King John

“ We joy to see so sweet a peace begun. Lewis
Lewis with Blanche shall ever live content. But now, King John, what say you to the duke? Father, speak as you may in his behalf. Philip
King John, be good unto thy nephew here, And give him somewhat that shall please thee best. John
Arthur, although thou troublest England’s peace, Yet here I give thee Brittany for thine own, Together with the earldom of Richmond, And this rich city of Angiers withal. ”

“ SALISBURY. The colour of the King doth come and go Between his purpose and his conscience, Like heralds 'twixt two dreadful battles set. His passion is so ripe it needs must break. PEMBROKE. And when it breaks, I fear will issue thence The foul corruption of a sweet child's death. KING JOHN. We cannot hold mortality's strong hand. Good lords, although my will to give is living, The suit which you demand is gone and dead: He tells us Arthur is deceas'd to-night. SALISBURY. Indeed, we fear'd his sickness was past cure. ”

“ KING JOHN. The legate of the Pope hath been with me, And I have made a happy peace with him; And he hath promis'd to dismiss the powers Led by the Dauphin. BASTARD. O inglorious league! Shall we, upon the footing of our land, Send fair-play orders, and make compromise, Insinuation, parley, and base truce, To arms invasive? Shall a beardless boy, A cock'red silken wanton, brave our fields And flesh his spirit in a warlike soil, Mocking the air with colours idly spread, And find no check? Let us, my liege, to arms. Perchance the Cardinal cannot make your peace ”

“ BLANCH. That she is bound in honour still to do What you in wisdom still vouchsafe to say. KING JOHN. Speak then, Prince Dauphin; can you love this lady? LEWIS. Nay, ask me if I can refrain from love; For I do love her most unfeignedly. KING JOHN. Then do I give Volquessen, Touraine, 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, Command thy son and daughter to join hands. KING PHILIP. It likes us well; young princes, close your hands. ”

“ Heaven guard my mother's honour and my land! KING JOHN. A good blunt fellow. Why, being younger born, Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance? BASTARD. I know not why, except to get the land. But once he slander'd me with bastardy; But whe'er I be as true begot or no, That still I lay upon my mother's head; But that I am as well begot, my liege- Fair fall the bones that took the pains for me!- Compare our faces and be judge yourself. If old Sir Robert did beget us both And were our father, and this son like him- O old Sir Robert, father, on my knee I give heaven thanks I was not like to thee! ”

“ KING JOHN'S palace Enter KING JOHN, PANDULPH, and attendants
KING JOHN. Thus have I yielded up into your hand The circle of my glory. PANDULPH. [Gives back the crown] Take again From this my hand, as holding of the Pope, Your sovereign greatness and authority. KING JOHN. Now keep your holy word; go meet the French; And from his Holiness use all your power To stop their marches fore we are inflam'd. Our discontented counties do revolt; Our people quarrel with obedience, Swearing allegiance and the love of soul To stranger blood, to foreign royalty. ”

“ Enter King John, Eleanor, Arthur, the Bastard, Hubert and Lords.
KING JOHN.
[To Eleanor] So shall it be; your grace shall stay behind
So strongly guarded.
[To Arthur] Cousin, look not sad.
Thy grandam loves thee, and thy uncle will
As dear be to thee as thy father was.
ARTHUR.
O, this will make my mother die with grief!
KING JOHN.
[To the Bastard] Cousin, away for England! Haste before,
And, ere our coming, see thou shake the bags
Of hoarding abbots; imprison’d angels
Set at liberty. The fat ribs of peace
Must by the hungry now be fed upon. ”

“ Pandulph, as gave his Holiness in charge, So hath the Dolphin mustered up his troops And won the greatest part of all this land. But ill becomes your grace, Lord Cardinal, Thus to converse with John that is accursed. [Cardinal] Pandulph
Lewis of France, victorious conqueror, Whose sword hath made this island quake for fear: Thy forwardness to fight for holy Rome, Shall be remunerated to the full. But know, my lord, King John is now absolved; The pope is pleased, the land is blessed again, And thou hast brought each thing to good effect. ”

