King John by William Shakespeare

Act 3 - Scene 1

The French King’s pavilion.

Constance : Gone to be married! gone to swear a peace! [p]False blood to false
blood join'd! gone to be friends! [p]Shall Lewis have Blanch, and
Blanch those provinces? [p]It is not so; thou hast misspoke,
misheard: [p]Be well advised, tell o'er thy tale again: [p]It cannot
be; thou dost but say 'tis so: [p]I trust I may not trust thee; for
thy word [p]Is but the vain breath of a common man: [p]Believe me, I
do not believe thee, man; [p]I have a king's oath to the
contrary. [p]Thou shalt be punish'd for thus frighting me, [p]For I am
sick and capable of fears, [p]Oppress'd with wrongs and therefore full
of fears, [p]A widow, husbandless, subject to fears, [p]A woman,
naturally born to fears; [p]And though thou now confess thou didst but
jest, [p]With my vex'd spirits I cannot take a truce, [p]But they will
quake and tremble all this day. [p]What dost thou mean by shaking of
thy head? [p]Why dost thou look so sadly on my son? [p]What means that
hand upon that breast of thine? [p]Why holds thine eye that lamentable
rheum, [p]Like a proud river peering o'er his bounds? [p]Be these sad
signs confirmers of thy words? [p]Then speak again; not all thy former
tale, [p]But this one word, whether thy tale be true.

Salisbury : As true as I believe you think them false [p]That give you cause to
prove my saying true.

Constance : O, if thou teach me to believe this sorrow, [p]Teach thou this sorrow
how to make me die, [p]And let belief and life encounter so [p]As doth
the fury of two desperate men [p]Which in the very meeting fall and
die. [p]Lewis marry Blanch! O boy, then where art thou? [p]France
friend with England, what becomes of me? [p]Fellow, be gone: I cannot
brook thy sight: [p]This news hath made thee a most ugly man.

Salisbury : What other harm have I, good lady, done, [p]But spoke the harm that is
by others done?

Constance : Which harm within itself so heinous is [p]As it makes harmful all that
speak of it.

Arthur : I do beseech you, madam, be content.

Constance : If thou, that bid'st me be content, wert grim, [p]Ugly and slanderous
to thy mother's womb, [p]Full of unpleasing blots and sightless
stains, [p]Lame, foolish, crooked, swart, prodigious, [p]Patch'd with
foul moles and eye-offending marks, [p]I would not care, I then would
be content, [p]For then I should not love thee, no, nor thou [p]Become
thy great birth nor deserve a crown. [p]But thou art fair, and at thy
birth, dear boy, [p]Nature and Fortune join'd to make thee
great: [p]Of Nature's gifts thou mayst with lilies boast, [p]And with
the half-blown rose. But Fortune, O, [p]She is corrupted, changed and
won from thee; [p]She adulterates hourly with thine uncle John, [p]And
with her golden hand hath pluck'd on France [p]To tread down fair
respect of sovereignty, [p]And made his majesty the bawd to
theirs. [p]France is a bawd to Fortune and King John, [p]That strumpet
Fortune, that usurping John! [p]Tell me, thou fellow, is not France
forsworn? [p]Envenom him with words, or get thee gone [p]And leave
those woes alone which I alone [p]Am bound to under-bear.

Salisbury : Pardon me, madam, [p]I may not go without you to the kings.

Constance : Thou mayst, thou shalt; I will not go with thee: [p]I will instruct my
sorrows to be proud; [p]For grief is proud and makes his owner
stoop. [p]To me and to the state of my great grief [p]Let kings
assemble; for my grief's so great [p]That no supporter but the huge
firm earth [p]Can hold it up: here I and sorrows sit; [p]Here is my
throne, bid kings come bow to it. [p][Seats herself on the
ground] [p][Enter KING JOHN, KING PHILLIP, LEWIS, BLANCH,] [p]QUEEN
ELINOR, the BASTARD, AUSTRIA, and Attendants]

King Phillip : 'Tis true, fair daughter; and this blessed day [p]Ever in France shall
be kept festival: [p]To solemnize this day the glorious sun [p]Stays
in his course and plays the alchemist, [p]Turning with splendor of his
precious eye [p]The meagre cloddy earth to glittering gold: [p]The
yearly course that brings this day about [p]Shall never see it but a
holiday.

