For this down-trodden equity, we tread

SCENE II.-The scme.

In warlike march these greens before your Alarums and Excursions; then a Retreat.

town;

But if you fondly pass our proffer'd offer,
'Tis not the roundure + of your old fac'd 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 challeng'd 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
subjects;

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 ramm'd 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 armis !

Bast. St. George,-that swing'd 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, [7o 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.

K. Phi. It shall be so :-[To LEWIS.] and at
the other hill

Command the rest to stand.-God and our right! [Exeunt.

Enter a French HERALD, with trumpets, to the gates.

F. Her. You men of Angiers, open wide your
gates,

And let young Arthur, duke of Bretagne, in:
Who, by the hand of France, this day hath made
Much work for tears in many an English mo-
ther,

Whose sons lie scatter'd on the bleeding ground:
Many a widow's husband grovelling lies,
Coldly embracing the discolour'd earth;
And victory, with little loss, doth play
Upon the dancing banners of the French;
Who are at hand, triumphantly display'd,
To enter conquerors, and to proclaim
Arthur of Bretagne, England's king, and your's.
Enter an English HERALD, with trumpets.
E. Her. Rejoice, you men of Angiers, ring
your bells!

King John, your king and England's doth ap-
proach,

Commander of this hot malicious day!
Their armours, that march'd hence so silver-
bright,

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 march'd
forth;

And, like a jolly troop of huntsmen, come
Our lusty English, all with purpled hands,
Died in the dying slaughter of their foes:
Open your gates, and give the victors way.

Cit. Heralds, from off our towers we might
behold,

From first to last, the onset and retire
Of both your armies; whose equality
By our best eyes cannot be censured:
Blood bath bought blood, and blows bave an-
swer'd blows;

Strength match'd with strength, and power con-
fronted power:

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 side, King JOHN, with his power,

ELINOR, BLANCH, and the BASTARD; at the other, King PHILIP, LEWIS, AUSTRIA, and Forces.

K. John. France hast thou yet more blood to
cast away?

Say, shall the current of our right run on?
Whose passage, vex'd with thy impediment,
Shall leave his native channel, and o'er-swell
With course disturb'd even thy confining shores;
Unless thou let his silver water keep
A peaceful progress in the ocean.

K. Phi. England, thou hast not sav'd one
drop of blood,

In this hot trial, more than we of France;
Rather, lost more: And by this hand I swear,
That sways the earth this climate overlooks.-
Before we will lay down our just-borne arms
We'll put thee down, 'gainst whom these arms

we dear,

• Judged.

Why stand these royal fronts amazed thus?
Cry, havoc, kings! back to the stained field,
You equal potents, fiery-kindled spirits!
Then let confusion of one part confirm
The other's peace; till then, blows, blood, and
death !

K. John. Whose party do the townsmen yet
admit ?

K. Phi. Speak, citizens, for England; who's your king?

1 Cit. The king of England, when we know the king.

K. Phi. Know him in us, that here hold up
bis right.

K. John. In us, that are our own great deputy,
And bear possession of our person here;
Lord of our presence, Angiers, and of you.

1 Cit. That daughter there of Spain, the lady
Blanch,

Is near to England; Look upon the years
Of Lewis the Dauphin, and that lovely maid :
If lusty love should go in quest of beauty,
Where should he find it fairer than in Blanch ?
If zealous love should go in search of virtue,
Where should he find it purer than in Blanch?
If love ambitious sought a match of birth,
Whose veins bound richer blood than lady
Blanch?

Such as she is, in beauty, virtue, birth,
Is the young Dauphin every way complete :

1 Cit. A greater power than we, denies all If not complete, O say, he is not she;
this;

And, till it be undoubted, we do lock

Our former scruple in our strong-barr'd gates:
King'd of our fears; until our fears, resolv'd,
Be by some certain king purg'd and depos'd.
Bast. By heaven, these scroyles of Augiers
flout you, kings;

And stand securely on their battlements,
As in a theatre, whence they gape and point
At your industrious scenes and acts of death.
Your royal presences be rul'd by me;
Do like the mutines of Jerusalem,
Be friends a while, and both conjointly bend
Your sharpest deeds of malice on this town:
By east and west let France and England

mount

Their battering cannon, charged to the mouths;
Till their soul-fearing clamours have brawl'd
down

The flinty ribs of this contemptuous city:
I'd play incessantly upon these jades,
Even till unfenced desolation
Leave them as naked as the vulgar air.
That done, dissover your united strengths,
And part your mingled colours once again;
Turn face to face, and bloody point to point:
Then, in a moment, fortune shall cull forth
Out of one side her happy minion;

To whom in favour she shall give the day,
And kiss him with a glorious victory.
How like you this wild counsel, mighty states?
Snacks it not something of the policy?