“ Please it your Majesty, the prince of France With all the nobles of your grace’s land, Are marching hitherward in good array. Where e’er they set their foot, all places yield; Thy land is theirs, and not a foot holds out But Dover Castle, which is hard besieged. [Cardinal] Pandulph
Fear not, King John, thy kingdom is the pope’s, And they shall know his Holiness hath power To beat them soon from whence he hath to do. Drums and trumpets. Enter Lewis, Meloun, Salisbury, Essex, Pembroke, and all
the nobles from France, and England. ”

“ And none of you will bid the winter come To thrust his icy fingers in my maw, Nor let my kingdom's rivers take their course Through my burn'd bosom, nor entreat the north To make his bleak winds kiss my parched lips And comfort me with cold. I do not ask you much; I beg cold comfort; and you are so strait And so ingrateful you deny me that. PRINCE HENRY. O that there were some virtue in my tears, That might relieve you! KING JOHN. The salt in them is hot. Within me is a hell; and there the poison Is as a fiend confin'd to tyrannize On unreprievable condemned blood. ”

“ Thou must surrender to the see of Rome Thy crown and diadem, then shall the pope Defend thee from th’ invasion of thy foes. And where his Holiness hath kindled France, And set thy subjects hearts at war with thee, Then shall he curse thy foes, and beat them down, That seek the discontentment of the king. King John
From bad to worse! Or I must lose my realm, Or give my crown for penance unto Rome! A misery more piercing than the darts That break from burning exhalation’s power. What? Shall I give my crown with this right hand? No! With this hand defend thy crown and thee. ”

“ Thou tell’st me marvels, would thou hadst brought the man; We might have questioned him of things to come. Bastard
My lord, I took a care of “had I wist,” And brought the prophet with me to the court. He stays, my lord, but at the presence door; Pleaseth your Highness, I will call him in. John
Nay, stay awhile; we’ll have him here anon. A thing of weight is first to be performed. Enter the nobles and crown King John, and then cry “God save the king”. ”

“ 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. ELINOR. Who is it thou dost call usurper, France? CONSTANCE. Let me make answer: thy usurping son. ELINOR. Out, insolent! Thy bastard shall be king, That thou mayst be a queen and check the world! CONSTANCE. My bed was ever to thy son as true As thine was to thy husband ”

“ Is this the man that doth contemn the pope? Is this the man that robbed the holy church, And yet will fly unto a friary? Is this the king that aims at abbeys’ lands? Is this the man whom all the world abhors, And yet will fly unto a friary? Accursed be Swinstead Abbey, abbot, friars, Monks, nuns, and clerks, and all that dwells therein, If wicked John escape alive away. Now if that thou wilt look to merit heaven, And be canonized for a holy saint, To please the world with a deserving work, Be thou the man to set thy country free, And murder him that seeks to murder thee. ”

“ Lewis, the Dolphin and the heir of France, A man of noted valor through the world, Is yet unmarried: let him take to wife The beauteous daughter of the King of Spain, Niece to King John, the lovely lady Blanche, Begotten on his sister Eleanor. With her in marriage will her uncle give Castles and towers as fitteth such a match. The kings thus joined in league of perfect love, They may so deal with Arthur, duke of Brittany, Who is but young, and yet unmeet to reign, As he shall stand contented every way. ”

“ My gracious mother queen, and barons all: Though far unworthy of so high a place, As is the throne of mighty England’s king, Yet John your lord, contented uncontent, Will (as he may) sustain the heavy yoke Of pressing cares that hang upon a crown. My Lord of Pembroke, and Lord Salisbury, Admit the Lord Chatillon to our presence, That we may know what Philip king of France (By his ambassadors) requires of us. Queen Eleanor
Dare lay my hand that Eleanor can guess Whereto this weighty embassade doth tend: If of my nephew, Arthur, and his claim, Then say my son I have not missed my aim. ”

“ KING JOHN. Why, what a madcap hath heaven lent us here! ELINOR. He hath a trick of Coeur-de-lion's face; The accent of his tongue affecteth him. Do you not read some tokens of my son In the large composition of this man? KING JOHN. Mine eye hath well examined his parts And finds them perfect Richard. Sirrah, speak, What doth move you to claim your brother's land? BASTARD. Because he hath a half-face, like my father. With half that face would he have all my land: A half-fac'd groat five hundred pound a year! ”

