King John

The date and sources of King John are difficult to determine with any certainty because of the intricate and disputed relationship between the Folio text of this play and that of a play called The Troublesome Reign of King John which was published anonymously as a quarto in 1591 and reprinted with an attribution to ‘W. Sh.’ in 1611. The many parallels between the works in plot and structure (though not in language) indicate either that one was a source for the other or that they both drew on the same common source; scholars have been unable to agree on these matters, though they do agree that the Folio play was probably written between 1590 and 1595. It uses material from John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments (1583, often referred to as ‘Foxe’s Book of Martyrs’) and the second edition of Holinshed’s Chronicles (1587); it was listed amongst Shakespeare’s ‘tragedies’ by Francis Meres in his Palladis Tamia in 1598.

King John stands outside the historical sequence of the two ‘tetralogies’ – the eight ‘Richard’ and ‘Henry’ plays covering the period of English history from the events leading up to the deposition of Richard II (1399) to the overthrow of Richard III at Bosworth (1485). The play accordingly appears as the first of the histories in the First Folio. John’s reign was much earlier (1199-1216), and was mainly noted by Tudor historians for the monarch’s defiance of the Pope, which allowed him to be seen as a proto-Protestant figure (the Troublesome Reign is rather more anti-Catholic than King John). The one event most English people associate with King John today – the signing of the Magna Carta – is not highlighted in Tudor accounts. A feature of Shakespeare’s play is the focus on the Bastard, Philip Faulconbridge, an essentially fictional figure based on one fleeting reference in the chronicles who also appears in the Troublesome Reign. His engaging and often satirical commentary on morality, war and politics serves to expose the opportunism and cynicism of most of the other characters. Ironically, he seems better equipped to be king than either of the legitimate claimants, John and Arthur; Shakespeare in fact altered his sources to make both their claims weaker: by suggesting John rules by might rather than by right and by making Arthur younger than he really was.

There are no records of any pre-Restoration performances, but it was revived in the mid-eighteenth century and also adapted by Colley Cibber as Papal Tyranny in the Reign of John (1745). It had a reasonably steady stage history from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century and was traditionally seen as a good vehicle for actors because of the number of strong roles and the opportunities for big set-piece debates and confrontations. Despite his earlier cynicism, the Bastard’s final speech has aroused patriotic fervour at times when the play’s concern with foreign invasion has seemed topical.

During the nineteenth century in particular, King John’s popularity seems to have depended on some spectacular productions including large casts and elaborately detailed historical sets. These were also notable for the presence of star performers in the role of Constance, from Sarah Siddons to Sybil Thorndike. Like King Richard III it has four significant roles for women (Eleanor, Lady Faulconbridge and Blanche, as well as Constance); their roles as the mothers and wives of powerful men underline the play’s concern with legitimacy and usurpation. The tolerant attitude taken to the adultery of Lady Faulconbridge is in marked contrast to Shakespeare’s attitude elsewhere in the canon, as the positive representation of the Bastard contrasts with his portrayals of Don John in Much Ado About Nothing and Edmund in King Lear.

The Arden text is based on the 1623 First Folio.

LIST OF ROLES

KING JOHN
PRINCE HENRY		son to the king
ARTHUR		Duke of Brittany, nephew to the king
The Earl of SALISBURY
The Earl of PEMBROKE
The Earl of ESSEX
The Lord BIGOT
ROBERT Faulconbridge		son to Sir Robert Faulconbridge
Philip the BASTARD		his half-brother
HUBERT		a citizen of Angers
James GURNEY		servant to Lady Faulconbridge
PETER of Pomfret		a prophet
KING PHILIP		of France
LEWIS		the Dauphin
Limoges, Duke of AUSTRIA
MELUN		a French lord
CHATILLON		ambassador from France to King John
Cardinal PANDULPH		the Pope’s legate
Queen ELEANOR		mother to King John
CONSTANCE		mother to Arthur
BLANCHE		of Spain, niece to King John
LADY FAULCONBRIDGE		widow to Sir Robert Faulconbridge

