The Life And Death Of King John

1 Enter, in arms, Louis, Salisbury, Melun, Pembroke, Bigot and soldiers.
2 LOUIS.
3 My Lord Melun, let this be copied out,
4 And keep it safe for our remembrance.
5 Return the precedent to these lords again;
6 That, having our fair order written down,
7 Both they and we, perusing o’er these notes,
8 May know wherefore we took the sacrament,
9 And keep our faiths firm and inviolable.
10 SALISBURY.
11 Upon our sides it never shall be broken.
12 And, noble Dauphin, albeit we swear
13 A voluntary zeal and an unurg’d faith
14 To your proceedings; yet believe me, prince,
15 I am not glad that such a sore of time
16 Should seek a plaster by contemn’d revolt,
17 And heal the inveterate canker of one wound
18 By making many. O, it grieves my soul
19 That I must draw this metal from my side
20 To be a widow-maker! O, and there
21 Where honourable rescue and defence
22 Cries out upon the name of Salisbury!
23 But such is the infection of the time,
24 That, for the health and physic of our right,
25 We cannot deal but with the very hand
26 Of stern injustice and confused wrong.
27 And is’t not pity, O my grieved friends,
28 That we, the sons and children of this isle,
29 Were born to see so sad an hour as this;
30 Wherein we step after a stranger, march
31 Upon her gentle bosom, and fill up
32 Her enemies’ ranks? I must withdraw and weep
33 Upon the spot of this enforced cause,
34 To grace the gentry of a land remote,
35 And follow unacquainted colours here.
36 What, here? O nation, that thou couldst remove!
37 That Neptune’s arms, who clippeth thee about,
38 Would bear thee from the knowledge of thyself
39 And grapple thee unto a pagan shore,
40 Where these two Christian armies might combine
41 The blood of malice in a vein of league,
42 And not to spend it so unneighbourly!
43 LOUIS.
44 A noble temper dost thou show in this;
45 And great affections wrestling in thy bosom
46 Doth make an earthquake of nobility.
47 O, what a noble combat hast thou fought
48 Between compulsion and a brave respect!
49 Let me wipe off this honourable dew
50 That silverly doth progress on thy cheeks.
51 My heart hath melted at a lady’s tears,
52 Being an ordinary inundation;
53 But this effusion of such manly drops,
54 This shower, blown up by tempest of the soul,
55 Startles mine eyes and makes me more amaz’d
56 Than had I seen the vaulty top of heaven
57 Figur’d quite o’er with burning meteors.
58 Lift up thy brow, renowned Salisbury,
59 And with a great heart heave away this storm.
60 Commend these waters to those baby eyes
61 That never saw the giant world enrag’d,
62 Nor met with fortune other than at feasts,
63 Full of warm blood, of mirth, of gossiping.
64 Come, come; for thou shalt thrust thy hand as deep
65 Into the purse of rich prosperity
66 As Louis himself.—So, nobles, shall you all,
67 That knit your sinews to the strength of mine.
68 And even there, methinks, an angel spake.
69 Enter Pandulph.
70 Look, where the holy legate comes apace,
71 To give us warrant from the hand of heaven,
72 And on our actions set the name of right
73 With holy breath.
74 PANDULPH.
75 Hail, noble prince of France!
76 The next is this: King John hath reconcil’d
77 Himself to Rome; his spirit is come in,
78 That so stood out against the holy church,
79 The great metropolis and see of Rome.
80 Therefore thy threat’ning colours now wind up,
81 And tame the savage spirit of wild war,
82 That, like a lion foster’d up at hand,
83 It may lie gently at the foot of peace
84 And be no further harmful than in show.
85 LOUIS.
86 Your grace shall pardon me, I will not back.
87 I am too high-born to be propertied,
88 To be a secondary at control,
89 Or useful serving-man and instrument
90 To any sovereign state throughout the world.
91 Your breath first kindled the dead coal of wars
92 Between this chastis’d kingdom and myself,
93 And brought in matter that should feed this fire;
94 And now ’tis far too huge to be blown out
95 With that same weak wind which enkindled it.
96 You taught me how to know the face of right,
97 Acquainted me with interest to this land,
98 Yea, thrust this enterprise into my heart;
99 And come ye now to tell me John hath made
100 His peace with Rome? What is that peace to me?
101 I, by the honour of my marriage-bed,
102 After young Arthur, claim this land for mine;
103 And, now it is half-conquer’d, must I back
104 Because that John hath made his peace with Rome?
105 Am I Rome’s slave? What penny hath Rome borne,
106 What men provided, what munition sent,
107 To underprop this action? Is’t not I
108 That undergo this charge? Who else but I,
109 And such as to my claim are liable,
110 Sweat in this business and maintain this war?
111 Have I not heard these islanders shout out
112 _Vive le Roi!_ as I have bank’d their towns?
