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But, fince you are a gentle convertite,

My tongue fhall hufh again this storm of war,
And make fair weather in your blustering land.
On this Afcenfion-day, remember well,

Upon your oath of service to the pope,

Go I to make the French lay down their arms.

[Exit.

K. John. Is this Afcenfion-day? Did not the prophet Say, that, before Afcenfion-day at noon,

My crown I should give off? Even fo I have:

I did fuppofe, it should be on constraint;

But, heaven be thank'd, it is but voluntary.

Enter Faulconbridge.

Faulc. All Kent hath yielded; nothing there holds out,

But Dover caftle: London hath receiv'd,

Like a kind hoft, the Dauphin and his powers:

Your nobles will not hear you, but are gone

To offer fervice to your enemy;

And wild amazement hurries up and down
The little number of your doubtful friends.

K. John. Would not my lords return to me again,

After they heard young Arthur was alive?

Faulc. They found him dead, and caft into the streets; An empty casket, where the jewel of life,

By fome damn'd hand was robb'd and ta'en away.

K. John. That villain Hubert told me, he did live. Faulc. So, on my foul, he did, for aught he knew. But wherefore do you droop? why look you fad?

Be

great in act, as you have been in thought;

Let not the world fee fear, and fad distrust,
Govern the motion of a kingly eye :

Be stirring as the time; be fire with fire;

Threaten the threatener, and out-face the brow

a

gentle convertite,]-an humble penitent.

Of bragging horror: fo fhall inferior eyes,
That borrow their behaviours from the
great,
Grow great by your example, and put on
The dauntless fpirit of refolution.
Away; and glifter like the god of war,
When he intendeth to become the field:
Shew boldness, and afpiring confidence.
What, fhall they feek the lion in his den?
And fright him there; and make him tremble there?
Oh, let it not be faid!- Forage, and run

To meet displeasure farther from the doors;

And grapple with him, ere he come so nigh.

K. John. The legate of the pope hath been with me, And I have made a happy peace with him;

And he hath promis'd to dismiss the

Led by the Dauphin.

Faulc. Oh inglorious league!

powers

Shall we, upon the footing of our land,
Send fair-play orders, and make compromise,
Infinuation, parley, and base truce,

To arms invasive? fhall a beardlefs boy,
A cocker'd filken wanton brave our fields,
And flesh his spirit in a warlike foil,
Mocking the air with colours idly spread,
And find no check? Let us, my liege, to arms :
Perchance, the cardinal cannot make your peace;
Or if he do, let it at least be faid,

They faw we had a purpose of defence.

K. John. Have thou the ordering of this present time. Faulc. Away then, with good courage; yet, I know, Our party may well meet a prouder foe.

d

Forage,]-Range abroad.

[Exeunt.

* flefb]-initiate.

yet, I know, our party may well meet a prouder foe.]-for all this boafting, I know we are able to cope with a more formidable adverfary.

SCENE

SCENE II.

The Dauphin's Camp at St. Edmund's-bury.

Enter, in arms, Lewis, Salisbury, Melun, Pembroke, Bigot, and Soldiers.

Lewis. My lord Melun, let this be copied out,
And keep it fafe for our remembrance:
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 facrament,
And keep our faiths firm and inviolable.

my

fide

Sal. Upon our fides it never fhall be broken.
And, noble Dauphin, albeit we fwear
A voluntary zeal, and an unurg'd faith,
To your proceedings; yet, believe me, prince,
I am not glad that fuch a fore of time
Should feek a plaifter by contemn'd revolt,
And heal the inveterate canker of one wound,
By making many: Oh, it grieves my foul,
That I muft draw this metal from
To be a widow-maker; oh, and there,
Where honourable refcue, and defence,
Cries out upon the name of Salisbury:
But fuch is the infection of the time,
That, for the health and phyfic of our right,
We cannot deal but with the very hand
Of ftern injuftice and confused wrong.-
And is't not pity, oh my grieved friends!
That we, the fons and children of this ifle,
Were born to fee fo fad an hour as this;

* the precedent]-the rough draft of the treaty between the Dauphin and the English lords. f contemn'd-degrading, making defpicable. Wherein

Wherein we step after a stranger march
Upon her gentle bofom, and fill up

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Her enemies' ranks, (I must withdraw and weep
Upon the spot of this enforced caufe)

To grace the gentry of a land remote,

And follow unacquainted colours here?

What, here?-O nation, that thou could'st remove!
That Neptune's arms, who clippeth thee about,
Would bear thee from the knowledge of thyself,
And grapple thee unto a pagan fhore;

Where these two Chriftian armies might combine
The blood of malice in a vein of league,

h

And not to spend it fo unneighbourly!

Lewis. A noble temper doft thou fhew in this 3
And great affections, wrestling in thy bofom,
Do make an earthquake of nobility.
Oh, what a noble combat haft thou fought,
i Between compulfion, and a brave refpect!
Let me wipe off this honourable dew,
That filvery doth progress on thy cheeks;
My heart hath melted at a lady's tears,
Being an ordinary inundation;
But this effufion of fuch manly drops,

This shower, blown up by tempeft of the soul,
Startles mine eyes, and makes me more amaz'd
Than had I feen the vaulty top of heaven
Figur'd quite o'er with burning meteors.
Lift up thy brow, renowned Salisbury,
And with a great heart heave away this ftorm:
Commend those waters to these baby eyes,

and weep upon the spot of this enforced caufe)-lament the fatal neceffity of this our defection. h mij-spend. Between compulfion, and a brave refpe&!]-In reconciling to thy patriot breaft this recourfe to foreign arms, though the only means of procuring a reform in the itate.

That

That never faw the giant world enrag'd;
Nor met with fortune other than at feafts,
Full warm of blood, of mirth, of goffiping.

Come, come; for thou shalt thrust thy hand as deep
Into the purse of rich prosperity,

As Lewis himself:-fo, nobles, shall you all,
That knit your finews to the ftrength of mine.

Enter Pandulph, attended.

* And even there, methinks, an angel spake:
Look, where the holy legate comes apace,
To give us warrant from the hand of heaven
And on our actions fet the name of right,
With holy breath.

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Pand. Hail, noble prince of France !
The next is this,-king John hath reconcil'd
Himself to Rome; his fpirit is come in,
That so stood out against the holy church,
The great metropolis and fee of Rome:
Therefore thy threat'ning colours now wind up,
And tame the favage fpirit of wild war;

That, like a lion foster'd up at hand,

It

may lie gently at the foot of

peace,

And be no further harmful than in fhew.

Lewis. Your grace shall pardon me, I will not back.;

I am too high-born to be property'd,

To be a fecondary at controul,

Or useful ferving-man, and instrument,
To any fovereign ftate throughout the world.
Your breath firft kindled the dead coal of wars
Between this chaftis'd kingdom and myself,
And brought in matter that should feed this fire;

1

* And even there, methinks, an angel spake :]-Methinks my last words were prophetical; for, lo, the legate haftes to confirm them.

And

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