Enter CHATIllon. K. Phi. A wonder, lady!-lo, upon thy wish, Our messenger Chatillon is arriv'd. What England says, say briefly, gentle lord, His marches are expedient5 to this town, [Drums beat. Cuts off more circumstance; they are at hand, To parley, or to fight; therefore, prepare. 5 Immediate, expeditious. 6 The Goddess of Revenge. 7 Waft for wafted. So in another place in this play we have heat for heated : 'The iron of itself though heat red hot,' 8 Damage, harm, hurt. K. Phi. How much unlook'd 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 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! If not; bleed France, and peace ascend to heaven! K. Phi. Peace be to England; if that war return Outfaced infant state, and done a rape Upon the maiden virtue of the crown. Look here upon thy brother Geffrey's face:— 11 A short writing, abstract, or description. When living blood doth in these temples beat, To draw my answer from thy articles? K. Phi. From that supernal 12 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: It cannot be, an if thou wert his mother 14. 12 Celestial. 13 Surely (says Holinshed), Queen Eleanor, the king's mother, was sore against her nephew Arthur, rather moved thereto by envye conceyved against his mother, than upon any just occasion, given in behalfe of the childe; for that she saw, if he were king, how his mother Constance would looke to beare the most rule within the realme of Englande, till her son should come of lawful age to governe of himselfe. So hard a thing it is to bring women to agree in one minde, their natures commonly being so contrary. 14 Constance alludes to Elinor's infidelity to her husband, Louis the VIIth, when they were in the Holy Land; on account of which he was divorced from her. She afterwards, in 1151, married our King Henry II. Eli. There's a good mother, boy, that blots thy father. Const. There's a good grandam, boy, that would blot thee. Aust. Peace! Bast. Aust. Hear the crier 15. What the devil art thou? Bast. One that will play the devil, sir, with you, An 'a may catch your hide and you alone 16. You are the hare of whom the proverb goes, Whose valour plucks dead lions by the beard 17; 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! Bast. It lies as sightly on the back of him, As great Alcides' shoes 18 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 confer King John, this is the very sum of all,— 15 Alluding to the usual proclamation for silence made by criers in the courts of justice, beginning Oyez, corruptly pronounced O-yes. Austria had just said Peace! 16 Austria, who had killed King Richard Coeur-de-lion, wore, as the spoil of that prince, a lion's hide, which had belonged to him. This was the ground of the Bastard's quarrel. 17 The proverb alluded to is Mortuo leoni et lepores insultant.'-Erasmi Adagia. 18 Theobald thought that we should read Alcides' shows; but Malone has shown that the shoes of Hercules were very frequently introduced in the old comedies on much the same occasions. Theobald supposed that the shoes must be placed on the back of the ass, instead of upon his hoofs, and therefore proposed his alteration. England, and Ireland, Anjou, Touraine, Maine, Wilt thou resign them, and lay down thy arms? Arthur of Bretagne, yield thee to my hand; Eli. Come to thy grandam, child. There's a good grandam. Good my mother, peace! I would, that I were low laid in my grave; I am not worth this coil 19 that's made for me. weeps. Const. Now shame upon you, whe'r 20 she does or no! His grandam's wrongs, and not his mother's shames, Eli. Thou monstrous slanderer of heaven and earth! Of this oppressed boy: This is thy eldest 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, 19 Bustle. 20 Whether. VOL. IV. H H |