113 Have I not here the best cards for the game
114 To win this easy match play’d for a crown?
115 And shall I now give o’er the yielded set?
116 No, no, on my soul, it never shall be said.
117 PANDULPH.
118 You look but on the outside of this work.
119 LOUIS.
120 Outside or inside, I will not return
121 Till my attempt so much be glorified
122 As to my ample hope was promised
123 Before I drew this gallant head of war,
124 And cull’d these fiery spirits from the world,
125 To outlook conquest and to win renown
126 Even in the jaws of danger and of death.
127 [_Trumpet sounds._]
128 What lusty trumpet thus doth summon us?
129 Enter the Bastard, attended.
130 BASTARD.
131 According to the fair play of the world,
132 Let me have audience; I am sent to speak,
133 My holy lord of Milan, from the King
134 I come to learn how you have dealt for him;
135 And, as you answer, I do know the scope
136 And warrant limited unto my tongue.
137 PANDULPH.
138 The Dauphin is too wilful-opposite,
139 And will not temporize with my entreaties;
140 He flatly says he’ll not lay down his arms.
141 BASTARD.
142 By all the blood that ever fury breath’d,
143 The youth says well. Now hear our English king,
144 For thus his royalty doth speak in me:
145 He is prepar’d, and reason too he should.
146 This apish and unmannerly approach,
147 This harness’d masque and unadvised revel,
148 This unhair’d sauciness and boyish troops,
149 The King doth smile at; and is well prepar’d
150 To whip this dwarfish war, these pigmy arms,
151 From out the circle of his territories.
152 That hand which had the strength, even at your door,
153 To cudgel you and make you take the hatch,
154 To dive like buckets in concealed wells,
155 To crouch in litter of your stable planks,
156 To lie like pawns lock’d up in chests and trunks,
157 To hug with swine, to seek sweet safety out
158 In vaults and prisons, and to thrill and shake
159 Even at the crying of your nation’s crow,
160 Thinking this voice an armed Englishman;
161 Shall that victorious hand be feebled here
162 That in your chambers gave you chastisement?
163 No! Know the gallant monarch is in arms
164 And like an eagle o’er his aery towers
165 To souse annoyance that comes near his nest.—
166 And you degenerate, you ingrate revolts,
167 You bloody Neroes, ripping up the womb
168 Of your dear mother England, blush for shame!
169 For your own ladies and pale-visag’d maids
170 Like Amazons come tripping after drums,
171 Their thimbles into armed gauntlets change,
172 Their needles to lances, and their gentle hearts
173 To fierce and bloody inclination.
174 LOUIS.
175 There end thy brave, and turn thy face in peace;
176 We grant thou canst outscold us. Fare thee well;
177 We hold our time too precious to be spent
178 With such a brabbler.
179 PANDULPH.
180 Give me leave to speak.
181 BASTARD.
182 No, I will speak.
183 LOUIS.
184 We will attend to neither.
185 Strike up the drums; and let the tongue of war,
186 Plead for our interest and our being here.
187 BASTARD.
188 Indeed, your drums, being beaten, will cry out;
189 And so shall you, being beaten. Do but start
190 And echo with the clamour of thy drum,
191 And even at hand a drum is ready brac’d
192 That shall reverberate all as loud as thine.
193 Sound but another, and another shall,
194 As loud as thine, rattle the welkin’s ear
195 And mock the deep-mouth’d thunder. For at hand,
196 Not trusting to this halting legate here,
197 Whom he hath us’d rather for sport than need,
198 Is warlike John; and in his forehead sits
199 A bare-ribb’d death, whose office is this day
200 To feast upon whole thousands of the French.
201 LOUIS.
202 Strike up our drums, to find this danger out.
203 BASTARD.
204 And thou shalt find it, Dauphin, do not doubt.
205 [_Exeunt._]