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.
BASTARD
Away, then, with good courage! ⌈Aside⌉Yet I know
Our party may well meet a prouder foe. Exeunt
5.2 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.⌈A trumpet sounds⌉
And even there methinks an angel spake!Enter Cardinal Pandolf
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
<
br /> Even in the jaws of danger and of death.A trumpet sounds
What lusty trumpet thus doth summon us?
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.
Sound but another, and another shall
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.
⌈Drums beat.⌉ Exeunt the Bastard Fat onedoor⌉, all the rest, ⌈marching, at another door⌉
5.3 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!
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
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.
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 consci
ence 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
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.
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
5.6 Enter the Bastard ⌈With a light⌉and Hubert ⌈With a pistol⌉, severally
The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works Page 151
