Act 2, Scene 1

France. Before the walls of Angiers.

[Enter, on one side, the ARCHDUKE OF AUSTRIA and Forces; on the other, PHILIP, King of France, LOUIS, CONSTANCE, ARTHUR, and Forces.]
King Philip of France
279 Before Angiers well met, brave Austria.—
280 Arthur, that great forerunner of thy blood,
281 Richard, that robb'd the lion of his heart,
282 And fought the holy wars in Palestine,
283 By this brave duke came early to his grave:
284 And, for amends to his posterity,
285 At our importance hither is he come
286 To spread his colours, boy, in thy behalf;
287 And to rebuke the usurpation
288 Of thy unnatural uncle, English John:
289 Embrace him, love him, give him welcome hither.
Arthur, Duke of Bretagne
290 God shall forgive you Coeur-de-lion's death
291 The rather that you give his offspring life,
292 Shadowing their right under your wings of war:
293 I give you welcome with a powerless hand,
294 But with a heart full of unstained love,—
295 Welcome before the gates of Angiers, duke.
Louis the Dauphin
296 A noble boy! Who would not do thee right?
Archduke of Austria
297 Upon thy cheek lay I this zealous kiss,
298 As seal to this indenture of my love,—
299 That to my home I will no more return,
300 Till Angiers, and the right thou hast in France,
301 Together with that pale, that white-fac'd shore,
302 Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring tides,
303 And coops from other lands her islanders,—
304 Even till that England, hedg'd in with the main,
305 That water-walled bulwark, still secure
306 And confident from foreign purposes,—
307 Even till that utmost corner of the west
308 Salute thee for her king: till then, fair boy,
309 Will I not think of home, but follow arms.
Constance
310 O, take his mother's thanks, a widow's thanks,
311 Till your strong hand shall help to give him strength
312 To make a more requital to your love!
Archduke of Austria
313 The peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swords
314 In such a just and charitable war.
King Philip of France
315 Well then, to work: our cannon shall be bent
316 Against the brows of this resisting town.—
317 Call for our chiefest men of discipline,
318 To cull the plots of best advantages:
319 We'll lay before this town our royal bones,
320 Wade to the market-place in Frenchmen's blood,
321 But we will make it subject to this boy.
Constance
322 Stay for an answer to your embassy,
323 Lest unadvis'd you stain your swords with blood:
324 My Lord Chatillon may from England bring
325 That right in peace which here we urge in war;
326 And then we shall repent each drop of blood
327 That hot rash haste so indirectly shed.
King Philip of France
328 A wonder, lady!—lo, upon thy wish,
329 Our messenger Chatillon is arriv'd.
[Enter CHATILLON.]
King Philip of France
330 What England says, say briefly, gentle lord;
331 We coldly pause for thee; Chatillon, speak.
Chatillon
332 Then turn your forces from this paltry siege,
333 And stir them up against a mightier task.
334 England, impatient of your just demands,
335 Hath put himself in arms: the adverse winds,
336 Whose leisure I have stay'd, have given him time
337 To land his legions all as soon as I;
338 His marches are expedient to this town,
339 His forces strong, his soldiers confident.
340 With him along is come the mother-queen,
341 An Ate, stirring him to blood and strife;
342 With her her neice, the Lady Blanch of Spain;
343 With them a bastard of the king's deceas'd:
344 And all the unsettled humours of the land,—
345 Rash, inconsiderate, fiery voluntaries,
346 With ladies' faces and fierce dragons' spleens,—
347 Have sold their fortunes at their native homes,
348 Bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs,
349 To make a hazard of new fortunes here.
350 In brief, a braver choice of dauntless spirits
351 Than now the English bottoms have waft o'er
352 Did never float upon the swelling tide
353 To do offence and scathe in Christendom.
[Drums beat within.]
Chatillon
354 The interruption of their churlish drums
355 Cuts off more circumstance: they are at hand;
356 To parley or to fight: therefore prepare.
King Philip of France
357 How much unlook'd-for is this expedition!
Archduke of Austria
358 By how much unexpected, by so much
359 We must awake endeavour for defence;
360 For courage mounteth with occasion:
361 Let them be welcome, then; we are prepar'd.
[Enter KING JOHN, ELINOR, BLANCH, the BASTARD, PEMBROKE, Lords, and Forces.]
