ACT IISCENE I. France. Before the walls of Angiers.Enter, on one side, theArchduke of Austriaand Forces; on the other,Philip King of France, Louis, Constance, Arthurand Forces.LOUIS.Before Angiers well met, brave Austria.Arthur, that great forerunner of thy blood,Richard, that robb’d the lion of his heartAnd fought the holy wars in Palestine,By this brave duke came early to his grave.And, for amends to his posterity,At our importance hither is he comeTo spread his colours, boy, in thy behalf,And to rebuke the usurpationOf thy unnatural uncle, English John.Embrace him, love him, give him welcome hither.ARTHUR.God shall forgive you Cœur-de-lion’s deathThe rather that you give his offspring life,Shadowing their right under your wings of war.I give you welcome with a powerless hand,But with a heart full of unstained love.Welcome before the gates of Angiers, duke.LOUIS.A noble boy. Who would not do thee right?AUSTRIA.Upon thy cheek lay I this zealous kiss,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-fac’d shore,Whose foot spurns back the ocean’s roaring tidesAnd coops from other lands her islanders,Even till that England, hedg’d in with the main,That water-walled bulwark, still secureAnd confident from foreign purposes,Even till that utmost corner of the westSalute 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 strengthTo make a more requital to your love!AUSTRIA.The peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swordsIn such a just and charitable war.KING PHILIP.Well then, to work; our cannon shall be bentAgainst the brows of this resisting town.Call for our chiefest men of discipline,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,Lest unadvis’d you stain your swords with blood.My Lord Chatillion may from England bringThat right in peace which here we urge in war,And then we shall repent each drop of bloodThat hot rash haste so indirectly shed.EnterChatillion.KING PHILIP.A wonder, lady! Lo, upon thy wish,Our messenger Chatillion is arriv’d.What England says, say briefly, gentle lord;We coldly pause for thee; Chatillion, speak.CHATILLION.Then turn your forces from this paltry siegeAnd 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 timeTo land his legions all as soon as I;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 Blanche of Spain;With them a bastard of the King’s deceas’d.And all th’ unsettled humours of the land;Rash, inconsiderate, fiery voluntaries,With ladies’ faces and fierce dragons’ spleens,Have sold their fortunes at their native homes,Bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs,To make a hazard of new fortunes here.In brief, a braver choice of dauntless spiritsThan now the English bottoms have waft o’erDid never float upon the swelling tideTo do offence and scathe in Christendom.[Drums beat within.]The interruption of their churlish drumsCuts 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.By how much unexpected, by so muchWe must awake endeavour for defence,For courage mounteth with occasion.Let them be welcome, then; we are prepar’d.EnterKing John, Eleanor, Blanche,theBastard, Pembroke,Lords and Forces.KING JOHN.Peace be to France, if France in peace permitOur just and lineal entrance to our own;If not, bleed France, and peace ascend to heaven,Whiles we, God’s wrathful agent, do correctTheir proud contempt that beats his peace to heaven.KING PHILIP.Peace be to England, if that war returnFrom France to England, there to live in peace.England we love; and for that England’s sakeWith burden of our armour here we sweat.This toil of ours should be a work of thine;But thou from loving England art so farThat thou hast underwrought his lawful king,Cut off the sequence of posterity,Outfaced infant state, and done a rapeUpon the maiden virtue of the crown.Look here upon thy brother Geoffrey’s face;These eyes, these brows, were moulded out of his:This little abstract doth contain that largeWhich died in Geoffrey, and the hand of timeShall draw this brief into as huge a volume.That Geoffrey was thy elder brother born,And this his son; England was Geoffrey’s right,And this is Geoffrey’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.From whom hast thou this great commission, France,To draw my answer from thy articles?KING PHILIP.From that supernal judge that stirs good thoughtsIn any breast of strong authority,To look into the blots and stains of right.That judge hath made me guardian to this boy,Under whose warrant I impeach thy wrongAnd 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 ELEANOR.Who is it thou dost call usurper, France?CONSTANCE.Let me make answer: thy usurping son.QUEEN ELEANOR.Out, insolent! Thy bastard shall be king,That thou mayst be a queen, and check the world!CONSTANCE.My bed was ever to thy son as trueAs thine was to thy husband; and this boyLiker in feature to his father GeoffreyThan thou and John in manners; being as likeAs rain to water, or devil to his dam.My boy a bastard! By my soul, I thinkHis father never was so true begot:It cannot be, and if thou wert his mother.QUEEN ELEANOR.There’s a good mother, boy, that blots thy father.CONSTANCE.There’s a good grandam, boy, that would blot