K. Philp. Well then, to work; our engines fhal

be bent

Against the brows of this refifting town;
Call for our chiefeft men of difcipline,
To cull the plots of beft advantages.
We'll lay before this town our royal bones,
Wade to the market-place in French-mens' blood,
But we will make it fubject to this boy.

Conft. Stay for an answer to your Embaffie,
Left unadvis'd you ftain your fwords with blood.
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 hafte fo indirectly fhed.

*

Enter Chatillon.

K. Philip. A wonder, lady!-Lo, upon thy with Our meffenger Chatillon is arrived.

-What England fays, fay briefly, gentle lord,
We coldly paufe for thee. Chatillon, fpeak.

Chat. Then turn your forces from this paultry fiege, And stir them up against a mightier task.

England, impatient of your just demands,
Hath put himself in arms; the adverfe winds,
Whofe leifure I have ftaid, have giv'n him time
To land his legions all as foon as I.

His marches are 'expedient to this town,
His forces strong, his foldiers confident.
With him along is come the mother- Queen;
An Até, stirring him to blood and ftrife.
With her, her niece, the lady Blanch of Spain;
With them a baftard of the King deceas'd,

*A wonder, lady.] The wonder is only that Chatillon happened to arrive at the moment when Conftance mentioned him, which the French king, according to a fuperftition which pre

vails more or less in every mind agitated by great affairs, turns into a miraculous interpofition, or omen of good.

1

Expedient.] Immediate, ex

peditious.

And

And all th' unfettled humours of the land;
Rash, inconfid❜rate, fiery voluntaries,

With ladies' faces, and fierce dragons' fpleens,
Have fold their fortunes at their native homes,
2 Bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs,
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 fwelling tide,

To do offence and 3 fcathe in christendom.
The interruption of their churlish drums [Drums beat.
Cuts off more circumstance; they are at hand.
To parly, or to fight, therefore prepare.

K. Philip. How much unlook'd for is this expe
dition!

Auft. By how much unexpected, by fo much
We muft awake endeavour for defence;
For courage mounteth with occafion :
Let them be welcome then, we are prepar❜d.

SCENE II.

Enter King of England, Faulconbridge, Elinor,
Blanch, Pembroke, and others.

K. John. Peace be to France, if France in peace
permit

Our juft and lineal entrance to our own;

If not, bleed France, and peace afcend to heav'n.
Whilft we, God's wrathful agent, do correct
Their proud contempt that beats his peace to heav'n.
K. Philip. Peace be to England, if that war return
From France to England, there to live in peace.
England we love; and for that England's fake
With burthen of our armour here we fweat;
This toil of ours should be a work of thine.
But thou from loving England art so far,

2 Bearing their birth-rights,

&c.] So in Henry VIII.

Many broke their backs

With bearing manors on them.
3 Scathe.] Deftruction; wafte.

That thou haft under-wrought its lawful King i
Cut off the sequence of posterity;
Out-faced infant ftate; and done a rape
Upon the maiden virtue of the crown.
Look here upon thy brother Gefferg's face.
These eyes, thefe brows, were moulded out of his s
This little abstract doth contain that large,
Which dy'd in Geffrey; and the hand of time
Shall draw this brief into as large a volume.
That Geffrey was thy elder brother born,
And this his fon, England was Geffrey's right,
And this is Geffrey'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 own the crown that thou o'er-maftereft?
K. John. From whom haft thou this great commif-
fion, France,

To draw my answer to thy articles ?

K. Philip. From that fupernal judge, that ftirs good thoughts

In any breaft of strong authority,

4

To look into the blots and ftains of right.

That judge hath made me guardian to this boy;
Under whofe warrant I impeach thy wrong,
And by whose help I mean to chastise it.

K. John. Alack, thou doft ufurp authority.
K. Philip. Excufe it, 'tis to beat ufurping down.
Eli. Who is't, that thou doft call ufurper, France?
Conft. Let me make answer: thy ufurping fon.-
Eli. Out, infolent! thy baftard fhall be King,
That thou may'ft be a Queen, and check the world!

