by Shakespeare · Cluster: Crown · Pride · Fortune’s Wheel
Abstract
A history play on the contested reign of King John, dramatizing dynastic legitimacy, political expediency (commodity), the murder of the boy Arthur, and conflict with Rome and France; the bastard Faustconbridge voices its cynical patriotism.
Capitoli / Chapters
- Act II, Scene 2
- Act III, Scene 2
- Act III, Scene 3
- Act III, Scene 4
- Act IV, Scene 1
- Act IV, Scene 3
- Act V, Scene 2
- Act V, Scene 3
- Act V, Scene 6
- Act V, Scene 7
Connections
Topoi: Fortune’s Wheel Archetypes: King, Usurper Motifs: Crown, Swords and Weapons Themes & Concepts: Kingship and Legitimacy, Power and Corruption, Ambition, Nationalism and Patriotism, Appearance vs Reality Forms & Genres: History Play, Blank Verse, Verse Drama Historical References: Medieval England, Catholic Church Settings: Court, Medieval England (2) Characters: King John, Philip the Bastard, Constance, Arthur, King Philip of France, Cardinal Pandulph, Hubert
Testo integrale / Full text
KING JOHN A PLAY called The Troublesome Reign of John, King of England, published anonymously in 1591, has sometimes been thought to be a derivative version of Shakespeare’s King John, first published in the 1623 Folio; more probably Shakespeare wrote his play in 1595 or 1596, using The Troublesome Reign—itself based on Holinshed’s Chronicles and John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (1563)—as his principal source. Like Richard II, King John is written entirely in verse. King John (c.1167―1216) was famous as the opponent of papal tyranny, and The Troublesome Reign is a violently anti-Catholic play; but Shakespeare is more moderate. He portrays selected events from John’s reign—like The Troublesome Reign, making no mention of Magna Carta—and ends with John’s death, but John is not so dominant a figure in his play as Richard II or Richard III in theirs. Indeed, the longest—and liveliest—role is that of Richard Coeur-de-lion’s illegitimate son, Philip Falconbridge, the Bastard. King John’s reign was troublesome initially because of his weak claim to his brother Richard Coeur-de-lion’s throne. Prince Arthur, son of John’s elder brother Geoffrey, had no less strong a claim, which is upheld by his mother, Constance, and by King Philip of France. The waste and futility of the consequent war between power-hungry leaders is satirically demonstrated in the dispute over the French town of Angers, which is resolved by a marriage between John’s niece, Lady Blanche of Spain, and Louis, the French Dauphin. The moral is strikingly drawn by the Bastard—the man best fitted to be king, but debarred by accident of birth—in his speech (2.1.562-99) on ’commodity’ (self-interest). King Philip breaks his treaty with England, and in the ensuing battle Prince Arthur is captured. He becomes the play’s touchstone of humanity as he persuades John’s agent, Hubert, to disobey John’s orders to blind him, only to kill himself while trying to escape. John’s noblemen, thinking the King responsible for the boy’s death, defect to the French, but return to their allegiance on learning that the Dauphin intends to kill them after conquering England. John dies, poisoned by a monk; the play ends with the reunited noblemen swearing allegiance to John’s son, the young Henry III, and with the Bastard’s boast that This England never did, nor never shall, Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror But when it first did help to wound itself. Twentieth-century revivals of King John were infrequent, but it was popular in the nineteenth century, when the roles of the King, the Bastard, and Constance all appealed to successful actors; a production of 1823 at Covent Garden inaugurated a trend for historically accurate settings and costumes which led to a number of spectacular revivals. THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY KING JOHN of England QUEEN ELEANOR, his mother
LADY FALCONBRIDGE Philip the BASTARD, later knighted as Sir Richard Plantagenet, her illegitimate son by King Richard I (Coeur-de-lion) Robert FALCONBRIDGE, her legitimate son James GURNEY, her attendant
Lady BLANCHE of Spain, niece of King John PRINCE HENRY, son of King John HUBERT, a follower of King John Earl of SALISBURY Earl of PEMBROKE Earl of ESSEX Lord BIGOT KING PHILIP of France LOUIS THE DAUPHIN, his son ARTHUR, Duke of Brittaine, nephew of King John Lady coNSTANCE, his mother Duke of AUSTRIA (Limoges) CHÂTILLON, ambassador from France to England Count MELUN
A CITIZEN of Angers Cardinal PANDOLF, a legate from the Pope PETER OF POMFRET, a prophet HERALDS EXECUTIONERS MESSENGERS SHERIFF Lords, soldiers, attendants
The Life and Death of King John
1.1 [Flourish.] Enter King John, Queen Eleanor, and the Earls of Pembroke, Essex, and Salisbury; with them Châtillon of France KING JOHN Now say, Châtillon, what would France with us? CHÂTILLON Thus, after greeting, speaks the King of France, In my behaviour, to the majesty— The borrowed majesty—of England here. QUEEN ELEANOR A strange beginning: ‘borrowed majesty’? KING JOHN Silence, good mother, hear the embassy. CHÂTILLON Philip of France, in right and true behalf Of thy deceased brother Geoffrey’s son, Arthur Plantagenet, lays most lawful claim
To this fair island and the territories, To Ireland, Poitou, Anjou, Touraine, Maine; Desiring thee to lay aside the sword Which sways usurpingly these several titles, And put the same into young Arthur’s hand, Thy nephew and right royal sovereign. KING JOHN What follows if we disallow of this? CHÂTILLON The proud control of fierce and bloody war, To enforce these rights so forcibly withheld— KING JOHN Here have we war for war, and blood for blood, Controlment for controlment: so answer France. CHÂTILLON Then take my king’s defiance from my mouth, The farthest limit of my embassy. KING JOHN Bear mine to him, and so depart in peace. Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France, For ere thou canst report, I will be there; 25 The thunder of my cannon shall be heard. So hence. Be thou the trumpet of our wrath, And sullen presage of your own decay.— An honourable conduct let him have; Pembroke, look to’t.—Farewell, Châtillon. 30 Exeunt Châtillon and Pembroke QUEEN ELEANOR What now, my son? Have I not ever said How that ambitious Constance would not cease Till she had kindled France and all the world Upon the right and party of her son ? This might have been prevented and made whole 35 With very easy arguments of love, Which now the manage of two kingdoms must With fearful-bloody issue arbitrate. KING JOHN Our strong possession and our right for us. QUEEN ELEANOR (aside to King John) Your strong possession much more than your right, Or else it must go wrong with you and me: 41 So much my conscience whispers in your ear, Which none but heaven and you and I shall hear. Enter a Sheriff, [who whispers to Essex] ESSEX My liege, here is the strangest controversy, Come from the country to be judged by you, 45 That e’er I heard. Shall I produce the men? KING JOHN Let them approach.—⌈Exit Sheriff⌉ Our abbeys and our priories shall pay This expeditious charge. Enter Robert Falconbridge and Philip the Bastard ⌈With the Sheriff⌉ What men are you? BASTARD Your faithful subject I, a gentleman 50 Born in Northamptonshire, and eldest son, As I suppose, to Robert Falconbridge, A soldier, by the honour-giving hand Of Cœur-de-lion knighted in the field. KING JOHN What art thou? 55 FALCONBRIDGE The son and heir to that same Falconbridge. KING JOHN Is that the elder, and art thou the heir? You came not of one mother then, it seems. BASTARD Most certain of one mother, mighty King— That is well known—and, as I think, one father. 60 But for the certain knowledge of that truth I put you o’er to heaven, and to my mother. Of that I doubt as all men’s children may. QUEEN ELEANOR Out on thee, rude man ! Thou dost shame thy mother And wound her honour with this diffidence. 65 BASTARD I, Madam? No, I have no reason for it. That is my brother’s plea and none of mine, The which if he can prove, a pops me out At least from fair five hundred pound a year. Heaven guard my mother’s honour, and my land! 70 KING JOHN A good blunt fellow.—Why, being younger born, Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance ? BASTARD I know not why, except to get the land; But once he slandered me with bastardy. But whe’er I be as true begot or no, 75 That still I lay upon my mother’s head; But that I am as well begot, my liege— Fair fall the bones that took the pains for me— Compare our faces and be judge yourself. If old Sir Robert did beget us both 80 And were our father, and this son like him, O old Sir Robert, father, on my knee I give heaven thanks I was not like to thee. KING JOHN Why, what a madcap hath heaven lent us here! QUEEN ELEANOR He hath a trick of Coeur-de-lion’s face; 85 The accent of his tongue affecteth him. Do you not read some tokens of my son In the large composition of this man? KING JOHN Mine eye hath well examined his parts, And finds them perfect Richard. (To Robert Falconbridge) Sirrah, speak: 90 What doth move you to claim your brother’s land? BASTARD Because he hath a half-face like my father! With half that face would he have all my land, A half-faced groat five hundred pound a year. FALCONBRIDGE My gracious liege, when that my father lived, 95 Your brother did employ my father much— BASTARD Well, sir, by this you cannot get my land. Your tale must be how he employed my mother. FALCONBRIDGE And once dispatched him in an embassy To Germany, there with the Emperor To treat of high affairs touching that time. Th‘advantage of his absence took the King, And in the meantime sojourned at my father’s, Where how he did prevail I shame to speak. But truth is truth:large lengths of seas and shores Between my father and my mother lay, 106 As I have heard my father speak himself, When this same lusty gentleman was got. Upon his deathbed he by will bequeathed His lands to me, and took it on his death 110 That this my mother’s son was none of his; And if he were, he came into the world Full fourteen weeks before the course of time. Then, good my liege, let me have what is mine, My father’s land, as was my father’s will. 115 KING JOHN Sirrah, your brother is legitimate. Your father’s wife did after wedlock bear him, And if she did play false, the fault was hers, Which fault lies on the hazards of all husbands That marry wives. Tell me, how if my brother, Who, as you say, took pains to get this son, Had of your father claimed this son for his ? In sooth, good friend, your father might have kept This calf, bred from his cow, from all the world; In sooth he might. Then if he were my brother’s, 125 My brother might not claim him, nor your father, Being none of his, refuse him. This concludes: My mother’s son did get your father’s heir; Your father’s heir must have your father’s land. FALCONBRIDGE Shall then my father’s will be of no force 130 To dispossess that child which is not his? BASTARD Of no more force to dispossess me, sir, Than was his will to get me, as I think. QUEEN ELEANOR Whether hadst thou rather be: a Falconbridge, And like thy brother to enjoy thy land, 135 Or the reputed son of Cœur-de-lion, Lord of thy presence, and no land beside? BASTARD Madam, an if my brother had my shape, And I had his, Sir Robert’s his like him, And if my legs were two such riding-rods, 140 My arms such eel-skins stuffed, my face so thin That in mine ear I durst not stick a rose Lest men should say ‘Look where three-farthings goes!’, And, to his shape, were heir to all this land, Would I might never stir from off this place. I would give it every foot to have this face; It would not be Sir Nob in any case. QUEEN ELEANOR I like thee well. Wilt thou forsake thy fortune, Bequeath thy land to him, and follow me? I am a soldier and now bound to France. 150 BASTARD Brother, take you my land; I’ll take my chance. Your face hath got five hundred pound a year, Yet sell your face for fivepence and ’tis dear.— Madam, I’ll follow you unto the death. QUEEN ELEANOR Nay, I would have you go before me thither. 155 BASTARD Our country manners give our betters way. KING JOHN What is thy name? BASTARD Philip, my liege, so is my name begun: Philip, good old Sir Robert’s wife’s eldest son, KING JOHN From henceforth bear his name whose form thou bear’st. 160 Kneel thou down Philip, but arise more great: He knights the Bastard Arise Sir Richard and Plantagenet. BASTARD Brother by th’ mother’s side, give me your hand. My father gave me honour, yours gave land. Now blessèd be the hour, by night or day, 165 When I was got, Sir Robert was away. QUEEN ELEANOR The very spirit of Plantagenet I I am thy grandam, Richard; call me so. BASTARD Madam, by chance, but not by truth; what though? Something about, a little from the right, In at the window, or else o‘er the hatch; Who dares not stir by day must walk by night, And have is have, however men do catch. Near or far off, well won is still well shot, And I am I, howe’er I was begot. KING JOHN Go, Falconbridge, now hast thou thy desire: A landless knight makes thee a landed squire.— Come, madam, and come, Richard; we must speed For France; for France, for it is more than need. BASTARD Brother, adieu. Good fortune come to thee, 180 For thou wast got i’th’ way of honesty. Exeunt all but the Bastard A foot of honour better than I was, But many a many foot of land the worse. Well, now can I make any Joan a lady. ‘Good e’en, Sir Richard‘—’God-a-mercy fellow’; And if his name be George I’ll call him Peter, For new-made honour doth forget men’s names; ’Tis too respective and too sociable For your conversion. Now your traveller, He and his toothpick at my worship’s mess; 190 And when my knightly stomach is sufficed, Why then I suck my teeth and catechize My picked man of countries. ‘My dear sir,’ Thus leaning on mine elbow I begin, ‘I shall beseech you—’. That is Question now; 195 And then comes Answer like an Absey book. ‘O sir,’ says Answer, ‘at your best command, At your employment, at your service, sir.’ ‘No sir,’ says Question, ‘I, sweet sir, at yours.’ And so, ere Answer knows what Question would, Saving in dialogue of compliment, And talking of the Alps and Apennines, The Pyrenean and the River Po, It draws toward supper in conclusion so. But this is worshipful society, 205 And fits the mounting spirit like myself; For he is but a bastard to the time That doth not smack of observation; And so am I—whether I smack or no, And not alone in habit and device, 210 Exterior form, outward accoutrement, But from the inward motion—to deliver Sweet, sweet, sweet poison for the age’s tooth; Which, though I will not practise to deceive, Yet to avoid deceit I mean to learn; 215 For it shall strew the footsteps of my rising. Enter Lady Falconbridge and James Gurney But who comes in such haste in riding-robes? What woman-post is this? Hath she no husband That will take pains to blow a horn before her? O me, ’tis my mother! How now, good lady? 220 What brings you here to court so hastily? LADY FALCONBRIDGE Where is that slave thy brother? Where is he That holds in chase mine honour up and down? BASTARD My brother Robert, old Sir Robert’s son? Colbrand the Giant, that same mighty man? 225 Is it Sir Robert’s son that you seek so? LADY FALCONBRIDGE Sir Robert’s son, ay, thou unreverent boy, Sir Robert’s son. Why scorn’st thou at Sir Robert? He is Sir Robert’s son, and so art thou. BASTARD James Gurney, wilt thou give us leave awhile? 230 GURNEY Good leave, good Philip. BASTARD Philip Sparrow, James! There’s toys abroad; anon I’ll tell thee more. Exit James Gurney