King John
362 Peace be to France, if France in peace permit
363 Our just and lineal entrance to our own!
364 If not, bleed France, and peace ascend to heaven,
365 Whiles we, God's wrathful agent, do correct
366 Their proud contempt that beats his peace to heaven!
King Philip of France
367 Peace be to England, if that war return
368 From France to England, there to live in peace!
369 England we love; and for that England's sake
370 With burden of our armour here we sweat.
371 This toil of ours should be a work of thine;
372 But thou from loving England art so far
373 That thou hast under-wrought his lawful king,
374 Cut off the sequence of posterity,
375 Outfaced infant state, and done a rape
376 Upon the maiden virtue of the crown.
377 Look here upon thy brother Geffrey's face:—
378 These eyes, these brows, were moulded out of his:
379 This little abstract doth contain that large
380 Which died in Geffrey; and the hand of time
381 Shall draw this brief into as huge a volume.
382 That Geffrey was thy elder brother born,
383 And this his son; England was Geffrey's right,
384 And this is Geffrey's: in the name of God,
385 How comes it then, that thou art call'd a king,
386 When living blood doth in these temples beat,
387 Which owe the crown that thou o'er-masterest?
King John
388 From whom hast thou this great commission, France,
389 To draw my answer from thy articles?
King Philip of France
390 From that supernal judge that stirs good thoughts
391 In any breast of strong authority,
392 To look into the blots and stains of right.
393 That judge hath made me guardian to this boy:
394 Under whose warrant I impeach thy wrong;
395 And by whose help I mean to chastise it.
King John
396 Alack, thou dost usurp authority.
King Philip of France
397 Excus,—it is to beat usurping down.
Queen Elinor
398 Who is it thou dost call usurper, France?
Constance
399 Let me make answer;—thy usurping son.
Queen Elinor
400 Out, insolent! thy bastard shall be king,
401 That thou mayst be a queen, and check the world!
Constance
402 My bed was ever to thy son as true
403 As thine was to thy husband; and this boy
404 Liker in feature to his father Geffrey
405 Than thou and John in manners,—being as like
406 As rain to water, or devil to his dam.
407 My boy a bastard! By my soul, I think
408 His father never was so true begot:
409 It cannot be, an if thou wert his mother.
Queen Elinor
410 There's a good mother, boy, that blots thy father.
Constance
411 There's a good grandam, boy, that would blot thee.
Archduke of Austria
412 Peace!
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
413 Hear the crier.
Archduke of Austria
414 What the devil art thou?
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
415 One that will play the devil, sir, with you,
416 An 'a may catch your hide and you alone.
417 You are the hare of whom the proverb goes,
418 Whose valour plucks dead lions by the beard:
419 I'll smoke your skin-coat an I catch you right;
420 Sirrah, look to 't; i' faith I will, i' faith.
Blanch of Spain
421 O, well did he become that lion's robe
422 That did disrobe the lion of that robe!
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
423 It lies as sightly on the back of him
424 As great Alcides' shows upon an ass:—
425 But, ass, I'll take that burden from your back,
426 Or lay on that shall make your shoulders crack.
Archduke of Austria
427 What cracker is this same that deafs our ears
428 With this abundance of superfluous breath?
King Philip of France
429 Louis, determine what we shall do straight.
Louis the Dauphin
430 Women and fools, break off your conference.—
431 King John, this is the very sum of all,—
432 England and Ireland, Anjou, Touraine, Maine,
433 In right of Arthur, do I claim of thee:
434 Wilt thou resign them, and lay down thy arms?
King John
435 My life as soon:—I do defy thee, France.
436 Arthur of Bretagne, yield thee to my hand;
437 And out of my dear love, I'll give thee more
438 Than e'er the coward hand of France can win:
439 Submit thee, boy.
Queen Elinor
440 Come to thy grandam, child.
Constance
441 Do, child, go to it' grandam, child;
442 Give grandam kingdom, and it' grandam will
443 Give it a plum, a cherry, and a fig.
444 There's a good grandam!
Arthur, Duke of Bretagne
445 Good my mother, peace!
446 I would that I were low laid in my grave:
447 I am not worth this coil that's made for me.
Queen Elinor
448 His mother shames him so, poor boy, he weeps.
Constance
449 Now, shame upon you, whe'er she does or no!
450 His grandam's wrongs, and not his mother's shames,
451 Draws those heaven-moving pearls from his poor eyes,
452 Which heaven shall take in nature of a fee:
453 Ay, with these crystal beads heaven shall be brib'd
454 To do him justice, and revenge on you.
Queen Elinor
455 Thou monstrous slanderer of heaven and earth!
Constance
456 Thou monstrous injurer of heaven and earth!
457 Call not me slanderer: thou and thine usurp
458 The dominations, royalties, and rights,
459 Of this oppressed boy: this is thy eldest son's son,
460 Infortunate in nothing but in thee:
461 Thy sins are visited in this poor child;
462 The canon of the law is laid on him,
463 Being but the second generation
464 Removed from thy sin-conceiving womb.
King John
465 Bedlam, have done.
Constance
466 I have but this to say,—
467 That he is not only plagued for her sin,
468 But God hath made her sin and her the plague
469 On this removed issue, plagu'd for her
470 And with her plague, her sin; his injury
471 Her injury,—the beadle to her sin;
472 All punish'd in the person of this child,
473 And all for her: a plague upon her!
Queen Elinor
474 Thou unadvised scold, I can produce
475 A will that bars the title of thy son.
Constance
476 Ay, who doubts that? a will, a wicked will;
477 A woman's will; a canker'd grandam's will!
King Philip of France
478 Peace, lady! pause, or be more temperate:
479 It ill beseems this presence to cry aim
480 To these ill-tuned repetitions.—
481 Some trumpet summon hither to the walls
482 These men of Angiers: let us hear them speak
483 Whose title they admit, Arthur's or John's.
[Trumpet sounds. Enter citizens upon the walls.]
Citizen of Angiers
484 Who is it that hath warn'd us to the walls?
King Philip of France
485 'Tis France, for England.
King John
486 England for itself:—
487 You men of Angiers, and my loving subjects,—
King Philip of France
488 You loving men of Angiers, Arthur's subjects,
489 Our trumpet call'd you to this gentle parle.
King John
490 For our advantage; therefore hear us first.
491 These flags of France, that are advanced here
492 Before the eye and prospect of your town,
493 Have hither march'd to your endamagement;
King John
494 The cannons have their bowels full of wrath,
495 And ready mounted are they to spit forth
496 Their iron indignation 'gainst your walls:
497 All preparation for a bloody siege
498 And merciless proceeding by these French
499 Confronts your city's eyes, your winking gates;
500 And, but for our approach, those sleeping stones
501 That as a waist doth girdle you about,
502 By the compulsion of their ordinance
503 By this time from their fixed beds of lime
504 Had been dishabited, and wide havoc made
505 For bloody power to rush upon your peace.
506 But, on the sight of us, your lawful king,—
507 Who, painfully, with much expedient march,
508 Have brought a countercheck before your gates,
509 To save unscratch'd your city's threatn'd cheeks,—
510 Behold, the French, amaz'd, vouchsafe a parle;
511 And now, instead of bullets wrapp'd in fire,
512 To make a shaking fever in your walls,
513 They shoot but calm words folded up in smoke,
514 To make a faithless error in your ears:
515 Which trust accordingly, kind citizens,
516 And let us in, your king; whose labour'd spirits,
517 Forwearied in this action of swift speed,
518 Craves harbourage within your city-walls.
King Philip of France
519 When I have said, make answer to us both.
520 Lo, in this right hand, whose protection
521 Is most divinely vow'd upon the right
522 Of him it holds, stands young Plantagenet,
523 Son to the elder brother of this man,
524 And king o'er him and all that he enjoys:
525 For this down-trodden equity we tread
526 In war-like march these greens before your town;
527 Being no further enemy to you
528 Than the constraint of hospitable zeal
529 In the relief of this oppressed child
530 Religiously provokes. Be pleased then
531 To pay that duty which you truly owe
532 To him that owes it, namely, this young prince:
533 And then our arms, like to a muzzled bear,
534 Save in aspect, hath all offence seal'd up;
535 Our cannons' malice vainly shall be spent
536 Against the invulnerable clouds of heaven;
537 And with a blessed and unvex'd retire,
538 With unhack'd swords and helmets all unbruis'd,
539 We will bear home that lusty blood again
540 Which here we came to spout against your town,
541 And leave your children, wives, and you, in peace.
542 But if you fondly pass our proffer'd offer,
543 'Tis not the roundure of your old-fac'd walls
544 Can hide you from our messengers of war,
545 Though all these English, and their discipline,
546 Were harbour'd in their rude circumference.
547 Then, tell us, shall your city call us lord
548 In that behalf which we have challeng'd it?
549 Or shall we give the signal to our rage,
550 And stalk in blood to our possession?
Citizen of Angiers
551 In brief: we are the King of England's subjects:
552 For him, and in his right, we hold this town.
King John
553 Acknowledge then the king, and let me in.
Citizen of Angiers
554 That can we not; but he that proves the king,
555 To him will we prove loyal: till that time
556 Have we ramm'd up our gates against the world.
King John
557 Doth not the crown of England prove the king?
558 And if not that, I bring you witnesses,
559 Twice fifteen thousand hearts of England's breed,—
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
560 Bastards, and else.
King John
561 To verify our title with their lives.
King Philip of France
562 As many and as well-born bloods as those,—
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
563 Some bastards too.
King Philip of France
564 Stand in his face, to contradict his claim.
Citizen of Angiers
565 Till you compound whose right is worthiest,
566 We for the worthiest hold the right from both.
King John
567 Then God forgive the sin of all those souls
568 That to their everlasting residence,
569 Before the dew of evening fall, shall fleet,
570 In dreadful trial of our kingdom's king!
King Philip of France
571 Amen, Amen!—Mount, chevaliers; to arms!
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
572 Saint George, that swinged the dragon, and e'er since
573 Sits on his horse' back at mine hostess' door,
574 Teach us some fence!—Sirrah
[To AUSTRIA.]