thee.AUSTRIA.Peace!BASTARD.Hear the crier!AUSTRIA.What the devil art thou?BASTARD.One that will play the devil, sir, with you,An he may catch your hide and you alone.You are the hare of whom the proverb goes,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.BLANCHE.O, well did he become that lion’s robeThat did disrobe the lion of that robe!BASTARD.It lies as sightly on the back of himAs great Alcides’ shows upon an ass.But, ass, I’ll take that burden from your back,Or lay on that shall make your shoulders crack.AUSTRIA.What cracker is this same that deafs our earsWith this abundance of superfluous breath?KING PHILIP.Louis, determine what we shall do straight.LOUIS.Women and fools, break off your conference.KING PHILIP.King John, this is the very sum of all:England and Ireland, Anjou, Touraine, Maine,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 Brittany, yield thee to my hand;And out of my dear love I’ll give thee moreThan e’er the coward hand of France can win.Submit thee, boy.QUEEN ELEANOR.Come to thy grandam, child.CONSTANCE.Do, child, go to it grandam, child.Give grandam kingdom, and it grandam willGive 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 ELEANOR.His mother shames him so, poor boy, he weeps.CONSTANCE.Now, shame upon you, whe’er 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.Ay, with these crystal beads heaven shall be brib’dTo do him justice, and revenge on you.QUEEN ELEANOR.Thou monstrous slanderer of heaven and earth!CONSTANCE.Thou monstrous injurer of heaven and earth!Call not me slanderer. Thou and thine usurpThe dominations, royalties, and rightsOf this oppressed boy. This is thy eldest 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,Being but the second generationRemoved 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,But God hath made her sin and her the plagueOn this removed issue, plagued for herAnd with her plague; her sin his injuryHer injury the beadle to her sin,All punish’d in the person of this child,And all for her. A plague upon her!QUEEN ELEANOR.Thou unadvised scold, I can produceA will that bars the title of thy son.CONSTANCE.Ay, who doubts that? A will, a wicked will;A woman’s will; a cankered grandam’s will!KING PHILIP.Peace, lady! Pause, or be more temperate.It ill beseems this presence to cry aimTo these ill-tuned repetitions.—Some trumpet summon hither to the wallsThese men of Angiers. Let us hear them speakWhose title they admit, Arthur’s or John’s.Trumpet sounds. EnterCitizensupon the walls.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.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 hereBefore the eye and prospect of your town,Have hither march’d to your endamagement.The cannons have their bowels full of wrath,And ready mounted are they to spit forthTheir iron indignation ’gainst your walls.All preparation for a bloody siegeAnd merciless proceeding by these FrenchConfronts 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 ordinanceBy this time from their fixed beds of limeHad been dishabited, and wide havoc madeFor bloody power to rush upon your peace.But on the sight of us your lawful king,Who painfully with much expedient marchHave brought a countercheck before your gates,To save unscratch’d your city’s threatened cheeks,Behold, the French, amaz’d, vouchsafe a parle;And now, instead of bullets wrapp’d in fire,To make a shaking fever in your walls,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 spiritsForwearied in this action of swift speed,Craves harbourage within your city walls.KING PHILIP.When I have said, make answer to us both.Lo, in this right hand, whose protectionIs most divinely vow’d upon the rightOf him it holds, stands young Plantagenet,Son to the elder brother of this man,And king o’er him and all that he enjoys.For this down-trodden equity we treadIn warlike march these greens before your town,Being no further enemy to youThan the constraint of hospitable zealIn the relief of this oppressed childReligiously provokes. Be pleased thenTo pay that duty which you truly oweTo him that owes it, namely, this young prince,And then our arms, like to a muzzled bear,Save in aspect, hath all offence seal’d up;Our cannons’ malice vainly shall be spentAgainst th’ invulnerable clouds of heaven;And with a blessed and unvex’d retire,With unhack’d swords and helmets all unbruis’d,We will bear home that lusty blood againWhich 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,’Tis not the roundure of your old-fac’d wallsCan hide you from our messengers of war,Though all these English, and their disciplineWere harbour’d in their rude circumference.Then, tell us, shall your city call us lordIn that behalf which we have challeng’d it?Or shall we give the signal to our rageAnd 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.Acknowledge then the King, and let me in.CITIZEN.That can we not; but he that proves the King,To him will we prove loyal. Till that timeHave we ramm’d up our gates against the world.KING JOHN.Doth not the crown of England prove the King?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.