31, 36, 37, 41, 48±9, 51, 53, 139, 198 n 10, 202 n 2, 202±3 n 10, 204 n 9, 205 n 19 Henry, Prince of Wales (son of James I), 23, 198 n 10 Henslowe, Philip (Diary), 84, 198 n 1, 206±7 n 3 Herbert, Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, 4, 198 n 5 Heywood, John, 3 Heywood, Thomas (Edward IV ), 113, 217 n 21, 221 n 58 Hibbard, G. R., 30 Hieatt, A. Kent, 3 Higden, Ralph (Polychronicon), 204 n 6 Hilliard, Stephen S., 38 Histoire admirable a la posterite des faits et gestes de Henri de Valois, etc., 161, 162, 178, 213 n 57, 214 n 72, 221 n 65 L'Histoire Angloise contre la Roine d'Angleterre, 207 n 4 Histoire au vray du meurtre et assassinat, etc., 210 n 24 Histoire tragique et memorable de Pierre de Gaverston, etc., see under Boucher, Jean Hoenselaars, A. J., 11 Holderness, Graham, 115

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252 Index

Holinshed, Raphael (et al.) (Chronicles), 18, 34, 35, 36, 38, 41, 47±8, 49, 51, 54, 55, 56, 58, 64, 65, 67, 69, 70, 80, 103, 104, 116, 118±20, 122, 123±4, 130, 132, 136, 137, 138±9, 140, 144, 146, 153, 156±7, 158, 164, 165±6, 175, 185, 186, 190±7 passim, 200 n 26, 202 n 2, 202±3 n 10, 204 n 4, 204 n 11, 215 n 81, 216 n 4, 216 n 9, 217 n 10, 217 n 20, 217 n 21, 217±18 n 24, 218 n 29, 218 n 31, 218 n 35, 219 n 37, 220 n 48, 222 n 66, 222 n 2, 222 n 4, 223 n 5, 223 n 6, 224 n 9, 224 n 13, 224 n 14, 224 n 15, 225 n 16, 225 n 17, 225 n 18, 225 n 21, 225 n 23, 225 n 26, 225 n 27 Hollyband, Claudius, see Sainliens, Claude de Holy League, see League, Holy (Sainte Ligue) Hotman, FrancËois, 162 Francogallia, 102±3 A true and plaine report of the furious outrages of Fraunce, etc., 75, 83, 208 n 14, 210 n 33, 213 n 52 Huchon, Mireille, 208 n 17 Hughes, Thomas (et al.) (The Misfortunes of Arthur), 52, 204 n 8, 205 n 15 Huon of Bordeaux, 205 n 20 Hurault de L'Hospital, Michel, see Hurault, Michel Hurault, Michel, seigneur du Fay, 9, 126, 199 n 14, 199 n 15 Antisixtus, etc., 8±9, 199 n 14 An Excellent Discourse vpon the now present estate of France, 81, 82, 91, 217 n 22 Excellent et libre discours, sur l'estat present de la France, 71, 176, 199±200 n 21 see also The restorer of the French

estate, etc.

Hutson, Lorna, 203 n 13 Hutton, James, 124, 125±6, 128

Ilsley, Marjorie Henry, 219 n 39 Isabella Clara Eugenia (Infanta), 91, 199 n 21 Isabelle de France (Queen-Consort of Edward II), 109, 215 n 77, 215 n 81 Isabelle de France (Queen-Consort of Richard II, later wife of Charles, duc d'OrleÂans), 186 Ivry, battle of, 34, 35, 44, 77, 188, 208 n 15 Jackson, Gabriele Bernhard, 114, 144, 216 n 3, 216 n 5 James I (King of England), 2, 3, 12, 201 n 34, 225 n 7 James IV (King of Scotland), see James I (King of England) James, Mervyn, 200 n 27 ``Jean sans Terre,'' see John (``Jeans sans Terre'') (King of England) Jeanne d'Arc, 21, 114, 118, 123, 125, 132, 135, 138±40, 142±8 passim, 150, 168, 197, 203 n 16, 217 n 21, 218 n 27, 218 n 29, 218 n 31, 218 n 36, 219 n 39, 219±20 n 46, 220 n 49, 220 n 51, 220 n 55, 221 n 56 Jesus Christ, 54, 76, 79, 129, 217 n 23 Joan of Arc, see Jeanne d'Arc John (``Jean sans Terre'') (King of England), 48, 53, 55, 204 n 7, 210 n 26 John of Gaunt, see Lancaster, John of Gaunt, Duke of John, Duke of Burgundy, see Burgundy John, Don, of Austria, 217 n 18 Jones, Ann Rosalind, 32 Joseph of Exeter, 53 Jouet, Roger, 216 n 4 Jourdin, Michel Mollat du, see Mollat, Michel Julius II, Pope, 203 n 10 Juvenal (Decimus Junius Juvenalis), 101 Kastan, David Scott, 203 n 1 Kennedy, Angus J., 219±20 n 46

