In such a just and charitable war.

K. Phi. Well, then, to work our cannon shall be bent

Against the brows of this resisting town.-
Call for our chiefest men of discipline,
To cull the plots of best advantages:
We'll lay before this town our royal bones,
Wade to the market-place in Frenchmen's
blood,

But we will make it subject to this boy.

Const. Stay for an answer to your embassy, Lest unadvis'd you stain your swords with blood:

My lord Chatillon may from England bring That right in peace, which here we urge in war; And then we shall repent each drop of blood, That hot rash haste so indirectly shed.

Enter Chatillon.

K. Phi. A wonder, lady!-lo, upon thy wish, Our messenger, Chatillon, is arriv'd.— What England says, say briefly, gentle lord ; We coldly pause for thee; Chatillon, speak. Chat. Then turn your forces from this paltry siege,

[time

And stir them up against a mightier task.
England, impatient of your just demands,
Hath put himself in arms: the adverse winds,
Whose leisure I have stay'd, have given him
To land his legions all as soon as I:
His marches are expedient to this town,
His forces strong, his soldiers confident.
With him along is come the mother-queen,
An Atè, stirring him to blood and strife:
With her her niece, the lady Blanch of Spain;
With them a bastard of the king's deceas'd,
And all th' unsettled humours of the land,
Rash, inconsiderate, fiery voluntaries,
With ladies' faces, and fierce dragons' spleens,-
Have sold their fortunes at their native homes,
Bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs,
To make a hazard of new fortunes here:
In brief, a braver choice of dauntless spirits,
Than now the English bottoms have waft o'er,
Did never float upon the swelling tide,
To do offence and scath in Christendom.
[Drums beat within.
The interruption of their churlish drums
Cuts off more circumstance: they are at hand,
To parley, or to fight; therefore, prepare.
K. Phi. How much unlook'd for is this ex-
pedition!

Aust. 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 forces.

K. John. Peace be to France, if France in peace permit

Our just and lineal entrance to our own!

[turn K. Phi. Peace be to England; if that war reFrom 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 maiden virtue 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'ermasterest?
K. John. From whom hast thou this great
commission, France,

To draw my answer from thy articles?

K. Phi. 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.

K. John. Alack, thou dost usurp authority. K. Phi. Excuse: it is to beat usurping down. Eli. Who is it thou dost call usurper, France? Const. Let me make answer-thy usurping [king.

son.

Eli. Out, insolent! thy bastard shall be That thou mayst be a queen, and check the world!

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
Aust. Peace!
[would blot thee.
Bast.
Hear the crier.
What the devil art thou?

Aust.

Bast. One that will play the devil, sir, with

you,

An 'a may catch your hide and you alone:

heaven!

Whose valour plucks dead lions by the beard:

right;

Sirrah, look to't; i' faith, I will, i' faith.

Blanch. O, well did he become that lion's That did disrobe the lion of that robe! [robe, Bast. It lies as sightly on the back of him, As great Alcides' shoes upon an ass :--But, ass, I'll take that burden from your back, Or lay on that shall make your shoulders crack. 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.
[ference.-
Lew. Women and fools, break off your con-
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?
K. John. My life as soon :-I do defy thee,
France,-

Arthur of Bretagne, 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.

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; I am not worth this coil that's made for me. Eli. His mother shames him so, poor boy, he weeps. [or no! Const. Now, shame upon you, whe'r she does, His grandam's wrongs, and not his mother's shames, [poor eyes, Draw those heaven-moving pearls from his 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. Eli. Thou monstrous slanderer of heaven and earth! [and earth! Const. Thou monstrous injurer of heaven Call not me slanderer; thou and thine usurp The dominations, royalties, and rights,

[son,

Of this oppressed boy: this is thy eldest son's
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.
K. John. Bedlam, have done.
Const.

I have but this to say,-
That he is not only plagued for her sins,
Bat God hath made her sin and her the plague
On this removed issue, plagu'd 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!
Eli. Thou unadvised scold, I can produce

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
To these ill-tuned repetitions.-
Some trumpet summon hither 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.

