Did never float upon the swelling tide
To do offence and scathe in Christendom. [Drum beats]
The
interruption of their churlish drums
Cuts off more circumstance: they are at hand;
To parley or to fight,
therefore prepare.
KING PHILIP. How much unlook'd for is this expedition!
AUSTRIA. By how much
unexpected, by so much
We must awake
endeavour for defence,
For courage mounteth with occasion.
Let them be
welcome then; we are prepar'd.
Enter KING JOHN, ELINOR, BLANCH, the BASTARD,
PEMBROKE, and others
KING JOHN. Peace be to France, if France in peace permit
Our just and lineal entrance to our own!
If not, bleed France, and peace
ascend to heaven,
Whiles we, God's wrathful agent, do correct
Their proud
contempt that beats His peace to heaven!
KING PHILIP. Peace be to England, if that war return
From France to England, there to live in peace!
England we love, and for that England's sake
With burden of our
armour here we sweat.
This toil of ours should be a work of thine;
But thou from
loving England art so far
That thou hast under-wrought his
lawful king,
Cut off the
sequence of posterity,
Outfaced
infant state, and done a rape
Upon the
maidenvirtue of the crown.
Look here upon thy brother Geffrey's face:
These eyes, these brows, were moulded out of his;
This little
abstract doth
contain that large
Which died in Geffrey, and the hand of time
Shall draw this brief into as huge a volume.
That Geffrey was thy elder brother born,
And this his son; England was Geffrey's right,
And this is Geffrey's. In the name of God,
How comes it then that thou art call'd a king,
When living blood doth in these temples beat
Which owe the crown that thou o'er-masterest?
KING JOHN. From whom hast thou this great
commission, France,
To draw my answer from thy articles?
KING PHILIP. From that supernal judge that stirs good thoughts
In any breast of strong authority
To look into the blots and stains of right.
That judge hath made me
guardian to this boy,
Under whose
warrant I
impeach thy wrong,
And by whose help I mean to
chastise it.
KING JOHN. Alack, thou dost usurp authority.
KING PHILIP. Excuse it is to beat usurping down.
ELINOR. Who is it thou dost call usurper, France?
CONSTANCE. Let me make answer: thy usurping son.
ELINOR. Out, insolent! Thy
bastard shall be king,
That thou mayst be a queen and check the world!
CONSTANCE. 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 Eke
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.
ELINOR. There's a good mother, boy, that blots thy father.
CONSTANCE. There's a good grandam, boy, that would blot thee.
AUSTRIA. Peace!
BASTARD. Hear the crier.
AUSTRIA. What the devil art thou?
BASTARD. One that will play the devil, sir, with you,
An 'a may catch your hide and you alone.
You are the hare of whom the
proverb goes,
Whose
valour plucks dead lions by the beard;
I'll smoke your skin-coat an I catch you right;
Sirrah, look to 't; i' faith I will, i' faith.
BLANCH. O, well did he become that lion's robe
That did disrobe the lion of that robe!
BASTARD. It lies as sightly on the back of him
As great Alcides' shows upon an ass;
But, ass, I'll take that burden from your back,
Or lay on that shall make your shoulders crack.
AUSTRIA. What
cracker is this same that deafs our ears
With this
abundance of
superfluous breath?
King Philip, determine what we shall do straight.
KING PHILIP. Women and fools, break off your conference.
King John, this is the very sum of all:
England and Ireland, Anjou, Touraine, Maine,
In right of Arthur, do I claim of thee;
Wilt thou
resign them and lay down thy arms?
KING JOHN. My life as soon. I do defy thee, France.
Arthur of Britaine, yield thee to my hand,
And out of my dear love I'll give thee more
Than e'er the
coward hand of France can win.
Submit thee, boy.
ELINOR. Come to thy grandam, child.
CONSTANCE. 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!
ARTHUR. Good my mother, peace!
I would that I were low laid in my grave:
I am not worth this coil that's made for me.
ELINOR. His mother shames him so, poor boy, he weeps.
CONSTANCE. Now shame upon you, whe'er she does or no!