Madam, I was not old Sir Robert’s son. Sir Robert might have eat his part in me Upon Good Friday, and ne’er broke his fast. 235 Sir Robert could do well, marry to confess, Could a get me! Sir Robert could not do it: We know his handiwork. Therefore, good mother, To whom am I beholden for these limbs? Sir Robert never holp to make this leg. 240 LADY FALCONBRIDGE Hast thou conspired with thy brother too, That for thine own gain shouldst defend mine honour? What means this scorn, thou most untoward knave? BASTARD Knight, knight, good mother, Basilisco-like! What! I am dubbed; I have it on my shoulder. 245 But, mother, I am not Sir Robert’s son. I have disclaimed Sir Robert; and my land, Legitimation, name, and all is gone. Then, good my mother, let me know my father; Some proper man, I hope; who was it, mother? 250 LADY FALCONBRIDGE Hast thou denied thyself a Falconbridge ? BASTARD As faithfully as I deny the devil. LADY FALCONBRIDGE King Richard Cœur-de-lion was thy father. By long and vehement suit I was seduced To make room for him in my husband’s bed. 255 Heaven lay not my transgression to my charge! Thou art the issue of my dear offence, Which was so strongly urged past my defence. BASTARD Now by this light, were I to get again, Madam, I would not wish a better father. 260 Some sins do bear their privilege on earth, And so doth yours; your fault was not your folly. Needs must you lay your heart at his dispose, Subjected tribute to commanding love, Against whose fury and unmatched force 265 The aweless lion could not wage the fight, Nor keep his princely heart from Richard’s hand. He that perforce robs lions of their hearts May easily win a woman’s. Ay, my mother, With all my heart I thank thee for my father. 270 Who lives and dares but say thou didst not well When I was got, I’ll send his soul to hell. Come, lady, I will show thee to my kin, And they shall say, when Richard me begot, If thou hadst said him nay, it had been sin. 275 Who says it was, he lies: I say ’twas not. Exeunt
2.1 ⌈Flourish.⌉ Enter before Angers ⌈at one door⌉ Philip King of France, Louis the Dauphin, Lady Constance, and Arthur Duke of Brittaine, with soldiers; ⌈at another door⌉ the Duke of Austria, wearing a lion’s hide, with soldiers ⌈KING PHILIP⌉ Before Angers well met, brave Austria.— Arthur, that great forerunner of thy blood, Richard that robbed the lion of his heart And fought the holy wars in Palestine, By this brave duke came early to his grave; 5 And, for amends to his posterity, At our importance hither is he come To spread his colours, boy, in thy behalf, And to rebuke the usurpation Of thy unnatural uncle, English John. 10 Embrace him, love him, give him welcome hither. ARTHUR (to Austria) God shall forgive you Cœur-de-lion’s death, The rather that you give his offspring life, Shadowing their right under your wings of war. I give you welcome with a powerless hand, 15 But with a heart full of unstained love. Welcome before the gates of Angers, Duke. ⌈KING PHILIP⌉ A noble boy. Who would not do thee right? AUSTRIA (kissing Arthur) Upon thy cheek lay I this zealous kiss As seal to this indenture of my love: 20 That to my home I will no more return Till Angers and the right thou hast in France, Together with that pale, that white-faced shore, Whose foot spurns back the ocean’s roaring tides And coops from other lands her islanders, 25 Even till that England, hedged in with the main, That water-wallèd bulwark, still secure And confident from foreign purposes, Even till that utmost corner of the west Salute thee for her king. Till then, fair boy, Will I not think of home, but follow arms. C0NSTANCE O, take his mother’s thanks, a widow’s thanks, Till your strong hand shall help to give him strength To make a more requital to your love. AUSTRIA The peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swords In such a just and charitable war. KING PHILIP Well then, to work! Our cannon shall be bent Against 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 unadvised you stain your swords with blood. My lord Châtillon may from England bring That right in peace which here we urge in war, And then we shall repent each drop of blood That hot rash haste so indirectly shed. Enter Châtillon KING PHILIP A wonder, lady:lo upon thy wish Our messenger Châtillon is arrived.— What England says, say briefly, gentle lord; We coldly pause for thee. Châtillon, speak. CHÂTILLON Then turn your forces from this paltry siege, And stir them up against a mightier task. 55 England, impatient of your just demands, Hath put himself in arms. The adverse winds, Whose leisure I have stayed, have given him time To land his legions all as soon as I. His marches are expedient to this town, 60 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 deceased; 65 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, 70 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 swelling tide To do offence and scathe in Christendom. 75 Drum beats The interruption of their churlish drums Cuts off more circumstance. They are at hand; To parley or to fight therefore prepare. KING PHILIP How much unlooked-for is this expedition I AUSTRIA By how much unexpected, by so much 80 We must awake endeavour for defence, For courage mounteth with occasion. Let them be welcome then: we are prepared. Enter, ⌈marching,⌉ King John of England, the Bastard, Queen Eleanor, Lady Blanche, the Earl of Pembroke, and soldiers KING JOHN Peace be to France, if France in peace permit Our just and lineal entrance to our own. 85 If not, bleed France, and peace ascend to heaven, Whiles we, God’s wrathful agent, do correct Their proud contempt that beats his peace to heaven. KING 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 sake With burden of our armour here we sweat. This toil of ours should be a work of thine; But thou from loving England art so far That thou hast underwrought his lawful king, 95 Cut off the sequence of posterity, Outfaced infant state, and done a rape Upon the maiden virtue of the crown. (Pointing to Arthur) Look here upon thy brother Geoffrey’s face. These eyes, these brows, were moulded out of his; 100 This little abstract doth contain that large Which died in Geoffrey; and the hand of time Shall draw this brief into as huge a volume. That Geoffrey was thy elder brother born, And this his son; England was Geoffrey’s right, 105 And this is Geoffrey’s. In the name of God, How comes it then that thou art called 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? 111 KING PHILIP From that supernal 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, 115 Under whose warrant I impeach thy wrong, And 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? 120 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 true As thine was to thy husband; and this boy 125 Liker in feature to his father Geoffrey Than thou and John in manners, being as like As rain to water, or devil to his dam. My boy a bastard? By my soul I think His father never was so true begot. 130 It cannot be, an if thou wert his mother. QUEEN ELEANOR (to Arthur) There’s a good mother, boy, that blots thy father. CONSTANCE (to Arthur) 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, 135 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 smoke your skin-coat an I catch you right— Sirrah, look to’t—i’faith I will, i’faith!! 140 BLANCHE O, well did he become that lion’s robe That did disrobe the lion of that robe! BASTARD It lies as sightly on the back of him As great Alcides’ shows upon an ass. But, ass, I’ll take that burden from your back, 145 Or lay on that shall make your shoulders crack. AUSTRIA What cracker is this same that deafs our ears With this abundance of superfluous breath ?— King Philip, determine what we shall do straight. ⌈KING PHILIPI⌉ Women and fools, break off your conference.—150 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.—155 Arthur of Brittaine, 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. QUEEN ELEANOR (to Arthur) Come to thy grandam, child. CONSTANCE (to Arthur) Do, child, go to it grandam, child. 160 Give grandam kingdom, and it grandam will Give 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. 165 He weeps 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, Draw those heaven-moving pearls from his poor eyes, Which heaven shall take in nature of a fee; 170 Ay, with these crystal beads heaven shall be bribed To do him justice and revenge on you. QUEEN ELEANOR Thou monstrous slanderer of heaven and earth ! CONSTANCE Thou monstrous injurer of heaven and earth I Call not me slanderer. Thou and thine usurp The dominations, royalties and rights Of this oppressed boy. This is thy eld’st 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 generation Removed 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 plague 185 On this removed issue, plagued for her And with her plague; her sin his injury, Her injury the beadle to her sin; All punished in the person of this child, And all for her. A plague upon her! 190 QUEEN ELEANOR Thou unadvised scold, I can produce A 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 aim To these ill-tunèd repetitions.— Some trumpet summon hither to the walls These men of Angers. Let us hear them speak Whose title they admit, Arthur’s or John’s. 200 Trumpet sounds. Enter a Citizen upon the walls CITIZEN Who is it that hath warned us to the walls? KING PHILIP ’Tis France for England. KING JOHN England for itself. You men of Angers and my loving subjects— KING PHILIP You loving men of Angers, Arthur’s subjects, Our trumpet called you to this gentle parle—205 KING JOHN For our advantage; therefore hear us first. These flags of France that are advanced here Before the eye and prospect of your town, Have hither marched to your endamagement. The cannons have their bowels full of wrath, 210 And ready mounted are they to spit forth Their iron indignation ’gainst your walls. All preparation for a bloody siege And merciless proceeding by these French Confront your city’s eyes, your winking gates; 215 And but for our approach, those sleeping stones That as a waist doth girdle you about, By the compulsion of their ordinance, By this time from their fixèd beds of lime Had been dishabited, and wide havoc made 220 For bloody power to rush upon your peace. But on the sight of us your lawful king, Who painfully, with much expedient march, Have brought a countercheck before your gates To save unscratched your city’s threatened cheeks, Behold the French, amazed, vouchsafe a parle; 226 And now instead of bullets wrapped 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; 230 Which trust accordingly, kind citizens, And let us in, your king, whose laboured spirits, Forwearied in this action of swift speed, Craves harbourage within your city walls. KING PHILIP When I have said, make answer to us both. He takes Arthur’s hand Lo, in this right hand, whose protection Is most divinely vowed upon the right Of him it holds, stands young Plantagenet, Son to the elder brother of this man And king o‘er him and all that he enjoys. 240 For this downtrodden equity we tread In warlike march these greens before your town, Being no further enemy to you Than the constraint of hospitable zeal In the relief of this oppressèd child 245 Religiously provokes. Be pleased then To pay that duty which you truly owe To him that owes it, namely this young prince; And then our arms, like to a muzzled bear, Save in aspect, hath all offence sealed up: Our cannons’ malice vainly shall be spent Against th’invulnerable clouds of heaven, And with a blessèd and unvexed retire, With unhacked swords and helmets all unbruised, We will bear home that lusty blood again Which here we came to spout against your town, And leave your children, wives, and you in peace. But if you fondly pass our proffered offer, ’Tis not the roundure of your old-faced walls Can hide you from our messengers of war, 260 Though all these English and their discipline Were harboured in their rude circumference. Then tell us, shall your city call us lord In that behalf which we have challenged it, Or shall we give the signal to our rage, 265 And stalk in blood to our possession? 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, 270 To him will we prove loyal; till that time Have we rammed 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 (aside) Bastards and else. 276 KING JOHN To verify our title with their lives. KING PHILIP As many and as well-born bloods as those— BASTARD (aside) Some bastards too. KING PHILIP Stand in his face to contradict his claim. 280 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 souls That to their everlasting residence, Before the dew of evening fall, shall fleet 285 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 since Sits on’s horseback at mine hostess’ door, Teach us some fence! (To Austria) Sirrah, were I at home 290 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 forth 295 In best appointment all our regiments. BASTARD Speed then, to take advantage of the field. KING PHILIP It shall be so, and at the other hill Command the rest to stand. God and our right! Exeunt ⌈severally⌉ King John and King Philip with their powers. The Citizen remains on the walls ⌈Alarum.⌉ Here, after excursions, enter ⌈at one door⌉ FRENCH HERALD You men of Angers, open wide your gates 300 And let young Arthur Duke of Brittaine in, Who by the hand of France this day hath made Much work for tears in many an English mother, Whose sons lie scattered on the bleeding ground; Many a widow’s husband grovelling lies, 305 Coldly embracing the discoloured earth; And victory with little loss doth play Upon the dancing banners of the French, Who are at hand, triumphantly displayed, To enter conquerors, and to proclaim 310 Arthur of Brittaine England’s king and yours. Enter ⌈at another door⌉ the English Herald, with a trumpeter ENGLISH HERALD Rejoice, you men of Angers, ring your bells! King John, your king and England’s, doth approach, Commander of this hot malicious day. Their armours that marched hence so silver-bright 315 Hither return all gilt with Frenchmen’s blood. There stuck no plume in any English crest That is removed by a staff of France; Our colours do return in those same hands That did display them when we first marched forth; And like a jolly troop of huntsmen come 321 Our lusty English, all with purpled hands Dyed in the dying slaughter of their foes. Open your gates and give the victors way. ⌈CITIZEN⌉ Heralds, from off our towers we might behold 325 From first to last the onset and retire Of both your armies, whose equality By our best eyes cannot be censurèd. Blood hath bought blood and blows have answered blows, Strength matched with strength and power confronted power. 330 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 at one door King John, the Bastard, Queen Eleanor and Lady Blanche, with soldiers; at another door King Philip, Louis the Dauphin, and the Duke of Austria with soldiers KING JOHN France, hast thou yet more blood to cast away? Say, shall the current of our right run on, 335 Whose passage, vexed with thy impediment, Shall leave his native channel and o’erswell With course disturbed even thy confining shores, Unless thou let his silver water keep A peaceful progress to the ocean? 