Who, by the hand of France, this day hath made. Enter an English Herald, with trumpets. E. Her. Rejoice, you men of Angiers, ring your bells; King John, your king and England's, doth approach, Commander of this hot, malicious day! Their armors, that marched hence so silver-bright, That is removed by a staff of France; Our colors do return in those same hands That did display them when we first marched forth; Cit. Heralds, from off our towers we might behold, From first to last, the onset and retire Of both your armies; whose equality By our best eyes cannot be censured. Blood hath bought blood, and blows have answered blows; Strength matched with strength, and power confronted power: Both are alike; and both alike we like. One must prove greatest; while they weigh so even, Enter, at one side, KING JOHN, with his Power; ELINOR, K. John. France, hast thou yet more blood to cast away? Say, shall the current of our right run on? Whose passage, vexed with thy impediment, With course disturbed, even thy confining shores; A peaceful progress to the ocean. K. Phi. England, thou hast not saved one drop of blood, In this hot trial, more than we of France; Rather, lost more. And by this hand I swear, That sways the earth this climate overlooks,Before we will lay down our just-borne arms, We'll put thee down, 'gainst whom these arms we bear, Gracing the scroll, that tells of this war's loss, Bast. Ha, majesty! how high thy glory towers, Why stand these royal fronts amazed thus? The other's peace; till then, blows, blood, and death! 1 Cit. A greater power than we, denies all this; And, till it be undoubted, we do lock Our former scruple in our strong-barred gates; Bast. By Heaven, these scroyles of Angiers flout you, kings; And stand securely on their battlements, As in a theatre, whence they gape and point Be friends a while, and both conjointly bend Even till unfenced desolation Leave them as naked as the vulgar air. To whom in favor she shall give the day, How like you this wild counsel, mighty states? Smacks it not something of the policy? K. John. Now, by the sky that hangs above our heads, I like it well.-France, shall we knit our powers, Then, after, fight who shall be king of it? Bast. An if thou hast the mettle of a king,Being wronged, as we are, by this peevish town,Turn thou the mouth of thy artillery, As we will ours, against these saucy wall; And when that we have dashed them to the ground, Make work upon ourselves, for heaven, or hell. K. Phi. Let it be so.-Say, where will you assault? K. John. We from the west will send destruction Into this city's bosom. Aust. I from the north. Our thunder, from the south, Shall rain their drift of bullets on this town. [Aside. Bast. O prudent discipline! from north to south, 1 Cit. Hear us, great kings! vouchsafe a while to stay, Persever not, but hear me, mighty kings. K. John. Speak on, with favor; we are bent to hear. Is near to England; look upon the years Y Whose veins bound richer blood than lady Blanch? Is the young dauphin every way complete. Do glorify the banks that bound them in; And two such shores to two such streams made one, As we to keep this city. Bast. Here's a stay, That shakes the rotten carcass of old death Out of his rags! here's a large mouth, indeed, As maids of thirteen do of puppy-dogs! What cannonier begot this lusty blood? He speaks plain cannon, fire, and smoke, and bounce; He gives the bastinado with his tongue; Our ears are cudgelled; not a word of his, But buffets better than a fist of France. Zounds! I was never so bethumped with words, Eli. Son, list to this conjunction; make this match. Give with our niece a dowry large enough; For by this knot thou shalt so surely tie Mark, how they whisper. Urge them, while their souls Are capable of this ambition! Lest zeal, now melted by the windy breath Cool and congeal again to what it was. 1 Cit. Why answer not the double majesties This friendly treaty of our threatened town? K. Phi. Speak England first, that hath been forward first To speak unto this city. What say you? K. John. If that the dauphin there, thy princely son, Can in this book of beauty read, I love, Her dowry shall weigh equal with a queen; For Anjou, and fair Touraine, Maine, Poictiers, Shall gild her bridal bed, and make her rich As she in beauty, education, blood, Holds hand with any princess of the world. face. Look in the lady's Lew. I do, my lord, and in her eye I find The shadow of myself formed in her eye; Till now infixed I beheld myself Drawn in the flattering table of her eye. [Whispers with BLANCH. Bast. Drawn in the flattering table of her eye! Hanged in the frowning wrinkle of her brow!And quartered in her heart!- He doth espy Himself love's traitor. This is pity now, That hanged, and drawn, and quartered, there should be, In such a love, so vile a lout as he. Blanch. My uncle's will, in this respect, is mine. If he see aught in you, that makes him like, That any thing he sees, which moves his liking, Or, if you will, (to speak more properly,) |