The Life And Death Of King John

1 Enter, on one side, the Archduke of Austria and Forces; on the other,
2 Philip King of France, Louis, Constance, Arthur and Forces.
3 LOUIS.
4 Before Angiers well met, brave Austria.
5 Arthur, that great forerunner of thy blood,
6 Richard, that robb’d the lion of his heart
7 And fought the holy wars in Palestine,
8 By this brave duke came early to his grave.
9 And, for amends to his posterity,
10 At our importance hither is he come
11 To spread his colours, boy, in thy behalf,
12 And to rebuke the usurpation
13 Of thy unnatural uncle, English John.
14 Embrace him, love him, give him welcome hither.
15 ARTHUR.
16 God shall forgive you Cœur-de-lion’s death
17 The rather that you give his offspring life,
18 Shadowing their right under your wings of war.
19 I give you welcome with a powerless hand,
20 But with a heart full of unstained love.
21 Welcome before the gates of Angiers, duke.
22 LOUIS.
23 A noble boy. Who would not do thee right?
24 AUSTRIA.
25 Upon thy cheek lay I this zealous kiss,
26 As seal to this indenture of my love:
27 That to my home I will no more return,
28 Till Angiers and the right thou hast in France,
29 Together with that pale, that white-fac’d shore,
30 Whose foot spurns back the ocean’s roaring tides
31 And coops from other lands her islanders,
32 Even till that England, hedg’d in with the main,
33 That water-walled bulwark, still secure
34 And confident from foreign purposes,
35 Even till that utmost corner of the west
36 Salute thee for her king; till then, fair boy,
37 Will I not think of home, but follow arms.
38 CONSTANCE.
39 O, take his mother’s thanks, a widow’s thanks,
40 Till your strong hand shall help to give him strength
41 To make a more requital to your love!
42 AUSTRIA.
43 The peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swords
44 In such a just and charitable war.
45 KING PHILIP.
46 Well then, to work; our cannon shall be bent
47 Against the brows of this resisting town.
48 Call for our chiefest men of discipline,
49 To cull the plots of best advantages.
50 We’ll lay before this town our royal bones,
51 Wade to the market-place in Frenchmen’s blood,
52 But we will make it subject to this boy.
53 CONSTANCE.
54 Stay for an answer to your embassy,
55 Lest unadvis’d you stain your swords with blood.
56 My Lord Chatillion may from England bring
57 That right in peace which here we urge in war,
58 And then we shall repent each drop of blood
59 That hot rash haste so indirectly shed.
60 Enter Chatillion.
61 KING PHILIP.
62 A wonder, lady! Lo, upon thy wish,
63 Our messenger Chatillion is arriv’d.
64 What England says, say briefly, gentle lord;
65 We coldly pause for thee; Chatillion, speak.
66 CHATILLION.
67 Then turn your forces from this paltry siege
68 And stir them up against a mightier task.
69 England, impatient of your just demands,
70 Hath put himself in arms. The adverse winds,
71 Whose leisure I have stay’d, have given him time
72 To land his legions all as soon as I;
73 His marches are expedient to this town,
74 His forces strong, his soldiers confident.
75 With him along is come the mother-queen,
76 An Ate, stirring him to blood and strife;
77 With her her niece, the Lady Blanche of Spain;
78 With them a bastard of the King’s deceas’d.
79 And all th’ unsettled humours of the land;
80 Rash, inconsiderate, fiery voluntaries,
81 With ladies’ faces and fierce dragons’ spleens,
82 Have sold their fortunes at their native homes,
83 Bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs,
84 To make a hazard of new fortunes here.
85 In brief, a braver choice of dauntless spirits
86 Than now the English bottoms have waft o’er
87 Did never float upon the swelling tide
88 To do offence and scathe in Christendom.
89 [_Drums beat within._]
