The
imminent decay of wrested pomp.
Now happy he whose cloak and cincture can
Hold out this
tempest. Bear away that child,
And follow me with speed. I'll to the King;
A thousand businesses are brief in hand,
And heaven itself doth frown upon the land. Exeunt
ACT V. SCENE 1.
England. KING JOHN'S palace
Enter KING JOHN, PANDULPH, and attendants
KING JOHN. Thus have I yielded up into your hand
The
circle of my glory.
PANDULPH. [Gives back the crown] Take again
From this my hand, as
holding of the Pope,
Your
sovereigngreatness and authority.
KING JOHN. Now keep your holy word; go meet the French;
And from his Holiness use all your power
To stop their marches fore we are inflam'd.
Our
discontented counties do revolt;
Our people quarrel with obedience,
Swearing
allegiance and the love of soul
To stranger blood, to foreign royalty.
This inundation of mistemp'red humour
Rests by you only to be qualified.
Then pause not; for the present time's so sick
That present med'cine must be minist'red
Or
overthrowincurable ensues.
PANDULPH. It was my
breath that blew this
tempest up,
Upon your
stubborn usage of the Pope;
But since you are a gentle convertite,
My tongue shall hush again this storm of war
And make fair weather in your blust'ring land.
On this Ascension-day, remember well,
Upon your oath of service to the Pope,
Go I to make the French lay down their arms. Exit
KING JOHN. Is this Ascension-day? Did not the prophet
Say that before Ascension-day at noon
My crown I should give off? Even so I have.
I did suppose it should be on constraint;
But, heaven be thank'd, it is but
voluntary.
Enter the BASTARD
BASTARD. All Kent hath yielded; nothing there holds out
But Dover Castle. London hath receiv'd,
Like a kind host, the Dauphin and his powers.
Your nobles will not hear you, but are gone
To offer service to your enemy;
And wild
amazement hurries up and down
The little number of your
doubtful friends.
KING JOHN. Would not my lords return to me again
After they heard young Arthur was alive?
BASTARD. They found him dead, and cast into the streets,
An empty
casket, where the jewel of life
By some damn'd hand was robbed and ta'en away.
KING JOHN. That
villain Hubert told me he did live.
BASTARD. So, on my soul, he did, for aught he knew.
But
wherefore do you droop? Why look you sad?
Be great in act, as you have been in thought;
Let not the world see fear and sad distrust
Govern the
motion of a
kingly eye.
Be
stirring as the time; be fire with fire;
Threaten the threat'ner, and outface the brow
Of bragging
horror; so shall
inferior eyes,
That borrow their behaviours from the great,
Grow great by your example and put on
The
dauntless spirit of resolution.
Away, and glister like the god of war
When he intendeth to become the field;
Show
boldness and aspiring confidence.
What, shall they seek the lion in his den,
And
fright him there, and make him tremble there?
O, let it not be said! Forage, and run
To meet
displeasure farther from the doors
And
grapple with him ere he come so nigh.
KING JOHN. The legate of the Pope hath been with me,
And I have made a happy peace with him;
And he hath promis'd to
dismiss the powers
Led by the Dauphin.
BASTARD. O inglorious league!
Shall we, upon the
footing of our land,
Send fair-play orders, and make compromise,
Insinuation, parley, and base truce,
To arms invasive? Shall a beardless boy,
A cock'red
silkenwanton, brave our fields
And flesh his spirit in a
warlike soil,
Mocking the air with colours idly spread,
And find no check? Let us, my liege, to arms.
Perchance the Cardinal cannot make your peace;
Or, if he do, let it at least be said
They saw we had a purpose of defence.
KING JOHN. Have thou the ordering of this present time.
BASTARD. Away, then, with good courage!
Yet, I know
Our party may well meet a prouder foe. Exeunt
SCENE 2.
England. The DAUPHIN'S camp at Saint Edmundsbury
Enter, in arms, LEWIS, SALISBURY, MELUN,
PEMBROKE, BIGOT, and soldiers
LEWIS. My Lord Melun, let this be copied out
And keep it safe for our remembrance;
Return the
precedent to these lords again,
That, having our fair order written down,
Both they and we, perusing o'er these notes,
May know
wherefore we took the sacrament,
And keep our faiths firm and inviolable.