“ KING JOHN.
We will heal up all;
For we’ll create young Arthur Duke of Brittany,
And Earl of Richmond; and this rich fair town
We make him lord of. Call the Lady Constance.
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 Citizens retire from the walls.] ”

“ Whom he hath us’d rather for sport than need,
Is warlike John; and in his forehead sits
A bare-ribb’d death, whose office is this day
To feast upon whole thousands of the French.
LOUIS.
Strike up our drums, to find this danger out.
BASTARD.
And thou shalt find it, Dauphin, do not doubt.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE III. The same. The Field of Battle. Alarums. Enter King John and Hubert.
KING JOHN.
How goes the day with us? O, tell me, Hubert.
HUBERT.
Badly, I fear. How fares your majesty?
KING JOHN.
This fever that hath troubled me so long
Lies heavy on me. O, my heart is sick! ”

“ Pembroke
Aye, there’s the way, let’s rather kneel to him, Than to the French that would confound us all. Exeunt.
Scene 19 Enter King John carried between 2 lords.
John
Set down, set down the load not worth your pain, For done I am with deadly wounding grief; Sickly and succorless, hopeless of any good, The world hath wearied me, and I have wearied it. It loathes I live, I live and loathe myself. Who pities me? To whom have I been kind? But to a few; a few will pity me. Why die I not? Death scorns so vile a prey. Why live I not? Life hates so sad a prize. ”

“ O peers of England, know you what you do? There’s but a hair that sunders you from harm, The hook is baited, and the train is made, And simply you run doting to your deaths. But lest I die, and leave my tale untold, With silence slaughtering so brave a crew, This I aver, if Lewis win the day, There’s not an Englishman that lifts his hand Against King John to plant the heir of France, But is already damned to cruel death. ”

“ The multitude—a beast of many heads— Do wish confusion to their sovereign; The nobles, blinded with ambition’s fumes, Assemble powers to beat mine empire down, And more than this, elect a foreign king. O England, wert thou ever miserable; King John of England sees thee miserable, John, ‘tis thy sins that makes it miserable, Quicquid delirunt reges, plectuntur achivi. Philip, as thou hast ever loved thy king, So show it now ”

“ But I, my lord, can prove, and do aver Both to my mother’s shame and his reproach, He is no heir, nor yet legitimate. Then, gracious lord, let Falconbridge enjoy The living that belongs to Falconbridge, And let not him possess another’s right. King John
Prove this, the land is thine by England’s law. Queen Eleanor
Ungracious youth, to rip thy mother’s shame, The womb from whence thou didst thy being take. All honest ears abhor thy wickedness, But gold I see doth beat down nature’s law. ”

“ He animates the nobles in their wars, He gives away the crown to Philip’s son, And pardons all that seek to murder thee— And thus blind zeal is still predominant. Then John, there is no way to keep thy crown, But finely to dissemble with the pope; That hand that gave the wound must give the salve To cure the hurt, else quite incurable. Thy sins are far too great to be the man T’ abolish pope, and popery from thy realm, But in thy seat, if I may guess at all, A king shall reign that shall suppress them all. Peace John, here comes the legate of the pope ”

“ Success may follow thee; Thus hast thou showed thy kindness to thy king. Sirrah, in haste go greet the cardinal, Pandulph I mean, the legate from the pope. Say that the king desires to speak with him. Now John, bethink thee how thou may’st resolve, And if thou wilt continue England’s king, Then cast about to keep thy diadem, For life and land, and all is leveled at. The pope of Rome, ‘tis he that is the cause, He curseth thee, he sets thy subjects free From due obedience to their sovereign ”

“ The king comes. John
Come on, Lord Abbot, shall we sit together? Abbot
Pleaseth your grace sit down. John
Take your places, sirs, no pomp in penury, all beggars and friends may come; where necessity keeps the house, courtesy is barred the table. Sit down, Philip. Bastard
My lord, I am loath to allude so much to the proverb, “honors change manners”; a king is a king, though fortune do her worst, and we as dutiful in despite of her frown, as if your highness were now in the highest type of dignity. ”