TPTT 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:   
for:

SCENE II. LEWIS's camp at St. Edmundsbury.
Enter, in arms, LEWIS, SALISBURY, MELUN, PEMBROKE, BIGOT, and Soldiers
LEWIS
      My Lord Melun, let this be copied out,
      And keep it safe for our remembrance:
      Return the precedent to these lords again;
      That, having our fair order written down,
5     Both they and we, perusing o'er these notes,
      May know wherefore we took the sacrament
      And keep our faiths firm and inviolable.
SALISBURY
      Upon our sides it never shall be broken.
      And, noble Dauphin, albeit we swear
10    A voluntary zeal and an unurged 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
15    By making many. O, it grieves my soul,
      That I must draw this metal from my side
      To be a widow-maker! O, and there
      Where honourable rescue and defence
      Cries out upon the name of Salisbury!
20    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.
      And is't not pity, O my grieved friends,
25    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 march
      Upon her gentle bosom, and fill up
      Her enemies' ranks,--I must withdraw and weep
30    Upon the spot of this enforced cause,--
      To grace the gentry of a land remote,
      And follow unacquainted colours here?
      What, here? O nation, that thou couldst remove!
      That Neptune's arms, who clippeth thee about,
35    Would bear thee from the knowledge of thyself,
      And grapple 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!
LEWIS
40    A noble temper dost thou show in this;
      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!
45    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,
50    This shower, blown up by tempest of the soul,
      Startles mine eyes, and makes me more amazed
      Than had I seen the vaulty top of heaven
      Figured quite o'er with burning meteors.
      Lift up thy brow, renowned Salisbury,
55    And with a great heart heave away the storm:
      Commend these waters to those baby eyes
      That never saw the giant world enraged;
      Nor met with fortune other than at feasts,
      Full of warm blood, of mirth, of gossiping.
60    Come, come; for thou shalt thrust thy hand as deep
      Into the purse of rich prosperity
      As Lewis himself: so, nobles, shall you all,
      That knit your sinews to the strength of mine.
      And even there, methinks, an angel spake:

Enter CARDINAL PANDULPH

65    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.
CARDINAL PANDULPH
      Hail, noble prince of France!
70    The next is this, King John hath reconciled
      Himself to Rome; his spirit is come in,
      That so stood out against the holy church,
      The great metropolis and see of Rome:
      Therefore thy threatening colours now wind up;
75    And tame the savage spirit of wild war,
      That like a lion foster'd up at hand,
      It may lie gently at the foot of peace,
      And be no further harmful than in show.
LEWIS
      Your grace shall pardon me, I will not back:
80    I am too high-born to be propertied,
      To be a secondary at control,
      Or useful serving-man and instrument,
      To any sovereign state throughout the world.
      Your breath first kindled the dead coal of wars
85    Between this chastised 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,
90    Acquainted me with interest to this land,
      Yea, thrust this enterprise into my heart;
      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,
95    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,
100   To underprop this action? Is't not I
      That undergo this charge? who else but I,
      And such as to my claim are liable,
      Sweat in this business and maintain this war?
      Have I not heard these islanders shout out
105   '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, no, on my soul, it never shall be said.
CARDINAL PANDULPH
110   You look but on the outside of this work.
LEWIS
      Outside or inside, I will not return
      Till my attempt so much be glorified
      As to my ample hope was promised
      Before I drew this gallant head of war,
115   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?
Enter the BASTARD, attended
BASTARD
      According to the fair play of the world,
120   Let me have audience; I am sent to speak:
      My holy lord of Milan, from the king
      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.
CARDINAL PANDULPH
125   The Dauphin is too wilful-opposite,
      And will not temporize with my entreaties;
      He flatly says he'll not lay down his arms.
BASTARD
      By all the blood that ever fury breathed,
      The youth says well. Now hear our English king;
130   For thus his royalty doth speak in me.
      He is prepared, and reason too he should:
      This apish and unmannerly approach,
      This harness'd masque and unadvised revel,
      This unhair'd sauciness and boyish troops,
135   The king doth smile at; and is well prepared
      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,
140   To dive like buckets in concealed wells,
      To crouch in litter of your stable planks,
      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
145   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
150   And like an eagle o'er his aery towers,
      To souse annoyance that comes near his nest.
      And you degenerate, you ingrate revolts,
      You bloody Neroes, ripping up the womb
      Of your dear mother England, blush for shame;
155   For your own ladies and pale-visaged maids
      Like Amazons come tripping after drums,
      Their thimbles into armed gauntlets change,
      Their needles to lances, and their gentle hearts
      To fierce and bloody inclination.
LEWIS
160   There end thy brave, and turn thy face in peace;
      We grant thou canst outscold us: fare thee well;
      We hold our time too precious to be spent
      With such a brabbler.
CARDINAL PANDULPH
      Give me leave to speak.
BASTARD
165   No, I will speak.
LEWIS
      We will attend to neither.
      Strike up the drums; and let the tongue of war
      Plead for our interest and our being here.
BASTARD
      Indeed your drums, being beaten, will cry out;
170   And so shall you, being beaten: do but start
      An echo with the clamour of thy drum,
      And even at hand a drum is ready braced
      That shall reverberate all as loud as thine;
      Sound but another, and another shall
175   As loud as thine rattle the welkin's ear
      And mock the deep-mouth'd thunder: for at hand,
      Not trusting to this halting legate here,
      Whom he hath used rather for sport than need
      Is warlike John; and in his forehead sits
180   A bare-ribb'd death, whose office is this day
      To feast upon whole thousands of the French.
LEWIS
      Strike up our drums, to find this danger out.
BASTARD
      And thou shalt find it, Dauphin, do not doubt.
Exeunt
Return to top of page ... or ... Go to next scene