And lay this Angiers even with the ground;
Then, after, fight who shall be king of it?

Bast. An if thou hast 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 saucy 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 so :-Say, where will you

assault? K.John. We from the west will send destruction

Into this city's bosom.

Aust. I from the north.

K. Phi.

Our thunder from the south,

Shall rain their drift of bullets on this town.

Bast. O prudent discipline! From north to south, Austria and France shoot in each other's mouth 12:

I'll stir them to't:-Come, away, away!

[Aside.

1 Cit. Hear us, great kings! vouchsafe a while

to stay,

And I shall show you peace, and fair-fac'd league;
Win you this city without stroke or wound;
Rescue those breathing lives to die in beds,
That here come sacrifices for the field;
Perséver 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 13,

12 The poet has made Faulconbridge forget that he had made

a similar mistake. See the preceding page :

13 The Lady Blanch was daughter to Alphonso, the ninth king of Castile, and was niece to King John by his sister Eleanor.

Is near to England; Look upon the years
Of Lewis the Dauphin, and that lovely maid:
If lusty love should go in quest of beauty,

Where should he find it fairer than in Blanch?
If zealous 14 love should go in search of virtue,
Where should he find it purer than in Blanch?
If love ambitious sought 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 say, 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 blessed man,
Left to be finished by such a she;
And she a fair divided excellence,
Whose fulness of perfection lies in him.
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.
This union shall do more than battery can,
To our fast-closed gates: for, at this match,
With swifter spleen 15 than powder can enforce,
The mouth of passage shall we fling wide ope,
And give you entrance; but, without this match,
The sea 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.

14 Zealous for pious.

15 Spleen is used by Shakspeare for any violent hurry or tumultuous speed. In A Midsummer Night's Dream he applies spleen to the lightning.

Bast.

Here's a stay 16,

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

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 cudgel'd; not a word of his,
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.

Eli. Son, list 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 unsur'd 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;
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.

1 Cit. Why answer not the double majesties This friendly treaty of our threaten'd town?

'Here's

16 A stay here seems to mean a supporter of a cause. an extraordinary partisan or maintainer that shakes,' &c. Baret translates columen vel firmamentum reipublicæ by the stay, the chiefe mainteyner and succour of,' &c. It has been proposed to read, Here's a say,' i. e. a speech; and it must be confessed that it would agree well with the tenor of the subsequent part of Faulconbridge's speech.

K. Phi. Speak England first, that hath been for

ward first

To speak unto this city: What say you?

K.John. If that the Dauphin there, thy princely

son,

Can in this book of beauty read 17, 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 besieg'd)
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.

K. Phi. What say'st 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 shadow of myself form'd in her eye;
Which, being but the shadow of your son,
Becomes a sun, and makes your son a shadow;
I do protest, I never lov'd myself,

Till now infixed I beheld myself,

Drawn in the flattering table 18 of her

eye.

[Whispers with BLANCH.

'Her face the book of praises,' &c.

Again in Macbeth :

'Your face, my thane, is as a book where men

May read strange matters.'

18 The table is the plain surface on which any thing is depicted or written. Tablette, Fr. Our ancestors called their memorandum books a pair of writing tables. Vide Baret's Alvearie, 1575, Letter T. No. 2. Thus Helena, in All's Well that Ends Well:

to sit and draw

His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls,
In our heart's table.'

Bast. Drawn in the flattering table of her eye!— 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 quarter'd, there should be,

In such a love, so vile a lout as he.

Blanch. 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),

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),

That I can find should merit any hate.

K. John. What t say these young

you, my niece?

ones? What say

Blanch. That she is bound in honour still to do What

you in wisdom shall vouchsafe to say.

K.John. Speak then, prince Dauphin; can you love this lady?

Lew. Nay, ask me if I can refrain from love;
For I do love her most unfeignedly.

K. John. Then do I give Volquessen 19, Touraine,
Maine,

Poictiers, and Anjou, these five provinces,
With her to thee; and this addition more,
Full thirty thousand marks of English coin.-

19 This is the ancient name for the country now called the Vexin, in Latin Pagus Velocassinus. That part of it called the Norman Vexin was in dispute between Philip and John. This and the subsequent line (except the words do I give') are taken from the old play.