Folger Shakespeare Library

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Contents

Front Matter |
ACT 1 |
ACT 2 |
ACT 3 |
ACT 4 |
ACT 5 |

From the Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library

It is hard to imagine a world without Shakespeare. Since their composition four hundred years ago, Shakespeare’s plays and poems have traveled the globe, inviting those who see and read his works to make them their own.

Readers of the New Folger Editions are part of this ongoing process of “taking up Shakespeare,” finding our own thoughts and feelings in language that strikes us as old or unusual and, for that very reason, new. We still struggle to keep up with a writer who could think a mile a minute, whose words paint pictures that shift like clouds. These expertly edited texts are presented to the public as a resource for study, artistic adaptation, and enjoyment. By making the classic texts of the New Folger Editions available in electronic form as Folger Digital Texts, we place a trusted resource in the hands of anyone who wants them.

The New Folger Editions of Shakespeare’s plays, which are the basis for the texts realized here in digital form, are special because of their origin. The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is the single greatest documentary source of Shakespeare’s works. An unparalleled collection of early modern books, manuscripts, and artwork connected to Shakespeare, the Folger’s holdings have been consulted extensively in the preparation of these texts. The Editions also reflect the expertise gained through the regular performance of Shakespeare’s works in the Folger’s Elizabethan Theater.

I want to express my deep thanks to editors Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine for creating these indispensable editions of Shakespeare’s works, which incorporate the best of textual scholarship with a richness of commentary that is both inspired and engaging. Readers who want to know more about Shakespeare and his plays can follow the paths these distinguished scholars have tread by visiting the Folger either in-person or online, where a range of physical and digital resources exists to supplement the material in these texts. I commend to you these words, and hope that they inspire.

Michael Witmore
Director, Folger Shakespeare Library

Textual Introduction
By Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine

Until now, with the release of the Folger Digital Texts, readers in search of a free online text of Shakespeare’s plays had to be content primarily with using the Moby™ Text, which reproduces a late-nineteenth century version of the plays. What is the difference? Many ordinary readers assume that there is a single text for the plays: what Shakespeare wrote. But Shakespeare’s plays were not published the way modern novels or plays are published today: as a single, authoritative text. In some cases, the plays have come down to us in multiple published versions, represented by various Quartos (Qq) and by the great collection put together by his colleagues in 1623, called the First Folio (F). There are, for example, three very different versions of Hamlet, two of King Lear, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, and others. Editors choose which version to use as their base text, and then amend that text with words, lines or speech prefixes from the other versions that, in their judgment, make for a better or more accurate text.

Other editorial decisions involve choices about whether an unfamiliar word could be understood in light of other writings of the period or whether it should be changed; decisions about words that made it into Shakespeare’s text by accident through four hundred years of printings and misprinting; and even decisions based on cultural preference and taste. When the Moby™ Text was created, for example, it was deemed “improper” and “indecent” for Miranda to chastise Caliban for having attempted to rape her. (See The Tempest, 1.2: “Abhorred slave,/Which any print of goodness wilt not take,/Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee…”). All Shakespeare editors at the time took the speech away from her and gave it to her father, Prospero.

The editors of the Moby™ Shakespeare produced their text long before scholars fully understood the proper grounds on which to make the thousands of decisions that Shakespeare editors face. The Folger Library Shakespeare Editions, on which the Folger Digital Texts depend, make this editorial process as nearly transparent as is possible, in contrast to older texts, like the Moby™, which hide editorial interventions. The reader of the Folger Shakespeare knows where the text has been altered because editorial interventions are signaled by square brackets (for example, from Othello: “If she in chains of magic were not bound,”), half-square brackets (for example, from Henry V: “With blood and sword and fire to win your right,”), or angle brackets (for example, from Hamlet: “O farewell, honest soldier. Who hath relieved/you?”). At any point in the text, you can hover your cursor over a bracket for more information.

Because the Folger Digital Texts are edited in accord with twenty-first century knowledge about Shakespeare’s texts, the Folger here provides them to readers, scholars, teachers, actors, directors, and students, free of charge, confident of their quality as texts of the plays and pleased to be able to make this contribution to the study and enjoyment of Shakespeare.

Synopsis

The events in King John take place in the thirteenth century, well before Shakespeare’s other English history plays. After the death of John’s brother, Richard I, John rules England.

John’s young nephew, Arthur, has a claim to the throne and is supported by the French. At first, a proposed marriage between the French crown prince and John’s niece, Blanche, calms Anglo-French tensions. Then the pope, in a dispute over recognizing an archbishop, excommunicates John and backs Arthur’s claim.

After war erupts, John captures Arthur and orders his death. Arthur’s guardian, Hubert, prepares to burn out Arthur’s eyes, but then spares him. Arthur dies leaping from the prison wall. Arthur’s mother Constance grieves inconsolably.

Meanwhile, French forces reach England. John submits to the pope to gain his aid. Rebellious English nobles join the French, but return to John when they learn the French prince plans to kill them. English forces under the bastard son of Richard I expel the French, but a monk poisons King John, whose son becomes Henry III.

Characters in the Play
John, King of England, with dominion over assorted
Continental territories
Queen Eleanor, King John’s mother, widow of King Henry II
Blanche of Spain, niece to King John
Prince Henry, son to King John
Constance, widow of Geoffrey, King John’s elder brother
Arthur, Duke of Brittany, her son
King Philip II of France
Louis the Dauphin, his son
Duke of Austria (also called Limoges)
Chatillion, ambassador from France to King John
Count Melun
A French Herald
Cardinal Pandulph, Papal Legate
Lady Faulconbridge
The Bastard, Philip Faulconbridge, her son by King Richard I
Robert Faulconbridge, her son by Sir Robert Faulconbridge
James Gurney, her servant
Hubert, supporter of King John
Earl of Salisbury
Earl of Pembroke
Earl of Essex
Lord Bigot
English nobles
A Citizen of Angiers
Peter of Pomfret, a Prophet
An English Herald
Executioners
English Messenger, French Messenger, Sheriff, Lords, Soldiers, Attendants

ACT 1
Scene 1
Enter King John, Queen Eleanor, Pembroke, Essex, and
Salisbury, with the Chatillion of France.
KING JOHN
FTLN 0001 Now say, Chatillion, what would France with us?
CHATILLION
FTLN 0002 Thus, after greeting, speaks the King of France
FTLN 0003 In my behavior to the majesty,
FTLN 0004 The borrowed majesty, of England here.
QUEEN ELEANOR
FTLN 0005 5 A strange beginning: “borrowed majesty”!
KING JOHN
FTLN 0006 Silence, good mother. Hear the embassy.
CHATILLION
FTLN 0007 Philip of France, in right and true behalf
FTLN 0008 Of thy deceasèd brother Geoffrey’s son,
FTLN 0009 Arthur Plantagenet, lays most lawful claim
FTLN 0010 10 To this fair island and the territories,
FTLN 0011 To Ireland, Poitiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine,
FTLN 0012 Desiring thee to lay aside the sword
FTLN 0013 Which sways usurpingly these several titles,
FTLN 0014 And put the same into young Arthur’s hand,
FTLN 0015 15 Thy nephew and right royal sovereign.
KING JOHN
FTLN 0016 What follows if we disallow of this?
7

9
King John
ACT 1. SC. 1
CHATILLION
FTLN 0017 The proud control of fierce and bloody war,
FTLN 0018 To enforce these rights so forcibly withheld.
KING JOHN
FTLN 0019 Here have we war for war and blood for blood,
FTLN 0020 20 Controlment for controlment: so answer France.
CHATILLION
FTLN 0021 Then take my king’s defiance from my mouth,
FTLN 0022 The farthest limit of my embassy.
KING JOHN
FTLN 0023 Bear mine to him, and so depart in peace.
FTLN 0024 Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France,
FTLN 0025 25 For ere thou canst report, I will be there;
FTLN 0026 The thunder of my cannon shall be heard.
FTLN 0027 So, hence. Be thou the trumpet of our wrath
FTLN 0028 And sullen presage of your own decay.—
FTLN 0029 An honorable conduct let him have.
FTLN 0030 30 Pembroke, look to ’t.—Farewell, Chatillion.
Chatillion and Pembroke exit.
QUEEN ELEANOR , aside to King John
FTLN 0031 What now, my son! Have I not ever said
FTLN 0032 How that ambitious Constance would not cease
FTLN 0033 Till she had kindled France and all the world
FTLN 0034 Upon the right and party of her son?
FTLN 0035 35 This might have been prevented and made whole
FTLN 0036 With very easy arguments of love,
FTLN 0037 Which now the manage of two kingdoms must
FTLN 0038 With fearful bloody issue arbitrate.
KING JOHN , aside to Queen Eleanor
FTLN 0039 Our strong possession and our right for us.
QUEEN ELEANOR , aside to King John
FTLN 0040 40 Your strong possession much more than your right,
FTLN 0041 Or else it must go wrong with you and me—
FTLN 0042 So much my conscience whispers in your ear,
FTLN 0043 Which none but God and you and I shall hear.

11
King John
ACT 1. SC. 1
Enter a Sheriff, who speaks aside to Essex.
ESSEX
FTLN 0044 My liege, here is the strangest controversy
FTLN 0045 45 Come from the country to be judged by you
FTLN 0046 That e’er I heard. Shall I produce the men?
KING JOHN FTLN 0047 Let them approach. Sheriff exits.
FTLN 0048 Our abbeys and our priories shall pay
FTLN 0049 This expedition’s charge.
Enter Robert Faulconbridge and Philip Faulconbridge.
FTLN 0050 50 What men are you?
PHILIP FAULCONBRIDGE
FTLN 0051 Your faithful subject I, a gentleman,
FTLN 0052 Born in Northamptonshire, and eldest son,
FTLN 0053 As I suppose, to Robert Faulconbridge,
FTLN 0054 A soldier, by the honor-giving hand
FTLN 0055 55 Of Coeur de Lion knighted in the field.
KING JOHN , to Robert Faulconbridge FTLN 0056 What art thou?
ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE
FTLN 0057 The son and heir to that same Faulconbridge.
KING JOHN
FTLN 0058 Is that the elder, and art thou the heir?
FTLN 0059 You came not of one mother then, it seems.
PHILIP FAULCONBRIDGE
FTLN 0060 60 Most certain of one mother, mighty king—
FTLN 0061 That is well known—and, as I think, one father.
FTLN 0062 But for the certain knowledge of that truth
FTLN 0063 I put you o’er to heaven and to my mother.
FTLN 0064 Of that I doubt, as all men’s children may.
QUEEN ELEANOR
FTLN 0065 65 Out on thee, rude man! Thou dost shame thy
FTLN 0066 mother
FTLN 0067 And wound her honor with this diffidence.
PHILIP FAULCONBRIDGE
FTLN 0068 I, madam? No, I have no reason for it.
FTLN 0069 That is my brother’s plea, and none of mine,

13
King John
ACT 1. SC. 1
FTLN 0070 70 The which if he can prove, he pops me out
FTLN 0071 At least from fair five hundred pound a year.
FTLN 0072 Heaven guard my mother’s honor and my land!
KING JOHN
FTLN 0073 A good blunt fellow.—Why, being younger born,
FTLN 0074 Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance?
PHILIP FAULCONBRIDGE
FTLN 0075 75 I know not why, except to get the land.
FTLN 0076 But once he slandered me with bastardy.
FTLN 0077 But whe’er I be as true begot or no,
FTLN 0078 That still I lay upon my mother’s head.
FTLN 0079 But that I am as well begot, my liege—
FTLN 0080 80 Fair fall the bones that took the pains for me!—
FTLN 0081 Compare our faces and be judge yourself.
FTLN 0082 If old Sir Robert did beget us both
FTLN 0083 And were our father, and this son like him,
FTLN 0084 O, old Sir Robert, father, on my knee
FTLN 0085 85 I give heaven thanks I was not like to thee!
KING JOHN
FTLN 0086 Why, what a madcap hath heaven lent us here!
QUEEN ELEANOR , aside to King John
FTLN 0087 He hath a trick of Coeur de Lion’s face;
FTLN 0088 The accent of his tongue affecteth him.
FTLN 0089 Do you not read some tokens of my son
FTLN 0090 90 In the large composition of this man?
KING JOHN , aside to Queen Eleanor
FTLN 0091 Mine eye hath well examinèd his parts
FTLN 0092 And finds them perfect Richard. To Robert
Faulconbridge FTLN 0093 Sirrah, speak.
FTLN 0094 What doth move you to claim your brother’s land?
PHILIP FAULCONBRIDGE
FTLN 0095 95 Because he hath a half-face, like my father.
FTLN 0096 With half that face would he have all my land—
FTLN 0097 A half-faced groat five hundred pound a year!
ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE
FTLN 0098 My gracious liege, when that my father lived,
FTLN 0099 Your brother did employ my father much—

15
King John
ACT 1. SC. 1
PHILIP FAULCONBRIDGE
FTLN 0100 100 Well, sir, by this you cannot get my land.
FTLN 0101 Your tale must be how he employed my mother.
ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE
FTLN 0102 And once dispatched him in an embassy
FTLN 0103 To Germany, there with the Emperor
FTLN 0104 To treat of high affairs touching that time.
FTLN 0105 105 Th’ advantage of his absence took the King
FTLN 0106 And in the meantime sojourned at my father’s;
FTLN 0107 Where how he did prevail I shame to speak.
FTLN 0108 But truth is truth: large lengths of seas and shores
FTLN 0109 Between my father and my mother lay,
FTLN 0110 110 As I have heard my father speak himself,
FTLN 0111 When this same lusty gentleman was got.
FTLN 0112 Upon his deathbed he by will bequeathed
FTLN 0113 His lands to me, and took it on his death
FTLN 0114 That this my mother’s son was none of his;
FTLN 0115 115 An if he were, he came into the world
FTLN 0116 Full fourteen weeks before the course of time.
FTLN 0117 Then, good my liege, let me have what is mine,
FTLN 0118 My father’s land, as was my father’s will.
KING JOHN
FTLN 0119 Sirrah, your brother is legitimate.
FTLN 0120 120 Your father’s wife did after wedlock bear him,
FTLN 0121 An if she did play false, the fault was hers,
FTLN 0122 Which fault lies on the hazards of all husbands
FTLN 0123 That marry wives. Tell me, how if my brother,
FTLN 0124 Who as you say took pains to get this son,
FTLN 0125 125 Had of your father claimed this son for his?
FTLN 0126 In sooth, good friend, your father might have kept
FTLN 0127 This calf, bred from his cow, from all the world;
FTLN 0128 In sooth he might. Then if he were my brother’s,
FTLN 0129 My brother might not claim him, nor your father,
FTLN 0130 130 Being none of his, refuse him. This concludes:
FTLN 0131 My mother’s son did get your father’s heir;
FTLN 0132 Your father’s heir must have your father’s land.

17
King John
ACT 1. SC. 1
ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE
FTLN 0133 Shall then my father’s will be of no force
FTLN 0134 To dispossess that child which is not his?
PHILIP FAULCONBRIDGE
FTLN 0135 135 Of no more force to dispossess me, sir,
FTLN 0136 Than was his will to get me, as I think.
QUEEN ELEANOR
FTLN 0137 Whether hadst thou rather: be a Faulconbridge
FTLN 0138 And, like thy brother, to enjoy thy land,
FTLN 0139 Or the reputed son of Coeur de Lion,
FTLN 0140 140 Lord of thy presence, and no land besides?
BASTARD
FTLN 0141 Madam, an if my brother had my shape
FTLN 0142 And I had his, Sir Robert’s his like him,
FTLN 0143 And if my legs were two such riding-rods,
FTLN 0144 My arms such eel-skins stuffed, my face so thin
FTLN 0145 145 That in mine ear I durst not stick a rose,
FTLN 0146 Lest men should say “Look where three-farthings
FTLN 0147 goes,”
FTLN 0148 And, to his shape, were heir to all this land,
FTLN 0149 Would I might never stir from off this place,
FTLN 0150 150 I would give it every foot to have this face.
FTLN 0151 I would not be Sir Nob in any case.
QUEEN ELEANOR
FTLN 0152 I like thee well. Wilt thou forsake thy fortune,
FTLN 0153 Bequeath thy land to him, and follow me?
FTLN 0154 I am a soldier and now bound to France.
BASTARD
FTLN 0155 155 Brother, take you my land. I’ll take my chance.
FTLN 0156 Your face hath got five hundred pound a year,
FTLN 0157 Yet sell your face for five pence and ’tis dear.—
FTLN 0158 Madam, I’ll follow you unto the death.
QUEEN ELEANOR
FTLN 0159 Nay, I would have you go before me thither.
BASTARD
FTLN 0160 160 Our country manners give our betters way.

19
King John
ACT 1. SC. 1
KING JOHN FTLN 0161 What is thy name?
BASTARD
FTLN 0162 Philip, my liege, so is my name begun,
FTLN 0163 Philip, good old Sir Robert’s wife’s eldest son.
KING JOHN
FTLN 0164 From henceforth bear his name whose form thou
FTLN 0165 165 bearest.
FTLN 0166 Kneel thou down Philip, but rise more great.
Philip kneels. King John dubs him a knight,
tapping him on the shoulder with his sword.
FTLN 0167 Arise Sir Richard and Plantagenet.
BASTARD , rising, to Robert Faulconbridge
FTLN 0168 Brother by th’ mother’s side, give me your hand.
FTLN 0169 My father gave me honor, yours gave land.
FTLN 0170 170 Now blessèd be the hour, by night or day,
FTLN 0171 When I was got, Sir Robert was away!
QUEEN ELEANOR
FTLN 0172 The very spirit of Plantagenet!
FTLN 0173 I am thy grandam, Richard. Call me so.
BASTARD
FTLN 0174 Madam, by chance but not by truth. What though?
FTLN 0175 175 Something about, a little from the right,
FTLN 0176 In at the window, or else o’er the hatch.
FTLN 0177 Who dares not stir by day must walk by night,
FTLN 0178 And have is have, however men do catch.
FTLN 0179 Near or far off, well won is still well shot,
FTLN 0180 180 And I am I, howe’er I was begot.
KING JOHN , to Robert Faulconbridge
FTLN 0181 Go, Faulconbridge, now hast thou thy desire.
FTLN 0182 A landless knight makes thee a landed squire.—
FTLN 0183 Come, madam,—and come, Richard. We must
FTLN 0184 speed
FTLN 0185 185 For France, for France, for it is more than need.
BASTARD
FTLN 0186 Brother, adieu, good fortune come to thee,

21
King John
ACT 1. SC. 1
FTLN 0187 For thou wast got i’ th’ way of honesty.
All but Bastard exit.
FTLN 0188 A foot of honor better than I was,
FTLN 0189 But many a many foot of land the worse.
FTLN 0190 190 Well, now can I make any Joan a lady.
FTLN 0191 “Good den, Sir Richard!” “God-a-mercy, fellow!”
FTLN 0192 An if his name be George, I’ll call him “Peter,”
FTLN 0193 For new-made honor doth forget men’s names;
FTLN 0194 ’Tis too respective and too sociable
FTLN 0195 195 For your conversion. Now your traveler,
FTLN 0196 He and his toothpick at my Worship’s mess,
FTLN 0197 And when my knightly stomach is sufficed,
FTLN 0198 Why then I suck my teeth and catechize
FTLN 0199 My pickèd man of countries: “My dear sir,”
FTLN 0200 200 Thus leaning on mine elbow I begin,
FTLN 0201 “I shall beseech you”—that is Question now,
FTLN 0202 And then comes Answer like an absey-book:
FTLN 0203 “O, sir,” says Answer, “at your best command,
FTLN 0204 At your employment, at your service, sir.”
FTLN 0205 205 “No, sir,” says Question, “I, sweet sir, at yours.”
FTLN 0206 And so, ere Answer knows what Question would,
FTLN 0207 Saving in dialogue of compliment
FTLN 0208 And talking of the Alps and Apennines,
FTLN 0209 The Pyrenean and the river Po,
FTLN 0210 210 It draws toward supper in conclusion so.
FTLN 0211 But this is worshipful society
FTLN 0212 And fits the mounting spirit like myself;
FTLN 0213 For he is but a bastard to the time
FTLN 0214 That doth not smack of observation,
FTLN 0215 215 And so am I whether I smack or no;
FTLN 0216 And not alone in habit and device,
FTLN 0217 Exterior form, outward accouterment,
FTLN 0218 But from the inward motion to deliver
FTLN 0219 Sweet, sweet, sweet poison for the age’s tooth,
FTLN 0220 220 Which though I will not practice to deceive,

23
King John
ACT 1. SC. 1
FTLN 0221 Yet to avoid deceit I mean to learn,
FTLN 0222 For it shall strew the footsteps of my rising.
Enter Lady Faulconbridge and James Gurney.
FTLN 0223 But who comes in such haste in riding robes?
FTLN 0224 What woman post is this? Hath she no husband
FTLN 0225 225 That will take pains to blow a horn before her?
FTLN 0226 O me, ’tis my mother.—How now, good lady?
FTLN 0227 What brings you here to court so hastily?
LADY FAULCONBRIDGE
FTLN 0228 Where is that slave thy brother? Where is he
FTLN 0229 That holds in chase mine honor up and down?
BASTARD
FTLN 0230 230 My brother Robert, old Sir Robert’s son?
FTLN 0231 Colbrand the Giant, that same mighty man?
FTLN 0232 Is it Sir Robert’s son that you seek so?
LADY FAULCONBRIDGE
FTLN 0233 “Sir Robert’s son”? Ay, thou unreverent boy,
FTLN 0234 Sir Robert’s son. Why scorn’st thou at Sir Robert?
FTLN 0235 235 He is Sir Robert’s son, and so art thou.
BASTARD
FTLN 0236 James Gurney, wilt thou give us leave awhile?
GURNEY
FTLN 0237 Good leave, good Philip.
BASTARD FTLN 0238 “Philip Sparrow,” James.
FTLN 0239 There’s toys abroad. Anon I’ll tell thee more.
James Gurney exits.
FTLN 0240 240 Madam, I was not old Sir Robert’s son.
FTLN 0241 Sir Robert might have eat his part in me
FTLN 0242 Upon Good Friday and ne’er broke his fast.
FTLN 0243 Sir Robert could do well—marry, to confess—
FTLN 0244 Could he get me. Sir Robert could not do it;
FTLN 0245 245 We know his handiwork. Therefore, good mother,
FTLN 0246 To whom am I beholding for these limbs?
FTLN 0247 Sir Robert never holp to make this leg.