4 To look into the blots and flains

of right.] Mr. Theobald reads, with the firft folin, blots, which being fo early authorised, and fo much better understood, needed not to have been changed by Dr. Warburton to bolts, tho' bolts might be used in that time for

Spots: So Shakespeare calls Ban quo fpotted with blood, the bloodbolter'd Banquo. The verb to blot is ufed figuratively for to dif grace, a few lines lower. And, perhaps, after all, bolts was only a typographical mistake.

Conft.

Conft. My bed was ever to thy son as true,
As thine was to thy husband; and this boy,
Liker in feature to his father Geffery,

Than thou and John, in manners being as like
As rain to water, or devil to his dam.
My boy a bastard! by my foul, I think,
His father never was fo true begot;

It cannot be, an if thou wert his mother.

Eli. There's a good mother, boy, that blots thy father.

Conft. There's a good grandam, boy, that would

blot thee.

Auft. Peace.

Faulc. Here the crier.

Auft. What the devil art thou?

Faulc. One that will play the devil, Sir, with you, An a' may catch your hide and hide and you alone.

You are the hare, of whom the proverb goes,
Whose valour plucks dead Lions by the beard;
I'll fmoak your skin-coat, an I catch you right;
Sirrah, look to't; i'faith, I will, i'faith.

Blanch. O, well did he become that Lion's robe,
That did difrobe the Lion of that robe.
Faulc. It lies as fightly on the back of him,

It lies as lightly on the back of him, As great Alcides' Shoes upon

an Afs.] But why his Shoes, in the Name of Propriety? For let Hercules and his Shoes have been really as big as they were ever fuppofed to be, yet they (I mean the Shoes) would not have been an Overload for an Afs. I am perfuaded, I have retrieved the true Reading; and let us obferve the Juftnefs of the Comparison now. Faulconbridge in his Refentment would fay this to Auf tria, "That Lion's Skin, which

"my great Father King Richard "once wore, looks as uncoothly "on thy Back, as that other no"ble Hide, which was borne by "Hercules, would look on the "Back of an Afs." A double Allufion was intended; firft, to the Fable of the Afs in the Lion's Skin; then Richard I. is finely fet in Competition with Alcides; as Auftria is fatirically coupled with the Afs.

THEOBALD.

Mr. Theobald had the art of making the most of his difcoveries.

As great Alcides' fhews upon an ass;

But, afs, I'll take that burden from your back,
Or lay on that, fhall make your shoulders crack.
Auft. What cracker is this fame, that deafs our ears
With this abundance of fuperfluous breath?
King Philip, determine what we fhall do ftrait.

K. Philip. Women and fools, break off your conference.

King John, this is the very fum of all.

England, and Ireland, Anjou, Touraine, Maine,
In right of Arthur I do claim of thee.

Wilt thou refign them, and lay down thy arms?
K. John. My life as foon-I do defy thee, France.
-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.

Eli. Come to thy grandam, child.

Conft. Do, child, go to it' grandam, child.
Give grandam kingdom, and it' grandam will
Give it a plum, a cherry, and a fig;
There's a good grandam.

Arth. 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.

Eli. His mother fhames him fo, poor boy, he weeps. Conft. Now fhame upon you, whether the does or no! His grandam's wrong, and not his mother's fhames, Draws those heav'n-moving pearls from his poor eyes, Which heav'n fhall take in nature of a fee:

Ay, with thefe crystal beads heav'n shall be brib'd
To do him juftice, and revenge on you.

Eli. Thou monftrous flanderer of heav'n and earth!
Conft. Thou monftrous injurer of heav'n and earth!
Call me not flanderer; thou, and thine, ufurp
The domination, royalties and rights

Of this oppreffed boy. This is thy eldeft fon's fon, Infortunate in nothing but in thee;

Thy