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 soulsThat 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 sinceSits on ’s 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,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 forthIn best appointment all our regiments.BASTARD.Speed, then, to take advantage of the field.KING PHILIP.It shall be so; and at the other hillCommand the rest to stand. God and our right![Exeunt severally.]Here, after excursions, enter aHerald of Francewith Trumpets, to the gates.FRENCH HERALD.You men of Angiers, open wide your gates,And let young Arthur, Duke of Brittany, in,Who by the hand of France this day hath madeMuch work for tears in many an English mother,Whose sons lie scatter’d on the bleeding ground.Many a widow’s husband grovelling lies,Coldly embracing the discolour’d earth;And victory, with little loss, doth playUpon the dancing banners of the French,Who are at hand, triumphantly display’d,To enter conquerors, and to proclaimArthur of Brittany England’s king and yours.EnterEnglish Heraldwith Trumpet.ENGLISH HERALD.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;There stuck no plume in any English crestThat is removed by a staff of France,Our colours do return in those same handsThat did display them when we first march’d forth;And, like a jolly troop of huntsmen, comeOur lusty English, all with purpled hands,Dyed in the dying slaughter of their foes:Open your gates and give the victors way.FIRST CITIZEN.Heralds, from off our towers, we might behold,From first to last, the onset and retireOf both your armies; whose equalityBy our best eyes cannot be censured:Blood hath bought blood, and blows have answer’d blows;Strength match’d with strength, and power confronted power:Both are alike, and both alike we like.One must prove greatest: while they weigh so even,We hold our town for neither, yet for both.Enter on one sideKing John, Eleanor, Blanche, the Bastardand Forces; on the other,King Philip, Louis, Austriaand Forces.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,Shall leave his native channel, and o’erswellWith course disturb’d even thy confining shores,Unless thou let his silver water keepA peaceful progress to the ocean?KING PHILIP.England, thou hast not sav’d one drop of bloodIn 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,Or add a royal number to the dead,Gracing the scroll that tells of this war’s lossWith slaughter coupled to the name of kings.BASTARD.Ha, majesty! How high thy glory towersWhen the rich blood of kings is set on fire!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 undetermin’d differences of kings.Why stand these royal fronts amazed thus?Cry havoc, kings! Back to the stained field,You equal potents, fiery-kindled spirits!Then let confusion of one part confirmThe other’s peace. Till then, blows, blood, and death!KING JOHN.Whose party do the townsmen yet admit?KING PHILIP.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,Lord of our presence, Angiers, and of you.FIRST CITIZEN.A greater power than we denies all this;And till it be undoubted, we do lockOur former scruple in our strong-barr’d gates:Kings of our fear, until our fears, resolv’d,Be by some certain king purg’d and depos’d.BASTARD.By heaven, these scroyles of Angiers flout you, kings,And stand securely on their battlementsAs in a theatre, whence they gape and pointAt your industrious scenes and acts of death.Your royal presences be rul’d by me:Do like the mutines of Jerusalem,Be friends awhile, and both conjointly bendYour sharpest deeds of malice on this town:By east and west let France and England mountTheir battering cannon charged to the mouths,Till their soul-fearing clamours have brawl’d downThe flinty ribs of this contemptuous city:I’d play incessantly upon these jades,Even till unfenced desolationLeave 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 forthOut 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.Now, by the sky that hangs above our heads,I like it well. France, shall we knit our powersAnd lay this Angiers even with the ground;Then after fight who shall be king of it?BASTARD.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.KING PHILIP.Let it be so. Say, where will you assault?KING JOHN.We from the west will send destructionInto this city’s bosom.AUSTRIA.I from the north.KING PHILIP.Our thunder from the southShall 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.Hear us, great kings: vouchsafe awhile 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 bedsThat here come sacrifices for the field: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 Blanche,Is niece to England. Look upon the yearsOf Louis the Dauphin and that lovely maid.If lusty love should go in quest of beauty,Where should he find it fairer than in Blanche?If zealous love should go in search of virtue,Where should he find it purer than in Blanche?If love ambitious sought a match of birth,Whose veins bound richer blood than Lady Blanche?