Lords, Sheriff, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, Messengers and other Attendants

King John

1.1 Enter KING JOHN, QUEEN ELEANOR, PEMBROKE, ESSEX, SALISBURY and attendants, with them CHATILLON of France.

KING JOHN
Now, say, Chatillon, what would France with us?
CHATILLON
Thus, after greeting, speaks the King of France
In my behaviour to the majesty,
The borrow’d majesty, of England here.
ELEANOR     A strange beginning: ‘borrow’d majesty’!	5
KING JOHN     Silence, good mother; hear the embassy.
CHATILLON     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:	10
To Ireland, Poictiers, 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.	15
KING JOHN     What follows if we disallow of this?
CHATILLON
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.	20
CHATILLON
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, Chatillon.	30
Exeunt Chatillon and Pembroke.
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.
ELEANOR
Your strong possession much more than your right,	40
Or else it must go wrong with you and me:
So much my conscience whispers in your ear,
Which none but heaven, and you, and I, shall hear.
Enter a sheriff.
ESSEX     My liege, here is the strangest controversy,
Come from the country to be judg’d by you,	45
That e’er I heard: shall I produce the men?
KING JOHN     Let them approach.
Our abbeys and our priories shall pay
This expeditious charge.
Enter ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, and PHILIP, his Bastard brother.
What men are you?
BASTARD     Your faithful subject I, a gentleman,	50
Born in Northamptonshire, and eldest son,
As I suppose, to Robert Faulconbridge,
A soldier, by the honour-giving hand
Of Coeur-de-lion knighted in the field.
KING JOHN     What art thou?	55
ROBERT
The son and heir to that same Faulconbridge.
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.
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 slander’d me with bastardy:
But whe’r 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!
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. 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-fac’d groat five hundred pound a year!
ROBERT     My gracious liege, when that my father liv’d,	95
Your brother did employ my father much –
BASTARD     Well sir, by this you cannot get my land:
Your tale must be how he employ’d my mother.
ROBERT     – And once dispatch’d him in an embassy
To Germany, there with the emperor	100
To treat of high affairs touching that time.
Th’advantage of his absence took the king
And in the mean time sojourn’d at my father’s,
Where how he did prevail I shame to speak;
But truth is truth: large lengths of seas and shores	105
Between my father and my mother lay,
As I have heard my father speak himself,
When this same lusty gentleman was got.
Upon his death-bed he by will bequeath’d
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,	120
Who, as you say, took pains to get this son,
Had of your father claim’d 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.
ROBERT     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.
ELEANOR
Whether hadst thou rather be a Faulconbridge,
And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land,	135
Or the reputed son of Coeur-de-lion,
Lord of thy presence and no land beside?
BASTARD     Madam, and 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 stuff’d, 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,	145
I would give it every foot to have this face:
It would not be Sir Knob in any case.
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 five pence and ’tis dear.
Madam, I’ll follow you unto the death.
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 wive’s eldest son.
KING JOHN
From henceforth bear his name whose form thou bearest:	160
Kneel thou down Philip, but rise more great,
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 blessed be the hour, by night or day,	165
When I was got, Sir Robert was away!
ELEANOR     The very spirit of Plantagenet!
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,	170
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.	175
KING JOHN
Go, Faulconbridge: 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 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 den, Sir Richard!’ – ‘God-a-mercy, fellow!’ –	185
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 suffic’d,
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,	200
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 smoke 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.
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?
Enter LADY FAULCONBRIDGE and JAMES GURNEY.
O me! ’tis my mother. – How now, good lady?	220
What brings you here to court so hastily?
LADY FAULCONBRIDGE
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 FAULCONBRIDGE
Sir Robert’s son! Ay, thou unreverend 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 Gurney.
Madam, I was not old Sir Robert’s son:
Sir Robert might have ate his part in me
Upon Good Friday and ne’er broke his fast:	235
Sir Robert could do – well, marry, to confess –
Could … get me? Sir Robert could not do it.
We know his handiwork: therefore, good mother,
To whom am I beholding for these limbs?
Sir Robert never holp to make this leg.	240
LADY FAULCONBRIDGE
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 dubb’d! I have it on my shoulder.	245
But, mother, I am not Sir Robert’s son:
I have disclaim’d 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 FAULCONBRIDGE
Hast thou denied thyself a Faulconbridge?
BASTARD     As faithfully as I deny the devil.
LADY FAULCONBRIDGE
King Richard Coeur-de-lion was thy father:
By long and vehement suit I was seduc’d
To make room for him in my husband’s bed.	255
Heaven, lay not my transgression to my charge
That art the issue of my dear offence,
Which was so strongly urg’d 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 Enter, on one side, the Archduke of AUSTRIA, and forces; on the other, PHILIP, King of France, and forces, LEWIS, CONSTANCE, ARTHUR and attendants.

