Kneel thou down Philip, but rise up more great,

Arise sir Richard and Plantagenet.

Bast. Brother by the mother's side, give me your hand:

My father gave me honour, yours gave land. [Now blessed be the hour, by night or day, When I was got, sir Robert was away! Eli. The very spirit of Plantagenet!

I am thy grandam, Richard; call me so. Bast. Madam, by chance but not by truth:1 what though??

Something about, a little from the right,

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In at the window, or else o'er the hatch: Who dares not stir by day must walk by night; And have is have, however men do catch: Near or far off, well won is still well shot; And I am I, howe'er I was begot.]

K. John. Go, Faulconbridge: now hast thou thy desire;

A landless knight makes thee a landed squire.

Come, madam,-and come, Richard; we must speed

For France, for France; for it is more than need.

Bast. Brother, adieu; good fortune come to thee!

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[For thou wast got i' the way of honesty. [Trumpets. Exeunt all but Bastard.

A foot of honour better than I was; But many a many foot of land the worse.] Well, now can I make any Joan a lady:-“Good den,3 sir Richard!”—“God-a-mercy, fellow!"

And if his name be George, I'll call him Peter;

1 Truth, honesty.

2 What though? what does it matter?

3 Good den, good evening.

For new-made honour doth forget men's names,

'Tis too respective and too sociable For your conversion. Now your traveller,He and his toothpick at my worship's mess; And when my knightly stomach is suffic'd, 191 Why then I suck my teeth, and catechize My picked man of countries: "My dear sir," Thus, leaning on mine elbow, I begin,-"I shall beseech you"--that is question now; And then comes answer like an Abseys book:"O sir," says answer, "at your best command; At your employment; at your service, sir;" "No sir," says question, "I, sweet sir, at yours:"

And so, ere answer knows what question would,-

Saving in dialogue of compliment,
And talking of the Alps and Apennines,
The Pyrenean and the river Po,—
It draws toward supper in conclusion so.
But this is worshipful society,

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210

And fits the mounting spirit like myself;
For he is but a bastard to the time,
That doth not smack of observation;—
And so am I, whether I smack or no;
[And not alone in habit and device,
Exterior form, outward accoutrement,
But from the inward motion 10 to deliver
Sweet, sweet, sweet poison for the age's tooth:
Which," though I will not practise to deceive,
Yet, to avoid deceit, I mean to learn;

For it shall strew the footsteps of my rising. But who comes in such haste in riding robes? [What woman-post is this? hath she no hus

SCENE I. France. Before the walls of Angiers. Enter the ARCHDUKE OF AUSTRIA and Forces, drums, &c., on one side: on the other PHILIP, King of France, and Forces; LEWIS, ARTHUR, CONSTANCE, and Attendants. Banners of France, Bretagne, Austria, and the Oriflamme.

K. Phi. Before Angiers well met, brave
Austria.

Arthur, that great forerunner of thy blood,
Richard, that robb'd the lion of his heart,
And fought the holy wars in Palestine,
By this brave duke came early to his grave:
And for amends to his posterity,

At our importance3 hither is he come,
To spread his colours, boy, in thy behalf;
And to rebuke the usurpation

That to my home I will no more return,
Till Angiers, and the right thou hast in France,
Together with that pale, that white-fac'd shore,
Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring
tides,

And coops from other lands her islanders,Even till that England, hedg'd in with the main,

[That water-walled bulwark, still secure
And confident from foreign purposes,-
Even till that utmost corner of the west ]
Salute thee for her king: till then, fair boy, 30
Will I not think of home, but follow arms.

Const. O, take his mother's thanks, a widow's thanks,

Till your strong hand shall help to give him strength

To make a more requital to your love!

Aust. The peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swords

In such a just and charitable war.

K. Phi. Well then, to work: our cannon shall be bent

His forces strong, his soldiers confident.
With him along is come the mother-queen,
An Ate,3 stirring him to blood and strife;
With her her niece, the Lady Blanch of
Spain;

With them a bastard of the king's deceas'd;
And all the unsettled humours of the land,-
[Rash, inconsiderate, fiery voluntaries,
With ladies' faces and fierce dragons' spleens,-
Have sold their fortunes at their native homes,

1 Indirectly, wrongly. 2 Expedient, expeditious.
Ate, ie. goddess of discord.

4 Unsettled humours, i.e. restless spirits.

Their proud contempt that beats his peace to heaven.]

K. Phi. Peace be to England, if that war return

From France to England, there to live in peace.

90

[England we love; and for that England's sake

With burden of our armour here we sweat.
This toil of ours should be a work of thine;
But thou from loving England art so far,
That thou hast under-wrought his lawful
king,

Cut off the sequence of posterity,
Out-faced infant state, and done a rape
Upon the maiden virtue of the crown. ]
Look here upon thy brother Geffrey's face;-
[Pointing to Arthur.

These eyes, these brows, were moulded out of his:

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[This little abstract doth contain that large
Which died in Geffrey, and the hand of time
Shall draw this brief2 into as huge a volume.]
That Geffrey was thy elder brother born,
And this his son; England was Geffrey's right,
And his3 is Geffrey's: in the name of God
How comes it then that thou art call'd a king,
When living blood doth in these temples beat,
[Putting his hand on Arthur's head.
Which owe the crown that thou o'ermasterest?

1 Lineal, i.e. by hereditary right. 2 This brief, i.e. this abstract.

Const. My bed was ever to thy son as true? As thine was to thy husband; and this boy Liker in feature to his father Geffrey Than thou and John in manners,-being as like As rain to water, or devil to his dam. My boy a bastard! By my soul, I think His father never was so true begot: It cannot be, an if thou wert his mother. Eli. There's a good mother, boy, that blots thy father.

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3 His his (i.e. Arthur's) right.

4 Owe, own.