90 The interruption of their churlish drums
91 Cuts off more circumstance. They are at hand,
92 To parley or to fight, therefore prepare.
93 KING PHILIP.
94 How much unlook’d-for is this expedition!
95 AUSTRIA.
96 By how much unexpected, by so much
97 We must awake endeavour for defence,
98 For courage mounteth with occasion.
99 Let them be welcome, then; we are prepar’d.
100 Enter King John, Eleanor, Blanche, the Bastard, Pembroke, Lords and
101 Forces.
102 KING JOHN.
103 Peace be to France, if France in peace permit
104 Our just and lineal entrance to our own;
105 If not, bleed France, and peace ascend to heaven,
106 Whiles we, God’s wrathful agent, do correct
107 Their proud contempt that beats his peace to heaven.
108 KING PHILIP.
109 Peace be to England, if that war return
110 From France to England, there to live in peace.
111 England we love; and for that England’s sake
112 With burden of our armour here we sweat.
113 This toil of ours should be a work of thine;
114 But thou from loving England art so far
115 That thou hast underwrought his lawful king,
116 Cut off the sequence of posterity,
117 Outfaced infant state, and done a rape
118 Upon the maiden virtue of the crown.
119 Look here upon thy brother Geoffrey’s face;
120 These eyes, these brows, were moulded out of his:
121 This little abstract doth contain that large
122 Which died in Geoffrey, and the hand of time
123 Shall draw this brief into as huge a volume.
124 That Geoffrey was thy elder brother born,
125 And this his son; England was Geoffrey’s right,
126 And this is Geoffrey’s. In the name of God,
127 How comes it then that thou art call’d a king,
128 When living blood doth in these temples beat,
129 Which owe the crown that thou o’ermasterest?
130 KING JOHN.
131 From whom hast thou this great commission, France,
132 To draw my answer from thy articles?
133 KING PHILIP.
134 From that supernal judge that stirs good thoughts
135 In any breast of strong authority,
136 To look into the blots and stains of right.
137 That judge hath made me guardian to this boy,
138 Under whose warrant I impeach thy wrong
139 And by whose help I mean to chastise it.
140 KING JOHN.
141 Alack, thou dost usurp authority.
142 KING PHILIP.
143 Excuse it is to beat usurping down.
144 QUEEN ELEANOR.
145 Who is it thou dost call usurper, France?
146 CONSTANCE.
147 Let me make answer: thy usurping son.
148 QUEEN ELEANOR.
149 Out, insolent! Thy bastard shall be king,
150 That thou mayst be a queen, and check the world!
151 CONSTANCE.
152 My bed was ever to thy son as true
153 As thine was to thy husband; and this boy
154 Liker in feature to his father Geoffrey
155 Than thou and John in manners; being as like
156 As rain to water, or devil to his dam.
157 My boy a bastard! By my soul, I think
158 His father never was so true begot:
159 It cannot be, and if thou wert his mother.
160 QUEEN ELEANOR.
161 There’s a good mother, boy, that blots thy father.
162 CONSTANCE.
163 There’s a good grandam, boy, that would blot thee.
164 AUSTRIA.
165 Peace!
166 BASTARD.
167 Hear the crier!
168 AUSTRIA.
169 What the devil art thou?
170 BASTARD.
171 One that will play the devil, sir, with you,
172 An he may catch your hide and you alone.
173 You are the hare of whom the proverb goes,
174 Whose valour plucks dead lions by the beard.