25
King John
ACT 1. SC. 1
LADY FAULCONBRIDGE
FTLN 0248 Hast thou conspirèd with thy brother too,
FTLN 0249 That for thine own gain shouldst defend mine
FTLN 0250 250 honor?
FTLN 0251 What means this scorn, thou most untoward knave?
BASTARD
FTLN 0252 Knight, knight, good mother, Basilisco-like.
FTLN 0253 What, I am dubbed! I have it on my shoulder.
FTLN 0254 But, mother, I am not Sir Robert’s son.
FTLN 0255 255 I have disclaimed Sir Robert and my land.
FTLN 0256 Legitimation, name, and all is gone.
FTLN 0257 Then, good my mother, let me know my father—
FTLN 0258 Some proper man, I hope. Who was it, mother?
LADY FAULCONBRIDGE
FTLN 0259 Hast thou denied thyself a Faulconbridge?
BASTARD
FTLN 0260 260 As faithfully as I deny the devil.
LADY FAULCONBRIDGE
FTLN 0261 King Richard Coeur de Lion was thy father.
FTLN 0262 By long and vehement suit I was seduced
FTLN 0263 To make room for him in my husband’s bed.
FTLN 0264 Heaven lay not my transgression to my charge!
FTLN 0265 265 Thou art the issue of my dear offense,
FTLN 0266 Which was so strongly urged past my defense.
BASTARD
FTLN 0267 Now, by this light, were I to get again,
FTLN 0268 Madam, I would not wish a better father.
FTLN 0269 Some sins do bear their privilege on Earth,
FTLN 0270 270 And so doth yours. Your fault was not your folly.
FTLN 0271 Needs must you lay your heart at his dispose,
FTLN 0272 Subjected tribute to commanding love,
FTLN 0273 Against whose fury and unmatchèd force
FTLN 0274 The aweless lion could not wage the fight,
FTLN 0275 275 Nor keep his princely heart from Richard’s hand.
FTLN 0276 He that perforce robs lions of their hearts

27
King John
ACT 1. SC. 1
FTLN 0277 May easily win a woman’s. Ay, my mother,
FTLN 0278 With all my heart I thank thee for my father.
FTLN 0279 Who lives and dares but say thou didst not well
FTLN 0280 280 When I was got, I’ll send his soul to hell.
FTLN 0281 Come, lady, I will show thee to my kin,
FTLN 0282 And they shall say when Richard me begot,
FTLN 0283 If thou hadst said him nay, it had been sin.
FTLN 0284 Who says it was, he lies. I say ’twas not.
They exit.

ACT 2
Scene 1
Enter, before Angiers, at one side, with Forces, Philip
King of France, Louis the Dauphin, Constance, Arthur,
and Attendants; at the other side, with Forces, Austria,
wearing a lion’s skin.
DAUPHIN
FTLN 0285 Before Angiers well met, brave Austria.—
FTLN 0286 Arthur, that great forerunner of thy blood,
FTLN 0287 Richard, that robbed the lion of his heart
FTLN 0288 And fought the holy wars in Palestine,
FTLN 0289 5 By this brave duke came early to his grave.
FTLN 0290 And, for amends to his posterity,
FTLN 0291 At our importance hither is he come
FTLN 0292 To spread his colors, boy, in thy behalf,
FTLN 0293 And to rebuke the usurpation
FTLN 0294 10 Of thy unnatural uncle, English John.
FTLN 0295 Embrace him, love him, give him welcome hither.
ARTHUR
FTLN 0296 God shall forgive you Coeur de Lion’s death
FTLN 0297 The rather that you give his offspring life,
FTLN 0298 Shadowing their right under your wings of war.
FTLN 0299 15 I give you welcome with a powerless hand
FTLN 0300 But with a heart full of unstainèd love.
FTLN 0301 Welcome before the gates of Angiers, duke.
DAUPHIN
FTLN 0302 A noble boy. Who would not do thee right?
31

33
King John
ACT 2. SC. 1
AUSTRIA , to Arthur
FTLN 0303 Upon thy cheek lay I this zealous kiss
FTLN 0304 20 As seal to this indenture of my love:
FTLN 0305 That to my home I will no more return
FTLN 0306 Till Angiers and the right thou hast in France,
FTLN 0307 Together with that pale, that white-faced shore,
FTLN 0308 Whose foot spurns back the ocean’s roaring tides
FTLN 0309 25 And coops from other lands her islanders,
FTLN 0310 Even till that England, hedged in with the main,
FTLN 0311 That water-wallèd bulwark, still secure
FTLN 0312 And confident from foreign purposes,
FTLN 0313 Even till that utmost corner of the West
FTLN 0314 30 Salute thee for her king. Till then, fair boy,
FTLN 0315 Will I not think of home, but follow arms.
CONSTANCE
FTLN 0316 O, take his mother’s thanks, a widow’s thanks,
FTLN 0317 Till your strong hand shall help to give him strength
FTLN 0318 To make a more requital to your love.
AUSTRIA
FTLN 0319 35 The peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swords
FTLN 0320 In such a just and charitable war.
KING PHILIP
FTLN 0321 Well, then, to work. Our cannon shall be bent
FTLN 0322 Against the brows of this resisting town.
FTLN 0323 Call for our chiefest men of discipline
FTLN 0324 40 To cull the plots of best advantages.
FTLN 0325 We’ll lay before this town our royal bones,
FTLN 0326 Wade to the marketplace in Frenchmen’s blood,
FTLN 0327 But we will make it subject to this boy.
CONSTANCE
FTLN 0328 Stay for an answer to your embassy,
FTLN 0329 45 Lest unadvised you stain your swords with blood.
FTLN 0330 My lord Chatillion may from England bring
FTLN 0331 That right in peace which here we urge in war,
FTLN 0332 And then we shall repent each drop of blood
FTLN 0333 That hot rash haste so indirectly shed.

35
King John
ACT 2. SC. 1
Enter Chatillion.
KING PHILIP
FTLN 0334 50 A wonder, lady! Lo, upon thy wish
FTLN 0335 Our messenger Chatillion is arrived.—
FTLN 0336 What England says say briefly, gentle lord.
FTLN 0337 We coldly pause for thee. Chatillion, speak.
CHATILLION
FTLN 0338 Then turn your forces from this paltry siege
FTLN 0339 55 And stir them up against a mightier task.
FTLN 0340 England, impatient of your just demands,
FTLN 0341 Hath put himself in arms. The adverse winds,
FTLN 0342 Whose leisure I have stayed, have given him time
FTLN 0343 To land his legions all as soon as I.
FTLN 0344 60 His marches are expedient to this town,
FTLN 0345 His forces strong, his soldiers confident.
FTLN 0346 With him along is come the Mother Queen,
FTLN 0347 An Ate stirring him to blood and strife;
FTLN 0348 With her her niece, the Lady Blanche of Spain;
FTLN 0349 65 With them a bastard of the King’s deceased.
FTLN 0350 And all th’ unsettled humors of the land—
FTLN 0351 Rash, inconsiderate, fiery voluntaries,
FTLN 0352 With ladies’ faces and fierce dragons’ spleens—
FTLN 0353 Have sold their fortunes at their native homes,
FTLN 0354 70 Bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs,
FTLN 0355 To make a hazard of new fortunes here.
FTLN 0356 In brief, a braver choice of dauntless spirits
FTLN 0357 Than now the English bottoms have waft o’er
FTLN 0358 Did never float upon the swelling tide
FTLN 0359 75 To do offense and scathe in Christendom.
Drum beats.
FTLN 0360 The interruption of their churlish drums
FTLN 0361 Cuts off more circumstance. They are at hand,
FTLN 0362 To parley or to fight, therefore prepare.
KING PHILIP
FTLN 0363 How much unlooked-for is this expedition.

37
King John
ACT 2. SC. 1
AUSTRIA
FTLN 0364 80 By how much unexpected, by so much
FTLN 0365 We must awake endeavor for defense,
FTLN 0366 For courage mounteth with occasion.
FTLN 0367 Let them be welcome, then. We are prepared.
Enter King John of England, Bastard, Queen
Eleanor, Blanche, Salisbury, Pembroke, and others.
KING JOHN
FTLN 0368 Peace be to France, if France in peace permit
FTLN 0369 85 Our just and lineal entrance to our own.
FTLN 0370 If not, bleed France, and peace ascend to heaven,
FTLN 0371 Whiles we, God’s wrathful agent, do correct
FTLN 0372 Their proud contempt that beats his peace to heaven.
KING PHILIP
FTLN 0373 Peace be to England, if that war return
FTLN 0374 90 From France to England, there to live in peace.
FTLN 0375 England we love, and for that England’s sake
FTLN 0376 With burden of our armor here we sweat.
FTLN 0377 This toil of ours should be a work of thine;
FTLN 0378 But thou from loving England art so far
FTLN 0379 95 That thou hast underwrought his lawful king,
FTLN 0380 Cut off the sequence of posterity,
FTLN 0381 Outfacèd infant state, and done a rape
FTLN 0382 Upon the maiden virtue of the crown.
FTLN 0383 Look here upon thy brother Geoffrey’s face.
He points to Arthur.
FTLN 0384 100 These eyes, these brows, were molded out of his;
FTLN 0385 This little abstract doth contain that large
FTLN 0386 Which died in Geoffrey, and the hand of time
FTLN 0387 Shall draw this brief into as huge a volume.
FTLN 0388 That Geoffrey was thy elder brother born,
FTLN 0389 105 And this his son. England was Geoffrey’s right,
FTLN 0390 And this is Geoffrey’s. In the name of God,
FTLN 0391 How comes it then that thou art called a king,

39
King John
ACT 2. SC. 1
FTLN 0392 When living blood doth in these temples beat
FTLN 0393 Which owe the crown that thou o’ermasterest?
KING JOHN
FTLN 0394 110 From whom hast thou this great commission,
FTLN 0395 France,
FTLN 0396 To draw my answer from thy articles?
KING PHILIP
FTLN 0397 From that supernal judge that stirs good thoughts
FTLN 0398 In any breast of strong authority
FTLN 0399 115 To look into the blots and stains of right.
FTLN 0400 That judge hath made me guardian to this boy,
FTLN 0401 Under whose warrant I impeach thy wrong,
FTLN 0402 And by whose help I mean to chastise it.
KING JOHN
FTLN 0403 Alack, thou dost usurp authority.
KING PHILIP
FTLN 0404 120 Excuse it is to beat usurping down.
QUEEN ELEANOR
FTLN 0405 Who is it thou dost call usurper, France?
CONSTANCE
FTLN 0406 Let me make answer: thy usurping son.
QUEEN ELEANOR
FTLN 0407 Out, insolent! Thy bastard shall be king
FTLN 0408 That thou mayst be a queen and check the world.
CONSTANCE
FTLN 0409 125 My bed was ever to thy son as true
FTLN 0410 As thine was to thy husband, and this boy
FTLN 0411 Liker in feature to his father Geoffrey
FTLN 0412 Than thou and John, in manners being as like
FTLN 0413 As rain to water or devil to his dam.
FTLN 0414 130 My boy a bastard? By my soul, I think
FTLN 0415 His father never was so true begot.
FTLN 0416 It cannot be, an if thou wert his mother.
QUEEN ELEANOR , to Arthur
FTLN 0417 There’s a good mother, boy, that blots thy father.

41
King John
ACT 2. SC. 1
CONSTANCE
FTLN 0418 There’s a good grandam, boy, that would blot thee.
AUSTRIA
FTLN 0419 135 Peace!
BASTARD FTLN 0420 Hear the crier!
AUSTRIA FTLN 0421 What the devil art thou?
BASTARD
FTLN 0422 One that will play the devil, sir, with you,
FTLN 0423 An he may catch your hide and you alone.
FTLN 0424 140 You are the hare of whom the proverb goes,
FTLN 0425 Whose valor plucks dead lions by the beard.
FTLN 0426 I’ll smoke your skin-coat an I catch you right.
FTLN 0427 Sirrah, look to ’t. I’ faith, I will, i’ faith!
BLANCHE
FTLN 0428 O, well did he become that lion’s robe
FTLN 0429 145 That did disrobe the lion of that robe.
BASTARD
FTLN 0430 It lies as sightly on the back of him
FTLN 0431 As great Alcides’ shoes upon an ass.—
FTLN 0432 But, ass, I’ll take that burden from your back
FTLN 0433 Or lay on that shall make your shoulders crack.
AUSTRIA
FTLN 0434 150 What cracker is this same that deafs our ears
FTLN 0435 With this abundance of superfluous breath?
KING PHILIP
FTLN 0436 Louis, determine what we shall do straight.
DAUPHIN
FTLN 0437 Women and fools, break off your conference.—
FTLN 0438 King John, this is the very sum of all:
FTLN 0439 155 England and Ireland, Anjou, Touraine, Maine,
FTLN 0440 In right of Arthur do I claim of thee.
FTLN 0441 Wilt thou resign them and lay down thy arms?
KING JOHN
FTLN 0442 My life as soon! I do defy thee, France.—
FTLN 0443 Arthur of Brittany, yield thee to my hand,

43
King John
ACT 2. SC. 1
FTLN 0444 160 And out of my dear love I’ll give thee more
FTLN 0445 Than e’er the coward hand of France can win.
FTLN 0446 Submit thee, boy.
QUEEN ELEANOR FTLN 0447 Come to thy grandam, child.
CONSTANCE
FTLN 0448 Do, child, go to it grandam, child.
FTLN 0449 165 Give grandam kingdom, and it grandam will
FTLN 0450 Give it a plum, a cherry, and a fig.
FTLN 0451 There’s a good grandam.
ARTHUR , weeping FTLN 0452 Good my mother, peace.
FTLN 0453 I would that I were low laid in my grave.
FTLN 0454 170 I am not worth this coil that’s made for me.
QUEEN ELEANOR
FTLN 0455 His mother shames him so, poor boy, he weeps.
CONSTANCE
FTLN 0456 Now shame upon you whe’er she does or no!
FTLN 0457 His grandam’s wrongs, and not his mother’s
FTLN 0458 shames,
FTLN 0459 175 Draws those heaven-moving pearls from his poor
FTLN 0460 eyes,
FTLN 0461 Which heaven shall take in nature of a fee.
FTLN 0462 Ay, with these crystal beads heaven shall be bribed
FTLN 0463 To do him justice and revenge on you.
QUEEN ELEANOR
FTLN 0464 180 Thou monstrous slanderer of heaven and Earth!
CONSTANCE
FTLN 0465 Thou monstrous injurer of heaven and Earth,
FTLN 0466 Call not me slanderer. Thou and thine usurp
FTLN 0467 The dominations, royalties, and rights
FTLN 0468 Of this oppressèd boy. This is thy eldest son’s son,
FTLN 0469 185 Infortunate in nothing but in thee.
FTLN 0470 Thy sins are visited in this poor child.
FTLN 0471 The canon of the law is laid on him,
FTLN 0472 Being but the second generation
FTLN 0473 Removèd from thy sin-conceiving womb.

45
King John
ACT 2. SC. 1
KING JOHN
FTLN 0474 190 Bedlam, have done.
CONSTANCE FTLN 0475 I have but this to say,
FTLN 0476 That he is not only plaguèd for her sin,
FTLN 0477 But God hath made her sin and her the plague
FTLN 0478 On this removèd issue, plagued for her,
FTLN 0479 195 And with her plague; her sin his injury,
FTLN 0480 Her injury the beadle to her sin,
FTLN 0481 All punished in the person of this child
FTLN 0482 And all for her. A plague upon her!
QUEEN ELEANOR
FTLN 0483 Thou unadvisèd scold, I can produce
FTLN 0484 200 A will that bars the title of thy son.
CONSTANCE
FTLN 0485 Ay, who doubts that? A will—a wicked will,
FTLN 0486 A woman’s will, a cankered grandam’s will.
KING PHILIP
FTLN 0487 Peace, lady. Pause, or be more temperate.
FTLN 0488 It ill beseems this presence to cry aim
FTLN 0489 205 To these ill-tunèd repetitions.—
FTLN 0490 Some trumpet summon hither to the walls
FTLN 0491 These men of Angiers. Let us hear them speak
FTLN 0492 Whose title they admit, Arthur’s or John’s.
Trumpet sounds.
Enter Citizens upon the walls.
CITIZEN
FTLN 0493 Who is it that hath warned us to the walls?
KING PHILIP
FTLN 0494 210 ’Tis France, for England.
KING JOHN FTLN 0495 England, for itself.
FTLN 0496 You men of Angiers, and my loving subjects—
KING PHILIP
FTLN 0497 You loving men of Angiers, Arthur’s subjects,
FTLN 0498 Our trumpet called you to this gentle parle—

47
King John
ACT 2. SC. 1
KING JOHN
FTLN 0499 215 For our advantage. Therefore hear us first.
FTLN 0500 These flags of France that are advancèd here
FTLN 0501 Before the eye and prospect of your town,
FTLN 0502 Have hither marched to your endamagement.
FTLN 0503 The cannons have their bowels full of wrath,
FTLN 0504 220 And ready mounted are they to spit forth
FTLN 0505 Their iron indignation ’gainst your walls.
FTLN 0506 All preparation for a bloody siege
FTLN 0507 And merciless proceeding by these French
FTLN 0508 Confronts your city’s eyes, your winking gates,
FTLN 0509 225 And, but for our approach, those sleeping stones,
FTLN 0510 That as a waist doth girdle you about,
FTLN 0511 By the compulsion of their ordinance
FTLN 0512 By this time from their fixèd beds of lime
FTLN 0513 Had been dishabited, and wide havoc made
FTLN 0514 230 For bloody power to rush upon your peace.
FTLN 0515 But on the sight of us your lawful king,
FTLN 0516 Who painfully with much expedient march
FTLN 0517 Have brought a countercheck before your gates
FTLN 0518 To save unscratched your city’s threatened cheeks,
FTLN 0519 235 Behold, the French, amazed, vouchsafe a parle.
FTLN 0520 And now, instead of bullets wrapped in fire
FTLN 0521 To make a shaking fever in your walls,
FTLN 0522 They shoot but calm words folded up in smoke
FTLN 0523 To make a faithless error in your ears,
FTLN 0524 240 Which trust accordingly, kind citizens,
FTLN 0525 And let us in. Your king, whose labored spirits
FTLN 0526 Forwearied in this action of swift speed,
FTLN 0527 Craves harborage within your city walls.
KING PHILIP
FTLN 0528 When I have said, make answer to us both.
He takes Arthur by the hand.
FTLN 0529 245 Lo, in this right hand, whose protection
FTLN 0530 Is most divinely vowed upon the right

49
King John
ACT 2. SC. 1
FTLN 0531 Of him it holds, stands young Plantagenet,
FTLN 0532 Son to the elder brother of this man,
FTLN 0533 And king o’er him and all that he enjoys.
FTLN 0534 250 For this downtrodden equity we tread
FTLN 0535 In warlike march these greens before your town,
FTLN 0536 Being no further enemy to you
FTLN 0537 Than the constraint of hospitable zeal
FTLN 0538 In the relief of this oppressèd child
FTLN 0539 255 Religiously provokes. Be pleasèd then
FTLN 0540 To pay that duty which you truly owe
FTLN 0541 To him that owes it, namely, this young prince,
FTLN 0542 And then our arms, like to a muzzled bear
FTLN 0543 Save in aspect, hath all offense sealed up.
FTLN 0544 260 Our cannons’ malice vainly shall be spent
FTLN 0545 Against th’ invulnerable clouds of heaven,
FTLN 0546 And with a blessèd and unvexed retire,
FTLN 0547 With unbacked swords and helmets all unbruised,
FTLN 0548 We will bear home that lusty blood again
FTLN 0549 265 Which here we came to spout against your town,
FTLN 0550 And leave your children, wives, and you in peace.
FTLN 0551 But if you fondly pass our proffered offer,
FTLN 0552 ’Tis not the roundure of your old-faced walls
FTLN 0553 Can hide you from our messengers of war,
FTLN 0554 270 Though all these English and their discipline
FTLN 0555 Were harbored in their rude circumference.
FTLN 0556 Then tell us, shall your city call us lord
FTLN 0557 In that behalf which we have challenged it?
FTLN 0558 Or shall we give the signal to our rage
FTLN 0559 275 And stalk in blood to our possession?
CITIZEN
FTLN 0560 In brief, we are the King of England’s subjects.
FTLN 0561 For him, and in his right, we hold this town.
KING JOHN
FTLN 0562 Acknowledge then the King and let me in.
CITIZEN
FTLN 0563 That can we not. But he that proves the King,

51
King John
ACT 2. SC. 1
FTLN 0564 280 To him will we prove loyal. Till that time
FTLN 0565 Have we rammed up our gates against the world.
KING JOHN
FTLN 0566 Doth not the crown of England prove the King?
FTLN 0567 And if not that, I bring you witnesses,
FTLN 0568 Twice fifteen thousand hearts of England’s breed—
BASTARD FTLN 0569 285 Bastards and else.
KING JOHN
FTLN 0570 To verify our title with their lives.
KING PHILIP
FTLN 0571 As many and as wellborn bloods as those—
BASTARD FTLN 0572 Some bastards too.
KING PHILIP
FTLN 0573 Stand in his face to contradict his claim.
CITIZEN
FTLN 0574 290 Till you compound whose right is worthiest,
FTLN 0575 We for the worthiest hold the right from both.
KING JOHN
FTLN 0576 Then God forgive the sin of all those souls
FTLN 0577 That to their everlasting residence,
FTLN 0578 Before the dew of evening fall, shall fleet
FTLN 0579 295 In dreadful trial of our kingdom’s king.
KING PHILIP
FTLN 0580 Amen, amen.—Mount, chevaliers! To arms!
BASTARD
FTLN 0581 Saint George, that swinged the dragon and e’er
FTLN 0582 since
FTLN 0583 Sits on ’s horseback at mine hostess’ door,
FTLN 0584 300 Teach us some fence! To Austria. Sirrah, were I at
FTLN 0585 home
FTLN 0586 At your den, sirrah, with your lioness,
FTLN 0587 I would set an ox head to your lion’s hide
FTLN 0588 And make a monster of you.
AUSTRIA FTLN 0589 305 Peace! No more.
BASTARD
FTLN 0590 O, tremble, for you hear the lion roar.