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Index 253

Kingdon, Robert M., 9, 83, 198 n 7, 199 n 17, 200 n 23, 202 n 42, 207 n 9, 208 n 17, 211 n 34, 214 n 66 Kinney, Arthur F., 32, 202 n 6 Kirk, Andrew M., 10±11, 12, 76±7, 116, 122, 207 n 8, 211 n 37, 216 n 3, 217 n 19, 221 n 58 Knox, John (The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women), 102, 215 n 76 Kocher, Paul, 75, 209 n 18 Kristeva, Julia, 25 Kuriyama, Constance Brown, 74 Kyd, Thomas, 210 n 27 La Mole (or La Molle), Joseph de Boniface de, 222 n 66 La Mothe-FeÂneÂlon, Bertrand de Salignac de, 198 n 6 La Place, Pierre de (The fyrst parte of commentaries, etc.), 207 n 9, 208 n 14 Lacan, Jacques, 4, 11±12, 14, 25, 30, 31, 32, 122, 154 Laffleur de Kermaingant, Pierre-Paul, 216 n 6 Lambert, Mark, 54 Lancaster, Henry Carrington, 219 n 40 Lancaster, House of, 174±5, 223 n 16 Lancaster, John of Gaunt, Duke of, 174±5 Languet, Hubert (Vindiciae contra tyrannos), 162, 213 n 63, 221 n 63 Latham, Agnes M. C., 31 Latrecey, Denys, 201 n 29 Lavardin, Jacques de, seigneur de Plessis-Bourrot (Histoire de George Castriote svrnomme Scanderbeg, Roy d'Albanie), 125 LaZamon (Brut), 54, 205 n 21 Lazard, Madeleine, 168, 214 n 74 Le CarreÂ, John (The Spy Who Came in from the Cold), 74 Le Coq, Anne-Marie, 202 n 5, 222 n 68 Le Despenser, see Despenser, le

Le Febvre, Jean, 192 L'Estoile, Pierre de, 26, 90, 98±9, 100, 159, 160±1, 164, 169, 206 n 1, 207 n 6, 209 n 22, 209 n 24, 210 n 26, 213 n 58, 214 n 67, 214 n 72 Les Belles figures et drolleries de la

Ligue, 27, 202 n 9, 211 n 43,

217 n 14

League, Holy (Sainte Ligue), 10, 17, 24, 59, 60±1, 71, 75, 77, 78, 81, 83, 84, 85, 87, 91, 97, 99±100, 102, 108, 159±63 passim, 173, 176, 178, 183, 191, 199 n 21, 201 n 37, 208 n 15, 209 n 20, 209 n 22, 210 n 26, 211 n 37, 211 n 38, 211 n 42, 211 n 43, 212 n 46, 212 n 49, 213 n 59, 213 n 61, 214 n 71, 214 n 72, 214 n 73, 215 n 80, 215 n 81, 216 n 82 Lee, Nathaniel The Duke of Guise, 200 n 22 The Massacre of Paris, 200 n 22 Lee, Sidney, 2±3 La Legende de Charles, Cardinal de Lorraine, et de ses freres, etc., see ReÂgnier de La Planche, Louis LeÂgende de Domp Clavde de Guise, Abbe de Cluny, 214 n 70 LeÂger, Claude, 32 Leggatt, Alexander, 202 n 1 Leiden, John, see Leyden, Jan van Lestringant, Frank, 101, 213 n 64, 213 n 65 Levin, Carole, 204 n 3 Levy, F. J., 217 n 11 Leyden, Jan van, 42 L'Hospital, Michel Hurault de, see Hurault, Michel Lippomano, Girolamo, 168 Lobbes, Louis, 85, 87, 97, 211 n 35, 211 n 42, 212 n 47, 219 n 43, 219 n 44 Lodge, Thomas, 199 n 18 The Wounds of Civil War, 10 loi salique, see Salic law Lorraine, Catherine Marie de, duchesse de Montpensier, 221 n 65