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
575 , were I at home,
576 At your den, sirrah, with your lioness,
577 I would set an ox-head to your lion's hide,
578 And make a monster of you.
Archduke of Austria
579 Peace! no more.
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
580 O, tremble, for you hear the lion roar.
King John
581 Up higher to the plain; where we'll set forth
582 In best appointment all our regiments.
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
583 Speed, then, to take advantage of the field.
King Philip of France
584 It shall be so;—
[To LOUIS.]
King Philip of France
585 and at the other hill
586 Command the rest to stand.—God and our right!
[Exeunt severally.]
[After excursions, enter a French Herald, with trumpets, to the gates.]
French Herald
587 You men of Angiers, open wide your gates
588 And let young Arthur, Duke of Bretagne, in,
589 Who, by the hand of France, this day hath made
590 Much work for tears in many an English mother,
591 Whose sons lie scatter'd on the bleeding ground;
592 Many a widow's husband grovelling lies,
593 Coldly embracing the discolour'd earth;
594 And victory, with little loss, doth play
595 Upon the dancing banners of the French,
596 Who are at hand, triumphantly display'd,
597 To enter conquerors, and to proclaim
598 Arthur of Bretagne England's king and yours.
[Enter an ENGLISH HERALD, with trumpets.]
English Herald
599 Rejoice, you men of Angiers, ring your bells:
600 King John, your king and England's, doth approach,
601 Commander of this hot malicious day:
602 Their armours, that march'd hence so silver-bright,
603 Hither return all gilt with Frenchmen's blood;
604 There stuck no plume in any English crest
605 That is removed by a staff of France,
606 Our colours do return in those same hands
607 That did display them when we first march'd forth;
608 And, like a jolly troop of huntsmen, come
609 Our lusty English, all with purpled hands,
610 Dy'd in the dying slaughter of their foes:
611 Open your gates and give the victors way.
Citizen of Angiers
612 Heralds, from off our towers, we might behold,
613 From first to last, the onset and retire
614 Of both your armies; whose equality
615 By our best eyes cannot be censured:
616 Blood hath bought blood, and blows have answer'd blows;
617 Strength match'd with strength, and power confronted power:
618 Both are alike, and both alike we like.
619 One must prove greatest: while they weigh so even,
620 We hold our town for neither; yet for both.
[Enter, on one side, KING JOHN, ELINOR, BLANCH, the BASTARD, and Forces; at the other, KING PHILIP, LOUIS, AUSTRIA, and Forces.]
King John
621 France, hast thou yet more blood to cast away?
622 Say, shall the current of our right run on?
623 Whose passage, vex'd with thy impediment,
624 Shall leave his native channel, and o'erswell
625 With course disturb'd even thy confining shores,
626 Unless thou let his silver water keep
627 A peaceful progress to the ocean.
King Philip of France
628 England, thou hast not sav'd one drop of blood
629 In this hot trial, more than we of France;
630 Rather, lost more: and by this hand I swear,
631 That sways the earth this climate overlooks,
632 Before we will lay down our just-borne arms,
633 We'll put thee down, 'gainst whom these arms we bear,
634 Or add a royal number to the dead,
635 Gracing the scroll that tells of this war's loss
636 With slaughter coupled to the name of kings.
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
637 Ha, majesty! how high thy glory towers
638 When the rich blood of kings is set on fire!
639 O, now doth Death line his dead chaps with steel;
640 The swords of soldiers are his teeth, his fangs;
641 And now he feasts, mousing the flesh of men,
642 In undetermin'd differences of kings.—
643 Why stand these royal fronts amazed thus?
644 Cry, havoc, kings! back to the stained field,
645 You equal potents, fiery-kindled spirits!
646 Then let confusion of one part confirm
647 The other's peace: till then, blows, blood, and death!
King John
648 Whose party do the townsmen yet admit?
King Philip of France
649 Speak, citizens, for England; who's your king?
Citizen of Angiers
650 The King of England, when we know the king.
King Philip of France
651 Know him in us, that here hold up his right.
King John
652 In us, that are our own great deputy,
653 And bear possession of our person here;
654 Lord of our presence, Angiers, and of you.
Citizen of Angiers
655 A greater power than we denies all this;
656 And till it be undoubted, we do lock
657 Our former scruple in our strong-barr'd gates;
658 King'd of our fears, until our fears, resolv'd,
659 Be by some certain king purg'd and depos'd.
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
660 By heaven, these scroyles of Angiers flout you, kings,
661 And stand securely on their battlements
662 As in a theatre, whence they gape and point
663 At your industrious scenes and acts of death.
664 Your royal presences be rul'd by me:—
665 Do like the mutines of Jerusalem,
666 Be friends awhile, and both conjointly bend
667 Your sharpest deeds of malice on this town:
668 By east and west let France and England mount
669 Their battering cannon, charged to the mouths,
670 Till their soul-fearing clamours have brawl'd down
671 The flinty ribs of this contemptuous city:
672 I'd play incessantly upon these jades,
673 Even till unfenced desolation
674 Leave them as naked as the vulgar air.
675 That done, dissever your united strengths,
676 And part your mingled colours once again:
677 Turn face to face, and bloody point to point;
678 Then, in a moment, fortune shall cull forth
679 Out of one side her happy minion,
680 To whom in favour she shall give the day,
681 And kiss him with a glorious victory.
682 How like you this wild counsel, mighty states?
683 Smacks it not something of the policy?
King John
684 Now, by the sky that hangs above our heads,
685 I like it well.—France, shall we knit our powers,
686 And lay this Angiers even with the ground;
687 Then, after, fight who shall be king of it?
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
688 An if thou hast the mettle of a king,—
689 Being wrong'd, as we are, by this peevish town,—
690 Turn thou the mouth of thy artillery,
691 As we will ours, against these saucy walls;
692 And when that we have dash'd them to the ground,
693 Why then defy each other, and, pell-mell,
694 Make work upon ourselves, for heaven or hell!
King Philip of France
695 Let it be so.—Say, where will you assault?
King John
696 We from the west will send destruction
697 Into this city's bosom.
Archduke of Austria
698 I from the north.
King Philip of France
699 Our thunder from the south
700 Shall rain their drift of bullets on this town.
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
701 O prudent discipline! From north to south,—
702 Austria and France shoot in each other's mouth:
703 I'll stir them to it.
[Aside.]
