Lest unadvis'd you stain your swords with blood: Enter CHATillon. K. Phil. A wonder, lady!-lo, upon thy wish, Our messenger Chatillon is arriv'd. What England says, say briefly, gentle lord, We coldly pause for thee; Chatillon, speak. Chat. Then turn your forces from this paltry siege, And stir them up against a mightier task. England, impatient of your just demands, Hath put himself in arms; the adverse winds, To parley, or to fight; therefore, prepare. [Drums beat. K. Phil. How much unlook'd for is this expedition! Aus. By how much unexpected, by so much We must awake endeavour for defence; For courage mounteth with occasion: Let them be welcome then, we are prepar❜d. [9] Immediate, expeditious. [1] Scat-Destruction, harm. JOHNSON, Enter King JOHN, ELINOR, BLANCH, the Bastard, PEмBROKE, and Forces. K. John. Peace be to France; if France in peace permit Our just and lineal entrance to our own! If not; bleed France, and peace ascend to heaven! Upon the maiden virtue of the crown. Look here upon thy brother Geffrey's face ;- K. John. From whom hast thou this great commission, To draw my answer from thy articles? K. Phil. 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 : K. John. Alack, thou dost usurp authority. [3] A brief is a short writing, abstract, or description. STEEVENS. Const. Let me make answer;-thy usurping son. It cannot be, an if thou wert his mother." Eli. There's a good mother, boy, that blots thy father. Con. There's a good grandam, boy, that would blot thee. Aust. Peace! Bast. Hear the crier. Aust. What the devil art thou? Bast. One that will play the devil, sir, with you, 1 Blanch. O, well did he become that lion's robe, Bast. It lies as sightly on the back of him, ; Aust. What cracker is this same, that deafs our ears With this abundance of superfluous breath? K. Phil. Lewis, determine what we shall do straight. Lew. Women and fools, break off your conference.King John, this is the very sum of all,— [3] Constance alludes to Elinor's infidelity to her husband, Lewis the Seventh, when they were in the Holy Land: on account of which he was divorced from her. She afterwards (1151) married our King Henry II. MALONE. [4] The ground of the quarrel of the Bastard to Austria is no where specified in the present play. But the story is, that Austria, who killed King Richard Cours de-lion, wore, as the spoil of that prince, a lion's hide which had belonged to him. This circumstance renders the anger of the Bastard very natural, and ought not to have been omitted. POPE. The omission of this incident was natural. Shakespeare having familiarized the story to his own imagination, forgot that it was obscure to his audience; or, what is equally probable, the story was then so popular, that a hint was sufficient, at that time, to bring it to mind; and these plays were written with very little care for the approbation of posterity. JOHNSÓN. England, and Ireland, Anjou, Touraine, Maine, Wilt thou resign them, and lay down thy arms? K. John. My life as soon :-I do defy thee, France. And, out of my dear love, I'll give thee more Eli. Come to thy grandam, child. Const. Do, child, go it' grandam, child; Give grandam kingdom, and it' grandam will Arth. Good my mother, peace! I would, that I were low laid in my grave; Eli. His mother shames him so, poor boy, he weeps. Eli. Thou monstrous slanderer of heaven and earth! Of this oppressed boy: This is thy eldest son's son, Thy sins are visited in this poor child; Removed from thy sin-conceiving womb. That he's not only plagued for her sin, But God hath made her sin and her the plague On this removed issue, plagu'd for her, [5] Read whe'r he does, or no!-i. e. whether he weeps, or not. Constance, so far from adinitting, expressly denies that she shames him. RITSON. [6] The key to these words is contained in the last speech of Constance, where she alludes to the denunciation of the second commandment, of "visiting the iniquities of the parents upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation," &c. HENLEY. And with her plague, her sin; his injury Eli. Thou unadvised scold, I can produce A will, that bars the title of thy son. Const. Ay, who doubts that? a will! a wicked will; A woman's will; a canker'd grandam's will! K. Phil. 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, Trumpets sound. Enter Citizens upon the walls. 1 Cit. Who is it, that hath warn'd us to the walls? K. Phil. 'Tis France, for England. K. John. England, for itself: You men of Angiers, and my loving subjects, K. Phil. You loving men of Angiers, Arthur's subjects, Our trumpet call'd you to this gentle parle. K. John. For our advantage ;-Therefore, hear us first. Before the eye and prospect of your town, And merciless proceeding by these French, [7] i. e. gates hastily closed from an apprehension of danger. MALONE. VOL. V. B |