TPTT The Life and Death of King John: ACT II
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
SCENE I. France. Before Angiers.
ACT III
ACT IV
ACT V
About the Play
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SCENE I. France. Before Angiers.
Enter AUSTRIA and forces, drums, etc. on one side: on the other KING PHILIP and his power; LEWIS, ARTHUR, CONSTANCE and attendants
LEWIS
      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,
5     By this brave duke came early to his grave:
      And for amends to his posterity,
      At our importance hither is he come,
      To spread his colours, boy, in thy behalf,
      And to rebuke the usurpation
10    Of thy unnatural uncle, English John:
      Embrace him, love him, give him welcome hither.
ARTHUR
      God shall forgive you Coeur-de-lion's death
      The rather that you give his offspring life,
      Shadowing their right under your wings of war:
15    I give you welcome with a powerless hand,
      But with a heart full of unstained love:
      Welcome before the gates of Angiers, duke.
LEWIS
      A noble boy! Who would not do thee right?
AUSTRIA
      Upon thy cheek lay I this zealous kiss,
20    As seal to this indenture of my love,
      That to my home I will no more return,
      Till Angiers and the right thou hast in France,
      Together with that pale, that white-faced shore,
      Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring tides
25    And coops from other lands her islanders,
      Even till that England, hedged in with the main,
      That water-walled bulwark, still secure
      And confident from foreign purposes,
      Even till that utmost corner of the west
30    Salute thee for her king: till then, fair boy,
      Will I not think of home, but follow arms.
CONSTANCE
      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!
AUSTRIA
35    The peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swords
      In such a just and charitable war.
KING PHILIP
      Well then, to work: our cannon shall be bent
      Against the brows of this resisting town.
      Call for our chiefest men of discipline,
40    To cull the plots of best advantages:
      We'll lay before this town our royal bones,
      Wade to the market-place in Frenchmen's blood,
      But we will make it subject to this boy.
CONSTANCE
      Stay for an answer to your embassy,
45    Lest unadvised you stain your swords with blood:
      My Lord Chatillon may from England bring,
      That right in peace which here we urge in war,
      And then we shall repent each drop of blood
      That hot rash haste so indirectly shed.
Enter CHATILLON
KING PHILIP
50    A wonder, lady! lo, upon thy wish,
      Our messenger Chatillon is arrived!
      What England says, say briefly, gentle lord;
      We coldly pause for thee; Chatillon, speak.
CHATILLON
      Then turn your forces from this paltry siege
55    And stir them up against a mightier task.
      England, impatient of your just demands,
      Hath put himself in arms: the adverse winds,
      Whose leisure I have stay'd, have given him time
      To land his legions all as soon as I;
60    His marches are expedient to this town,
      His forces strong, his soldiers confident.
      With him along is come the mother-queen,
      An Ate, stirring him to blood and strife;
      With her her niece, the Lady Blanch of Spain;
65    With them a bastard of the king's deceased,
      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,
70    Bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs,
      To make hazard of new fortunes here:
      In brief, a braver choice of dauntless spirits
      Than now the English bottoms have waft o'er
      Did nearer float upon the swelling tide,
75    To do offence and scath in Christendom.

Drum beats

      The interruption of their churlish drums
      Cuts off more circumstance: they are at hand,
      To parley or to fight; therefore prepare.
KING PHILIP
      How much unlook'd for is this expedition!
AUSTRIA
80    By how much unexpected, by so much
      We must awake endavour for defence;
      For courage mounteth with occasion:
      Let them be welcome then: we are prepared.
Enter KING JOHN, QUEEN ELINOR, BLANCH, the BASTARD, Lords, and forces
KING JOHN
      Peace be to France, if France in peace permit
85    Our just and lineal entrance to our own;
      If not, bleed France, and peace ascend to heaven,
      Whiles we, God's wrathful agent, do correct
      Their proud contempt that beats His peace to heaven.
KING PHILIP
      Peace be to England, if that war return
90    From France to England, there to live in peace.
      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,
95    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;
100   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,
105   And this his son; 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?
KING JOHN
110   From whom hast thou this great commission, France,
      To draw my answer from thy articles?
