Const. My bed was ever to thy son as true, As thine was to thy husband: and this boy Liker in feature to his father Geffrey, Than thou and John in manners; being as like, As rain to water, or devil to his dam. My boy a bastard! By my soul, I think, His father never was so true begot; It cannot be, an if thou wert his mother. Eli. There's a good mother, boy, that blots thy father. Const. There's a good grandam, boy, that would blot thee. Aust. Peace! Bast. Hear the crier. Aust. What the devil art thou? Bust. One that will play the devil, Sir, with you, An 'a may catch your hide and you alone. Blanch. O, well did he become that lion's Being but the second generation Eli. Thou unadvised scold, I can produce A will, that bars the title of thy son. Const. Ay, who doubts that? a will! a wicked will; A woman's will; a canker'd grandam's will! K. Phi. Peace, lady; pause, or be more temperate: It ill beseems this presence, to cry aim* That did disrobe the lion of that robe! [robe, Trumpets sound. Enter CITIZENS upon the walls. Aust. What cracker is this same, that deafs our ears With this abundance of superfluous breath? K. Phi. Lewis, determine what we shall do straight. Lew. Women and fools, break off your conference. King John, this is the very sum of all,- In right of Arthur do I claim of thee: Arthur of Bretagne, yield thee to my hand; Eli. Come to thy grandam, child. Const. Do, child, go to it' grandam, child; Give grandam kingdom, and it' grandam will Give it a plum, a cherry, and a fig: There's a good grandam. Arth. Good my mother, peace! I would, that I were low laid in my grave; Const. Now shame upon you, whe'rt she does, or no! His grandam's wrongs, and not his mother's shames, [eyes, Draw those heaven-moving pearls from his poor Which heaven shall take in nature of a fee; Ay, with these crystal beads heaven shall be To do him justice, and revenge on you. [brib'd Eli. Thou monstrous slanderer of heaven and earth! Const. Thou monstrous injurer of heaven and earth! Call not me slanderer; thou, and thine, usurp Aushi wants a lion's skin. Bustle. Whether. | 1 Cit. Who is it, that hath warned us to the walls? K. Phi. "Tis France, for England. You men of Angiers, and my loving subjects,- These flags of France, that are advanced here And merciless proceeding by these French, By this time from their fixed beds of lime Behold, the French, amaz'd, vouchsafe a parle: Lo, in this right hand, whose protection *To encourage. Worn out. And then our arms, like to a muzzled tear, town, We will bear home that lusty blood again, 1 Cit. In brief, we are the king of England's subjects; For him, and in his right, we hold this town. K. John. Acknowledge then the king, and let me in. 1 Cit. That can we not: but he that proves the king, To him will we prove loyal; till that time, Have we ramm'd up our gates against the world. K. John. Doth not the crown of England prove the king? And, if not that, I bring you witnesses, Twice fifteen thousand hearts of England's breed, Bast. Bastards, and else. K. John. To verify our title with their lives. K. Phi. As many, and as well-born bloods as those, Bast. Some bastards too. K. Phi. Stand in his face, to contradict his claim. 1 Cit. Till you compound whose right is worthiest, [both. We, for the worthiest, hold the right from K. John. Then God forgive the sin of all those souls, That to their everlasting residence, Bust. St. George,-that swing'd the dragon, and e'er since, Sits on his horseback at mine hostess' door, I'd set an ox-head to your lion's hide, Aust. Peace; no more. Bast. O, tremble; for you hear the lion roar. K. John. Up higher to the plain; where we'll set forth, In best appointment, all our regiments. Bast. Speed then, to take advantage of the field. K. Phi. It shall be so;-[To LEWIS] and at the other hill Command the rest to stand.--God, and our right! [Exeunt. SCENE II.