Enter King JOHN, ELINOR, BLANCH, the Bastard, PEMBROKE, and Forces. K. John. Peace be to France; if France in peace permit Our just and lineal entrance to our own! If not; bleed France, and peace ascend to heaven! Their proud contempt that beat his peace to heaven. Outfaced infant state, and done a rape Look here upon thy brother Geffrey's face ;- To draw my answer from thy articles? K. Phil. From that surpernal 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 : K. John. Alack, thou dost usurp authority. [2] A brief is a short writing, abstract, or description. STEEV. Const. Let me make answer ;-thy usurping son. It cannot be, an if thou wert his mother. 3 Eli. There's a good mother, boy, that blots thy father. Con. There's a good grandam,boy,that would blot thee. Aust. Peace! Bast. Hear the crier. Aust. What the devil art thou? Bast. One that will play the devil, sir, with you, Blanch. O, well did he become that lion's robe, Bast. It lies as sightly on the back of him, As great Alcides' shoes upon an ass : But, ass, I'll take that burden from your back; Or lay on that, shall make your shoulders crack.4 Aust. What cracker is this same, that deafs our ears With this abundance of superfluous breath? K. Phil. Lewis, determine what we shall do straight. Lew. Women and fools, break off your conference.King John, this is the very sum of all, [3] Constance alludes to Elinor's infidelity to her husband, Lewis the Seventh, when they were in the Holy Land; on account of which he was divorced from her. She afterwards (1151) married our King Henry II. MALONE. [4] The ground of the quarrel of the Bastard to Austria is no where specified in the present play. But the story is, that Austria, who killed King Richard Caur-de-lion, wore, as the spoil of that prince, a lion's hide which had belonged to him. This circumstance renders the anger of the Bastard very natural, and ought not to have been omitted. POPE The omission of this incident was natural. Shakspeare having familiarized the story to his own imagination, forgot that it was obscure to his audience; or, what is equally probable, the story was then so popular, that a hint was sufficient, at that time, to bring it to mind; and these plays were written with very little care for the approbation of posterity. JOHNS. England, and Ireland, Anjou, Touraine, Maine, Wilt thou resign 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. Eli. Come to thy grandam, child. Const. Do, child, go it' grandam, child; Arth. Good my mother, peace! I would, that I were low laid in my grave; Eli. His mother shames him so, poor boy, he weeps. Const. Now shame upon you, whe'r she does, or no !5 His grandam's wrongs, and not his mother's shames, Draw those heaven-moving pearls from his poor eyes, Which heaven shall take in nature of a fee; Ay, with these crystal beads heaven shall be brib'd Eli. Thou monstrous slanderer of heaven and earth! Const. Thou monstrous injurer of heaven and earth! Call not me slanderer; thou, and thine, usurp The dominations, royalties, and rights, Of this oppressed boy: This is thy eldest son's son, Thy sins are visited in this poor child; The canon of the law is laid on him, That he's not only plagued for her sin, But God hath made her sin and her the plague On this removed issue, plagu'd for her, [5] Read: whe'r he does, or no !-i. e. whether he weeps, or not. Constance, so far from admitting, expressly denies that she shames him. RITSON. [6] The key to these words is contained in the last speech of Constance, where she alludes to the denunciation of the second commandment, of "visit ing the iniquities of the parents upon the children, unto the third and fourth HENLEY. generation," &c. And with her plague, her sin; his injury Eli. Thou unadvised scold, I can produce A will, that bars the title of thy son. Const. Ay, who doubts that? a will! a wicked will ; A woman's will; a canker'd grandam's will! K. Phil. 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, Trumpets sound. Enter Citizens upon the walls. 1 Cit. Who is it, that hath warn'd us to the walls? K. Phil. 'Tis France, for England. K. John. England, for itself: You men of Angiers, and my loving subjects, C K.Phil. You loving men of Angiers, Arthur's subjects, Our trumpet call'd you to this gentle parle. K.John. For our advantage ;-Therefore, hear us first. Before the eye and prospect of your town, And merciless proceeding by these French, By this time from their fixed beds of lime [7] i, e. gates hastily closed from an apprehension of danger. MALONE. And now, instead of bullets wrapp'd in fire, Which trust accordingly, kind citizens, Crave harbourage within your city walls. K. Phil. 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 ; And king o'er him, and all that he enjoys: In warlike march these greens before your town; Than the constraint of hospitable zeal, To him that owes it ; namely, this young prince : 1 Cit. In brief, we are the king of England's subjects; [8] i. e. cans it. See our author and his contemporaries, passim. STEE. [9] Roundure means the same as the Fr. rondeur, i. e. the circle. STEE. |