Constance : A wicked day, and not a holy day! [p][Rising] [p]What hath this day
deserved? what hath it done, [p]That it in golden letters should be
set [p]Among the high tides in the calendar? [p]Nay, rather turn this
day out of the week, [p]This day of shame, oppression, perjury. [p]Or,
if it must stand still, let wives with child [p]Pray that their
burthens may not fall this day, [p]Lest that their hopes prodigiously
be cross'd: [p]But on this day let seamen fear no wreck; [p]No
bargains break that are not this day made: [p]This day, all things
begun come to ill end, [p]Yea, faith itself to hollow falsehood
change!

King Phillip : By heaven, lady, you shall have no cause [p]To curse the fair
proceedings of this day: [p]Have I not pawn'd to you my majesty?

Constance : You have beguiled me with a counterfeit [p]Resembling majesty, which,
being touch'd and tried, [p]Proves valueless: you are forsworn,
forsworn; [p]You came in arms to spill mine enemies' blood, [p]But now
in arms you strengthen it with yours: [p]The grappling vigour and
rough frown of war [p]Is cold in amity and painted peace, [p]And our
oppression hath made up this league. [p]Arm, arm, you heavens, against
these perjured kings! [p]A widow cries; be husband to me,
heavens! [p]Let not the hours of this ungodly day [p]Wear out the day
in peace; but, ere sunset, [p]Set armed discord 'twixt these perjured
kings! [p]Hear me, O, hear me!

Lymoges : Lady Constance, peace!

Constance : War! war! no peace! peace is to me a war [p]O Lymoges! O Austria! thou
dost shame [p]That bloody spoil: thou slave, thou wretch, thou
coward! [p]Thou little valiant, great in villany! [p]Thou ever strong
upon the stronger side! [p]Thou Fortune's champion that dost never
fight [p]But when her humorous ladyship is by [p]To teach thee safety!
thou art perjured too, [p]And soothest up greatness. What a fool art
thou, [p]A ramping fool, to brag and stamp and swear [p]Upon my party!
Thou cold-blooded slave, [p]Hast thou not spoke like thunder on my
side, [p]Been sworn my soldier, bidding me depend [p]Upon thy stars,
thy fortune and thy strength, [p]And dost thou now fall over to my
fores? [p]Thou wear a lion's hide! doff it for shame, [p]And hang a
calf's-skin on those recreant limbs.

Lymoges : O, that a man should speak those words to me!

Philip the Bastard : And hang a calf's-skin on those recreant limbs.

Lymoges : Thou darest not say so, villain, for thy life.

Philip the Bastard : And hang a calf's-skin on those recreant limbs.

King John : We like not this; thou dost forget thyself.

King Phillip : Here comes the holy legate of the pope.

Cardinal Pandulph : Hail, you anointed deputies of heaven! [p]To thee, King John, my holy
errand is. [p]I Pandulph, of fair Milan cardinal, [p]And from Pope
Innocent the legate here, [p]Do in his name religiously demand [p]Why
thou against the church, our holy mother, [p]So wilfully dost spurn;
and force perforce [p]Keep Stephen Langton, chosen archbishop [p]Of
Canterbury, from that holy see? [p]This, in our foresaid holy father's
name, [p]Pope Innocent, I do demand of thee.

King John : What earthy name to interrogatories [p]Can task the free breath of a
sacred king? [p]Thou canst not, cardinal, devise a name [p]So slight,
unworthy and ridiculous, [p]To charge me to an answer, as the
pope. [p]Tell him this tale; and from the mouth of England [p]Add thus
much more, that no Italian priest [p]Shall tithe or toll in our
dominions; [p]But as we, under heaven, are supreme head, [p]So under
Him that great supremacy, [p]Where we do reign, we will alone
uphold, [p]Without the assistance of a mortal hand: [p]So tell the
pope, all reverence set apart [p]To him and his usurp'd authority.

King Phillip : Brother of England, you blaspheme in this.

King John : Though you and all the kings of Christendom [p]Are led so grossly by
this meddling priest, [p]Dreading the curse that money may buy
out; [p]And by the merit of vile gold, dross, dust, [p]Purchase
corrupted pardon of a man, [p]Who in that sale sells pardon from
himself, [p]Though you and all the rest so grossly led [p]This
juggling witchcraft with revenue cherish, [p]Yet I alone, alone do me
oppose [p]Against the pope and count his friends my foes.