53
King John
ACT 2. SC. 1
KING JOHN , to his officers
FTLN 0591 Up higher to the plain, where we’ll set forth
FTLN 0592 In best appointment all our regiments.
BASTARD
FTLN 0593 Speed, then, to take advantage of the field.
KING PHILIP , to his officers
FTLN 0594 310 It shall be so, and at the other hill
FTLN 0595 Command the rest to stand. God and our right!
They exit. Citizens remain, above.
Here, after excursions, enter the Herald of France, with
Trumpets, to the gates.
FRENCH HERALD
FTLN 0596 You men of Angiers, open wide your gates,
FTLN 0597 And let young Arthur, Duke of Brittany, in,
FTLN 0598 Who by the hand of France this day hath made
FTLN 0599 315 Much work for tears in many an English mother,
FTLN 0600 Whose sons lie scattered on the bleeding ground.
FTLN 0601 Many a widow’s husband groveling lies
FTLN 0602 Coldly embracing the discolored earth,
FTLN 0603 And victory with little loss doth play
FTLN 0604 320 Upon the dancing banners of the French,
FTLN 0605 Who are at hand, triumphantly displayed,
FTLN 0606 To enter conquerors and to proclaim
FTLN 0607 Arthur of Brittany England’s king and yours.
Enter English Herald, with Trumpet.
ENGLISH HERALD
FTLN 0608 Rejoice, you men of Angiers, ring your bells!
FTLN 0609 325 King John, your king and England’s, doth approach,
FTLN 0610 Commander of this hot malicious day.
FTLN 0611 Their armors, that marched hence so silver bright,
FTLN 0612 Hither return all gilt with Frenchmen’s blood.
FTLN 0613 There stuck no plume in any English crest
FTLN 0614 330 That is removèd by a staff of France.

55
King John
ACT 2. SC. 1
FTLN 0615 Our colors do return in those same hands
FTLN 0616 That did display them when we first marched forth,
FTLN 0617 And like a jolly troop of huntsmen come
FTLN 0618 Our lusty English, all with purpled hands,
FTLN 0619 335 Dyed in the dying slaughter of their foes.
FTLN 0620 Open your gates, and give the victors way.
CITIZEN
FTLN 0621 Heralds, from off our towers we might behold
FTLN 0622 From first to last the onset and retire
FTLN 0623 Of both your armies, whose equality
FTLN 0624 340 By our best eyes cannot be censurèd.
FTLN 0625 Blood hath bought blood, and blows have answered
FTLN 0626 blows,
FTLN 0627 Strength matched with strength, and power
FTLN 0628 confronted power.
FTLN 0629 345 Both are alike, and both alike we like.
FTLN 0630 One must prove greatest. While they weigh so even,
FTLN 0631 We hold our town for neither, yet for both.
Enter the two Kings with their Powers (including the
Bastard, Queen Eleanor, Blanche, and Salisbury;
Austria, and Louis the Dauphin), at several doors.
KING JOHN
FTLN 0632 France, hast thou yet more blood to cast away?
FTLN 0633 Say, shall the current of our right roam on,
FTLN 0634 350 Whose passage, vexed with thy impediment,
FTLN 0635 Shall leave his native channel and o’erswell
FTLN 0636 With course disturbed even thy confining shores,
FTLN 0637 Unless thou let his silver water keep
FTLN 0638 A peaceful progress to the ocean?
KING PHILIP
FTLN 0639 355 England, thou hast not saved one drop of blood
FTLN 0640 In this hot trial more than we of France,
FTLN 0641 Rather lost more. And by this hand I swear
FTLN 0642 That sways the earth this climate overlooks,

57
King John
ACT 2. SC. 1
FTLN 0643 Before we will lay down our just-borne arms,
FTLN 0644 360 We’ll put thee down, ’gainst whom these arms we
FTLN 0645 bear,
FTLN 0646 Or add a royal number to the dead,
FTLN 0647 Gracing the scroll that tells of this war’s loss
FTLN 0648 With slaughter coupled to the name of kings.
BASTARD , aside
FTLN 0649 365 Ha, majesty! How high thy glory towers
FTLN 0650 When the rich blood of kings is set on fire!
FTLN 0651 O, now doth Death line his dead chaps with steel,
FTLN 0652 The swords of soldiers are his teeth, his fangs,
FTLN 0653 And now he feasts, mousing the flesh of men
FTLN 0654 370 In undetermined differences of kings.
FTLN 0655 Why stand these royal fronts amazèd thus?
FTLN 0656 Cry havoc, kings! Back to the stainèd field,
FTLN 0657 You equal potents, fiery-kindled spirits.
FTLN 0658 Then let confusion of one part confirm
FTLN 0659 375 The other’s peace. Till then, blows, blood, and
FTLN 0660 death!
KING JOHN
FTLN 0661 Whose party do the townsmen yet admit?
KING PHILIP
FTLN 0662 Speak, citizens, for England. Who’s your king?
CITIZEN
FTLN 0663 The King of England, when we know the King.
KING PHILIP
FTLN 0664 380 Know him in us, that here hold up his right.
KING JOHN
FTLN 0665 In us, that are our own great deputy
FTLN 0666 And bear possession of our person here,
FTLN 0667 Lord of our presence, Angiers, and of you.
CITIZEN
FTLN 0668 A greater power than we denies all this,
FTLN 0669 385 And till it be undoubted, we do lock
FTLN 0670 Our former scruple in our strong-barred gates,

59
King John
ACT 2. SC. 1
FTLN 0671 Kings of our fear, until our fears resolved
FTLN 0672 Be by some certain king purged and deposed.
BASTARD
FTLN 0673 By heaven, these scroyles of Angiers flout you, kings,
FTLN 0674 390 And stand securely on their battlements
FTLN 0675 As in a theater, whence they gape and point
FTLN 0676 At your industrious scenes and acts of death.
FTLN 0677 Your royal presences, be ruled by me:
FTLN 0678 Do like the mutines of Jerusalem,
FTLN 0679 395 Be friends awhile, and both conjointly bend
FTLN 0680 Your sharpest deeds of malice on this town.
FTLN 0681 By east and west let France and England mount
FTLN 0682 Their battering cannon chargèd to the mouths,
FTLN 0683 Till their soul-fearing clamors have brawled down
FTLN 0684 400 The flinty ribs of this contemptuous city.
FTLN 0685 I’d play incessantly upon these jades,
FTLN 0686 Even till unfencèd desolation
FTLN 0687 Leave them as naked as the vulgar air.
FTLN 0688 That done, dissever your united strengths
FTLN 0689 405 And part your mingled colors once again;
FTLN 0690 Turn face to face and bloody point to point.
FTLN 0691 Then in a moment Fortune shall cull forth
FTLN 0692 Out of one side her happy minion,
FTLN 0693 To whom in favor she shall give the day
FTLN 0694 410 And kiss him with a glorious victory.
FTLN 0695 How like you this wild counsel, mighty states?
FTLN 0696 Smacks it not something of the policy?
KING JOHN
FTLN 0697 Now by the sky that hangs above our heads,
FTLN 0698 I like it well. France, shall we knit our powers
FTLN 0699 415 And lay this Angiers even with the ground,
FTLN 0700 Then after fight who shall be king of it?
BASTARD , to King Philip
FTLN 0701 An if thou hast the mettle of a king,
FTLN 0702 Being wronged as we are by this peevish town,

61
King John
ACT 2. SC. 1
FTLN 0703 Turn thou the mouth of thy artillery,
FTLN 0704 420 As we will ours, against these saucy walls,
FTLN 0705 And when that we have dashed them to the ground,
FTLN 0706 Why, then, defy each other and pell-mell
FTLN 0707 Make work upon ourselves, for heaven or hell.
KING PHILIP
FTLN 0708 Let it be so. Say, where will you assault?
KING JOHN
FTLN 0709 425 We from the west will send destruction
FTLN 0710 Into this city’s bosom.
AUSTRIA FTLN 0711 I from the north.
KING PHILIP FTLN 0712 Our thunder from the south
FTLN 0713 Shall rain their drift of bullets on this town.
BASTARD , aside
FTLN 0714 430 O, prudent discipline! From north to south,
FTLN 0715 Austria and France shoot in each other’s mouth.
FTLN 0716 I’ll stir them to it. — Come, away, away!
CITIZEN
FTLN 0717 Hear us, great kings. Vouchsafe awhile to stay,
FTLN 0718 And I shall show you peace and fair-faced league,
FTLN 0719 435 Win you this city without stroke or wound,
FTLN 0720 Rescue those breathing lives to die in beds
FTLN 0721 That here come sacrifices for the field.
FTLN 0722 Persever not, but hear me, mighty kings.
KING JOHN
FTLN 0723 Speak on with favor. We are bent to hear.
CITIZEN
FTLN 0724 440 That daughter there of Spain, the Lady Blanche,
FTLN 0725 Is near to England. Look upon the years
FTLN 0726 Of Louis the Dauphin and that lovely maid.
FTLN 0727 If lusty love should go in quest of beauty,
FTLN 0728 Where should he find it fairer than in Blanche?
FTLN 0729 445 If zealous love should go in search of virtue,
FTLN 0730 Where should he find it purer than in Blanche?
FTLN 0731 If love ambitious sought a match of birth,

63
King John
ACT 2. SC. 1
FTLN 0732 Whose veins bound richer blood than Lady
FTLN 0733 Blanche?
FTLN 0734 450 Such as she is, in beauty, virtue, birth,
FTLN 0735 Is the young Dauphin every way complete.
FTLN 0736 If not complete of, say he is not she,
FTLN 0737 And she again wants nothing, to name want,
FTLN 0738 If want it be not that she is not he.
FTLN 0739 455 He is the half part of a blessèd man,
FTLN 0740 Left to be finishèd by such as she,
FTLN 0741 And she a fair divided excellence,
FTLN 0742 Whose fullness of perfection lies in him.
FTLN 0743 O, two such silver currents when they join
FTLN 0744 460 Do glorify the banks that bound them in,
FTLN 0745 And two such shores to two such streams made one,
FTLN 0746 Two such controlling bounds shall you be, kings,
FTLN 0747 To these two princes, if you marry them.
FTLN 0748 This union shall do more than battery can
FTLN 0749 465 To our fast-closèd gates, for at this match,
FTLN 0750 With swifter spleen than powder can enforce,
FTLN 0751 The mouth of passage shall we fling wide ope
FTLN 0752 And give you entrance. But without this match,
FTLN 0753 The sea enragèd is not half so deaf,
FTLN 0754 470 Lions more confident, mountains and rocks
FTLN 0755 More free from motion, no, not Death himself
FTLN 0756 In mortal fury half so peremptory
FTLN 0757 As we to keep this city.
King Philip and Louis the Dauphin
walk aside and talk.
BASTARD , aside FTLN 0758 Here’s a stay
FTLN 0759 475 That shakes the rotten carcass of old Death
FTLN 0760 Out of his rags! Here’s a large mouth indeed
FTLN 0761 That spits forth death and mountains, rocks and
FTLN 0762 seas;
FTLN 0763 Talks as familiarly of roaring lions
FTLN 0764 480 As maids of thirteen do of puppy dogs.

65
King John
ACT 2. SC. 1
FTLN 0765 What cannoneer begot this lusty blood?
FTLN 0766 He speaks plain cannon fire, and smoke, and
FTLN 0767 bounce.
FTLN 0768 He gives the bastinado with his tongue.
FTLN 0769 485 Our ears are cudgeled. Not a word of his
FTLN 0770 But buffets better than a fist of France.
FTLN 0771 Zounds, I was never so bethumped with words
FTLN 0772 Since I first called my brother’s father Dad.
QUEEN ELEANOR , aside to King John
FTLN 0773 Son, list to this conjunction; make this match.
FTLN 0774 490 Give with our niece a dowry large enough,
FTLN 0775 For by this knot thou shalt so surely tie
FTLN 0776 Thy now unsured assurance to the crown
FTLN 0777 That yon green boy shall have no sun to ripe
FTLN 0778 The bloom that promiseth a mighty fruit.
FTLN 0779 495 I see a yielding in the looks of France.
FTLN 0780 Mark how they whisper. Urge them while their
FTLN 0781 souls
FTLN 0782 Are capable of this ambition,
FTLN 0783 Lest zeal, now melted by the windy breath
FTLN 0784 500 Of soft petitions, pity, and remorse,
FTLN 0785 Cool and congeal again to what it was.
CITIZEN
FTLN 0786 Why answer not the double majesties
FTLN 0787 This friendly treaty of our threatened town?
KING PHILIP
FTLN 0788 Speak England first, that hath been forward first
FTLN 0789 505 To speak unto this city. What say you?
KING JOHN
FTLN 0790 If that the Dauphin there, thy princely son,
FTLN 0791 Can in this book of beauty read “I love,”
FTLN 0792 Her dowry shall weigh equal with a queen.
FTLN 0793 For Anjou and fair Touraine, Maine, Poitiers,
FTLN 0794 510 And all that we upon this side the sea—
FTLN 0795 Except this city now by us besieged—

67
King John
ACT 2. SC. 1
FTLN 0796 Find liable to our crown and dignity,
FTLN 0797 Shall gild her bridal bed and make her rich
FTLN 0798 In titles, honors, and promotions,
FTLN 0799 515 As she in beauty, education, blood,
FTLN 0800 Holds hand with any princess of the world.
KING PHILIP
FTLN 0801 What sayst thou, boy? Look in the lady’s face.
DAUPHIN
FTLN 0802 I do, my lord, and in her eye I find
FTLN 0803 A wonder or a wondrous miracle,
FTLN 0804 520 The shadow of myself formed in her eye,
FTLN 0805 Which, being but the shadow of your son,
FTLN 0806 Becomes a sun and makes your son a shadow.
FTLN 0807 I do protest I never loved myself
FTLN 0808 Till now infixèd I beheld myself
FTLN 0809 525 Drawn in the flattering table of her eye.
He whispers with Blanche.
BASTARD , aside
FTLN 0810 “Drawn in the flattering table of her eye”?
FTLN 0811 Hanged in the frowning wrinkle of her brow
FTLN 0812 And quartered in her heart! He doth espy
FTLN 0813 Himself love’s traitor. This is pity now,
FTLN 0814 530 That hanged and drawn and quartered there should
FTLN 0815 be
FTLN 0816 In such a love so vile a lout as he.
BLANCHE , aside to Dauphin
FTLN 0817 My uncle’s will in this respect is mine.
FTLN 0818 If he see aught in you that makes him like,
FTLN 0819 535 That anything he sees which moves his liking
FTLN 0820 I can with ease translate it to my will.
FTLN 0821 Or if you will, to speak more properly,
FTLN 0822 I will enforce it eas’ly to my love.
FTLN 0823 Further I will not flatter you, my lord,
FTLN 0824 540 That all I see in you is worthy love,
FTLN 0825 Than this: that nothing do I see in you,

69
King John
ACT 2. SC. 1
FTLN 0826 Though churlish thoughts themselves should be
FTLN 0827 your judge,
FTLN 0828 That I can find should merit any hate.
KING JOHN
FTLN 0829 545 What say these young ones? What say you, my
FTLN 0830 niece?
BLANCHE
FTLN 0831 That she is bound in honor still to do
FTLN 0832 What you in wisdom still vouchsafe to say.
KING JOHN
FTLN 0833 Speak then, Prince Dauphin. Can you love this lady?
DAUPHIN
FTLN 0834 550 Nay, ask me if I can refrain from love,
FTLN 0835 For I do love her most unfeignedly.
KING JOHN
FTLN 0836 Then do I give Volquessen, Touraine, Maine,
FTLN 0837 Poitiers and Anjou, these five provinces
FTLN 0838 With her to thee, and this addition more:
FTLN 0839 555 Full thirty thousand marks of English coin.—
FTLN 0840 Philip of France, if thou be pleased withal,
FTLN 0841 Command thy son and daughter to join hands.
KING PHILIP
FTLN 0842 It likes us well.—Young princes, close your hands.
AUSTRIA
FTLN 0843 And your lips too, for I am well assured
FTLN 0844 560 That I did so when I was first assured.
Dauphin and Blanche join hands and kiss.
KING PHILIP
FTLN 0845 Now, citizens of Angiers, ope your gates.
FTLN 0846 Let in that amity which you have made,
FTLN 0847 For at Saint Mary’s Chapel presently
FTLN 0848 The rites of marriage shall be solemnized.—
FTLN 0849 565 Is not the Lady Constance in this troop?
FTLN 0850 I know she is not, for this match made up
FTLN 0851 Her presence would have interrupted much.
FTLN 0852 Where is she and her son? Tell me, who knows.

71
King John
ACT 2. SC. 1
DAUPHIN
FTLN 0853 She is sad and passionate at your Highness’ tent.
KING PHILIP
FTLN 0854 570 And by my faith, this league that we have made
FTLN 0855 Will give her sadness very little cure.—
FTLN 0856 Brother of England, how may we content
FTLN 0857 This widow lady? In her right we came,
FTLN 0858 Which we, God knows, have turned another way
FTLN 0859 575 To our own vantage.
KING JOHN FTLN 0860 We will heal up all,
FTLN 0861 For we’ll create young Arthur Duke of Brittany
FTLN 0862 And Earl of Richmond, and this rich, fair town
FTLN 0863 We make him lord of.—Call the Lady Constance.
FTLN 0864 580 Some speedy messenger bid her repair
FTLN 0865 To our solemnity. Salisbury exits. I trust we
FTLN 0866 shall,
FTLN 0867 If not fill up the measure of her will,
FTLN 0868 Yet in some measure satisfy her so
FTLN 0869 585 That we shall stop her exclamation.
FTLN 0870 Go we as well as haste will suffer us
FTLN 0871 To this unlooked-for, unpreparèd pomp.
All but the Bastard exit.
BASTARD
FTLN 0872 Mad world, mad kings, mad composition!
FTLN 0873 John, to stop Arthur’s title in the whole,
FTLN 0874 590 Hath willingly departed with a part;
FTLN 0875 And France, whose armor conscience buckled on,
FTLN 0876 Whom zeal and charity brought to the field
FTLN 0877 As God’s own soldier, rounded in the ear
FTLN 0878 With that same purpose-changer, that sly devil,
FTLN 0879 595 That broker that still breaks the pate of faith,
FTLN 0880 That daily break-vow, he that wins of all,
FTLN 0881 Of kings, of beggars, old men, young men, maids—
FTLN 0882 Who having no external thing to lose
FTLN 0883 But the word “maid,” cheats the poor maid of
FTLN 0884 600 that—

73
King John
ACT 2. SC. 1
FTLN 0885 That smooth-faced gentleman, tickling Commodity,
FTLN 0886 Commodity, the bias of the world—
FTLN 0887 The world, who of itself is peisèd well,
FTLN 0888 Made to run even upon even ground,
FTLN 0889 605 Till this advantage, this vile-drawing bias,
FTLN 0890 This sway of motion, this Commodity,
FTLN 0891 Makes it take head from all indifferency,
FTLN 0892 From all direction, purpose, course, intent.
FTLN 0893 And this same bias, this Commodity,
FTLN 0894 610 This bawd, this broker, this all-changing word,
FTLN 0895 Clapped on the outward eye of fickle France,
FTLN 0896 Hath drawn him from his own determined aid,
FTLN 0897 From a resolved and honorable war
FTLN 0898 To a most base and vile-concluded peace.
FTLN 0899 615 And why rail I on this Commodity?
FTLN 0900 But for because he hath not wooed me yet.
FTLN 0901 Not that I have the power to clutch my hand
FTLN 0902 When his fair angels would salute my palm,
FTLN 0903 But for my hand, as unattempted yet,
FTLN 0904 620 Like a poor beggar raileth on the rich.
FTLN 0905 Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail
FTLN 0906 And say there is no sin but to be rich;
FTLN 0907 And being rich, my virtue then shall be
FTLN 0908 To say there is no vice but beggary.
FTLN 0909 625 Since kings break faith upon Commodity,
FTLN 0910 Gain, be my lord, for I will worship thee!
He exits.