KING PHILIP
      From that supernal judge, that stirs good thoughts
      In any breast of strong authority,
      To look into the blots and stains of right:
115   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.
QUEEN ELINOR
120   Who is it thou dost call usurper, France?
CONSTANCE
      Let me make answer; thy usurping son.
QUEEN ELINOR
      Out, insolent! thy bastard shall be king,
      That thou mayst be a queen, and cheque the world!
CONSTANCE
      My bed was ever to thy son as true
125   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
130   His father never was so true begot:
      It cannot be, an if thou wert his mother.
QUEEN ELINOR
      There's a good mother, boy, that blots thy father.
CONSTANCE
      There's a good grandam, boy, that would blot thee.
AUSTRIA
      Peace!
BASTARD
135   Hear the crier.
AUSTRIA
      What the devil art thou?
BASTARD
      One that will play the devil, sir, with you,
      An a' may catch your hide and you alone:
      You are the hare of whom the proverb goes,
140   Whose 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 disrobe the lion of that robe!
BASTARD
145   It lies as sightly on the back of him
      As great Alcides' shows upon an ass:
      But, ass, I'll take that burthen from your back,
      Or lay on that shall make your shoulders crack.
AUSTRIA
      What craker is this same that deafs our ears
150   With this abundance of superfluous breath?
KING PHILIP
      Lewis, determine what we shall do straight.
LEWIS
      Women and fools, break off your conference.
      King John, this is the very sum of all;
      England and Ireland, Anjou, Touraine, Maine,
155   In right of Arthur do I claim of thee:
      Wilt thou resign them and lay down thy arms?
KING 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
160   Than e'er the coward hand of France can win:
      Submit thee, boy.
QUEEN ELINOR
      Come to thy grandam, child.
CONSTANCE
      Do, child, go to it grandam, child:
      Give grandam kingdom, and it grandam will
165   Give it a plum, a cherry, and a fig:
      There's a good grandam.
ARTHUR
      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.
QUEEN ELINOR
170   His mother shames him so, poor boy, he weeps.
CONSTANCE
      Now shame upon you, whether she does or no!
      His grandam's wrongs, and not his mother's shames,
      Draws those heaven-moving pearls from his poor eyes,
      Which heaven shall take in nature of a fee;
175   Ay, with these crystal beads heaven shall be bribed
      To do him justice and revenge on you.
QUEEN ELINOR
      Thou monstrous slanderer of heaven and earth!
CONSTANCE
      Thou monstrous injurer of heaven and earth!
      Call not me slanderer; thou and thine usurp
180   The dominations, royalties and rights
      Of this oppressed boy: this is thy eld'st son's son,
      Infortunate in nothing but in thee:
      Thy sins are visited in this poor child;
      The canon of the law is laid on him,
185   Being but the second generation
      Removed from thy sin-conceiving womb.
KING JOHN
      Bedlam, have done.
CONSTANCE
      I have but this to say,
      That he is not only plagued for her sin,
190   But God hath made her sin and her the plague
      On this removed issue, plague for her
      And with her plague; her sin his injury,
      Her injury the beadle to her sin,
      All punish'd in the person of this child,
195   And all for her; a plague upon her!
QUEEN ELINOR
      Thou unadvised scold, I can produce
      A will that bars the title of thy son.
CONSTANCE
      Ay, who doubts that? a will! a wicked will:
      A woman's will; a canker'd grandam's will!
KING PHILIP
200   Peace, lady! pause, or be more temperate:
      It ill beseems this presence to cry aim
      To these ill-tuned repetitions.
      Some trumpet summon hither to the walls
      These men of Angiers: let us hear them speak
205   Whose title they admit, Arthur's or John's.
Trumpet sounds. Enter certain Citizens upon the walls
First Citizen
      Who is it that hath warn'd us to the walls?
KING PHILIP
      'Tis France, for England.
KING JOHN
      England, for itself.
      You men of Angiers, and my loving subjects--
KING PHILIP
210   You loving men of Angiers, Arthur's subjects,
      Our trumpet call'd you to this gentle parle--
KING JOHN
      For our advantage; therefore hear us first.
