The Life and Death of King John: ACT V
Introduction ACT I ACT II ACT III ACT IV ACT V SCENE I. KING JOHN'S palace. SCENE II. LEWIS's camp at St. Edmundsbury. SCENE III. The field of battle. SCENE IV. Another part of the field. SCENE V. The French camp. SCENE VI. An open place in the neighbourhood of Swinstead Abbey. SCENE VII. The orchard in Swinstead Abbey. About the Play Feedback			Search: All the plays Hamlet Coriolanus Julius Caesar King Lear Macbeth Othello Romeo and Juliet Richard II Richard III Titus Andronicus Antony and Cleopatra Timon of Athens Henry IV Part 1 Henry IV Part 2 Henry the Fifth Henry VI Part 1 Henry VI Part 2 Henry VI Part 3 Henry VIII King John Pericles Troilus and Cressida All's Well... As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Cymbeline A Midsummer... Love's Labour's Lost Measure for Measure The Merry Wives... Much Ado about Nothing The Merchant of Venice Twelfth Night The Taming of... The Tempest The Two Gentlemen... The Winter's Tale    for: SCENE I. KING JOHN'S palace. Enter KING JOHN, CARDINAL PANDULPH, and Attendants KING JOHN       Thus have I yielded up into your hand       The circle of my glory. Giving the crown CARDINAL PANDULPH       Take again       From this my hand, as holding of the pope 5     Your sovereign greatness and authority. KING JOHN       Now keep your holy word: go meet the French,       And from his holiness use all your power       To stop their marches 'fore we are inflamed.       Our discontented counties do revolt; 10    Our people quarrel with obedience,       Swearing allegiance and the love of soul       To stranger blood, to foreign royalty.       This inundation of mistemper'd humour       Rests by you only to be qualified: 15    Then pause not; for the present time's so sick,       That present medicine must be minister'd,       Or overthrow incurable ensues. CARDINAL PANDULPH       It was my breath that blew this tempest up,       Upon your stubborn usage of the pope; 20    But since you are a gentle convertite,       My tongue shall hush again this storm of war       And make fair weather in your blustering land.       On this Ascension-day, remember well,       Upon your oath of service to the pope, 25    Go I to make the French lay down their arms. Exit KING JOHN       Is this Ascension-day? Did not the prophet       Say that before Ascension-day at noon       My crown I should give off? Even so I have:       I did suppose it should be on constraint: 30    But, heaven be thank'd, it is but voluntary. Enter the BASTARD BASTARD       All Kent hath yielded; nothing there holds out       But Dover castle: London hath received,       Like a kind host, the Dauphin and his powers:       Your nobles will not hear you, but are gone 35    To offer service to your enemy,       And wild amazement hurries up and down       The little number of your doubtful friends. KING JOHN       Would not my lords return to me again,       After they heard young Arthur was alive? BASTARD 40    They found him dead and cast into the streets,       An empty casket, where the jewel of life       By some damn'd hand was robb'd and ta'en away. KING JOHN       That villain Hubert told me he did live. BASTARD       So, on my soul, he did, for aught he knew. 45    But wherefore do you droop? why look you sad?       Be great in act, as you have been in thought;       Let not the world see fear and sad distrust       Govern the motion of a kingly eye:       Be stirring as the time; be fire with fire; 50    Threaten the threatener and outface the brow       Of bragging horror: so shall inferior eyes,       That borrow their behaviors from the great,       Grow great by your example and put on       The dauntless spirit of resolution. 55    Away, and glister like the god of war,       When he intendeth to become 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? 60    O, let it not be said: forage, and run       To meet displeasure farther from the doors,       And grapple with him ere he comes so nigh. KING JOHN       The legate of the pope hath been with me,       And I have made a happy peace with him; 65    And he hath promised to dismiss the powers       Led by the Dauphin. BASTARD       O inglorious league!       Shall we, upon the footing of our land,       Send fair-play orders and make compromise, 70    Insinuation, parley and base truce       To arms invasive? shall a beardless boy,       A cocker'd silken wanton, brave our fields,       And flesh his spirit in a warlike soil,       Mocking the air with colours idly spread, 75    And find no cheque? 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. KING JOHN       Have thou the ordering of this present time. BASTARD 80    Away, then, with good courage! yet, I know,       Our party may well meet a prouder foe. Exeunt Return to top of page ... or ... Go to next scene