The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works
Page 145
Our messenger Châtillon is arrived.—
What England says, say briefly, gentle lord;
We coldly pause for thee. Châtillon, speak.
CHTILLON
Then turn your forces from this paltry siege,
And stir them up against a mightier task. 55
England, impatient of your just demands,
Hath put himself in arms. The adverse winds,
Whose leisure I have stayed, have given him time
To land his legions all as soon as I.
His marches are expedient to this town, 60
His forces strong, his soldiers confident.
With him along is come the Mother-Queen,
An Ate stirring him to blood and strife;
With her her niece, the Lady Blanche of Spain;
With them a bastard of the King’s deceased; 65
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, 70
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 scathe in Christendom. 75
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 unlooked-for is this expedition I
AUSTRIA
By how much unexpected, by so much 80
We must awake endeavour for defence,
For courage mounteth with occasion.
Let them be welcome then: we are prepared.
Enter, ⌈marching,⌉ King John of England, the Bastard, Queen Eleanor, Lady Blanche, the Earl of Pembroke, and soldiers
KING JOHN
Peace be to France, if France in peace permit
Our just and lineal entrance to our own. 85
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 underwrought his lawful king, 95
Cut off the sequence of posterity,
Outfaced infant state, and done a rape
Upon the maiden virtue of the crown.
(Pointing to Arthur)
Look here upon thy brother Geoffrey’s face.
These eyes, these brows, were moulded out of his; 100
This little abstract doth contain that large
Which died in Geoffrey; and the hand of time
Shall draw this brief into as huge a volume.
That Geoffrey was thy elder brother born,
And this his son; England was Geoffrey’s right, 105
And this is Geoffrey’s. In the name of God,
How comes it then that thou art called a king,
When living blood doth in these temples beat,
Which owe the crown that thou o’ermasterest?
KING JOHN
From whom hast thou this great commission, France,
To draw my answer from thy articles? 111
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, 115
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.
QUEEN ELEANOR
Who is it thou dost call usurper, France? 120
CONSTANCE
Let me make answer: thy usurping son.
QUEEN ELEANOR
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 125
Liker in feature to his father Geoffrey
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. 130
It cannot be, an if thou wert his mother.
QUEEN ELEANOR (to Arthur)
There’s a good mother, boy, that blots thy father.
CONSTANCE (to Arthur)
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, 135
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!! 140
BLANCHE
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, 145
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 PHILIPI⌉
Women and fools, break off your conference.—150
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.—155
Arthur of Brittaine, 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.
QUEEN ELEANOR (to Arthur) Come to thy grandam, child.
CONSTANCE (to Arthur)
Do, child, go to it grandam, child. 160
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. 165
He weeps
QUEEN ELEANOR
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,
Draw those heaven-moving pearls from his poor eyes,
Which heaven shall take in nature of a fee; 170
Ay, with these crystal beads heaven shall be bribed
To do him justice and revenge on you.
QUEEN ELEANOR
Thou monstrous slanderer of heaven and earth !
&n
bsp; CONSTANCE
Thou monstrous injurer of heaven and earth I
Call not me slanderer. Thou and thine usurp
The dominations, royalties and rights
Of this oppressed boy. This is thy eld’st 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 plague 185
On this removed issue, plagued for her
And with her plague; her sin his injury,
Her injury the beadle to her sin;
All punished in the person of this child,
And all for her. A plague upon her! 190
QUEEN ELEANOR
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 cankered grandam’s will!
KING PHILIP
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 Angers. Let us hear them speak
Whose title they admit, Arthur’s or John’s. 200
Trumpet sounds. Enter a Citizen upon the walls
CITIZEN
Who is it that hath warned us to the walls?
KING PHILIP
’Tis France for England.
KING JOHN England for itself.
You men of Angers and my loving subjects—
KING PHILIP
You loving men of Angers, Arthur’s subjects,
Our trumpet called you to this gentle parle—205
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 marched to your endamagement.
The cannons have their bowels full of wrath, 210
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; 215
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 fixèd beds of lime
Had been dishabited, and wide havoc made 220
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 unscratched your city’s threatened cheeks,
Behold the French, amazed, vouchsafe a parle; 226
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; 230
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.