340 KING PHILIP England, thou hast not saved one drop of blood In 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, 345 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 loss With slaughter coupled to the name of kings. BASTARD Ha, majesty! How high thy glory towers 350 When 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 undetermined 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 confirm The 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? ⌈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, Angers, and of you. [CITIZEN⌉ A greater power than we denies all this, And, till it be undoubted, we do lock Our former scruple in our strong-barred gates, 370 Kinged of our fear, until our fears resolved Be by some certain king, purged and deposed. BASTARD By heaven, these scroyles of Angers flout you, Kings, And stand securely on their battlements As in a theatre, whence they gape and point 375 At your industrious scenes and acts of death. Your royal presences be ruled by me. Do like the mutines of Jerusalem: Be friends awhile, and both conjointly bend Your sharpest deeds of malice on this town. 380 By east and west let France and England mount Their battering cannon, charged to the mouths, Till their soul-fearing clamours have brawled down The flinty ribs of this contemptuous city. I’d play incessantly upon these jades, Even till unfenced desolation Leave 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 forth Out 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 powers, And lay this Angers even with the ground, Then after fight who shall be king of it? BASTARD (to King Philip) An if thou hast the mettle of a king, Being wronged 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 dashed 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 destruction Into this city’s bosom. AUSTRIA I from the north. KING PHILIP Our thunder from the south Shall rain their drift of bullets on this town. BASTARD ⌈to King John⌉ 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! ⌈CITIZEN⌉ Hear us, great Kings, vouchsafe a while to stay, And I shall show you peace and fair-faced league. Win you this city without stroke or wound; Rescue those breathing lives to die in beds, 420 That here come sacrifices for the field. Persever not, but hear me, mighty Kings. KING JOHN Speak on with favour; we are bent to hear. ⌈CITIZEN⌉ That daughter there of Spain, the Lady Blanche, Is niece to England. Look upon the years 425 Of 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? 430 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, O, say he is not she; 435 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 as she; And she a fair divided excellence, 440 Whose fullness 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, 445 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 than powder can enforce, The mouth of passage shall we fling wide ope, 450 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, 455 As we to keep this city. BASTARD ⌈aside⌉ Here’s a stay 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 460 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 cudgelled; not a word of his 465 But buffets better than a fist of France. Zounds! I was never so bethumped with words Since I first called my brother’s father Dad. QUEEN ELEANOR (aside to King John) Son, list to this conjunction, make this match, Give with our niece a dowry large enough; 470 For, by this knot, thou shalt so surely tie Thy now unsured 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; 475 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. ⌈CITIZEN⌉ Why answer not the double majesties This friendly treaty of our threatened town? KING PHILIP Speak England first, that hath been forward first To speak unto this city: what say you? KING JOHN If that the Dauphin there, thy princely son, 485 Can in this book of beauty read ‘I love’, Her dowry shall weigh equal with a queen; For Anjou and fair Touraine, Maine, Poitou, And all that we upon this side the sea— Except this city now by us besieged—490 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. 495 KING PHILIP What sayst thou, boy? Look in the lady’s face. LOUIS THE DAUPHIN I do, my lord, and in her eye I find A wonder, or a wondrous miracle, The shadow of myself formed in her eye; Which, being but the shadow of your son, 500 Becomes a sun and makes your son a shadow. I do protest I never loved myself Till now enfixèd I beheld myself Drawn in the flattering table of her eye. He whispers with Blanche BASTARD (aside) Drawn in the flattering table of her eye, 505 Hanged in the frowning wrinkle of her brow, And quartered in her heart: he doth espy Himself love’s traitor. This is pity now, That hanged and drawn and quartered there should be In such a love so vile a lout as he. 510 BLANCHE (to Louis the Dauphin) 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 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, 520 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 do What you in wisdom shall vouchsafe to say. KING JOHN Speak then, Prince Dauphin, can you love this lady? LOUIS THE DAUPHIN Nay, ask me if I can refrain from love, 526 For I do love her most unfeignedly. KING JOHN Then do I give Volquessen, Touraine, Maine, Poitou, and Anjou, these five provinces, With her to thee, and this addition more: 530 Full thirty thousand marks of English coin. Philip of France, if thou be pleased 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 assured 535 That I did so when I was first assured. ⌈Louis the Dauphin and Lady Blanche join hands and kiss⌉ KING PHILIP Now citizens of Angers, ope your gates. Let in that amity which you have made, For at Saint Mary’s chapel presently The rites of marriage shall be solemnized.—540 Is not the Lady Constance in this troop? (Aside) I know she is not, for this match made up Her presence would have interrupted much. (Aloud) Where is she and her son ? Tell me who knows. LOUIS THE DAUPHIN She is sad and passionate at your highness’ tent. 545 KING PHILIP And by my faith this league that we have made Will give her sadness very little cure.— Brother of England, how may we content This widow lady? In her right we came, Which we, God knows, have turned another way 550 To our own vantage. KING JOHN We will heal up all, For we’ll create young Arthur Duke of Brittaine And Earl of Richmond, and this rich fair town We make him lord of. Call the Lady Constance. Some speedy messenger bid her repair To our solemnity. I trust we shall, If not fill up the measure of her will, Yet in some measure satisfy her so That we shall stop her exclamation. Go we as well as haste will suffer us 560 To this unlooked-for, unprepared pomp. ⌈Flourish.⌉ Exeunt all but the Bastard 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 field 566 As God’s own soldier, rounded in the ear With 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, 570 Of kings, of beggars, old men, young men, maids,— Who having no external thing to lose But the word ‘maid’, cheats the poor maid of that— That smooth-faced gentleman, tickling commodity; Commodity, the bias of the world, 575 The world who of itself is peisèd 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, 580 From all direction, purpose, course, intent; And this same bias, this commodity, This bawd, this broker, this all-changing word, Clapped on the outward eye of fickle France, Hath drawn him from his own determined aid, 585 From a resolved and honourable war, To a most base and vile-concluded peace. And why rail I on this commodity? But for because he hath not wooed me yet— Not that I have the power to clutch my hand 590 When 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 rail, And say there is no sin but to be rich, 595 And being rich, my virtue then shall be To say there is no vice but beggary. Since kings break faith upon commodity, Gain, be my lord, for I will worship thee. Exit
Atto 2, Scena 2
| Chi parla | Battuta |
|---|---|
| (didascalia) | Enter Lady Constance, Arthur Duke of Brittaine, and the Earl of Salisbury |
| CONSTANCE | (to Salisbury) Gone to be married? Gone to swear a peace? False blood to false blood joined! Gone to be friends? Shall Louis have Blanche, and Blanche those provinces? It is not so, thou hast misspoke, misheard. Be well advised, tell o‘er thy tale again. It cannot be, thou dost but say ’tis so. I trust I may not trust thee, for thy word Is but the vain breath of a common man. Believe me, I do not believe thee, man; I have a king’s oath to the contrary. 10 Thou shalt be punished for thus frighting me; For I am sick and capable of fears; Oppressed with wrongs, and therefore full of fears; A widow husbandless, subject to fears; A woman naturally born to fears; And though thou now confess thou didst but jest, With my vexed spirits I cannot take a truce, But they will quake and tremble all this day. What dost thou mean by shaking of thy head? Why dost thou look so sadly on my son? 20 What means that hand upon that breast of thine? Why holds thine eye that lamentable rheum, Like a proud river peering o’er his bounds? Be these sad signs confirmers of thy words? Then speak again—not all thy former tale, But this one word: whether thy tale be true. |
| SALISBURY | As true as I believe you think them false That give you cause to prove my saying true. |
| CONSTANCE | O, if thou teach me to believe this sorrow, Teach thou this sorrow how to make me die; And let belief and life encounter so As doth the fury of two desperate men Which in the very meeting fall and die. Louis marry Blanche! (To Arthur) O boy, then where art thou? France friend with England!—What becomes of me? (To Salisbury) Fellow, be gone, I cannot brook thy sight; 36 This news hath made thee a most ugly man. |
| SALISBURY | What other harm have I, good lady, done, But spoke the harm that is by others done? |
| CONSTANCE | Which harm within itself so heinous is 40 As it makes harmful all that speak of it. |
| ARTHUR | I do beseech you, madam, be content. |
| CONSTANCE | If thou that bidd‘st me be content wert grim, Ugly and sland’rous to thy mother’s womb, Full of unpleasing blots and sightless stains, Lame, foolish, crooked, swart, prodigious, Patched with foul moles and eye-offending marks, I would not care, I then would be content, For then I should not love thee, no, nor thou Become thy great birth, nor deserve a crown. But thou art fair, and at thy birth, dear boy, Nature and Fortune joined to make thee great. Of Nature’s gifts thou mayst with lilies boast, And with the half-blown rose. But Fortune, O, She is corrupted, changed, and won from thee; Sh’adulterates hourly with thine uncle John, And with her golden hand hath plucked on France To tread down fair respect of sovereignty, And made his majesty the bawd to theirs. France is a bawd to Fortune and King John, That strumpet Fortune, that usurping John. (To Salisbury) Tell me, thou fellow, is not France forsworn ? Envenom him with words, or get thee gone And leave those woes alone, which I alone Am bound to underbear. |
| SALISBURY | Pardon me, madam, I may not go without you to the Kings. |
| CONSTANCE | Thou mayst, thou shalt; I will not go with thee. I will instruct my sorrows to be proud, For grief is proud and makes his owner stoop. |
| (didascalia) | She sits upon the ground |
| CONSTANCE | To me and to the state of my great grief 70 Let kings assemble, for my grief’s so great That no supporter but the huge firm earth Can hold it up. Here I and sorrows sit; Here is my throne; bid kings come bow to it. |
| (didascalia) | Exeunt Salisbury and Arthur |
| (didascalia) | 3.1 Flourish. Enter King John and King Philip hand in hand; Louis the Dauphin and Lady Blanche, married; Queen Eleanor, the Bastard, and the Duke of Austria |
| KING PHILIP | (to Blanche) ’Tis true, fair daughter, and this blessèd day Ever in France shall be kept festival. To solemnize this day, the glorious sun Stays in his course and plays the alchemist, Turning with splendour of his precious eye 5 The meagre cloddy earth to glittering gold. The yearly course that brings this day about Shall never see it but a holy day. |
| CONSTANCE | (rising) A wicked day, and not a holy day! What hath this day deserved? What hath it done, That it in golden letters should be set Among the high tides in the calendar? Nay, rather turn this day out of the week, This day of shame, oppression, perjury. Or if it must stand still, let wives with child 15 Pray that their burdens may not fall this day, Lest that their hopes prodigiously be crossed; But on this day let seamen fear no wreck; No bargains break that are not this day made; This day all things begun come to ill end, 20 Yea, faith itself to hollow falsehood change. |
| KING PHILIP | By heaven, lady, you shall have no cause To curse the fair proceedings of this day. Have I not pawned to you my majesty? |
| CONSTANCE | You have beguiled me with a counterfeit 25 Resembling majesty, which being touched and tried Proves valueless. You are forsworn, forsworn. You came in arms to spill mine enemies’ blood, But now in arms you strengthen it with yours. The grappling vigour and rough frown of war 30 Is cold in amity and painted peace, And our oppression hath made up this league. Arm, arm, you heavens, against these perjured Kings! A widow cries, be husband to me, God! Let not the hours of this ungodly day 35 Wear out the day in peace, but ere sun set Set armed discord ’twixt these perjured Kings. Hear me, O hear me! |
| AUSTRIA | Lady Constance, peace. |
| CONSTANCE | War, war, no peace! Peace is to me a war. O Limoges, O Austria, thou dost shame 40 That bloody spoil. Thou slave, thou wretch, thou coward! Thou little valiant, great in villainy; Thou ever strong upon the stronger side; Thou Fortune’s champion, that dost never fight But when her humorous ladyship is by 45 To teach thee safety. Thou art perjured too, And sooth‘st up greatness. What a fool art thou, A ramping fool, to brag and stamp, and swear Upon my party! Thou cold-blooded slave, Hast thou not spoke like thunder on my side, 50 Been sworn my soldier, bidding me depend Upon thy stars, thy fortune, and thy strength? And dost thou now fall over to my foes? Thou wear a lion’s hide! Doff it, for shame, And hang a calf’s-skin on those recreant limbs. 55 |
| AUSTRIA | O, that a man should speak those words to me! |
| BASTARD | And hang a calf’s-skin on those recreant limbs. |
| AUSTRIA | Thou dar’st not say so, villain, for thy life. |
| BASTARD | And hang a calf’s-skin on those recreant limbs. |
| KING JOHN | (to the Bastard) We like not this. Thou dost forget thyself. 60 |
| (didascalia) | Enter Cardinal Pandolf |
| KING PHILIP | Here comes the holy legate of the Pope. |
| PANDOLF | Hail, you anointed deputies of God.— To thee, King John, my holy errand is. I Pandolf, of fair Milan Cardinal, And from Pope Innocent the legate here, 65 Do in his name religiously demand Why thou against the Church, our Holy Mother, So wilfully dost spurn, and force perforce Keep Stephen Langton, chosen Archbishop Of Canterbury, from that holy see. 70 This, in our foresaid Holy Father’s name, Pope Innocent, I do demand of thee. |
