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ACT II

SCENE I.-France. Before Angiers.

Enter AUSTRIA and forces, drums, etc., on one side : on

the other KING PHILIP of France and his power ;

LEWIS, ARTHUR, CONSTANCE, and attendants.
Lew. Before Angiers well met, brave Austria.

Arthur, that great forerunner of thy blood,
Richard, that robb'd the lion of his heart
And fought the holy wars in Palestine,
By this brave Duke came early to his grave:
And for amends to his posterity,
At our importance hither is he come,
To spread his colours, boy, in thy behalf,
And to rebuke the usurpation
Of thy unnatural uncle, English John:

10 Embrace him, love him, give him welcome hither. Arth. God shall forgive you Coeur-de-lion's death

The rather that you give his offspring life, Act 11. Scene 1.] This is the second

"Maria writ scene of Act 1. in the Folios.

The letter at Sir Toby's great 2. great forerunner] Shakespeare importance." is here in error if “forerunner” is 13. The rather that] all the more taken to mean direct ancestor. Ceur- because. Compare Hamlet, iv. vii. de-lion and King John were both 70:uncles of Arthur.

"My lord, I will be ruled; 7. At our importance] upon our The rather, if you could devise it importuning him. Compare Twelfth

SO Night, v. i. 371:

That I might be the organ."

Shadowing their right under your wings of war:
I give you welcome with a powerless hand,

15 But with a heart full of unstained love:

Welcome before the gates of Angiers, duke.
Lew. A noble boy! Who would not do thee right?
Aust. Upon thy cheek lay I this zealous kiss,

As seal to this indenture of my love,
That to my home I will no more return,
Till Angiers and the right thou hast in France,
Together with that pale, that white-faced shore,
Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring tides
And coops from other lands her islanders,
Even till that England, hedged in with the main,
That water-walled bulwark, still secure
And confident from foreign purposes,
Even till that utmost corner of the west
Salute thee for her king : till then, fair boy,

Will I not think of home, but follow arms.
Const. O, take his mother's thanks, a widow's thanks,

Till your strong hand shall help to give him strength
To make a more requital to your love!

29. utmost] Ff 1, 2, 3; outmost F 4.

18. do thee right) take thy part. A chant of Venice, v. i. 97, a poetical common Shakespearian usage. expression which may be rendered as

25. coops] protects by shutting in. “the continent of waters.” It would So 3 Henry VI. v. I. rog: “ Alas! I then mark the transition between am not coop'd here for defence." main = land and main = water. This speech recalls Gaunt's dying Compare “ Sailing the Spanish main" words in Richard II., and may have in the Wreck of the Hesperus. See some bearing on the question of the also Friar Bacon (1594), ed. Gayley. dating of King John and Richard II. One reading of 1. viii. 59, 60 has :See Introduction.

“And draw the dolphins to thy 26. main] Hakluyt generally used

lovely eyes this word for mainland. We have To dauncé lavoltas in the purple "a main of waters” in The Mer.

main."

Aust. The peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swords In such a just and charitable war.

36 K. Phi. Well then, to work: our cannon shall be bent

Against the brows of this resisting town.
Call for our chiefest men of discipline,
To cull the plots of best advantages:

40
We'll lay before this town our royal bones,
Wade to the market-place in Frenchmen's blood,

But we will make it subject to this boy.
Const. Stay for an answer to your embassy,

Lest unadvised you stain your swords with blood : 45
My Lord Chatillon may from England bring
That right in peace which here we urge in war,
And then we shall repent each drop of blood
That hot rash haste so indirectly shed.

Enter CHATILLON.
K. Phi. A wonder, lady! lo, upon thy wish, 50

Our messenger Chatillon is arrived !
What England says, say briefly, gentle lord;

We coldly pause for thee; Chatillon, speak.
37. work : our] work, our F 4; work our É 3; worke our Ff 1, 2.

37. cannon] To avoid the anach- Compare The Merchant of Venice, ronism Pope substituted "engines" iv. i. 359:for “cannon," with needless pre

Indirectly and directly too cision.