ACT 3
Scene 1
Enter Constance, Arthur, and Salisbury.
CONSTANCE , to Salisbury
FTLN 0911 Gone to be married? Gone to swear a peace?
FTLN 0912 False blood to false blood joined? Gone to be friends?
FTLN 0913 Shall Louis have Blanche and Blanche those
FTLN 0914 provinces?
FTLN 0915 5 It is not so. Thou hast misspoke, misheard.
FTLN 0916 Be well advised; tell o’er thy tale again.
FTLN 0917 It cannot be; thou dost but say ’tis so.
FTLN 0918 I trust I may not trust thee, for thy word
FTLN 0919 Is but the vain breath of a common man.
FTLN 0920 10 Believe me, I do not believe thee, man.
FTLN 0921 I have a king’s oath to the contrary.
FTLN 0922 Thou shalt be punished for thus flighting me,
FTLN 0923 For I am sick and capable of fears,
FTLN 0924 Oppressed with wrongs and therefore full of fears,
FTLN 0925 15 A widow, husbandless, subject to fears,
FTLN 0926 A woman naturally born to fears.
FTLN 0927 And though thou now confess thou didst but jest,
FTLN 0928 With my vexed spirits I cannot take a truce,
FTLN 0929 But they will quake and tremble all this day.
FTLN 0930 20 What dost thou mean by shaking of thy head?
FTLN 0931 Why dost thou look so sadly on my son?
FTLN 0932 What means that hand upon that breast of thine?
77

79
King John
ACT 3. SC. 1
FTLN 0933 Why holds thine eye that lamentable rheum,
FTLN 0934 Like a proud river peering o’er his bounds?
FTLN 0935 25 Be these sad signs confirmers of thy words?
FTLN 0936 Then speak again—not all thy former tale,
FTLN 0937 But this one word, whether thy tale be true.
SALISBURY
FTLN 0938 As true as I believe you think them false
FTLN 0939 That give you cause to prove my saying true.
CONSTANCE
FTLN 0940 30 O, if thou teach me to believe this sorrow,
FTLN 0941 Teach thou this sorrow how to make me die,
FTLN 0942 And let belief and life encounter so
FTLN 0943 As doth the fury of two desperate men
FTLN 0944 Which in the very meeting fall and die.
FTLN 0945 35 Louis marry Blanche?—O, boy, then where art
FTLN 0946 thou?—
FTLN 0947 France friend with England? What becomes of me?
FTLN 0948 Fellow, be gone. I cannot brook thy sight.
FTLN 0949 This news hath made thee a most ugly man.
SALISBURY
FTLN 0950 40 What other harm have I, good lady, done
FTLN 0951 But spoke the harm that is by others done?
CONSTANCE
FTLN 0952 Which harm within itself so heinous is
FTLN 0953 As it makes harmful all that speak of it.
ARTHUR
FTLN 0954 I do beseech you, madam, be content.
CONSTANCE
FTLN 0955 45 If thou that bidd’st me be content wert grim,
FTLN 0956 Ugly, and sland’rous to thy mother’s womb,
FTLN 0957 Full of unpleasing blots and sightless stains,
FTLN 0958 Lame, foolish, crooked, swart, prodigious,
FTLN 0959 Patched with foul moles and eye-offending marks,
FTLN 0960 50 I would not care; I then would be content,
FTLN 0961 For then I should not love thee; no, nor thou

81
King John
ACT 3. SC. 1
FTLN 0962 Become thy great birth, nor deserve a crown.
FTLN 0963 But thou art fair, and at thy birth, dear boy,
FTLN 0964 Nature and Fortune joined to make thee great.
FTLN 0965 55 Of Nature’s gifts thou mayst with lilies boast,
FTLN 0966 And with the half-blown rose. But Fortune, O,
FTLN 0967 She is corrupted, changed, and won from thee;
FTLN 0968 Sh’ adulterates hourly with thine Uncle John,
FTLN 0969 And with her golden hand hath plucked on France
FTLN 0970 60 To tread down fair respect of sovereignty,
FTLN 0971 And made his majesty the bawd to theirs.
FTLN 0972 France is a bawd to Fortune and King John,
FTLN 0973 That strumpet Fortune, that usurping John.—
FTLN 0974 Tell me, thou fellow, is not France forsworn?
FTLN 0975 65 Envenom him with words, or get thee gone
FTLN 0976 And leave those woes alone which I alone
FTLN 0977 Am bound to underbear.
SALISBURY FTLN 0978 Pardon me, madam,
FTLN 0979 I may not go without you to the Kings.
CONSTANCE
FTLN 0980 70 Thou mayst, thou shalt, I will not go with thee.
FTLN 0981 I will instruct my sorrows to be proud,
FTLN 0982 For grief is proud and makes his owner stoop.
She sits down.
FTLN 0983 To me and to the state of my great grief
FTLN 0984 Let kings assemble, for my grief ’s so great
FTLN 0985 75 That no supporter but the huge firm Earth
FTLN 0986 Can hold it up. Here I and sorrows sit.
FTLN 0987 Here is my throne; bid kings come bow to it.
Enter King John, hand in hand with King Philip of
France, Louis the Dauphin, Blanche, Queen Eleanor,
Bastard, Austria, and Attendants.
KING PHILIP , to Blanche
FTLN 0988 ’Tis true, fair daughter, and this blessèd day
FTLN 0989 Ever in France shall be kept festival.

83
King John
ACT 3. SC. 1
FTLN 0990 80 To solemnize this day the glorious sun
FTLN 0991 Stays in his course and plays the alchemist,
FTLN 0992 Turning with splendor of his precious eye
FTLN 0993 The meager cloddy earth to glittering gold.
FTLN 0994 The yearly course that brings this day about
FTLN 0995 85 Shall never see it but a holy day.
CONSTANCE , rising
FTLN 0996 A wicked day, and not a holy day!
FTLN 0997 What hath this day deserved? What hath it done
FTLN 0998 That it in golden letters should be set
FTLN 0999 Among the high tides in the calendar?
FTLN 1000 90 Nay, rather turn this day out of the week,
FTLN 1001 This day of shame, oppression, perjury.
FTLN 1002 Or if it must stand still, let wives with child
FTLN 1003 Pray that their burdens may not fall this day,
FTLN 1004 Lest that their hopes prodigiously be crossed.
FTLN 1005 95 But on this day let seamen fear no wrack;
FTLN 1006 No bargains break that are not this day made;
FTLN 1007 This day, all things begun come to ill end,
FTLN 1008 Yea, faith itself to hollow falsehood change!
KING PHILIP
FTLN 1009 By heaven, lady, you shall have no cause
FTLN 1010 100 To curse the fair proceedings of this day.
FTLN 1011 Have I not pawned to you my majesty?
CONSTANCE
FTLN 1012 You have beguiled me with a counterfeit
FTLN 1013 Resembling majesty, which, being touched and tried,
FTLN 1014 Proves valueless. You are forsworn, forsworn.
FTLN 1015 105 You came in arms to spill mine enemies’ blood,
FTLN 1016 But now in arms you strengthen it with yours.
FTLN 1017 The grappling vigor and rough frown of war
FTLN 1018 Is cold in amity and painted peace,
FTLN 1019 And our oppression hath made up this league.
FTLN 1020 110 Arm, arm, you heavens, against these perjured
FTLN 1021 kings!

85
King John
ACT 3. SC. 1
FTLN 1022 A widow cries; be husband to me, God!
FTLN 1023 Let not the hours of this ungodly day
FTLN 1024 Wear out the days in peace, but ere sunset
FTLN 1025 115 Set armèd discord ’twixt these perjured kings.
FTLN 1026 Hear me, O, hear me!
AUSTRIA FTLN 1027 Lady Constance, peace.
CONSTANCE
FTLN 1028 War, war, no peace! Peace is to me a war.
FTLN 1029 O Limoges, O Austria, thou dost shame
FTLN 1030 120 That bloody spoil. Thou slave, thou wretch, thou
FTLN 1031 coward,
FTLN 1032 Thou little valiant, great in villainy,
FTLN 1033 Thou ever strong upon the stronger side,
FTLN 1034 Thou Fortune’s champion, that dost never fight
FTLN 1035 125 But when her humorous Ladyship is by
FTLN 1036 To teach thee safety. Thou art perjured too,
FTLN 1037 And sooth’st up greatness. What a fool art thou,
FTLN 1038 A ramping fool, to brag and stamp and swear
FTLN 1039 Upon my party. Thou cold-blooded slave,
FTLN 1040 130 Hast thou not spoke like thunder on my side?
FTLN 1041 Been sworn my soldier, bidding me depend
FTLN 1042 Upon thy stars, thy fortune, and thy strength?
FTLN 1043 And dost thou now fall over to my foes?
FTLN 1044 Thou wear a lion’s hide! Doff it for shame,
FTLN 1045 135 And hang a calfskin on those recreant limbs.
AUSTRIA
FTLN 1046 O, that a man should speak those words to me!
BASTARD
FTLN 1047 “And hang a calfskin on those recreant limbs.”
AUSTRIA
FTLN 1048 Thou dar’st not say so, villain, for thy life!
BASTARD
FTLN 1049 “And hang a calfskin on those recreant limbs.”
KING JOHN
FTLN 1050 140 We like not this. Thou dost forget thyself.

87
King John
ACT 3. SC. 1
Enter Pandulph.
KING PHILIP
FTLN 1051 Here comes the holy legate of the Pope.
PANDULPH
FTLN 1052 Hail, you anointed deputies of heaven!
FTLN 1053 To thee, King John, my holy errand is.
FTLN 1054 I, Pandulph, of fair Milan cardinal
FTLN 1055 145 And from Pope Innocent the legate here,
FTLN 1056 Do in his name religiously demand
FTLN 1057 Why thou against the Church, our holy mother,
FTLN 1058 So willfully dost spurn, and force perforce
FTLN 1059 Keep Stephen Langton, chosen Archbishop
FTLN 1060 150 Of Canterbury, from that Holy See.
FTLN 1061 This, in our foresaid Holy Father’s name,
FTLN 1062 Pope Innocent, I do demand of thee.
KING JOHN
FTLN 1063 What earthy name to interrogatories
FTLN 1064 Can task the free breath of a sacred king?
FTLN 1065 155 Thou canst not, cardinal, devise a name
FTLN 1066 So slight, unworthy, and ridiculous
FTLN 1067 To charge me to an answer, as the Pope.
FTLN 1068 Tell him this tale, and from the mouth of England
FTLN 1069 Add thus much more, that no Italian priest
FTLN 1070 160 Shall tithe or toll in our dominions;
FTLN 1071 But as we under God are supreme head,
FTLN 1072 So, under Him, that great supremacy
FTLN 1073 Where we do reign we will alone uphold
FTLN 1074 Without th’ assistance of a mortal hand.
FTLN 1075 165 So tell the Pope, all reverence set apart
FTLN 1076 To him and his usurped authority.
KING PHILIP
FTLN 1077 Brother of England, you blaspheme in this.
KING JOHN
FTLN 1078 Though you and all the kings of Christendom
FTLN 1079 Are led so grossly by this meddling priest,

89
King John
ACT 3. SC. 1
FTLN 1080 170 Dreading the curse that money may buy out,
FTLN 1081 And by the merit of vile gold, dross, dust,
FTLN 1082 Purchase corrupted pardon of a man
FTLN 1083 Who in that sale sells pardon from himself,
FTLN 1084 Though you and all the rest, so grossly led,
FTLN 1085 175 This juggling witchcraft with revenue cherish,
FTLN 1086 Yet I alone, alone do me oppose
FTLN 1087 Against the Pope, and count his friends my foes.
PANDULPH
FTLN 1088 Then, by the lawful power that I have,
FTLN 1089 Thou shalt stand cursed and excommunicate;
FTLN 1090 180 And blessèd shall he be that doth revolt
FTLN 1091 From his allegiance to an heretic;
FTLN 1092 And meritorious shall that hand be called,
FTLN 1093 Canonizèd and worshiped as a saint,
FTLN 1094 That takes away by any secret course
FTLN 1095 185 Thy hateful life.
CONSTANCE FTLN 1096 O, lawful let it be
FTLN 1097 That I have room with Rome to curse awhile!
FTLN 1098 Good father cardinal, cry thou “Amen”
FTLN 1099 To my keen curses, for without my wrong
FTLN 1100 190 There is no tongue hath power to curse him right.
PANDULPH
FTLN 1101 There’s law and warrant, lady, for my curse.
CONSTANCE
FTLN 1102 And for mine, too. When law can do no right,
FTLN 1103 Let it be lawful that law bar no wrong.
FTLN 1104 Law cannot give my child his kingdom here,
FTLN 1105 195 For he that holds his kingdom holds the law.
FTLN 1106 Therefore, since law itself is perfect wrong,
FTLN 1107 How can the law forbid my tongue to curse?
PANDULPH
FTLN 1108 Philip of France, on peril of a curse,
FTLN 1109 Let go the hand of that arch-heretic,
FTLN 1110 200 And raise the power of France upon his head
FTLN 1111 Unless he do submit himself to Rome.

91
King John
ACT 3. SC. 1
QUEEN ELEANOR
FTLN 1112 Look’st thou pale, France? Do not let go thy hand.
CONSTANCE
FTLN 1113 Look to that, devil, lest that France repent
FTLN 1114 And by disjoining hands, hell lose a soul.
AUSTRIA
FTLN 1115 205 King Philip, listen to the Cardinal.
BASTARD
FTLN 1116 And hang a calfskin on his recreant limbs.
AUSTRIA
FTLN 1117 Well, ruffian, I must pocket up these wrongs,
FTLN 1118 Because—
BASTARD FTLN 1119 Your breeches best may carry them.
KING JOHN
FTLN 1120 210 Philip, what sayst thou to the Cardinal?
CONSTANCE
FTLN 1121 What should he say, but as the Cardinal?
DAUPHIN
FTLN 1122 Bethink you, father, for the difference
FTLN 1123 Is purchase of a heavy curse from Rome,
FTLN 1124 Or the light loss of England for a friend.
FTLN 1125 215 Forgo the easier.
BLANCHE FTLN 1126 That’s the curse of Rome.
CONSTANCE
FTLN 1127 O Louis, stand fast! The devil tempts thee here
FTLN 1128 In likeness of a new untrimmèd bride.
BLANCHE
FTLN 1129 The Lady Constance speaks not from her faith,
FTLN 1130 220 But from her need.
CONSTANCE , to King Philip
FTLN 1131 O, if thou grant my need,
FTLN 1132 Which only lives but by the death of faith,
FTLN 1133 That need must needs infer this principle:
FTLN 1134 That faith would live again by death of need.
FTLN 1135 225 O, then tread down my need, and faith mounts up;
FTLN 1136 Keep my need up, and faith is trodden down.

93
King John
ACT 3. SC. 1
KING JOHN
FTLN 1137 The King is moved, and answers not to this.
CONSTANCE , to King Philip
FTLN 1138 O, be removed from him, and answer well!
AUSTRIA
FTLN 1139 Do so, King Philip. Hang no more in doubt.
BASTARD
FTLN 1140 230 Hang nothing but a calfskin, most sweet lout.
KING PHILIP
FTLN 1141 I am perplexed and know not what to say.
PANDULPH
FTLN 1142 What canst thou say but will perplex thee more,
FTLN 1143 If thou stand excommunicate and cursed?
KING PHILIP
FTLN 1144 Good reverend father, make my person yours,
FTLN 1145 235 And tell me how you would bestow yourself.
FTLN 1146 This royal hand and mine are newly knit,
FTLN 1147 And the conjunction of our inward souls
FTLN 1148 Married, in league, coupled, and linked together
FTLN 1149 With all religious strength of sacred vows.
FTLN 1150 240 The latest breath that gave the sound of words
FTLN 1151 Was deep-sworn faith, peace, amity, true love
FTLN 1152 Between our kingdoms and our royal selves;
FTLN 1153 And even before this truce, but new before,
FTLN 1154 No longer than we well could wash our hands
FTLN 1155 245 To clap this royal bargain up of peace,
FTLN 1156 God knows they were besmeared and overstained
FTLN 1157 With slaughter’s pencil, where revenge did paint
FTLN 1158 The fearful difference of incensèd kings.
FTLN 1159 And shall these hands, so lately purged of blood,
FTLN 1160 250 So newly joined in love, so strong in both,
FTLN 1161 Unyoke this seizure and this kind regreet?
FTLN 1162 Play fast and loose with faith? So jest with heaven?
FTLN 1163 Make such unconstant children of ourselves
FTLN 1164 As now again to snatch our palm from palm,

95
King John
ACT 3. SC. 1
FTLN 1165 255 Unswear faith sworn, and on the marriage bed
FTLN 1166 Of smiling peace to march a bloody host
FTLN 1167 And make a riot on the gentle brow
FTLN 1168 Of true sincerity? O holy sir,
FTLN 1169 My reverend father, let it not be so!
FTLN 1170 260 Out of your grace, devise, ordain, impose
FTLN 1171 Some gentle order, and then we shall be blest
FTLN 1172 To do your pleasure and continue friends.
PANDULPH
FTLN 1173 All form is formless, order orderless,
FTLN 1174 Save what is opposite to England’s love.
FTLN 1175 265 Therefore to arms! Be champion of our Church,
FTLN 1176 Or let the Church, our mother, breathe her curse,
FTLN 1177 A mother’s curse, on her revolting son.
FTLN 1178 France, thou mayst hold a serpent by the tongue,
FTLN 1179 A chafèd lion by the mortal paw,
FTLN 1180 270 A fasting tiger safer by the tooth,
FTLN 1181 Than keep in peace that hand which thou dost hold.
KING PHILIP
FTLN 1182 I may disjoin my hand, but not my faith.
PANDULPH
FTLN 1183 So mak’st thou faith an enemy to faith,
FTLN 1184 And like a civil war sett’st oath to oath,
FTLN 1185 275 Thy tongue against thy tongue. O, let thy vow
FTLN 1186 First made to God, first be to God performed,
FTLN 1187 That is, to be the champion of our Church!
FTLN 1188 What since thou swor’st is sworn against thyself
FTLN 1189 And may not be performèd by thyself,
FTLN 1190 280 For that which thou hast sworn to do amiss
FTLN 1191 Is not amiss when it is truly done;
FTLN 1192 And being not done where doing tends to ill,
FTLN 1193 The truth is then most done not doing it.
FTLN 1194 The better act of purposes mistook
FTLN 1195 285 Is to mistake again; though indirect,
FTLN 1196 Yet indirection thereby grows direct,

97
King John
ACT 3. SC. 1
FTLN 1197 And falsehood falsehood cures, as fire cools fire
FTLN 1198 Within the scorchèd veins of one new-burned.
FTLN 1199 It is religion that doth make vows kept,
FTLN 1200 290 But thou hast sworn against religion
FTLN 1201 By what thou swear’st against the thing thou
FTLN 1202 swear’st,
FTLN 1203 And mak’st an oath the surety for thy truth
FTLN 1204 Against an oath. The truth thou art unsure
FTLN 1205 295 To swear swears only not to be forsworn,
FTLN 1206 Else what a mockery should it be to swear?
FTLN 1207 But thou dost swear only to be forsworn,
FTLN 1208 And most forsworn to keep what thou dost swear.
FTLN 1209 Therefore thy later vows against thy first
FTLN 1210 300 Is in thyself rebellion to thyself.
FTLN 1211 And better conquest never canst thou make
FTLN 1212 Than arm thy constant and thy nobler parts
FTLN 1213 Against these giddy loose suggestions,
FTLN 1214 Upon which better part our prayers come in,
FTLN 1215 305 If thou vouchsafe them. But if not, then know
FTLN 1216 The peril of our curses light on thee
FTLN 1217 So heavy as thou shalt not shake them off,
FTLN 1218 But in despair die under their black weight.
AUSTRIA
FTLN 1219 Rebellion, flat rebellion!
BASTARD FTLN 1220 310 Will ’t not be?
FTLN 1221 Will not a calfskin stop that mouth of thine?
DAUPHIN
FTLN 1222 Father, to arms!
BLANCHE FTLN 1223 Upon thy wedding day?
FTLN 1224 Against the blood that thou hast marrièd?
FTLN 1225 315 What, shall our feast be kept with slaughtered men?
FTLN 1226 Shall braying trumpets and loud churlish drums,
FTLN 1227 Clamors of hell, be measures to our pomp?
She kneels.
FTLN 1228 O husband, hear me! Ay, alack, how new
FTLN 1229 Is “husband” in my mouth! Even for that name,

99
King John
ACT 3. SC. 1
FTLN 1230 320 Which till this time my tongue did ne’er pronounce,
FTLN 1231 Upon my knee I beg, go not to arms
FTLN 1232 Against mine uncle.
CONSTANCE , kneeling
FTLN 1233 O, upon my knee
FTLN 1234 Made hard with kneeling, I do pray to thee,
FTLN 1235 325 Thou virtuous Dauphin, alter not the doom
FTLN 1236 Forethought by heaven!
BLANCHE , to Dauphin
FTLN 1237 Now shall I see thy love. What motive may
FTLN 1238 Be stronger with thee than the name of wife?
CONSTANCE
FTLN 1239 That which upholdeth him that thee upholds,
FTLN 1240 330 His honor.—O, thine honor, Louis, thine honor!
DAUPHIN , to King Philip
FTLN 1241 I muse your Majesty doth seem so cold,
FTLN 1242 When such profound respects do pull you on.
PANDULPH
FTLN 1243 I will denounce a curse upon his head.
KING PHILIP , dropping King John’s hand
FTLN 1244 Thou shalt not need.—England, I will fall from
FTLN 1245 335 thee.
CONSTANCE , rising
FTLN 1246 O, fair return of banished majesty!
QUEEN ELEANOR
FTLN 1247 O, foul revolt of French inconstancy!
KING JOHN
FTLN 1248 France, thou shalt rue this hour within this hour.
BASTARD
FTLN 1249 Old Time the clock-setter, that bald sexton Time,
FTLN 1250 340 Is it as he will? Well, then, France shall rue.
BLANCHE , rising
FTLN 1251 The sun’s o’ercast with blood. Fair day, adieu.
FTLN 1252 Which is the side that I must go withal?
FTLN 1253 I am with both, each army hath a hand,

101
King John
ACT 3. SC. 2
FTLN 1254 And in their rage, I having hold of both,
FTLN 1255 345 They whirl asunder and dismember me.
FTLN 1256 Husband, I cannot pray that thou mayst win.—
FTLN 1257 Uncle, I needs must pray that thou mayst lose.—
FTLN 1258 Father, I may not wish the fortune thine.—
FTLN 1259 Grandam, I will not wish thy wishes thrive.
FTLN 1260 350 Whoever wins, on that side shall I lose.
FTLN 1261 Assurèd loss before the match be played.
DAUPHIN
FTLN 1262 Lady, with me, with me thy fortune lies.
BLANCHE
FTLN 1263 There where my fortune lives, there my life dies.
KING JOHN , to Bastard
FTLN 1264 Cousin, go draw our puissance together.
Bastard exits.
FTLN 1265 355 France, I am burned up with inflaming wrath,
FTLN 1266 A rage whose heat hath this condition,
FTLN 1267 That nothing can allay, nothing but blood—
FTLN 1268 The blood, and dearest-valued blood, of France.
KING PHILIP
FTLN 1269 Thy rage shall burn thee up, and thou shalt turn
FTLN 1270 360 To ashes ere our blood shall quench that fire.
FTLN 1271 Look to thyself. Thou art in jeopardy.
KING JOHN
FTLN 1272 No more than he that threats.—To arms let’s hie!
They exit.
Scene 2
Alarums, excursions.
Enter Bastard with Austria’s head.
BASTARD
FTLN 1273 Now, by my life, this day grows wondrous hot.
FTLN 1274 Some airy devil hovers in the sky
FTLN 1275 And pours down mischief. Austria’s head lie there,
FTLN 1276 While Philip breathes.