175 I’ll smoke your skin-coat an I catch you right;
176 Sirrah, look to ’t; i’ faith I will, i’ faith.
177 BLANCHE.
178 O, well did he become that lion’s robe
179 That did disrobe the lion of that robe!
180 BASTARD.
181 It lies as sightly on the back of him
182 As great Alcides’ shows upon an ass.
183 But, ass, I’ll take that burden from your back,
184 Or lay on that shall make your shoulders crack.
185 AUSTRIA.
186 What cracker is this same that deafs our ears
187 With this abundance of superfluous breath?
188 KING PHILIP.
189 Louis, determine what we shall do straight.
190 LOUIS.
191 Women and fools, break off your conference.
192 KING PHILIP.
193 King John, this is the very sum of all:
194 England and Ireland, Anjou, Touraine, Maine,
195 In right of Arthur do I claim of thee.
196 Wilt thou resign them and lay down thy arms?
197 KING JOHN.
198 My life as soon: I do defy thee, France.
199 Arthur of Brittany, yield thee to my hand;
200 And out of my dear love I’ll give thee more
201 Than e’er the coward hand of France can win.
202 Submit thee, boy.
203 QUEEN ELEANOR.
204 Come to thy grandam, child.
205 CONSTANCE.
206 Do, child, go to it grandam, child.
207 Give grandam kingdom, and it grandam will
208 Give it a plum, a cherry, and a fig.
209 There’s a good grandam.
210 ARTHUR.
211 Good my mother, peace!
212 I would that I were low laid in my grave.
213 I am not worth this coil that’s made for me.
214 QUEEN ELEANOR.
215 His mother shames him so, poor boy, he weeps.
216 CONSTANCE.
217 Now, shame upon you, whe’er she does or no!
218 His grandam’s wrongs, and not his mother’s shames,
219 Draws those heaven-moving pearls from his poor eyes,
220 Which heaven shall take in nature of a fee.
221 Ay, with these crystal beads heaven shall be brib’d
222 To do him justice, and revenge on you.
223 QUEEN ELEANOR.
224 Thou monstrous slanderer of heaven and earth!
225 CONSTANCE.
226 Thou monstrous injurer of heaven and earth!
227 Call not me slanderer. Thou and thine usurp
228 The dominations, royalties, and rights
229 Of this oppressed boy. This is thy eldest son’s son,
230 Infortunate in nothing but in thee.
231 Thy sins are visited in this poor child;
232 The canon of the law is laid on him,
233 Being but the second generation
234 Removed from thy sin-conceiving womb.
235 KING JOHN.
236 Bedlam, have done.
237 CONSTANCE.
238 I have but this to say,
239 That he is not only plagued for her sin,
240 But God hath made her sin and her the plague
241 On this removed issue, plagued for her
242 And with her plague; her sin his injury
243 Her injury the beadle to her sin,
244 All punish’d in the person of this child,
245 And all for her. A plague upon her!
246 QUEEN ELEANOR.
247 Thou unadvised scold, I can produce
248 A will that bars the title of thy son.
249 CONSTANCE.
250 Ay, who doubts that? A will, a wicked will;
251 A woman’s will; a cankered grandam’s will!
252 KING PHILIP.
253 Peace, lady! Pause, or be more temperate.
254 It ill beseems this presence to cry aim
255 To these ill-tuned repetitions.—
256 Some trumpet summon hither to the walls
257 These men of Angiers. Let us hear them speak
258 Whose title they admit, Arthur’s or John’s.
259 Trumpet sounds. Enter Citizens upon the walls.
260 CITIZEN.
261 Who is it that hath warn’d us to the walls?
262 KING PHILIP.
263 ’Tis France, for England.
