And ftir them up against a mightier task.
England, impatient of your just demands,
Hath put himself in arms; the adverse winds,
Whose leisure I have staid, have given him time
To land his legions all as foon as I:
His marches are expedient to this town,
His forces ftrong, his foldiers confident.
With him along is come the mother-queen,
An Até, stirring him to blood and strife;
With her her niece, the lady Blanch of Spain;
With them a bastard of the king deceas'd:
And all the unfettled humours of the land,-
Rash, inconfiderate, firy voluntaries,
With ladies' faces, and fierce dragons' spleens,-
Have fold their fortunes at their native homes,
Bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs,
To make a hazard of new fortunes here.
In brief, a braver choice of dauntless spirits,
Than now the English bottoms have waft o'er,
Did never float upon the swelling tide,
To do offence and scath in Christendom.
The interruption of their churlish drums
Cuts off more circumftance: they are at hand,
To parley, or to fight; therefore, prepare.
K. Phi. How much unlook'd for is this expedition!
Auft. By how much unexpected, by fo much
We must awake endeavour for defence;
For courage mounteth with occafion :
Let them be welcome then, we are prepar'd.
Enter King JOHN, ELINOR, BLANCH, the Bastard, PEMBROKE, and Forces.
K. John. Peace be to France; if France in peace permit
Our juft and lineal entrance to our own!
If not; bleed France, and peace afcend to heaven!
Whiles we, God's wrathful agent, do correct
Their proud contempt that beat his peace to heaven.
K. Phi. Peace be to England; if that war return
From France to England, there to live in peace!
England we love; and, for that England's fake,
With burden of our armour here we fweat :
This toil of ours fhould be a work of thine i
But thou from loving England art fo far,
That thou haft underwrought his lawful king,
Cut off the fequence of pofterity,
Outfaced infant ftate, and done a rape
Upon the maiden virtue of the crown.
Look here upon thy brother Geffrey's face ;-
These eyes, these brows, were moulded out of his :
This little abstract doth contain that large,
Which died in Geffrey; and the hand of time
Shall draw this brief into as huge a volume.
That Geffrey was thy elder brother born,
And this his fon; England was Geffrey's right,
And this 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,
Which owe the crown that thou o'ermasterest ?
K. John. From whom haft thou this great commission,
France,
To draw my answer from thy articles?
K. Phi. From that supernal judge, that stirs good thoughts In any breast of strong authority,
To look into the blots and stains of right.
That judge hath made me guardian to this boy :
Under whose warrant, I impeach thy wrong;
And, by whose help, I mean to chástise it.
K. John. Alack, thou doft ufurp authority.
K. Phi. Excufe; it is to beat ufurping down.
Eli. Who is it, thou doft call ufurper, France?
Conft. Let me make answer;-thy ufurping fon.
Eli. Out, infolent! thy bastard shall be king;
That thou may'st be a queen, and check the world!
Conft. 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 foul, I think,
His father never was fo true begot ;
It cannot be, an if thou wert his mother.
Eli. There's a good mother, boy, that blots thy father. Conft. There's a good grandam, boy, that would blot thee. Auft. Peace!
Bast. One that will play the devil, fir, with you,
An 'a may catch your hide and you alone.
You are the hare of whom the proverb goes,
Whofe valour plucks dead lions by the beard;
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 difrobe the lion of that robe!
Baft. It lies as fightly on the back of him,
As great Alcides' fhoes upon an ass :-
But, afs, I'll take that burden from your back ;
Or lay on that, shall make your shoulders crack.
Auft. What cracker is this fame, that deafs our ears
With this abundance of fuperfluous breath?
K. Phi. Lewis, determine what we shall do ftraight.
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 refign 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.
Come to thy grandam, child. Conft. 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.
Good my mother, peace! I would, that I were low laid in my grave;
I am not worth this coil, that's made for me.
Eli. His mother fhames him fo, poor boy, he weeps. Conft. Now fhame upon you, whe'r she does, or no! His grandam's wrongs, and not his mother's fhames, Draw those heaven-moving pearls from his poor eyes, Which heaven fhall take in nature of a fee;
Ay, with these crystal beads heaven shall be brib'd
To do him juftice, and revenge on you.
Eli. Thou monftrous flanderer of heaven and earth!
Conft. Thou monftrous injurer of heaven and earth!
Call not me flanderer; thou, and thine, usurp
The dominations, royalties, and rights,
Of this oppreffed boy: This is thy eldest fon's fon,
Infortunate in nothing but in thee;
Thy fins are vifited in this poor child;
The canon of the law is laid on him,
Being but the fecond generation
Removed from thy fin-conceiving womb.
K. John. Bedlam, have done.
That he's not only plagued for her fin,
But God hath made her fin and her the plague
On this removed iffue, plagu'd for her,
And with her plague, her fin; his injury
Her injury, the beadle to her fin;
All punith'd in the person of this child,
And all for her; A plague upon her!
Eli. Thou unadvifed fcold, I can produce
A will, that bars the title of thy fon.
Conft. Ay, who doubts that? a will! a wicked will; A woman's will; a canker'd grandam's will!
K. Phi. Peace, lady; pause, or be more temperate : It ill befeems this prefence, to cry aim
To thefe ill-tuned repetitions.
Some trumpet fummon hither to the walls
These men of Angiers; let us hear them fpeak,
Whose title they admit, Arthur's or John's.
Trumpets found. Enter Citizens upon the walls.
Cit. Who is it, that hath warn'd us to the walls?
K. Phi. 'Tis France, for England.
K. John. England, for itself: You men of Angiers, and my loving fubjects,
K. Phi. You loving men of Angiers, Arthur's fubjects, Our trumpet call'd you to this gentle parle.
K. John. For our advantage;-Therefore, hear us
These flags of France, that are advanced here
Before the eye and profpect of your town,
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