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
704 —Come, away, away!
Citizen of Angiers
705 Hear us, great kings: vouchsafe awhile to stay,
706 And I shall show you peace and fair-fac'd league;
707 Win you this city without stroke or wound;
708 Rescue those breathing lives to die in beds
709 That here come sacrifices for the field:
710 Persever not, but hear me, mighty kings.
King John
711 Speak on with favour; we are bent to hear.
Citizen of Angiers
712 That daughter there of Spain, the Lady Blanch,
713 Is niece to England:—look upon the years
714 Of Louis the Dauphin and that lovely maid:
715 If lusty love should go in quest of beauty,
716 Where should he find it fairer than in Blanch?
717 If zealous love should go in search of virtue,
718 Where should he find it purer than in Blanch?
719 If love ambitious sought a match of birth,
720 Whose veins bound richer blood than Lady Blanch?
721 Such as she is, in beauty, virtue, birth,
722 Is the young Dauphin every way complete,—
723 If not complete of, say he is not she;
724 And she again wants nothing, to name want,
725 If want it be not, that she is not he:
726 He is the half part of a blessed man,
727 Left to be finished by such a she;
728 And she a fair divided excellence,
729 Whose fulness of perfection lies in him.
730 O, two such silver currents, when they join
731 Do glorify the banks that bound them in;
732 And two such shores to two such streams made one,
733 Two such controlling bounds, shall you be, kings,
734 To these two princes, if you marry them.
735 This union shall do more than battery can
736 To our fast-closed gates; for at this match,
737 With swifter spleen than powder can enforce,
738 The mouth of passage shall we fling wide ope,
739 And give you entrance; but without this match,
740 The sea enraged is not half so deaf,
741 Lions more confident, mountains and rocks
742 More free from motion; no, not Death himself
743 In mortal fury half so peremptory
744 As we to keep this city.
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
745 Here's a stay
746 That shakes the rotten carcase of old Death
747 Out of his rags! Here's a large mouth, indeed,
748 That spits forth death and mountains, rocks and seas;
749 Talks as familiarly of roaring lions
750 As maids of thirteen do of puppy-dogs!
751 What cannoneer begot this lusty blood?
752 He speaks plain cannon,—fire and smoke and bounce;
753 He gives the bastinado with his tongue;
754 Our ears are cudgell'd; not a word of his
755 But buffets better than a fist of France.
756 Zounds! I was never so bethump'd with words
757 Since I first call'd my brother's father dad.
Queen Elinor
758 Son, list to this conjunction, make this match;
759 Give with our niece a dowry large enough;
760 For by this knot thou shalt so surely tie
761 Thy now unsur'd assurance to the crown,
762 That yon green boy shall have no sun to ripe
763 The bloom that promiseth a mighty fruit.
764 I see a yielding in the looks of France;
765 Mark how they whisper: urge them while their souls
766 Are capable of this ambition,
767 Lest zeal, now melted by the windy breath
768 Of soft petitions, pity, and remorse,
769 Cool and congeal again to what it was.
Citizen of Angiers
770 Why answer not the double majesties
771 This friendly treaty of our threaten'd town?
King Philip of France
772 Speak England first, that hath been forward first
773 To speak unto this city: what say you?
King John
774 If that the Dauphin there, thy princely son,
775 Can in this book of beauty read 'I love,'
776 Her dowry shall weigh equal with a queen;
777 For Anjou, and fair Touraine, Maine, Poictiers,
778 And all that we upon this side the sea,—
779 Except this city now by us besieg'd,—
780 Find liable to our crown and dignity,
781 Shall gild her bridal bed; and make her rich
782 In titles, honours, and promotions,
783 As she in beauty, education, blood,
784 Holds hand with any princess of the world.
King Philip of France
785 What say'st thou, boy? look in the lady's face.
Louis the Dauphin
786 I do, my lord, and in her eye I find
787 A wonder, or a wondrous miracle,
788 The shadow of myself form'd in her eye;
789 Which, being but the shadow of your son,
790 Becomes a sun, and makes your son a shadow:
791 I do protest I never lov'd myself
792 Till now infixed I beheld myself
793 Drawn in the flattering table of her eye.
[Whispers with BLANCH.]
[Aside.]
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
794 Drawn in the flattering table of her eye!—
795 Hang'd in the frowning wrinkle of her brow,
796 And quarter'd in her heart!—he doth espy
797 Himself love's traitor! This is pity now,
798 That, hang'd, and drawn, and quarter'd, there should be
799 In such a love so vile a lout as he.
Blanch of Spain
800 My uncle's will in this respect is mine.
801 If he see aught in you that makes him like,
802 That anything he sees, which moves his liking
803 I can with ease translate it to my will;
804 Or if you will, to speak more properly,
805 I will enforce it easily to my love.
806 Further, I will not flatter you, my lord,
807 That all I see in you is worthy love,
808 Than this,—that nothing do I see in you,
809 Though churlish thoughts themselves should be your judge,—
810 That I can find should merit any hate.
King John
811 What say these young ones?—What say you, my niece?
Blanch of Spain
812 That she is bound in honour still to do
813 What you in wisdom still vouchsafe to say.
King John
814 Speak then, Prince Dauphin; can you love this lady?
Louis the Dauphin
815 Nay, ask me if I can refrain from love;
816 For I do love her most unfeignedly.
King John
817 Then do I give Volquessen, Touraine, Maine,
818 Poictiers, and Anjou, these five provinces,
819 With her to thee; and this addition more,
820 Full thirty thousand marks of English coin.—
821 Philip of France, if thou be pleas'd withal,
822 Command thy son and daughter to join hands.
King Philip of France
823 It likes us well.—Young princes, close your hands.
Archduke of Austria
824 And your lips too; for I am well assur'd
825 That I did so when I was first assur'd.
King Philip of France
826 Now, citizens of Angiers, ope your gates,
827 Let in that amity which you have made;
828 For at Saint Mary's chapel presently
829 The rites of marriage shall be solemniz'd.—
830 Is not the Lady Constance in this troop?
831 I know she is not; for this match made up
832 Her presence would have interrupted much:
833 Where is she and her son? tell me, who knows.
Louis the Dauphin
834 She is sad and passionate at your highness' tent.
King Philip of France
835 And, by my faith, this league that we have made
836 Will give her sadness very little cure.—
837 Brother of England, how may we content
838 This widow lady? In her right we came;
839 Which we, God knows, have turn'd another way,
840 To our own vantage.
King John
841 We will heal up all;
842 For we'll create young Arthur Duke of Bretagne,
843 And Earl of Richmond; and this rich fair town
844 We make him lord of.—Call the Lady Constance:
845 Some speedy messenger bid her repair
846 To our solemnity:—I trust we shall,
847 If not fill up the measure of her will,
848 Yet in some measure satisfy her so
849 That we shall stop her exclamation.
850 Go we, as well as haste will suffer us,
851 To this unlook'd-for, unprepared pomp.
[Exeunt all but the BASTARD. The Citizens retire from the Walls.]