-The same. 349 Alarums and Excursions; then a Retreat. Enter a French HERALD, with trumpets, to the gates. F. Her. You men of Angiers, open wide your gates, And let young Arthur, duke of Bretagne, in; Coldly embracing the discolour'd earth, bright, There stuck no plume in any English crest, And, like a jolly troop of huntsmen, come Cit. Heralds, from off our towers we might behold, From first to last, the onset and retire Strength match'd with strength, and power confronted power: even, Both are alike; and both alike we like. K. John. France, hast thou yet more blood to cast away? Say, shall the current of our right run on? Whose passage, vex'd with thy impediment, Shall leave his native channel, and o'er-swell' With course disturb'd even thy confining Unless thou let his silver water keep [shores; A peaceful progress in the ocean. K. Phi. England, thou hast not sav'd one drop of blood, In this hot trial, more than we of France; Rather, lost more: And by this hand I swear, That sways the earth this climate overlooks,Before we will lay down our just-borne arms, We'll put thee down, 'gainst whom these arms we bear, Or add a royal number to the dead; Judged, determined. When the rich blood of kings is set on fire! The sds of soldiers are his teeth, his fangs; * K. John. Whose party do the townsmen yet admit ? K. Phi. Speak, citizens, for England; who's your king? 1 Cit. The king of England, when we know the king. K. Phi. Know him in us, that here hold up his right. K. John. In us, that are our own great deputy, And bear possession of our person here; 1 Cit. A greater power than we, denies all And, till it be undoubted, we do lock [this; Our former scruple in our strong-barr'd gates: King'd of our fears; until our fears, resolv'd, Be by some certain king purg'd and depos'd. Bust. By heaven, these scroyles of Angiers flout you, kings; And stand securely on their battlements, Be friends a while, and both conjointly bend mount Their battering cannon, charged to the mouths; Till their soul-fearing clamours have brawl'd down The flinty ribs of this contemptuous city : Leave them as naked as the vulgar air. Bast. An if thou hast the mettle of a king,Being wrong'd, as we are, by this peevish Turn thou the mouth of thy artillery, [town, As we will ours, against these saucy walls: And when that we have dash'd them to the ground, Why, then defy each other; and, pell-mell, Make work upon ourselves, for heaven, or hell. K. Phi. Let it be so :-Say, where will you assault? K. John. We from the west will send deInto this city's bosom. Aust. I from the north. [struction K. Phi. Our thunder from the south, Shall rain their drift of bullets on this town. Potentates. Mutineers. Bast. O prudent discipline! From north to south; [mouth: Austria and France shoot in each other's [Aside. I'll stir them to it :-Come, away, away! 1 Cit. Hear us, great kings: vouchsafe a while to stay, [league; And I shall show you peace, and fair-faced Win you this city without stroke, or wound; Rescue those breathing lives to die in beds, That here come sacrifices for the field: Perséver not, but hear me, mighty kings. K. John. Speak on, with favour; we are bent to hear. 1 Cit. That daughter there of Spain, the lady Blanch, Is near to England; Look upon the years Such as she is, in beauty, virtue, birth, made one, match, The sea enraged is not half so deaf, Lions more confident, mountains and rocks More free from motion; no, not death himself In mortal fury half so peremptory, As we to keep this city. Bast. Here's a stay, That shakes the rotten carcass of old death Talks as familiarly of roaring lions, He gives the bastinado with his tongue; Eli. Son, list to this conjunction, make this match; Give with our niece a dowry large enough: Are capable of this ambition: Lest zeal, now melted, by the windy breath 1 Cit. Why answer not the double majesties This friendly treaty of our threaten'd town? K. Phi. Speak England first, that hath been forward first To speak unto this city: What say you? K. John. If that the Dauphin there, thy princely son, Let in that amity which you have made; K. Phi. And, by my faith, this league, that Will give her sadness very little cure.Brother of England, how may we content Poic-This widow lady? In her right we came; Which we, God knows, have turn'd another Can in this book of beauty read, I love, Lew. I do, my lord, and in her eye I find The shadow of myself form'd in her eye; Which, being but the shadow of your son, Becomes a sun, and makes your son a shadow: I do protest, I never lov'd myself, Till now infixed I beheld myself, Drawn in the flattering table of her eye. [Whispers with BLANCH. Bast. Drawn in the flattering table of her eye![brow! Hang'd in the frowning wrinkle of her And quarter'd in her heart!