| KING JOHN | What earthy name to interrogatories Can task the free breath of a sacred king? Thou canst not, Cardinal, devise a name 75 So slight, unworthy, and ridiculous To charge me to an answer, as the Pope. Tell him this tale, and from the mouth of England Add thus much more: that no Italian priest Shall tithe or toll in our dominions; 80 But as we, under God, are supreme head, So, under him, that great supremacy Where we do reign we will alone uphold Without th’assistance of a mortal hand. So tell the Pope, all reverence set apart To him and his usurped authority. |
| KING PHILIP | Brother of England, you blaspheme in this. |
| KING JOHN | Though you and all the kings of Christendom Are led so grossly by this meddling priest, Dreading the curse that money may buy out, 90 And by the merit of vile gold, dross, dust, Purchase corrupted pardon of a man, Who in that sale sells pardon from himself; Though you and all the rest so grossly led This juggling witchcraft with revenue cherish; 95 Yet I alone, alone do me oppose Against the Pope, and count his friends my foes. |
| PANDOLF | Then by the lawful power that I have Thou shalt stand cursed and excommunicate; And blessed shall he be that doth revolt 100 From his allegiance to an heretic; And meritorious shall that hand be called, Canonized and worshipped as a saint, That takes away by any secret course Thy hateful life. |
| CONSTANCE | O lawful let it be 105 That I have room with Rome to curse awhile. Good Father Cardinal, cry thou ’Amen’ To my keen curses, for without my wrong There is no tongue hath power to curse him right. |
| PANDOLF | There’s law and warrant, lady, for my curse. 110 |
| CONSTANCE | And for mine too. When law can do no right, Let it be lawful that law bar no wrong. Law cannot give my child his kingdom here, For he that holds his kingdom holds the law. Therefore, since law itself is perfect wrong, How can the law forbid my tongue to curse? |
| PANDOLF | Philip of France, on peril of a curse, Let go the hand of that arch-heretic, And raise the power of France upon his head, Unless he do submit himself to Rome. 120 |
| QUEEN ELEANOR | Look’st thou pale, France? Do not let go thy hand. |
| (didascalia) | CONSTANCE to King John |
| QUEEN ELEANOR | Look to it, devil, lest that France repent, And by disjoining hands hell lose a soul. |
| AUSTRIA | King Philip, listen to the Cardinal. |
| BASTARD | And hang a calf’s-skin on his recreant limbs. 125 |
| AUSTRIA | Well, ruffian, I must pocket up these wrongs, Because— |
| BASTARD | Your breeches best may carry them. |
| KING JOHN | Philip, what sayst thou to the Cardinal? |
| CONSTANCE | What should he say, but as the Cardinal? |
| LOUIS THE DAUPHIN | Bethink you, Father, for the difference 130 Is purchase of a heavy curse from Rome, Or the light loss of England for a friend. Forgo the easier. |
| BLANCHE | That’s the curse of Rome. |
| CONSTANCE | O Louis, stand fast; the devil tempts thee here In likeness of a new untrimmèd bride. 135 |
| BLANCHE | The Lady Constance speaks not from her faith, But from her need. |
| (didascalia) | CONSTANCE to King Philip O if thou grant my need, |
| BLANCHE | Which only lives but by the death of faith, That need must needs infer this principle: That faith would live again by death of need. 140 O, then tread down my need, and faith mounts up; Keep my need up, and faith is trodden down. |
| KING JOHN | The King is moved, and answers not to this. |
| CONSTANCE | (to King Philip) O, be removed from him, and answer well. |
| AUSTRIA | Do so, King Philip, hang no more in doubt. 145 |
| BASTARD | Hang nothing but a calf’s-skin, most sweet lout. |
| KING PHILIP | I am perplexed, and know not what to say. |
| PANDOLF | What canst thou say but will perplex thee more, If thou stand excommunicate and cursed? |
| KING PHILIP | Good Reverend Father, make my person yours, 150 And tell me how you would bestow yourself. This royal hand and mine are newly knit, And the conjunction of our inward souls Married in league, coupled and linked together With all religious strength of sacred vows; 155 The latest breath that gave the sound of words Was deep-sworn faith, peace, amity, true love, Between our kingdoms and our royal selves; And even before this truce, but new before, No longer than we well could wash our hands 160 To clap this royal bargain up of peace, God knows, they were besmeared and over-stained With slaughter’s pencil, where Revenge did paint The fearful difference of incensed kings; And shall these hands, so lately purged of blood, 165 So newly joined in love, so strong in both, Unyoke this seizure and this kind regreet, Play fast and loose with faith, so jest with heaven, Make such unconstant children of ourselves, As now again to snatch our palm from palm, 170 Unswear faith sworn, and on the marriage-bed Of smiling peace to march a bloody host, And make a riot on the gentle brow Of true sincerity? O holy sir, My Reverend Father, let it not be so. 175 Out of your grace, devise, ordain, impose Some gentle order, and then we shall be blessed To do your pleasure and continue friends. |
| PANDOLF | All form is formless, order orderless, Save what is opposite to England’s love. Therefore to arms, be champion of our Church, Or let the Church, our mother, breathe her curse, A mother’s curse, on her revolting son. France, thou mayst hold a serpent by the tongue, A crazed lion by the mortal paw, 185 A fasting tiger safer by the tooth, Than keep in peace that hand which thou dost hold. |
| KING PHILIP | I may disjoin my hand, but not my faith. |
| PANDOLF | So mak‘st thou faith an enemy to faith, And like a civil war, sett’st oath to oath, 190 Thy tongue against thy tongue. O, let thy vow, First made to heaven, first be to heaven performed; That is, to be the champion of our Church. What since thou swor‘st is sworn against thyself, And may not be performèd by thyself; 195 For that which thou hast sworn to do amiss Is not amiss when it is truly done; And being not done where doing tends to ill, The truth is then most done not doing it. The better act of purposes mistook 200 Is to mistake again; though indirect, Yet indirection thereby grows direct, And falsehood falsehood cures, as fire cools fire |
| (didascalia) | Within the scorchèd veins of one new burned. |
| PANDOLF | It is religion that doth make vows kept; But thou hast sworn against religion; By what thou swear’st, against the thing thou swear‘st; And mak’st an oath the surety for thy troth: Against an oath, the truth. Thou art unsure To swear: swear’st only not to be forsworn—210 Else what a mockery should it be to swear!— But thou dost swear only to be forsworn, And most forsworn to keep what thou dost swear; Therefore thy later vows against thy first Is in thyself rebellion to thyself, 215 And better conquest never canst thou make Than arm thy constant and thy nobler parts Against these giddy loose suggestions; Upon which better part our prayers come in If thou vouchsafe them. But if not, then know 220 The peril of our curses light on thee So heavy as thou shalt not shake them off, But in despair die under their black weight. |
| AUSTRIA | Rebellion, flat rebellion! |
| BASTARD | Wilt not be? Will not a calf’s-skin stop that mouth of thine? 225 |
| LOUIS THE DAUPHIN | Father, to arms! |
| BLANCHE | Upon thy wedding day? Against the blood that thou hast married ? What, shall our feast be kept with slaughtered men? Shall braying trumpets and loud churlish drums, Clamours of hell, be measures to our pomp? 230 She kneels O husband, hear me ! Ay, alack, how new Is ‘husband’ in my mouth! Even for that name Which till this time my tongue did ne’er pronounce, Upon my knee I beg, go not to arms Against mine uncle. |
| CONSTANCE | (kneeling) O, upon my knee 235 Made hard with kneeling, I do pray to thee, Thou virtuous Dauphin, alter not the doom Forethought by heaven. |
| BLANCHE | (to Louis the Dauphin) Now shall I see thy love: what motive may Be stronger with thee than the name of wife? 240 |
| CONSTANCE | That which upholdeth him that thee upholds: His honour.—O thine honour, Louis, thine honour! |
| LOUIS THE DAUPHIN | (to King Philip) I muse your majesty doth seem so cold When such profound respects do pull you on. |
| PANDOLF | I will denounce a curse upon his head. 245 |
| KING PHILIP | Thou shalt not need.—England, I will fall from thee. |
| (didascalia) | He takes his hand from King John’s hand. Blanche and Constance rise |
| CONSTANCE | O, fair return of banished majesty! |
| QUEEN ELEANOR | O, foul revolt of French inconstancy I |
| KING JOHN | France, thou shalt rue this hour within this hour. |
| BASTARD | Old Time the clock-setter, that bald sexton Time, 250 Is it as he will?—Well then, France shall rue. |
| BLANCHE | The sun’s o’ercast with blood; fair day, adieu! Which is the side that I must go withal? I am with both, each army hath a hand, And in their rage, I having hold of both, 255 They whirl asunder and dismember me. Husband, I cannot pray that thou mayst win.— Uncle, I needs must pray that thou mayst lose.— Father, I may not wish the fortune thine.— Grandam, I will not wish thy wishes thrive. Whoever wins, on that side shall I lose, Assured loss before the match be played. |
| LOUIS THE DAUPHIN | Lady, with me, with me thy fortune lies. |
| BLANCHE | There where my fortune lives, there my life dies. |
| KING JOHN | (to the Bastard) Cousin, go draw our puissance together.— |
| (didascalia) | Exit the Bastard |
| KING JOHN | France, I am burned up with inflaming wrath, A rage whose heat hath this condition: That nothing can allay, nothing but blood, The blood, and dearest-valued blood, of France. |
| KING PHILIP | Thy rage shall burn thee up, and thou shalt turn 270 To ashes ere our blood shall quench that fire. Look to thyself, thou art in jeopardy. |
| KING JOHN | No more than he that threats.—To arms let’s hie! |
| (didascalia) | Exeunt severally |
Atto 3, Scena 2
| Chi parla | Battuta |
|---|---|
| (didascalia) | Alarum; excursions. Enter the Bastard, with the Duke of Austria’s head |
| BASTARD | Now, by my life, this day grows wondrous hot; Some airy devil hovers in the sky And pours down mischief. Austria’s head lie there, While Philip breathes. |
| (didascalia) | Enter King John, Arthur Duke of Brittaine, and Hubert |
| KING JOHN | Hubert, keep this boy.—Philip, make up! 5 My mother is assailed in our tent, And ta’en I fear. |
| BASTARD | My lord, I rescued her; Her highness is in safety; fear you not. But on, my liege, for very little pains Will bring this labour to an happy end. 10 |
| (didascalia) | Exeunt King John and the Bastard at one door, Hubert and Arthur at another door |
Atto 3, Scena 3
| Chi parla | Battuta |
|---|---|
| (didascalia) | Alarum; excursions; retreat. Enter King John, Queen Eleanor, Arthur Duke of Brittaine, the Bastard, Hubert, lords, with soldiers |
| KING JOHN | (to Queen Eleanor) So shall it be; your grace shall stay behind So strongly guarded. (To Arthur) Cousin, look not sad; Thy grandam loves thee, and thy uncle will As dear be to thee as thy father was. |
| ARTHUR | O, this will make my mother die with grief. 5 |
| KING JOHN | (to the Bastard) Cousin, away for England! Haste before, And ere our coming, see thou shake the bags Of hoarding abbots. The fat ribs of peace Must by the hungry now be fed upon. Imprisoned angels set at liberty. 10 Use our commission in his utmost force. |
| BASTARD | Bell, book, and candle shall not drive me back When gold and silver becks me to come on. I leave your highness.—Grandam, I will pray, If ever I remember to be holy, For your fair safety. So I kiss your hand. |
| QUEEN ELEANOR | Farewell, gentle cousin. |
| KING JOHN | Coz, farewell. Exit the Bastard |
| QUEEN ELEANOR | Come hither, little kinsman. Hark, a word. She takes Arthur aside |
| KING JOHN | Come hither, Hubert. He takes Hubert aside O my gentle Hubert, We owe thee much. Within this wall of flesh 20 There is a soul counts thee her creditor, And with advantage means to pay thy love; And, my good friend, thy voluntary oath Lives in this bosom, dearly cherished. Give me thy hand. He takes Hubert’s hand I had a thing to say, 25 But I will fit it with some better tune. By heaven, Hubert, I am almost ashamed To say what good respect I have of thee. |
| HUBERT | I am much bounden to your majesty. |
| KING JOHN | Good friend, thou hast no cause to say so yet, 30 But thou shalt have; and creep time ne‘er so slow, Yet it shall come for me to do thee good. I had a thing to say—but let it go. The sun is in the heaven, and the proud day, Attended with the pleasures of the world, 35 Is all too wanton and too full of gauds To give me audience. If the midnight bell Did with his iron tongue and brazen mouth |
| (didascalia) | Sound on into the drowsy race of night; |
| KING JOHN | If this same were a churchyard where we stand, 40 And thou possessed with a thousand wrongs; Or if that surly spirit, melancholy, Had baked thy blood and made it heavy, thick, Which else runs tickling up and down the veins, Making that idiot, laughter, keep men’s eyes 45 And strain their cheeks to idle merriment— A passion hateful to my purposes— Or if that thou couldst see me without eyes, Hear me without thine ears, and make reply Without a tongue, using conceit alone, Without eyes, ears, and harmful sound of words; Then in despite of broad-eyed watchful day I would into thy bosom pour my thoughts. But, ah, I will not. Yet I love thee well, And by my troth, I think thou lov’st me well. |
| HUBERT | So well that what you bid me undertake, Though that my death were adjunct to my act, By heaven, I would do it. |
| KING JOHN | Do not I know thou wouldst? Good Hubert, Hubert, Hubert, throw thine eye On yon young boy. I’ll tell thee what, my friend, He is a very serpent in my way, And wheresoe’er this foot of mine doth tread, He lies before me. Dost thou understand me? Thou art his keeper. |
| HUBERT | And I’ll keep him so That he shall not offend your majesty. 65 |
| KING JOHN | Death. |
| HUBERT | My lord. |
| KING JOHN | A grave. |
| HUBERT | He shall not live. |
| KING JOHN | Enough. I could be merry now. Hubert, I love thee. Well, I’ll not say what I intend for thee. Remember. (To Queen Eleanor) Madam, fare you well. I’ll send those powers o’er to your majesty. 70 |
| QUEEN ELEANOR | My blessing go with thee. |
| KING JOHN | (to Arthur) For England, cousin, go. Hubert shall be your man, attend on you With all true duty.—On toward Calais, ho! |
| (didascalia) | Exeunt Queen Eleanor, attended, at one door, the rest at another door |
Atto 3, Scena 4
| Chi parla | Battuta |
|---|---|
| (didascalia) | Enter King Philip, Louis the Dauphin, Cardinal Pandolf, and attendants |
| KING PHILIP | So, by a roaring tempest on the flood, A whole armada of convicted sail Is scattered and disjoined from fellowship. |
| PANDOLF | Courage and comfort; all shall yet go well. |
| KING PHILIP | What can go well when we have run so ill? Are we not beaten? Is not Angers lost, Arthur ta‘en prisoner, divers dear friends slain, And bloody England into England gone, O’erbearing interruption, spite of France? |
| LOUIS THE DAUPHIN | What he hath won, that hath he fortified. 10 So hot a speed, with such advice disposed, Such temperate order in so fierce a cause, Doth want example. Who hath read or heard Of any kindred action like to this? |