LEWIS     Before Angiers well met, brave Austria.
KING PHILIP     Arthur, that great forerunner of thy blood,
Richard, that robb’d 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
God shall forgive you Coeur-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 Angiers, duke.
LEWIS     Ah, noble boy, who would not do thee right?
AUSTRIA     Upon thy cheek lay I this zealous kiss,
As seal to this indenture of my love:	20
That to my home I will no more return,
Till Angiers and the right thou hast in France,
Together with that pale, that white-fac’d shore,
Whose foot spurns back the ocean’s roaring tides
And coops from other lands her islanders,	25
Even till that England, hedg’d in with the main,
That water-walled 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,	30
Will I not think of home, but follow arms.
CONSTANCE
O, take his mother’s thanks, a widow’s thanks,
Till your strong hand shall help to give him strength
To make a more requital to your love!
AUSTRIA
The peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swords	35
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:	40
We’ll lay before this town our royal bones,
Wade to the market-place in Frenchmen’s blood,
But we will make it subject to this boy.
CONSTANCE     Stay for an answer to your embassy,
Lest unadvis’d you stain your swords with blood:	45
My Lord Chatillon 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 CHATILLON.
KING PHILIP     A wonder, lady! lo, upon thy wish,	50
Our messenger Chatillon is arriv’d!
What England says, say briefly, gentle lord;
We coldly pause for thee; Chatillon, speak.
CHATILLON
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 stay’d, 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 deceas’d,	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 unlook’d for is this expedition!
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 prepar’d.
Enter KING JOHN, ELEANOR, BLANCHE, the Bastard, lords and forces.
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.	90
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.
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 call’d a king,
When living blood doth in these temples beat,
Which owe the crown that thou o’ermasterest?
KING JOHN
From whom hast thou this great commission, France,	110
To draw my answer from thy articles?
KING PHILIP
From that supernal judge that stirs good thoughts
In any beast 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.
ELEANOR     Who is it thou dost call usurper, France?	120
CONSTANCE     Let me make answer: thy usurping son.
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 and if thou wert his mother.
ELEANOR
There’s a good mother, boy, that blots thy father.
CONSTANCE
There’s a good grandam, boy, that would blot thee.
AUSTRIA     Peace!
BASTARD     Hear the crier!
AUSTRIA     What the devil art thou?
BASTARD     One that will play the devil, sir, with you,	135
And 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, and 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’ shoes upon an ass:
But, ass, I’ll take that burthen 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
Lewis, determine what we shall do straight.
LEWIS     Women and fools, break off your conference.	150
KING PHILIP     King John, this is the very sum of all:
England and Ireland, Anjou, Touraine, Maine,
In right of Arthur do I claim of thee.
Wilt thou resign them and lay down thy arms?
KING JOHN     My life as soon: I do defy thee, France.	155
Arthur of Britain, yield thee to my hand;
And out of my dear love I’ll give thee more
Than e’er the coward hand of France can win:
Submit thee, boy.
ELEANOR     Come to thy grandam, child.
CONSTANCE     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
ELEANOR
His mother shames him so, poor boy, he weeps.
CONSTANCE
Now shame upon you, whe’r she does or no!
His grandam’s wrongs, and not his mother’s shames,
Draws those heaven-moving pearls from his poor eyes,
Which heaven shall take in nature of a fee;	170
Ay, with these crystal beads heaven shall be brib’d
To do him justice and revenge on you.
ELEANOR
Thou monstrous slanderer of heaven and earth!
CONSTANCE
Thou monstrous injurer of heaven and earth!
Call not me slanderer; thou and thine usurp	175
The dominations, royalties and rights
Of this oppressed boy: this is thy eldest son’s son,
Infortunate in nothing but in thee:
Thy sins are visited in this poor child;
The canon of the law is laid on him,	180
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 punish’d in the person of this child,
And all for her; a plague upon her!	190
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 cank’red grandam’s will!