      These flags of France, that are advanced here
      Before the eye and prospect of your town,
215   Have hither march'd to your endamagement:
      The cannons have their bowels full of wrath,
      And ready mounted are they to spit forth
      Their iron indignation 'gainst your walls:
      All preparation for a bloody siege
220   All merciless proceeding by these French
      Confronts your city's eyes, your winking gates;
      And but for our approach those sleeping stones,
      That as a waist doth girdle you about,
      By the compulsion of their ordinance
225   By this time from their fixed beds of lime
      Had been dishabited, and wide havoc made
      For bloody power to rush upon your peace.
      But on the sight of us your lawful king,
      Who painfully with much expedient march
230   Have brought a countercheque before your gates,
      To save unscratch'd your city's threatened cheeks,
      Behold, the French amazed vouchsafe a parle;
      And now, instead of bullets wrapp'd in fire,
      To make a shaking fever in your walls,
235   They shoot but calm words folded up in smoke,
      To make a faithless error in your ears:
      Which trust accordingly, kind citizens,
      And let us in, your king, whose labour'd spirits,
      Forwearied in this action of swift speed,
240   Crave harbourage within your city walls.
KING PHILIP
      When I have said, make answer to us both.
      Lo, in this right hand, whose protection
      Is most divinely vow'd upon the right
      Of him it holds, stands young Plantagenet,
245   Son to the elder brother of this man,
      And king o'er him and all that he enjoys:
      For this down-trodden equity, we tread
      In warlike march these greens before your town,
      Being no further enemy to you
250   Than the constraint of hospitable zeal
      In the relief of this oppressed child
      Religiously provokes. Be pleased then
      To pay that duty which you truly owe
      To that owes it, namely this young prince:
255   And then our arms, like to a muzzled bear,
      Save in aspect, hath all offence seal'd up;
      Our cannons' malice vainly shall be spent
      Against the invulnerable clouds of heaven;
      And with a blessed and unvex'd retire,
260   With unhack'd swords and helmets all unbruised,
      We will bear home that lusty blood again
      Which here we came to spout against your town,
      And leave your children, wives and you in peace.
      But if you fondly pass our proffer'd offer,
265   'Tis not the roundure of your old-faced walls
      Can hide you from our messengers of war,
      Though all these English and their discipline
      Were harbour'd in their rude circumference.
      Then tell us, shall your city call us lord,
270   In that behalf which we have challenged it?
      Or shall we give the signal to our rage
      And stalk in blood to our possession?
First Citizen
      In brief, we are the king of England's subjects:
      For him, and in his right, we hold this town.
KING JOHN
275   Acknowledge then the king, and let me in.
First Citizen
      That can we not; but he that proves the king,
      To him will we prove loyal: till that time
      Have we ramm'd up our gates against the world.
KING JOHN
      Doth not the crown of England prove the king?
280   And if not that, I bring you witnesses,
      Twice fifteen thousand hearts of England's breed,--
BASTARD
      Bastards, and else.
KING JOHN
      To verify our title with their lives.
KING PHILIP
      As many and as well-born bloods as those,--
BASTARD
285   Some bastards too.
KING PHILIP
      Stand in his face to contradict his claim.
First Citizen
      Till you compound whose right is worthiest,
      We for the worthiest hold the right from both.
KING JOHN
      Then God forgive the sin of all those souls
290   That to their everlasting residence,
      Before the dew of evening fall, shall fleet,
      In dreadful trial of our kingdom's king!
KING PHILIP
      Amen, amen! Mount, chevaliers! to arms!
BASTARD
      Saint George, that swinged the dragon, and e'er since
295   Sits on his horseback at mine hostess' door,
      Teach us some fence!

To AUSTRIA

      Sirrah, were I at home,
      At your den, sirrah, with your lioness
      I would set an ox-head to your lion's hide,
300   And make a monster of you.
AUSTRIA
      Peace! no more.
BASTARD
      O tremble, for you hear the lion roar.
KING JOHN
      Up higher to the plain; where we'll set forth
      In best appointment all our regiments.
BASTARD
305   Speed then, to take advantage of the field.
KING PHILIP
      It shall be so; and at the other hill
      Command the rest to stand. God and our right!