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
852 Mad world! mad kings! mad composition!
853 John, to stop Arthur's title in the whole,
854 Hath willingly departed with a part;
855 And France,—whose armour conscience buckled on,
856 Whom zeal and charity brought to the field
857 As God's own soldier,—rounded in the ear
858 With that same purpose-changer, that sly devil;
859 That broker, that still breaks the pate of faith;
860 That daily break-vow, he that wins of all,
861 Of kings, of beggars, old men, young men, maids,—
862 Who having no external thing to lose
863 But the word maid, cheats the poor maid of that;
864 That smooth-fac'd gentleman, tickling commodity,—
865 Commodity, the bias of the world;
866 The world, who of itself is peised well,
867 Made to run even upon even ground,
868 Till this advantage, this vile-drawing bias,
869 This sway of motion, this commodity,
870 Makes it take head from all indifferency,
871 From all direction, purpose, course, intent:
872 And this same bias, this commodity,
873 This bawd, this broker, this all-changing word,
874 Clapp'd on the outward eye of fickle France,
875 Hath drawn him from his own determin'd aid,
876 From a resolv'd and honourable war,
877 To a most base and vile-concluded peace.—
878 And why rail I on this commodity?
879 But for because he hath not woo'd me yet:
880 Not that I have the power to clutch my hand
881 When his fair angels would salute my palm;
882 But for my hand, as unattempted yet,
883 Like a poor beggar, raileth on the rich.
884 Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail,
885 And say, There is no sin but to be rich;
886 And being rich, my virtue then shall be,
887 To say, There is no vice but beggary:
888 Since kings break faith upon commodity,
889 Gain, be my lord!—for I will worship thee.
[Exit.]

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Notes

TLN 280historical topical
“Arthur, that great forerunner of thy blood, Richard, that robb'd the lion”
Philip of France addresses young Arthur, telling him that Richard I Coeur-de-lion — the 'forerunner' of Arthur's royal lineage — came to his early grave partly because of Austria's actions in the Holy Land. 'Forerunner of thy blood' means Richard went before Arthur in his royal line (Richard was uncle to Arthur's father Geoffrey). The 'holy wars in Palestine' refers to the Third Crusade (1189-92), in which Richard was the celebrated Christian champion.
historical Richard the Lionheart (Coeur-de-lion)
TLN 287historical topical
“rebuke the usurpation Of thy unnatural uncle”
France frames John's holding of the English crown as 'usurpation' — unlawful seizure — because Arthur, as son of John's elder brother Geoffrey, had the senior hereditary claim when Richard I died in 1199. To call John 'unnatural' invokes the expectation that an uncle would protect rather than dispossess a nephew.
historical The Angevin succession and Arthur's claim
TLN 290historical topical
“God shall forgive you Coeur-de-lion's death”
'Coeur-de-lion' is French for 'lion-heart' — the famous nickname of Richard I (1157-1199), John's elder brother and the great crusader-king. Arthur is generously forgiving Austria for his role in Richard's death in exchange for Austria's military support now.
historical Richard the Lionheart (Coeur-de-lion)
TLN 292rhetorical device
“Shadowing their right under your wings of war”
'Shadowing' means sheltering or protecting, the way a bird spreads its wings over its young. Arthur thanks Philip for shielding ('shadowing') Arthur's rightful claim under the protection of the French army. The image of protective wings comes from the biblical image of God shielding his people.
TLN 298archaic vocab
“seal to this indenture of my love”
An 'indenture' was a formal legal contract, so called because the two copies were cut apart along a jagged (indented) edge so they could later be matched to prove authenticity. Austria calls the kiss he plants on Arthur's cheek the 'seal' — the wax stamp that authenticated a document — to their compact of friendship. Sealing an indenture was making a promise legally binding.
TLN 301rhetorical device
“that pale, that white-fac'd shore, Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring tides”
Austria describes England as a pale, white-faced island whose foot 'spurns back' (kicks back) the sea, and which 'coops' (pens in, confines) its people from other lands like a coop for chickens. 'Water-walled bulwark' continues the image: England is a naturally fortified castle surrounded by ocean walls. The white cliffs of the English Channel coast gave rise to this imagery, used memorably by Gaunt in Richard II.
TLN 315archaic vocab
“cannon shall be bent Against the brows”
'Bent' here means aimed or directed — cannons were pointed at a target. 'Brows' means the upper face, and by extension the top of the walls, the face that a town presents to its attackers. Philip is saying the French artillery will be aimed at the battlements of Angiers.
TLN 338archaic vocab
“His marches are expedient to this town”
'Expedient' here does not mean convenient or practical (its modern sense) but rapid, hastening. John's army is marching quickly toward this town. This use of 'expedient' to mean speedy was standard in Elizabethan English but has since dropped out of common use.
TLN 341classical allusion
“An Ate, stirring him to blood and strife”
Ate (pronounced 'ay-tee') was the Greek goddess of ruin and blind folly who drove gods and mortals to self-destructive action. Chatillon calls Elinor an Ate — a spirit of discord — who eggs King John on to war and bloodshed. Antony uses the same image over Caesar's corpse in Julius Caesar: 'With Ate by his side come hot from hell.'
classical Ate, Goddess of Ruin
TLN 344archaic vocab
“unsettled humours of the land,— Rash, inconsiderate, fiery voluntaries”
'Humours' in Elizabethan medicine were the four bodily fluids (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile) thought to govern personality and temperament. 'Unsettled humours' means people of unbalanced, unstable temperament — hotheads looking for a fight. 'Voluntaries' are volunteers, men who have enlisted freely without conscription. Chatillon is describing the kind of reckless adventurers who sold their estates at home to seek fortune in France.
TLN 348rhetorical device
“Bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs”
These adventurers have sold their inherited estates (their 'birthrights') to fund their equipment and journey — literally wearing the money from their sold lands as fine clothes and armor on their backs. The phrase vividly suggests men gambling everything they own.