-he doth espy Himself love's traitor: This is pity now, That hang'd, and drawn, and quarter'd, there should be, In such a love, so vile a lout as he. Blanch. My uncle's will, in this respect, is mine: If he see aught in you, that makes him like, That I can find should merit any hate. K. John. What say these young ones? What say you, my niece? Blanch. That she is bound in honour still to do What you in wisdom shall vouchsafe to say. K. John. Speak then, prince Dauphin; can you love this lady? Lew. Nay, ask me if I can refrain from love; For I do love her most unfeignedly. K. John. Then do I give Volquessen, Touraine, Maine, Poictiers, and Anjou, these five provinces, Aust. And your lips too; for, I am well assur'd, That I did so, when I was first assur'd.+ K. Phi. Now, citizens of Angiers, ope your gates, way, To our own vantage.t [tagne, K. John. We will heal up all For we'll create young Arthur duke of BreAnd earl of Richmond; and this rich fair town We make him lord of.--Call the lady Constance; Some speedy messenger bid her repair To our solemnity:-I trust we shall, If not fill up the measure of her will, Yet in some measure satisfy her so, That we shall stop her exclamation. Go we, as well as haste will suffer us, To this unlook'd for unprepared pomp. [Exeunt all but the BASTARD.-The CITIZENS retire from the walls. Bast. Mad world! mad kings! mad composition! John, to stop Arthur's title in the whole, led on; Whom zeal and charity brought to the field, That broker, that still breaks the pate of faith; maids ; Who having no external thing to lose [that, But the word maid,-cheats the poor maid of That smooth-faced gentleman, tickling com modity, Commodity, the bias of the world; ACT III. SCENE I.-The same.-The French King's Tent. Enter CONSTANCE, Arthur, and SALISBURY. Const. Gone to be married! gone to swear a peace! [friends! False blood to false blood join'd! Gone to be Shall Lewis have Blanch? and Blanch those provinces? It is not so; thou hast misspoke, misheard; thine? Why holds thine eye that lamentable rheum, Like a proud river peeringt o'er his bounds? Be these sad signs confirmers of thy words? Then speak again; not all thy former tale, But this one word, whether thy tale be true. Sal. As true, as, I believe, you think them false, That give you cause to prove my saying true. Const. O, if you teach me to believe this I would not care, I then would be content; For then I should not love thee; no, nor thou Become thy great birth, nor deserve a crown. But thou art fair; and at thy birth, dear boy! Nature and fortune join'd to make thee great: Of nature's gifts thou may'st with lilies boast, And with the half blown rose: but fortune, ()! She is corrupted, chang'd, and won from thee; To tread down fair respect of sovereignty, France is a bawd to fortune, and king John; That strumpet fortune, that usurping John:Tell me, thou fellow, is not France forsworn? Envenom him with words; or get thee gone, And leave those woes alone, which I alone, Am bound to under-bear. I Sal. Pardon me, madam, may not go without you to the kings. Const. Thou may'st, thou shalt, I will not I will instruct my sorrows to be proud; Enter King JOHN, King PHILIP, LEWIS, K. Phi. "Tis true, fair daughter; and this blessed day, To solemnize this day, the glorious sun ! Const. A wicked day, and not a holyday![Rising. What hath this day deserv'd? what hath it That it in golden letters should be set, [done; Among the high tides, in the kalendar? Nay, rather, turn this day out of the week; This day of shame, oppression, perjury: Or, if it must stand still, let wives with child Pray, that their burdens may not fall this day, Lest that their hopes prodigiously be cross'd: But on this day, let seamen fear no wreck; No bargains break, that are not this day made: This day, all things begun come to ill end; Yea, faith itself to hollow falsehood change! K. Phi. By heaven, lady you shall have no. cause To curse the fair proceedings of this day: Const. You have beguil'd me with a coun... terfeit, Resembling majesty; which, being touch'd,. A widow cries; be husband to me, heavens! Wear out the day in peace; but, erc sunset, Set armed discord 'twixt these perjur'd kings! Hear me, O, hear me! O Aust. Lady Constance, peace. Const. War! war! no peace! peace is to mo a war. Lymoges! O Austria! thou dost shame That bloody spoil: Thou slave, thou wretch,. thou coward; Thou little valiant, great in villany! |