Exeunt
Here after excursions, enter the Herald of France, with trumpets, to the gates
French Herald
      You men of Angiers, open wide your gates,
      And let young Arthur, Duke of Bretagne, in,
310   Who by the hand of France this day hath made
      Much work for tears in many an English mother,
      Whose sons lie scattered on the bleeding ground;
      Many a widow's husband grovelling lies,
      Coldly embracing the discolour'd earth;
315   And victory, with little loss, doth play
      Upon the dancing banners of the French,
      Who are at hand, triumphantly display'd,
      To enter conquerors and to proclaim
      Arthur of Bretagne England's king and yours.
Enter English Herald, with trumpet
English Herald
320   Rejoice, you men of Angiers, ring your bells:
      King John, your king and England's doth approach,
      Commander of this hot malicious day:
      Their armours, that march'd hence so silver-bright,
      Hither return all gilt with Frenchmen's blood;
325   There stuck no plume in any English crest
      That is removed by a staff of France;
      Our colours do return in those same hands
      That did display them when we first march'd forth;
      And, like a troop of jolly huntsmen, come
330   Our lusty English, all with purpled hands,
      Dyed in the dying slaughter of their foes:
      Open your gates and gives the victors way.
First Citizen
      Heralds, from off our towers we might behold,
      From first to last, the onset and retire
335   Of both your armies; whose equality
      By our best eyes cannot be censured:
      Blood hath bought blood and blows have answered blows;
      Strength match'd with strength, and power confronted power:
      Both are alike; and both alike we like.
340   One must prove greatest: while they weigh so even,
      We hold our town for neither, yet for both.
Re-enter KING JOHN and KING PHILIP, with their powers, severally
KING JOHN
      France, hast thou yet more blood to cast away?
      Say, shall the current of our right run on?
      Whose passage, vex'd with thy impediment,
345   Shall leave his native channel and o'erswell
      With course disturb'd even thy confining shores,
      Unless thou let his silver water keep
      A peaceful progress to the ocean.
KING PHILIP
      England, thou hast not saved one drop of blood,
350   In this hot trial, more than we of France;
      Rather, lost more. And by this hand I swear,
      That sways the earth this climate overlooks,
      Before we will lay down our just-borne arms,
      We'll put thee down, 'gainst whom these arms we bear,
355   Or add a royal number to the dead,
      Gracing the scroll that tells of this war's loss
      With slaughter coupled to the name of kings.
BASTARD
      Ha, majesty! how high thy glory towers,
      When the rich blood of kings is set on fire!
360   O, now doth Death line his dead chaps with steel;
      The swords of soldiers are his teeth, his fangs;
      And now he feasts, mousing the flesh of men,
      In undetermined differences of kings.
      Why stand these royal fronts amazed thus?
365   Cry, 'havoc!' kings; back to the stained field,
      You equal potents, fiery kindled spirits!
      Then let confusion of one part confirm
      The other's peace: till then, blows, blood and death!
KING JOHN
      Whose party do the townsmen yet admit?
KING PHILIP
370   Speak, citizens, for England; who's your king?
First Citizen
      The king of England; when we know the king.
KING PHILIP
      Know him in us, that here hold up his right.
KING JOHN
      In us, that are our own great deputy
      And bear possession of our person here,
375   Lord of our presence, Angiers, and of you.
First Citizen
      A greater power then we denies all this;
      And till it be undoubted, we do lock
      Our former scruple in our strong-barr'd gates;
      King'd of our fears, until our fears, resolved,
380   Be by some certain king purged and deposed.
BASTARD
      By heaven, these scroyles of Angiers flout you, kings,
      And stand securely on their battlements,
      As in a theatre, whence they gape and point
      At your industrious scenes and acts of death.
385   Your royal presences be ruled by me:
      Do like the mutines of Jerusalem,
      Be friends awhile and both conjointly bend
      Your sharpest deeds of malice on this town:
      By east and west let France and England mount
390   Their battering cannon charged to the mouths,
      Till their soul-fearing clamours have brawl'd down
      The flinty ribs of this contemptuous city:
      I'ld play incessantly upon these jades,
      Even till unfenced desolation
395   Leave them as naked as the vulgar air.
      That done, dissever your united strengths,
      And part your mingled colours once again;
      Turn face to face and bloody point to point;
      Then, in a moment, Fortune shall cull forth
400   Out of one side her happy minion,
      To whom in favour she shall give the day,
      And kiss him with a glorious victory.