KING PHILIP
When I have said, make answer to us both.He takes Arthur’s hand
Lo, in this right hand, whose protection
Is most divinely 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. 240
For this downtrodden 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 245
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 sealed up:
Our cannons’ malice vainly shall be spent
Against th’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
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 roundure of your old-faced walls
Can hide you from our messengers of war, 260
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, 265
And stalk in blood to our possession?
CITIZEN
In brief, we are the King of England’s subjects.
For him and in his right we hold this town.
KING JOHN
Acknowledge then the King, and let me in.
CITIZEN
That can we not; but he that proves the king, 270
To him will we prove loyal; till that time
Have we rammed up our gates against the world.
KING 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—
BASTARD (aside) Bastards and else. 276
KING JOHN
To verify our title with their lives.
KING PHILIP
As many and as well-born bloods as those—
BASTARD (aside) Some bastards too.
KING PHILIP
Stand in his face to contradict his claim. 280
CITIZEN
Till you compound whose right is worthiest,
We for the worthiest hold the right from both.
KING JOHN
Then God forgive the sin of all those souls
That to their everlasting residence,
Before the dew of evening fall, shall fleet 285
In dreadful trial of our kingdom’s king.
KING PHILIP
Amen, Amen! Mount, chevaliers! To arms!
BASTARD
Saint George that swinged the dragon, and e’er since
Sits on’s horseback at mine hostess’ door,
Teach us some fence! (To Austria) Sirrah, were I at
home 290
At your den, sirrah, with your lioness,
I would set an ox-head to your lion’s hide
And make a monster of you.
AUSTRIA Peace, no more.
BASTARD
O tremble, for you hear the lion roar!
KING JOHN
Up higher to the plain, where we’ll set forth 295
In best appointment all our regiments.
BASTARD
Speed then, to take advantage of the field.
KING PHILIP
It shall be so, and at the other hill
Command the rest to stand. God and our right!
Exeunt ⌈severally⌉ King John and King Philip with their powers. The Citizen remains on the walls ⌈Alarum.⌉ Here, after excursions, enter ⌈at one door⌉
FRENCH HERALD
You
men of Angers, open wide your gates 300
And let young Arthur Duke of Brittaine in,
Who by the hand of France this day hath made
Much work for tears in many an English mother,
Whose sons lie scattered on the bleeding ground;
Many a widow’s husband grovelling lies, 305
Coldly embracing the discoloured earth;
And victory with little loss doth play
Upon the dancing banners of the French,
Who are at hand, triumphantly displayed,
To enter conquerors, and to proclaim 310
Arthur of Brittaine England’s king and yours.
Enter ⌈at another door⌉ the English Herald, with a trumpeter
ENGLISH HERALD
Rejoice, you men of Angers, ring your bells!
King John, your king and England’s, doth approach,
Commander of this hot malicious day.
Their armours that marched hence so silver-bright 315
Hither return all gilt with Frenchmen’s blood.
There stuck no plume in any English crest
That is removed by a staff of France;
Our colours do return in those same hands
That did display them when we first marched forth;
And like a jolly troop of huntsmen come 321
Our lusty English, all with purpled hands
Dyed in the dying slaughter of their foes.
Open your gates and give the victors way.
⌈CITIZEN⌉
Heralds, from off our towers we might behold 325
From first to last the onset and retire
Of both your armies, whose equality
By our best eyes cannot be censurèd.
Blood hath bought blood and blows have answered
blows,
Strength matched with strength and power confronted
power. 330
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.
Enter at one door King John, the Bastard, Queen Eleanor and Lady Blanche, with soldiers; at another door King Philip, Louis the Dauphin, and the Duke of Austria with soldiers
KING JOHN
France, hast thou yet more blood to cast away?
Say, shall the current of our right run on, 335
Whose passage, vexed with thy impediment,
Shall leave his native channel and o’erswell
With course disturbed even thy confining shores,
Unless thou let his silver water keep
A peaceful progress to the ocean? 340
KING PHILIP
England, thou hast not saved one drop of blood
In this hot trial more than we of France;
Rather, lost more. And by this hand I swear,