K. John. Up higher to the plain; where we'll set forth In best appointment all our regiments. Bast. Speed, then, to take advantage of the field. other hill Command the rest to stand.-God, and our right! [Exeunt. SCENE II. The Same. Alarums and Excursions; then a Retreat. Enter a French Herald, with trumpets, to the gates. F. Her. You men of Angiers, open wide your gates, And let young Arthur, duke of Bretagne, in, Who by the hand of France this day hath made Enter an English Herald, with trumpets. E. Her. Rejoice, you men of Angiers, ring your bells: King John, your king and England's, doth approach, Their armours, that march'd hence so silver-bright, That is removed by a staff of France: Our colours do return in those same hands, That did display them when we first march'd forth; 8 Cit. Heralds, from off our towers we might behold, From first to last, the onset and retire Of both your armies; whose equality By our best eyes cannot be censured: Blood hath bought blood, and blows have answer'd blows; Strength match'd with strength, and power confronted power: Both are alike; and both alike we like. One must prove greatest: while they weigh so even, We hold our town for neither, yet for both. Enter, at one side, KING JOHN, with his power, Elinor, BLANCH, and the Bastard; at the other, King PHILIP, LEWIS, AUSTRIA, and forces'. K. John. France, hast thou yet more blood to cast away? Say, shall the current of our right roam on? A peaceful progress to the ocean. 8 Cit. Heralds, from off our towers, &c.] In the old copies, this speech has the prefix of Hubert. Possibly the actor of the part of Hubert also personated the citizen, in order that the speeches might be well delivered, and this may have led to the insertion of his name in the MS. - Austria, and forces.] The following is the simple direction in the old folios, and it is worth preserving, on account of the manner in which the two armies, headed by their kings, are represented to come upon the stage:"Enter the two Kings with their powers, at several doors." K. Phi. England, thou hast not sav'd one drop of blood, In this hot trial, more than we of France; Rather, lost more: and by this hand I swear, Gracing the scroll, that tells of this war's loss, Bast. Ha! majesty, how high thy glory towers, O! now doth death line his dead chaps with steel; The other's peace; till then, blows, blood, and death! Cit. The king of England, when we know the king. K. Phi. Know him in us, that here hold up his right. K. John. In us, that are our own great deputy, And bear possession of our person here; Lord of our presence, Angiers, and of you. Cit. A greater power than we denies all this; And, till it be undoubted, we do lock 1 -MOUSING the flesh of men,] See "Midsummer-Night's Dream," Vol. ii. p. 462, note 1. In both instances the word is mousing, and it also occurs in Sir R. Fanshaw's translation of Pastor Fido, 1648. 2 You EQUAL POTENTS,] "Potents" may, as Steevens says, be put for potentates; but by "equal potents" the Bastard seems rather to mean, that the victory being undecided, the two kings are equi-potent. Our former scruple in our strong-barr'd gates, Bast. By heaven, these scroyles of Angiers1 flout you, kings, And stand securely on their battlements, As in a theatre, whence they gape and point Be friends awhile, and both conjointly bend Leave them as naked as the vulgar air. 3 KINGS of our fear ;] This is the old authentic reading, which the sense does not require us to alter. The meaning of the citizens is, that they will be ruled by their fear, admitting no other monarch, until it shall have been seen which power is the strongest, that of England or France. Tyrwhitt recommended that the passage should run " King'd of our fear," and Warburton, "Kings are our fear." Malone adopted the former. The speech is erroneously assigned to King Philip in all the folios. 4 these SCROYLES of Angiers] i. e. scabs of Angiers, from the French, escroulles. Ben Jonson uses it twice in the same sense, but I do not recollect to have met with it in any other dramatist of the time. Do like the MUTINES of Jerusalem,] i. e. the mutineers of Jerusalem. In the case alluded to, the mutineers, or seditious parties, of Jerusalem combined their forces against the Roman besiegers: here, the converse was proposedthe besiegers were to unite against the inhabitants of the town. This event, during the siege of Jerusalem, as Malone pointed out, is found related in Joseph Ben Gorion's "Historie of the Latter Tymes of the Jewes Common-Weale," translated by Peter Morwyng, and originally published, not as Malone states in 1575, but in 1558. Henslowe, in his Diary, mentions a play to which he gives the title of "Titus and Vespasian," under date April, 1591, perhaps relating to the siege of Jerusalem, in which the combination of " the mutines of Jerusalem" against the Roman besiegers might form an incident. Then, in a moment, fortune shall cull forth To whom in favour she shall give the day, How like you this wild counsel, mighty states? K. John. Now, by the sky that hangs above our heads, I like it well.-France, shall we knit our powers, Bast. An if thou hast the mettle of a king, As we will ours, against these saucy walls; K. Phi. Let it be so.-Say, where will you assault? K. John. We from the west will send destruction Into this city's bosom. Aust. I from the north. Our thunder from the south, Shall rain their drift of bullets on this town. Bast. O, prudent discipline! From north to south, Austria and France shoot in each other's mouth: I'll stir them to it.-Come, away, away! [Aside. Cit. Hear us, great kings: vouchsafe a while to stay, And I shall show you peace, and fair-fac'd league; Rescue those breathing lives to die in beds, That here come sacrifices for the field. Persever not, but hear me, mighty kings. K. John. Speak on, with favour: we are bent to hear. |