      How like you this wild counsel, mighty states?
      Smacks it not something of the policy?
KING JOHN
405   Now, by the sky that hangs above our heads,
      I like it well. France, shall we knit our powers
      And lay this Angiers even to the ground;
      Then after fight who shall be king of it?
BASTARD
      An if thou hast the mettle of a king,
410   Being wronged as we are by this peevish town,
      Turn thou the mouth of thy artillery,
      As we will ours, against these saucy walls;
      And when that we have dash'd them to the ground,
      Why then defy each other and pell-mell
415   Make work upon ourselves, for heaven or hell.
KING PHILIP
      Let it be so. Say, where will you assault?
KING JOHN
      We from the west will send destruction
      Into this city's bosom.
AUSTRIA
      I from the north.
KING PHILIP
420   Our thunder from the south
      Shall rain their drift of bullets on this town.
BASTARD
      O prudent discipline! From north to south:
      Austria and France shoot in each other's mouth:
      I'll stir them to it. Come, away, away!
First Citizen
425   Hear us, great kings: vouchsafe awhile to stay,
      And I shall show you peace and fair-faced league;
      Win you this city without stroke or wound;
      Rescue those breathing lives to die in beds,
      That here come sacrifices for the field:
430   Persever not, but hear me, mighty kings.
KING JOHN
      Speak on with favour; we are bent to hear.
First Citizen
      That daughter there of Spain, the Lady Blanch,
      Is niece to England: look upon the years
      Of Lewis the Dauphin and that lovely maid:
435   If lusty love should go in quest 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 sought a match of birth,
440   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 of, say he is not she;
      And she again wants nothing, to name want,
445   If want it be not that she is not he:
      He is the half part of a blessed man,
      Left to be finished by such as she;
      And she a fair divided excellence,
      Whose fulness of perfection lies in him.
450   O, two such silver currents, when they join,
      Do glorify the banks that bound them in;
      And two such shores to two such streams made one,
      Two such controlling bounds shall you be, kings,
      To these two princes, if you marry them.
455   This union shall do more than battery can
      To our fast-closed gates; for at this match,
      With swifter spleen than powder can enforce,
      The mouth of passage shall we fling wide ope,
      And give you entrance: but without this match,
460   The sea enraged is not half so deaf,
      Lions more confident, mountains and rocks
      More free from motion, no, not Death himself
      In moral fury half so peremptory,
      As we to keep this city.
BASTARD
465   Here's a stay
      That shakes the rotten carcass of old Death
      Out of his rags! Here's a large mouth, indeed,
      That spits forth death and mountains, rocks and seas,
      Talks as familiarly of roaring lions
470   As maids of thirteen do of puppy-dogs!
      What cannoneer begot this lusty blood?
      He speaks plain cannon fire, and smoke and bounce;
      He gives the bastinado with his tongue:
      Our ears are cudgell'd; not a word of his
475   But buffets better than a fist of France:
      Zounds! I was never so bethump'd with words
      Since I first call'd my brother's father dad.
QUEEN ELINOR
      Son, list to this conjunction, make this match;
      Give with our niece a dowry large enough:
480   For by this knot thou shalt so surely tie
      Thy now unsured assurance to the crown,
      That yon green boy shall have no sun to ripe
      The bloom that promiseth a mighty fruit.
      I see a yielding in the looks of France;
485   Mark, how they whisper: urge them while their souls
      Are capable of this ambition,
      Lest zeal, now melted by the windy breath
      Of soft petitions, pity and remorse,
      Cool and congeal again to what it was.
First Citizen
490   Why answer not the double majesties
      This friendly treaty of our threaten'd town?
KING PHILIP
      Speak England first, that hath been forward first
      To speak unto this city: what say you?
KING JOHN
      If that the Dauphin there, thy princely son,
495   Can in this book of beauty read 'I love,'
      Her dowry shall weigh equal with a queen:
      For Anjou and fair Touraine, Maine, Poictiers,
      And all that we upon this side the sea,
      Except this city now by us besieged,
500   Find liable to our crown and dignity,
      Shall gild her bridal bed and make her rich
      In titles, honours and promotions,
      As she in beauty, education, blood,
      Holds hand with any princess of the world.