103
King John
ACT 3. SC. 3
Enter King John, Arthur, Hubert.
KING JOHN
FTLN 1277 5 Hubert, keep this boy.—Philip, make up.
FTLN 1278 My mother is assailèd in our tent
FTLN 1279 And ta’en, I fear.
BASTARD FTLN 1280 My lord, I rescued her.
FTLN 1281 Her Highness is in safety, fear you not.
FTLN 1282 10 But on, my liege, for very little pains
FTLN 1283 Will bring this labor to an happy end.
They exit.
Scene 3
Alarums, excursions, retreat.
Enter King John, Queen Eleanor, Arthur, Bastard,
Hubert, Lords.
KING JOHN , to Queen Eleanor
FTLN 1284 So shall it be. Your Grace shall stay behind
FTLN 1285 So strongly guarded. To Arthur. Cousin, look not sad.
FTLN 1286 Thy grandam loves thee, and thy uncle will
FTLN 1287 As dear be to thee as thy father was.
ARTHUR
FTLN 1288 5 O, this will make my mother die with grief!
KING JOHN , to Bastard
FTLN 1289 Cousin, away for England! Haste before,
FTLN 1290 And ere our coining see thou shake the bags
FTLN 1291 Of hoarding abbots; imprisoned angels
FTLN 1292 Set at liberty. The fat ribs of peace
FTLN 1293 10 Must by the hungry now be fed upon.
FTLN 1294 Use our commission in his utmost force.
BASTARD
FTLN 1295 Bell, book, and candle shall not drive me back
FTLN 1296 When gold and silver becks me to come on.
FTLN 1297 I leave your Highness.—Grandam, I will pray,

105
King John
ACT 3. SC. 3
FTLN 1298 15 If ever I remember to be holy,
FTLN 1299 For your fair safety. So I kiss your hand.
QUEEN ELEANOR
FTLN 1300 Farewell, gentle cousin.
KING JOHN FTLN 1301 Coz, farewell. Bastard exits.
QUEEN ELEANOR , to Arthur
FTLN 1302 Come hither, little kinsman. Hark, a word.
They walk aside.
KING JOHN
FTLN 1303 20 Come hither, Hubert. He takes Hubert aside.
FTLN 1304 O, my gentle Hubert,
FTLN 1305 We owe thee much. Within this wall of flesh
FTLN 1306 There is a soul counts thee her creditor,
FTLN 1307 And with advantage means to pay thy love.
FTLN 1308 25 And, my good friend, thy voluntary oath
FTLN 1309 Lives in this bosom dearly cherishèd.
FTLN 1310 Give me thy hand. I had a thing to say,
FTLN 1311 But I will fit it with some better tune.
FTLN 1312 By heaven, Hubert, I am almost ashamed
FTLN 1313 30 To say what good respect I have of thee.
HUBERT
FTLN 1314 I am much bounden to your Majesty.
KING JOHN
FTLN 1315 Good friend, thou hast no cause to say so yet,
FTLN 1316 But thou shalt have. And, creep time ne’er so slow,
FTLN 1317 Yet it shall come for me to do thee good.
FTLN 1318 35 I had a thing to say—but let it go.
FTLN 1319 The sun is in the heaven, and the proud day,
FTLN 1320 Attended with the pleasures of the world,
FTLN 1321 Is all too wanton and too full of gauds
FTLN 1322 To give me audience. If the midnight bell
FTLN 1323 40 Did with his iron tongue and brazen mouth
FTLN 1324 Sound on into the drowsy race of night;
FTLN 1325 If this same were a churchyard where we stand,
FTLN 1326 And thou possessèd with a thousand wrongs;

107
King John
ACT 3. SC. 3
FTLN 1327 Or if that surly spirit, melancholy,
FTLN 1328 45 Had baked thy blood and made it heavy, thick,
FTLN 1329 Which else runs tickling up and down the veins,
FTLN 1330 Making that idiot, laughter, keep men’s eyes
FTLN 1331 And strain their cheeks to idle merriment,
FTLN 1332 A passion hateful to my purposes;
FTLN 1333 50 Or if that thou couldst see me without eyes,
FTLN 1334 Hear me without thine ears, and make reply
FTLN 1335 Without a tongue, using conceit alone,
FTLN 1336 Without eyes, ears, and harmful sound of words;
FTLN 1337 Then, in despite of brooded watchful day,
FTLN 1338 55 I would into thy bosom pour my thoughts.
FTLN 1339 But, ah, I will not. Yet I love thee well,
FTLN 1340 And by my troth I think thou lov’st me well.
HUBERT
FTLN 1341 So well that what you bid me undertake,
FTLN 1342 Though that my death were adjunct to my act,
FTLN 1343 60 By heaven, I would do it.
KING JOHN FTLN 1344 Do not I know thou wouldst?
FTLN 1345 Good Hubert, Hubert, Hubert, throw thine eye
FTLN 1346 On yon young boy. I’ll tell thee what, my friend,
FTLN 1347 He is a very serpent in my way,
FTLN 1348 65 And wheresoe’er this foot of mine doth tread,
FTLN 1349 He lies before me. Dost thou understand me?
FTLN 1350 Thou art his keeper.
HUBERT FTLN 1351 And I’ll keep him so
FTLN 1352 That he shall not offend your Majesty.
KING JOHN
FTLN 1353 70 Death.
HUBERT FTLN 1354 My lord?
KING JOHN FTLN 1355 A grave.
HUBERT FTLN 1356 He shall not live.
KING JOHN FTLN 1357 Enough.
FTLN 1358 75 I could be merry now. Hubert, I love thee.
FTLN 1359 Well, I’ll not say what I intend for thee.

109
King John
ACT 3. SC. 4
FTLN 1360 Remember. He turns to Queen Eleanor. Madam, fare
FTLN 1361 you well.
FTLN 1362 I’ll send those powers o’er to your Majesty.
QUEEN ELEANOR FTLN 1363 80 My blessing go with thee.
KING JOHN , to Arthur FTLN 1364 For England, cousin, go.
FTLN 1365 Hubert shall be your man, attend on you
FTLN 1366 With all true duty.—On toward Calais, ho!
They exit.
Scene 4
Enter King Philip of France,Louis the Dauphin,
Pandulph, Attendants.
KING PHILIP
FTLN 1367 So, by a roaring tempest on the flood,
FTLN 1368 A whole armada of convicted sail
FTLN 1369 Is scattered and disjoined from fellowship.
PANDULPH
FTLN 1370 Courage and comfort. All shall yet go well.
KING PHILIP
FTLN 1371 5 What can go well when we have run so ill?
FTLN 1372 Are we not beaten? Is not Angiers lost?
FTLN 1373 Arthur ta’en prisoner? Divers dear friends slain?
FTLN 1374 And bloody England into England gone,
FTLN 1375 O’erbearing interruption, spite of France?
DAUPHIN
FTLN 1376 10 What he hath won, that hath he fortified.
FTLN 1377 So hot a speed, with such advice disposed,
FTLN 1378 Such temperate order in so fierce a cause,
FTLN 1379 Doth want example. Who hath read or heard
FTLN 1380 Of any kindred action like to this?
KING PHILIP
FTLN 1381 15 Well could I bear that England had this praise,
FTLN 1382 So we could find some pattern of our shame.
Enter Constance, with her hair unbound.

111
King John
ACT 3. SC. 4
FTLN 1383 Look who comes here! A grave unto a soul,
FTLN 1384 Holding th’ eternal spirit against her will
FTLN 1385 In the vile prison of afflicted breath.—
FTLN 1386 20 I prithee, lady, go away with me.
CONSTANCE
FTLN 1387 Lo, now, now see the issue of your peace!
KING PHILIP
FTLN 1388 Patience, good lady. Comfort, gentle Constance.
CONSTANCE
FTLN 1389 No, I defy all counsel, all redress,
FTLN 1390 But that which ends all counsel, true redress.
FTLN 1391 25 Death, death, O amiable, lovely death,
FTLN 1392 Thou odoriferous stench, sound rottenness,
FTLN 1393 Arise forth from the couch of lasting night,
FTLN 1394 Thou hate and terror to prosperity,
FTLN 1395 And I will kiss thy detestable bones
FTLN 1396 30 And put my eyeballs in thy vaulty brows,
FTLN 1397 And ring these fingers with thy household worms,
FTLN 1398 And stop this gap of breath with fulsome dust,
FTLN 1399 And be a carrion monster like thyself.
FTLN 1400 Come, grin on me, and I will think thou smil’st,
FTLN 1401 35 And buss thee as thy wife. Misery’s love,
FTLN 1402 O, come to me!
KING PHILIP FTLN 1403 O fair affliction, peace!
CONSTANCE
FTLN 1404 No, no, I will not, having breath to cry.
FTLN 1405 O, that my tongue were in the thunder’s mouth!
FTLN 1406 40 Then with a passion would I shake the world
FTLN 1407 And rouse from sleep that fell anatomy
FTLN 1408 Which cannot hear a lady’s feeble voice,
FTLN 1409 Which scorns a modern invocation.
PANDULPH
FTLN 1410 Lady, you utter madness and not sorrow.
CONSTANCE
FTLN 1411 45 Thou art not holy to belie me so.
FTLN 1412 I am not mad. This hair I tear is mine;

113
King John
ACT 3. SC. 4
FTLN 1413 My name is Constance; I was Geoffrey’s wife;
FTLN 1414 Young Arthur is my son, and he is lost.
FTLN 1415 I am not mad; I would to heaven I were,
FTLN 1416 50 For then ’tis like I should forget myself.
FTLN 1417 O, if I could, what grief should I forget!
FTLN 1418 Preach some philosophy to make me mad,
FTLN 1419 And thou shalt be canonized, cardinal.
FTLN 1420 For, being not mad but sensible of grief,
FTLN 1421 55 My reasonable part produces reason
FTLN 1422 How I may be delivered of these woes,
FTLN 1423 And teaches me to kill or hang myself.
FTLN 1424 If I were mad, I should forget my son,
FTLN 1425 Or madly think a babe of clouts were he.
FTLN 1426 60 I am not mad. Too well, too well I feel
FTLN 1427 The different plague of each calamity.
KING PHILIP
FTLN 1428 Bind up those tresses.—O, what love I note
FTLN 1429 In the fair multitude of those her hairs;
FTLN 1430 Where but by chance a silver drop hath fall’n,
FTLN 1431 65 Even to that drop ten thousand wiry friends
FTLN 1432 Do glue themselves in sociable grief,
FTLN 1433 Like true, inseparable, faithful loves,
FTLN 1434 Sticking together in calamity.
CONSTANCE
FTLN 1435 To England, if you will.
KING PHILIP FTLN 1436 70 Bind up your hairs.
CONSTANCE
FTLN 1437 Yes, that I will. And wherefore will I do it?
FTLN 1438 I tore them from their bonds and cried aloud
FTLN 1439 “O, that these hands could so redeem my son,
FTLN 1440 As they have given these hairs their liberty!”
FTLN 1441 75 But now I envy at their liberty,
FTLN 1442 And will again commit them to their bonds,
FTLN 1443 Because my poor child is a prisoner.
She binds up her hair.

115
King John
ACT 3. SC. 4
FTLN 1444 And father cardinal, I have heard you say
FTLN 1445 That we shall see and know our friends in heaven.
FTLN 1446 80 If that be true, I shall see my boy again;
FTLN 1447 For since the birth of Cain, the first male child,
FTLN 1448 To him that did but yesterday suspire,
FTLN 1449 There was not such a gracious creature born.
FTLN 1450 But now will canker sorrow eat my bud
FTLN 1451 85 And chase the native beauty from his cheek,
FTLN 1452 And he will look as hollow as a ghost,
FTLN 1453 As dim and meager as an ague’s fit,
FTLN 1454 And so he’ll die; and, rising so again,
FTLN 1455 When I shall meet him in the court of heaven
FTLN 1456 90 I shall not know him. Therefore never, never
FTLN 1457 Must I behold my pretty Arthur more.
PANDULPH
FTLN 1458 You hold too heinous a respect of grief.
CONSTANCE
FTLN 1459 He talks to me that never had a son.
KING PHILIP
FTLN 1460 You are as fond of grief as of your child.
CONSTANCE
FTLN 1461 95 Grief fills the room up of my absent child,
FTLN 1462 Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,
FTLN 1463 Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
FTLN 1464 Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
FTLN 1465 Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form;
FTLN 1466 100 Then, have I reason to be fond of grief?
FTLN 1467 Fare you well. Had you such a loss as I,
FTLN 1468 I could give better comfort than you do.
She unbinds her hair.
FTLN 1469 I will not keep this form upon my head
FTLN 1470 When there is such disorder in my wit.
FTLN 1471 105 O Lord! My boy, my Arthur, my fair son,
FTLN 1472 My life, my joy, my food, my all the world,
FTLN 1473 My widow-comfort and my sorrows’ cure! She exits.

117
King John
ACT 3. SC. 4
KING PHILIP
FTLN 1474 I fear some outrage, and I’ll follow her.
He exits, with Attendants.
DAUPHIN
FTLN 1475 There’s nothing in this world can make me joy.
FTLN 1476 110 Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale,
FTLN 1477 Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man;
FTLN 1478 And bitter shame hath spoiled the sweet world’s
FTLN 1479 taste,
FTLN 1480 That it yields naught but shame and bitterness.
PANDULPH
FTLN 1481 115 Before the curing of a strong disease,
FTLN 1482 Even in the instant of repair and health,
FTLN 1483 The fit is strongest. Evils that take leave
FTLN 1484 On their departure most of all show evil.
FTLN 1485 What have you lost by losing of this day?
DAUPHIN
FTLN 1486 120 All days of glory, joy, and happiness.
PANDULPH
FTLN 1487 If you had won it, certainly you had.
FTLN 1488 No, no. When Fortune means to men most good,
FTLN 1489 She looks upon them with a threat’ning eye.
FTLN 1490 ’Tis strange to think how much King John hath lost
FTLN 1491 125 In this which he accounts so clearly won.
FTLN 1492 Are not you grieved that Arthur is his prisoner?
DAUPHIN
FTLN 1493 As heartily as he is glad he hath him.
PANDULPH
FTLN 1494 Your mind is all as youthful as your blood.
FTLN 1495 Now hear me speak with a prophetic spirit.
FTLN 1496 130 For even the breath of what I mean to speak
FTLN 1497 Shall blow each dust, each straw, each little rub,
FTLN 1498 Out of the path which shall directly lead
FTLN 1499 Thy foot to England’s throne. And therefore mark:
FTLN 1500 John hath seized Arthur, and it cannot be
FTLN 1501 135 That, whiles warm life plays in that infant’s veins,

119
King John
ACT 3. SC. 4
FTLN 1502 The misplaced John should entertain an hour,
FTLN 1503 One minute, nay, one quiet breath of rest.
FTLN 1504 A scepter snatched with an unruly hand
FTLN 1505 Must be as boisterously maintained as gained.
FTLN 1506 140 And he that stands upon a slipp’ry place
FTLN 1507 Makes nice of no vile hold to stay him up.
FTLN 1508 That John may stand, then Arthur needs must fall.
FTLN 1509 So be it, for it cannot be but so.
DAUPHIN
FTLN 1510 But what shall I gain by young Arthur’s fall?
PANDULPH
FTLN 1511 145 You, in the right of Lady Blanche your wife,
FTLN 1512 May then make all the claim that Arthur did.
DAUPHIN
FTLN 1513 And lose it, life and all, as Arthur did.
PANDULPH
FTLN 1514 How green you are and fresh in this old world!
FTLN 1515 John lays you plots. The times conspire with you,
FTLN 1516 150 For he that steeps his safety in true blood
FTLN 1517 Shall find but bloody safety, and untrue.
FTLN 1518 This act so evilly borne shall cool the hearts
FTLN 1519 Of all his people and freeze up their zeal,
FTLN 1520 That none so small advantage shall step forth
FTLN 1521 155 To check his reign but they will cherish it.
FTLN 1522 No natural exhalation in the sky,
FTLN 1523 No scope of nature, no distempered day,
FTLN 1524 No common wind, no customèd event,
FTLN 1525 But they will pluck away his natural cause
FTLN 1526 160 And call them meteors, prodigies, and signs,
FTLN 1527 Abortives, presages, and tongues of heaven,
FTLN 1528 Plainly denouncing vengeance upon John.
DAUPHIN
FTLN 1529 Maybe he will not touch young Arthur’s life,
FTLN 1530 But hold himself safe in his prisonment.
PANDULPH
FTLN 1531 165 O, sir, when he shall hear of your approach,

121
King John
ACT 3. SC. 4
FTLN 1532 If that young Arthur be not gone already,
FTLN 1533 Even at that news he dies; and then the hearts
FTLN 1534 Of all his people shall revolt from him
FTLN 1535 And kiss the lips of unacquainted change,
FTLN 1536 170 And pick strong matter of revolt and wrath
FTLN 1537 Out of the bloody fingers’ ends of John.
FTLN 1538 Methinks I see this hurly all on foot;
FTLN 1539 And, O, what better matter breeds for you
FTLN 1540 Than I have named! The bastard Faulconbridge
FTLN 1541 175 Is now in England ransacking the Church,
FTLN 1542 Offending charity. If but a dozen French
FTLN 1543 Were there in arms, they would be as a call
FTLN 1544 To train ten thousand English to their side,
FTLN 1545 Or as a little snow, tumbled about,
FTLN 1546 180 Anon becomes a mountain. O noble dauphin,
FTLN 1547 Go with me to the King. ’Tis wonderful
FTLN 1548 What may be wrought out of their discontent,
FTLN 1549 Now that their souls are topful of offense.
FTLN 1550 For England, go. I will whet on the King.
DAUPHIN
FTLN 1551 185 Strong reasons makes strange actions. Let us go.
FTLN 1552 If you say ay, the King will not say no.
They exit.

ACT 4
Scene 1
Enter Hubert and Executioners, with irons and rope.
HUBERT
FTLN 1553 Heat me these irons hot, and look thou stand
FTLN 1554 Within the arras. When I strike my foot
FTLN 1555 Upon the bosom of the ground, rush forth
FTLN 1556 And bind the boy which you shall find with me
FTLN 1557 5 Fast to the chair. Be heedful. Hence, and watch.
EXECUTIONER
FTLN 1558 I hope your warrant will bear out the deed.
HUBERT
FTLN 1559 Uncleanly scruples fear not you. Look to ’t.
Executioners exit.
FTLN 1560 Young lad, come forth. I have to say with you.
Enter Arthur.
ARTHUR
FTLN 1561 Good morrow, Hubert.
HUBERT FTLN 1562 10 Good morrow, little prince.
ARTHUR
FTLN 1563 As little prince, having so great a title
FTLN 1564 To be more prince, as may be. You are sad.
HUBERT
FTLN 1565 Indeed, I have been merrier.
ARTHUR FTLN 1566 Mercy on me!
125

127
King John
ACT 4. SC. 1
FTLN 1567 15 Methinks nobody should be sad but I.
FTLN 1568 Yet I remember, when I was in France,
FTLN 1569 Young gentlemen would be as sad as night
FTLN 1570 Only for wantonness. By my christendom,
FTLN 1571 So I were out of prison and kept sheep,
FTLN 1572 20 I should be as merry as the day is long.
FTLN 1573 And so I would be here but that I doubt
FTLN 1574 My uncle practices more harm to me.
FTLN 1575 He is afraid of me, and I of him.
FTLN 1576 Is it my fault that I was Geoffrey’s son?
FTLN 1577 25 No, indeed, is ’t not. And I would to heaven
FTLN 1578 I were your son, so you would love me, Hubert.
HUBERT , aside
FTLN 1579 If I talk to him, with his innocent prate
FTLN 1580 He will awake my mercy, which lies dead.
FTLN 1581 Therefore I will be sudden and dispatch.
ARTHUR
FTLN 1582 30 Are you sick, Hubert? You look pale today.
FTLN 1583 In sooth, I would you were a little sick
FTLN 1584 That I might sit all night and watch with you.
FTLN 1585 I warrant I love you more than you do me.
HUBERT , aside
FTLN 1586 His words do take possession of my bosom.
He shows Arthur a paper.
FTLN 1587 35 Read here, young Arthur. (Aside.) How now,
FTLN 1588 foolish rheum?
FTLN 1589 Turning dispiteous torture out of door?
FTLN 1590 I must be brief lest resolution drop
FTLN 1591 Out at mine eyes in tender womanish tears.—
FTLN 1592 40 Can you not read it? Is it not fair writ?
ARTHUR
FTLN 1593 Too fairly, Hubert, for so foul effect.
FTLN 1594 Must you with hot irons burn out both mine eyes?
HUBERT
FTLN 1595 Young boy, I must.

129
King John
ACT 4. SC. 1
ARTHUR FTLN 1596 And will you?
HUBERT FTLN 1597 45 And I will.
ARTHUR
FTLN 1598 Have you the heart? When your head did but ache,
FTLN 1599 I knit my handkercher about your brows—
FTLN 1600 The best I had, a princess wrought it me—
FTLN 1601 And I did never ask it you again;
FTLN 1602 50 And with my hand at midnight held your head,
FTLN 1603 And like the watchful minutes to the hour
FTLN 1604 Still and anon cheered up the heavy time,
FTLN 1605 Saying “What lack you?” and “Where lies your
FTLN 1606 grief?”
FTLN 1607 55 Or “What good love may I perform for you?”
FTLN 1608 Many a poor man’s son would have lien still
FTLN 1609 And ne’er have spoke a loving word to you;
FTLN 1610 But you at your sick service had a prince.
FTLN 1611 Nay, you may think my love was crafty love,
FTLN 1612 60 And call it cunning. Do, an if you will.
FTLN 1613 If heaven be pleased that you must use me ill,
FTLN 1614 Why then you must. Will you put out mine eyes—
FTLN 1615 These eyes that never did nor never shall
FTLN 1616 So much as frown on you?
HUBERT FTLN 1617 65 I have sworn to do it.
FTLN 1618 And with hot irons must I burn them out.
ARTHUR
FTLN 1619 Ah, none but in this Iron Age would do it.
FTLN 1620 The iron of itself, though heat red-hot,
FTLN 1621 Approaching near these eyes, would drink my tears
FTLN 1622 70 And quench this fiery indignation
FTLN 1623 Even in the matter of mine innocence;
FTLN 1624 Nay, after that, consume away in rust
FTLN 1625 But for containing fire to harm mine eye.
FTLN 1626 Are you more stubborn-hard than hammered iron?
FTLN 1627 75 An if an angel should have come to me
FTLN 1628 And told me Hubert should put out mine eyes,

131
King John
ACT 4. SC. 1
FTLN 1629 I would not have believed him. No tongue but
FTLN 1630 Hubert’s.
HUBERT stamps his foot and calls FTLN 1631 Come forth.
Enter Executioners with ropes, a heated iron, and a
brazier of burning coals.
FTLN 1632 80 Do as I bid you do.
ARTHUR
FTLN 1633 O, save me, Hubert, save me! My eyes are out
FTLN 1634 Even with the fierce looks of these bloody men.
HUBERT
FTLN 1635 Give me the iron, I say, and bind him here.
He takes the iron.
ARTHUR
FTLN 1636 Alas, what need you be so boist’rous-rough?
FTLN 1637 85 I will not struggle; I will stand stone-still.
FTLN 1638 For God’s sake, Hubert, let me not be bound!
FTLN 1639 Nay, hear me, Hubert! Drive these men away,
FTLN 1640 And I will sit as quiet as a lamb.
FTLN 1641 I will not stir nor wince nor speak a word
FTLN 1642 90 Nor look upon the iron angerly.
FTLN 1643 Thrust but these men away, and I’ll forgive you,
FTLN 1644 Whatever torment you do put me to.
HUBERT , to Executioners
FTLN 1645 Go stand within. Let me alone with him.
EXECUTIONER
FTLN 1646 I am best pleased to be from such a deed.
Executioners exit.
ARTHUR
FTLN 1647 95 Alas, I then have chid away my friend!
FTLN 1648 He hath a stern look but a gentle heart.
FTLN 1649 Let him come back, that his compassion may
FTLN 1650 Give life to yours.
HUBERT FTLN 1651 Come, boy, prepare yourself.
ARTHUR
FTLN 1652 100 Is there no remedy?

