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' shoes1 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.

Eli.

Come to thy grandam, child. Const. 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.

Arth.

Good my mother, peace!

I would that I were low laid in my grave;

I am not worth this coil 2 that's made for me.

Eli. His mother shames him so, poor boy, he weeps. Const. Now shame upon you, whe'r she does

or no!

His grandam's wrongs, and not his mother's shames, Draw those Heaven-moving pearls from his poor eyes,

1 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.

2 Bustle.

3 Whether.

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 not me slanderer; thou, and thine, usurp The dominations, royalties, and rights,

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,
Being but the second generation
Removed from thy sin-conceiving womb.
K. John. Bedlam, have done.
Const.

I have but this to say,―

That he's not only plagued for her sin,
But God hath made her sin and her the plague
On this removed issue, plagued for her,
And with her plague, her sin; his injury
Her injury, the beadle to her sin ;1
All punished in the person of this child,
And all for her; a plague upon her!

Eli. Thou unadvised 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 grandam's will!

K. Phi. Peace, lady; pause, or be more temperate. It ill beseems this presence, to cry aim2

1 The key to this obscure passage is contained in the last speech of Constance, where she alludes to the denunciation of the second commandment of "visiting the iniquities of the parents upon the children unto the third and fourth generation." Young Arthur is here represented as not only suffering from the guilt of his grandmother, but also by her in person, she being made the very instrument of his sufferings. So that he is plagued on her account, and with her plague, which is her sin, i. e. (taking, by a common figure, the cause for the consequence) the penalty entailed upon it. His injury, or the evil he suffers, her sin brings upon him, and her injury, or the evils she inflicts, he suffers from her, as the beadle to her sin, or executioner of the punishment annexed to it.

2 i. e. to encourage. It is a term taken from archery.

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.

Trumpets sound. Enter Citizens upon the Walls. 1 Cit. Who is it that hath warned us to the walls? K. Phi. 'Tis France, for England.

K. John. England, for itself. You men of Angiers, and my loving subjects,K. Phi. You loving men of Angiers, Arthur's sub

jects,

Our trumpet called you to this gentle parle.1

K. 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;
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;
And, but for our approach, those sleeping stones,
That as a waist do girdle you about,
By the compulsion of their ordnance
By this time from their fixed beds of lime
Had been dishabited, and wide havock 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 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;

1 Conference.

Which trust accordingly, kind citizens,

And let us in, your king; whose labored spirits,
Forewearied' in this action of swift speed,

Crave harborage within your city walls.

K. Phi. When I have said, make answer to us both.

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.
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,

2

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 blessed 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,

3

'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 harbored 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?

1 Cit. In brief, we are the king of England's sub

jects;

For him, and in his right, we hold this town.

K. John. Acknowledge then the king, and let me in. 1 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,Bast. Bastards, and else.

K. John. To verify our title with their lives.

K. Phi. As many, and as well-born bloods as those,―

Bast. Some bastards too.

K. Phi. Stand in his face, to contradict his claim. 1 Cit. Till you compound whose right is worthiest, We, for the worthiest, hold the right from both.

K. John. Then God 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!

Bast. 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,
At your den, sirrah, [To AUSTRIA.] with your lioness,
I'd set an ox-head to your lion's hide,

And make a monster of you.

Aust.

Peace; no more.

Bast. 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.

Bast. Speed, then, to take advantage of the field.