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,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 joinDo 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 canTo 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,The sea enraged is not half so deaf,Lions more confident, mountains and rocksMore free from motion; no, not Death himselfIn mortal fury half so peremptoryAs we to keep this city.BASTARD.Here’s a stayThat shakes the rotten carcass of old DeathOut of his rags! Here’s a large mouth indeed,That spits forth death and mountains, rocks and seas;Talks as familiarly of roaring lionsAs 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 hisBut buffets better than a fist of France.Zounds! I was never so bethump’d with wordsSince I first call’d my brother’s father dad.QUEEN ELEANOR.Son, list to this conjunction, make this match.Give with our niece a dowry large enough,For by this knot thou shalt so surely tieThy now unsur’d assurance to the crown,That yon green boy shall have no sun to ripeThe bloom that promiseth a mighty fruit.I see a yielding in the looks of France;Mark how they whisper. Urge them while their soulsAre capable of this ambition,Lest zeal, now melted by the windy breathOf soft petitions, pity, and remorse,Cool and congeal again to what it was.FIRST CITIZEN.Why answer not the double majestiesThis friendly treaty of our threaten’d town?KING PHILIP.Speak England first, that hath been forward firstTo speak unto this city. What say you?KING JOHN.If that the Dauphin there, thy princely son,Can in this book of beauty read “I love,”Her dowry shall weigh equal with a queen.For Anjou, and fair Touraine, Maine, Poitiers,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 richIn titles, honours, and promotions,As she in beauty, education, blood,Holds hand with any princess of the world.KING PHILIP.What say’st thou, boy? Look in the lady’s face.LOUIS.I do, my lord, and in her eye I findA 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 myselfTill now infixed I beheld myselfDrawn in the flattering table of her eye.[Whispers withBlanche.]BASTARD.[Aside.] 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 espyHimself love’s traitor. This is pity now,That, hang’d and drawn and quarter’d, there should beIn such a love so vile a lout as he.BLANCHE.My uncle’s will in this respect is mine.If he see aught in you that makes him like,That anything he sees, which moves his likingI can with ease translate it to my will;Or if you will, to speak more properly,I will enforce it eas’ly 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.KING JOHN.What say these young ones? What say you, my niece?BLANCHE.That she is bound in honour still to doWhat you in wisdom still vouchsafe to say.KING JOHN.Speak then, Prince Dauphin. Can you love this lady?LOUIS.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,Poitiers, and Anjou, these five provinces,With her to thee; and this addition more,Full thirty thousand marks of English coin.—Philip of France, if thou be pleas’d 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 assur’dThat I did so when I was first assur’d.KING PHILIP.Now, citizens of Angiers, ope your gates,Let in that amity which you have made;For at Saint Mary’s chapel presentlyThe rites of marriage shall be solemniz’d.Is not the Lady Constance in this troop?I know she is not, for this match made upHer presence would have interrupted much.Where is she and her son? Tell me, who knows.LOUIS.She is sad and passionate at your highness’ tent.KING PHILIP.And, by my faith, this league that we have madeWill give her sadness very little cure.—Brother of England, how may we contentThis widow lady? In her right we came;Which we, God knows, have turn’d another way,To our own vantage.KING JOHN.We will heal up all;For we’ll create young Arthur Duke of Brittany,And Earl of Richmond; and this rich fair townWe make him lord of. Call the Lady Constance.Some speedy messenger bid her repairTo our solemnity. I trust we shall,If not fill up the measure of her will,Yet in some measure satisfy her soThat we shall stop her exclamation.Go we, as well as haste will suffer us,To this unlook’d-for, unprepared pomp.[Exeunt all but theBastard. The Citizens retire from the walls.]BASTARD.Mad world! mad kings! mad composition!John, to stop Arthur’s title in the whole,Hath willingly departed with a part;And France, whose armour conscience buckled on,Whom zeal and charity brought to the fieldAs God’s own soldier, rounded in the earWith that same purpose-changer, that sly devil,That broker, that still breaks the pate of faith,That daily break-vow, he that wins of all,Of kings, of beggars, old men, young men, maids,Who having no external thing to loseBut the word “maid,” cheats the poor maid of that,That smooth-fac’d gentleman, tickling commodity,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,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,Hath drawn him from his own determin’d aid,From a resolv’d 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.Not that I have the power to clutch my handWhen 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 railAnd say there is no sin but to be rich;And being rich, my virtue then shall beTo say there is no vice but beggary.Since kings break faith upon commodity,Gain, be my lord, for I will worship thee![Exit.]
Enter, on one side, theArchduke of Austriaand Forces; on the other,Philip King of France, Louis, Constance, Arthurand Forces.
