SCENE I. The same. A Room in the Palace. Enter KING JOHN, PANDULPH with the Crown, and Attendants. K. John. Thus have I yielded up into The circle of my glory. Pand. your hand Take again From this my hand, as holding of the pope, Your sovereign greatness and authority. K. John. Now keep your holy word: go meet the French; And from his holiness use all your power To stop their marches, 'fore we are inflam'd. Rests by you only to be qualified. Then pause not; for the present time's so sick, Or overthrow incurable ensues. Pand. It was my breath that blew this tempest up, Upon your stubborn usage of the pope: But, since you are a gentle convertite, My tongue shall hush again this storm of war, Upon your oath of service to the pope, Go I to make the French lay down their arms. [Exit. K. John. Is this Ascension-day? Did not the prophet Say, that, before Ascension-day at noon, My crown I should give off? Even so I have: Enter the BASTARD. Bast. All Kent hath yielded; nothing there holds out, But Dover castle: London hath receiv'd, Like a kind host, the dauphin and his powers: To offer service to your enemy; And wild amazement hurries up and down K. John. Would not my lords return to me again, After they heard young Arthur was alive? Bast. They found him dead, and cast into the streets; An empty casket, where the jewel of life By some damn'd hand was robb'd and ta'en away. That borrow their behaviours from the great, And fright him there? and make him tremble there? To meet displeasure further from the doors; K. John. The legate of the pope hath been with me, And I have made a happy peace with him; And he hath promis'd to dimiss the powers Led by the dauphin. Bast. O, inglorious league! Shall we, upon the footing of our land, To arms invasive? shall a beardless boy, They saw we had a purpose of defence. K. John. Have thou the ordering of this present time. Bast. Away then, with good courage; yet I know, Our party may well meet a prouder foe. [Exeunt. SCENE II. A Plain near ST. EDMUND'S-BURY. Enter, in Arms, LEWIS, SALISBURY, MELUN, Lew. My lord Melun, let this be copied out, E Were born to see so sad an hour as this; What, here?-O nation, that thou couldst remove That Neptune's arms, who clippeth thee thyself, Where these two Christian armies might combine in this; And not to spend it so That silverly doth progress on thy cheeks: But this effusion of such manly drops, This shower, blown up by tempest of the soul, As Lewis himself:-so, nobles, shall you all, Enter PANDULPH, attended. And even there, methinks, an angel spake: Pand. Hail, noble prince of France! The next is this,-king John hath reconcil'd Himself to Rome; his spirit is come in, That so stood out against the holy church, The great metropolis and see of Rome: Therefore thy threat'ning colours now wind up, And tame the savage spirit of wild war; That, like a lion foster'd up at hand, It may lie gently at the foot of peace, And be no further harmful than in show. Lew. Your grace shall pardon me, I will not back; I am too high-born to be propertied, To be a secondary at control, Or useful serving-man, and instrument, To any sovereign state throughout the world. |