Among the thorns and dangers of this world.
How easy dost thou take all England up!
From forth this morsel of dead royalty,
The life, the right, and truth of all this realm
Is fled to heaven; [and England now is left
To tug and scamble,1 and to part by the
teeth

The unowed interest of proud-swelling state.
Now for the bare-pick'd bone of majesty
Doth dogged war bristle his angry crest,
And snarleth in the gentle eyes of peace:] 150
Now powers from home and discontents at
home

Meet in one line; and vast confusion waits,
As doth a raven on a sick-fall'n beast,
The imminent decay of wrested pomp.
Now happy he whose cloak and cincture3 can
Hold out this tempest.--[To Hubert] Bear
away that child

And follow me with speed: I'll to the king:
A thousand businesses are brief in hand,*
And heaven itself doth frown upon the land.
[Exeunt.

10

[Our discontented counties do revolt;
Our people quarrel with obedience,
Swearing allegiance and the love of soul
To strangers blood, to foreign royalty.
This inundation of mistemper'd humour
Rests by you only to be qualified: 10
Then pause not; for the present time's so
sick,

That present medicine must be minister'd,
Or overthrow incurable ensues. ]

Pand. It was my breath that blew this tempest up,

Upon your stubborn usage of the pope;
But since you are a gentle convertite,11
My tongue shall hush again this storm of

55

When he intendeth to become1 the field:
Show boldness and aspiring confidence.
What, shall they seek the lion in his den,
And fright him there? and make him tremble
there?

O, let it not be said!-Forage, and run
To meet displeasure farther from the doors, 60
And grapple with him ere he come so nigh.
K. 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.

Bast.

O inglorious league!
Shall we, upon the footing of our land,3
Send fair-play orders, and make compromise,
Insinuation, parley, and base truce,

To arms invasive? shall a beardless boy,"
A cocker'd silken wanton, brave our fields, 70
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;

Or if he do, let it at least be said
They saw we had a purpose of defence.

K. John. Have thou the ordering of this present time.

Bast. Away, then, with good courage! yet, I know,

Our party may well meet a prouder foe.

Return the precedent9 to these lords again; That, having our fair order 10 written down, Both they and we, perusing o'er these notes, May know wherefore we took the sacrament,1 11 And keep our faiths firm and inviolable.

10

Sal. Upon our sides it never shall be broken. And, noble Dauphin, albeit we swear A voluntary zeal, an unurg'd faith To your proceedings; yet, believe me, prince, I am not glad that such a sore of time Should seek a plaster by contemn'd revolt, And heal the inveterate canker of one wound By making many. [O, it grieves my soul, That I must draw this metal12 from my side To be a widow-maker! O, and there Where honourable rescue and defence Cries out upon 13 the name of Salisbury! But such is the infection of the time, That, for the health and physic of our right, We cannot deal but with the very hand Of stern injustice and confused wrong.] [Turning to the English lords] And is 't not

pity, O my grieved friends,

That we, the sons and children of this isle,
Were born to see so sad an hour as this;
Wherein we step after a stranger,14 march
Upon her gentle bosom, and fill up

20

Her enemies' ranks, I must withdraw and weep

30

Upon the spot 15 of this enforced cause,-
To grace the gentry of a land remote,
And follow unacquainted 16 colours here?
What, here?0 nation, that thou couldst
remove!

That Neptune's arms, who clippeth thee about, Would bear thee from the knowledge of thyself,

And grapple 18 thee unto a pagan shore; Where these two Christian armies might combine

The blood of malice in a vein of league,
And not to spend it so unneighbourly!
Lew. A noble temper dost thou show in
this;