K. John. Now, by the sky that hangs above
our heads,

I like it well;-France, shall we knit our
powers,

And lay this Angiers even with the ground;
Then, after, fight who shall be king of it?

Bast. An if thou hast the mettle of a king,Being wrong'd, as we are, by this peevish town,

'urn thou the mouth of thy artillery,

As we will our's, against these saucy walls:
And when that we have dash'd them to the
ground,

Why, then defy each other; and, pell-mell,
Make work upon ourselves, for heaven, or hell.
K. Phi. Let it be so:-Say, where will you
assault?

K. John. We from the west will send de-
struction

And she again wants nothing, to name want,
If want it be not, that she is not he
He is the half part of a blessed man,
Left to be finished by such a she;
And she a fair divided excellence,
Whose fulness of perfection lies in him.
Oh! two such silver currents, when they join,
Do glorify the banks that bound them in:
And two such shores to two such streams made
one,

Two such controlling bounds shall you be,
kings,

To these two princes, if you marry them.
This union shall do more than battery can,
To our fast-closed gates; for, at this match,
With swifter spleen than powder can enforce,
The mouth of passage shall we fling wide ope,
And give you entrance; but, without this
match,

The sea enraged is not half so deaf,

Lious more confident, mountains and rocks
More free from motion; no, not death himseif
In mortal fury half so peremptory,

As we to keep this city.

Bast. Here's a stay,

That shakes the rotten carcass of old death
Out of his rags! Here's a large mouth, indeed,
That spits forth death, and nountains, rocks,
and seas:

Talks as familiarly of roaring lions,
As maids of thirteen do of puppy-dogs!
What cannoneer begot this lusty blood?
He speaks plain cannon, fire, aud sinoke, and
bounce;

He gives the bastinado with his tongue;
Our ears are cudgel'd; not a word of his,
But buffets better than a fist of France:
Zounds! I was never so bethump'd with words,
Since I first call'd my brother's father, dad.
Eli. Son, list to this conjunction, make this

match;

Give with our niece a dowry large enough:
For by this knot thou shalt so surely tie
Thy now unsur'd assurance to the crown
That yon green boy shall have no sun to ripe
The bloom that promiseth a mighty fruit.
I see a yielding in the looks of France;
Mark, how they whisper: urge them, while thei
souls

Are capable of this ambition;

Lest zeal, now melted, by the windy breath
Of soft petitions, pity, and remorse,
Cool and congeal again to what it was.

1 Ct. Why answer not the double majesties
This friendly treaty of our threaten'd town?
K. Phi. Speak England first, that hath been
forward first

To speak unto this city: What say you?
K. John. If that the Dauphin there, thy
princely son,

Can in this book of beauty read, I love,
Her dowry shall weigh equal with a queen:
For Anjou, and fair Touraine, Maine, Poic

tiers,

And all that we upon this side the sea
Except this city now by us besieg'd)
Find liable to our crown and dignity,

Shall gild her bridal bed; and make her rich
In titles, honours, and promotions,
As she in beauty, education, blood,
Holds hand with any princess of the world.

K. Phi. What say'st thou, boy? look in the
lady's face.

Lew. I do, my lord, and in her eye I find
A wonder, or a wondrous miracle,

The shadow of myself form'd in her eye;
Which, being but the shadow of your son,
Becomes a sun, and makes your son a shadow:
I do protest, I never lov'd myself,
Till now infixed I beheld myself,
Drawn in the flattering table of her eye.
[Whispers with BLANCH.
Bast. Drawn in the flattering table of her
eye!-

Hang'd in the frowning wrinkle of
brow!-

her

And quarter'd in her heart!-he doth espy
Himself love's traitor: This is pity now,
That hang'd, and drawn, and quarter'd, there
should be,

In such a love, so vile a lout as he.