264 KING JOHN.
265 England for itself.
266 You men of Angiers, and my loving subjects—
267 KING PHILIP.
268 You loving men of Angiers, Arthur’s subjects,
269 Our trumpet call’d you to this gentle parle—
270 KING JOHN.
271 For our advantage; therefore hear us first.
272 These flags of France, that are advanced here
273 Before the eye and prospect of your town,
274 Have hither march’d to your endamagement.
275 The cannons have their bowels full of wrath,
276 And ready mounted are they to spit forth
277 Their iron indignation ’gainst your walls.
278 All preparation for a bloody siege
279 And merciless proceeding by these French
280 Confronts your city’s eyes, your winking gates;
281 And, but for our approach, those sleeping stones,
282 That as a waist doth girdle you about,
283 By the compulsion of their ordinance
284 By this time from their fixed beds of lime
285 Had been dishabited, and wide havoc made
286 For bloody power to rush upon your peace.
287 But on the sight of us your lawful king,
288 Who painfully with much expedient march
289 Have brought a countercheck before your gates,
290 To save unscratch’d your city’s threatened cheeks,
291 Behold, the French, amaz’d, vouchsafe a parle;
292 And now, instead of bullets wrapp’d in fire,
293 To make a shaking fever in your walls,
294 They shoot but calm words folded up in smoke,
295 To make a faithless error in your ears,
296 Which trust accordingly, kind citizens,
297 And let us in, your king, whose labour’d spirits
298 Forwearied in this action of swift speed,
299 Craves harbourage within your city walls.
300 KING PHILIP.
301 When I have said, make answer to us both.
302 Lo, in this right hand, whose protection
303 Is most divinely vow’d upon the right
304 Of him it holds, stands young Plantagenet,
305 Son to the elder brother of this man,
306 And king o’er him and all that he enjoys.
307 For this down-trodden equity we tread
308 In warlike march these greens before your town,
309 Being no further enemy to you
310 Than the constraint of hospitable zeal
311 In the relief of this oppressed child
312 Religiously provokes. Be pleased then
313 To pay that duty which you truly owe
314 To him that owes it, namely, this young prince,
315 And then our arms, like to a muzzled bear,
316 Save in aspect, hath all offence seal’d up;
317 Our cannons’ malice vainly shall be spent
318 Against th’ invulnerable clouds of heaven;
319 And with a blessed and unvex’d retire,
320 With unhack’d swords and helmets all unbruis’d,
321 We will bear home that lusty blood again
322 Which here we came to spout against your town,
323 And leave your children, wives, and you, in peace.
324 But if you fondly pass our proffer’d offer,
325 ’Tis not the roundure of your old-fac’d walls
326 Can hide you from our messengers of war,
327 Though all these English, and their discipline
328 Were harbour’d in their rude circumference.
329 Then, tell us, shall your city call us lord
330 In that behalf which we have challeng’d it?
331 Or shall we give the signal to our rage
332 And stalk in blood to our possession?
333 FIRST CITIZEN.
334 In brief, we are the King of England’s subjects.
335 For him, and in his right, we hold this town.
336 KING JOHN.
337 Acknowledge then the King, and let me in.
338 CITIZEN.
339 That can we not; but he that proves the King,
340 To him will we prove loyal. Till that time
341 Have we ramm’d up our gates against the world.
342 KING JOHN.
343 Doth not the crown of England prove the King?
344 And if not that, I bring you witnesses,
345 Twice fifteen thousand hearts of England’s breed—
346 BASTARD.
347 Bastards and else.
348 KING JOHN.
349 To verify our title with their lives.
350 KING PHILIP.
351 As many and as well-born bloods as those—
352 BASTARD.
353 Some bastards too.
354 KING PHILIP.
355 Stand in his face to contradict his claim.
356 FIRST CITIZEN.
357 Till you compound whose right is worthiest,
358 We for the worthiest hold the right from both.
359 KING JOHN.
360 Then God forgive the sin of all those souls
361 That to their everlasting residence,
362 Before the dew of evening fall, shall fleet,
363 In dreadful trial of our kingdom’s king!
364 KING PHILIP.
365 Amen, Amen!—Mount, chevaliers! To arms!
366 BASTARD.
367 Saint George, that swinged the dragon, and e’er since
368 Sits on ’s horseback at mine hostess’ door,
369 Teach us some fence! [_To Austria_.] Sirrah, were I at home,
370 At your den, sirrah, with your lioness,
371 I would set an ox-head to your lion’s hide,
372 And make a monster of you.
373 AUSTRIA.
374 Peace! No more.
375 BASTARD.
376 O, tremble, for you hear the lion roar.
377 KING JOHN.
378 Up higher to the plain; where we’ll set forth
379 In best appointment all our regiments.
380 BASTARD.
381 Speed, then, to take advantage of the field.
382 KING PHILIP.
383 It shall be so; and at the other hill
384 Command the rest to stand. God and our right!
385 [_Exeunt severally._]
386 Here, after excursions, enter a Herald of France with Trumpets, to the
387 gates.
388 FRENCH HERALD.
389 You men of Angiers, open wide your gates,
390 And let young Arthur, Duke of Brittany, in,
391 Who by the hand of France this day hath made
392 Much work for tears in many an English mother,
393 Whose sons lie scatter’d on the bleeding ground.
394 Many a widow’s husband grovelling lies,
395 Coldly embracing the discolour’d earth;
396 And victory, with little loss, doth play
397 Upon the dancing banners of the French,
398 Who are at hand, triumphantly display’d,
399 To enter conquerors, and to proclaim
400 Arthur of Brittany England’s king and yours.
401 Enter English Herald with Trumpet.
402 ENGLISH HERALD.
403 Rejoice, you men of Angiers, ring your bells:
404 King John, your king and England’s, doth approach,
405 Commander of this hot malicious day.
406 Their armours, that march’d hence so silver-bright,
407 Hither return all gilt with Frenchmen’s blood;
408 There stuck no plume in any English crest
409 That is removed by a staff of France,
410 Our colours do return in those same hands
411 That did display them when we first march’d forth;
412 And, like a jolly troop of huntsmen, come
413 Our lusty English, all with purpled hands,
414 Dyed in the dying slaughter of their foes:
415 Open your gates and give the victors way.
416 FIRST CITIZEN.
417 Heralds, from off our towers, we might behold,
418 From first to last, the onset and retire
419 Of both your armies; whose equality
420 By our best eyes cannot be censured:
421 Blood hath bought blood, and blows have answer’d blows;
422 Strength match’d with strength, and power confronted power:
423 Both are alike, and both alike we like.
424 One must prove greatest: while they weigh so even,
425 We hold our town for neither, yet for both.
426 Enter on one side King John, Eleanor, Blanche, the Bastard and Forces;
427 on the other, King Philip, Louis, Austria and Forces.