133
King John
ACT 4. SC. 1
HUBERT FTLN 1653 None but to lose your eyes.
ARTHUR
FTLN 1654 O God, that there were but a mote in yours,
FTLN 1655 A grain, a dust, a gnat, a wandering hair,
FTLN 1656 Any annoyance in that precious sense.
FTLN 1657 105 Then, feeling what small things are boisterous
FTLN 1658 there,
FTLN 1659 Your vile intent must needs seem horrible.
HUBERT
FTLN 1660 Is this your promise? Go to, hold your tongue.
ARTHUR
FTLN 1661 Hubert, the utterance of a brace of tongues
FTLN 1662 110 Must needs want pleading for a pair of eyes.
FTLN 1663 Let me not hold my tongue. Let me not, Hubert,
FTLN 1664 Or, Hubert, if you will, cut out my tongue,
FTLN 1665 So I may keep mine eyes. O, spare mine eyes,
FTLN 1666 Though to no use but still to look on you.
He seizes the iron.
FTLN 1667 115 Lo, by my troth, the instrument is cold,
FTLN 1668 And would not harm me.
HUBERT , taking back the iron
FTLN 1669 I can heat it, boy.
ARTHUR
FTLN 1670 No, in good sooth. The fire is dead with grief,
FTLN 1671 Being create for comfort, to be used
FTLN 1672 120 In undeserved extremes. See else yourself.
FTLN 1673 There is no malice in this burning coal.
FTLN 1674 The breath of heaven hath blown his spirit out
FTLN 1675 And strewed repentant ashes on his head.
HUBERT
FTLN 1676 But with my breath I can revive it, boy.
ARTHUR
FTLN 1677 125 An if you do, you will but make it blush
FTLN 1678 And glow with shame of your proceedings, Hubert.
FTLN 1679 Nay, it perchance will sparkle in your eyes,

135
King John
ACT 4. SC. 2
FTLN 1680 And, like a dog that is compelled to fight,
FTLN 1681 Snatch at his master that doth tar him on.
FTLN 1682 130 All things that you should use to do me wrong
FTLN 1683 Deny their office. Only you do lack
FTLN 1684 That mercy which fierce fire and iron extends,
FTLN 1685 Creatures of note for mercy-lacking uses.
HUBERT
FTLN 1686 Well, see to live. I will not touch thine eye
FTLN 1687 135 For all the treasure that thine uncle owes.
FTLN 1688 Yet am I sworn, and I did purpose, boy,
FTLN 1689 With this same very iron to burn them out.
ARTHUR
FTLN 1690 O, now you look like Hubert. All this while
FTLN 1691 You were disguisèd.
HUBERT FTLN 1692 140 Peace. No more. Adieu.
FTLN 1693 Your uncle must not know but you are dead.
FTLN 1694 I’ll fill these doggèd spies with false reports.
FTLN 1695 And, pretty child, sleep doubtless and secure
FTLN 1696 That Hubert, for the wealth of all the world,
FTLN 1697 145 Will not offend thee.
ARTHUR FTLN 1698 O heaven! I thank you, Hubert.
HUBERT
FTLN 1699 Silence. No more. Go closely in with me.
FTLN 1700 Much danger do I undergo for thee.
They exit.
Scene 2
Enter King John, Pembroke, Salisbury, and other
Lords. King John ascends the throne.
KING JOHN
FTLN 1701 Here once again we sit, once again crowned
FTLN 1702 And looked upon, I hope, with cheerful eyes.
PEMBROKE
FTLN 1703 This “once again,” but that your Highness pleased,

137
King John
ACT 4. SC. 2
FTLN 1704 Was once superfluous. You were crowned before,
FTLN 1705 5 And that high royalty was ne’er plucked off,
FTLN 1706 The faiths of men ne’er stainèd with revolt;
FTLN 1707 Fresh expectation troubled not the land
FTLN 1708 With any longed-for change or better state.
SALISBURY
FTLN 1709 Therefore, to be possessed with double pomp,
FTLN 1710 10 To guard a title that was rich before,
FTLN 1711 To gild refinèd gold, to paint the lily,
FTLN 1712 To throw a perfume on the violet,
FTLN 1713 To smooth the ice or add another hue
FTLN 1714 Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
FTLN 1715 15 To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
FTLN 1716 Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.
PEMBROKE
FTLN 1717 But that your royal pleasure must be done,
FTLN 1718 This act is as an ancient tale new told,
FTLN 1719 And, in the last repeating, troublesome,
FTLN 1720 20 Being urgèd at a time unseasonable.
SALISBURY
FTLN 1721 In this the antique and well-noted face
FTLN 1722 Of plain old form is much disfigurèd,
FTLN 1723 And like a shifted wind unto a sail,
FTLN 1724 It makes the course of thoughts to fetch about,
FTLN 1725 25 Startles and frights consideration,
FTLN 1726 Makes sound opinion sick and truth suspected
FTLN 1727 For putting on so new a fashioned robe.
PEMBROKE
FTLN 1728 When workmen strive to do better than well,
FTLN 1729 They do confound their skill in covetousness,
FTLN 1730 30 And oftentimes excusing of a fault
FTLN 1731 Doth make the fault the worse by th’ excuse,
FTLN 1732 As patches set upon a little breach
FTLN 1733 Discredit more in hiding of the fault
FTLN 1734 Than did the fault before it was so patched.

139
King John
ACT 4. SC. 2
SALISBURY
FTLN 1735 35 To this effect, before you were new-crowned,
FTLN 1736 We breathed our counsel; but it pleased your
FTLN 1737 Highness
FTLN 1738 To overbear it, and we are all well pleased,
FTLN 1739 Since all and every part of what we would
FTLN 1740 40 Doth make a stand at what your Highness will.
KING JOHN
FTLN 1741 Some reasons of this double coronation
FTLN 1742 I have possessed you with, and think them strong;
FTLN 1743 And more, more strong, when lesser is my fear,
FTLN 1744 I shall endue you with. Meantime, but ask
FTLN 1745 45 What you would have reformed that is not well,
FTLN 1746 And well shall you perceive how willingly
FTLN 1747 I will both hear and grant you your requests.
PEMBROKE
FTLN 1748 Then I, as one that am the tongue of these
FTLN 1749 To sound the purposes of all their hearts,
FTLN 1750 50 Both for myself and them, but chief of all
FTLN 1751 Your safety, for the which myself and them
FTLN 1752 Bend their best studies, heartily request
FTLN 1753 Th’ enfranchisement of Arthur, whose restraint
FTLN 1754 Doth move the murmuring lips of discontent
FTLN 1755 55 To break into this dangerous argument:
FTLN 1756 If what in rest you have in right you hold,
FTLN 1757 Why then your fears, which, as they say, attend
FTLN 1758 The steps of wrong, should move you to mew up
FTLN 1759 Your tender kinsman and to choke his days
FTLN 1760 60 With barbarous ignorance and deny his youth
FTLN 1761 The rich advantage of good exercise.
FTLN 1762 That the time’s enemies may not have this
FTLN 1763 To grace occasions, let it be our suit
FTLN 1764 That you have bid us ask, his liberty,
FTLN 1765 65 Which for our goods we do no further ask
FTLN 1766 Than whereupon our weal, on you depending,
FTLN 1767 Counts it your weal he have his liberty.

141
King John
ACT 4. SC. 2
KING JOHN
FTLN 1768 Let it be so. I do commit his youth
FTLN 1769 To your direction.
Enter Hubert.
FTLN 1770 70 Hubert, what news with you?
King John and Hubert talk aside.
PEMBROKE
FTLN 1771 This is the man should do the bloody deed.
FTLN 1772 He showed his warrant to a friend of mine.
FTLN 1773 The image of a wicked heinous fault
FTLN 1774 Lives in his eye. That close aspect of his
FTLN 1775 75 Doth show the mood of a much troubled breast,
FTLN 1776 And I do fearfully believe ’tis done
FTLN 1777 What we so feared he had a charge to do.
SALISBURY
FTLN 1778 The color of the King doth come and go
FTLN 1779 Between his purpose and his conscience,
FTLN 1780 80 Like heralds ’twixt two dreadful battles set.
FTLN 1781 His passion is so ripe it needs must break.
PEMBROKE
FTLN 1782 And when it breaks, I fear will issue thence
FTLN 1783 The foul corruption of a sweet child’s death.
KING JOHN , coming forward with Hubert
FTLN 1784 We cannot hold mortality’s strong hand.—
FTLN 1785 85 Good lords, although my will to give is living,
FTLN 1786 The suit which you demand is gone and dead.
FTLN 1787 He tells us Arthur is deceased tonight.
SALISBURY
FTLN 1788 Indeed, we feared his sickness was past cure.
PEMBROKE
FTLN 1789 Indeed, we heard how near his death he was
FTLN 1790 90 Before the child himself felt he was sick.
FTLN 1791 This must be answered either here or hence.
KING JOHN
FTLN 1792 Why do you bend such solemn brows on me?

143
King John
ACT 4. SC. 2
FTLN 1793 Think you I bear the shears of destiny?
FTLN 1794 Have I commandment on the pulse of life?
SALISBURY
FTLN 1795 95 It is apparent foul play, and ’tis shame
FTLN 1796 That greatness should so grossly offer it.
FTLN 1797 So thrive it in your game, and so farewell.
PEMBROKE
FTLN 1798 Stay yet, Lord Salisbury. I’ll go with thee
FTLN 1799 And find th’ inheritance of this poor child,
FTLN 1800 100 His little kingdom of a forcèd grave.
FTLN 1801 That blood which owed the breadth of all this isle,
FTLN 1802 Three foot of it doth hold. Bad world the while!
FTLN 1803 This must not be thus borne; this will break out
FTLN 1804 To all our sorrows, and ere long, I doubt.
Pembroke, Salisbury, and other Lords exit.
KING JOHN
FTLN 1805 105 They burn in indignation. I repent.
FTLN 1806 There is no sure foundation set on blood,
FTLN 1807 No certain life achieved by others’ death.
Enter Messenger.
FTLN 1808 A fearful eye thou hast. Where is that blood
FTLN 1809 That I have seen inhabit in those cheeks?
FTLN 1810 110 So foul a sky clears not without a storm.
FTLN 1811 Pour down thy weather: how goes all in France?
MESSENGER
FTLN 1812 From France to England. Never such a power
FTLN 1813 For any foreign preparation
FTLN 1814 Was levied in the body of a land.
FTLN 1815 115 The copy of your speed is learned by them,
FTLN 1816 For when you should be told they do prepare,
FTLN 1817 The tidings comes that they are all arrived.
KING JOHN
FTLN 1818 O, where hath our intelligence been drunk?
FTLN 1819 Where hath it slept? Where is my mother’s care,

145
King John
ACT 4. SC. 2
FTLN 1820 120 That such an army could be drawn in France
FTLN 1821 And she not hear of it?
MESSENGER FTLN 1822 My liege, her ear
FTLN 1823 Is stopped with dust. The first of April died
FTLN 1824 Your noble mother. And as I hear, my lord,
FTLN 1825 125 The Lady Constance in a frenzy died
FTLN 1826 Three days before. But this from rumor’s tongue
FTLN 1827 I idly heard. If true or false, I know not.
KING JOHN , aside
FTLN 1828 Withhold thy speed, dreadful occasion!
FTLN 1829 O, make a league with me till I have pleased
FTLN 1830 130 My discontented peers. What? Mother dead?
FTLN 1831 How wildly then walks my estate in France!—
FTLN 1832 Under whose conduct came those powers of France
FTLN 1833 That thou for truth giv’st out are landed here?
MESSENGER
FTLN 1834 Under the Dauphin.
KING JOHN FTLN 1835 135 Thou hast made me giddy
FTLN 1836 With these ill tidings.
Enter Bastard and Peter of Pomfret.
To Bastard. FTLN 1837 Now, what says the world
FTLN 1838 To your proceedings? Do not seek to stuff
FTLN 1839 My head with more ill news, for it is full.
BASTARD
FTLN 1840 140 But if you be afeard to hear the worst,
FTLN 1841 Then let the worst, unheard, fall on your head.
KING JOHN
FTLN 1842 Bear with me, cousin, for I was amazed
FTLN 1843 Under the tide, but now I breathe again
FTLN 1844 Aloft the flood and can give audience
FTLN 1845 145 To any tongue, speak it of what it will.
BASTARD
FTLN 1846 How I have sped among the clergymen
FTLN 1847 The sums I have collected shall express.

147
King John
ACT 4. SC. 2
FTLN 1848 But as I traveled hither through the land,
FTLN 1849 I find the people strangely fantasied,
FTLN 1850 150 Possessed with rumors, full of idle dreams,
FTLN 1851 Not knowing what they fear, but full of fear.
FTLN 1852 And here’s a prophet that I brought with me
FTLN 1853 From forth the streets of Pomfret, whom I found
FTLN 1854 With many hundreds treading on his heels,
FTLN 1855 155 To whom he sung in rude harsh-sounding rhymes
FTLN 1856 That ere the next Ascension Day at noon,
FTLN 1857 Your Highness should deliver up your crown.
KING JOHN , to Peter
FTLN 1858 Thou idle dreamer, wherefore didst thou so?
PETER
FTLN 1859 Foreknowing that the truth will fall out so.
KING JOHN
FTLN 1860 160 Hubert, away with him! Imprison him.
FTLN 1861 And on that day at noon, whereon he says
FTLN 1862 I shall yield up my crown, let him be hanged.
FTLN 1863 Deliver him to safety and return,
FTLN 1864 For I must use thee. Hubert and Peter exit.
FTLN 1865 165 O my gentle cousin,
FTLN 1866 Hear’st thou the news abroad, who are arrived?
BASTARD
FTLN 1867 The French, my lord. Men’s mouths are full of it.
FTLN 1868 Besides, I met Lord Bigot and Lord Salisbury
FTLN 1869 With eyes as red as new-enkindled fire,
FTLN 1870 170 And others more, going to seek the grave
FTLN 1871 Of Arthur, whom they say is killed tonight
FTLN 1872 On your suggestion.
KING JOHN FTLN 1873 Gentle kinsman, go
FTLN 1874 And thrust thyself into their companies.
FTLN 1875 175 I have a way to win their loves again.
FTLN 1876 Bring them before me.
BASTARD FTLN 1877 I will seek them out.
KING JOHN
FTLN 1878 Nay, but make haste, the better foot before!

149
King John
ACT 4. SC. 2
FTLN 1879 O, let me have no subject enemies
FTLN 1880 180 When adverse foreigners affright my towns
FTLN 1881 With dreadful pomp of stout invasion.
FTLN 1882 Be Mercury, set feathers to thy heels,
FTLN 1883 And fly like thought from them to me again.
BASTARD
FTLN 1884 The spirit of the time shall teach me speed.
He exits.
KING JOHN
FTLN 1885 185 Spoke like a sprightful noble gentleman.
FTLN 1886 To Messenger. Go after him, for he perhaps shall
FTLN 1887 need
FTLN 1888 Some messenger betwixt me and the peers,
FTLN 1889 And be thou he.
MESSENGER FTLN 1890 190 With all my heart, my liege.
Messenger exits.
KING JOHN FTLN 1891 My mother dead!
Enter Hubert.
HUBERT
FTLN 1892 My lord, they say five moons were seen tonight—
FTLN 1893 Four fixèd, and the fifth did whirl about
FTLN 1894 The other four in wondrous motion.
KING JOHN
FTLN 1895 195 Five moons!
HUBERT FTLN 1896 Old men and beldams in the streets
FTLN 1897 Do prophesy upon it dangerously.
FTLN 1898 Young Arthur’s death is common in their mouths,
FTLN 1899 And when they talk of him, they shake their heads
FTLN 1900 200 And whisper one another in the ear,
FTLN 1901 And he that speaks doth grip the hearer’s wrist,
FTLN 1902 Whilst he that hears makes fearful action
FTLN 1903 With wrinkled brows, with nods, with rolling eyes.
FTLN 1904 I saw a smith stand with his hammer, thus,
FTLN 1905 205 The whilst his iron did on the anvil cool,

151
King John
ACT 4. SC. 2
FTLN 1906 With open mouth swallowing a tailor’s news,
FTLN 1907 Who with his shears and measure in his hand,
FTLN 1908 Standing on slippers which his nimble haste
FTLN 1909 Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet,
FTLN 1910 210 Told of a many thousand warlike French
FTLN 1911 That were embattlèd and ranked in Kent.
FTLN 1912 Another lean, unwashed artificer
FTLN 1913 Cuts off his tale and talks of Arthur’s death.
KING JOHN
FTLN 1914 Why seek’st thou to possess me with these fears?
FTLN 1915 215 Why urgest thou so oft young Arthur’s death?
FTLN 1916 Thy hand hath murdered him. I had a mighty cause
FTLN 1917 To wish him dead, but thou hadst none to kill him.
HUBERT
FTLN 1918 No had, my lord! Why, did you not provoke me?
KING JOHN
FTLN 1919 It is the curse of kings to be attended
FTLN 1920 220 By slaves that take their humors for a warrant
FTLN 1921 To break within the bloody house of life,
FTLN 1922 And on the winking of authority
FTLN 1923 To understand a law, to know the meaning
FTLN 1924 Of dangerous majesty, when perchance it frowns
FTLN 1925 225 More upon humor than advised respect.
HUBERT , showing a paper
FTLN 1926 Here is your hand and seal for what I did.
KING JOHN
FTLN 1927 O, when the last accompt twixt heaven and Earth
FTLN 1928 Is to be made, then shall this hand and seal
FTLN 1929 Witness against us to damnation!
FTLN 1930 230 How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds
FTLN 1931 Make deeds ill done! Hadst not thou been by,
FTLN 1932 A fellow by the hand of nature marked,
FTLN 1933 Quoted, and signed to do a deed of shame,
FTLN 1934 This murder had not come into my mind.
FTLN 1935 235 But taking note of thy abhorred aspect,

153
King John
ACT 4. SC. 2
FTLN 1936 Finding thee fit for bloody villainy,
FTLN 1937 Apt, liable to be employed in danger,
FTLN 1938 I faintly broke with thee of Arthur’s death;
FTLN 1939 And thou, to be endearèd to a king,
FTLN 1940 240 Made it no conscience to destroy a prince.
HUBERT FTLN 1941 My lord—
KING JOHN
FTLN 1942 Hadst thou but shook thy head or made a pause
FTLN 1943 When I spake darkly what I purposèd,
FTLN 1944 Or turned an eye of doubt upon my face,
FTLN 1945 245 As bid me tell my tale in express words,
FTLN 1946 Deep shame had struck me dumb, made me break
FTLN 1947 off,
FTLN 1948 And those thy fears might have wrought fears in me.
FTLN 1949 But thou didst understand me by my signs
FTLN 1950 250 And didst in signs again parley with sin,
FTLN 1951 Yea, without stop didst let thy heart consent
FTLN 1952 And consequently thy rude hand to act
FTLN 1953 The deed which both our tongues held vile to name.
FTLN 1954 Out of my sight, and never see me more.
FTLN 1955 255 My nobles leave me, and my state is braved,
FTLN 1956 Even at my gates, with ranks of foreign powers.
FTLN 1957 Nay, in the body of this fleshly land,
FTLN 1958 This kingdom, this confine of blood and breath,
FTLN 1959 Hostility and civil tumult reigns
FTLN 1960 260 Between my conscience and my cousin’s death.
HUBERT
FTLN 1961 Arm you against your other enemies.
FTLN 1962 I’ll make a peace between your soul and you.
FTLN 1963 Young Arthur is alive. This hand of mine
FTLN 1964 Is yet a maiden and an innocent hand,
FTLN 1965 265 Not painted with the crimson spots of blood.
FTLN 1966 Within this bosom never entered yet
FTLN 1967 The dreadful motion of a murderous thought,
FTLN 1968 And you have slandered nature in my form,

155
King John
ACT 4. SC. 3
FTLN 1969 Which, howsoever rude exteriorly,
FTLN 1970 270 Is yet the cover of a fairer mind
FTLN 1971 Than to be butcher of an innocent child.
KING JOHN
FTLN 1972 Doth Arthur live? O, haste thee to the peers,
FTLN 1973 Throw this report on their incensèd rage,
FTLN 1974 And make them tame to their obedience.
FTLN 1975 275 Forgive the comment that my passion made
FTLN 1976 Upon thy feature, for my rage was blind,
FTLN 1977 And foul imaginary eyes of blood
FTLN 1978 Presented thee more hideous than thou art.
FTLN 1979 O, answer not, but to my closet bring
FTLN 1980 280 The angry lords with all expedient haste.
FTLN 1981 I conjure thee but slowly; run more fast.
They exit.
Scene 3
Enter Arthur on the walls, dressed as a shipboy.
ARTHUR
FTLN 1982 The wall is high, and yet will I leap down.
FTLN 1983 Good ground, be pitiful and hurt me not.
FTLN 1984 There’s few or none do know me. If they did,
FTLN 1985 This shipboy’s semblance hath disguised me quite.
FTLN 1986 5 I am afraid, and yet I’ll venture it.
FTLN 1987 If I get down and do not break my limbs,
FTLN 1988 I’ll find a thousand shifts to get away.
FTLN 1989 As good to die and go as die and stay.
He jumps.
FTLN 1990 O me, my uncle’s spirit is in these stones.
FTLN 1991 10 Heaven take my soul, and England keep my bones.
He dies.
Enter Pembroke, Salisbury with a letter, and Bigot.
SALISBURY
FTLN 1992 Lords, I will meet him at Saint Edmundsbury;

157
King John
ACT 4. SC. 3
FTLN 1993 It is our safety, and we must embrace
FTLN 1994 This gentle offer of the perilous time.
PEMBROKE
FTLN 1995 Who brought that letter from the Cardinal?
SALISBURY
FTLN 1996 15 The Count Melun, a noble lord of France,
FTLN 1997 Whose private with me of the Dauphin’s love
FTLN 1998 Is much more general than these lines import.
BIGOT
FTLN 1999 Tomorrow morning let us meet him, then.
SALISBURY
FTLN 2000 Or rather then set forward, for ’twill be
FTLN 2001 20 Two long days’ journey, lords, or ere we meet.
Enter Bastard.
BASTARD
FTLN 2002 Once more today well met, distempered lords.
FTLN 2003 The King by me requests your presence straight.
SALISBURY
FTLN 2004 The King hath dispossessed himself of us.
FTLN 2005 We will not line his thin bestainèd cloak
FTLN 2006 25 With our pure honors, nor attend the foot
FTLN 2007 That leaves the print of blood where’er it walks.
FTLN 2008 Return, and tell him so. We know the worst.
BASTARD
FTLN 2009 Whate’er you think, good words I think were best.
SALISBURY
FTLN 2010 Our griefs and not our manners reason now.
BASTARD
FTLN 2011 30 But there is little reason in your grief.
FTLN 2012 Therefore ’twere reason you had manners now.
PEMBROKE
FTLN 2013 Sir, sir, impatience hath his privilege.
BASTARD
FTLN 2014 ’Tis true, to hurt his master, no man’s else.

