Return the precedent' to these lords again;
That having our fair order written down,
Both they, and we, perusing o'er these notes,
May know wherefore we took the sacrament,
And keep our faiths firm and inviolable.
Sal. Upon our sides it never shall be broken.
And, noble dauphin, albeit we swear
A voluntary zeal, and unurged faith,
To your proceedings; yet, believe me, prince,
I am not glad that such a sore of time
Should seek a plaster by contemned revolt,
And heal the inveterate canker of one wound,
By making many. O, it grieves my soul,
That I must draw this metal from my side
To be a widow-maker; O, and there,
Where honorable rescue and defence,
Cries out upon the name of Salisbury;
But such is the infection of the time,
That, for the health and physic of our right,
We cannot deal but with the very hand
Of stern injustice and confused wrong.-
And is't not pity, O my grieved friends!
That we, the sons and children of this isle,
Were born to see so sad an hour as this;
Wherein we step after a stranger 2 march
Upon her gentle bosom, and fill up
Her enemies' ranks (I must withdraw and weep
Upon the spot of this enforced cause,)
To grace the gentry of a land remote,
And follow unacquainted colors here?
What, here?-O nation, that thou couldst remove!
That Neptune's arms, who clippeth thee about,
1 i. e. the rough draught of the original treaty. In King Richard II. the scrivener employed to engross the indictment of lord Hastings says, "It took him eleven hours to write it, and that the precedent was full as long a doing."
2 Shakspeare often uses stranger as an adjective. See the last scene:Swearing allegiance and the love of soul
To stranger blood, to foreign royalty."
4 To clip is to embrace; not yet obsolete in the northern counties.
Would bear thee from the knowledge of thyself,
And grapple thee unto a pagan shore;
Where these two Christian armies might combine
The blood of malice in a vein of league,
And not to-spend it so unneighborly!
Lew. A noble temper dost thou show in this;
And great affections, wrestling in thy bosom,
Do make an earthquake of nobility.
O, what a noble combat hast thou fought,
Between compulsion and a brave respect!
Let me wipe off this honorable dew,
That silverly doth progress on thy cheeks.
My heart hath melted at a lady's tears,
Being an ordinary inundation;
But this effusion of such manly drops,
This shower, blown up by tempest of the soul,
Startles mine eyes, and makes me more amazed
Than had I seen the vaulty top of heaven
Figured quite o'er with burning meteors.
Lift up thy brow, renowned Salisbury,
And with a great heart heave away this storm.
Commend these waters to those baby-eyes,
That never saw the giant world enraged;
Nor met with fortune other than at feasts,
Full warm of blood, of mirth, of gossiping.
Come, come; for thou shalt thrust thy hand as deep
Into the purse of rich prosperity,
As Lewis himself.-So, nobles, shall you all,
That knit
your sinews to the strength of mine.
Enter PANDULPH, attended.
And even there, methinks, an angel spake.
Look, where the holy legate comes apace,
1 The old copy reads cripple. The emendation was made by Pope. 2 Shakspeare here employs a phraseology used before in the Merry Wives of Windsor:
"And, fairy-like, to-pinch the unclean knight."
3 This compulsion was the necessity of a reformation in the state; which, according to Salisbury's opinion (who in his preceding speech calls it an enforced cause), could only be procured by foreign arms; and the brave respect was the love of country.
To give us warrant from the hand of Heaven;
And on our actions set the name of right,
With holy breath.
Pand.
Hail, noble prince of France;
The next is this,-King John hath reconciled
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 threatening colors now wind up,
And tame the savage spirit of wild war;
That, like a lion fostered up at hand,
It may lie gently at the foot of
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.
Your breath first kindled the dead coal of wars,
Between this chástised kingdom and myself,
And brought in matter that should feed this fire;
And now 'tis far too huge to be blown out
With that same weak wind which enkindled it.
You taught me how to know the face of right,
Acquainted me with interest to this land,
Yea, thrust this enterprise into my heart;
And come you now to tell me, John hath made
His peace with Rome? What is that peace to me?
I, by the honor of my marriage-bed,
After young Arthur, claim this land for mine;
And, now it is half conquered, must I back,
Because that John hath made his peace with Rome?
Am I Rome's slave? What penny hath Rome borne,
What men provided, what munition sent,
To underprop this action? Is't not I,
2 This was the phraseology of the time :—
"He hath more worthy interest to the state,
Than thou the shadow of succession."
That undergo this charge? Who else but I,
And such as to my claim are liable,
Sweat in this business, and maintain this war?
Have I not heard these islanders shout out,
Vive le roy! as I have banked their towns?1
Have I not here the best cards for the
game
To win this easy match played for a crown?
And shall I now give o'er the yielded set?
No, no, on my soul, it never shall be said.
Pand. You look but on the outside of this work.
Lew. Outside or inside, I will not return
Till my attempt so much be glorified
As to my ample hope was promised
Before I drew this gallant head of war,2
And culled these fiery spirits from the world,
To outlook conquest, and to win renown
Even in the jaws of danger and of death.—
[Trumpet sounds. What lusty trumpet thus doth summon us?
Enter the Bastard, attended.
Bast. According to the fair play of the world,
Let me have audience; I am sent to speak.-
My holy lord of Milan, from the king
I come to learn how you have dealt for him;
And, as you answer, I do know the scope
And warrant limited unto my tongue.
Pand. The dauphin is too wilful-opposite,
And will not temporize with my entreaties;
He flatly says, he'll not lay down his arms.
Bast. By all the blood that ever fury breathed,
The youth says well.-Now hear our English king;
For thus his royalty doth speak in me.
He is prepared; and reason too, he should.
This apish and unmannerly approach,
1 Banked is supposed by some to mean the throwing up of intrenchments, and by others, traversing the river banks.
21. e. assembled it, drew it out of the field.
3 Face down, bear down by a show of magnanimity.
This harnessed mask, and unadvised revel,
This unhaired sauciness, and boyish troops,
The king doth smile at; and is well prepared
To whip this dwarfish war, these pygmy arms,
From out the circle of his territories.
That hand, which had the strength, even at your door,
To cudgel you, and make you take the hatch;2
To dive, like buckets, in concealed wells;
To crouch in litter of your stable planks;
To lie, like pawns, locked up in chests and trunks
To hug with swine; to seek sweet safety out
In vaults and prisons; and to thrill, and shake,
Even at the crying of your nation's crow,3
Thinking his voice an armed Englishman ;-
Shall that victorious hand be feebled here,
That in your chambers gave you chastisement?
No;-know, the gallant monarch is in arms;
And like an eagle o'er his eyry towers,
To souse annoyance that comes near his nest.—
And you degenerate, you ingrate revolts,
You bloody Neroes, ripping up the wound
Of your dear mother England, blush for shame;
For your own ladies, and pale-visaged maids,
Like Amazons, come tripping after drums;
Their thimbles into armed gauntlets change,
Their needs to lances, and their gentle hearts
To fierce and bloody inclination.
Lew. There end thy brave, and turn thy face in
We grant, thou canst outscold us; fare thee well;
We hold our time too precious to be spent
1 The old copies read unheard. The emendation is Theobald's. It should be remarked that hair was often spelled hear.
2 To take, for to leap. Hunters still say to take a hedge or gate, meaning to leap over them. Baret has "to take horse, to leap on horse
3 i. e. the crowing of a cock; Gallus being both a cock and a French
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