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254 Index

Lorraine, cardinal Charles de (also cardinal de Guise) (1525±74), 82, 199 n 12, 222 n 4 Lorraine, cardinal Louis de (also cardinal de Guise) (1555±88), 24, 76, 78, 85, 98, 100, 106±7, 128, 185, 209 n 24, 221 n 65, 224 n 9 Lorraine, Charles de, duc d'Aumale, 185±6, 224 n 9 Lorraine, Charles de, duc de Mayenne, 59, 84, 91, 185, 208 n 12, 224 n 9 Lorraine, FrancËois de, duc de Guise (1519±63), 22, 140, 142±3, 144, 145, 175, 199 n 16, 219 n 43, 222 n 4 Lorraine, Henry de, duc de Guise (1550±88), 7, 13, 24, 59, 76, 78, 82, 83, 84, 85, 87, 88, 89, 90, 94, 97, 98, 100, 102, 106±7, 128, 131, 140, 142, 144, 148, 162±3, 175, 176, 179, 183, 185, 186, 199 n 21, 200 n 22, 201 n 37, 208 n 12, 208 n 16, 208 n 17, 209 n 20, 209±10 n 24, 210 n 33, 211 n 34, 211 n 38, 212 n 46, 213 n 52 Lorraine, House of, 7, 9, 23, 59, 82, 83, 90±1, 102, 114, 139, 142, 145, 149, 173, 175, 177, 191, 199 n 21, 208 n 17, 210 n 33, 211 n 38, 212 n 46, 219 n 38, 222 n 4 Louis VIII (King of France), 49 Louis XI (King of France), 120 Louis XII (King of France), 36 Louis XIII (King of France), 140 Lucinge, ReneÂ, 161 Luther, Martin, 213 n 65 Machiavelli, NiccoloÁ, 15, 90, 92, 97, 117 Discourses, 217 n 12 MacLachlan, Hugh, 204 n 9 Magnien-Simonin, Catherine, 212 n 44 Malory, Thomas (Le Morte Darthur), 6, 54±5, 56, 65±7, 68, 69±70, 204 n 7, 205 n 13, 205 n 14, 205 n 15, 205 n 16, 205 n 17, 205 n 18, 206 n 25 Manheim, Michael, 198 n 11

Marcus, Leah S., 23, 132, 144, 165, 216 n 3, 218 n 27, 218 n 33, 220 n 48 Marguerite d'Anjou (Queen of England), 103, 122, 138, 146, 217 n 19, 218 n 27, 222 n 66 Marignano, battle of, 32, 36, 42 Marlowe, Christopher, 2, 4, 10, 27, 72, 74, 85, 210 n 27, 216 n 1 Doctor Faustus, 96 Edward II, 72±3, 76, 82, 97±111, 112, 117, 146, 171±2, 178, 179, 213 n 54, 214 n 68, 215 n 77, 215 n 78, 215 n 81, 216 n 1, 216 n 84, 216 n 85, 221 n 59, 221±2 n 66, 222 n 1, 222 n 3 The Jew of Malta, 82, 90, 94, 95, 121 The Massacre at Paris, 3, 15, 59, 71, 73±96, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 105, 109, 112, 115, 117, 163, 171, 176±7, 206 n 22, 206±7 n 3, 207 n 4, 207 n 8, 207 n 10, 208 n 11, 208 n 12, 208 n 16, 209 n 18, 209 n 20, 209 n 21, 209 n 23, 209 n 24, 210 n 25, 210 n 26, 210 n 27, 210 n 29, 210 n 30, 210 n 32, 211 n 36, 211 n 39, 212 n 46, 213 n 51, 213 n 52, 215 n 80, 221±2 n 66 Tamburlaine, 76, 82, 95, 96, 116, 125, 207 n 4, 226 n 28 Mar-Sixtus, Martine, see Wilson, R. (``Martine Mar-Sixtus'') Martin Le Franc (Le Champion des dames), 219 n 39, 220 n 46 Martin, Randall, 3, 10, 89±90, 208 n 13, 212 n 46 Martine Mar-Sixtus (pseud.), see Wilson, R. Le Martyre de FreÁre Jacques Clement, etc., see Pinselet, Charles Le Martyre des devx freres, etc., 85, 98, 178, 210 n 24, 212 n 46, 224 n 9 Mary I (Queen of England), 18, 21, 215 n 76 Mary, Queen of Scots, 7, 52, 163, 199 n 12, 215 n 76 Matthieu, Pierre, 84±5, 91, 188, 209 n 21, 211 n 37