LOUIS.Before Angiers well met, brave Austria.Arthur, that great forerunner of thy blood,Richard, that robb’d the lion of his heartAnd fought the holy wars in Palestine,By this brave duke came early to his grave.And, for amends to his posterity,At our importance hither is he comeTo spread his colours, boy, in thy behalf,And to rebuke the usurpationOf thy unnatural uncle, English John.Embrace him, love him, give him welcome hither.
ARTHUR.God shall forgive you Cœur-de-lion’s deathThe rather that you give his offspring life,Shadowing their right under your wings of war.I give you welcome with a powerless hand,But with a heart full of unstained love.Welcome before the gates of Angiers, duke.
LOUIS.A noble boy. Who would not do thee right?
AUSTRIA.Upon thy cheek lay I this zealous kiss,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-fac’d shore,Whose foot spurns back the ocean’s roaring tidesAnd coops from other lands her islanders,Even till that England, hedg’d in with the main,That water-walled bulwark, still secureAnd confident from foreign purposes,Even till that utmost corner of the westSalute 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 strengthTo make a more requital to your love!
AUSTRIA.The peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swordsIn such a just and charitable war.
KING PHILIP.Well then, to work; our cannon shall be bentAgainst the brows of this resisting town.Call for our chiefest men of discipline,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,Lest unadvis’d you stain your swords with blood.My Lord Chatillion may from England bringThat right in peace which here we urge in war,And then we shall repent each drop of bloodThat hot rash haste so indirectly shed.
EnterChatillion.
KING PHILIP.A wonder, lady! Lo, upon thy wish,Our messenger Chatillion is arriv’d.What England says, say briefly, gentle lord;We coldly pause for thee; Chatillion, speak.
CHATILLION.Then turn your forces from this paltry siegeAnd 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 timeTo land his legions all as soon as I;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 Blanche of Spain;With them a bastard of the King’s deceas’d.And all th’ unsettled humours of the land;Rash, inconsiderate, fiery voluntaries,With ladies’ faces and fierce dragons’ spleens,Have sold their fortunes at their native homes,Bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs,To make a hazard of new fortunes here.In brief, a braver choice of dauntless spiritsThan now the English bottoms have waft o’erDid never float upon the swelling tideTo do offence and scathe in Christendom.
[Drums beat within.]
The interruption of their churlish drumsCuts 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.By how much unexpected, by so muchWe must awake endeavour for defence,For courage mounteth with occasion.Let them be welcome, then; we are prepar’d.
EnterKing John, Eleanor, Blanche,theBastard, Pembroke,Lords and Forces.
KING JOHN.Peace be to France, if France in peace permitOur just and lineal entrance to our own;If not, bleed France, and peace ascend to heaven,Whiles we, God’s wrathful agent, do correctTheir proud contempt that beats his peace to heaven.
KING PHILIP.Peace be to England, if that war returnFrom France to England, there to live in peace.England we love; and for that England’s sakeWith burden of our armour here we sweat.This toil of ours should be a work of thine;But thou from loving England art so farThat thou hast underwrought his lawful king,Cut off the sequence of posterity,Outfaced infant state, and done a rapeUpon the maiden virtue of the crown.Look here upon thy brother Geoffrey’s face;These eyes, these brows, were moulded out of his:This little abstract doth contain that largeWhich died in Geoffrey, and the hand of timeShall draw this brief into as huge a volume.That Geoffrey was thy elder brother born,And this his son; England was Geoffrey’s right,And this is Geoffrey’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.From whom hast thou this great commission, France,To draw my answer from thy articles?
KING PHILIP.From that supernal judge that stirs good thoughtsIn any breast of strong authority,To look into the blots and stains of right.That judge hath made me guardian to this boy,Under whose warrant I impeach thy wrongAnd 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 ELEANOR.Who is it thou dost call usurper, France?
CONSTANCE.Let me make answer: thy usurping son.
QUEEN ELEANOR.Out, insolent! Thy bastard shall be king,That thou mayst be a queen, and check the world!
CONSTANCE.My bed was ever to thy son as trueAs thine was to thy husband; and this boyLiker in feature to his father GeoffreyThan thou and John in manners; being as likeAs rain to water, or devil to his dam.My boy a bastard! By my soul, I thinkHis father never was so true begot:It cannot be, and if thou wert his mother.
QUEEN ELEANOR.There’s a good mother, boy, that blots thy father.