428 KING JOHN.
429 France, hast thou yet more blood to cast away?
430 Say, shall the current of our right run on,
431 Whose passage, vex’d with thy impediment,
432 Shall leave his native channel, and o’erswell
433 With course disturb’d even thy confining shores,
434 Unless thou let his silver water keep
435 A peaceful progress to the ocean?
436 KING PHILIP.
437 England, thou hast not sav’d one drop of blood
438 In this hot trial, more than we of France;
439 Rather, lost more. And by this hand I swear,
440 That sways the earth this climate overlooks,
441 Before we will lay down our just-borne arms,
442 We’ll put thee down, ’gainst whom these arms we bear,
443 Or add a royal number to the dead,
444 Gracing the scroll that tells of this war’s loss
445 With slaughter coupled to the name of kings.
446 BASTARD.
447 Ha, majesty! How high thy glory towers
448 When the rich blood of kings is set on fire!
449 O, now doth Death line his dead chaps with steel;
450 The swords of soldiers are his teeth, his fangs;
451 And now he feasts, mousing the flesh of men,
452 In undetermin’d differences of kings.
453 Why stand these royal fronts amazed thus?
454 Cry havoc, kings! Back to the stained field,
455 You equal potents, fiery-kindled spirits!
456 Then let confusion of one part confirm
457 The other’s peace. Till then, blows, blood, and death!
458 KING JOHN.
459 Whose party do the townsmen yet admit?
460 KING PHILIP.
461 Speak, citizens, for England; who’s your king?
462 FIRST CITIZEN.
463 The King of England, when we know the king.
464 KING PHILIP.
465 Know him in us, that here hold up his right.
466 KING JOHN.
467 In us, that are our own great deputy,
468 And bear possession of our person here,
469 Lord of our presence, Angiers, and of you.
470 FIRST CITIZEN.
471 A greater power than we denies all this;
472 And till it be undoubted, we do lock
473 Our former scruple in our strong-barr’d gates:
474 Kings of our fear, until our fears, resolv’d,
475 Be by some certain king purg’d and depos’d.
476 BASTARD.
477 By heaven, these scroyles of Angiers flout you, kings,
478 And stand securely on their battlements
479 As in a theatre, whence they gape and point
480 At your industrious scenes and acts of death.
481 Your royal presences be rul’d by me:
482 Do like the mutines of Jerusalem,
483 Be friends awhile, and both conjointly bend
484 Your sharpest deeds of malice on this town:
485 By east and west let France and England mount
486 Their battering cannon charged to the mouths,
487 Till their soul-fearing clamours have brawl’d down
488 The flinty ribs of this contemptuous city:
489 I’d play incessantly upon these jades,
490 Even till unfenced desolation
491 Leave them as naked as the vulgar air.
492 That done, dissever your united strengths,
493 And part your mingled colours once again;
494 Turn face to face, and bloody point to point;
495 Then, in a moment, Fortune shall cull forth
496 Out of one side her happy minion,
497 To whom in favour she shall give the day,
498 And kiss him with a glorious victory.
499 How like you this wild counsel, mighty states?
500 Smacks it not something of the policy?
501 KING JOHN.
502 Now, by the sky that hangs above our heads,
503 I like it well. France, shall we knit our powers
504 And lay this Angiers even with the ground;
505 Then after fight who shall be king of it?
506 BASTARD.
507 An if thou hast the mettle of a king,
508 Being wrong’d as we are by this peevish town,
509 Turn thou the mouth of thy artillery,
510 As we will ours, against these saucy walls;
511 And when that we have dash’d them to the ground,
512 Why then defy each other, and pell-mell,
513 Make work upon ourselves, for heaven or hell.
514 KING PHILIP.
515 Let it be so. Say, where will you assault?
516 KING JOHN.
517 We from the west will send destruction
518 Into this city’s bosom.
519 AUSTRIA.
520 I from the north.
521 KING PHILIP.
522 Our thunder from the south
523 Shall rain their drift of bullets on this town.
524 BASTARD.
525 O prudent discipline! From north to south,
526 Austria and France shoot in each other’s mouth:
527 I’ll stir them to it.—Come, away, away!
528 FIRST CITIZEN.
529 Hear us, great kings: vouchsafe awhile to stay,
530 And I shall show you peace and fair-fac’d league;
