With him along is come the mother-queen,

An Até1, stirring him to blood and strife;
With her, her niece, the lady Blanch of Spain;
With them, a bastard of the king deceased:
And all the 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 birthright 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 2,
Did never float upon the swelling tide,
To do offence and scathe3 in Christendom.
The interruption of their churlish1 drums
Cuts off more circumstance: they are at hand,
To parley, or to fight; therefore, prepare.

[Drums beat.

K. Phi. How much unlooked for is this expedition !
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 prepared.

Enter, King JOHN, ELINOR, BLANCH, FAULCONBRIDGE, PEMBROKE, and Forces.

K. 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 beat his peace to heaven.
K. Phi. 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 underwrought his lawful king.
Look here upon thy brother Geffrey's face;
These eyes, these brows, were moulded out of his :

1 Até, according to Hesiod, a daughter of Eris (strife), was an ancient Greek divinity, who incited both gods and men to rash and inconsiderate actions.

--

2 For wafted (as sent for sended, &c.).

5 Injury, destruction.

4 Churlish, like peasants, rough and noisy.

That Geffrey was thy elder brother born,

And this is Geffrey's1: in the name of heaven,
How comes it then, that thou art called a king?

K. John. From whom hast thou this great commission,
France,

To draw my answer from thy articles?

K. Phi. From that supernal judge, who 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 son.
Aust. Peace!

Faul.

Aust.

Faul.

Hear the crier.

What art thou?

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 it; i' faith, I will, i' faith.

Blanch. O, well did he become that lion's robe,
That did disrobe the lion of that robe.

Faul. It lies as sightly on the back of him,
As great Alcides'2 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. Lew. 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?

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.

1 Son and successor (understood).

2 A name of Hercules.

Eli.

Come to thy grandame, child.

Const. Do, child, go to it' grandame, child; Give grandame kingdom, and it' grandame will Give it a plum, a cherry, and a fig:

There's a good grandame.

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.
Const. Now shame upon you, whe'r 2 she does or no !
His grandame's wrongs, and not his mother's shames,
Draw 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 bribed
To do him justice, and revenge on you.

Eli. Thou monstrous slanderer of heaven and earth!
Const. Thou monstrous injurer of heaven and earth!
Call me not slanderer; thou and thine usurp

The dominations, royalties, and rights,

Of this oppressèd boy.

Eli. Thou unadvisèd 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 cankered grandame's will!

K. Phi. Peace, lady; pause, or be more temperate : It ill beseems this presence, to cry aim

To these ill-tunèd 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.

Trumpets sound. Enter Citizens upon the walls.
Cit. Who is it, that hath warned us to these walls?
K. Phi. "Tis France, for England.

England, for itself:

K. John.
You men of Angiers, and my loving subjects,

K. Phi. You men of Angiers, Arthur's loving subjects, Our trumpet called you to this gentle parle.

K. John. For our advantage; Therefore, hear us

first.

These flags of France, that are advanced here

1 Tumult, quarrel.

2 Whether.

Before the eye and prospect of your town,
Have hither marched to your endamagement.
All preparation for a bloody siege,

And merciless proceeding, by these French,
Confronts your city's eyes, your winking gates;
But on the sight of us, your lawful king,—
Who painfully, with much expedient march,
Have brought a countercheck before your gates,
To save, unscratched, your city's threatened cheeks,-
Behold the French, amazed, vouchsafe a parle;
And now, instead of bullets wrapped 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 laboured spirits
Forwearied in this action of swift speed,
Craves 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 divinely3 vowed 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 oppressèd 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 aspéct, have all offence sealed up;
Our cannons' malice vainly shall be spent
Against the invulnerable clouds of heaven;
And, with a blessèd and unvexed retire,
With unhacked swords, and helmets all unbruised,
We will bear home that lusty blood again,

1 This is an anachronism; gunpowder was not used in European warfare, till more than a hundred years after John's death.

2 Became weary (a verb, not a participle).

3 Solemnly.
4 Owns.

Which here we came to spout against your town,
And leave your children, wives, and you, in peace.
But if you fondly pass our proffered offer,
'Tis not the roundure2 of your old-faced walls
Can hide you from our messengers of war;
Though all these English, and their discipline,
Were harboured in their rude circumference.
Then, tell us, shall your city call us lord,
In that behalf which we have challenged it?
Or shall we give the signal to our rage,
And stalk in blood to our possession ?

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.
Cit. That can we not: but he that proves the king,

To him will we prove loyal; till that time,

Have we rammed 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.

Cit. Till you compound whose right is worthiest,

We, for the worthiest, hold the right from both.

K. John. Then Heaven forgive the sin of all those souls, That to their everlasting residence,

Before the dew of evening fall, shall fleet,

In dreadful trial of our kingdom's king!

K. Phi. Amen! Amen!-Mount, chevaliers! to arms! Faul. St. George, -that swinged the dragon, and e'er since,

Sits on his horseback at mine hostess' door,

Teach us some fence! - Sirrah, were I at home,

Faul. 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.

Faul. 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!

1 Foolishly, madly.

2 Encompassment.

[Exeunt.