CONSTANCE.There’s a good grandam, boy, that would blot thee.
AUSTRIA.Peace!
BASTARD.Hear the crier!
AUSTRIA.What the devil art thou?
BASTARD.One that will play the devil, sir, with you,An he may catch your hide and you alone.You are the hare of whom the proverb goes,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.
BLANCHE.O, well did he become that lion’s robeThat did disrobe the lion of that robe!
BASTARD.It lies as sightly on the back of himAs great Alcides’ shows upon an ass.But, ass, I’ll take that burden from your back,Or lay on that shall make your shoulders crack.
AUSTRIA.What cracker is this same that deafs our earsWith this abundance of superfluous breath?
KING PHILIP.Louis, determine what we shall do straight.
LOUIS.Women and fools, break off your conference.
KING PHILIP.King John, this is the very sum of all:England and Ireland, Anjou, Touraine, Maine,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 Brittany, yield thee to my hand;And out of my dear love I’ll give thee moreThan e’er the coward hand of France can win.Submit thee, boy.
QUEEN ELEANOR.Come to thy grandam, child.
CONSTANCE.Do, child, go to it grandam, child.Give grandam kingdom, and it grandam willGive 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 ELEANOR.His mother shames him so, poor boy, he weeps.
CONSTANCE.Now, shame upon you, whe’er 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.Ay, with these crystal beads heaven shall be brib’dTo do him justice, and revenge on you.
QUEEN ELEANOR.Thou monstrous slanderer of heaven and earth!
CONSTANCE.Thou monstrous injurer of heaven and earth!Call not me slanderer. Thou and thine usurpThe dominations, royalties, and rightsOf this oppressed boy. This is thy eldest 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,Being but the second generationRemoved 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,But God hath made her sin and her the plagueOn this removed issue, plagued for herAnd with her plague; her sin his injuryHer injury the beadle to her sin,All punish’d in the person of this child,And all for her. A plague upon her!
QUEEN ELEANOR.Thou unadvised scold, I can produceA will that bars the title of thy son.
CONSTANCE.Ay, who doubts that? A will, a wicked will;A woman’s will; a cankered grandam’s will!
KING PHILIP.Peace, lady! Pause, or be more temperate.It ill beseems this presence to cry aimTo these ill-tuned repetitions.—Some trumpet summon hither to the wallsThese men of Angiers. Let us hear them speakWhose title they admit, Arthur’s or John’s.
Trumpet sounds. EnterCitizensupon the walls.
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.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 hereBefore the eye and prospect of your town,Have hither march’d to your endamagement.The cannons have their bowels full of wrath,And ready mounted are they to spit forthTheir iron indignation ’gainst your walls.All preparation for a bloody siegeAnd merciless proceeding by these FrenchConfronts 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 ordinanceBy this time from their fixed beds of limeHad been dishabited, and wide havoc madeFor bloody power to rush upon your peace.But on the sight of us your lawful king,Who painfully with much expedient marchHave brought a countercheck before your gates,To save unscratch’d your city’s threatened cheeks,Behold, the French, amaz’d, vouchsafe a parle;And now, instead of bullets wrapp’d in fire,To make a shaking fever in your walls,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 spiritsForwearied in this action of swift speed,Craves harbourage within your city walls.
KING PHILIP.When I have said, make answer to us both.Lo, in this right hand, whose protectionIs most divinely vow’d upon the rightOf him it holds, stands young Plantagenet,Son to the elder brother of this man,And king o’er him and all that he enjoys.For this down-trodden equity we treadIn warlike march these greens before your town,Being no further enemy to youThan the constraint of hospitable zealIn the relief of this oppressed childReligiously provokes. Be pleased thenTo pay that duty which you truly oweTo him that owes it, namely, this young prince,And then our arms, like to a muzzled bear,Save in aspect, hath all offence seal’d up;Our cannons’ malice vainly shall be spentAgainst th’ invulnerable clouds of heaven;And with a blessed and unvex’d retire,With unhack’d swords and helmets all unbruis’d,We will bear home that lusty blood againWhich 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,’Tis not the roundure of your old-fac’d wallsCan hide you from our messengers of war,Though all these English, and their disciplineWere harbour’d in their rude circumference.Then, tell us, shall your city call us lordIn that behalf which we have challeng’d it?Or shall we give the signal to our rageAnd 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.Acknowledge then the King, and let me in.
CITIZEN.That can we not; but he that proves the King,To him will we prove loyal. Till that timeHave we ramm’d up our gates against the world.
