King John by William Shakespeare
Act 5 - Scene 1
KING JOHN’S palace.
King John : Thus have I yielded up into your hand
[p]The circle of my glory.
Cardinal Pandulph : Take again
[p]From this my hand, as holding of the pope
[p]Your
sovereign greatness and authority.
King John : Now keep your holy word: go meet the French,
[p]And from his holiness
use all your power
[p]To stop their marches 'fore we are
inflamed.
[p]Our discontented counties do revolt;
[p]Our people
quarrel with obedience,
[p]Swearing allegiance and the love of
soul
[p]To stranger blood, to foreign royalty.
[p]This inundation of
mistemper'd humour
[p]Rests by you only to be qualified:
[p]Then pause
not; for the present time's so sick,
[p]That present medicine must be
minister'd,
[p]Or overthrow incurable ensues.
Cardinal Pandulph : It was my breath that blew this tempest up,
[p]Upon your stubborn
usage of the pope;
[p]But since you are a gentle convertite,
[p]My
tongue shall hush again this storm of war
[p]And make fair weather in
your blustering land.
[p]On this Ascension-day, remember well,
[p]Upon
your oath of service to the pope,
[p]Go I to make the French lay down
their arms.
King John : Is this Ascension-day? Did not the prophet
[p]Say that before
Ascension-day at noon
[p]My crown I should give off? Even so I
have:
[p]I did suppose it should be on constraint:
[p]But, heaven be
thank'd, it is but voluntary.
Philip the Bastard : All Kent hath yielded; nothing there holds out
[p]But Dover castle:
London hath received,
[p]Like a kind host, the Dauphin and his
powers:
[p]Your nobles will not hear you, but are gone
[p]To offer
service to your enemy,
[p]And wild amazement hurries up and
down
[p]The little number of your doubtful friends.
King John : Would not my lords return to me again,
[p]After they heard young
Arthur was alive?
Philip the Bastard : They found him dead and cast into the streets,
[p]An empty casket,
where the jewel of life
[p]By some damn'd hand was robb'd and ta'en
away.
King John : That villain Hubert told me he did live.
Philip the Bastard : So, on my soul, he did, for aught he knew.
[p]But wherefore do you
droop? why look you sad?
[p]Be great in act, as you have been in
thought;
[p]Let not the world see fear and sad distrust
[p]Govern the
motion of a kingly eye:
[p]Be stirring as the time; be fire with
fire;
[p]Threaten the threatener and outface the brow
[p]Of bragging
horror: so shall inferior eyes,
[p]That borrow their behaviors from
the great,
[p]Grow great by your example and put on
[p]The dauntless
spirit of resolution.
[p]Away, and glister like the god of
war,
[p]When he intendeth to become the field:
[p]Show boldness and
aspiring confidence.
[p]What, shall they seek the lion in his
den,
[p]And fright him there? and make him tremble there?
[p]O, let it
not be said: forage, and run
[p]To meet displeasure farther from the
doors,
[p]And grapple with him ere he comes so nigh.
King John : The legate of the pope hath been with me,
[p]And I have made a happy
peace with him;
[p]And he hath promised to dismiss the powers
[p]Led
by the Dauphin.
Philip the Bastard : O inglorious league!
[p]Shall we, upon the footing of our
land,
[p]Send fair-play orders and make compromise,
[p]Insinuation,
parley and base truce
[p]To arms invasive? shall a beardless boy,
[p]A
cocker'd silken wanton, brave our fields,
[p]And flesh his spirit in a
warlike soil,
[p]Mocking the air with colours idly spread,
[p]And find
no cheque? Let us, my liege, to arms:
[p]Perchance the cardinal cannot
make your peace;
[p]Or if he do, let it at least be said
[p]They saw
we had a purpose of defence.
King John : Have thou the ordering of this present time.
Philip the Bastard : Away, then, with good courage! yet, I know,
[p]Our party may well meet
a prouder foe.
Previous: Act 4 - Scene 3
Next: Act 5 - Scene 2
