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And for amends to his pofterity,

At our importance hither is he come,

To spread his colours, boy, in thy behalf;
And to rebuke the ufurpation

Of thy unnatural uncle, English John.

Embrace him, love him, give him welcome hither.
Arthur. God fhall forgive you Caur-de lion's death
The rather, that you give his off-fpring life;
Shadowing their right under your wings of war.
I give you welcome with a pow'rless hand,
But with a heart full of unftained love :
Welcome before the gates of Angiers, Duke.
Lewis. A noble boy! who would not do thee right?
Auft. Upon thy cheek lay I this zealous kifs,
A feal to this indenture of my love; .
That to my home I will no more return,
Till Angiers and the right thou haft in France,
Together with that pale, that white-fac'd fhore,
Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring tides,,
And coops from other lands her islanders;
Ev'n till that England, hedg'd in with the main,
That water-walled bulwark, still secure
And confident from foreign purposes,
Ev'n till that outmoft corner of the weft,
Salute thee for her King. Till then, fair boy,
Will I not think of home, but follow arms.

Conft. O, take his mother's thanks, a widow's thanks,

Till your strong hand fhall help to give him ftrength, To make a more requital to your love.

Auft. The peace of heav'n is theirs, who lift their fwords

In fuch a juft and charitable war.

made pfoner by the Duke of Auftria, but was released for an exorbitant ransome, and was afterwards killed with a crofs-bow, before the caftle of Chalons.

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At my importance.] At my importunity.

9 That pale, that white fac'd hore.] England is fuppofed to be called Albion from the white rocks facing France. Ee

K. Philip.

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

be bent

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

Conft. Stay for an anfwer to your Embassie,
Left unadvis'd you ftain your fwords with blood.
My lord Chatillon may from England bring
That right in peace, which here we urge in war;
And then we fhall repent each drop of blood,
That hot rafh hafte fo indirectly shed.

*

Enter Chatillon.

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

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

Chatillon, fpeak.

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

England, impatient of your just demands,

Hath put himself in arms; the adverse winds,
Whofe leisure I have staid, have giv'n him time
To land his legions all as soon as Ï.

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

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

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

Expedient.] Immediate, expeditious.

And

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

With ladies' faces, and fierce dragons' fpleens,
Have fold their fortunes at their native homes,
2 Bearing their birthrights proudly on their, backs,
To make a hazard of new fortunes here.

In brief, a braver choice of dauntless fpirits,
Than now the English bottoms have waft o'er,
Did never float upon the fwelling tide,

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

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

dition!

Auft. By how much unexpected, by fo much
We must awake endeavour for defence;

For courage mounteth with occafion :
Let them be welcome then, we are prepar'd.

SCENE II.

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

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

Our juft and lineal entrance to our own;

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

2

Bearing their birth-rights,

&c.] So in Henry VIII.

Many broke their backs

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

Ee 2

That

That thou hast under-wrought its lawful King;
Cut off the fequence of posterity;
Out-faced infant ftate; and done a rape.
Upon the maiden virtue of the crown.
Look here upon thy brother Geffery's face.
These eyes, these brows, were moulded out of his 3
This little abftract doth contain that large,
Which dy'd in Geffrey; and the hand of time
Shall draw this brief into as large a volume.
That Geffrey was thy elder brother born,
And this his fon; England was Geffrey's right,
And this is Geffrey's; in the name of God,
How comes it then, that thou art call'd a King,
When living blood doth in these temples beat,
Which own the crown that thou o'er-maftereft?
K. John. From whom haft thou this great commif-
fion, France,

To draw my answer to thy articles ?

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

In any breast of strong authority,

To look into the blots and ftains of right.
That judge hath made me guardian to this boy;
Under whofe warrant I impeach thy wrong,
And by whofe help I mean to chastise it.

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

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

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

Conft.

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

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

It cannot be, an if thou wert his mother.

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

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

'blot thee.

Auft. Peace.

Faulc. Here the crier.

Auft. What the devil art thou?

Faulc. One that will play the devil, Sir, with you,
An a' may catch your hide and you alone.
You are the hare, of whom the proverb goes,
Whose valour plucks dead Lions by the beard;
I'll fmoak your skin-coat, an I catch you right;
Sirrah, look to't; i'faith, I will, i'faith.

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

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5 It lies as lightly on the back of him,

As great Alcides' Shoes upon

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

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