180 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,

  185 But God hath made her sin and her the plague

  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,

  190 And all for her. A plague upon her!

  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

  195 Peace, lady; pause, or be more temperate,

  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

  200 Whose title they admit, Arthur’s or John’s.

  Trumpet sounds. Enter Citizen[s] 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 Angiers, and my loving subjects –

  KING PHILIP

  You loving men of Angiers, Arthur’s subjects,

  205 Our trumpet called you to this gentle parle –

  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.

  210 The cannons have their bowels full of wrath,

  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

  215 Confronts your city’s eyes, your winking gates,

  And but for our approach, those sleeping stones

  That as a waist doth girdle you about,

  By the compulsion of their ordinance,

  By this time from their fixed beds of lime

  220 Had been dishabited, and wide havoc made

  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 counter-check before your gates

  225 To save unscratched your city’s threatened cheeks,

  Behold the French amazed vouchsafe a parle.

  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,

  230 To make a faithless error in your ears,

  Which trust accordingly, kind citizens,

  And let us in. Your king, whose laboured spirits

  Fore-wearied in this action of swift speed,

  Craves harbourage within your city walls.

  KING PHILIP

  235 When I have said, make answer to us both.

  Lo, in this right hand, whose protection

  [Takes Arthur’s hand.]

  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. [a3rb]

  241 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

  245 In the relief of this oppressed child

  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

  250 Save in aspect, hath all offence sealed up.

  Our cannons’ malice vainly shall be spent

  Against th’invulnerable clouds of heaven,

  And with a blessed and unvexed retire,

  With unhacked swords, and helmets all unbruised,

  255 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

  260 Can hide you from our messengers of war,

  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?

  265 Or shall we give the signal to our rage,

  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

  270 That can we not: but he that proves the king,

  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:

  275 Twice fifteen thousand hearts of England’s breed –

  BASTARD

  Bastards and else.

  KING JOHN

  To verify our title with their lives.

  KING PHILIP

  As many and as well-born bloods as those –

  BASTARD

  Some bastards too.

  KING PHILIP

  280 Stand in his face to contradict his claim.

  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,

  285 Before the dew of evening fall, shall fleet

  In dreadful trial of our kingdom’s king.

  KING PHILIP

  Amen, amen! Mount, chevaliers! to arms!

  BASTARD

  Saint George that swinged the dragon,

  And e’er since sits on’s horseback at mine hostess’ door,

  290 Teach us some fence! [to Austria] Sirrah, were I at home

  At your den, sirrah, with your lioness,

  I would set an ox-head to your lion’s hide

  And make a monster of you.

  AUSTRIA Peace, no more.

  BASTARD

  O, tremble, for you hear the lion roar.

  KING JOHN

  295 Up higher to the plain, where we’ll set forth

  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 [on opposite sides, the English and French kings with their forces; citizens remain above].

  Here after excursions, enter the Herald of France with Trumpet[er]s to the gates.

  FRENCH HERALD

  300 You men of Angiers, open wide your gates

  And let young Arthur, Duke of Britain, in;

  Who, by the hand of France, this day hath made [a3va]

  Much work for tears in many an English mother,

  Whose sons lie scattered on the bleeding ground.

  305 Many a widow’s husband grovelling lies,

  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,

  310 To enter conquerors, and to proclaim

  Arthur of Britain England’s king, and yours.

  Enter English Herald with Trumpet[er].

  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.

  315 Their armours that marched hence so silver bright

  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

  320 That did display them when we first marched forth,

  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.

  CITIZEN

  325 Heralds, from off our towers we might behold

  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 answered blows,

  330 Strength matched with strength, and power confronted power.

  Both are alike, and both alike we like –

  One must prove greatest. While they weigh so even,

  We hold our town for neither, yet for both.

  Enter the two KINGS with their powers, at several doors.

  KING JOHN

  France, hast thou yet more blood to cast away?

  335 Say, shall the current of our right run on,

  Whose passage, vexed with thy impediment,

  Shall leave his native channel and o’er-swell

  With course disturbed e’en thy confining shores,

  Unless thou let his silver water keep

  340 A peaceful progress to the ocean.

  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,

  345 Before we will lay down our just-borne arms

  We’ll put thee down, ’gainst whom these arms we bear,

  Or add a royal number to the dead,

  Gracing the scroll that tells of this war’s loss

  With slaughter coupled to the name of kings.

  BASTARD

  350 Ha, majesty! How high thy glory towers

  When the rich blood of kings is set on fire.

  O, now doth death line his dread chaps with steel:

  The swords of soldiers are his teeth, his fangs,

  And now he feasts, mousing the flesh of men

  355 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

  360 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? [a3vb]

  CITIZEN

  The King of England, when we know the king.

  KING PHILIP

  Know him in us, that here hold up his right –

  KING JOHN

  365 In us, that are our own great deputy,

  And bear possession of our person here,

  Lord of our presence, Angiers, and of you.

  CITIZEN

  A greater power than we denies all this,

  And till it be undoubted, we do lock

  370 Our former scruple in our strong barred gates,

  Kings of our fear, until our fears resolved

  Be by some certain king, purged and deposed.

  BASTARD

  By God, these scroyles of Angiers flout you, kings,

  And stand securely on their battlements

  375 As in a theatre, whence they gape and point

  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

  380 Your sharpest deeds of malice on this town.

  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.

  385 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,

  390 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.

  395 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 Angiers even with the ground,

  400 Then after, fight who shall be king of it?

  BASTARD [to King Philip]

  And 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;

  405 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

  410 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 [aside]

  O prudent discipline! From north to south!

  Austria and France shoot in each other’s mouth –

  415 I’ll stir them to it. Come, away, away!

  CITIZEN

  Hear us, great kings! Vouchsafe awhile 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 Lewis the Dauphin, and that lovely maid.

  If lusty love should go in quest of beauty,

  Where should he find it fairer than in Blanche? [a4ra]

  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 of, 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

  As we to keep this city.

  [King Philip and Lewis the Dauphin, father and son, talk privately.]

  455 BASTARD 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.

  ELEANOR

  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

  480 Why answer not the double majesties

  This friendly treaty of our threatened town?

  KING PHILIP

  Speak, England, first, that hath been forward first