KING PHILIP     Peace, lady! pause, or be more temperate:	195
It ill beseems this presence to cry aim
To these ill-tuned repetitions.
Some trumpet summon hither to the walls
These men of Angiers: let us hear them speak
Whose title they admit, Arthur’s or John’s.	200
Trumpet sounds. Enter HUBERT upon the walls.
HUBERT     Who is it that hath warn’d us to the walls?
KING PHILIP     ’Tis France, for England.
KING JOHN     England, for itself.
You men of Angiers, and my loving subjects –
KING PHILIP
You loving men of Angiers, Arthur’s subjects,
Our trumpet call’d you to this gentle parle –	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 march’d 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
Comforts 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 fixed 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 unscratch’d your city’s threat’ned cheeks,	225
Behold, the French amaz’d vouchsafe a parle;
And now, instead of bullets wrapp’d in fire,
To make a shaking fever in your walls,
They shoot but calm words folded up in smoke,
To make a faithless error in your ears:	230
Which trust accordingly, kind citizens,
And let us in, your king, whose labour’d 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.	235
Lo, in this right hand, whose protection
Is most divinely vow’d 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 down-trodden 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 oppressed 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 seal’d up;	250
Our cannons’ malice vainly shall be spent
Against th’ invulnerable clouds of heaven;
And with a blessed and unvex’d retire,
With unhack’d swords and helmets all unbruis’d,
We will bear home that lusty blood again	255
Which here we came to spout against your town,
And leave your children, wives and you in peace.
But if you fondly pass our proffer’d offer,
’Tis not the roundure of your old-fac’d walls
Can hide you from our messengers of war,	260
Though all these English and their discipline
Were harbour’d in their rude circumference.
Then tell us, shall your city call us lord,
In that behalf which we have challeng’d it?
Or shall we give the signal to our rage	265
And stalk in blood to our possession?
HUBERT
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.
HUBERT     That can we not; but he that proves the king,	270
To him will we prove loyal: till that time
Have we ramm’d up our gates against the world.
KING JOHN
Doth not the crown of England prove the king?
And if not that, I bring you witnesses,
Twice fifteen thousand hearts of England’s breed –	275
BASTARD     Bastards and else.
KING JOHN     To verify our title with their lives.
KING PHILIP
As many and as well-born bloods as those –
BASTARD     Some bastards too.
KING PHILIP     Stand in his face to contradict his claim.	280
HUBERT     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 swindg’d the dragon, and e’er since
Sits on’s horse-back 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, the English and French kings, etc.
Here, after excursions, enter the Herald of France, with trumpeters, to the gates.
FRENCH HERALD
You men of Angiers, open wide your gates,	300
And let young Arthur, Duke of Britain, in,
Who by the hand of France this day hath made
Much work for tears in many an English mother,
Whose sons lie scatter’d on the bleeding ground:
Many a widow’s husband grovelling lies,	305
Coldly embracing the discolour’d earth;
And victory, with little loss, doth play
Upon the dancing banners of the French,
Who are at hand, triumphantly display’d,
To enter conquerors, and to proclaim	310
Arthur of Britain England’s king, and yours.
Enter English Herald, with trumpeter.
ENGLISH HERALD
Rejoice, you men of Angiers, ring your bells;
King John, your king and England’s, doth approach,
Commander of this hot malicious day.
Their armours, that march’d hence so silver-bright,	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 march’d forth;	320
And, like a jolly troop of huntsmen, come
Our lusty English, all with purpled hands,
Dyed in the dying slaughter of their foes:
Open your gates and give the victors way.
HUBERT
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 censured:
Blood hath bought blood and blows have answer’d blows;
Strength match’d with strength, and power confronted power:	330
Both are alike, and both alike we like.
One must prove greatest: while they weigh so ever
We hold our town for neither, yet for both.
Re-enter, on one side, KING JOHN, ELEANOR, BLANCHE, the BASTARD, lords and forces; on the other, KING PHILIP, LEWIS, AUSTRIA and forces.
KING JOHN
France, hast thou yet more blood to cast away?