His grandam's wrongs, and not his mother's shames,
Draws those heaven-moving pearls from his poor eyes,
Which heaven shall take in nature of a fee;
Ay, with these
crystal beads heaven shall be brib'd
To do him justice and
revenge on you.
ELINOR. Thou
monstrous slanderer of heaven and earth!
CONSTANCE. Thou
monstrous injurer of heaven and earth,
Call not me slanderer! Thou and thine usurp
The dominations, royalties, and rights,
Of this oppressed boy; this is thy
eldest son's son,
Infortunate in nothing but in thee.
Thy sins are visited in this poor child;
The canon of the law is laid on him,
Being but the second generation
Removed from thy sin-conceiving womb.
KING JOHN. Bedlam, have done.
CONSTANCE. I have but this to say-
That he is not only
plagued for her sin,
But God hath made her sin and her the
plagueOn this removed issue,
plagued for her
And with her
plague; her sin his
injury,
Her
injury the beadle to her sin;
All punish'd in the person of this child,
And all for her-a
plague upon her!
ELINOR. Thou unadvised scold, I can produce
A will that bars the title of thy son.
CONSTANCE. Ay, who doubts that? A will, a
wicked will;
A woman's will; a cank'red grandam's will!
KING PHILIP. Peace, lady! pause, or be more temperate.
It ill beseems this presence to cry aim
To these ill-tuned repetitions.
Some
trumpetsummonhither to the walls
These men of Angiers; let us hear them speak
Whose title they admit, Arthur's or John's.
Trumpet sounds. Enter citizens upon the walls
CITIZEN. Who is it that hath warn'd us to the walls?
KING PHILIP. 'Tis France, for England.
KING JOHN. England for itself.
You men of Angiers, and my
loving subjects-
KING PHILIP. You
loving men of Angiers, Arthur's subjects,
Our
trumpet call'd you to this gentle parle-
KING JOHN. For our
advantage;
therefore hear us first.
These flags of France, that are
advanced here
Before the eye and
prospect of your town,
Have
hither march'd to your endamagement;
The cannons have their bowels full of wrath,
And ready mounted are they to spit forth
Their iron
indignation 'gainst your walls;
All
preparation for a
bloody siege
And
mercilessproceeding by these French
Confront your city's eyes, your winking gates;
And but for our approach those
sleeping stones
That as a waist doth
girdle you about
By the
compulsion of their ordinance
By this time from their fixed beds of lime
Had been dishabited, and wide havoc made
For
bloody power to rush upon your peace.
But on the sight of us your
lawful king,
Who
painfully with much
expedient march
Have brought a countercheck before your gates,
To save unscratch'd your city's threat'ned cheeks-
Behold, the French amaz'd
vouchsafe a parle;
And now, instead of bullets wrapp'd in fire,
To make a shaking fever in your walls,
They shoot but calm words folded up in smoke,
To make a
faithless error in your cars;
Which trust
accordingly, kind citizens,
And let us in-your King, whose labour'd spirits,
Forwearied in this action of swift speed,
Craves harbourage within your city walls.
KING PHILIP. When I have said, make answer to us both.
Lo, in this right hand, whose protection
Is most divinely vow'd upon the right
Of him it holds, stands young Plantagenet,
Son to the elder brother of this man,
And king o'er him and all that he enjoys;
For this down-trodden
equity we tread
In
warlike march these greens before your town,
Being no further enemy to you
Than the constraint of
hospitable zeal
In the
relief of this oppressed child
Religiously provokes. Be pleased then
To pay that duty which you truly owe
To him that owes it,
namely, this young prince;
And then our arms, like to a muzzled bear,
Save in
aspect, hath all offence seal'd up;
Our cannons'
malicevainly shall be spent
Against th' invulnerable clouds of heaven;
And with a
blessed and unvex'd retire,
With unhack'd swords and helmets all unbruis'd,
We will bear home that lusty blood again
Which here we came to spout against your town,
And leave your children, wives, and you, in peace.
But if you
fondly pass our proffer'd offer,
'Tis not the roundure of your old-fac'd walls
Can hide you from our messengers of war,
Though all these English and their discipline
Were harbour'd in their rude circumference.
Then tell us, shall your city call us lord
In that
behalf which we have challeng'd it;
Or shall we give the signal to our rage,