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Index 255

Matthieu (Cont.) Esther, 85 La Guisiade, 10, 24, 84±97, 100, 101, 105±9, 111, 115, 134, 140, 142±4, 146, 160, 161, 162, 172, 175, 176, 177±88, 202 n 9, 206 n 24, 209 n 24, 211 n 35, 211 n 36, 211 n 42, 211 n 43, 212 n 49, 219 n 43, 223 n 7 Pompe funebre des penitens de Lyon, 212 n 47 Maugiron, Louis de, 208 n 12 Maximilian I (Holy Roman Emperor), 36, 37 Maxwell, Ian, 3 Mayenne, duc de, see Lorraine, Charles de, duc de Mayenne Medea, 133 Medici, Catherine de (Queen, then regent, of France), 4, 15, 26, 77, 78, 82, 83, 85, 90, 97, 100±1, 102, 103, 133, 159, 163, 199 n 12, 208±9 n 17, 209 n 18, 209 n 19, 209 n 20, 210 n 29, 212 n 46, 213 n 52, 213 n 66, 214 n 15, 214 n 71, 215 n 76 MeÂdici, Marie de (Queen, then regent, of France), 211 n 43 MeÂnager, Daniel, 161, 221 n 62 Merlin (Vulgate), 205 n 17 Merriman, James Douglas, 52, 54, 204 n 6, 204 n 10, 205 n 16 A mervaylous discourse vpon the lyfe, deedes, and behaviours of Katherine de Medicis, Queene mother, etc., see under Estienne, Henri Les mevrs, hvmevrs et comportemens de Henry de Valois, etc., 92, 161, 211 n 43, 212 n 46, 213 n 57, 214 n 71, 214 n 72, 214 n 73, 215 n 81, 221 n 65 Michelet, Jules, 218 n 36 Millican, Charles Bowie, 51, 55, 204 n 8, 204 n 9, 204 n 10, 205 n 21 Milton, John, 52 The Mirror for Magistrates, 52 Mollat, Michel, 174, 192, 217 n 16 Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de, 188

Essais, 3, 4, 198 n 2, 219 n 44, 220 n 51 Montcontour, battle of, 76, 188 Montpensier, Catherine Marie, duchesse de, see Lorraine, Catherine Marie de, duchesse de Montpensier Montrose, Louis, 14 More, Thomas (History of Richard III), 164 Mornay, Philippe de, seigneur du Plessis-Marly, 4