SALISBURY. Upon our sides it never shall be broken.
And, noble Dauphin,
albeit we swear
A
voluntary zeal and an unurg'd faith
To your proceedings; yet, believe me, Prince,
I am not glad that such a sore of time
Should seek a
plaster by contemn'd revolt,
And heal the inveterate
canker of one wound
By making many. O, it grieves my soul
That I must draw this metal from my side
To be a widow-maker! O, and there
Where
honourablerescue and defence
Cries out upon the name of Salisbury!
But such is the
infection of the time
That, for the health and physic of our right,
We cannot deal but with the very hand
Of stern
injustice and confused wrong.
And is't not pity, O my grieved friends!
That we, the sons and children of this isle,
Were born to see so sad an hour as this;
Wherein we step after a stranger-march
Upon her gentle bosom, and fill up
Her enemies' ranks-I must
withdraw and weep
Upon the spot of this enforced cause-
To grace the
gentry of a land remote
And follow unacquainted colours here?
What, here? O nation, that thou
couldst remove!
That Neptune's arms, who clippeth thee about,
Would bear thee from the knowledge of thyself
And
grapple thee unto a pagan shore,
Where these two Christian armies might combine
The blood of
malice in a vein of league,
And not to spend it so unneighbourly!
LEWIS. A noble
temper dost thou show in this;
And great affections wrestling in thy bosom
Doth make an
earthquake of nobility.
O, what a noble
combat hast thou fought
Between
compulsion and a brave respect!
Let me wipe off this
honourable dew
That silverly doth progress on thy cheeks.
My heart hath melted at a lady's tears,
Being an ordinary inundation;
But this effusion of such manly drops,
This show'r, blown up by
tempest of the soul,
Startles mine eyes and makes me more amaz'd
Than had I seen the vaulty top of heaven
Figur'd quite o'er with burning meteors.
Lift up thy brow,
renowned Salisbury,
And with a great heart heave away this storm;
Commend these waters to those baby eyes
That never saw the giant world enrag'd,
Nor met with fortune other than at feasts,
Full of warm blood, of mirth, of gossiping.
Come, come; for thou shalt
thrust thy hand as deep
Into the purse of rich prosperity
As Lewis himself. So, nobles, shall you all,
That knit your sinews to the strength of mine.
Enter PANDULPH
And even there,
methinks, an angel spake:
Look where the holy legate comes apace,
To give us
warrant from the hand of heaven
And on our actions set the name of right
With holy
breath.
PANDULPH. Hail, noble
prince of France!
The next is this: King John hath reconcil'd
Himself to Rome; his spirit is come in,
That so stood out against the holy Church,
The great
metropolis and see of Rome.
Therefore thy threat'ning colours now wind up
And tame the
savage spirit of wild war,
That, like a lion fostered up at hand,
It may lie
gently at the foot of peace
And be no further
harmful than in show.
LEWIS. Your Grace shall
pardon me, I will not back:
I am too high-born to be propertied,
To be a
secondary at control,
Or useful serving-man and instrument
To any
sovereign state throughout the world.
Your
breath first kindled the dead coal of wars
Between this chastis'd kingdom and myself
And brought in matter that should feed this fire;
And now 'tis far too huge to be blown out
With that same weak wind which enkindled it.
You taught me how to know the face of right,
Acquainted me with interest to this land,
Yea,
thrust this
enterprise into my heart;
And come ye now to tell me John hath made
His peace with Rome? What is that peace to me?
I, by the honour of my marriage-bed,
After young Arthur, claim this land for mine;
And, now it is half-conquer'd, must I back
Because that John hath made his peace with Rome?
Am I Rome's slave? What penny hath Rome borne,
What men provided, what munition sent,
To underprop this action? Is 't not I
That
undergo this
charge? Who else but I,
And such as to my claim are liable,
Sweat in this business and
maintain this war?
Have I not heard these islanders shout out