KING PHILIP
505   What say'st thou, boy? look in the lady's face.
LEWIS
      I do, my lord; and in her eye I find
      A wonder, or a wondrous miracle,
      The shadow of myself form'd in her eye:
      Which being but the shadow of your son,
510   Becomes a sun and makes your son a shadow:
      I do protest I never loved myself
      Till now infixed I beheld myself
      Drawn in the flattering table of her eye.
Whispers with BLANCH
BASTARD
      Drawn in the flattering table of her eye!
515   Hang'd in the frowning wrinkle of her brow!
      And quarter'd in her heart! he doth espy
      Himself love's traitor: this is pity now,
      That hang'd and drawn and quartered, there should be
      In such a love so vile a lout as he.
BLANCH
520   My uncle's will in this respect is mine:
      If he see aught in you that makes him like,
      That any thing he sees, which moves his liking,
      I can with ease translate it to my will;
      Or if you will, to speak more properly,
525   I will enforce it easily to my love.
      Further I will not flatter you, my lord,
      That all I see in you is worthy love,
      Than this; that nothing do I see in you,
      Though churlish thoughts themselves should be your judge,
530   That I can find should merit any hate.
KING JOHN
      What say these young ones? What say you my niece?
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
535   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,
540   Full thirty thousand marks of English coin.
      Philip of France, if thou be pleased withal,
      Command thy son and daughter to join hands.
KING PHILIP
      It likes us well; young princes, close your hands.
AUSTRIA
      And your lips too; for I am well assured
545   That I did so when I was first assured.
KING PHILIP
      Now, citizens of Angiers, ope your gates,
      Let in that amity which you have made;
      For at Saint Mary's chapel presently
      The rites of marriage shall be solemnized.
550   Is not the Lady Constance in this troop?
      I know she is not, for this match made up
      Her presence would have interrupted much:
      Where is she and her son? tell me, who knows.
LEWIS
      She is sad and passionate at your highness' tent.
KING PHILIP
555   And, by my faith, this league that we have made
      Will give her sadness very little cure.
      Brother of England, how may we content
      This widow lady? In her right we came;
      Which we, God knows, have turn'd another way,
560   To our own vantage.
KING JOHN
      We will heal up all;
      For we'll create young Arthur Duke of Bretagne
      And Earl of Richmond; and this rich fair town
      We make him lord of. Call the Lady Constance;
565   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.
570   Go we, as well as haste will suffer us,
      To this unlook'd for, unprepared pomp.
Exeunt all but the BASTARD
BASTARD
      Mad world! mad kings! mad composition!
      John, to stop Arthur's title in the whole,
      Hath willingly departed with a part,
575   And France, whose armour conscience buckled on,
      Whom zeal and charity brought to the field
      As God's own soldier, rounded in the ear
      With that same purpose-changer, that sly devil,
      That broker, that still breaks the pate of faith,
580   That daily break-vow, he that wins of all,
      Of kings, of beggars, old men, young men, maids,
      Who, having no external thing to lose
      But the word 'maid,' cheats the poor maid of that,
      That smooth-faced gentleman, tickling Commodity,
585   Commodity, the bias of the world,
      The world, who of itself is peised well,
      Made to run even upon even ground,
      Till this advantage, this vile-drawing bias,
      This sway of motion, this Commodity,
590   Makes it take head from all indifferency,
      From all direction, purpose, course, intent:
      And this same bias, this Commodity,
      This bawd, this broker, this all-changing word,
      Clapp'd on the outward eye of fickle France,
595   Hath drawn him from his own determined aid,
      From a resolved and honourable war,
      To a most base and vile-concluded peace.
      And why rail I on this Commodity?
      But for because he hath not woo'd me yet:
600   Not that I have the power to clutch my hand,
      When his fair angels would salute my palm;
      But for my hand, as unattempted yet,
      Like a poor beggar, raileth on the rich.
      Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail
605   And say there is no sin but to be rich;
      And being rich, my virtue then shall be
      To say there is no vice but beggary.
      Since kings break faith upon commodity,
      Gain, be my lord, for I will worship thee.
Exit
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