Edward III Act 2 – “I might perceive his eye in her eye lost..."

Edward III Act 2 – “I might perceive his eye in her eye lost,
His ear to drink her sweet tongue's utterance… so much moving hath a Poet's pen…”

Perhaps Shakespeare had Southampton looking over his shoulder when he wrote ‘Venus and Adonis’ and Act 2 Scene1 of ‘Edward III’ is a rendition of real events showing that the aristocracy think that the only ingredients needed to write love poetry are a quill pen, ink, some paper and a heavy heart. Like the good diplomat he is, Lodowick (Edward III’s secretary) thinks that love has taken Edward’s eye off the real game, the campaign against the Scots. Edward decides that Lodowick has skills. No, not the skills for the campaign, but the poetic skills to help him do something much more important, to write a love poem.

“This fellow is well read in poetry,


And hath a lusty and persuasive spirit;


I will acquaint him with my passion…”

But, ultimately, Edward thinks that Lodowick “… has done ill…” and takes over the writing of the poem himself. Then, when his love the Countess enters, Edward III pretends that he has been planning drone strikes and secret raids and Desert Storm-style attacks instead of admitting his more destructive pursuits of attacking, destroying and flattening rhythm, rhyme and metaphors. He then reveals to the Countess that he loves her. She seems to accept his advances until she remembers that she is married and that she should find her “… sovereign in my (her) husband’s love”. She also remembers that Edward is also married and then she promptly exits stage right.

Edward then asks Warwick (the Countess’ father) to do the “… devil's office… “ for him so that the Countess will become his mistress. Warwick reluctantly agrees to this “detestable office” but when Warwick tells this to his daughter, she is taken back that the king means to “stain my (her) honest blood… corrupt the author of my (her) blood…” The Countess is so upset with this “shame” that she proclaims, “… let me die… before I will consent to be an actor in his graceless lust.”

Meanwhile, at least some people are discussing the war. Derby and Lord Audley are discussing strategy and allegiances when the melancholic Edward III arrives. Soon after, Prince Edward arrives and talks of the forces he has assembled to support the king in attacking the French. His son’s resemblance to his mother, makes King Edward, logically, think on war but then the Countess enters again and accepts his love but suggests:

“… Your Queen and Salisbury, my wedded husband,


Who living have that title in our love,


That we cannot bestow but by their death.”

Edward III, not one for subtlety or forethought, resolutely proclaims:

“… thy husband and the Queen shall die.”

The Countess, being a prototype for Lady Macbeth and being from the North of England, believes in separation of duties and unionism and she (a little too eagerly) produces two Wilshire sharp knives and suggests:

“Take thou the one, and with it kill thy Queen…

And with this other I'll dispatch my love…”

She then bizarrely threatens to take her own life if Edward does not desist in making advances towards her.

“
Either swear to leave thy most unholy suit


And never hence forth to solicit me;


Or else, by heaven, this sharp pointed knife


Shall stain thy earth with that which thou would stain,


My poor chaste blood…”

Edward agrees and turns his mind towards his other promiscuous lustful love - unsolicited war on two fronts.