Read King John & Henry VIII Online
Authors: William Shakespeare
King John & Henry VIII (10 page)
Exit
running scene 3
Enter Constance, Arthur and Salisbury
To Salisbury
CONSTANCE
Gone to be married? Gone to swear a peace?
False blood to false blood joined! Gone to be friends?
Shall Lewis have Blanche, and Blanche those provinces?
It is not so, thou hast
misspoke
4
, misheard:
Be well advised
5
, tell o’er thy tale again.
It cannot be, thou dost
but
6
say ’tis so.
I
trust
7
I may not trust thee, for thy word
Is but the vain breath of a
common man
8
:
Believe me, I do not believe thee, man:
I have a king’s oath to the contrary.
Thou shalt be punished for thus
frighting
11
me,
For I am sick and
capable of
12
fears:
Oppressed with wrongs, and therefore full of fears:
A widow, husbandless, subject to fears,
A woman naturally born to fears;
And
though
16
thou now confess thou didst but jest
With my vexed spirits, I cannot
take a truce
17
,
But they will quake and tremble all this day.
What dost thou mean by shaking of thy head?
Why dost thou look so
sadly
20
on my son?
What means that hand upon that breast of thine?
Why holds thine eye that
lamentable
rheum
22
,
Like a
proud
river
peering o’er his
23
bounds?
Be these
sad
24
signs confirmers of thy words?
Then speak again, not all thy former tale,
But this one word: whether thy tale be true.
SALISBURY
As true as I believe you think
them
27
false
That give you cause to
prove
28
my saying true.
CONSTANCE
O, if thou teach me to believe this sorrow,
Teach thou this sorrow how to make me die,
And let belief and life
encounter
31
so
As doth the fury of two desperate men,
Which in the very meeting fall and die.
To Arthur
Lewis marry Blanche!— O boy, then where art thou?
France friend with England, what becomes of me?—
To Salisbury
Fellow, be gone: I cannot
brook
36
thy sight:
This news hath made thee a most ugly man.
SALISBURY
What other harm have I, good lady, done,
But spoke the harm that is by others done?
CONSTANCE
Which harm within itself so heinous is
As it makes harmful all that speak of it.
Ugly and
sland’rous
44
to thy mother’s womb,
Full of unpleasing blots and
sightless
45
stains,
Lame, foolish,
crooked
,
swart
,
prodigious
46
,
Patched
47
with foul moles and eye-offending marks,
I would not care, I then would be content,
For then I should not love thee, no, nor thou
Become
50
thy great birth, nor deserve a crown.
But thou art
fair
51
, and at thy birth, dear boy,
Nature and Fortune joined to make thee great.
Of Nature’s gifts thou mayst with lilies boast,
And with the
half-blown
54
rose. But Fortune, O,
She is corrupted, changed, and won from thee:
Sh’adulterates
hourly
56
with thine uncle John,
And with her
golden
hand hath
plucked on
57
France
To tread down fair respect of
sovereignty
58
,
And made
his majesty
the bawd to
theirs
59
.
France is a bawd to Fortune and King John,
That
strumpet
61
Fortune, that usurping John:—
To Salisbury
Tell me, thou
fellow
, is not
France
forsworn
62
?
Envenom
him with
words
63
, or get thee gone
And leave those woes alone, which I alone
Am bound to
underbear
65
.
SALISBURY
Pardon me, madam,
I may not go without you to the kings.
CONSTANCE
Thou mayst, thou shalt: I will not go with thee:
I will instruct my sorrows to be
proud
69
,
For grief is proud and makes his owner stoop.
To me and to the
state
71
of my great grief
Let kings assemble: for my grief’s so great
That no supporter but the huge firm earth
Can hold it up: here I and sorrows sit:
She sits upon the ground
Here is my throne: bid kings come bow to it.
Constance remains seated
[
Exit Salisbury with Arthur
]
running scene 3 continues
Enter King John, King Philip, Lewis, Blanche, Queen Elinor, the Bastard
[
and
]
Austria
Ever in France shall be kept festival:
To solemnize this day the glorious sun
Stays in his course
and
plays the alchemist
4
,
Turning with splendour of his precious eye
The meagre cloddy earth to glittering gold:
The yearly course that brings this day about
Shall never see it but a
holy day
8
.
Rising
CONSTANCE
A wicked day, and not a holy day!