TLN 363historical topical
“our just and lineal entrance to our own”
'Lineal' means by direct descent through the bloodline — John is claiming the throne is his by hereditary right, not by usurpation. 'Our own' means the territories and title that belong to him. France's presence trying to enforce Arthur's claim is what John calls an obstacle to 'our just and lineal' right to enter his own domains peacefully.
historical The Angevin succession and Arthur's claim
TLN 365historical topical
“God's wrathful agent, do correct Their proud contempt”
John casts himself as God's instrument of punishment — a claim routinely made by medieval kings to justify warfare. The idea that a king enforces God's justice on the proud echoes the doctrine of divine right, that anointed monarchs act on God's behalf. The phrase 'proud contempt' means France's arrogant disregard for what John considers his lawful authority.
historical The divine right of kings
TLN 379rhetorical device
“This little abstract doth contain that large Which died in Geffrey; and the hand of time Shall draw this brief into as huge a volume”
Philip uses a legal-document metaphor: Arthur's small face is an 'abstract' (a summary or digest) of his dead father Geoffrey's larger identity, and as time passes, this 'brief' (a short legal summary) will be expanded into a full 'volume' — Arthur will grow into the great man his father was. The extended image compares a child's potential to an unwritten book.
TLN 396wordplay
“thou dost usurp authority”
John accuses Philip of usurping — unlawfully seizing — authority that belongs to John alone. Philip deflects the accusation with a witty reversal: his authority is 'to beat usurping down,' i.e. his purpose is precisely to punish usurpation. Each king hurls the word 'usurp' at the other, and the exchange shows how both sides frame their own action as legitimate and the other's as criminal.
TLN 400historical topical
“thy bastard shall be king, That thou mayst be a queen”
Elinor accuses Constance of promoting Arthur's claim not from justice but from personal ambition — wanting to be a queen mother herself. By calling Arthur a 'bastard,' Elinor attacks the legitimacy of Arthur's birth and thus of his whole claim. This is a personal slur, not a legal fact: Arthur was the legitimate son of Geoffrey and Constance.
TLN 406archaic vocab
“As rain to water, or devil to his dam”
'Dam' is the old word for a mother animal, used of livestock and in proverbial speech. The phrase 'like devil to his dam' was a common proverb meaning exactly alike or natural companions — as natural as water is to rain. Constance argues that John resembles Elinor in vicious character just as a devil resembles the mother who bred him.
TLN 413archaic vocab
“Hear the crier”
When Austria shouts 'Peace!', the Bastard mocks him by saying 'hear the crier' — in Elizabethan courts and public assemblies, an official 'crier' called for silence by shouting 'Oyez! (Hear ye!)' before proceedings began. The Bastard is sarcastically comparing Austria's command for silence to a court crier doing his job, belittling Austria by treating his silencing as a mere procedural role.
TLN 417rhetorical device
“You are the hare of whom the proverb goes, Whose valour plucks dead lions by the beard”
The Bastard taunts Austria with a proverb: a hare (a cowardly animal) that dares to pluck a dead lion by the beard — an act requiring no bravery at all, since the lion cannot fight back. Austria killed Richard Coeur-de-lion ('lion-heart') when he could get at him, but he was no real match for a living Richard. The Bastard, as Richard's acknowledged son, is directly challenging Austria.
historical Richard the Lionheart (Coeur-de-lion)
TLN 421historical topical
“O, well did he become that lion's robe That did disrobe the lion of that robe”
Blanch admires Austria's lion-skin: Richard I ('the lion') wore it well, and Austria, who stripped it from him ('did disrobe the lion'), wears it fittingly too. The lines turn on a deliberate pun, 'robe' / 'disrobe' in the same breath. The lion-skin is a real prop — Austria's trophy for Richard's death — and editors disagree whether Blanch's praise is naive or whether the repeated pun quietly mocks Austria; the Bastard certainly treats the skin as stolen valour.
historical Richard the Lionheart (Coeur-de-lion)
TLN 423classical allusion
“It lies as sightly on the back of him As great Alcides' shows upon an ass”
'Alcides' is another name for Hercules (from his grandfather Alcaeus), who killed the Nemean lion and wore its indestructible hide as his famous trophy. The Bastard says Austria wearing Richard's lion-skin looks as ridiculous as Hercules's lion-skin draped on a donkey: the symbol of supreme heroism on a completely unworthy wearer. The insult reduces Austria to an ass — stupid, stubborn, and fit for nothing heroic.
classical The Nemean lion (Hercules' first labour)classical Hercules and his labours
TLN 427archaic vocab
“What cracker is this same that deafs our ears”
A 'cracker' was Elizabethan slang for a braggart — someone who 'cracks' (boasts loudly), as in the modern word 'wisecracker.' Austria is dismissing the Bastard as a loud-mouthed boaster whose 'abundance of superfluous breath' (endless and unnecessary talking) is just noise. The insult will later be used against Englishmen in general when Constance complains of English 'crackers' in Act 3.
TLN 447archaic vocab
“I am not worth this coil that's made for me”
'Coil' means a noisy fuss, turmoil, or commotion. Arthur, weeping from embarrassment at his mother's public scolding match, says he is not worth all the uproar being made on his behalf. The same word appears in Hamlet's 'mortal coil' — the tumult and disturbance of earthly life.
TLN 451rhetorical device
“those heaven-moving pearls from his poor eyes, Which heaven shall take in nature of a fee”
Constance describes Arthur's tears as 'heaven-moving pearls' and 'crystal beads,' claiming that heaven itself will accept them as a 'fee' (a payment or bribe) in exchange for divine justice and revenge. The conceit transforms a crying child into a kind of sacred petitioner whose tears are precious enough to purchase God's intervention.
TLN 461biblical allusion
“Thy sins are visited in this poor child; The canon of the law is laid on him, Being but the second generation”
Constance is invoking the biblical commandment in which God declares he will visit the iniquities of parents on children to the third and fourth generation. 'The canon of the law' means the rule of divine law — not a cannon — and 'second generation removed' places Arthur precisely two generations from Elinor, within the scope of the threatened punishment. Constance is accusing Elinor of having sinned so deeply that God is punishing her through Arthur.
TLN 462archaic vocab
“The canon of the law is laid on him”
'Canon' here means a rule or law — specifically divine law — not a weapon. (The same word appears in Hamlet's 'canon 'gainst self-slaughter.') 'Laid on' means imposed or applied. Constance is saying that God's decree visiting parental sins on children is being applied to Arthur because of Elinor's wickedness.
TLN 465archaic vocab
“Bedlam, have done”
'Bedlam' was the popular name for Bethlem Royal Hospital in London, England's most famous institution for the mentally ill. John uses it as an insult, telling Constance to stop as if she were a madwoman. Calling someone 'bedlam' or a 'bedlamite' meant accusing them of speaking like a lunatic.
