When the rich blood of kings is set on fire!
O, now doth death line his dead chaps with steel; The fwords of foldiers are his teeth, his fangs; And now he feafts, mouthing the flesh of men, In undetermin'd differences of kings.- Why ftand these royal fronts amazed thus ? Cry, havock, kings! back to the stained field, You equal potents, firy-kindled spirits! Then let confufion of one part confirm
The other's peace; till then, blows, blood, and death! K. John. Whofe party do the townsmen yet admit ? K. Phi. Speak, citizens, for England; who's your king? Cit. The king of England, when we know the king. K. Phi. Know him in us, that here hold up his right. K. John. In us, that are our own great deputy, And bear poffeffion of our person here; Lord of our presence, Angiers, and of you.
1 Cit. A greater power than we, denies all this; And, till it be undoubted, we do lock Our former fcruple in our strong-barr'd gates: King'd of our fears; until our fears, refolv'd, Be by fome certain king purg'd and depos'd.
Baft. By heaven, thefe fcroyles of Angiers flout you, kings;
And stand fecurely on their battlements,
As in a theatre, whence they gape and point At your induftrious scenes and acts of death. Your royal presences be rul'd by me; Do like the mutines of Jerufalem,
Be friends awhile, and both conjointly bend Your fharpeft deeds of malice on this town: By east and weft let France and England mount Their battering cannon, charged to the mouths; Till their foul-fearing clamours have brawl'd down
The flinty ribs of this contemptuous city I'd play inceffantly upon these jades, Even till unfenced defolation
Leave them as naked as the vulgar air. That done, diffever your united strengths, And part your mingled colours once again; Turn face to face, and bloody point to point : Then, in a moment, fortune fhall cull forth Out of one fide her happy minion;
To whom in favour fhe fhall give the day, And kifs him with a glorious victory.
How like you this wild counsel, mighty states?
Smacks it not fomething of the policy?
K. John. Now, by the sky that hangs above our heads,
I like it well;-France, fhall we knit our powers,
And lay this Angiers even with the ground;
Then, after, fight who fhall be king of it? Baft. An if thou haft the mettle of a king,— Being wrong'd, as we are, by this peevish town,— Turn thou the mouth of thy artillery,
As we will ours, against these faucy 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 fo :-Say, where will you affault ? K. John. We from the west will fend deftruction Into this city's bofom.
Our thunder from the fouth,
Shall rain their drift of bullets on this town.
Baft. O prudent difcipline! From north to fouth; Auftria and France shoot in each other's mouth: [Afiae. I'll ftir them to it :-Come, away, away!
Cit. Hear us, great kings: vouchsafe a while to stay,
And I shall fhow you peace, and fair-faced league ; Win you this city without ftroke, or wound; Rescue thofe breathing lives to die in beds, That here come facrifices for the field: Perfever not, but hear me, mighty kings.
K. John. Speak on, with favour; we are bent to hear. 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 lufty love should go in queft 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 fought 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 : If not complete, O fay, he is not she; 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 bleffed man, Left to be finished by fuch a fhe; And she a fair divided excellence, Whose fulness of perfection lies in him.
O, two fuch filver currents, when they join, Do glorify the banks that bound them in :
And two fuch fhores to two fuch ftreams made one, Two fuch controlling bounds fhall you be, kings, To these two princes, if you marry them. This union fhall do more than battery can, To our fast closed gates; for, at this match, With fwifter fpleen than powder can enforce, The mouth of paffage fhall we fling wide ope, And give you entrance: but, without this match,
The fea enraged is not half so deaf,
Lions more confident, mountains and rocks More free from motion; no, not death himself In mortal fury half so peremptory,
As we to keep this city.
That shakes the rotten carcase of old death
Cut of his rags! Here's a large mouth, indeed,
That fpits forth death, and mountains, rocks, and feas; Talks as familiarly of roaring lions,
As maids of thirteen do of puppy-dogs!
What cannoneer begot this lufty blood?
He speaks plain cannon, fire, and smoke, and bounce; He gives the baltinado with his tongue;
Our ears are cudgel'd; not a word of his,
But buffets better than a fift of France:
Zounds! I was never fo bethump'd with words,
Since I first call'd my brother's father, dad.
Eli. Son, lift 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 unfur'd assurance to the crown,
That yon green boy shall have no fun to ripe The bloom that promiseth a mighty fruit.
I fee a yielding in the looks of France;
Mark, how they whisper: urge them, while their fouls Are capable of this ambition:
Lest zeal, now melted, by the windy breath Of foft petitions, pity, and remorse,
Cool and congeal again to what it was.
1 Cit. 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 fon, Can in this book of beauty read, I love,
Her dowry fhall weigh equal with a queen :
For Anjou, and fair Touraine, Maine, Poitiers, And all that we upon this fide, the fea (Except this city now by us befieg'd,) Find liable to our crown and dignity, Shall gild her bridal bed; and make her rich In titles, honours, and promotions, As the in beauty, education, blood, Holds hand with any princefs of the world.
K. Phi. What fay'ft 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 fhadow of myself form'd in her eye; Which, being but the fhadow of your fon, Becomes a fun, and makes your fon a fhadow: 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. Baft. Drawn in the flattering table of her eye!Hang'd in the frowning wrinkle of her brow!
And quarter'd in her heart!-be doth efpy
Himself love's traitor: This is pity now,
That hang'd, and drawn, and quarter'd, there should be, In fuch a love, fo vile a lout as he.
Blanch. My uncle's will, in this refpect, is mine;
If he see aught in you, that makes him like, That any thing he fees, 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,
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