SCENE I.France.Before Angiers
Enter AUSTRIA and forces,drums,etc.on one side:on the other KING PHILIP and his power;LEWIS,ARTHUR,CONSTANCE and attendants LEWIS Before Angiers well met,brave Austria.
Arthur,that great forerunner of thy blood,Richard,that robb'd the lion of his heart And fought the holy wars in Palestine,By this brave duke came early to his grave:
And for amends to his posterity,At our importance hither is he come,To spread his colours,boy,in thy behalf,And to rebuke the usurpation Of thy unnatural uncle,English John:
Embrace him,love him,give him welcome hither.ARTHUR God shall forgive you Coeur-de-lion's death The rather that you give his offspring life,Shadowing their right under your wings of war:
I give you welcome with a powerless hand,But with a heart full of unstained love:
Welcome before the gates of Angiers,duke.LEWIS A noble boy!Who would not do thee right?AUSTRIA Upon thy cheek lay I this zealous kiss,As seal to this indenture of my love,That to my home I will no more return,Till Angiers and the right thou hast in France,Together with that pale,that white-faced shore,Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring tides And coops from other lands her islanders,Even till that England,hedged in with the main,That water-walled bulwark,still secure And confident from foreign purposes,Even till that utmost corner of the west Salute thee for her king:till then,fair boy,Will I not think of home,but follow arms.CONSTANCE O,take his mother's thanks,a widow's thanks,Till your strong hand shall help to give him strength To make a more requital to your love!AUSTRIA The peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swords In such a just and charitable war.KING PHILIP 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.CONSTANCE Stay for an answer to your embassy,Lest unadvised 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 KING PHILIP A wonder,lady!lo,upon thy wish,Our messenger Chatillon is arrived!
What England says,say briefly,gentle lord;
We coldly pause for thee;Chatillon,speak.CHATILLON Then turn your forces from this paltry siege 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 time 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 Ate,stirring him to blood and strife;With her her niece,the Lady Blanch of Spain;With them a bastard of the king's 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 birthrights proudly on their backs,To make hazard of new fortunes here:
In brief,a braver choice of dauntless spirits Than now the English bottoms have waft o'er Did nearer float upon the swelling tide,To do offence and scath 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 endavour for defence;For courage mounteth with occasion:
Let them be welcome then:we are prepared.
Enter KING JOHN,QUEEN ELINOR,BLANCH,the BASTARD,Lords,and forces 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,Out-faced 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?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.QUEEN ELINOR Who is it thou dost call usurper,France?CONSTANCE Let me make answer;thy usurping son.QUEEN ELINOR Out,insolent!thy bastard shall be king,That thou mayst be a queen,and cheque 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 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.