Cardinal Pandulph : Then, by the lawful power that I have, [p]Thou shalt stand cursed and
excommunicate. [p]And blessed shall he be that doth revolt [p]From his
allegiance to an heretic; [p]And meritorious shall that hand be
call'd, [p]Canonized and worshipped as a saint, [p]That takes away by
any secret course [p]Thy hateful life.

Constance : O, lawful let it be [p]That I have room with Rome to curse
awhile! [p]Good father cardinal, cry thou amen [p]To my keen curses;
for without my wrong [p]There is no tongue hath power to curse him
right.

Cardinal Pandulph : There's law and warrant, lady, for my curse.

Constance : And for mine too: when law can do no right, [p]Let it be lawful that
law bar no wrong: [p]Law cannot give my child his kingdom here, [p]For
he that holds his kingdom holds the law; [p]Therefore, since law
itself is perfect wrong, [p]How can the law forbid my tongue to
curse?

Cardinal Pandulph : Philip of France, on peril of a curse, [p]Let go the hand of that
arch-heretic; [p]And raise the power of France upon his
head, [p]Unless he do submit himself to Rome.

Queen Elinor : Look'st thou pale, France? do not let go thy hand.

Constance : Look to that, devil; lest that France repent, [p]And by disjoining
hands, hell lose a soul.

Lymoges : King Philip, listen to the cardinal.

Philip the Bastard : And hang a calf's-skin on his recreant limbs.

Lymoges : Well, ruffian, I must pocket up these wrongs, Because--

Philip the Bastard : Your breeches best may carry them.

King John : Philip, what say'st thou to the cardinal?

Constance : What should he say, but as the cardinal?

Lewis : Bethink you, father; for the difference [p]Is purchase of a heavy
curse from Rome, [p]Or the light loss of England for a
friend: [p]Forego the easier.

Blanch : That's the curse of Rome.

Constance : O Lewis, stand fast! the devil tempts thee here [p]In likeness of a
new untrimmed bride.

Blanch : The Lady Constance speaks not from her faith, [p]But from her need.

Constance : O, if thou grant my need, [p]Which only lives but by the death of
faith, [p]That need must needs infer this principle, [p]That faith
would live again by death of need. [p]O then, tread down my need, and
faith mounts up; [p]Keep my need up, and faith is trodden down!

King John : The king is moved, and answers not to this.

Constance : O, be removed from him, and answer well!

Lymoges : Do so, King Philip; hang no more in doubt.

Philip the Bastard : Hang nothing but a calf's-skin, most sweet lout.

King Phillip : I am perplex'd, and know not what to say.

Cardinal Pandulph : What canst thou say but will perplex thee more, [p]If thou stand
excommunicate and cursed?

King Phillip : Good reverend father, make my person yours, [p]And tell me how you
would bestow yourself. [p]This royal hand and mine are newly
knit, [p]And the conjunction of our inward souls [p]Married in league,
coupled and linked together [p]With all religious strength of sacred
vows; [p]The latest breath that gave the sound of words [p]Was
deep-sworn faith, peace, amity, true love [p]Between our kingdoms and
our royal selves, [p]And even before this truce, but new before, [p]No
longer than we well could wash our hands [p]To clap this royal bargain
up of peace, [p]Heaven knows, they were besmear'd and
over-stain'd [p]With slaughter's pencil, where revenge did
paint [p]The fearful difference of incensed kings: [p]And shall these
hands, so lately purged of blood, [p]So newly join'd in love, so
strong in both, [p]Unyoke this seizure and this kind regreet? [p]Play
fast and loose with faith? so jest with heaven, [p]Make such
unconstant children of ourselves, [p]As now again to snatch our palm
from palm, [p]Unswear faith sworn, and on the marriage-bed [p]Of
smiling peace to march a bloody host, [p]And make a riot on the gentle
brow [p]Of true sincerity? O, holy sir, [p]My reverend father, let it
not be so! [p]Out of your grace, devise, ordain, impose [p]Some gentle
order; and then we shall be blest [p]To do your pleasure and continue
friends.

Cardinal Pandulph : All form is formless, order orderless, [p]Save what is opposite to
England's love. [p]Therefore to arms! be champion of our church, [p]Or
let the church, our mother, breathe her curse, [p]A mother's curse, on
her revolting son. [p]France, thou mayst hold a serpent by the
tongue, [p]A chafed lion by the mortal paw, [p]A fasting tiger safer
by the tooth, [p]Than keep in peace that hand which thou dost hold.