| KING PHILIP | Well could I bear that England had this praise, 15 So we could find some pattern of our shame. |
| (didascalia) | Enter Constance, distracted, with her hair about her ears |
| KING PHILIP | Look who comes here! A grave unto a soul, Holding th’eternal spirit against her will In the vile prison of afflicted breath.— I prithee, lady, go away with me. 20 |
| CONSTANCE | Lo, now, now see the issue of your peace! |
| KING PHILIP | Patience, good lady; comfort, gentle Constance. |
| CONSTANCE | No, I defy all counsel, all redress, But that which ends all counsel, true redress: Death, Death, O amiable, lovely Death! 25 Thou odoriferous stench, sound rottenness! Arise forth from the couch of lasting night, Thou hate and terror to prosperity, And I will kiss thy detestable bones, And put my eyeballs in thy vaulty brows, 30 And ring these fingers with thy household worms, And stop this gap of breath with fulsome dust, And be a carrion monster like thyself. Come grin on me, and I will think thou smil’st, And buss thee as thy wife. Misery’s love, 35 O, come to me! |
| KING PHILIP | O fair affliction, peace I |
| CONSTANCE | No, no, I will not, having breath to cry. O, that my tongue were in the thunder’s mouth! Then with a passion would I shake the world, And rouse from sleep that fell anatomy, Which cannot hear a lady’s feeble voice, Which scorns a modern invocation. |
| PANDOLF | Lady, you utter madness, and not sorrow. |
| CONSTANCE | Thou art not holy to belie me so. I am not mad: this hair I tear is mine; My name is Constance; I was Geoffrey’s wife; Young Arthur is my son; and he is lost. I am not mad; I would to God I were, For then ’tis like I should forget myself. O,if I could, what grief should I forget ! 50 Preach some philosophy to make me mad, And thou shalt be canonized, Cardinal. For, being not mad, but sensible of grief, My reasonable part produces reason How I may be delivered of these woes, 55 And teaches me to kill or hang myself. If I were mad I should forget my son, Or madly think a babe of clouts were he. I am not mad; too well, too well I feel The different plague of each calamity. 60 |
| KING PHILIP | Bind up those tresses. O,what love I note In the fair multitude of those her hairs! Where but by chance a silver drop hath fallen, Even to that drop ten thousand wiry friends Do glue themselves in sociable grief, 65 Like true, inseparable, faithful loves, Sticking together in calamity. |
| CONSTANCE | To England, if you will. |
| KING PHILIP | Bind up your hairs. |
| CONSTANCE | Yes, that I will. And wherefore will I do it? I tore them from their bonds, and cried aloud, ‘O that these hands could so redeem my son, As they have given these hairs their liberty!’ But now I envy at their liberty, And will again commit them to their bonds, Because my poor child is a prisoner. 75 She binds up her hair And Father Cardinal, I have heard you say That we shall see and know our friends in heaven. If that be true, I shall see my boy again; For since the birth of Cain, the first male child, To him that did but yesterday suspire, 80 There was not such a gracious creature born. But now will canker-sorrow eat my bud, And chase the native beauty from his cheek; And he will look as hollow as a ghost, As dim and meagre as an ague’s fit, And so he’ll die; and rising so again, When I shall meet him in the court of heaven, I shall not know him; therefore never, never Must I behold my pretty Arthur more. |
| PANDOLF | You hold too heinous a respect of grief. |
| CONSTANCE | He talks to me that never had a son. |
| KING PHILIP | You are as fond of grief as of your child. |
| CONSTANCE | Grief fills the room up of my absent child, Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me, Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words, Remembers me of all his gracious parts, Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form; Then have I reason to be fond of grief. Fare you well. Had you such a loss as I, I could give better comfort than you do. 100 |
| (didascalia) | She unbinds her hair |
| CONSTANCE | I will not keep this form upon my head When there is such disorder in my wit. O Lord, my boy, my Arthur, my fair son, My life, my joy, my food, my all the world, 104 My widow-comfort, and my sorrow’s cure! Exit |
| (didascalia) | I fear some outrage, and I’ll follow her. Exit attended |
| LOUIS THE DAUPHIN | There’s nothing in this world can make me joy. Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale, Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man; And bitter shame hath spoiled the sweet world’s taste, That it yields naught but shame and bitterness. 111 |
| PANDOLF | Before the curing of a strong disease, Even in the instant of repair and health, The fit is strongest. Evils that take leave, On their departure most of all show evil. 115 What have you lost by losing of this day? |
| LOUIS THE DAUPHIN | All days of glory, joy, and happiness. |
| PANDOLF | If you had won it, certainly you had. No, no; when Fortune means to men most good, She looks upon them with a threat‘ning eye. ’Tis strange to think how much King John hath lost In this which he accounts so clearly won. Are not you grieved that Arthur is his prisoner? |
| LOUIS THE DAUPHIN | As heartily as he is glad he hath him. |
| PANDOLF | Your mind is all as youthful as your blood. 125 Now hear me speak with a prophetic spirit, For even the breath of what I mean to speak Shall blow each dust, each straw, each little rub, Out of the path which shall directly lead Thy foot to England’s throne. And therefore mark. John hath seized Arthur, and it cannot be That whiles warm life plays in that infant’s veins The misplaced John should entertain an hour, One minute, nay, one quiet breath of rest. A sceptre snatched with an unruly hand Must be as boisterously maintained as gained; And he that stands upon a slipp’ry place Makes nice of no vile hold to stay him up. That John may stand, then Arthur needs must fall; So be it, for it cannot be but so. |
| LOUIS THE DAUPHIN | But what shall I gain by young Arthur’s fall? |
| PANDOLF | You, in the right of Lady Blanche your wife, May then make all the claim that Arthur did. |
| LOUIS THE DAUPHIN | And lose it, life and all, as Arthur did. |
| PANDOLF | How green you are, and fresh in this old world 145 John lays you plots; the times conspire with you; For he that steeps his safety in true blood Shall find but bloody safety and untrue. This act, so vilely born, shall cool the hearts Of all his people, and freeze up their zeal, That none so small advantage shall step forth To check his reign but they will cherish it; No natural exhalation in the sky, No scope of nature, no distempered day, No common wind, no customèd event, 155 But they will pluck away his natural cause, And call them meteors, prodigies, and signs, Abortives, presages, and tongues of heaven Plainly denouncing vengeance upon John. |
| LOUIS THE DAUPHIN | Maybe he will not touch young Arthur’s life, But hold himself safe in his prisonment. |
| PANDOLF | O sir, when he shall hear of your approach, If that young Arthur be not gone already, Even at that news he dies; and then the hearts Of all his people shall revolt from him, And kiss the lips of unacquainted change, And pick strong matter of revolt and wrath Out of the bloody fingers’ ends of John. Methinks I see this hurly all on foot, And O, what better matter breeds for you 170 Than I have named! The Bastard Falconbridge Is now in England, ransacking the Church, Offending charity. If but a dozen French Were there in arms, they would be as a call To train ten thousand English to their side, 175 Or as a little snow tumbled about Anon becomes a mountain. O noble Dauphin, Go with me to the King. ’Tis wonderful What may be wrought out of their discontent Now that their souls are top-full of offence. 180 For England, go! I will whet on the King. |
| LOUIS THE DAUPHIN | Strong reasons make strange actions. Let us go. If you say ay, the King will not say no. Exeunt |
Atto 4, Scena 1
| Chi parla | Battuta |
|---|---|
| (didascalia) | Enter Hubert, and Executioners with a rope and irons |
| HUBERT | Heat me these irons hot, and look thou stand |
| (didascalia) | Within the arras. When I strike my foot |
| HUBERT | Upon the bosom of the ground, rush forth And bind the boy which you shall find with me Fast to the chair. Be heedful. Hence, and watch! 5 |
| EXECUTIONER | I hope your warrant will bear out the deed. |
| HUBERT | Uncleanly scruples: fear not you. Look to’t! |
| (didascalia) | The Executioners withdraw behind the arras |
| HUBERT | Young lad, come forth, I have to say with you. |
| (didascalia) | Enter Arthur Duke of Brittaine |
| ARTHUR | Good morrow, Hubert. Good morrow, little Prince. |
| ARTHUR | As little prince, having so great a title 10 To be more prince, as may be. You are sad. |
| HUBERT | Indeed I have been merrier. ARTHURMercy on me! Methinks nobody should be sad but I. Yet I remember, when I was in France, Young gentlemen would be as sad as night 15 Only for wantonness. By my christendom, So I were out of prison and kept sheep, I should be as merry as the day is long; And so I would be here, but that I doubt My uncle practises more harm to me. 20 He is afraid of me, and I of him. Is it my fault that I was Geoffrey’s son? No, indeed is’t not, and I would to God I were your son, so you would love me, Hubert. |
| HUBERT | (aside) If I talk to him, with his innocent prate 25 He will awake my mercy, which lies dead; Therefore I will be sudden, and dispatch. |
| ARTHUR | Are you sick, Hubert? You look pale today. In sooth, I would you were a little sick, That I might sit all night and watch with you. 30 I warrant I love you more than you do me. HUBERT(aside) His words do take possession of my bosom. He shows Arthur a paper Read here, young Arthur. (Aside) How now: foolish rheum, Turning dispiteous torture out of door? I must be brief, lest resolution drop Out at mine eyes in tender womanish tears. (To Arthur) Can you not read it? Is it not fair writ? |
| ARTHUR | Too fairly, Hubert, for so foul effect. Must you with hot irons burn out both mine eyes? |
| HUBERT | Young boy, I must. |
| ARTHUR | And will you? HUBERTAnd I will. 40 |
| ARTHUR | Have you the heart? When your head did but ache I knit my handkerchief about your brows, The best I had—a princess wrought it me, And I did never ask it you again— And with my hand at midnight held your head, And like the watchful minutes to the hour Still and anon cheered up the heavy time, Saying ‘What lack you?’ and ‘Where lies your grief?’ Or ‘What good love may I perform for you?’ Many a poor man’s son would have lain still And ne’er have spoke a loving word to you, But you at your sick service had a prince. Nay, you may think my love was crafty love, And call it cunning. Do, an if you will. If heaven be pleased that you must use me ill, 55 Why then you must. Will you put out mine eyes, These eyes that never did, nor never shall, So much as frown on you? |
| HUBERTI | have sworn to do it, And with hot irons must I burn them out. |
| ARTHUR | Ah, none but in this iron age would do it. 60 The iron of itself, though heat red hot, Approaching near these eyes would drink my tears, And quench his fiery indignation Even in the matter of mine innocence; Nay, after that, consume away in rust, But for containing fire to harm mine eye. Are you more stubborn-hard than hammered iron? An if an angel should have come to me And told me Hubert should put out mine eyes, I would not have believed him; no tongue but Hubert’s. Hubert stamps his foot |
| HUBERT | Come forth! The Executioners come forth Do as I bid you do. |
| ARTHUR | O, save me, Hubert, save me! My eyes are out Even with the fierce looks of these bloody men. |
| HUBERT | (to the Executioners) Give me the iron, I say, and bind him here. He takes the iron |
| ARTHUR | Alas, what need you be so boisterous-rough? I will not struggle; I will stand stone-still. For God’s sake, Hubert, let me not be bound. Nay, hear me, Hubert Drive these men away, And I will sit as quiet as a lamb; I will not stir, nor wince, nor speak a word, 80 Nor look upon the iron angerly. Thrust but these men away, and I’ll forgive you, Whatever torment you do put me to. |
| HUBERT | (to the Executioners) Go stand within. Let me alone with him. |
| EXECUTIONER | I am best pleased to be from such a deed. 85 |
| (didascalia) | Exeunt Executioners |
| ARTHUR | Alas, I then have chid away my friend! He hath a stern look, but a gentle heart. Let him come back, that his compassion may Give life to yours. |
| HUBERT | Come, boy, prepare yourself. |
| ARTHUR | Is there no remedy? |
| HUBERT | None but to lose your eyes. 90 |
| ARTHUR | O God, that there were but a mote in yours, A grain, a dust, a gnat, a wandering hair, Any annoyance in that precious sense, Then, feeling what small things are boisterous there, Your vile intent must needs seem horrible. 95 |
| HUBERT | Is this your promise? Go to, hold your tongue! |
| ARTHUR | Hubert, the utterance of a brace of tongues Must needs want pleading for a pair of eyes. Let me not hold my tongue, let me not, Hubert; Or, Hubert, if you will, cut out my tongue, 100 So I may keep mine eyes. O, spare mine eyes, Though to no use but still to look on you. Lo, by my troth, the instrument is cold And would not harm me. |
| HUBERT | I can heat it, boy. |
| ARTHUR | No, in good sooth: the fire is dead with grief, 105 Being create for comfort, to be used In undeserved extremes. See else yourself. There is no malice in this burning coal; The breath of heaven hath blown his spirit out, And strewed repentant ashes on his head. II0 |
| HUBERT | But with my breath I can revive it, boy. |
| ARTHUR | An if you do, you will but make it blush And glow with shame of your proceedings, Hubert. Nay, it perchance will sparkle in your eyes, And like a dog that is compelled to fight, Snatch at his master that doth tarre him on. All things that you should use to do me wrong Deny their office; only you do lack That mercy which fierce fire and iron extends, Creatures of note for mercy-lacking uses. |
| HUBERT | Well, see to live. I will not touch thine eye For all the treasure that thine uncle owes. Yet am I sworn, and I did purpose, boy, With this same very iron to burn them out. |
| ARTHUR | O, now you look like Hubert. All this while You were disguised. |
| HUBERT | Peace, no more. Adieu. Your uncle must not know but you are dead. I’ll fill these dogged spies with false reports; And, pretty child, sleep doubtless and secure That Hubert, for the wealth of all the world, Will not offend thee. |
| ARTHUR | O God! I thank you, Hubert. |
| HUBERT | Silence, no more. Go closely in with me. Much danger do I undergo for thee. Exeunt |
| (didascalia) | 4.2 flourish. Enter King John, the Earls of Pembroke and Salisbury, and other lords. King John ascends the throne |
| KING JOHN | Here once again we sit, once again crowned, And looked upon, I hope, with cheerful eyes. |
| PEMBROKE | This ‘once again’, but that your highness pleased, Was once superfluous. You were crowned before, And that high royalty was ne‘er plucked off, The faiths of men ne’er stained with revolt; Fresh expectation troubled not the land With any longed-for change or better state. |