531 Win you this city without stroke or wound;
532 Rescue those breathing lives to die in beds
533 That here come sacrifices for the field:
534 Persever not, but hear me, mighty kings.
535 KING JOHN.
536 Speak on with favour; we are bent to hear.
537 FIRST CITIZEN.
538 That daughter there of Spain, the Lady Blanche,
539 Is niece to England. Look upon the years
540 Of Louis the Dauphin and that lovely maid.
541 If lusty love should go in quest of beauty,
542 Where should he find it fairer than in Blanche?
543 If zealous love should go in search of virtue,
544 Where should he find it purer than in Blanche?
545 If love ambitious sought a match of birth,
546 Whose veins bound richer blood than Lady Blanche?
547 Such as she is, in beauty, virtue, birth,
548 Is the young Dauphin every way complete.
549 If not complete of, say he is not she;
550 And she again wants nothing, to name want,
551 If want it be not that she is not he:
552 He is the half part of a blessed man,
553 Left to be finished by such a she;
554 And she a fair divided excellence,
555 Whose fulness of perfection lies in him.
556 O, two such silver currents, when they join
557 Do glorify the banks that bound them in;
558 And two such shores to two such streams made one,
559 Two such controlling bounds shall you be, kings,
560 To these two princes, if you marry them.
561 This union shall do more than battery can
562 To our fast-closed gates; for at this match,
563 With swifter spleen than powder can enforce,
564 The mouth of passage shall we fling wide ope,
565 And give you entrance. But without this match,
566 The sea enraged is not half so deaf,
567 Lions more confident, mountains and rocks
568 More free from motion; no, not Death himself
569 In mortal fury half so peremptory
570 As we to keep this city.
571 BASTARD.
572 Here’s a stay
573 That shakes the rotten carcass of old Death
574 Out of his rags! Here’s a large mouth indeed,
575 That spits forth death and mountains, rocks and seas;
576 Talks as familiarly of roaring lions
577 As maids of thirteen do of puppy-dogs!
578 What cannoneer begot this lusty blood?
579 He speaks plain cannon, fire, and smoke, and bounce;
580 He gives the bastinado with his tongue;
581 Our ears are cudgell’d; not a word of his
582 But buffets better than a fist of France.
583 Zounds! I was never so bethump’d with words
584 Since I first call’d my brother’s father dad.
585 QUEEN ELEANOR.
586 Son, list to this conjunction, make this match.
587 Give with our niece a dowry large enough,
588 For by this knot thou shalt so surely tie
589 Thy now unsur’d assurance to the crown,
590 That yon green boy shall have no sun to ripe
591 The bloom that promiseth a mighty fruit.
592 I see a yielding in the looks of France;
593 Mark how they whisper. Urge them while their souls
594 Are capable of this ambition,
595 Lest zeal, now melted by the windy breath
596 Of soft petitions, pity, and remorse,
597 Cool and congeal again to what it was.
598 FIRST CITIZEN.
599 Why answer not the double majesties
600 This friendly treaty of our threaten’d town?
601 KING PHILIP.
602 Speak England first, that hath been forward first
603 To speak unto this city. What say you?
604 KING JOHN.
605 If that the Dauphin there, thy princely son,
606 Can in this book of beauty read “I love,”
607 Her dowry shall weigh equal with a queen.
608 For Anjou, and fair Touraine, Maine, Poitiers,
609 And all that we upon this side the sea—
610 Except this city now by us besieg’d—
611 Find liable to our crown and dignity,
612 Shall gild her bridal bed, and make her rich
613 In titles, honours, and promotions,
614 As she in beauty, education, blood,
615 Holds hand with any princess of the world.
616 KING PHILIP.
617 What say’st thou, boy? Look in the lady’s face.
618 LOUIS.
619 I do, my lord, and in her eye I find
620 A wonder, or a wondrous miracle,
621 The shadow of myself form’d in her eye;
622 Which, being but the shadow of your son,
623 Becomes a sun and makes your son a shadow.
624 I do protest I never lov’d myself
625 Till now infixed I beheld myself
626 Drawn in the flattering table of her eye.
627 [_Whispers with Blanche._]
628 BASTARD.
629 [_Aside_.] Drawn in the flattering table of her eye!