Say, shall the current of our right roam on?	335
Whose passage, vex’d with thy impediment,
Shall leave his native channel and o’erswell,
With course disturb’d, even thy confining shores,
Unless thou let his silver water keep
A peaceful progress to the ocean.	340
KING PHILIP
England, thou hast not sav’d 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 undetermin’d differences of kings.	355
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!	360
KING JOHN     Whose party do the townsmen yet admit?
KING PHILIP
Speak, citizens, for England; who’s your king?
HUBERT     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,	365
And bear possession of our person here,
Lord of our presence, Angiers, and of you.
HUBERT     A greater power than we denies all this;
And till it be undoubted, we do lock
Our former scruple in our strong-barr’d gates:	370
Kings of our fear, until our fears, resolv’d,
Be by some certain king purg’d and depos’d.
BASTARD
By heaven, these scroyles of Angiers flout you, kings,
And stand securely on their battlements,
As in a theatre, whence they gape and point	375
At your industrious scenes and acts of death.
Your royal presences be rul’d by me:
Do like the mutines of Jerusalem,
Be friends awhile and both conjointly 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 brawl’d down
The flinty ribs of this contemptuous city:
I’d play incessantly upon these jades,	385
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;	390
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?	395
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 Angiers even with the ground;
Then after fight who shall be king of it?	400
BASTARD     And if thou hast the mettle of a king,
Being wrong’d as we are by this peevish town,
Turn thou the mouth of thy artillery,
As we will ours, against these saucy walls;
And when that we have dash’d them to the ground,	405
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.	410
AUSTRIA     I from the north.
KING PHILIP     Our thunder from the south
Shall rain their drift of bullets on this town.
BASTARD     [aside]
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!	415
HUBERT     Hear us, great kings: vouchsafe awhile to stay,
And I shall show you peace and fair-fac’d league;
Win you this city without stroke or wound;
Rescue those breathing lives to die in beds,
That here come sacrifices for the field:	420
Persever not, but hear me, mighty kings!
KING JOHN     Speak on, with favour; we are bent to hear.
HUBERT
That daughter there of Spain, the Lady Blanche,
Is near to England: look upon the years
Of Lewis the Dolphin and that lovely maid:	425
If lusty love should go in quest of beauty,
Where should he find it fairer than in Blanche?
If zealous love should go in search of virtue,
Where should he find it purer than in Blanche?
If love ambitious sought a match of birth,	430
Whose veins bound richer blood than Lady Blanche?
Such as she is, in beauty, virtue, birth,
Is the young Dolphin every way complete:
If not complete of, say he is not she;
And she again wants nothing, to name want,	435
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,
Whose fulness of perfection lies in him.	440
O, two such silver currents, when they join,
Do glorify the banks that bound them in;
And two such shores, to two such streams made one,
Two such controlling bounds shall you be, kings,
To these two princes, if you marry them.	445
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,
And give you entrance: but without this match	450
The sea enraged is not half so deaf,
Lions more confident, mountains and rocks
More free from motion, no, not death himself
In mortal fury half so peremptory,
As we to keep this city.
BASTARD     Here’s a stay	455
That shakes the rotten carcass of old death
Out of his rags! Here’s a large mouth indeed,
That spits forth death and mountains, rocks and seas,
Talks as familiarly of roaring lions
As maids of thirteen do of puppy-dogs!	460
What cannoneer begot this lusty blood?
He speaks plain cannon, fire, and smoke, and bounce;
He gives the bastinado with his tongue;
Our ears are cudgell’d; not a word of his
But buffets better than a fist of France.	465
Zounds! I was never so bethump’d with words
Since I first call’d my brother’s father dad.
ELEANOR
Son, list to this conjunction, make this match;
Give with our niece a dowry large enough:
For by this knot thou shalt so surely tie	470
Thy now unsur’d assurance to the crown,
That yon green boy shall have no sun to ripe
The bloom that promiseth a mighty fruit.
I see a yielding in the looks of France;
Mark, how they whisper: urge them while their souls	475
