K. Philp. Well then, to work; our engines fhall
Against the brows of this refifting town;
Call for our chiefeft men of difcipline,
To cull the plots of best advantages.
We'll lay before this town our royal bones,
Wade to the market-place in French-mens' blood,
But we will make it subject to this boy.
Conft. Stay for an answer to your Embassie,
Left unadvis'd you ftain your swords with blood.
My lord Chatillon may from England bring
That right in peace, which here we urge in war;
And then we fhall repent each drop of blood,
That hot rash hafte fo indirectly fhed.
K. Philip. A wonder, lady!-Lo, upon thy with Our meffenger Chatillon is arrived.
-What England fays, fay briefly, gentle lord,
We coldly pause for thee. Chatillon, fpeak.
Chat. Then turn your forces from this paultry fiege, And stir them up against a mightier task.
England, impatient of your juft demands,
Hath put himself in arms; the adverfe winds,
Whofe leisure I have ftaid, have giv'n him time
To land his legions all as foon as I.
His marches are 'expedient to this town,
His forces ftrong, his foldiers confident.
With him along is come the mother-Queen;
An Até, ftirring him to blood and ftrife.
With her, her niece, the lady Blanch of Spain;
With them a bastard of the King deceas'd,
A wonder, lady.] The wonder is only that Chatillon happened to arrive at the moment when Conftance mentioned him, which the French king, according to a fuperftition which pre
vails more or less in every mind agitated by great affairs, turns into a miraculous interpofition, or omen of good.
And all th' unsettled humours of the land;
Rafh, inconfid'rate, fiery voluntaries,
With ladies' faces, and fierce dragons' spleens,
Have fold their fortunes at their native homes,
2 Bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs,
To make a hazard of new fortunes here.
In brief, a braver choice of dauntless spirits,
Than now the English bottoms have waft o'er,
Did never float upon the fwelling tide,
To do offence and 3fcathe in christendom.
The interruption of their churlish drums [Drums beat:
Cuts off more circumftance; they are at hand.
To parly, or to fight, therefore prepare.
K. Philip. How much unlook'd for is this expe dition!
Auft. By how much unexpected, by fo much
We must awake endeavour for defence;
For courage mounteth with occafion:
Let them be welcome then, we are prepar❜d.
SCENE
NE II.
Enter King of England, Faulconbridge, Elinor,
Blanch, Pembroke, and others.
K. John. Peace be to France, if France in peace permit
Our juft and lineal entrance to our own;
If not, bleed France, and peace afcend to heav'n.
Whilft we, God's wrathful agent, do correct
Their proud contempt that beats his peace to heav'n.
K. Philip. Peace be to England, if that war return
From France to England, there to live in peace.
England we love; and for that England's fake
With burthen of our armour here we fweat ;
This toil of ours fhould be a work of thine
But thou from loving England art fo far,
Bearing their birth-rights,
&c.] 'So in Henry VIII.
Many broke their backs
With bearing maners on them.
3 Scathe.] Deftruction; wafte.
That thou haft under-wrought its lawful King s
Cut off the fequence of posterity;
Out-faced infant ftate; and done a rape
Upon the maiden virtue of the crown.
Look here upon thy brother Geffery's face.
These eyes, these brows, were moulded out of his s
This little abstract doth contain that large,
Which dy'd in Geffrey; and the hand of time
Shall draw this brief into as large a volume.
That Geffrey was thy elder brother born,
And this his fon; England was Geffrey's right,
And this is Geffrey'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 own the crown that thou o'er-mastereft?
K. John. From whom haft thou this great commif-
fion, France,
To draw my answer to thy articles?
K. Philip. From that fupernal judge, that stirs good thoughts
In any breast of strong authority,
+ To look into the blots and ftains of right.
That judge hath made me guardian to this boy;
Under whose warrant I impeach thy wrong,
And by whofe help I mean to chastise it.
K. John. Alack, thou doft ufurp authority.
K. Philip. Excufe it, 'tis to beat ufurping down.
Eli. Who is't, that thou doft call ufurper, France?
Conft. Let me make answer: thy ufurping fon.-
Eli. Out, infolent! thy baftard fhall be King,
That thou may'st be a Queen, and check the world!
4 To look into the blots and frains
of right.] Mr. Theobald reads, with the first folio, blots, which being fo early authorifed, and fo much better understood, needed not to have been changed by Dr. Warburton to bolts, tho' balts might be used in that time for
Spots: fo Shakespeare calls Banquo fpotted with blood, the bloodbolter'd Banquo. The verb to blot is ufed figuratively for to dif grace, a few lines lower. And, perhaps, after all, bolts was only a typographical miftake.
Conft. My bed was ever to thy fon as true,
As thine was to thy husband; and this boy,
Liker in feature to his father Geffery,
Than thou and John, in manners being as like
As rain to water, or devil to his dam.
My boy a bastard! by my foul, I think,
His father never was fo true begot;
It cannot be, an if thou wert his mother.
Eli. There's a good mother, boy, that blots thy father.
Conft. There's a good grandam, boy, that would
blot thee.
Auft. Peace.
Faulc. Here the crier.
Auft. What the devil art thou?
Faulc. One that will play the devil, Sir, with you,
An a' 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 fmoak your skin-coat, an I catch you right;
Sirrah, look to't; i'faith, I will, i̇'faith.
Blanch. O, well did he become that Lion's robe,
That did difrobe the Lion of that robe.
Faulc. It lies as fightly on the back of him,
5 It lies as lightly on the back of him,
As great Alcides' Shoes upon
an Afs.] But why his Shoes, in the Name of Propriety? For let Hercules and his Shoes have been really as big as they were ever fuppofed to be, yet they (I mean the Shoes) would not have been an Overload for an Afs. I am
perfuaded, I have retrieved the true Reading; and let us obferve the Juftnefs of the Comparison now. Faulconbridge in his Refentment would fay this to Auftria, "That Lion's Skin, which
As great Alcides' fhews upon an ass;
But, afs, I'll take that burden from your back,
Or lay on that, fhall make your fhoulders crack.
Auft. What cracker is this fame, that deafs our ears
With this abundance of fuperfluous breath?
King Philip, determine what we shall do ftrait.
K. Philip. Women and fools, break off your conference.
King John, this is the very fum of all.
England, and Ireland, Anjou, Touraine, Maine,
In right of Arthur I do claim of thee.
Wilt thou refign them, and lay down thy arms?
K. John. My life as foon-I do defy thee, France,
-Arthur of Britain, 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.
Conft. Do, child, go to it' grandam, child.
Give grandam kingdom, and it' grandam will
Give it a plum, a cherry, and a fig;
There's a good grandam.
Arth. 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.
Eli. His mother fhames him fo, poor boy, he weeps.
Conft. Now fhame upon you, whether the does or no
His grandam's wrong, and not his mother's fhames,
Draws those heav'n-moving pearls from his poor eyes,
Which heav'n fhall take in nature of a fee:
Ay, with these crystal beads heav'n fhall be brib'd
To do him juftice, and revenge on you.
Eli. Thou monftrous flanderer of heav'n and earth!
Conft. Thou monftrous injurer of heav'n and earth!
Call me not flanderer; thou, and thine, ufurp
The domination, royalties and rights
Of this oppreffed boy. This is thy eldeft fon's fon,
Infortunate in nothing but in thee ¿
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