I Cit. Who is it that hath warn'd us to the
K. Phi. 'Tis France, for England. [walls?
K. John.
England for itself:

You men of Angiers, and my loving subjects, K. Phi. You loving men of Angiers, Arthur's subjects,

Our trumpet call'd you to this gentle parle.
K. 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 merciless proceeding by these French,
Confront your city's eyes, your winking gates;
And, but for our approach, those sleeping
That as a waist do girdle you about, [stones,
By the compulsion of their ordnance
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,
[cheeks,

To save unscratch'd your city's threaten'd
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 ears:
Which trust accordingly, kind citizens,
And let us in, your king; whose labour'd
spirits,

Forwearied in this action of swift speed,
Crave harbourage within your city walls.
K. Phi. 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

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, Gracing the scroll, that tells of this war's loss, With slaughter coupled to the name of kings. Bast. Ha, majesty! how high thy glory

towers.

When the rich blood of kings is set on fire!
O, now doth death line his dead chaps with
steel;

The swords of soldiers are his teeth, his fangs;
And now he feasts, mousing the flesh of men,
In undetermin'd differences of kings.-
Why stand these royal fronts amazed thus?
Cry, havoc, kings! back to the stainèd field,
You equal potents, fiery-kindled spirits!
Then let confusion of one part confirm
The other's peace; till then, blows, blood, and
death!
[admit?
K. John. Whose party do the townsmen yet
K. Phi. Speak, citizens, for England; who's
your king

1 Cit. The king of England, when we know
the king.
[his right.
K. Phi. Know him in us, that here hold up
K. John. In us, that are our own great de-
puty,

And bear possession of our person here;
Lord of our presence, Angiers, and of you.

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. Bast. By heaven, these scroyles of Angiers flout you, kings,

And stand securely on their battlements,
As in a theatre, whence they gape and point
At your industrious scenes and acts of death.
Your royal presences be rul'd by me:
Do like the mutines of Jerusalem,
Be friends awhile, and both conjointly bend
Your sharpest deeds of malice on this town.
By east and west let France and England
[mouths,
Their battering cannon, charged to the
Till their soul-fearing clamours have brawl'd
down

mount

The flinty ribs of this contemptuous city:
I'd play incessantly upon these jades,
Even till unfenced desolation

Leave them as naked as the vulgar air.
That done, dissever your united strengths,
And part your mingled colours once again;
Turn face to face, and bloody point to point;
Then, in a moment, fortune shall cull forth
Out of one side her happy minion,
To whom in favour she shall give the day,
And kiss him with a glorious victory.
How like you this wild counsel, mighty states?

Smacks it not something of the policy

K. John. Now, by the sky that hangs above our heads,

I like it well.-France, shall we knit our powers, And lay this Angiers even with the ground; Then, after, fight who shall be king of it?

Bast. An if thou hast the metal 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. [struction

Aust. I from the north.
K. Phi.

Our thunder from the south, Shall rain their drift of bullets on this town. Bast. [Aside.] O, prudent discipline! From north to south,

Austria and France shoot in each other's mouth: 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-fac'd 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. [Blanch,

I Cit. That daughter there of Spain, the lady
Is near to England: look upon the years
Of Lewis the Dauphin, and that lovely maid.
If lusty love should go in quest of beauty,
Where should he find it fairer than in Blanch?
If zealous love should go in search of virtue,
Where should he find it purer than in Blanch?
If love ambitious sought a match of birth,
Whose veins bound richer blood than lady
Blanch?

Such as she is, in beauty, virtue, birth,
Is the young Dauphin every way complete ;
If not complete of, say, he is not she:
And she again wants nothing, to name want,
If want it be not, that she is not he:
He is the half part of a blessed man,
Left to be finished by such a she;
And she a fair divided excellence,
Whose fulness of perfection lies in him.
O, two such silver currents, when they join,
Do glorify the banks that bound them in ;
And two such shores to two such streams made
one,
[kings,
Two such controlling bounds shall you be,
To these two princes, if you marry them.
This union shall do more than battery can
To our fast-closed gates; for, at this match,
With swifter spleen than powder can enforce,
The mouth of passage shall we fling wide ope,
And give you entrance: but without this match,