What hath this day deserved? What hath it done,
That it in
golden letters
11
should be set
Among the
high tides
12
in the calendar?
Nay, rather turn this day out of the week,
This day of shame, oppression, perjury.
Or if it must
stand still
, let wives
with child
15
Pray that their burdens may not
fall
16
this day,
Lest that their hopes
prodigiously
be
crossed
17
:
But
on this day let seamen fear no
wreck
18
:
No bargains break that are not this day made
19
;
This day all things begun come to ill end,
Yea, faith itself to hollow falsehood change.
KING PHILIP
By heaven, lady, you shall have no cause
CONSTANCE
You have
beguiled
25
me with a counterfeit
Resembling majesty, which, being
touched and tried
26
,
Proves valueless: you are
forsworn
27
, forsworn:
You came
in arms
28
to spill mine enemies’ blood,
But now in
arms
you strengthen it with
yours
29
.
The grappling vigour and rough frown of war
Is cold in amity and
painted
31
peace,
And
our
oppression hath
made up
this
league
32
:
Arm, arm, you heavens, against these perjured kings!
A widow cries: be husband to me, heavens!
Let not the hours of this ungodly day
Wear out
the
days
36
in peace; but, ere sun set,
Set armèd discord ’twixt these perjured kings:
Hear me, O, hear me!
AUSTRIA
Lady Constance, peace!
CONSTANCE
War, war, no peace! Peace is to me a war:
O
Limoges
41
, O Austria, thou dost shame
That
bloody
spoil
42
: thou slave, thou wretch, thou coward:
Thou little valiant, great in villainy,
Thou ever strong upon the stronger side;
Thou Fortune’s
champion
45
, that dost never fight
But when her
humorous
ladyship is
by
46
To teach thee
safety
47
: thou art perjured too,
And
sooth’st up greatness
48
. What a fool art thou,
A
ramping
fool, to brag, and stamp, and
swear
49
Upon my party: thou cold-blooded slave,
Hast thou not spoke like thunder on my side?
Been sworn my soldier, bidding me depend
Upon thy stars, thy fortune, and thy strength,
And dost thou now
fall over
54
to my foes?
Thou wear a lion’s hide!
Doff
55
it for shame,
And hang a
calf’s-skin
on those
recreant
56
limbs.
AUSTRIA
O, that a man should speak those words to me!
BASTARD
And hang a calf’s-skin on those recreant limbs.
AUSTRIA
Thou dar’st not say so, villain, for thy life.
BASTARD
And hang a calf’s-skin on those recreant limbs.
KING JOHN
We like not this: thou dost forget thyself.
Enter
Pandulph
KING PHILIP
Here comes the holy
legate
62
of the Pope.
CARDINAL PANDULPH
Hail, you anointed deputies of heaven.—
To thee, King John, my holy errand is:
I Pandulph, of fair Milan cardinal,
And from
Pope Innocent
66
the legate here,
Do in his name
religiously
67
demand
Why thou against the Church, our holy mother,
So wilfully dost
spurn
; and
force perforce
69
Keep
Stephen Langton
70
, chosen archbishop
Of Canterbury, from that holy
see
71
:
This, in our
foresaid
72
holy father’s name,
Pope Innocent, I do demand of thee.
KING JOHN
What
earthy
name to
interrogatories
74
Can
test
75
the free breath of a sacred king?
Thou canst not, cardinal, devise a name
So slight, unworthy, and ridiculous
To
charge
78
me to an answer, as the Pope.
Tell him this tale, and from the mouth of England
Add thus much more, that no Italian priest
Shall
tithe
or
toll
81
in our dominions:
But as we, under heaven, are supreme head,
So, under him, that
great supremacy
83
,
Where
we do reign, we will alone
uphold
84
Without th’assistance of a mortal hand:
So tell the Pope, all reverence
set apart
86
To him and his usurped authority.
KING PHILIP
Brother of England, you
blaspheme
88
in this.
KING JOHN
Though you and all the kings of Christendom
Are led so
grossly
by this
meddling priest
90
,
Dreading
the curse
that money may
buy out
91
,
And by the merit of
vile
gold,
dross
92
, dust,
Purchase corrupted pardon
of
93
a man,
Who in that sale
sells pardon from himself
94
:
Though you and all the rest so grossly led
This
juggling
witchcraft with revenue
cherish
96
,
Yet I alone, alone do
me oppose
97
Against the Pope, and count his friends my foes.