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.
HUBERT     Why answer not the double majesties	480
This friendly treaty of our threat’ned town?
KING PHILIP
Speak England first, that hath been forward first
To speak unto this city: what say you?
KING JOHN     If that the Dolphin there, thy princely son,
Can in this book of beauty read ‘I love’,	485
Her dowry shall weigh equal with a queen:
For Anjou, and fair Touraine, Maine, Poictiers,
And all that we upon this side the sea –
Except this city now by us besieg’d –
Find liable to our crown and dignity,	490
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.
KING PHILIP
What say’st thou, boy? look in the lady’s face.	495
LEWIS     I do, my lord; and in her eye I find
A wonder, or a wondrous miracle,
The shadow of myself form’d in her eye;
Which, being but the shadow of your son,
Becomes a sun and makes your son a shadow:	500
I do protest I never lov’d myself
Till now infixed I beheld myself
Drawn in the flattering table of her eye.
[Whispers with Blanche.]
BASTARD [aside]
Drawn in the flattering table of her eye!
Hang’d in the frowning wrinkle of her brow!	505
And quarter’d in her heart! he doth espy
Himself love’s traitor: this is pity now,
That, hang’d and drawn and quarter’d, there should be
In such a love so vile a lout as he!
BLANCHE     [to Lewis]
My uncle’s will in this respect is mine:	510
If he see aught in you that makes him like,
That any thing he sees, which moves his liking,
I can with ease translate it to my will;
Or if you will, to speak more properly,
I will enforce it eas’ly to my love.	515
Further I will not flatter you, my lord,
That all I see in you is worthy love,
Than this: that nothing do I see in you,
Though churlish thoughts themselves should be your judge,
That I can find should merit any hate.	520
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 still vouchsafe to say.
KING JOHN
Speak then, prince Dolphin: can you love this lady?
LEWIS     Nay, ask me if I can refrain from love;	525
For I do love her most unfeignedly.
KING JOHN
Then do I give Volquessen, Touraine, Maine,
Poictiers, and Anjou, these five provinces,
With her to thee; and this addition more,
Full thirty thousand marks of English coin.	530
Philip of France, if thou be pleas’d withal,
Command thy son and daughter to join hands.
KING PHILIP
It likes us well; young princes, close your hands.
AUSTRIA     And your lips too; for I am well assur’d
That I did so when I was first assur’d.	535
KING PHILIP     Now, citizens of Angiers, ope your gates,
Let in that amity which you have made;
For at Saint Mary’s chapel presently
The rites of marriage shall be solemniz’d.
Is not the Lady Constance in this troop?	540
I know she is not, for this match made up
Her presence would have interrupted much:
Where is she and her son? tell me, who knows.
LEWIS     She is sad and passionate at your highness’ tent.
KING PHILIP
And, by my faith, this league that we have made	545
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 turn’d another way,
To our own vantage.
KING JOHN     We will heal up all;	550
For we’ll create young Arthur Duke of Britain
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,	555
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,
To this unlook’d for, unprepared pomp.	560
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	565
As God’s own soldier, rounded in the ear
With that same purpose-changer, that sly divel,
That broker, that still breaks the pate of faith,
That daily break-vow, he that wins of all,
Of kings, of beggars, old men, young men, maids,	570
Who, having no external thing to lose
But the word ‘maid’, cheats the poor maid of that,
That smooth-fac’d gentleman, tickling commodity,
Commodity, the bias of the world,
The world, who of itself is peised well,	575
Made to run even upon even ground,
Till this advantage, this vile drawing bias,
This sway of motion, this commodity,
Makes it take head from all indifferency,
From all direction, purpose, course, intent:	580
And this same bias, this commodity,
This bawd, this broker, this all-changing word,
Clapp’d on the outward eye of fickle France,
Hath drawn him from his own determin’d aid,
From a resolv’d and honourable war,	585
To a most base and vile-concluded peace.
And why rail I on this commodity?
But for because he hath not woo’d me yet:
Not that I have the power to clutch my hand,
When his fair angels would salute my palm;	590
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;
And being rich, my virtue then shall be	595
To say there is no vice but beggary.
Since kings break faith upon commodity,
Gain, be my lord, for I will worship thee!     Exit.

