So newly join'd in love, so strong in both 17, My reverend father, let it not be so: Pand. All form is formless, order orderless, Save what is opposite to England's love. Therefore, to arms! be champion of our church! Or let the church, our mother, breathe her curse, A mother's curse, on her revolting son. France, thou may'st hold a serpent by the tongue, A cased 19 lion by the mortal paw, A fasting tiger safer by the tooth, Than keep in peace that hand which thou dost hold. K. Phi. I may disjoin my hand, but not my faith. Pand. So mak'st thou faith an enemy to faith; And, like a civil war, sett'st oath to oath, Thy tongue against thy tongue. O, let thy vow First made to heaven, first be to heaven perform'd; That is to be the champion of our church! What since thou swor'st, is sworn against thyself, And may not be performed by thyself: 17 i. e. so strong both in hatred and love; in deeds of amity or deeds of blood. 18 A regreet is an exchange of salutation. 19 A cased lion is a lion irritated by confinement. So in King Henry VI. Part III. Act i. Sc. 3: 'So looks the pent up lion o'er the wretch For that, which thou hast sworn to do amiss, And being not done, where doing tends to ill, And falsehood falsehood cures; as fire cools fire, By what thou swear'st, against the thing thou swear'st; And better conquest never canst thou make, So heavy, as thou shalt not shake them off, 20 Where doing tends to ill,' where an intended act is criminal, the truth is most done by not doing the act. The criminal act therefore, which thou hast sworn to do, is not amiss, will not be imputed to you as a crime, if it be done truly, in the sense I have now affixed to truth; that is, if you do not do it. 21 By what thou swear'st, &c. In swearing by religion against n, thou hast sworn by what thou swearest; i. e. in that hou hast sworn, against the thing thou swearest by; i. e. Bast. Will't not be? Will not a calf-skin stop that mouth of thine? Lew. Father, to arms! Blanch. Upon thy wedding day? Against the blood that thou hast married? What, shall our feast be kept with slaughter'd men? Against mine uncle. Const. O, upon my knee, Made hard with kneeling, I do pray to thee, Blanch. Now shall I see thy love; What motive may Be stronger with thee than the name of wife? Const. That which upholdeth him that thee upholds, His honour: O, thine honour, Lewis, thine honour! Const. O fair return of banish'd majesty! Bast. Old time the clock-setter, that bald sexton time, Is it as he will? well then, France shall rue. Blanch. The sun's o'ercast with blood: Fair day, adieu ! Which is the side that I must go withal? K. John. Cousin, go draw our puissance together,[Exit Bastard. France, I am burn'd up with inflaming wrath ; A rage, whose heat hath this condition, That nothing can allay, nothing but blood, The blood, and dearest valu'd blood, of France. K. Phi. Thy rage shall burn thee up, and thou shalt turn To ashes, ere our blood shall quench that fire: K. John. No more than he that threats.-To arms Bast. Now, by my life, this day grows wondrous hot; Some airy devil1 hovers in the sky, 1 There is a minute description of numerous devils or spirits, and their different functions, in Nash's Pierce Pennilesse his Supplication, 1592, where we find the following passage :-The spirits of the aire will mixe themselves with thunder and lightning, and so infect the clyme where they raise any tempest, that And pours down mischief. Austria's head lie there: Enter KING JOHN, ARTHUR, and HUBERT. K.John. Hubert,keep this boy :-Philip2,make up: My mother is assailed in our tent, And ta'en, I fear. SCENE III. The same. [Exeunt. Alarums; Excursions; Retreat. Enter KING JOHN, ELINOR, ARTHUR, the Bastard, HUBERT, and LORDS. K. John. So shall it be; your grace shall stay behind, [TO ELINOR. So strongly guarded.-Cousin, look not sad: [To ARTHUR. Thy grandam loves thee, and thy uncle will Arth. O, this will make my mother die with grief. sodainely great mortalitie shall ensue to the inhabitants. The spirits of fire have their mansions under the regions of the moone.' 2 Here the king, who had knighted him by the name of Sir Richard, calls him by his former name. Shakspeare has followed the old plays, and the best authenticated history. The queen mother, whom King John had made regent in Anjou, was in possession of the town of Mirabeau, in that province. On the approach of the French army, with Arthur at their head, she sent letters to King John to come to her relief, which he immediately did. As he advanced to the town he encountered the army that lay before it, routed them, and took Arthur prisoner. The queen in the mean while remained in perfect security in the castle of Mirabeau. |