The Defence of Death, 198 n 4

A Discourse of Life and Death, 4,

198 n 4 Discours svr le droit pretendv par cevx de Gvise sur la Couronne de France, 91, 210 n 33, 212 n 48 Double d'une lettre envoieÂe aÁ vn certain personage contenante le discours de ce qui se passa au Cabinet du Roy de Nauarre, etc., 74 Excellent discours de la vie et de la mort, 4, 198 n 4 A letter written by a French Catholike gentleman, etc., 188, 208 n 15 A necessary discourse concerning the right which the house of Guyze pretendeth to the crowne of France, 212 n 48 Vindiciae contra tyrannos, see under Languet, Hubert Morris, Rosemary, 205 n 17, 205 n 19 Morte Arthure, 54 Moryson, Fynes (Itinerary), 28 Mountjoy, Lord, see Blount, Charles, Lord Mountjoy Munday, Anthony, 5 A breefe aunswer made vnto two seditious pamphlets, etc., 207 n 4 Muntzer, Thomas, 203 n 17 Murad III (Ottoman Sultan), 24 The mutable and wauering estate of France, etc., 12, 82, 83, 209 n 23, 210 n 26 Nantes, Edict of, 13, 125, 190 Nashe, Thomas, 5, 27 Anatomy of Absurdity, 32

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256 Index

Christ's Tears over Jerusalem, 203 n 14 Pierce Penilesse, 17, 32, 51, 193, 201 n 30, 202 n 7, 220 n 50 Strange Newes, of the intercepting

certaine Letters, etc., 202 n 4

The Unfortunate Traveller, 15, 30±46, 200 n 1, 200 n 2, 202 n 2, 203 n 13, 203 n 14, 203 n 16, 203 n 17 Navarre, Henri, King of, see Henri IV (King of France) NereÂe, Richard Jean de (Le Triomphe de la Ligue), 209 n 20, 212 n 49 Nevers, Louis de Gonzague, duc de (MeÂmoires), 222 n 69 Nicholl, Charles, 5, 74, 203 n 14, 207 n 8 Nicklin, J. A., 72 Nicollier-De Weck, BeÂatrice, 213 n 63 Oliver, H. J., 207 n 4, 221 n 66 OrleÂans, Charles, duc d', see Charles, duc d'OrleÂans Orosius, 20 Osborn, Albert W., 198 n 4 Oxford, Edward De Vere, Earl of, 4 Page, John (The Siege of Rouen), 225±6 n 27 Pallier, Denis, 10, 91, 206 n 2 Parma, Duke of, see Farnese, Alessandro, Duke of Parma Parmelee, Lisa Ferraro, 9, 10, 13, 122, 199 n 14 Parr, Catherine (Queen of England), 53 Pasquier, Estienne, 139 Lettres familieÁres, 219 n 39, 220 n 46 Lettres historiques, 160 Les Recherches de la France, 219 n 39 Patterson, Annabel, 200 n 26 Peele, George (Edward I ), 103 Pembroke, Countess of, see Herbert, Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke Peter of Blois, 53±4, 204±5 n 12 Philip (``the Good''), Duke of Burgundy, see Burgundy Philip II (King of Spain), 21, 199±200 n 21, 215 n 76

Philippe II (``Auguste'') (King of France), 55 Philippe III (King of France), 8, 145, 215 n 77 Philippson, Joannes, see Sleidanus, Johannes Pinselet, Charles (Le Martyre de FreÁre Jacques Clement, etc.), 58, 161, 211 n 43 Plantagenet, Arthur, Duke of Brittany, see Arthur Plantagenet, Duke of Brittany Plantagenet, Richard, Third Duke of York, see York Plessis-Marly, Philippe de Mornay, seigneur du, see Mornay, Philippe de, seigneur du Plessis-Marly Poirier, Guy, 98, 213 n 58, 213 n 66, 214 n 72 Postel, Guillaume, 19, 139, 219 n 39 Prescott, Anne Lake, 3 Preston, Thomas (Cambises, King of Persia), 100 Prudentius, 220 n 51 QueÂlus, see Caylus Rackin, Phyllis, 216 n 3 Ralegh, Walter, 52 Ramus, Pierre, 75, 207 n 9 Advertissement sur la reÂformation de l'UniversiteÂ, 207 ReÂgnier de la Planche, Louis (pseud. FrancËois de l'Isle) (La Legende de Charles, Cardinal de Lorraine, et de ses freres, de la maison de Guise, etc.), 82, 210 n 31, 224 n 9 Relation de la bataille de Coutras octobre 1587, 208 n 15, 224 n 11 Relation de la mort de Messieurs le duc et Cardinal de Guise, etc., 224 n 9 La Rencontre de M. d'Espernon et de FrancËois Rauaillac, 213 n 60 Rene d'Anjou (King of Naples, Duke of Anjou, Bar, and Lorraine), 145±6, 218 n 27, 220 n 47, 220 n 48 Replique aÁ l'antigaverston, etc., 213 n 55, 214 n 73