40

18 Grapple, fasten securely.

42

49

And great affections, wrestling in thy bosom,
Doth make an earthquake of nobility.
[O, what a noble combat hast thou fought
Between compulsion and a brave respect!1
Let me wipe off this honourable dew,
That silverly doth progress on thy cheeks:
My heart hath melted at a lady's tears,
Being an ordinary inundation;
But this effusion of such manly drops,
This shower blown up by tempest of the soul,
Startles mine eyes, and makes me more amaz'd
Than had I seen the vaulty top of heaven
Figur'd quite o'er with burning meteors.]
Lift up thy brow, renowned Salisbury,
And with a great heart heave away this storm:
[Commend these waters to those baby eyes
That never saw the giant world enrag'd;
Nor met with fortune other than at feasts,
Full of warm blood, of mirth, of gossiping.]
Come, come; for thou shalt thrust thy hand
as deep

Into the purse of rich prosperity

60

As Lewis himself:--so, nobles, shall you all, That knit your sinews to the strength of mine.

And even there,2 methinks, an angel spake:
Look, where the holy legate comes apace,
To give us warrant from the hand of heaven,
And on our actions set the name of right
With holy breath.

Enter PANDULPH, attended.

Pand. Hail, noble prince of France! The next is this,-King John hath reconcil'd Himself to Rome; [his spirit is come in, 70 That so stood out against the holy church, The great metropolis and see of Rome:] Therefore thy threat'ning colours now wind

81

Or useful serving-man, and instrument,
To any sovereign state throughout the world.
Your breath first kindled the dead coal of wars
Between this chástis'd kingdom and myself,
And brought in matter that should feed this
fire;

And now 'tis far too huge to be blown out
With that same weak wind which enkindled it.
You taught me how to know the face of right,
Acquainted me with interest to1 this land,
Yea, thrust this enterprise into my heart; 90
And come ye now to tell me John hath made
His peace with Rome? What is that peace to
me?

I, by the honour of my marriage-bed,
After young Arthur, claim this land for mine;
And, now it is half-conquer'd, must I back
Because that John hath made his peace with
Rome?

[Am I Rome's slave? What penny hath Rome borne,

What men provided, what munition sent,
To underprop this action? Is 't not I
That undergo this charge? who else but I, 100
And such as to my claim are liable,?
Sweat in this business and maintain this war?
Have I not heard these islanders shout out
"Vive le roi!" as I have bank'd their towns?
Have I not here the best cards for the game,
To win this easy match play'd for a crown?
And shall I now give o'er the yielded set?"
No, on my soul, it never shall be said.

Pand. You look but on the outside of this work.

Lew. Outside or inside, I will not return 110 Till my attempt so much be glorified As to my ample hope was promised Before I drew this gallant head of war,10 And cull'd these fiery spirits from the world, To outlook conquest, and to win renown Even in the jaws of danger and of death.] [Trumpet sounds. What lusty trumpet thus doth summon us?

I come, to learn how you have dealt for him;
And, as you answer, I do know the scope
And warrant limited unto my tongue.

Pand. The Dauphin is too wilful-opposite, And will not temporize1 with my entreaties; He flatly says he'll not lay down his arms.

Bast. By all the blood that ever fury breath'd,

The youth says well.-Now hear our English king;

For thus his royalty doth speak in me.

He is prepar'd; and reason too he should: 130 [This apish and unmannerly approach,

This harness'd2 masque and unadvis'd revel,
This unhair'd3 sauciness and boyish troop,
The king doth smile at; and is well prepar'd
To whip this dwarfish war, these pigmy arms.
From out the circle of his territories.]
That hand which had the strength, even at
your door,

To cudgel you and make you take the hatch,1 [To dive like buckets in concealed wells,

To crouch in litter of your stable planks, 140 To lie like pawns lock'd up in chests and trunks,]

To hug with swine, to seek sweet safety out In vaults and prisons, and to thrill and shake Even at the crying of your nation's crow, Thinking his voice an armed Englishman;Shall that victorious hand be feebled here, That in your chambers gave you chastisement? No: know the gallant monarch is in arms And, like an eagle o'er his aery' towers,

8 To souse, to pounce upon.

12 Brabbler, brawler.

11 Brave, bravado.

13 The welkin's, the sky's.