630 Hang’d in the frowning wrinkle of her brow,
631 And quarter’d in her heart! He doth espy
632 Himself love’s traitor. This is pity now,
633 That, hang’d and drawn and quarter’d, there should be
634 In such a love so vile a lout as he.
635 BLANCHE.
636 My uncle’s will in this respect is mine.
637 If he see aught in you that makes him like,
638 That anything he sees, which moves his liking
639 I can with ease translate it to my will;
640 Or if you will, to speak more properly,
641 I will enforce it eas’ly to my love.
642 Further I will not flatter you, my lord,
643 That all I see in you is worthy love,
644 Than this: that nothing do I see in you,
645 Though churlish thoughts themselves should be your judge,
646 That I can find should merit any hate.
647 KING JOHN.
648 What say these young ones? What say you, my niece?
649 BLANCHE.
650 That she is bound in honour still to do
651 What you in wisdom still vouchsafe to say.
652 KING JOHN.
653 Speak then, Prince Dauphin. Can you love this lady?
654 LOUIS.
655 Nay, ask me if I can refrain from love;
656 For I do love her most unfeignedly.
657 KING JOHN.
658 Then do I give Volquessen, Touraine, Maine,
659 Poitiers, and Anjou, these five provinces,
660 With her to thee; and this addition more,
661 Full thirty thousand marks of English coin.—
662 Philip of France, if thou be pleas’d withal,
663 Command thy son and daughter to join hands.
664 KING PHILIP.
665 It likes us well.—Young princes, close your hands.
666 AUSTRIA.
667 And your lips too; for I am well assur’d
668 That I did so when I was first assur’d.
669 KING PHILIP.
670 Now, citizens of Angiers, ope your gates,
671 Let in that amity which you have made;
672 For at Saint Mary’s chapel presently
673 The rites of marriage shall be solemniz’d.
674 Is not the Lady Constance in this troop?
675 I know she is not, for this match made up
676 Her presence would have interrupted much.
677 Where is she and her son? Tell me, who knows.
678 LOUIS.
679 She is sad and passionate at your highness’ tent.
680 KING PHILIP.
681 And, by my faith, this league that we have made
682 Will give her sadness very little cure.—
683 Brother of England, how may we content
684 This widow lady? In her right we came;
685 Which we, God knows, have turn’d another way,
686 To our own vantage.
687 KING JOHN.
688 We will heal up all;
689 For we’ll create young Arthur Duke of Brittany,
690 And Earl of Richmond; and this rich fair town
691 We make him lord of. Call the Lady Constance.
692 Some speedy messenger bid her repair
693 To our solemnity. I trust we shall,
694 If not fill up the measure of her will,
695 Yet in some measure satisfy her so
696 That we shall stop her exclamation.
697 Go we, as well as haste will suffer us,
698 To this unlook’d-for, unprepared pomp.
699 [_Exeunt all but the Bastard. The Citizens retire from the walls._]
700 BASTARD.
701 Mad world! mad kings! mad composition!
702 John, to stop Arthur’s title in the whole,
703 Hath willingly departed with a part;
704 And France, whose armour conscience buckled on,
705 Whom zeal and charity brought to the field
706 As God’s own soldier, rounded in the ear
707 With that same purpose-changer, that sly devil,
708 That broker, that still breaks the pate of faith,
709 That daily break-vow, he that wins of all,
710 Of kings, of beggars, old men, young men, maids,
711 Who having no external thing to lose
712 But the word “maid,” cheats the poor maid of that,
713 That smooth-fac’d gentleman, tickling commodity,
714 Commodity, the bias of the world,
715 The world, who of itself is peised well,
716 Made to run even upon even ground,
717 Till this advantage, this vile-drawing bias,
718 This sway of motion, this commodity,
719 Makes it take head from all indifferency,
720 From all direction, purpose, course, intent.
721 And this same bias, this commodity,
722 This bawd, this broker, this all-changing word,
723 Clapp’d on the outward eye of fickle France,
724 Hath drawn him from his own determin’d aid,
725 From a resolv’d and honourable war,
726 To a most base and vile-concluded peace.
727 And why rail I on this commodity?
728 But for because he hath not woo’d me yet.
729 Not that I have the power to clutch my hand
730 When his fair angels would salute my palm;
731 But for my hand, as unattempted yet,
732 Like a poor beggar, raileth on the rich.
733 Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail
734 And say there is no sin but to be rich;
735 And being rich, my virtue then shall be
736 To say there is no vice but beggary.
737 Since kings break faith upon commodity,
738 Gain, be my lord, for I will worship thee!
739 [_Exit._]