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Index 257

Responce aÁ l'Antigaverston de Nogaret, etc., 102, 214 n 72 The restorer of the French estate, etc., 9, 126±7, 199 Le Reveille-matin des FrancËois et de levrs voisins, etc., see Barnaud, Nicolas Richard I (``Coeur-de-Lion'') (King of England), 6, 23, 49±50, 51, 65, 117, 205±6 n 21, 216 n 4 Richard II (King of England), 103, 150, 172, 174±5, 216±17 n 9, 222 n 2, 222 n 4, 223 n 5, 223 n 6 Richard III (King of England), 217 n 10 Ricoeur, Paul, 24±6, 33, 73, 153 Robertson, John M., 198 n 2 Robinson, Marsha, 203 n 1 La Rocheloise ( by ``P. M.''), 140, 219 n 40 Ronsard, Pierre de, 4, 99, 162 La Charite, 212 n 44 La Franciade, 13, 117, 161±2 ``GayeteÂ,'' 216 n 83 Remonstrance au peuple de France, 213 n 65, 221 n 62 Roper, Alan, 200 n 22 Rossiter, A. P., 222 n 3, 222 n 4 Rouillard, Clarence Dana, 24, 125, 201 n 37 Rowley, Samuel (When You See Me, You Know Me), 53, 54, 66, 70, 101, 214 n 69 Rowse, A. L., 204 n 8 The true Tragedie of Richard Duke of Yorke, 113, 216 n 2 Sainliens, Claude de (``Claudius Hollyband''), 5, 198 n 8 Saint-MeÂgrin, Paul de Caussade de, 208 n 12 Sainte Ligue, see League, Holy Sales, FrancËois de, see FrancËois de Sales, Saint Salic law, 13, 17, 60, 89, 91, 103, 104, 129, 149±50, 152, 188, 190, 191, 199±200 n 21, 214 n 66, 215 n 76, 225 n 17 Salmon, J. H. M., 213 n 61 Satyre MeÂnipeÂe, 199 n 21 Saul, Nigel, 6

Scanderbeg, see Castriota, George Schrenck, Gilbert, 26, 159, 160, 164 Serres, Jean de, 139±40 A discourse of the ciuile warres and late troubles in Fraunce, etc., 76, 121, 126, 188±9, 208 n 14 Fourth parte of Co[m]mentaries, 121 Inventaire geÂneÂral de l'histoire de France, 84, 219 n 39, 221 n 62 The three partes of Commentaries, 75 Sevin, Charles (La Merveilleuse complainte de la Paix), 126 Seward, Desmond, 174, 191, 203 n 12, 206 n 26, 225 n 18, 225 n 21 Shakespeare, William, 2±6 passim, 27, 73, 173, 198 n 2, 216 n 1, 216 n 2, 218 n 31 As You Like It, 31

Cymbeline, 199 n 17

First Tetralogy, 17, 66, 103, 104,

112±70, 175, 186, 193 Hamlet, 31, 79±80, 159±60, 202 n 3, 210 n 27 Henry IV, Part One, 33±5, 39, 40, 42, 47, 67, 96, 113, 115, 125, 185, 186, 188±90, 203 n 15, 210 n 24, 213 n 53 Henry IV, Part Two, 33, 35, 39, 40, 47, 54, 67±70 passim, 113, 132, 185, 186±90 Henry V, 6, 8, 9, 15, 16±18, 20, 22, 26, 28, 33±47 passim, 62, 67±70 passim, 77, 100, 101, 104, 113±16 passim, 119, 121, 125±130 passim, 132, 133, 136, 137, 141, 144, 149±155 passim, 157, 162, 166, 167, 171, 175, 177, 185±6, 188±97 passim, 203 n 12, 212 n 44, 216 n 7, 216 n 8, 217 n 22, 220 n 52, 221 n 57, 221 n 61, 225 n 16, 225 n 17, 225 n 18, 225 n 21, 225 n 22, 225 n 25, 226 n 28, 226 n 29 Henry VI, Part One, 6, 9, 21, 33, 112±40 passim, 144, 145±6, 148, 152±4 passim, 157, 160, 165±7, 170, 171, 193, 197, 201 n 30, 216 n 3, 216 n 5, 217 n 13,