| SALISBURY | Therefore to be possessed with double pomp, To guard a title that was rich before, 10 To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, To throw a perfume on the violet, To smooth the ice, or add another hue Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, Is wasteful and ridiculous excess. |
| PEMBROKE | But that your royal pleasure must be done, This act is as an ancient tale new-told, And in the last repeating troublesome, Being urged at a time unseasonable. |
| SALISBURY | In this the antique and well-noted face Of plain old form is much disfigured, And like a shifted wind unto a sail, It makes the course of thoughts to fetch about, Startles and frights consideration, Makes sound opinion sick, and truth suspected For putting on so new a fashioned robe. |
| PEMBROKE | When workmen strive to do better than well, They do confound their skill in covetousness; And oftentimes excusing of a fault Doth make the fault the worser by th’excuse; As patches set upon a little breach Discredit more in hiding of the fault Than did the fault before it was so patched. |
| SALISBURY | To this effect: before you were new-crowned We breathed our counsel, but it pleased your highness To overbear it; and we are all well pleased, Since all and every part of what we would Doth make a stand at what your highness will. |
| KING JOHN | Some reasons of this double coronation I have possessed you with, and think them strong. And more, more strong, when lesser is my fear I shall endue you with. Meantime but ask What you would have reformed that is not well, And well shall you perceive how willingly I will both hear and grant you your requests. |
| PEMBROKE | Then I, as one that am the tongue of these To sound the purposes of all their hearts, Both for myself and them, but chief of all Your safety, for the which myself and them Bend their best studies, heartily request Th’enfranchisement of Arthur, whose restraint Doth move the murmuring lips of discontent To break into this dangerous argument: If what in rest you have, in right you hold, 55 Why then your fears—which, as they say, attend The steps of wrong—should move you to mew up Your tender kinsman, and to choke his days With barbarous ignorance, and deny his youth The rich advantage of good exercise? That the time’s enemies may not have this To grace occasions, let it be our suit That you have bid us ask, his liberty; Which for our goods we do no further ask Than whereupon our weal, on you depending, 65 Counts it your weal he have his liberty. |
| (didascalia) | Enter Hubert |
| KING JOHN | Let it be so. I do commit his youth To your direction.—Hubert, what news with you? He takes Hubert aside |
| PEMBROKE | This is the man should do the bloody deed: He showed his warrant to a friend of mine. 70 The image of a wicked heinous fault Lives in his eye; that close aspect of his Does show the mood of a much troubled breast; And I do fearfully believe ’tis done What we so feared he had a charge to do. 75 |
| SALISBURY | The colour of the King doth come and go Between his purpose and his conscience, Like heralds ’twixt two dreadful battles set. His passion is so ripe it needs must break. |
| PEMBROKE | And when it breaks, I fear will issue thence 80 The foul corruption of a sweet child’s death. |
| KING JOHN | (coming forward) We cannot hold mortality’s strong hand. Good lords, although my will to give is living, The suit which you demand is gone and dead. He tells us Arthur is deceased tonight. |
| SALISBURY | Indeed we feared his sickness was past cure. |
| PEMBROKE | Indeed we heard how near his death he was, Before the child himself felt he was sick. This must be answered, either here or hence. |
| KING JOHN | Why do you bend such solemn brows on me? 90 Think you I bear the shears of destiny? Have I commandment on the pulse of life? |
| SALISBURY | It is apparent foul play, and ’tis shame That greatness should so grossly offer it. So thrive it in your game; and so, farewell. |
| PEMBROKE | Stay yet, Lord Salisbury; I’ll go with thee, And find th’inheritance of this poor child, His little kingdom of a forced grave. That blood which owed the breadth of all this isle Three foot of it doth hold. Bad world the while. 100 This must not be thus borne. This will break out To all our sorrows; and ere long, I doubt. |
| (didascalia) | Exeunt Pembroke, Salisbury, and other lords |
| KING JOHN | They burn in indignation. I repent. There is no sure foundation set on blood, No certain life achieved by others’ death. 105 |
| (didascalia) | Enter a Messenger |
| KING JOHN | A fearful eye thou hast. Where is that blood That I have seen inhabit in those cheeks? So foul a sky clears not without a storm; Pour down thy weather: how goes all in France? |
| MESSENGER | From France to England. Never such a power For any foreign preparation Was levied in the body of a land. The copy of your speed is learned by them, For when you should be told they do prepare, The tidings comes that they are all arrived. |
| KING JOHN | O, where hath our intelligence been drunk? Where hath it slept? Where is my mother’s ear, That such an army could be drawn in France, And she not hear of it? |
| MESSENGER | My liege, her ear Is stopped with dust. The first of April died Your noble mother. And as I hear, my lord, The Lady Constance in a frenzy died Three days before; but this from rumour’s tongue I idly heard; if true or false I know not. |
| KING JOHN | Withhold thy speed, dreadful Occasion; O, make a league with me till I have pleased My discontented peers. What, Mother dead? How wildly then walks my estate in France!— Under whose conduct came those powers of France That thou for truth giv’st out are landed here? |
| MESSENGER | Under the Dauphin. |
| (didascalia) | Enter the Bastard and Peter of Pomfret |
| KING JOHN | Thou hast made me giddy With these ill tidings. (To the Bastard) Now, what says the world To your proceedings? Do not seek to stuff My head with more ill news, for it is full. |
| BASTARD | But if you,be afeard to hear the worst, 135 Then let the worst, unheard, fall on your head. |
| KING JOHN | Bear with me, cousin, for I was amazed Under the tide; but now I breathe again Aloft the flood, and can give audience To any tongue, speak it of what it will. |
| BASTARD | How I have sped among the clergymen The sums I have collected shall express. But as I travelled hither through the land, I find the people strangely fantasied, Possessed with rumours, full of idle dreams, Not knowing what they fear, but full of fear. And here’s a prophet that I brought with me From forth the streets of Pomfret, whom I found With many hundreds treading on his heels; To whom he sung, in rude, harsh-sounding rhymes, That ere the next Ascension Day at noon 151 Your highness should deliver up your crown. |
| KING JOHN | Thou idle dreamer, wherefore didst thou so? |
| PETER OF POMFRET | Foreknowing that the truth will fall out so. |
| KING JOHN | Hubert, away with him! Imprison him,155 And on that day, at noon, whereon he says I shall yield up my crown, let him be hanged. Deliver him to safety, and return, For I must use thee. |
| (didascalia) | Exeunt Hubert and Peter of Pomfret |
| KING JOHN | O my gentle cousin, Hear’st thou the news abroad, who are arrived? 160 |
| BASTARD | The French, my lord: men’s mouths are full of it. Besides, I met Lord Bigot and Lord Salisbury With eyes as red as new-enkindled fire, And others more, going to seek the grave Of Arthur, whom they say is killed tonight On your suggestion. |
| KING JOHN | Gentle kinsman, go And thrust thyself into their companies. I have away to win their loves again. Bring them before me. |
| BASTARD | I will seek them out. |
| KING JOHN | Nay, but make haste, the better foot before. O, let me have no subject enemies When adverse foreigners affright my towns With dreadful pomp of stout invasion! Be Mercury, set feathers to thy heels, And fly like thought from them to me again. 175 |
| BASTARD | The spirit of the time shall teach me speed. Exit |
| KING JOHN | Spoke like a sprightful noble gentleman!— Go after him, for he perhaps shall need Some messenger betwixt me and the peers, And be thou he. 180 |
| MESSENGER | With all my heart, my liege. Exit |
| KING JOHN | My mother dead! |
| (didascalia) | Enter Hubert |
| HUBERT | My lord, they say five moons were seen tonight, Four fixed, and the fifth did whirl about The other four in wondrous motion. |
| KING JOHN | Five moons? |
| HUBERT | Old men and beldams in the streets Do prophesy upon it dangerously. Young Arthur’s death is common in their mouths, And when they talk of him they shake their heads, And whisper one another in the ear; 190 And he that speaks doth grip the hearer’s wrist, Whilst he that hears makes fearful action, With wrinkled brows, with nods, with rolling eyes. I saw a smith stand with his hammer, thus, The whilst his iron did on the anvil cool, With open mouth swallowing a tailor’s news, Who, with his shears and measure in his hand, Standing on slippers which his nimble haste Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet, Told of a many thousand warlike French 200 That were embattailèd and ranked in Kent. Another lean unwashed artificer Cuts off his tale, and talks of Arthur’s death. |
| KING JOHN | Why seek’st thou to possess me with these fears? Why urgest thou so oft young Arthur’s death? Thy hand hath murdered him. I had a mighty cause To wish him dead, but thou hadst none to kill him. |
| HUBERT | No had, my lord? Why, did you not provoke me? |
| KING JOHN | It is the curse of kings to be attended By slaves that take their humours for a warrant To break within the bloody house of life, And on the winking of authority To understand a law, to know the meaning Of dangerous majesty, when perchance it frowns More upon humour than advised respect. |
| HUBERT | Here is your hand and seal for what I did. He shows a paper |
| KING JOHN | O, when the last account ’twixt heaven and earth Is to be made, then shall this hand and seal Witness against us to damnation! How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds 220 Make deeds ill done! Hadst not thou been by, A fellow by the hand of nature marked, Quoted, and signed to do a deed of shame, This murder had not come into my mind. But taking note of thy abhorred aspect, Finding thee fit for bloody villainy, Apt, liable to be employed in danger, I faintly broke with thee of Arthur’s death; And thou, to be endeared to a king, Made it no conscience to destroy a prince. |
| HUBERT | My lord— |
| KING JOHN | Hadst thou but shook thy head or made a pause When I spake darkly what I purposed, Or turned an eye of doubt upon my face, As bid me tell my tale in express words, Deep shame had struck me dumb, made me break off, And those thy fears might have wrought fears in me. But thou didst understand me by my signs, And didst in signs again parley with sin; Yea, without stop, didst let thy heart consent, And consequently thy rude hand to act The deed which both our tongues held vile to name. Out of my sight, and never see me more! My nobles leave me, and my state is braved, Even at my gates, with ranks of foreign powers; Nay, in the body of this fleshly land, This kingdom, this confine of blood and breath, Hostility and civil tumult reigns Between my conscience and my cousin’s death. |
| HUBERT | Arm you against your other enemies; I’ll make a peace between your soul and you. Young Arthur is alive. This hand of mine Is yet a maiden and an innocent hand, Not painted with the crimson spots of blood. |
| (didascalia) | Within this bosom never entered yet |
| HUBERT | The dreadful motion of a murderous thought; And you have slandered nature in my form, Which, howsoever rude exteriorly, Is yet the cover of a fairer mind Than to be butcher of an innocent child. 260 |
| KING JOHN | Doth Arthur live? O, haste thee to the peers; Throw this report on their incensed rage, And make them tame to their obedience. Forgive the comment that my passion made Upon thy feature, for my rage was blind, 265 And foul imaginary eyes of blood Presented thee more hideous than thou art. O,answer not, but to my closet bring The angry lords with all expedient haste. I conjure thee but slowly; run more fast. |
| (didascalia) | Exeunt severally |
Atto 4, Scena 3
| Chi parla | Battuta |
|---|---|
| (didascalia) | Enter Arthur Duke of Brittaine on the walls, disguised as a ship-boy |
| ARTHUR | The wall is high, and yet will I leap down. Good ground, be pitiful, and hurt me not. There’s few or none do know me; if they did, This ship-boy’s semblance hath disguised me quite. I am afraid, and yet I’ll venture it. If I get down and do not break my limbs, I’ll find a thousand shifts to get away. As good to die and go, as die and stay. He leaps down O me! My uncle’s spirit is in these stones. Heaven take my soul, and England keep my bones! I0 He dies Enter the Earls of Pembroke and Salisbury, and Lord Bigot |
| SALISBURY | Lords, I will meet him at Saint Edmundsbury. It is our safety, and we must embrace This gentle offer of the perilous time. |
| PEMBROKE | Who brought that letter from the Cardinal? |
| SALISBURY | The Count Melun, a noble lord of France, Who’s private with me of the Dauphin’s love; ’Tis much more general than these lines import. |
| BIGOT | Tomorrow morning let us meet him then. |
| SALISBURY | Or rather, then set forward, for ’twill be Two long days’journey, lords, or ere we meet. 20 |
| (didascalia) | Enter the Bastard |
| BASTARD | Once more today well met, distempered lords. The King by me requests your presence straight. |
| SALISBURY | The King hath dispossessed himself of us. We will not line his thin bestainèd cloak With our pure honours, nor attend the foot 25 That leaves the print of blood where’er it walks. Return and tell him so; we know the worst. |
| BASTARD | Whate’er you think, good words I think were best. |
| SALISBURY | Our griefs and not our manners reason now. |
| BASTARD | But there is little reason in your grief. Therefore ’twere reason you had manners now. |
| PEMBROKE | Sir, sir, impatience hath his privilege. |
| BASTARD | ’Tis true—to hurt his master, no man else. |
| SALISBURY | This is the prison. He sees Arthur’s body What is he lies here? |
| PEMBROKE | O death, made proud with pure and princely beauty! The earth had not a hole to hide this deed. 36 |
| SALISBURY | Murder, as hating what himself hath done, Doth lay it open to urge on revenge. |
| BIGOT | Or when he doomed this beauty to a grave, Found it too precious-princely fora grave. 40 |
| SALISBURY | (to the Bastard) Sir Richard, what think you? You have beheld. Or have you read or heard; or could you think, Or do you almost think, although you see, That you do see? Could thought, without this object, Form such another? This is the very top, The height, the crest, or crest unto the crest, Of murder’s arms; this is the bloodiest shame, The wildest savagery, the vilest stroke That ever wall-eyed wrath or staring rage Presented to the tears of soft remorse. |
| PEMBROKE | All murders past do stand excused in this, And this, so sole and so unmatchable, Shall give a holiness, a purity, To the yet-unbegotten sin of times, And prove a deadly bloodshed but a jest, 55 Exampled by this heinous spectacle. |
| BASTARD | It is a damned and a bloody work, The graceless action of a heavy hand— If that it be the work of any hand. |
