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Act V Scene 5
After sunset: Lewis begins in optimistic mood, speaking of the English army’s “faint retire” (i.e. cowardly/exhausted) – the French flags are “tott’ring” because of the heavy fighting – French last to leave the field (usually a sign of victory), though the battle not yet fully won – “almost lords of it!” (8).
Messenger.
Melun dead – by his suggestion English lords defected (fall’n off”) – French reinforcements lost on Goodwin Sands;
Lewis downcast by such bitter (“shrewd”) news – queries who reported to him that John “did fly” before nightfall – confirmed;
Lewis retires urging soldiers to keep good watch (“quarter”) – determines to rise early to try his chances of success the next day.
Act V Scene 6
Middle of night: Hub had accompanied king to Swinstead – now returned and challenges Bast “or I shoot” – Bast recognises his voice – Hub reacts to Bast’s remark that he comes “one way” (or another) from the Plantagenets– Hub blames first his memory and secondly the moonless night that he has not recognised Bast and thus “done me shame” (13) – begs pardon;
Bast asks without formalities (“sans compliment”) for news “abroad” – news is dire: “Black, fearful, comfortless and horrible” (20) – Bast demands to be told the worst – he will not swoon at it;
King “poisoned by a monk” – Hub had rushed away to acquaint Bast so that he can prepare himself in the emergency lest his enemies take advantage of the news;
Bast enquires about the king’s food taster – Hub: “a resolvèd villain” (“resolvèd” because monk’s resolution extends to suicide, tasting food knowing it to be poisoned) – “bowels suddenly burst out” not in Holinshed or TR – but Foxe’s Book of Martyrs: “the monk … died, his guts gushing out of his belly”;
Hub reports barons “all come back”, bringing Prince Henry (“brought” suggests Henry as hostage….? (John’s son – afterwards Henry III) – king has pardoned lords at Henry’s request;
Bast pleads with “mighty heaven” to “withhold” its indignation and not “tempt (test) us” beyond our powers – BUT is “us” England or the Bast himself – has he been tempted to seize power to himself….?Bast reveals that that night half of his men have been lost in the estuary (Wash – Holinshed has estuary of the River Nene, north of Wisbech) – he, himself, barely escaped with his life – because he was “well mounted” – demands to be taken to the king, though fearing that he will be dead before he can reach him.
Act V Scene 7
Early morning: Prince Henry (just under 10 when he acceded to the throne) reconciled to his father’s death – his vital spirits (“life of all his blood”) infected and his clear (“pure”) brain – dwelling house of the soul(?) – Addled, his speech incoherent (“idle comments”) – signal that life is ending;
Pemb – John asks to be brought into the “open air” – his previous raving (“rage”) has somewhat abated – he has even sung (always a bad sign in Shakespeare…!);
Henry observes that extremes of pain or sickness prevent the sufferer from sensing them – when death has done its worst against the body and found it incapable(“insensible” in New Cambridge – BUT F1 has “invisible” OR misreading for “invincible”….?) of further suffering it then attacks the mind which it assaults with “strange fantasies” (18) and when these crowd in such numbers in this last stronghold (“hold”) of the mind they impede and eventually destroy (Confound”) each other, leaving a vacuum which allows the dying man to sing like the swan at its death;
Salis reassures Henry – John’s “cygnet” – that he has been born – i.e. destined – to restore order to the chaos to which his father has brought the kingdom.
John brought in [on litter…?]
John has asked to be taken out of doors to ease the passing of his soul from the body – [folk legend that as death approaches all doors & windows should be opened to facilitate that soul’s passing] – the poison burns up his “bowels” – his body is like a “scribbled” shape on parchment that shrivels up before a fire (reminiscent of the wax image earlier) – like his own “scribbled form” he leaves a shapeless, formless kingdom;
John rebukes the barons that they will not alleviate the inner burning with means to cool him “winter … icy fingers … kingdom’s rivers … north (wind) … cold comfort”;
Even Henry’s wish that there were some healing power (“virtue”) in his tears rejected by John since the tears of grief are said to burn [and tears of the damned are said to be scalding] –like a tormenting fiend in Hell the poison to “tyrannise” over him without any prospect of reprieve [John anticipates his own damnation….?].
Bastard enters.
Bast comes in haste, hot (“scalded” – another ‘heat’ image) from his conversation with Hubert and from his eagerness (“spleen”) to see the king;
John – Bast has come just in time to close (“set”) his eyes – his heart-strings like a storm-wracked ship,his life hanging by a thread that will break as soon as Bast delivers his news and then he will be just a lifeless “clod”, a mere counterfeit (“module”)[1] of ruined majesty;
Bast reveals bad news of Dauphin’s approach – only God knows how he will be opposed – and loss of troops in the Washes – drowned by an unexpected (freak….?) high tide.
King dies.
Salis– Bast’s news of death delivered to “as dead an ear” – reflects on the immense transformation that a few seconds have made: “But now a king, now thus” (65) – i.e. the “clod” that John had referred to (57);
Henry reflects that this must be his own inevitable life’s course – this is the only certainty (“surety”) in this world;
Bast undertakes to avenge John’s death by pursuing the French forces to a successful conclusion and then his own soul will attend on John in heaven (will John go to heaven…?) as it had on earth; he turns to the barons – the “stars” who have returned to their old loyalties (“right spheres” - 74) – they can show their “mended faiths” by joining their own troops with the remnants of the English army to expel the French army whose presence on English soil is shameful (77) – urges that speed is the essence as Lewis “rages at our very heels” (80);
Bast has not been aware that peace terms were being negotiated through the night (hence the Cardinal is now “within at rest” - 82) concluding with honourable offers of peace [N.B. Bast’s ignorance of these events marks the start of his retreat from a central role as the ‘old/legitimate order’ begins to be restored]
Bast sceptical//cautious – nevertheless urges them to let the Dauphin see that they strongly prepared to defend themselves;
Salis reassures him that the French troops already being withdrawn, the Cardinal being entrusted by Lewis with responsibility to make his case; the barons will complete the formalities that afternoon “if you think meet” (94) – i.e. acknowledging respectfully Bast’s virtual control of national affairs – and he has not yet declared his allegiance to the new king;
Bast agrees – still authoritatively urges Henry- attended by as many lords “that may best be spared” – to escort (“wait upon” implies some ceremony//procession) his father’s body to Worcester where John had instructed that his body should be interred [Worcester only 25 miles from Stratford and where Shakespeare obtained his marriage licence in November, 1581];
Bast kneels to the new King Henry, pledging his loyalty and “faithful services // And true subjection everlasting” (103-104);
Following Bast’s example the lords also kneel, pledging to remain (“rest”) “without spot for evermore”;
Henry responds with tears, reflecting his own “kind” (i.e. natural/unaffected/loving) nature;
Bast concludes with authority – a patriotic affirmation, leaving behind the past and looking to the future: they should mourn the present no more than necessary since time has made them pay in advance (“beforehand”) with an abundance of tears – i.e. after the formalities of the funeral let us look to the future – and to the world of reality: surely addressing he audience in the final lines he gives a confident assertion of the strength of the nation: England is unconquerable unless it “wound(s) itself” (114) by rebellion – now that the rebels “are come home again” England can take on the rest of the world and repel them [England is the fourth corner of the world] – nothing shall grieve us if England is united.
Exeunt.