TLN 475historical topical
“A will that bars the title of thy son”
Elinor claims to have Richard I's last will and testament, which allegedly left the crown to John rather than to Arthur. Constance contemptuously dismisses this: it is 'a wicked will' and 'a woman's will' — meaning a selfish, manipulative document designed by Elinor herself. Whether Richard I actually left such a will was historically disputed, and Shakespeare presents the argument as at least partly manipulative.
historical The Angevin succession and Arthur's claim
TLN 479archaic vocab
“It ill beseems this presence to cry aim To these ill-tuned repetitions”
'Cry aim' was an archery term: spectators at a shooting contest would cry 'aim!' to encourage the archer — so to 'cry aim' meant to cheer someone on or egg them up. Philip tells the women it is undignified for this royal assembly ('this presence' = before assembled royalty) to be cheered on by their squabbling. 'Ill-tuned repetitions' means badly harmonized, discordant complaints.
TLN 494rhetorical device
“The cannons have their bowels full of wrath, And ready mounted are they to spit forth Their iron indignation 'gainst your walls”
John personifies the cannons as enraged creatures with 'bowels full of wrath' ready to 'spit forth' their iron shot. The metaphor treats the guns as living, furious bodies — their barrels become bellies, the cannonballs become the projectiles of anger. 'Iron indignation' combines the literal material (iron shot) with an emotional charge (righteous fury).
TLN 533rhetorical device
“our arms, like to a muzzled bear, Save in aspect, hath all offence seal'd up”
Philip promises that if Angiers opens its gates to Arthur, the French army ('our arms') will be as harmless as a bear with its jaws muzzled: it will look fierce ('save in aspect') but all its capacity for harm ('offence') will be sealed up. Bear-baiting — tying a bear and setting dogs on it — was a popular Elizabethan entertainment, and a muzzled bear was a familiar sight.
TLN 542archaic vocab
“if you fondly pass our proffer'd offer”
'Fondly' here means foolishly — not affectionately (its modern primary sense). Philip is warning Angiers: if you foolishly let our offered terms pass by without accepting them, the consequences will be severe. The shift in meaning is a common student stumbling block in Elizabethan prose.
TLN 543archaic vocab
“the roundure of your old-fac'd walls”
'Roundure' (also 'roundure') is a Shakespearean word for a circular enclosure — the round circuit of the city's walls. 'Old-fac'd' means ancient, weathered. Philip is saying the round ring of Angiers' old walls is not strong enough to hide the citizens from French artillery.
TLN 572cultural context
“Saint George, that swinged the dragon, and e'er since Sits on his horse' back at mine hostess' door”
Saint George, patron saint of England, was legendary for slaying a dragon and was the patron of the Order of the Garter. His image on horseback killing the dragon decorated English inn signs (hence 'mine hostess' door' — a common tavern sign). The Bastard invokes him before battle but with a comedian's eye for the mundane: the saint's heroic image is reduced to a painted pub sign. 'Swinged' means struck or beat.
TLN 576rhetorical device
“at your den, sirrah, with your lioness”
The Bastard threatens Austria: at home ('your den,' reducing him to a beast), with your lioness — meaning Austria's wife, but also mocking him as a lion who keeps lions at home yet flinches from the real one (the Bastard, Richard's son). Calling Austria's wife a 'lioness' continues the animal metaphor and puts the Bastard in the role of the male lion who will drive Austria out.
historical Richard the Lionheart (Coeur-de-lion)
TLN 577rhetorical device
“I would set an ox-head to your lion's hide, And make a monster of you”
The Bastard threatens a grotesque transformation: he would put an ox's head (the emblem of a dumb, plodding work animal) on Austria's lion's hide, making him a monster — part fierce predator, part stupid beast of burden. It is an imaginative insult: the lion-skin covers a complete ox, not a lion. The image also echoes the classical monsters made by crossing beasts (Minotaur, Centaur).
TLN 614archaic vocab
“whose equality By our best eyes cannot be censured”
'Censured' here means judged or determined — not criticized or condemned (its modern sense). The Citizen of Angiers watched both battles from the walls and says the armies' equality in fighting cannot be judged or decided by eyesight alone. This use of 'censure' to mean 'form a judgment about' was standard in the period.
TLN 639rhetorical device
“doth Death line his dead chaps with steel; The swords of soldiers are his teeth, his fangs; And now he feasts, mousing the flesh of men”
The Bastard personifies Death as a predator who lines his jaw ('chaps' = jaws) with steel — he eats soldiers by means of their own swords. 'Mousing' means hunting and catching prey as a cat does mice. The image makes Death himself a consumer of the battlefield, fed by the kings' indecision. It is a dramatic reversal: the Bastard urges the kings to fight on, using the horror of what Death eats to goad them.
TLN 644archaic vocab
“Cry, havoc, kings! back to the stained field”
'Havoc' was a military command — the signal given by an officer for soldiers to begin unlimited plunder, killing, and destruction without restraint. To 'cry havoc' was to loose total war on an enemy. Julius Caesar uses the same phrase: 'Cry Havoc! and let slip the dogs of war' (3.1). The Bastard is urging the kings to unleash unrestrained slaughter.
TLN 660archaic vocab
“these scroyles of Angiers flout you, kings”
'Scroyles' is an Elizabethan term of contempt — roughly 'scoundrels' or 'scabby wretches.' The word is derived from 'scrofulous' (affected with scrofula, a skin disease), and implied both physical baseness and moral worthlessness. The Bastard is urging the two kings to notice the insult: these lowly town-dwellers are mocking them from the walls.
TLN 678classical allusion
“fortune shall cull forth Out of one side her happy minion, To whom in favour she shall give the day”
Fortune — the classical goddess of luck, often pictured turning a wheel — will 'cull forth' (select) one side as her 'happy minion' (lucky favorite) and give them victory. A 'minion' is a favorite or darling, not necessarily a servile underling. The image of Fortune selecting the winning king echoes the whole tradition of Fortune's wheel: she grants victory arbitrarily, not on merit.
classical Fortune and her wheel
TLN 683archaic vocab
“Smacks it not something of the policy”
The Bastard asks whether his plan 'smacks of the policy' — meaning does it have the flavor of Machiavellian political cunning ('policy' = calculating self-interest, statecraft beyond scruple). The word 'policy' carried a negative charge in Elizabethan English, suggesting the cold, ends-justify-means approach associated with Machiavelli. The Bastard is half-admiring and half-mocking his own scheme.
TLN 752archaic vocab
“He speaks plain cannon,—fire and smoke and bounce; He gives the bastinado with his tongue”
'Bastinado' was a form of punishment or torture by beating the soles of the feet with a stick — a 'bastonado' or cudgeling. The Bastard mockingly praises the Citizen's oratory: his words are like cannon fire (plain, explosive, and smoky), and his tongue gives a bastinado — beats the listeners as if with a stick. 'Buffets' (blows with a fist) and 'bethump'd' continue the image of being physically beaten by words.