King Phillip : I may disjoin my hand, but not my faith.

Cardinal Pandulph : So makest thou faith an enemy to faith; [p]And like a civil war set'st
oath to oath, [p]Thy tongue against thy tongue. O, let thy
vow [p]First made to heaven, first be to heaven perform'd, [p]That is,
to be the champion of our church! [p]What since thou sworest is sworn
against thyself [p]And may not be performed by thyself, [p]For that
which thou hast sworn to do amiss [p]Is not amiss when it is truly
done, [p]And being not done, where doing tends to ill, [p]The truth is
then most done not doing it: [p]The better act of purposes
mistook [p]Is to mistake again; though indirect, [p]Yet indirection
thereby grows direct, [p]And falsehood falsehood cures, as fire cools
fire [p]Within the scorched veins of one new-burn'd. [p]It is religion
that doth make vows kept; [p]But thou hast sworn against
religion, [p]By what thou swear'st against the thing thou
swear'st, [p]And makest an oath the surety for thy truth [p]Against an
oath: the truth thou art unsure [p]To swear, swears only not to be
forsworn; [p]Else what a mockery should it be to swear! [p]But thou
dost swear only to be forsworn; [p]And most forsworn, to keep what
thou dost swear. [p]Therefore thy later vows against thy first [p]Is
in thyself rebellion to thyself; [p]And better conquest never canst
thou make [p]Than arm thy constant and thy nobler parts [p]Against
these giddy loose suggestions: [p]Upon which better part our prayers
come in, [p]If thou vouchsafe them. But if not, then know [p]The peril
of our curses light on thee [p]So heavy as thou shalt not shake them
off, [p]But in despair die under their black weight.

Lymoges : Rebellion, flat rebellion!

Philip the Bastard : Will't not be? [p]Will not a calfs-skin stop that mouth of thine?

Lewis : Father, to arms!

Blanch : Upon thy wedding-day? [p]Against the blood that thou hast
married? [p]What, shall our feast be kept with slaughter'd
men? [p]Shall braying trumpets and loud churlish drums, [p]Clamours of
hell, be measures to our pomp? [p]O husband, hear me! ay, alack, how
new [p]Is husband in my mouth! even for that name, [p]Which till this
time my tongue did ne'er pronounce, [p]Upon my knee I beg, go not to
arms [p]Against mine uncle.

Constance : O, upon my knee, [p]Made hard with kneeling, I do pray to
thee, [p]Thou virtuous Dauphin, alter not the doom [p]Forethought by
heaven!

Blanch : Now shall I see thy love: what motive may [p]Be stronger with thee
than the name of wife?

Constance : That which upholdeth him that thee upholds, [p]His honour: O, thine
honour, Lewis, thine honour!

Lewis : I muse your majesty doth seem so cold, [p]When such profound respects
do pull you on.

Cardinal Pandulph : I will denounce a curse upon his head.

King Phillip : Thou shalt not need. England, I will fall from thee.

Constance : O fair return of banish'd majesty!

Queen Elinor : O foul revolt of French inconstancy!

King John : France, thou shalt rue this hour within this hour.

Philip the Bastard : Old Time the clock-setter, that bald sexton Time, [p]Is it as he will?
well then, France shall rue.

Blanch : The sun's o'ercast with blood: fair day, adieu! [p]Which is the side
that I must go withal? [p]I am with both: each army hath a
hand; [p]And in their rage, I having hold of both, [p]They swirl
asunder and dismember me. [p]Husband, I cannot pray that thou mayst
win; [p]Uncle, I needs must pray that thou mayst lose; [p]Father, I
may not wish the fortune thine; [p]Grandam, I will not wish thy
fortunes thrive: [p]Whoever wins, on that side shall I lose [p]Assured
loss before the match be play'd.

Lewis : Lady, with me, with me thy fortune lies.

Blanch : There where my fortune lives, there my life dies.

King John : Cousin, go draw our puissance together. [p][Exit BASTARD] [p]France, I
am burn'd up with inflaming wrath; [p]A rage whose heat hath this
condition, [p]That nothing can allay, nothing but blood, [p]The blood,
and dearest-valued blood, of France.

King Phillip : Thy rage sham burn thee up, and thou shalt turn [p]To ashes, ere our
blood shall quench that fire: [p]Look to thyself, thou art in
jeopardy.

King John : No more than he that threats. To arms let's hie!

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Next: Act 3 - Scene 2

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