KING JOHN.Doth not the crown of England prove the King?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.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 soulsThat 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 sinceSits on ’s 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,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 forthIn best appointment all our regiments.
BASTARD.Speed, then, to take advantage of the field.
KING PHILIP.It shall be so; and at the other hillCommand the rest to stand. God and our right!
[Exeunt severally.]
Here, after excursions, enter aHerald of Francewith Trumpets, to the gates.
FRENCH HERALD.You men of Angiers, open wide your gates,And let young Arthur, Duke of Brittany, in,Who by the hand of France this day hath madeMuch work for tears in many an English mother,Whose sons lie scatter’d on the bleeding ground.Many a widow’s husband grovelling lies,Coldly embracing the discolour’d earth;And victory, with little loss, doth playUpon the dancing banners of the French,Who are at hand, triumphantly display’d,To enter conquerors, and to proclaimArthur of Brittany England’s king and yours.
EnterEnglish Heraldwith Trumpet.
ENGLISH HERALD.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;There stuck no plume in any English crestThat is removed by a staff of France,Our colours do return in those same handsThat did display them when we first march’d forth;And, like a jolly troop of huntsmen, comeOur lusty English, all with purpled hands,Dyed in the dying slaughter of their foes:Open your gates and give the victors way.
FIRST CITIZEN.Heralds, from off our towers, we might behold,From first to last, the onset and retireOf both your armies; whose equalityBy our best eyes cannot be censured:Blood hath bought blood, and blows have answer’d blows;Strength match’d with strength, and power confronted power:Both are alike, and both alike we like.One must prove greatest: while they weigh so even,We hold our town for neither, yet for both.
Enter on one sideKing John, Eleanor, Blanche, the Bastardand Forces; on the other,King Philip, Louis, Austriaand Forces.
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,Shall leave his native channel, and o’erswellWith course disturb’d even thy confining shores,Unless thou let his silver water keepA peaceful progress to the ocean?
KING PHILIP.England, thou hast not sav’d one drop of bloodIn 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,Or add a royal number to the dead,Gracing the scroll that tells of this war’s lossWith slaughter coupled to the name of kings.
BASTARD.Ha, majesty! How high thy glory towersWhen the rich blood of kings is set on fire!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 undetermin’d differences of kings.Why stand these royal fronts amazed thus?Cry havoc, kings! Back to the stained field,You equal potents, fiery-kindled spirits!Then let confusion of one part confirmThe other’s peace. Till then, blows, blood, and death!
KING JOHN.Whose party do the townsmen yet admit?
KING PHILIP.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,Lord of our presence, Angiers, and of you.
FIRST CITIZEN.A greater power than we denies all this;And till it be undoubted, we do lockOur former scruple in our strong-barr’d gates:Kings of our fear, until our fears, resolv’d,Be by some certain king purg’d and depos’d.
BASTARD.By heaven, these scroyles of Angiers flout you, kings,And stand securely on their battlementsAs in a theatre, whence they gape and pointAt your industrious scenes and acts of death.Your royal presences be rul’d by me:Do like the mutines of Jerusalem,Be friends awhile, and both conjointly bendYour sharpest deeds of malice on this town:By east and west let France and England mountTheir battering cannon charged to the mouths,Till their soul-fearing clamours have brawl’d downThe flinty ribs of this contemptuous city:I’d play incessantly upon these jades,Even till unfenced desolationLeave 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 forthOut 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.Now, by the sky that hangs above our heads,I like it well. France, shall we knit our powersAnd lay this Angiers even with the ground;Then after fight who shall be king of it?
BASTARD.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.
KING PHILIP.Let it be so. Say, where will you assault?
KING JOHN.We from the west will send destructionInto this city’s bosom.
AUSTRIA.I from the north.
KING PHILIP.Our thunder from the southShall 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.Hear us, great kings: vouchsafe awhile 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 bedsThat here come sacrifices for the field: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 Blanche,Is niece to England. Look upon the yearsOf Louis the Dauphin and that lovely maid.If lusty love should go in quest of beauty,Where should he find it fairer than in Blanche?If zealous love should go in search of virtue,Where should he find it purer than in Blanche?If love ambitious sought a match of birth,Whose veins bound richer blood than Lady Blanche?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,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 joinDo 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 canTo 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,The sea enraged is not half so deaf,Lions more confident, mountains and rocksMore free from motion; no, not Death himselfIn mortal fury half so peremptoryAs we to keep this city.