TLN 756wordplay
“Zounds! I was never so bethump'd with words Since I first call'd my brother's father dad”
'Zounds' is a contracted oath — 'God's wounds,' referring to Christ's wounds at the crucifixion, one of the common Elizabethan swear-words. 'Bethump'd' means beaten, pummeled. The Bastard's punchline is that he has never been so battered by words since the day he first called Sir Robert Faulconbridge 'dad' — a day he now knows was a lie, since his real father was Richard I. The line is a self-deprecating joke about the discovery of his illegitimacy in Act 1.
TLN 758archaic vocab
“Son, list to this conjunction, make this match”
Elinor urges John to listen ('list') to this 'conjunction' — joining or union — meaning the proposed marriage between Lewis the Dauphin and Blanch of Spain. A 'conjunction' in grammar and in astrology means a coming together; here it means a marriage-alliance. Elinor sees the diplomatic advantage: the marriage will tie France's interests to England's, neutralizing Arthur's claim.
TLN 761rhetorical device
“Thy now unsur'd assurance to the crown, That yon green boy shall have no sun to ripe The bloom”
Elinor tells John the marriage will secure ('sure up') his currently insecure hold on the crown: 'unsur'd assurance' means a guarantee that is not yet guaranteed — a title not fully safe. 'Yon green boy' (Arthur, young and unripe) 'shall have no sun to ripe the bloom' — Arthur's claim will wither, like a fruit deprived of sunlight, once the French alliance is cemented. The agricultural metaphor treats political rival claims like competing plants.
TLN 786rhetorical device
“in her eye I find A wonder, or a wondrous miracle, The shadow of myself form'd in her eye, Which, being but the shadow of your son, Becomes a sun”
Lewis sees his own reflection (a tiny image formed in Blanch's pupil — a physical reality known in the period) and puns on 'shadow/sun/son': his reflection in her eye is a 'shadow' (a mirror image), but since he is the Dauphin (his father's shadow/reflection), and since 'shadow' rhymes phonetically with being less than the original, the shadow 'becomes a sun' — his image in her eye rises from shadow to sun. The triple pun on shadow/son/sun was common in Elizabethan love verse.
TLN 793archaic vocab
“Drawn in the flattering table of her eye”
A 'table' was a flat painting surface — a panel painting or a miniature portrait (as in 'a table of the lord's face'). Lewis says he sees himself 'drawn' (painted as a portrait) in the 'flattering table' (flattering portrait-panel) of Blanch's eye. The tiny reflection in a beloved's eye was a common conceit in Renaissance love poetry; the word 'drawn' has double force (attracted and depicted).
TLN 817historical topical
“do I give Volquessen, Touraine, Maine, Poictiers, and Anjou, these five provinces, With her to thee; and this addition more, Full thirty thousand marks”
John is surrendering five French provinces — Volquessen (Vexin, a district of Normandy), Touraine, Maine, Poitiers, and Anjou — as Blanch's dowry to secure peace. These were territories the English crown held in France, the inheritance of the Angevin empire. Giving them up as a dowry to stop the war meant John was ceding his French lands rather than fighting to keep them. Thirty thousand marks was an enormous sum — a mark was worth two-thirds of a pound.
historical The Angevin succession and Arthur's claim
TLN 852rhetorical device
“Mad world! mad kings! mad composition”
The Bastard's great soliloquy opens with triple anaphora — 'mad... mad... mad!' — hammering the same word onto three nouns to convey outrage and disbelief. 'Composition' means an agreement or compromise between enemies. He is saying the peace deal just struck is sheer madness: a mad world that contains mad kings who have made a mad agreement, all at the expense of Constance and Arthur.
TLN 855rhetorical device
“France,—whose armour conscience buckled on, Whom zeal and charity brought to the field As God's own soldier”
The Bastard sarcastically describes France as a knight whose 'conscience buckled on' his armor — meaning conscience and religious duty, not ambition, were supposedly the buckles that strapped France into his war-gear. France came 'as God's own soldier' on a just crusade. The imagery of conscience as the fastener of armor makes Philip's claimed motivation explicit: he said he fought for right and religion, not gain. What follows shows he has abandoned both.
TLN 859archaic vocab
“That broker, that still breaks the pate of faith; That daily break-vow, he that wins of all”
A 'broker' was a go-between or agent — often with the pejorative sense of a pimp or pander who arranges shameful transactions. 'Breaks the pate of faith' means smashes the head of fidelity — beats faith up. A 'break-vow' is a habitual oath-breaker. The Bastard piles up synonyms for commodity: it is a go-between, an oath-breaker, a corrupter of everyone it touches.
TLN 864archaic vocab
“tickling commodity,— Commodity, the bias of the world”
'Commodity' here does not mean goods or products (its modern economic sense) but self-interest, expediency, or the pursuit of personal advantage regardless of honor or principle. The Bastard identifies 'commodity' as the hidden force that turns kings, beggars, and even virgins from their stated principles whenever personal gain offers itself. 'Tickling' means tempting or flattering — commodity whispers seductively. This is the most important word in the play.
TLN 865rhetorical device
“Commodity, the bias of the world, The world, who of itself is peised well, Made to run even upon even ground, Till this advantage, this vile-drawing bias, This sway of motion, this commodity, Makes it take head from all indifferency”
The Bastard extends his central metaphor: the world is like a bowl in the game of bowls, which is 'peised' (balanced) and designed to roll 'even upon even ground.' But a bowl has an internal weight called a 'bias' on one side, which makes it curve off a straight line toward that side — and commodity is that bias, deflecting the world from straight justice ('indifferency' = impartiality) toward self-interest. The bowling image was familiar to any Elizabethan audience.
TLN 881wordplay
“when his fair angels would salute my palm”
'Angels' were gold coins — the angel-noble, stamped with the image of the Archangel Michael — and 'salute my palm' means be placed in the palm of my hand. The Bastard puns: real angels (coins) saluting his palm is a bribe, but 'fair angels' could also be beautiful heavenly beings greeting him. He admits he has not yet been tempted by commodity — because no one has offered him money yet.
TLN 884rhetorical device
“Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail, And say, There is no sin but to be rich; And being rich, my virtue then shall be, To say, There is no vice but beggary: Since kings break faith upon commodity, Gain, be my lord!—for I will worship thee”
The Bastard concludes with scalding self-awareness: he rails against commodity while poor — but he promises that once rich, he will praise it. He will simply swap his moral position to match his material one. The final 'Gain, be my lord! for I will worship thee' is a mock-prayer, addressing money as a god. The speech is both a critique of universal hypocrisy and a confession of the Bastard's own willingness to join it — making him the play's most honest character precisely because he admits what everyone else conceals.
historical The Troublesome Raigne of King John