| SALISBURY | If that it be the work of any hand? 60 We had a kind of light what would ensue: It is the shameful work of Hubert’s hand, The practice and the purpose of the King; From whose obedience I forbid my soul, Kneeling before this ruin of sweet life, 65 And breathing to his breathless excellence The incense of a vow, a holy vow, Never to taste the pleasures of the world, Never to be infected with delight, Nor conversant with ease and idleness, 70 Till I have set a glory to this hand By giving it the worship of revenge. |
| PEMBROKE | and BIGOT Our souls religiously confirm thy words. |
| (didascalia) | Enter Hubert |
| HUBERT | Lords, I am hot with haste in seeking you. Arthur doth live; the King hath sent for you. |
| SALISBURY | O,he is bold, and blushes not at death!— Avaunt, thou hateful villain, get thee gone I |
| HUBERT | I am no villain. |
| SALISBURY | Must I rob the law? He draws his sword |
| BASTARD | Your sword is bright, sir; put it up again. |
| SALISBURY | Not till I sheathe it in a murderer’s skin. |
| HUBERT | (drawing his sword) Stand back, Lord Salisbury, stand back, I say! By heaven, I think my sword’s as sharp as yours. I would not have you, lord, forget yourself, Nor tempt the danger of my true defence, Lest I, by marking of your rage, forget Your worth, your greatness and nobility. |
| BIGOT | Out, dunghill! Dar’st thou brave a nobleman? |
| HUBERT | Not for my life; but yet I dare defend My innocent life against an emperor. |
| SALISBURY | Thou art a murderer. |
| HUBERT | Do not prove me so; Yet I am none. Whose tongue soe’er speaks false, Not truly speaks; who speaks not truly, lies. |
| PEMBROKE | Cut him to pieces! |
| BASTARD | (drawing his sword) Keep the peace, I say I |
| SALISBURY | Stand by, or I shall gall you, Falconbridge. |
| BASTARD | Thou wert better gall the devil, Salisbury. If thou but frown on me, or stir thy foot, Or teach thy hasty spleen to do me shame, I’ll strike thee dead. Put up thy sword betime, Or I’ll so maul you and your toasting-iron That you shall think the devil is come from hell. 100 |
| BIGOT | What wilt thou do, renowned Falconbridge, Second a villain and a murderer? |
| HUBERT | Lord Bigot, I am none. |
| BIGOT | Who killed this prince? |
| HUBERT | ’Tis not an hour since I left him well. I honoured him, I loved him, and will weep My date of life out for his sweet life’s loss. |
| SALISBURY | Trust not those cunning waters of his eyes, For villainy is not without such rheum, And he, long traded in it, makes it seem Like rivers of remorse and innocency. II0 Away with me, all you whose souls abhor Th’uncleanly savours of a slaughter-house, For I am stifled with this smell of sin. |
| BIGOT | Away toward Bury, to the Dauphin there. |
| PEMBROKE | There, tell the King, he may enquire us out. 115 |
| (didascalia) | Exeunt Pembroke, Salisbury, and Bigot |
| BASTARD | Here’s a good world! Knew you of this fair work? Beyond the infinite and boundless reach Of mercy, if thou didst this deed of death Art thou damned, Hubert. |
| HUBERT | Do but hear me, sir. |
| BASTARD | Ha! I’ll tell thee what: Thou’rt damned as black—nay nothing is so black— Thou art more deep damned than Prince Lucifer; There is not yet so ugly a fiend of hell As thou shalt be if thou didst kill this child. |
| HUBERT | Upon my soul— |
| BASTARD | If thou didst but consent To this most cruel act, do but despair; And if thou want’st a cord, the smallest thread That ever spider twisted from her womb Will serve to strangle thee; a rush will be a beam To hang thee on; or wouldst thou drown thyself, Put but a little water in a spoon And it shall be, as all the ocean, Enough to stifle such a villain up. I do suspect thee very grievously. |
| HUBERT | If I in act, consent, or sin of thought Be guilty of the stealing that sweet breath Which was embounded in this beauteous clay, Let hell want pains enough to torture me. I left him well. |
| BASTARD | Go bear him in thine arms. I am amazed, methinks, and lose my way Among the thorns and dangers of this world. Hubert takes up Arthur in his arms How easy dost thou take all England up I From forth this morsel of dead royalty, The life, the right, and truth of all this realm Is fled to heaven, and England now is left To tug and scramble, and to part by th’ teeth The unowed interest of proud swelling state. Now for the bare-picked bone of majesty Doth dogged war bristle his angry crest, And snarleth in the gentle eyes of peace; Now powers from home and discontents at home Meet in one line, and vast confusion waits, As doth a raven on a sick-fall’n beast, The imminent decay of wrested pomp. 155 Now happy he whose cloak and cincture can Hold out this tempest. Bear away that child, And follow me with speed. I’ll to the King. A thousand businesses are brief in hand, And heaven itself doth frown upon the land. |
| (didascalia) | Exeunt severally |
| (didascalia) | 5.1 Flourish.Enter King John and Cardinal Pandolf, with attendants |
| (didascalia) | KING JOHN giving Pandolf the crown |
| BASTARD | Thus have I yielded up into your hand The circle of my glory. PANDOLF(giving back the crown)Take again From this my hand, as holding of the Pope, Your sovereign greatness and authority. |
| KING JOHN | Now keep your holy word: go meet the French, And from his Holiness use all your power To stop their marches ‘fore we are enflamed. Our discontented counties do revolt, Our people quarrel with obedience, Swearing allegiance and the love of soul To stranger blood, to foreign royalty. This inundation of mistempered humour Rests by you only to be qualified. Then pause not, for the present time’s so sick That present med’cine must be ministered, Or overthrow incurable ensues. |
| PANDOLF | It was my breath that blew this tempest up, Upon your stubborn usage of the Pope, But since you are a gentle convertite, My tongue shall hush again this storm of war And make fair weather in your blust’ring land. On this Ascension Day, remember well, Upon your oath of service to the Pope, Go I to make the French lay down their arms. |
| (didascalia) | Exeunt all but King John |
| KING JOHN | Is this Ascension Day Did not the prophet Say that before Ascension Day at noon My crown I should give off? Even so I have. I did suppose it should be on constraint, But, heaven be thanked, it is but voluntary. |
| (didascalia) | Enter Bastard |
| BASTARD | All Kent hath yielded; nothing there holds out But Dover Castle. London hath received, Like a kind host, the Dauphin and his powers. Your nobles will not hear you, but are gone To offer service to your enemy; And wild amazement hurries up and down The little number of your doubtful friends. |
| KING JOHN | Would not my lords return to me again After they heard young Arthur was alive? |
| BASTARD | They found him dead and cast into the streets, An empty casket, where the jewel of life By some damned hand was robbed and ta’en away. |
| KING JOHN | That villain Hubert told me he did live. |
| BASTARD | Soon my soul he did, for aught he knew. But wherefore do you droop? Why look you sad? Be great in act as you have been in thought. Let not the world see fear and sad distrust Govern the motion of a kingly eye. Be stirring as the time, be fire with fire; Threaten the threat’ner, and outface the brow Of bragging horror. So shall inferior eyes, That borrow their behaviours from the great, Grow great by your example, and put on The dauntless spirit of resolution. Away, and glisten like the god of war When he intendeth to become the field. Show boldness and aspiring confidence. What, shall they seek the lion in his den And fright him there, and make him tremble there? O, let it not be said I Forage, and run To meet displeasure farther from the doors, And grapple with him ere he come so nigh. |
| KING JOHN | The legate of the Pope hath been with me, And I have made a happy peace with him, And he hath promised to dismiss the powers Led by the Dauphin. |
| BASTARD | O inglorious league! Shall we, upon the footing of our land, Send fair-play orders, and make compromise, Insinuation, parley, and base truce To arms invasive? Shall a beardless boy, A cockered silken wanton, brave our fields And flesh his spirit in a warlike soil, Mocking the air with colours idly spread, And find no check? Let us, my liege, to arms! Perchance the Cardinal cannot make your peace, Or if he do, let it at least be said They saw we had a purpose of defence. |
| KING JOHN | Have thou the ordering of this present time. |
| (didascalia) | Away, then, with good courage! AsideYet I know |
| BASTARD | Our party may well meet a prouder foe. Exeunt |
Atto 5, Scena 2
| Chi parla | Battuta |
|---|---|
| (didascalia) | Enter, marching in arms, Louis the Dauphin, the Earl off Salisbury, Count Melun, the Earl of Pembroke, and Lord Bigot, with soldiers |
| LOUIS THE DAUPHIN | 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, 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 A voluntary zealand an unurgéd faith To your proceedings, yet believe me, Prince, I am not glad that such a sore of time Should seek a plaster by contemned revolt, And heal the inveterate canker of one wound 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 I 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, That we the sons and children of this isle Was 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 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 Would bear thee from the knowledge of thyself And gripple 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. |
| LOUIS THE DAUPHIN | 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! 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, 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, And with a great heart heave away this storm; 55 Commend these waters to those baby eyes That never saw the giant world enraged, Nor met with Fortune other than at feasts, Full warm of blood, of mirth, of gossiping. Come, come, for thou shalt thrust thy hand as deep Into the purse of rich prosperity As Louis himself. So, nobles, shall you all That knit your sinews to the strength of mine. |
| (didascalia) | A trumpet sounds |
| LOUIS THE DAUPHIN | And even there methinks an angel spake! |
| (didascalia) | Enter Cardinal Pandolf |
| LOUIS THE DAUPHIN | 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. |
| PANDOLF | Hail, noble prince of France! 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 threat’ning colours now wind up, And tame the savage spirit of wild war, That like a lion fostered up at hand It may lie gently at the foot of peace, And be no further harmful than in show. |
| LOUIS THE DAUPHIN | Your grace shall pardon me: I will not back. 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 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, 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, After young Arthur, claim this land for mine; And now it is half conquered, 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 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 ‘Vive le Roi!’as I have banked their towns? Have I not here the best cards for the game, 105 To win this easy match played for a crown? And shall I now give o’er the yielded set? No, no, on my soul, it never shall be said. |
| PANDOLF | You look but on the outside of this work. |
| LOUIS THE DAUPHIN | 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, And culled these fiery spirits from the world To outlook conquest and to win renown Even in the jaws of danger and of death. A trumpet sounds What lusty trumpet thus doth summon us? |
| (didascalia) | Enter the Bastard |
| BASTARD | According to the fair play of the world, 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. |
| PANDOLF | 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, For thus his royalty doth speak in me. He is prepared, and reason too he should. This apish and unmannerly approach, This harnessed masque and unadvised revel, This unhaired sauciness and boyish troops, The King doth smile at, and is well prepared To whip this dwarfish war, these pigmy arms, 135 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, To dive like buckets in concealed wells, To crouch in litter of your stable planks, To lie like pawns locked up in chests and trunks, To hug with swine, to seek sweet safety out In vaults and prisons, and to thrill and shake 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, And like an eagle o’er his eyrie towers To souse annoyance that comes near his nest. (To the English lords) And you degenerate, you ingrate revolts, You bloody Neros, ripping up the womb Of your dear mother England, blush for shame; 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. |
| LOUIS THE DAUPHIN | There end thy brave, and turn thy face in peace. We grant thou canst outscold us. Fare thee well: 160 We hold our time too precious to be spent With such a brabbler. |
| PANDOLF | Give me leave to speak. |
| BASTARD | No, I will speak. LouisTHE DAUPHIN 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; 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. |
| (didascalia) | Sound but another, and another shall |
| BASTARD | As loud as thine rattle the welkin’s ear, And mock the deep-mouthed 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 A bare-ribbed Death, whose office is this day To feast upon whole thousands of the French. |
| LOUIS THE DAUPHIN | Strike up our drums to find this danger out. |
| BASTARD | And thou shalt find it, Dauphin, do not doubt. |
| (didascalia) | Drums beat. Exeunt the Bastard Fat onedoor, all the rest, marching, at another door |
Atto 5, Scena 3
| Chi parla | Battuta |
|---|---|
| (didascalia) | Alarum. Enter King John Fat one door and Hubert at another door |
| KING JOHN | How goes the day with us? O, tell me, Hubert. |
| HUBERT | Badly, I fear. How fares your majesty? |
| KING JOHN | This fever that hath troubled me so long Lies heavy on me. O, my heart is sick! |
| (didascalia) | Enter a Messenger |
| MESSENGER | My lord, your valiant kinsman Falconbridge Desires your majesty to leave the field, And send him word by me which way you go. |
| KING JOHN | Tell him toward Swineshead, to the abbey there. |
| MESSENGER | Be of good comfort, for the great supply That was expected by the Dauphin here Are wrecked three nights ago on Goodwin Sands. This news was brought to Richard, but even now The French fight coldly and retire themselves. |
| KING JOHN | Ay me, this tyrant fever burns me up, And will not let me welcome this good news. Set on toward Swineshead. To my litter straight; Weakness possesseth me, and I am faint. Exeunt |
| (didascalia) | 5.4 Alarum.Enter the Earls of Salisbury and Pembroke, and Lord Bigot |
| SALISBURY | I did not think the King so stored with friends. |
| PEMBROKE | Up once again; put spirit in the French. If they miscarry, we miscarry too. |
| SALISBURY | That misbegotten devil Falconbridge, In spite of spite, alone upholds the day. |
| PEMBROKE | They say King John, sore sick, hath left the field. |
| (didascalia) | Enter Count Melun, wounded, led by a soldier |
| MELUN | Lead me to the revolts of England here. |
| SALISBURY | When we were happy, we had other names. |
| PEMBROKE | It is the Count Melun. |
| SALISBURY | Wounded to death. |
