Which trust accordingly, kind citizens, Sits on his horse back at mine hostess' door, And let us in, your king, whose labour'd spirits, Teach us some fence! To AUSTRIA. Sirrah, Forwearied in this action of swift speed, were I at home, 200 Crave harbourage within your city walls. At your den, sirrah, with your lioness, Lo! in this right hand, whose protection Is most divinely vow'd upon the right K. Phi. When I have said, make answer to us I'd set an ox-head to your lion's hide, both. 240 Of him it holds, stands young Plantagenet, Aust. In best appointment all our regiments. And make a monster of you. Peace! no more. Than the constraint of hospitable zeal, K. Phi. It shall be so; and at the other hill Command the rest to stand. God, and our right! Exeunt. Alarums and excursions; then a retreat. Enter the Herald of France, with trumpets, to the gates. 250 F. Her. You men of Angiers, open wide your gates, 260 Which here we came to spout against your town, First 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. First Cit. That can we not; but he that proves the king, To him will we prove loyal: till that time 270 And let young Arthur, Duke of Bretagne, in, Enter English Herald, with trumpets. 319 claim. 280 answer'd blows; First Cit. Till you compound whose right is worthiest, Strength march'd with strength, and power confronted power: 390 We for the worthiest hold the right from both. Both are alike; and both alike we like. One must prove greatest: while they weigh so even, We hold our town for neither, yet for both. Re-enter the two Kings, with their powers, severally. Say, shall the current of our right run on ? A peaceful progress to the ocean. 340 Leave them as naked as the vulgar air. K. John. Now, by the sky that hangs above I like it well. France, shall we knit our powers K. Phi. England, thou hast not sav'd one And lay this Angiers even with the ground; drop of blood, In this hot trial, more than we of France; Or add a royal number to the dead, Bast. Ha, majesty! how high thy glory towers When the rich blood of kings is set on fire! 351 0! now doth death line his dead chaps with steel; The swords of soldiers are his teeth, his fangs; Why stand these royal fronts amazed thus ? Then after fight who shall be king of it ? 400 Bast. An if thou hast the mettle of a king, First Cit. Hear us, great kings: vouchsafe awhile to stay, 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, Lord of our presence, Angiers, and of you. K. John. Speak on with favour: we are bent First Cit. That daughter there of Spain, the Is niece to England: look upon the years First Cit. A greater power than we denies all Of Lewis the Dauphin and that lovely maid. this; And till it be undoubted, we do lock Bast. By heaven, these scroyles of Angiers And stand securely on their battlements, As in a theatre, whence they gape and point Do like the mutines of Jerusalem, Be friends awhile and both conjointly bend Your sharpest deeds of malice on this town. 380 down The flinty ribs of this contemptuous city: I'd play incessantly upon these jades, If lusty love should go in quest of beauty, Blanch? Such as she is, in beauty, virtue, birth, If want it be not that she is not he: 430 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, an That any thing he sees, which moves his liking, I can with case translate it to my will; Or if you will, to speak more properly, I will enforce it easily to my love. Further I will not flatter you, my lord, That all I see in you is worthy love, Than this: that nothing do I see in you, Though churlish thoughts themselves should be 530 460 your judge That I can find should merit any hate. K. John. What say these young ones? What say you, my niece? He gives the bastinado with his tongue; Our ears are cudgell'd; not a word of his But buffets better than a fist of France. 'Zounds! I was never so bethump'd with words Since I first call'd my brother's father dad. Eli. Son, list to this conjunction, make this match; 470 Give with our niece a dowry large enough; Are capable of this ambition, Lest zeal, now melted by the windy breath Cool and congeal again to what it was. First Cit. Why answer not the double majesties 480 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, Can in this book of beauty read, 'I love,' Her dowry shall weigh equal with a queen: For Anjou and fair Touraine, Maine, Poictiers, And all that we upon this side the sea, Except this city now by us besieg'd, Find liable to our crown and dignity, 400 Shall gild her bridal bed and make her rich In titles, honours, and promotions, As she in beauty, education, blood, Holds hand with any princess of the world. Blanch. That she is bound in honour still to do What you in wisdom still 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, With her to thee; and this addition more, Full thirty thousand marks of English coin. Philip of France, if thou be pleas'd withal, Command thy son and daughter to join hands. K. Phi. It likes us well. Young princes, close your hands. 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, Let in that amity which you have made; For at Saint Mary's chapel presently The rites of marriage shall be solemniz'd. Is not the Lady Constance in this troop! I know she is not; for this match made up Her presence would have interrupted much. Where is she and her son? tell me, who knows. Lew. She is sad and passionate at your high ness' tent. K. Phi. And, by my faith, this league that we have made Will give her sadness very little cure. Brother of England, how may we content This widow lady? In her right we came; Which we, God knows, have turn'd another way. To our own vantage. We will heal up all; 35) For we'll create young Arthur Duke of Bretagne And Earl of Richmond; and this rich fair town We make him lord of. Call the Lady Constance: K. Phi. What say'st thou, boy look in the Some speedy messenger bid her repair lady's face. Lew. I do, my lord; and in her eye I find A wonder, or a wondrous miracle, The shadow of myself form'd in her eve; 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. 501 Whispers with BLANCH. To our solemnity: I trust we shall, Exeunt all but the Bastard. The Citizens Bast. Mad world! mad kings! mad composi K. John. tion! John, to stop Arthur's title in the whole, What means that hand upon that breast of thine? And France, whose armour conscience buckled on, Like a proud river peering o'er his bounds? Whom zeal and charity brought to the field As God's own soldier, rounded in the ear Be these sad signs confirmers of thy words? 571 sorrow, But the word 'maid,' cheats the poor maid of that; That smooth-fac'd gentleman, tickling Commodity; Commodity, the bias of the world; 580 The world, who of itself is peised well, Ugly and slanderous to thy mother's womb, Full of unpleasing blots and sightless stains, Lame, foolish, crooked, swart, prodigious, Patch'd with foul moles and eye-offending marks, 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. 50 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, O! She is corrupted, chang'd, and won from thee : She adulterates hourly with thine uncle John, Exit. And with her golden hand hath pluck'd on France But for because he hath not woo'd me yet. Turning with splendour of his precious eye Const. Rising. A wicked day, and not a holy day! Among the high tides in the calendar ? 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 Lest that their hopes prodigiously be cross'd: K. John. What earthly name to interrogatories Thou canst not, cardinal, devise a name 150 England Pray that their burdens may not fall this day, 90 Can task the free breath of a sacred king? But on this day let seamen fear no wreck; K. Phi. By heaven, lady, you shall have no Thou little valiant, great in villany! Thou ever strong upon the stronger side! To teach thee safety! thou art perjur'd too, 120 to me. Bast. And hang a calf's-skin on those recreant limbs. Add thus much more: that no Italian priest 160 K. Phi. Brother of England, you blaspheme in this. K. John. Though you and all the kings of Are led so grossly by this meddling priest, 170 Pand. Then, by the lawful power that I have, Thou shalt stand curs'd and excommunicate; And blessed shall he be that doth revolt From his allegiance to an heretic; And meritorious shall that hand be call'd, Canonized and worshipp'd as a saint, That takes away by any secret course Thy hateful life. Const. O! lawful let it be Const. And for mine too: when law can do no Let it be lawful that law bar no wrong. Pand. Philip of France, on peril of a curse, Eli. Look'st thou pale, France? do not let go thy hand. Const. Look to that, devil, lest that France And by disjoining hands, hell lose a soul. |