Blanch. My uncle's will, in this respect, is
mine:

If he see aught in you, that makes him like,
That any thing he sees, which moves his liking,
I can with ease translate it to my will;
Or, if you will, (to speak more properly,)

I will enforce it easily to my love.
Further I will not flatter you my lord,

That all I see in you is worthy love,

Than this, that nothing do I see in you,

Some speedy messenger bid her repair
To our solemnity :-I trust we shall,
If not fill up the measure of her will,
Yet in some measure satisfy her so,
That we shall stop her exclamation.
Go we, as well as haste will suffer us,
To this unlook'd for unprepared pomp.
[Exeunt all but the BASTARD.-The CITI-
ZENS retire from the walls.
Bast. Mad world! mad kings! nad com-
position!

John, to stop Arthur's title in the whole,
Hath willingly departed with a part:

And France, (whose armour conscience buck-
led on;

Whom zeal and charity brought to the field,
As God's own soldier,) ronuded* in the ear
With that same purpose-changer, that sly devil;
That broker, that still breaks the pate of faith;
That daily break-vow; he that wins of all,
Of kings, of beggars, old men, young men,
maids :-

Who having no external thing to lose
But the word maid,-cheats the poor maid of
that,
That smooth-faced gentleman, tickling com-
modity, +

Commodity, the bias of the world;

The world, who of itself is peised į well,
Made to run even, upon even ground;
Till this advantage, this vile drawing bias,
This sway of motion, this commodity,
Makes it take head from all indiffereucy,
From all direction, purpose, course, intent:

(Though churlish thoughts themselves should be And this same bias, this commodity.

your judge,)

That I can find should merit any hate.

K. John. What say these young ones? What say you, my niece?

still

Blanch. That she is bound in honour to do What you in wisdom shall vouchsafe to say. K. John. Speak then, prince Dauphin; can you love this lady?

Lew. Nay, ask me if I can refrain from love; For I do love her most unfeignedly.

K. John. Then do I give Volquessen, Tou-
raine, Maine,

Poictiers, and Anjou, these five provinces,
With her to thee, and this addition more,
Full thirty thousand marks of English coin.-
Philip of France, if thou be pleas'd withal,
Cominand thy son and daughter to join hands.
K. Phi. It likes us well;-Young princes,
close your hands.

Aust. And your lips too; for, I am well as-
sur'd,

That I did so, when I was first assur'd.

This bawd, this broker, this all-changing word,
Clapp'd on the outward eye of fickle France,
Hath drawn him from his own determin d aid,
From a resolv'd and honourable war,
To a most base and vile-concluded peace.-
And why rail I on this commodity ?

But for because he hath not woo'd me yet:
Not that I have the power to clutch my hand,
When his fair angels would salute my palm:
But for my hand, as unattempted yet,
Like a poor beggar, raileth on the rich,
Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail,
And say, there is no sin but to be rich;
And being rich, my virtue then shall be,
To say, there is no vice, but beggary:
Since kings break faith upon commodity,
Gain be my lord! for I will worship thee!
[Exit.

ACT III.

K. Phi. Now, citizens of Angiers, ope your SCENE 1.-The same.-The French King's

gates,

Let in that amity which you have made:
For at saint Mary's chapel, presently,
The fites of marriage shall be solemniz'd.—
Is not the lady Constance in this troop ?—
I know, she is not; for this match, made up,
Her presence would have interrupted much :-
Where is she and her son? tell me, who knows.
Lew. She is sad and passionate at your high-
ness' tent.

K. Phi. And, by my faith, this league, that
we have made,

Will give her sadness very little cure.-
Brother of England, how may we content
This widow lady? In her right we came;
Which we, God knows, have turn'd another

way,

To our own vantage.

K. John. We will heal up all ;

Tent.

Enter CONSTANCE, ARTHUR, and SALISBURY.

Const. Gone to be married! gone to swear a

peace!

False blood to false blood join'd! Gone to be friends !

Shall Lewis bave Blanch? and Blanch those
provinces ?

It is not so; thou hast mispoke, misheard;
Be well advis'd, tell o'er thy tale again:
It cannot be; thou dost but say, 'tis so:
I trust, I may not trust thee; for thy word
Is but the vain breath of a common man :
Believe me, I do not believe thee, man;
I have a king's oath to the contrary.
Thou shalt be punish'd for thus frighting me,
For I am sick, and capable || of fears;

For we'll create young Arthur' duke of Bre. Oppress'd with wrongs, and therefore full of

tagne,

And earl of Richmond; and this rich fair town
We make him lord of.-Call the lady Con-

stance;

• Affianced.

fears;