159
King John
ACT 4. SC. 3
SALISBURY
FTLN 2015 This is the prison.
He sees Arthur’s body.
FTLN 2016 35 What is he lies here?
PEMBROKE
FTLN 2017 O Death, made proud with pure and princely beauty!
FTLN 2018 The Earth had not a hole to hide this deed.
SALISBURY
FTLN 2019 Murder, as hating what himself hath done,
FTLN 2020 Doth lay it open to urge on revenge.
BIGOT
FTLN 2021 40 Or when he doomed this beauty to a grave,
FTLN 2022 Found it too precious-princely for a grave.
SALISBURY , to Bastard
FTLN 2023 Sir Richard, what think you? You have beheld.
FTLN 2024 Or have you read or heard, or could you think,
FTLN 2025 Or do you almost think, although you see,
FTLN 2026 45 That you do see? Could thought, without this object,
FTLN 2027 Form such another? This is the very top,
FTLN 2028 The height, the crest, or crest unto the crest,
FTLN 2029 Of murder’s arms. This is the bloodiest shame,
FTLN 2030 The wildest savagery, the vilest stroke
FTLN 2031 50 That ever wall-eyed wrath or staring rage
FTLN 2032 Presented to the tears of soft remorse.
PEMBROKE
FTLN 2033 All murders past do stand excused in this.
FTLN 2034 And this, so sole and so unmatchable,
FTLN 2035 Shall give a holiness, a purity,
FTLN 2036 55 To the yet unbegotten sin of times
FTLN 2037 And prove a deadly bloodshed but a jest,
FTLN 2038 Exampled by this heinous spectacle.
BASTARD
FTLN 2039 It is a damnèd and a bloody work,
FTLN 2040 The graceless action of a heavy hand,
FTLN 2041 60 If that it be the work of any hand.

161
King John
ACT 4. SC. 3
SALISBURY
FTLN 2042 If that it be the work of any hand?
FTLN 2043 We had a kind of light what would ensue.
FTLN 2044 It is the shameful work of Hubert’s hand,
FTLN 2045 The practice and the purpose of the King,
FTLN 2046 65 From whose obedience I forbid my soul,
FTLN 2047 Kneeling before this ruin of sweet life He kneels.
FTLN 2048 And breathing to his breathless excellence
FTLN 2049 The incense of a vow, a holy vow:
FTLN 2050 Never to taste the pleasures of the world,
FTLN 2051 70 Never to be infected with delight,
FTLN 2052 Nor conversant with ease and idleness,
FTLN 2053 Till I have set a glory to this hand
FTLN 2054 By giving it the worship of revenge.
PEMBROKE, BIGOT , kneeling
FTLN 2055 Our souls religiously confirm thy words.
They rise.
Enter Hubert.
HUBERT
FTLN 2056 75 Lords, I am hot with haste in seeking you.
FTLN 2057 Arthur doth live; the King hath sent for you.
SALISBURY
FTLN 2058 O, he is bold and blushes not at death!—
FTLN 2059 Avaunt, thou hateful villain, get thee gone!
HUBERT
FTLN 2060 I am no villain.
SALISBURY , drawing his sword FTLN 2061 80 Must I rob the law?
BASTARD
FTLN 2062 Your sword is bright, sir. Put it up again.
SALISBURY
FTLN 2063 Not till I sheathe it in a murderer’s skin.
HUBERT
FTLN 2064 Stand back, Lord Salisbury, stand back, I say.
FTLN 2065 By heaven, I think my sword’s as sharp as yours.
He puts his hand on his sword.

163
King John
ACT 4. SC. 3
FTLN 2066 85 I would not have you, lord, forget yourself,
FTLN 2067 Nor tempt the danger of my true defense,
FTLN 2068 Lest I, by marking of your rage, forget
FTLN 2069 Your worth, your greatness, and nobility.
BIGOT
FTLN 2070 Out, dunghill! Dar’st thou brave a nobleman?
HUBERT
FTLN 2071 90 Not for my life. But yet I dare defend
FTLN 2072 My innocent life against an emperor.
SALISBURY
FTLN 2073 Thou art a murderer.
HUBERT FTLN 2074 Do not prove me so.
FTLN 2075 Yet I am none. Whose tongue soe’er speaks false,
FTLN 2076 95 Not truly speaks. Who speaks not truly, lies.
PEMBROKE , drawing his sword
FTLN 2077 Cut him to pieces.
BASTARD , drawing his sword FTLN 2078 Keep the peace, I say.
SALISBURY
FTLN 2079 Stand by, or I shall gall you, Faulconbridge.
BASTARD
FTLN 2080 Thou wert better gall the devil, Salisbury.
FTLN 2081 100 If thou but frown on me, or stir thy foot,
FTLN 2082 Or teach thy hasty spleen to do me shame,
FTLN 2083 I’ll strike thee dead. Put up thy sword betime,
FTLN 2084 Or I’ll so maul you and your toasting-iron
FTLN 2085 That you shall think the devil is come from hell.
BIGOT
FTLN 2086 105 What wilt thou do, renownèd Faulconbridge?
FTLN 2087 Second a villain and a murderer?
HUBERT
FTLN 2088 Lord Bigot, I am none.
BIGOT FTLN 2089 Who killed this prince?
HUBERT
FTLN 2090 ’Tis not an hour since I left him well.
FTLN 2091 110 I honored him, I loved him, and will weep
FTLN 2092 My date of life out for his sweet life’s loss.
He weeps.

165
King John
ACT 4. SC. 3
SALISBURY
FTLN 2093 Trust not those cunning waters of his eyes,
FTLN 2094 For villainy is not without such rheum,
FTLN 2095 And he, long traded in it, makes it seem
FTLN 2096 115 like rivers of remorse and innocency.
FTLN 2097 Away with me, all you whose souls abhor
FTLN 2098 Th’ uncleanly savors of a slaughterhouse,
FTLN 2099 For I am stifled with this smell of sin.
BIGOT
FTLN 2100 Away, toward Bury, to the Dauphin there.
PEMBROKE
FTLN 2101 120 There, tell the King, he may inquire us out.
Lords exit.
BASTARD
FTLN 2102 Here’s a good world! Knew you of this fair work?
FTLN 2103 Beyond the infinite and boundless reach
FTLN 2104 Of mercy, if thou didst this deed of death,
FTLN 2105 Art thou damned, Hubert.
HUBERT FTLN 2106 125 Do but hear me, sir.
BASTARD FTLN 2107 Ha! I’ll tell thee what.
FTLN 2108 Thou ’rt damned as black—nay, nothing is so black—
FTLN 2109 Thou art more deep damned than Prince Lucifer.
FTLN 2110 There is not yet so ugly a fiend of hell
FTLN 2111 130 As thou shalt be, if thou didst kill this child.
HUBERT
FTLN 2112 Upon my soul—
BASTARD FTLN 2113 If thou didst but consent
FTLN 2114 To this most cruel act, do but despair,
FTLN 2115 And if thou want’st a cord, the smallest thread
FTLN 2116 135 That ever spider twisted from her womb
FTLN 2117 Will serve to strangle thee; a rush will be a beam
FTLN 2118 To hang thee on. Or wouldst thou drown thyself,
FTLN 2119 Put but a little water in a spoon
FTLN 2120 And it shall be as all the ocean,
FTLN 2121 140 Enough to stifle such a villain up.
FTLN 2122 I do suspect thee very grievously.

167
King John
ACT 4. SC. 3
HUBERT
FTLN 2123 If I in act, consent, or sin of thought
FTLN 2124 Be guilty of the stealing that sweet breath
FTLN 2125 Which was embounded in this beauteous clay,
FTLN 2126 145 Let hell want pains enough to torture me.
FTLN 2127 I left him well.
BASTARD FTLN 2128 Go, bear him in thine arms.
FTLN 2129 I am amazed, methinks, and lose my way
FTLN 2130 Among the thorns and dangers of this world.
Hubert takes up Arthur’s body.
FTLN 2131 150 How easy dost thou take all England up!
FTLN 2132 From forth this morsel of dead royalty,
FTLN 2133 The life, the right, and truth of all this realm
FTLN 2134 Is fled to heaven, and England now is left
FTLN 2135 To tug and scamble and to part by th’ teeth
FTLN 2136 155 The unowed interest of proud-swelling state.
FTLN 2137 Now for the bare-picked bone of majesty
FTLN 2138 Doth doggèd war bristle his angry crest
FTLN 2139 And snarleth in the gentle eyes of peace.
FTLN 2140 Now powers from home and discontents at home
FTLN 2141 160 Meet in one line, and vast confusion waits,
FTLN 2142 As doth a raven on a sick-fall’n beast,
FTLN 2143 The imminent decay of wrested pomp.
FTLN 2144 Now happy he whose cloak and cincture can
FTLN 2145 Hold out this tempest. Bear away that child,
FTLN 2146 165 And follow me with speed. I’ll to the King.
FTLN 2147 A thousand businesses are brief in hand,
FTLN 2148 And heaven itself doth frown upon the land.
They exit, with Hubert carrying Arthur’s body.

ACT 5
Scene 1
Enter King John and Pandulph with the crown, and
their Attendants.
KING JOHN
FTLN 2149 Thus have I yielded up into your hand
FTLN 2150 The circle of my glory.
PANDULPH , handing John the crown FTLN 2151 Take again
FTLN 2152 From this my hand, as holding of the Pope,
FTLN 2153 5 Your sovereign greatness and authority.
KING JOHN
FTLN 2154 Now keep your holy word. Go meet the French,
FTLN 2155 And from his Holiness use all your power
FTLN 2156 To stop their marches ’fore we are inflamed.
FTLN 2157 Our discontented counties do revolt,
FTLN 2158 10 Our people quarrel with obedience,
FTLN 2159 Swearing allegiance and the love of soul
FTLN 2160 To stranger blood, to foreign royalty.
FTLN 2161 This inundation of mistempered humor
FTLN 2162 Rests by you only to be qualified.
FTLN 2163 15 Then pause not, for the present time’s so sick
FTLN 2164 That present med’cine must be ministered,
FTLN 2165 Or overthrow incurable ensues.
PANDULPH
FTLN 2166 It was my breath that blew this tempest up,
FTLN 2167 Upon your stubborn usage of the Pope;
171

173
King John
ACT 5. SC. 1
FTLN 2168 20 But since you are a gentle convertite,
FTLN 2169 My tongue shall hush again this storm of war
FTLN 2170 And make fair weather in your blust’ring land.
FTLN 2171 On this Ascension Day, remember well:
FTLN 2172 Upon your oath of service to the Pope,
FTLN 2173 25 Go I to make the French lay down their arms.
He exits, with Attendants.
KING JOHN
FTLN 2174 Is this Ascension Day? Did not the prophet
FTLN 2175 Say that before Ascension Day at noon
FTLN 2176 My crown I should give off? Even so I have.
FTLN 2177 I did suppose it should be on constraint,
FTLN 2178 30 But, God be thanked, it is but voluntary.
Enter Bastard.
BASTARD
FTLN 2179 All Kent hath yielded. Nothing there holds out
FTLN 2180 But Dover Castle. London hath received
FTLN 2181 Like a kind host the Dauphin and his powers.
FTLN 2182 Your nobles will not hear you, but are gone
FTLN 2183 35 To offer service to your enemy;
FTLN 2184 And wild amazement hurries up and down
FTLN 2185 The little number of your doubtful friends.
KING JOHN
FTLN 2186 Would not my lords return to me again
FTLN 2187 After they heard young Arthur was alive?
BASTARD
FTLN 2188 40 They found him dead and cast into the streets,
FTLN 2189 An empty casket where the jewel of life
FTLN 2190 By some damned hand was robbed and ta’en away.
KING JOHN
FTLN 2191 That villain Hubert told me he did live!
BASTARD
FTLN 2192 So, on my soul, he did, for aught he knew.
FTLN 2193 45 But wherefore do you droop? Why look you sad?
FTLN 2194 Be great in act, as you have been in thought.

175
King John
ACT 5. SC. 1
FTLN 2195 Let not the world see fear and sad distrust
FTLN 2196 Govern the motion of a kingly eye.
FTLN 2197 Be stirring as the time; be fire with fire;
FTLN 2198 50 Threaten the threat’ner, and outface the brow
FTLN 2199 Of bragging horror. So shall inferior eyes,
FTLN 2200 That borrow their behaviors from the great,
FTLN 2201 Grow great by your example and put on
FTLN 2202 The dauntless spirit of resolution.
FTLN 2203 55 Away, and glister like the god of war
FTLN 2204 When he intendeth to become the field.
FTLN 2205 Show boldness and aspiring confidence.
FTLN 2206 What, shall they seek the lion in his den
FTLN 2207 And fright him there? And make him tremble there?
FTLN 2208 60 O, let it not be said! Forage, and run
FTLN 2209 To meet displeasure farther from the doors,
FTLN 2210 And grapple with him ere he come so nigh.
KING JOHN
FTLN 2211 The legate of the Pope hath been with me,
FTLN 2212 And I have made a happy peace with him,
FTLN 2213 65 And he hath promised to dismiss the powers
FTLN 2214 Led by the Dauphin.
BASTARD FTLN 2215 O inglorious league!
FTLN 2216 Shall we upon the footing of our land
FTLN 2217 Send fair-play orders and make compromise,
FTLN 2218 70 Insinuation, parley, and base truce
FTLN 2219 To arms invasive? Shall a beardless boy,
FTLN 2220 A cockered silken wanton, brave our fields
FTLN 2221 And flesh his spirit in a warlike soil,
FTLN 2222 Mocking the air with colors idly spread,
FTLN 2223 75 And find no check? Let us, my liege, to arms!
FTLN 2224 Perchance the Cardinal cannot make your peace;
FTLN 2225 Or if he do, let it at least be said
FTLN 2226 They saw we had a purpose of defense.
KING JOHN
FTLN 2227 Have thou the ordering of this present time.

177
King John
ACT 5. SC. 2
BASTARD
FTLN 2228 80 Away, then, with good courage! (Aside.) Yet I
FTLN 2229 know
FTLN 2230 Our party may well meet a prouder foe.
They exit.
Scene 2
Enter, in arms, Louis the Dauphin, Salisbury, Melun,
Pembroke, Bigot, and French and English Soldiers.
DAUPHIN , handing a paper to Melun
FTLN 2231 My Lord Melun, let this be copied out,
FTLN 2232 And keep it safe for our remembrance.
FTLN 2233 Return the precedent to these lords again,
FTLN 2234 That having our fair order written down,
FTLN 2235 5 Both they and we, perusing o’er these notes,
FTLN 2236 May know wherefore we took the Sacrament,
FTLN 2237 And keep our faiths firm and inviolable.
SALISBURY
FTLN 2238 Upon our sides it never shall be broken.
FTLN 2239 And, noble dauphin, albeit we swear
FTLN 2240 10 A voluntary zeal and unurged faith
FTLN 2241 To your proceedings, yet believe me, prince,
FTLN 2242 I am not glad that such a sore of time
FTLN 2243 Should seek a plaster by contemned revolt
FTLN 2244 And heal the inveterate canker of one wound
FTLN 2245 15 By making many. O, it grieves my soul
FTLN 2246 That I must draw this metal from my side
FTLN 2247 To be a widow-maker! O, and there
FTLN 2248 Where honorable rescue and defense
FTLN 2249 Cries out upon the name of Salisbury!
FTLN 2250 20 But such is the infection of the time
FTLN 2251 That for the health and physic of our right,
FTLN 2252 We cannot deal but with the very hand
FTLN 2253 Of stern injustice and confusèd wrong.

179
King John
ACT 5. SC. 2
FTLN 2254 And is ’t not pity, O my grievèd friends,
FTLN 2255 25 That we, the sons and children of this isle,
FTLN 2256 Was born to see so sad an hour as this,
FTLN 2257 Wherein we step after a stranger, march
FTLN 2258 Upon her gentle bosom, and fill up
FTLN 2259 Her enemies’ ranks? I must withdraw and weep
FTLN 2260 30 Upon the spot of this enforcèd cause,
FTLN 2261 To grace the gentry of a land remote,
FTLN 2262 And follow unacquainted colors here.
FTLN 2263 What, here? O nation, that thou couldst remove,
FTLN 2264 That Neptune’s arms, who clippeth thee about,
FTLN 2265 35 Would bear thee from the knowledge of thyself
FTLN 2266 And grapple thee unto a pagan shore,
FTLN 2267 Where these two Christian armies might combine
FTLN 2268 The blood of malice in a vein of league,
FTLN 2269 And not to spend it so unneighborly. He weeps.
DAUPHIN
FTLN 2270 40 A noble temper dost thou show in this,
FTLN 2271 And great affections wrestling in thy bosom
FTLN 2272 Doth make an earthquake of nobility.
FTLN 2273 O, what a noble combat hast thou fought
FTLN 2274 Between compulsion and a brave respect!
FTLN 2275 45 Let me wipe off this honorable dew
FTLN 2276 That silverly doth progress on thy cheeks.
FTLN 2277 My heart hath melted at a lady’s tears,
FTLN 2278 Being an ordinary inundation,
FTLN 2279 But this effusion of such manly drops,
FTLN 2280 50 This shower, blown up by tempest of the soul,
FTLN 2281 Startles mine eyes and makes me more amazed
FTLN 2282 Than had I seen the vaulty top of heaven
FTLN 2283 Figured quite o’er with burning meteors.
FTLN 2284 Lift up thy brow, renownèd Salisbury,
FTLN 2285 55 And with a great heart heave away this storm.
FTLN 2286 Commend these waters to those baby eyes
FTLN 2287 That never saw the giant world enraged,
FTLN 2288 Nor met with fortune other than at feasts

181
King John
ACT 5. SC. 2
FTLN 2289 Full warm of blood, of mirth, of gossiping.
FTLN 2290 60 Come, come; for thou shalt thrust thy hand as deep
FTLN 2291 Into the purse of rich prosperity
FTLN 2292 As Louis himself.—So, nobles, shall you all,
FTLN 2293 That knit your sinews to the strength of mine.
FTLN 2294 And even there, methinks, an angel spake.
Enter Pandulph.
FTLN 2295 65 Look where the holy legate comes apace
FTLN 2296 To give us warrant from the hand of God,
FTLN 2297 And on our actions set the name of right
FTLN 2298 With holy breath.
PANDULPH FTLN 2299 Hail, noble prince of France.
FTLN 2300 70 The next is this: King John hath reconciled
FTLN 2301 Himself to Rome; his spirit is come in
FTLN 2302 That so stood out against the holy Church,
FTLN 2303 The great metropolis and See of Rome.
FTLN 2304 Therefore thy threat’ning colors now wind up,
FTLN 2305 75 And tame the savage spirit of wild war
FTLN 2306 That, like a lion fostered up at hand,
FTLN 2307 It may lie gently at the foot of peace
FTLN 2308 And be no further harmful than in show.
DAUPHIN
FTLN 2309 Your Grace shall pardon me; I will not back.
FTLN 2310 80 I am too high-born to be propertied,
FTLN 2311 To be a secondary at control,
FTLN 2312 Or useful servingman and instrument
FTLN 2313 To any sovereign state throughout the world.
FTLN 2314 Your breath first kindled the dead coal of wars
FTLN 2315 85 Between this chastised kingdom and myself
FTLN 2316 And brought in matter that should feed this fire;
FTLN 2317 And now ’tis far too huge to be blown out
FTLN 2318 With that same weak wind which enkindled it.
FTLN 2319 You taught me how to know the face of right,
FTLN 2320 90 Acquainted me with interest to this land,
FTLN 2321 Yea, thrust this enterprise into my heart.

183
King John
ACT 5. SC. 2
FTLN 2322 And come you now to tell me John hath made
FTLN 2323 His peace with Rome? What is that peace to me?
FTLN 2324 I, by the honor of my marriage bed,
FTLN 2325 95 After young Arthur claim this land for mine.
FTLN 2326 And now it is half conquered, must I back
FTLN 2327 Because that John hath made his peace with Rome?
FTLN 2328 Am I Rome’s slave? What penny hath Rome borne?
FTLN 2329 What men provided? What munition sent
FTLN 2330 100 To underprop this action? Is ’t not I
FTLN 2331 That undergo this charge? Who else but I,
FTLN 2332 And such as to my claim are liable,
FTLN 2333 Sweat in this business and maintain this war?
FTLN 2334 Have I not heard these islanders shout out
FTLN 2335 105 “Vive le Roi” as I have banked their towns?
FTLN 2336 Have I not here the best cards for the game
FTLN 2337 To win this easy match played for a crown?
FTLN 2338 And shall I now give o’er the yielded set?
FTLN 2339 No, no, on my soul, it never shall be said.
PANDULPH
FTLN 2340 110 You look but on the outside of this work.
DAUPHIN
FTLN 2341 Outside or inside, I will not return
FTLN 2342 Till my attempt so much be glorified
FTLN 2343 As to my ample hope was promisèd
FTLN 2344 Before I drew this gallant head of war
FTLN 2345 115 And culled these fiery spirits from the world
FTLN 2346 To outlook conquest and to win renown
FTLN 2347 Even in the jaws of danger and of death.
A trumpet sounds.
FTLN 2348 What lusty trumpet thus doth summon us?
Enter Bastard.
BASTARD
FTLN 2349 According to the fair play of the world,
FTLN 2350 120 Let me have audience. I am sent to speak,
FTLN 2351 My holy lord of Milan, from the King.