| MELUN | Fly, noble English, you are bought and sold. Unthread the rude eye of rebellion, And welcome home again discarded faith; Seek out King John and fall before his feet, For if the French be lords of this loud day He means to recompense the pains you take By cutting off your heads. Thus hath he sworn, And I with him, and many more with me, Upon the altar at Saint Edmundsbury, Even on that altar where we swore to you Dear amity and everlasting love. |
| SALISBURY | May this be possible? May this be true? |
| MELUN | Have I not hideous death within my view, Retaining but a quantity of life, Which bleeds away, even as a form of wax Resolveth from his figure ‘gainst the fire? What in the world should make me now deceive, Since I must lose the use of all deceit? Why should I then be false, since it is true That I must die here, and live hence by truth? I say again, if Louis do win the day, He is forsworn if e’er those eyes of yours Behold another daybreak in the east; But even this night, whose black contagious breath Already smokes about the burning cresset Of the old, feeble, and day-wearied sun, Even this ill night your breathing shall expire, Paying the fine of rated treachery Even with a treacherous fine of all your lives, If Louis by your assistance win the day. Commend me to one Hubert with your king. The love of him, and this respect besides, For that my grandsire was an Englishman, Awakes my conscience to confess all this; In lieu whereof, I pray you bear me hence From forth the noise and rumour of the field, Where I may think the remnant of my thoughts In peace, and part this body and my soul With contemplation and devout desires. |
| SALISBURY | We do believe thee; and beshrew my soul But I do love the favour and the form Of this most fair occasion; by the which We will untread the steps of damned flight, And like a bated and retired flood, Leaving our rankness and irregular course, Stoop low within those bounds we have o’erlooked, And calmly run on in obedience Even to our ocean, to our great King John. My arm shall give thee help to bear thee hence, For I do see the cruel pangs of death Right in thine eye.—Away,my friends! New flight, And happy newness that intends old right. Exeunt |
| (didascalia) | 5.5 Alarum,. retreat. Enter Louis the Dauphin, and his train |
| LOUIS THE DAUPHIN | The sun of heaven, methought, was loath to set, But stayed and made the western welkin blush, When English measured backward their own ground In faint retire. O, bravely came we off, When with a volley of our needless shot, After such bloody toil, we bid good night, And wound our tatt’ring colours clearly up, Last in the field and almost lords of it. |
| (didascalia) | Enter a Messenger |
| MESSENGER | Where is my prince the Dauphin? |
| LOUIS THE DAUPHIN | Here. What news? |
| MESSENGER | The Count Melun is slain; the English lords By his persuasion are again fall’n off; And your supply which you have wished so long Are cast away and sunk on Goodwin Sands. |
| LOUIS THE DAUPHIN | Ah, foul shrewd news! Beshrew thy very heart I did not think to be so sad tonight As this hath made me. Who was he that said King John did fly an hour or two before The stumbling night did part our weary powers? |
| MESSENGER | Whoever spoke it, it is true, my lord. |
| LOUIS THE DAUPHIN | Well, keep good quarter and good care tonight. The day shall not be up so soon as I, To try the fair adventure of tomorrow. Exeunt |
Atto 5, Scena 6
| Chi parla | Battuta |
|---|---|
| (didascalia) | Enter the Bastard With a lightand Hubert With a pistol, severally |
| HUBERT | Who’s there? Speak, ho! Speak quickly, or I shoot. |
| BASTARD | A friend. What art thou? |
| HUBERT | Of the part of England. |
| BASTARD | Whither dost thou go? |
| HUBERT | What’s that to thee? Why may not I demand of thine affairs As well as thou of mine? |
| BASTARD | Hubert, I think. |
| HUBERT | Thou hast a perfect thought. I will upon all hazards well believe Thou art my friend that know’st my tongue so well. Who art thou? |
| BASTARD | Who thou wilt. An if thou please, Thou mayst befriend me so much as to think I come one way of the Plantagenets. |
| HUBERT | Unkind remembrance! Thou and eyeless night Have done me shame. Brave soldier, pardon me That any accent breaking from thy tongue Should ’scape the true acquaintance of mine ear. |
| BASTARD | Come, come, sans compliment. What news abroad? |
| HUBERT | Why, here walk I in the black brow of night To find you out. |
| BASTARD | Brief, then, and what’s the news? |
| HUBERT | O my sweet sir, news fitting to the night: Black, fearful, comfortless, and horrible. |
| BASTARD | Show me the very wound of this ill news; I am no woman, I’ll not swoon at it. |
| HUBERT | The King, I fear, is poisoned by a monk. I left him almost speechless, and broke out To acquaint you with this evil, that you might The better arm you to the sudden time Than if you had at leisure known of this. |
| BASTARD | How did he take it? Who did taste to him? |
| HUBERT | A monk, I tell you, a resolved villain, Whose bowels suddenly burst out. The King Yet speaks, and peradventure may recover. |
| BASTARD | Who didst thou leave to tend his majesty? |
| HUBERT | Why, know you not? The lords are all come back, And brought Prince Henry in their company, At whose request the King hath pardoned them, And they are all about his majesty. |
| BASTARD | Withhold thine indignation, mighty heaven, And tempt us not to bear above our power. I’ll tell thee, Hubert, half my power this night, Passing these flats, are taken by the tide. These Lincoln Washes have devoured them; Myself, well mounted, hardly have escaped. Away before! Conduct me to the King. I doubt he will be dead or ere I come. Exeunt |
Atto 5, Scena 7
| Chi parla | Battuta |
|---|---|
| (didascalia) | Enter Prince Henry, the Earl of Salisbury, and Lord Bigot |
| PRINCE HENRY | It is too late. The life of all his blood Is touched corruptibly, and his pure brain, Which some suppose the soul’s frail dwelling-house, Doth by the idle comments that it makes Foretell the ending of mortality. |
| (didascalia) | Enter the Earl of Pembroke |
| PEMBROKE | His highness yet doth speak, and holds belief That being brought into the open air, It would allay the burning quality Of that fell poison which assaileth him. |
| PRINCE HENRY | Let him be brought into the orchard here.— |
| (didascalia) | Exit Lord Bigot |
| PRINCE HENRY | Doth he still rage? |
| PEMBROKE | He is more patient Than when you left him. Even now, he sung. |
| PRINCE HENRY | O, vanity of sickness! Fierce extremes In their continuance will not feel themselves. Death, having preyed upon the outward parts, Leaves them invincible, and his siege is now Against the mind; the which he pricks and wounds With many legions of strange fantasies, Which in their throng and press to that last hold Confound themselves. ’Tis strange that death should sing. I am the cygnet to this pale faint swan, Who chants a doleful hymn to his own death, And from the organ-pipe of frailty sings His soul and body to their lasting rest. |
| SALISBURY | Be of good comfort, Prince, for you are born To set a form upon that indigest Which he hath left so shapeless and so rude. |
| (didascalia) | King John is brought in, with Lord Bigot attending |
| KING JOHN | Ay marry, now my soul hath elbow-room; It would not out at windows nor at doors. There is so hot a summer in my bosom That all my bowels crumble up to dust; I am a scribbled form, drawn with a pen Upon a parchment, and against this fire Do I shrink up. |
| PRINCE HENRY | How fares your majesty? |
| KING JOHN | Poisoned, ill fare! Dead, forsook, cast off; And none of you will bid the winter come To thrust his icy fingers in my maw, Nor let my kingdom’s rivers take their course Through my burned bosom, nor entreat the north To make his bleak winds kiss my parchèd lips 40 And comfort me with cold. I do not ask you much; I beg cold comfort, and you are so strait And so ingrateful you deny me that. |
| PRINCE HENRY | O, that there were some virtue in my tears That might relieve you! |
| KING JOHN | The salt in them is hot. |
| (didascalia) | Within me is a hell, and there the poison |
| KING JOHN | Is, as a fiend, confined to tyrannize On unreprievable condemned blood. |
| (didascalia) | Enter the Bastard |
| BASTARD | O, I am scalded with my violent motion And spleen of speed to see your majesty! |
| KING JOHN | O cousin, thou art come to set mine eye. The tackle of my heart is cracked and burnt, And all the shrouds wherewith my life should sail Are turned to one thread, one little hair; My heart hath one poor string to stay it by, Which holds but till thy news be uttered, And then all this thou seest is but a clod And module of confounded royalty. |
| BASTARD | The Dauphin is preparing hitherward, Where God He knows how we shall answer him; For in a night the best part of my power, As I upon advantage did remove, Were in the Washes all unwarily Devoured by the unexpected flood. King John dies |
| SALISBURY | You breathe these dead news in as dead an ear. (To King John) My liege, my lord!—But now a king, now thus. |
| PRINCE HENRY | Even so must I run on, and even so stop. What surety of the world, what hope, what stay, When this was now a king and now is clay? |
| BASTARD | (to King John) Art thou gone so? I do but stay behind To do the office for thee of revenge, And then my soul shall wait on thee to heaven, As it on earth hath been thy servant still. (To the lords) Now, now, you stars that move in your right spheres, Where be your powers? Show now your mended faiths, And instantly return with me again, To push destruction and perpetual shame Out of the weak door of our fainting land. Straight let us seek, or straight we shall be sought. The Dauphin rages at our very heels. |
| SALISBURY | It seems you know not, then, so much as we. The Cardinal Pandolf is within at rest, Who half an hour since came from the Dauphin, And brings from him such offers of our peace As we with honour and respect may take, With purpose presently to leave this war. |
| BASTARD | He will the rather do it when he sees Ourselves well-sinewed to our own defence. |
| SALISBURY | Nay, ’tis in a manner done already, For many carriages he hath dispatched To the sea-side, and put his cause and quarrel To the disposing of the Cardinal, With whom yourself, myself, and other lords, If you think meet, this afternoon will post To consummate this business happily. |
| BASTARD | Let it be so.—And you, my noble prince, With other princes that may best be spared, Shall wait upon your father’s funeral. |
| PRINCE HENRY | At Worcester must his body be interred, For so he willed it. |
| BASTARD | Thither shall it then, 100 And happily may your sweet self put on The lineal state and glory of the land, To whom with all submission, on my knee, I do bequeath my faithful services And true subjection everlastingly. 105 He kneels |
| SALISBURY | And the like tender of our love we make, To rest without a spot for evermore. Salisbury, Pembroke and Bigot kneel |
| PRINCE HENRY | I have a kind of soul that would give thanks, And knows not how to do it but with tears. He weeps |
| (didascalia) | BASTARD rising |
| PRINCE HENRY | O, let us pay the time but needful woe, Since it hath been beforehand with our griefs. This England never did, nor never shall, Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror But when it first did help to wound itself. Now these her princes are come home again, Come the three corners of the world in arms And we shall shock them. Naught shall make us rue If England to itself do rest but true. |
| (didascalia) | Flourish. Exeunt with the body |
| ENTRY | of ‘a book of The Merchant of Venice or otherwise called The Jew of Venice’ in the Stationers’ Register on 22July 1598 probably represents an attempt by Shakespeare’s company to prevent the unauthorized printing of a popular play: it eventually appeared in print as ‘The Comical History of the Merchant of Venice’ in 1600, when it was said to have ‘been divers times acted by the Lord Chamberlain his servants’; probably Shakespeare wrote it in 1596 or 1597. The alternative title—The Jew of Venice—may reflect Shylock’s impact on the play’s first audiences. The play is constructed on the basis of two romantic tales using motifs well known to sixteenth-century readers. The story of Giannetto (Shakespeare’s Bassanio) and the Lady (Portia) of Belmont comes from an Italian collection of fifty stories published under the title of II Pecorone (‘the big sheep’, or ‘dunce’) and attributed to one Ser Giovanni of Fiorentino. Written in the later part of the fourteenth century, the volume did not appear until 1558. No sixteenth-century translation is known, so (unless there was a lost intermediary) Shakespeare must have read it in Italian. It gave him the main outline of the plot involving Antonio (the merchant), Bassanio (the wooer), Portia, and the Jew (Shylock). The pound of flesh motif was available also in other versions, one of which, in Alexander Silvayn’s The Orator (translated 1596), influenced the climactic scene (4.1) in which Shylock attempts to exact the full penalty of his bond. In the story from II Pecorone the lady (a widow) challenges her suitors to seduce her, on pain of the forfeiture of their wealth, and thwarts them by drugging their wine. Shakespeare more romantically shows a maiden required by her father’s will to accept only a wooer who will forswear marriage if he fails to make the right choice among caskets of gold, silver and lead. The story of the caskets was readily available in versions by John Gower (in his Confessio Amantis) and Giovanni Boccaccio (in his Decameron), and in an anonymous anthology (the Gesta Romanorum). Shakespeare added the character ofJessica, Shylock’s daughter who elopes with the Christian Lorenzo—perhaps influenced by episodes in Christopher Marlowe’s play The Jew of Malta (c.1589)—and made many adjustments to the stories from which he borrowed. The Merchant of Venice is a natural development from Shakespeare’s earlier comedies, especially The Two Gentlemen of Verona, with its heroine disguised as a boy and its portrayal of the competing demands of love and friendship. But Portia is the first of his great romantic heroines, and Shylock his first great comic antagonist. Though the play grew out of fairy tales, its moral scheme is not entirely clear cut: the Christians are open to criticism, the Jew is true to his own code of conduct. The response of twentieth-century and later audiences has been complicated by racial issues; in any case, the role of Shylock affords such strong opportunities for an actor capable of arousing an undercurrent of sympathy for a vindictive character that it has sometimes unbalanced the play in performance. But the so-called trial scene (4.1) is unfailing in its impact on audiences, and the closing episodes modulate skilfully from romantic lyricism to high comedy, while sustaining the play’s concern with true and false values. |
| THE PERSONS OF THE | PLAY ANTONIO, a merchant of Venice BASSANIO, his friend and Portia’s suitor LEONARDO, Bassanio’s servant SHYLOCK, a Jew JESSICA, his daughter TUBAL, a Jew LANCELOT, a clown, first Shylock’s servant and then Bassanio’s GOBBO, his father PORTIA, an heiress NERISSA, her waiting-gentlewoman |
| DUKE | of Venice Magnificoes of Venice A jailer, attendants, and servants |