BASTARD.Here’s a stayThat shakes the rotten carcass of old DeathOut of his rags! Here’s a large mouth indeed,That spits forth death and mountains, rocks and seas;Talks as familiarly of roaring lionsAs 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 hisBut buffets better than a fist of France.Zounds! I was never so bethump’d with wordsSince I first call’d my brother’s father dad.
QUEEN ELEANOR.Son, list to this conjunction, make this match.Give with our niece a dowry large enough,For by this knot thou shalt so surely tieThy now unsur’d assurance to the crown,That yon green boy shall have no sun to ripeThe bloom that promiseth a mighty fruit.I see a yielding in the looks of France;Mark how they whisper. Urge them while their soulsAre capable of this ambition,Lest zeal, now melted by the windy breathOf soft petitions, pity, and remorse,Cool and congeal again to what it was.
FIRST CITIZEN.Why answer not the double majestiesThis friendly treaty of our threaten’d town?
KING PHILIP.Speak England first, that hath been forward firstTo speak unto this city. What say you?
KING JOHN.If that the Dauphin there, thy princely son,Can in this book of beauty read “I love,”Her dowry shall weigh equal with a queen.For Anjou, and fair Touraine, Maine, Poitiers,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 richIn titles, honours, and promotions,As she in beauty, education, blood,Holds hand with any princess of the world.
KING PHILIP.What say’st thou, boy? Look in the lady’s face.
LOUIS.I do, my lord, and in her eye I findA 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 myselfTill now infixed I beheld myselfDrawn in the flattering table of her eye.
[Whispers withBlanche.]
BASTARD.[Aside.] 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 espyHimself love’s traitor. This is pity now,That, hang’d and drawn and quarter’d, there should beIn such a love so vile a lout as he.
BLANCHE.My uncle’s will in this respect is mine.If he see aught in you that makes him like,That anything he sees, which moves his likingI can with ease translate it to my will;Or if you will, to speak more properly,I will enforce it eas’ly 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.
KING JOHN.What say these young ones? What say you, my niece?
BLANCHE.That she is bound in honour still to doWhat you in wisdom still vouchsafe to say.
KING JOHN.Speak then, Prince Dauphin. Can you love this lady?
LOUIS.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,Poitiers, and Anjou, these five provinces,With her to thee; and this addition more,Full thirty thousand marks of English coin.—Philip of France, if thou be pleas’d 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 assur’dThat I did so when I was first assur’d.
KING PHILIP.Now, citizens of Angiers, ope your gates,Let in that amity which you have made;For at Saint Mary’s chapel presentlyThe rites of marriage shall be solemniz’d.Is not the Lady Constance in this troop?I know she is not, for this match made upHer presence would have interrupted much.Where is she and her son? Tell me, who knows.
LOUIS.She is sad and passionate at your highness’ tent.
KING PHILIP.And, by my faith, this league that we have madeWill give her sadness very little cure.—Brother of England, how may we contentThis widow lady? In her right we came;Which we, God knows, have turn’d another way,To our own vantage.
KING JOHN.We will heal up all;For we’ll create young Arthur Duke of Brittany,And Earl of Richmond; and this rich fair townWe make him lord of. Call the Lady Constance.Some speedy messenger bid her repairTo our solemnity. I trust we shall,If not fill up the measure of her will,Yet in some measure satisfy her soThat we shall stop her exclamation.Go we, as well as haste will suffer us,To this unlook’d-for, unprepared pomp.
[Exeunt all but theBastard. The Citizens retire from the walls.]
BASTARD.Mad world! mad kings! mad composition!John, to stop Arthur’s title in the whole,Hath willingly departed with a part;And France, whose armour conscience buckled on,Whom zeal and charity brought to the fieldAs God’s own soldier, rounded in the earWith that same purpose-changer, that sly devil,That broker, that still breaks the pate of faith,That daily break-vow, he that wins of all,Of kings, of beggars, old men, young men, maids,Who having no external thing to loseBut the word “maid,” cheats the poor maid of that,That smooth-fac’d gentleman, tickling commodity,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,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,Hath drawn him from his own determin’d aid,From a resolv’d 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.Not that I have the power to clutch my handWhen 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 railAnd say there is no sin but to be rich;And being rich, my virtue then shall beTo say there is no vice but beggary.Since kings break faith upon commodity,Gain, be my lord, for I will worship thee!
[Exit.]