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258 Index

217 n 15, 217 n 19, 217 n 21, 218 n 27, 218 n 29, 218 n 31, 218 n 33, 218 n 34, 220 n 48, 220 n 50 Henry VI, Part Two, 33, 60, 112, 113, 124, 136, 153±63 passim, 170, 171, 215 n 78, 216 n 2, 221 n 59, 221±2 n 66, 223 n 7 Henry VI, Part Three, 33, 45, 48, 80, 96, 112, 113, 121, 122±3, 124, 133, 136, 153±61 passim, 163, 166, 168, 171, 216 n 2, 218 n 32 Henry VIII, 31, 38, 201 n 28, 202 n 2 Julius Caesar, 115 King John, 6, 16, 17, 27, 42, 47±71, 203 n 1, 203±4 n 2, 204 n 3, 204 n 5, 210 n 26 King Lear, 49, 157, 164, 176, 217 n 21, 220 n 53, 224 n 10 Love's Labour's Lost, 5, 69, 141, 198 n 6, 203 n 14 Macbeth, 4, 221 n 64 The Merchant of Venice, 200 n 25 A Midsummer Night's Dream, 167±8 Richard II, 20, 27, 44, 47, 77, 80, 96, 110, 112, 113, 146, 155, 157, 159±60, 167, 171±2, 176±87, 222 n 3, 223 n 6, 224 n 9 Richard III, 93, 95, 96, 104, 113, 122, 131, 132, 154, 155, 157, 164±70, 171, 218 n 32 Romeo and Juliet, 131 Second Tetralogy, 17, 66, 67, 68±9, 112, 113, 116, 117, 123, 133, 167, 171, 193 Sonnets, 3 The Tempest, 181, 186, 223 n 8 Timon of Athens, 221 n 64 Troilus and Cressida, 166, 195 Shrewsbury, earls of, see Talbot Sidney, Henry, 208 n 14 Sidney, Philip, 3, 51±2, 118, 198 n 4, 204 n 10, 208 n 14 Arcadia, 201 n 34 Simier, Jean, 168 Simonin, Michel, 161, 221 n 62 Sixtus V, Pope, 8±9, 73 Sleidanus, Johannes (Chronicle), 44, 203 n 17

Smith, Bruce R., 101, 102 Smith, Robert Metcalf, 8, 198 n 10 Soons, Jan Joseph, 84, 219 n 46, 220 n 49, 220 n 51 Les Sorcelleries de Henry de Valois, etc., 211 n 43 Spenser, Edmund, 3, 117 The Faerie Queene, 51±2, 54, 204 n 10, 205 n 16, 215 n 79 Mother Hubberd's Tale, 215 n 79 The Shepheardes Calender, 220 n 50 Spisak, James W., 204 n 7, 205 n 13, 205 n 14 Stendhal (Le Rouge et le noir), 222 n 66 Stephen of Boulogne (King of England), 204 n 4 Stow, John (Chronicle), 216 n 85 Stuart, Mary, see Mary, Queen of Scots Stubbs, John (The Gaping Gulf ), 23, 60, 70, 103, 114, 117, 122, 133, 165, 168, 169±70, 201 n 35, 214 n 66, 217 n 17, 218 n 28 Suhamy, Henry, 27 Sutherland, Nicola Mary, 8, 80, 83, 159, 199 n 12 Sylvester, Josuah, 3, 21±2, 85 Talbot, George, Fourth Earl of Shrewsbury, 36 Talbot, Gilbert, Seventh Earl of Shrewsbury, 217 n 13 Talbot, John, First Earl of Shrewsbury, 21, 117, 119, 132, 135, 146±7, 201 n 30, 217 n 13, 220 n 50 Talbot, John (First Viscount Lisle, son of John Talbot, First Earl of Shrewsbury), 132 Talbot, William (guard of Jeanne d'Arc at Rouen), 220 n 49 Tamburlaine (i.e., Timur or Tamerlane), 125 Tatlock, J. S. P., 205±6 n 21 Thickett, D., 219 n 39 Thomas of Woodstock, see Gloucester, Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Thomas of Woodstock (anonymous play), see Woodstock