2.2 Enter CONSTANCE, ARTHUR and SALISBURY.

CONSTANCE
Gone to be married! gone to swear a peace!
False blood to false blood join’d! gone to be friends!
Shall Lewis have Blanche, and Blanche those
provinces?
It is not so; thou hast misspoke, misheard;
Be well advis’d, tell o’er thy tale again.	5
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 punish’d for thus frighting me,
For I am sick and capable of fears,
Oppress’d 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	15
With my vex’d 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?
What means that hand upon that breast of thine?	20
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.	25
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	30
As doth the fury of two desperate men
Which in the very meeting fall, and die.
Lewis marry Blanche! O boy, then where art thou?
France friend with England, what becomes of me?
Fellow, be gone: I cannot brook thy sight.	35
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
As it makes harmful all that speak of it.	40
ARTHUR     I do beseech you, madam, be content.
CONSTANCE
If thou, that bid’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,	45
Patch’d 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,	50
Nature and fortune join’d 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, chang’d and won from thee;
Sh’ adulterates hourly with thine uncle John,	55
And with her golden hand hath pluck’d 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!	60
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.	65
CONSTANCE
Thou mayst, thou shalt; I will not go with thee:
I will instruct my sorrows to be proud,
For grief is proud an’t makes his owner stoop.
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.
[Throws herself on the ground.]     Exit Salisbury.

3.1 CONSTANCE and ARTHUR, seated. Enter KING JOHN, KING PHILIP, LEWIS, BLANCHE, ELEANOR, the BASTARD, AUSTRIA, SALISBURY and attendants.

