It cannot be,an if thou wert his mother.QUEEN 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 burthen from your back,Or lay on that shall make your shoulders crack.AUSTRIA What craker is this same that deafs our ears With this abundance of superfluous breath?KING PHILIP Lewis,determine what we shall do straight.LEWIS 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 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.QUEEN 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.QUEEN ELINOR His mother shames him so,poor boy,he weeps.CONSTANCE Now shame upon you,whether 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 bribed To do him justice and revenge on you.QUEEN 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 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 On this removed issue,plague 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!QUEEN 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 canker'd 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 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 certain Citizens upon the walls First 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 All merciless proceeding by these French Confronts 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 countercheque before your gates,To save unscratch'd your city's threatened cheeks,Behold,the French amazed 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.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 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'malice vainly shall be spent Against the invulnerable clouds of heaven;And with a blessed and unvex'd retire,With unhack'd 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 proffer'd offer,'Tis not the roundure of your old-faced 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 challenged it?