Thou hast contrived against the 40. To cull, etc.) “either to select very life.” positions which will be most favour. The meaning here is nearer to “indisable to us" (Steevens, Mr. Wright), creetly” than to “underhandedly," or to take counsel together, to discuss although precipitating a fight before the most profitable plans. The the return of a possibly peaceful latter explanation seems to fall in answer from the opponent might be more with calling upon the “chiefest called “indirection" by an honour. men of discipline."

able soldier. Cotgrave has “Indirecte45. unadvised) unadvisedly, hastily. ment : in-directly, ... by unfit

49. indirectly] generally means means." underhandedly in Shakespeare. 53. coldly] dispassionately.

Chat. Then turn your forces from this paltry siege

And stir them up against a mightier task.
England, impatient of your just demands,
Hath put himself in arms: the adverse winds,
Whose leisure I have stay'd, have given him time
To land his legions all as soon as I;
His marches are expedient to this town,

60
His forces strong, his soldiers confident.
With him along is come the mother-queen,
An Ate, stirring him to blood and strife;
With her her niece, the Lady Blanch of Spain;
With them a bastard of the king's deceased; - 65
And all the unsettled humours of the land,
Rash, inconsiderate, fiery voluntaries,
With ladies' faces and fierce dragons' spleens,
Have sold their fortunes at their native homes,

Bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs, 70 70. birthrights] Ff 1, 2; birthright Ff 3, 4.

60. His marches ... town] he is 65. a bastard ... deceased] We marching to this town with all ex- should now say “a bastard of the pedition. See line 223 infra:- deceased king's." This inversion “Who painfully with much ex- was common in Elizabethan writings, pedient march

yet it was apparently corrected in Have brought a countercheck Folios 2-4, which read “King." before your gates" ;

The line is almost verbally the same and iv. ii. 268 infra :

in Troublesome Raigne : “Next them "to my closet bring a bastard of the King's deceast." The angry lords with all ex- 67. voluntaries] volunteers. Compedient haste.”

pare Cotgrave, “volontaire : a 63. Ate] Rowe's famous emendation voluntarie, one that serves or does of the Ace of the Folios. Compare anything without pay or compulFulius Cæsar, 111. i. 271: “Cæsar's sion." spirit, ranging for revenge, With Ate 68. dragons' spleens] Compare by his side come hot from hell.” See Richard III. v. iii. 350: “Inspire also Friar Bacon (1594), ed. Gayley, us with the spleen of fiery dragons." 1. X. 137:

The dragon was the most fearful wild “Fond Atæ, doomer of bad boad- fowl of Bartholomew and the Hortus ing fates,

Sanitatis of Topsell. That wrappes proud fortune in 70. Bearing their birthrights, etc.) thy snaky locks.”

Compare Henry VIII. 1. i. 84:

To make a hazard of new fortunes here:
In brief, a braver choice of dauntless spirits
Than now the English bottoms have waft o'er
Did never float upon the swelling tide,
To do offence and scath in Christendom.

[Drum beats.
The interruption of their churlish drums
Cuts off more circumstance: they are at hand,

To parley or to fight; therefore prepare.
K. Phi. How much unlook'd for is this expedition !
Aust. By how much unexpected, by so much

80
We must awake endeavour for defence;
For courage mounteth with occasion :

Let them be welcome then; we are prepared. Enter KING JOHN, ELINOR, BLANCH, the BASTARD,

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

Our just and lineal entrance to our own; 85
If not, bleed France, and peace ascend to heaven,
Whiles we, God's wrathful agent, do correct

Their proud contempt that beats His peace to heaven. K. Phi. Peace be to England, if that war return

From France to England, there to live in peace. 90

“O, many 82. with occasion] when the emerHave broke their backs with gency demands. laying manors on them.”

87. Whiles] the genitive form of 73. bottoms) vessels. Used techni- while (A.S. hwil) used adverbially, cally in this sense at the present Common in Shakespeare. Rowe day.

reads Whilst. 17. circumstance) detailed descrip- 88. beats) Hanmer reads beat, maktion, attendant detail. Compare ing that refer to the plural pronoun Othello, ii. iii. 355 : “ Pride, pomp, contained in their and not to contempt and circumstance of glorious war." -a needless alteration.

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