KING PHILIP
’Tis true, fair daughter; and this blessed 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     A wicked day, and not a holy day! [rising]
What hath this day deserv’d? what hath it done,	10
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 burthens may not fall this day,
Lest that their hopes prodigiously be cross’d:
But on this day let seamen fear no wrack;
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 pawn’d to you my majesty?
CONSTANCE     You have beguil’d me with a counterfeit	25
Resembling majesty, which, being touch’d 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 perjur’d kings!
A widow cries; be husband to me, heavens!
Let not the hours of this ungodly day	35
Wear out the day’s in peace; but, ere sunset,
Set armed discord ’twixt these perjur’d 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 perjur’d 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 calve’s-skin on those recreant limbs.	55
AUSTRIA
O, that a man should speak those words to me!
BASTARD
And hang a calve’s-skin on those recreant limbs.
AUSTRIA     Thou dar’st not say so, villain, for thy life.
BASTARD
And hang a calve’s-skin on those recreant limbs.
KING JOHN     We like not this; thou dost forget thyself.	60
Enter PANDULPH.
KING PHILIP     Here comes the holy legate of the pope.
PANDULPH     Hail, you anointed deputies of heaven!
To thee, King John, my holy errand is.
I Pandulph, 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 taste 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	85
To him and his usurp’d 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 vild 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.
PANDULPH     Then, by the lawful power that I have,
Thou shalt stand curs’d and excommunicate:
And blessed shall he be that doth revolt	100
From his allegiance to an heretic;
And meritorious shall that hand be call’d,
Canonized and worshipp’d 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.
PANDULPH
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,	115
How can the law forbid my tongue to curse?
PANDULPH     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
ELEANOR
Look’st thou pale, France? do not let go thy hand.
CONSTANCE
Look to that, devil, lest that France repent,
And by disjoining hands, hell lose a soul.
AUSTRIA     King Philip, listen to the cardinal.
BASTARD
And hang a calve’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 say’st thou to the cardinal?
CONSTANCE     What should he say, but as the cardinal?
LEWIS     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 Lewis, stand fast! the devil tempts thee here
In likeness of a new untrimmed bride.	135
BLANCHE
The Lady Constance speaks not from her faith,
But from her need.
CONSTANCE     O, if thou grant my need,
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 mov’d, and answers not to this.
CONSTANCE     O, be remov’d from him, and answer well!
AUSTRIA     Do so, King Philip; hang no more in doubt.	145
BASTARD
Hang nothing but a calve’s-skin, most sweet lout.
KING PHILIP     I am perplex’d, and know not what to say.
PANDULPH
What canst thou say but will perplex thee more,
If thou stand excommunicate and curs’d?
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 link’d 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,
Heaven knows, they were besmear’d and overstain’d
With slaughter’s pencil, where revenge did paint
The fearful difference of incensed kings:
And shall these hands, so lately purg’d of blood,	165
So newly join’d 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 blest
To do your pleasure and continue friends.
PANDULPH     All form is formless, order orderless,
Save what is opposite to England’s love.	180
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 cased 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.
PANDULPH     So mak’st thou faith an enemy to faith,
And like a civil war set’st oath to oath,	190
Thy tongue against thy tongue. O, let thy vow
First made to heaven, first be to heaven perform’d,
That is, to be the champion of our church.
What since thou swor’st is sworn against thyself
And may not be performed 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
Within the scorched veins of one new-burn’d.
It is religion that doth make vows kept,	205
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 truth!
Against an oath the truth thou art unsure
To swear – swears 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     Will’t not be?
Will not a calve’s-skin stop that mouth of thine?	225
LEWIS     Father, to arms!
BLANCHE     Upon thy wedding-day?
Against the blood that thou hast married?
What, shall our feast be kept with slaughter’d men?
Shall braying trumpets and loud churlish drums,
Clamours of hell, be measures to our pomp?	230
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     O, upon my knee,	235
Made hard with kneeling, I do pray to thee,
Thou virtuous Dolphin, alter not the doom
Forethought by heaven!
BLANCHE     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, Lewis, thine honour!
LEWIS     I muse your majesty doth seem so cold,
When such profound respects do pull you on.
PANDULPH     I will denounce a curse upon his head.	245
KING PHILIP
Thou shalt not need. England, I will fall from thee.
CONSTANCE     O fair return of banish’d majesty!
ELEANOR     O foul revolt of French inconstancy!
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:	260
Whoever wins, on that side shall I lose;
Assured loss before the match be play’d.
LEWIS     Lady, with me, with me thy fortune lies.
BLANCHE
There where my fortune li’es, there my life dies.
KING JOHN     Cousin, go draw our puissance together.	265
Exit Bastard.
France, I am burn’d 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!
Exeunt.