185
King John
ACT 5. SC. 2
FTLN 2352 I come to learn how you have dealt for him,
FTLN 2353 And, as you answer, I do know the scope
FTLN 2354 And warrant limited unto my tongue.
PANDULPH
FTLN 2355 125 The Dauphin is too willful-opposite
FTLN 2356 And will not temporize with my entreaties.
FTLN 2357 He flatly says he’ll not lay down his arms.
BASTARD
FTLN 2358 By all the blood that ever fury breathed,
FTLN 2359 The youth says well! Now hear our English king,
FTLN 2360 130 For thus his royalty doth speak in me:
FTLN 2361 He is prepared—and reason too he should.
FTLN 2362 This apish and unmannerly approach,
FTLN 2363 This harnessed masque and unadvisèd revel,
FTLN 2364 This unheard sauciness and boyish troops,
FTLN 2365 135 The King doth smile at, and is well prepared
FTLN 2366 To whip this dwarfish war, these pigmy arms,
FTLN 2367 From out the circle of his territories.
FTLN 2368 That hand which had the strength, even at your door,
FTLN 2369 To cudgel you and make you take the hatch,
FTLN 2370 140 To dive like buckets in concealèd wells,
FTLN 2371 To crouch in litter of your stable planks,
FTLN 2372 To lie like pawns locked up in chests and trunks,
FTLN 2373 To hug with swine, to seek sweet safety out
FTLN 2374 In vaults and prisons, and to thrill and shake
FTLN 2375 145 Even at the crying of your nation’s crow,
FTLN 2376 Thinking this voice an armèd Englishman—
FTLN 2377 Shall that victorious hand be feebled here
FTLN 2378 That in your chambers gave you chastisement?
FTLN 2379 No! Know the gallant monarch is in arms,
FTLN 2380 150 And like an eagle o’er his aerie towers
FTLN 2381 To souse annoyance that comes near his nest.—
FTLN 2382 And you degenerate, you ingrate revolts,
FTLN 2383 You bloody Neroes, ripping up the womb
FTLN 2384 Of your dear mother England, blush for shame!
FTLN 2385 155 For your own ladies and pale-visaged maids

187
King John
ACT 5. SC. 2
FTLN 2386 Like Amazons come tripping after drums,
FTLN 2387 Their thimbles into armèd gauntlets change,
FTLN 2388 Their needles to lances, and their gentle hearts
FTLN 2389 To fierce and bloody inclination.
DAUPHIN
FTLN 2390 160 There end thy brave and turn thy face in peace.
FTLN 2391 We grant thou canst outscold us. Fare thee well.
FTLN 2392 We hold our time too precious to be spent
FTLN 2393 With such a brabbler.
PANDULPH FTLN 2394 Give me leave to speak.
BASTARD
FTLN 2395 165 No, I will speak.
DAUPHIN FTLN 2396 We will attend to neither.
FTLN 2397 Strike up the drums, and let the tongue of war
FTLN 2398 Plead for our interest and our being here.
BASTARD
FTLN 2399 Indeed, your drums being beaten will cry out,
FTLN 2400 170 And so shall you, being beaten. Do but start
FTLN 2401 An echo with the clamor of thy drum,
FTLN 2402 And even at hand a drum is ready braced
FTLN 2403 That shall reverberate all as loud as thine.
FTLN 2404 Sound but another, and another shall,
FTLN 2405 175 As loud as thine, rattle the welkin’s ear
FTLN 2406 And mock the deep-mouthed thunder. For at hand,
FTLN 2407 Not trusting to this halting legate here,
FTLN 2408 Whom he hath used rather for sport than need,
FTLN 2409 Is warlike John, and in his forehead sits
FTLN 2410 180 A bare-ribbed Death, whose office is this day
FTLN 2411 To feast upon whole thousands of the French.
DAUPHIN
FTLN 2412 Strike up our drums to find this danger out.
BASTARD
FTLN 2413 And thou shalt find it, dauphin, do not doubt.
They exit.

189
King John
ACT 5. SC. 4
Scene 3
Alarums. Enter King John and Hubert.
KING JOHN
FTLN 2414 How goes the day with us? O, tell me, Hubert.
HUBERT
FTLN 2415 Badly, I fear. How fares your Majesty?
KING JOHN
FTLN 2416 This fever that hath troubled me so long
FTLN 2417 Lies heavy on me. O, my heart is sick.
Enter a Messenger.
MESSENGER
FTLN 2418 5 My lord, your valiant kinsman, Faulconbridge,
FTLN 2419 Desires your Majesty to leave the field
FTLN 2420 And send him word by me which way you go.
KING JOHN
FTLN 2421 Tell him toward Swinstead, to the abbey there.
MESSENGER
FTLN 2422 Be of good comfort, for the great supply
FTLN 2423 10 That was expected by the Dauphin here
FTLN 2424 Are wracked three nights ago on Goodwin Sands.
FTLN 2425 This news was brought to Richard but even now.
FTLN 2426 The French fight coldly and retire themselves.
KING JOHN
FTLN 2427 Ay me, this tyrant fever burns me up
FTLN 2428 15 And will not let me welcome this good news.
FTLN 2429 Set on toward Swinstead. To my litter straight.
FTLN 2430 Weakness possesseth me, and I am faint.
They exit.
Scene 4
Enter Salisbury, Pembroke, and Bigot.
SALISBURY
FTLN 2431 I did not think the King so stored with friends.

191
King John
ACT 5. SC. 4
PEMBROKE
FTLN 2432 Up once again. Put spirit in the French.
FTLN 2433 If they miscarry, we miscarry too.
SALISBURY
FTLN 2434 That misbegotten devil, Faulconbridge,
FTLN 2435 5 In spite of spite, alone upholds the day.
PEMBROKE
FTLN 2436 They say King John, sore sick, hath left the field.
Enter Melun, wounded, led by a Soldier.
MELUN
FTLN 2437 Lead me to the revolts of England here.
SALISBURY
FTLN 2438 When we were happy, we had other names.
PEMBROKE
FTLN 2439 It is the Count Melun.
SALISBURY FTLN 2440 10 Wounded to death.
MELUN
FTLN 2441 Fly, noble English; you are bought and sold.
FTLN 2442 Unthread the rude eye of rebellion
FTLN 2443 And welcome home again discarded faith.
FTLN 2444 Seek out King John and fall before his feet,
FTLN 2445 15 For if the French be lords of this loud day,
FTLN 2446 He means to recompense the pains you take
FTLN 2447 By cutting off your heads. Thus hath he sworn,
FTLN 2448 And I with him, and many more with me,
FTLN 2449 Upon the altar at Saint Edmundsbury,
FTLN 2450 20 Even on that altar where we swore to you
FTLN 2451 Dear amity and everlasting love.
SALISBURY
FTLN 2452 May this be possible? May this be true?
MELUN
FTLN 2453 Have I not hideous death within my view,
FTLN 2454 Retaining but a quantity of life,
FTLN 2455 25 Which bleeds away even as a form of wax
FTLN 2456 Resolveth from his figure ’gainst the fire?

193
King John
ACT 5. SC. 4
FTLN 2457 What in the world should make me now deceive,
FTLN 2458 Since I must lose the use of all deceit?
FTLN 2459 Why should I then be false, since it is true
FTLN 2460 30 That I must die here and live hence by truth?
FTLN 2461 I say again, if Louis do win the day,
FTLN 2462 He is forsworn if e’er those eyes of yours
FTLN 2463 Behold another daybreak in the East.
FTLN 2464 But even this night, whose black contagious breath
FTLN 2465 35 Already smokes about the burning crest
FTLN 2466 Of the old, feeble, and day-wearied sun,
FTLN 2467 Even this ill night your breathing shall expire,
FTLN 2468 Paying the fine of rated treachery
FTLN 2469 Even with a treacherous fine of all your lives,
FTLN 2470 40 If Louis by your assistance win the day.
FTLN 2471 Commend me to one Hubert with your king;
FTLN 2472 The love of him, and this respect besides,
FTLN 2473 For that my grandsire was an Englishman,
FTLN 2474 Awakes my conscience to confess all this.
FTLN 2475 45 In lieu whereof, I pray you bear me hence
FTLN 2476 From forth the noise and rumor of the field,
FTLN 2477 Where I may think the remnant of my thoughts
FTLN 2478 In peace, and part this body and my soul
FTLN 2479 With contemplation and devout desires.
SALISBURY
FTLN 2480 50 We do believe thee, and beshrew my soul
FTLN 2481 But I do love the favor and the form
FTLN 2482 Of this most fair occasion, by the which
FTLN 2483 We will untread the steps of damnèd flight,
FTLN 2484 And like a bated and retirèd flood,
FTLN 2485 55 Leaving our rankness and irregular course,
FTLN 2486 Stoop low within those bounds we have o’erlooked
FTLN 2487 And calmly run on in obedience
FTLN 2488 Even to our ocean, to our great King John.
FTLN 2489 My arm shall give thee help to bear thee hence,
FTLN 2490 60 For I do see the cruel pangs of death

195
King John
ACT 5. SC. 5
FTLN 2491 Right in thine eye.—Away, my friends! New flight,
FTLN 2492 And happy newness, that intends old right.
They exit, assisting Melun.
Scene 5
Enter Louis, the Dauphin and his train.
DAUPHIN
FTLN 2493 The sun of heaven, methought, was loath to set,
FTLN 2494 But stayed and made the western welkin blush,
FTLN 2495 When English measured backward their own
FTLN 2496 ground
FTLN 2497 5 In faint retire. O, bravely came we off,
FTLN 2498 When with a volley of our needless shot,
FTLN 2499 After such bloody toil, we bid good night
FTLN 2500 And wound our tott’ring colors clearly up,
FTLN 2501 Last in the field and almost lords of it.
Enter a Messenger.
MESSENGER
FTLN 2502 10 Where is my prince, the Dauphin?
DAUPHIN FTLN 2503 Here. What news?
MESSENGER
FTLN 2504 The Count Melun is slain. The English lords,
FTLN 2505 By his persuasion, are again fall’n off,
FTLN 2506 And your supply, which you have wished so long,
FTLN 2507 15 Are cast away and sunk on Goodwin Sands.
DAUPHIN
FTLN 2508 Ah, foul, shrewd news. Beshrew thy very heart!
FTLN 2509 I did not think to be so sad tonight
FTLN 2510 As this hath made me. Who was he that said
FTLN 2511 King John did fly an hour or two before
FTLN 2512 20 The stumbling night did part our weary powers?
MESSENGER
FTLN 2513 Whoever spoke it, it is true, my lord.

197
King John
ACT 5. SC. 6
DAUPHIN
FTLN 2514 Well, keep good quarter and good care tonight.
FTLN 2515 The day shall not be up so soon as I
FTLN 2516 To try the fair adventure of tomorrow.
They exit.
Scene 6
Enter Bastard and Hubert, severally.
HUBERT
FTLN 2517 Who’s there? Speak ho! Speak quickly, or I shoot.
BASTARD
FTLN 2518 A friend. What art thou?
HUBERT FTLN 2519 Of the part of England.
BASTARD
FTLN 2520 Whither dost thou go?
HUBERT FTLN 2521 5 What’s that to thee?
BASTARD
FTLN 2522 Why may not I demand of thine affairs
FTLN 2523 As well as thou of mine? Hubert, I think?
HUBERT FTLN 2524 Thou hast a perfect thought.
FTLN 2525 I will upon all hazards well believe
FTLN 2526 10 Thou art my friend, that know’st my tongue so well.
FTLN 2527 Who art thou?
BASTARD FTLN 2528 Who thou wilt. An if thou please,
FTLN 2529 Thou mayst befriend me so much as to think
FTLN 2530 I come one way of the Plantagenets.
HUBERT
FTLN 2531 15 Unkind remembrance! Thou and endless night
FTLN 2532 Have done me shame. Brave soldier, pardon me
FTLN 2533 That any accent breaking from thy tongue
FTLN 2534 Should ’scape the true acquaintance of mine ear.
BASTARD
FTLN 2535 Come, come. Sans compliment, what news abroad?

199
King John
ACT 5. SC. 6
HUBERT
FTLN 2536 20 Why, here walk I in the black brow of night
FTLN 2537 To find you out.
BASTARD FTLN 2538 Brief, then; and what’s the news?
HUBERT
FTLN 2539 O my sweet sir, news fitting to the night,
FTLN 2540 Black, fearful, comfortless, and horrible.
BASTARD
FTLN 2541 25 Show me the very wound of this ill news.
FTLN 2542 I am no woman; I’ll not swoon at it.
HUBERT
FTLN 2543 The King, I fear, is poisoned by a monk.
FTLN 2544 I left him almost speechless, and broke out
FTLN 2545 To acquaint you with this evil, that you might
FTLN 2546 30 The better arm you to the sudden time
FTLN 2547 Than if you had at leisure known of this.
BASTARD
FTLN 2548 How did he take it? Who did taste to him?
HUBERT
FTLN 2549 A monk, I tell you, a resolvèd villain,
FTLN 2550 Whose bowels suddenly burst out. The King
FTLN 2551 35 Yet speaks and peradventure may recover.
BASTARD
FTLN 2552 Who didst thou leave to tend his Majesty?
HUBERT
FTLN 2553 Why, know you not? The lords are all come back,
FTLN 2554 And brought Prince Henry in their company,
FTLN 2555 At whose request the King hath pardoned them,
FTLN 2556 40 And they are all about his Majesty.
BASTARD
FTLN 2557 Withhold thine indignation, mighty God,
FTLN 2558 And tempt us not to bear above our power.
FTLN 2559 I’ll tell thee, Hubert, half my power this night,
FTLN 2560 Passing these flats, are taken by the tide.
FTLN 2561 45 These Lincoln Washes have devourèd them.
FTLN 2562 Myself, well mounted, hardly have escaped.

201
King John
ACT 5. SC. 7
FTLN 2563 Away before. Conduct me to the King.
FTLN 2564 I doubt he will be dead or ere I come.
They exit.
Scene 7
Enter Prince Henry, Salisbury, and Bigot.
PRINCE HENRY
FTLN 2565 It is too late. The life of all his blood
FTLN 2566 Is touched corruptibly, and his pure brain,
FTLN 2567 Which some suppose the soul’s frail dwelling-house,
FTLN 2568 Doth, by the idle comments that it makes,
FTLN 2569 5 Foretell the ending of mortality.
Enter Pembroke.
PEMBROKE
FTLN 2570 His Highness yet doth speak, and holds belief
FTLN 2571 That being brought into the open air
FTLN 2572 It would allay the burning quality
FTLN 2573 Of that fell poison which assaileth him.
PRINCE HENRY
FTLN 2574 10 Let him be brought into the orchard here.
Bigot exits.
FTLN 2575 Doth he still rage?
PEMBROKE FTLN 2576 He is more patient
FTLN 2577 Than when you left him. Even now he sung.
PRINCE HENRY
FTLN 2578 O vanity of sickness! Fierce extremes
FTLN 2579 15 In their continuance will not feel themselves.
FTLN 2580 Death, having preyed upon the outward parts,
FTLN 2581 Leaves them invisible, and his siege is now
FTLN 2582 Against the mind, the which he pricks and wounds
FTLN 2583 With many legions of strange fantasies,
FTLN 2584 20 Which in their throng and press to that last hold

203
King John
ACT 5. SC. 7
FTLN 2585 Confound themselves. ’Tis strange that Death should
FTLN 2586 sing.
FTLN 2587 I am the cygnet to this pale faint swan,
FTLN 2588 Who chants a doleful hymn to his own death,
FTLN 2589 25 And from the organ-pipe of frailty sings
FTLN 2590 His soul and body to their lasting rest.
SALISBURY
FTLN 2591 Be of good comfort, prince, for you are born
FTLN 2592 To set a form upon that indigest
FTLN 2593 Which he hath left so shapeless and so rude.
King John brought in, attended by Bigot.
KING JOHN
FTLN 2594 30 Ay, marry, now my soul hath elbow-room.
FTLN 2595 It would not out at windows nor at doors.
FTLN 2596 There is so hot a summer in my bosom
FTLN 2597 That all my bowels crumble up to dust.
FTLN 2598 I am a scribbled form drawn with a pen
FTLN 2599 35 Upon a parchment, and against this fire
FTLN 2600 Do I shrink up.
PRINCE HENRY FTLN 2601 How fares your Majesty?
KING JOHN
FTLN 2602 Poisoned—ill fare—dead, forsook, cast off,
FTLN 2603 And none of you will bid the winter come
FTLN 2604 40 To thrust his icy fingers in my maw,
FTLN 2605 Nor let my kingdom’s rivers take their course
FTLN 2606 Through my burned bosom, nor entreat the North
FTLN 2607 To make his bleak winds kiss my parchèd lips
FTLN 2608 And comfort me with cold. I do not ask you much.
FTLN 2609 45 I beg cold comfort, and you are so strait
FTLN 2610 And so ingrateful, you deny me that.
PRINCE HENRY
FTLN 2611 O, that there were some virtue in my tears
FTLN 2612 That might relieve you!
KING JOHN FTLN 2613 The salt in them is hot.
FTLN 2614 50 Within me is a hell, and there the poison

205
King John
ACT 5. SC. 7
FTLN 2615 Is, as a fiend, confined to tyrannize
FTLN 2616 On unreprievable, condemnèd blood.
Enter Bastard.
BASTARD
FTLN 2617 O, I am scalded with my violent motion
FTLN 2618 And spleen of speed to see your Majesty.
KING JOHN
FTLN 2619 55 O cousin, thou art come to set mine eye.
FTLN 2620 The tackle of my heart is cracked and burnt,
FTLN 2621 And all the shrouds wherewith my life should sail
FTLN 2622 Are turnèd to one thread, one little hair.
FTLN 2623 My heart hath one poor string to stay it by,
FTLN 2624 60 Which holds but till thy news be utterèd,
FTLN 2625 And then all this thou seest is but a clod
FTLN 2626 And module of confounded royalty.
BASTARD
FTLN 2627 The Dauphin is preparing hitherward,
FTLN 2628 Where God He knows how we shall answer him.
FTLN 2629 65 For in a night the best part of my power,
FTLN 2630 As I upon advantage did remove,
FTLN 2631 Were in the Washes all unwarily
FTLN 2632 Devourèd by the unexpected flood.
King John dies.
SALISBURY
FTLN 2633 You breathe these dead news in as dead an ear.—
FTLN 2634 70 My liege! My lord!—But now a king, now thus.
PRINCE HENRY
FTLN 2635 Even so must I run on, and even so stop.
FTLN 2636 What surety of the world, what hope, what stay,
FTLN 2637 When this was now a king and now is clay?
BASTARD
FTLN 2638 Art thou gone so? I do but stay behind
FTLN 2639 75 To do the office for thee of revenge,
FTLN 2640 And then my soul shall wait on thee to heaven,
FTLN 2641 As it on Earth hath been thy servant still.—

207
King John
ACT 5. SC. 7
FTLN 2642 Now, now, you stars, that move in your right spheres,
FTLN 2643 Where be your powers? Show now your mended
FTLN 2644 80 faiths
FTLN 2645 And instantly return with me again
FTLN 2646 To push destruction and perpetual shame
FTLN 2647 Out of the weak door of our fainting land.
FTLN 2648 Straight let us seek, or straight we shall be sought;
FTLN 2649 85 The Dauphin rages at our very heels.
SALISBURY
FTLN 2650 It seems you know not, then, so much as we.
FTLN 2651 The Cardinal Pandulph is within at rest,
FTLN 2652 Who half an hour since came from the Dauphin,
FTLN 2653 And brings from him such offers of our peace
FTLN 2654 90 As we with honor and respect may take,
FTLN 2655 With purpose presently to leave this war.
BASTARD
FTLN 2656 He will the rather do it when he sees
FTLN 2657 Ourselves well-sinewèd to our defense.
SALISBURY
FTLN 2658 Nay, ’tis in a manner done already,
FTLN 2659 95 For many carriages he hath dispatched
FTLN 2660 To the sea-side, and put his cause and quarrel
FTLN 2661 To the disposing of the Cardinal,
FTLN 2662 With whom yourself, myself, and other lords,
FTLN 2663 If you think meet, this afternoon will post
FTLN 2664 100 To consummate this business happily.
BASTARD
FTLN 2665 Let it be so.—And you, my noble prince,
FTLN 2666 With other princes that may best be spared,
FTLN 2667 Shall wait upon your father’s funeral.
PRINCE HENRY
FTLN 2668 At Worcester must his body be interred,
FTLN 2669 105 For so he willed it.
BASTARD FTLN 2670 Thither shall it, then,
FTLN 2671 And happily may your sweet self put on
FTLN 2672 The lineal state and glory of the land,

209
King John
ACT 5. SC. 7
FTLN 2673 To whom with all submission on my knee
FTLN 2674 110 I do bequeath my faithful services
FTLN 2675 And true subjection everlastingly. He kneels.
SALISBURY
FTLN 2676 And the like tender of our love we make
FTLN 2677 To rest without a spot forevermore.
Salisbury, Pembroke, and Bigot kneel.
PRINCE HENRY
FTLN 2678 I have a kind soul that would give you thanks
FTLN 2679 115 And knows not how to do it but with tears.
They rise.
BASTARD
FTLN 2680 O, let us pay the time but needful woe,
FTLN 2681 Since it hath been beforehand with our griefs.
FTLN 2682 This England never did nor never shall
FTLN 2683 Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror
FTLN 2684 120 But when it first did help to wound itself.
FTLN 2685 Now these her princes are come home again,
FTLN 2686 Come the three corners of the world in arms
FTLN 2687 And we shall shock them. Naught shall make us rue,
FTLN 2688 If England to itself do rest but true.
They exit, bearing the body of King John.