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Index 259

Thomas, Vivien, 72±3, 75, 76, 121, 208 n 12, 209 n 18, 210 n 32, 211 n 39, 212 n 46 Timur, see Tamburlaine Tobin, J. J. M., 38 Le Tocsin contre les massacrevrs et avteurs des confusions en France, 87, 168, 209 n 21, 211 n 41, 212 n 46 Tourval, Jean Loiseau de (The French Herald, etc.), 23, 201 n 34 Tribble, Evelyn B., 220 n 50 The Troublesome Raigne of King John, 16, 48±64 passim, 203±4 n 2, 210 n 26 Troyes, Treaty of, 123, 193, 194, 216 n 4, 217±18 n 24, 225 n 16, 225 n 17, 225 n 23 A true declaration of the honorable victorie obtained by the French King, etc., 34 A true discourse of the most happy victories obtayned by the French King, etc., 34 The true discourse of the wonderfull victorie, obteined by Henrie the fourth . . . neere the towne of Yurie, 34, 44, 202 n 9 A Trve Discovrse of the Discomfitvre of the Dvke of Avmalle, 224 n 9 The true Tragedie of Richard Duke of Yorke, 113 Tydeman, William, 72±3, 75, 76, 121, 208 n 12, 209 n 18, 210 n 32, 211 n 39, 212 n 46 ``Ur-Hamlet,'' 210 n 27 Valois, Henri de, see Henri III (King of France) Valois, House of, 4, 8, 23, 144±5, 201 n 35, 211 n 34, 215 n 77 Valois, Louis de (Dauphin), 225 Valois, Marguerite de (Queen of Navarre, later Queen of France), 89, 98, 200 n 21, 212 n 44, 215 n 77, 222 n 66

Van-Ten Bensel, Elise Francisca Wilhelmina Maria van der, 204 n 10 Varty, Kenneth, 219±20 n 46 VaudeÂment, Louise de (Queen of France), 88, 109, 141 Vautrollier, Thomas, 199 n 17 Vervins, Treaty of, 13, 125, 190 La vie, moeurs et deportemens de Henry bearnois, etc., 215 n 80 Villey, Pierre, 3 Vinaver, EugeÁne, 66, 69, 205 n 13, 205 n 14, 205 n 17 Vitkus, Daniel J., 11 Vrevin, FrancËois Dissertation contre le tyrannicide, 202 n 8 Oraison FvneÁbre, etc., 34, 202 n 8 Wace (Roman de Brut), 53, 205 n 21 Walsingham, Francis, 83 Walsingham, Thomas (Historia Brevis), 72, 107, 215 n 81 Webster, John, 198 n 1 Weil, Judith, 74, 76, 207 n 8 White, Edward, 207 n 4 White, Hayden, 24, 201 n 38 William I (``The Conqueror'') (King of England), 204 n 4 Wilson, R. (``Martine Mar-Sixtus'') (A second replie against the defensory and apology of Sixtus the fift, etc.), 199 n 14, 206 n 22 Witherspoon, A. M., 3, 198 n 5 Wolfe, John, 5, 8, 74, 83, 91, 198 n 7 Wolfe, Michael, 207 n 7 Wolsey, Cardinal Thomas, 38, 43, 53, 204 n 11 Woodstock (anonymous play), 172±6, 178, 179, 214 n 68, 222 n 3, 222 n 4 Yates, Frances, 4, 5, 198 n 6 York, Richard Plantagenet, Third Duke of, 116, 156, 216±17 n 9 Yver, Jacques (Le Printemps d'Yver, etc.), 126, 155

10.1057/9780230285859 - Shakespeare, Marlow and the Politics of France, Richard Hillman

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260 Index