Act 3, Scene 1

France. The FRENCH KING'S tent.

[Enter CONSTANCE, ARTHUR, and SALISBURY.]
Constance
890 Gone to be married! gone to swear a peace!
891 False blood to false blood join'd! gone to be friends!
892 Shall Louis have Blanch? and Blanch those provinces?
893 It is not so; thou hast misspoke, misheard;
894 Be well advis'd, tell o'er thy tale again:
895 It cannot be; thou dost but say 'tis so;
896 I trust I may not trust thee; for thy word
897 Is but the vain breath of a common man:
898 Believe me, I do not believe thee, man;
899 I have a king's oath to the contrary.
900 Thou shalt be punish'd for thus frighting me,
901 For I am sick and capable of fears;
902 Oppress'd with wrongs, and therefore full of fears;
903 A widow, husbandless, subject to fears;
904 A woman, naturally born to fears;
905 And though thou now confess thou didst but jest,
906 With my vex'd spirits I cannot take a truce,
907 But they will quake and tremble all this day.
908 What dost thou mean by shaking of thy head?
909 Why dost thou look so sadly on my son?
910 What means that hand upon that breast of thine?
911 Why holds thine eye that lamentable rheum,
912 Like a proud river peering o'er his bounds?
913 Be these sad signs confirmers of thy words?
914 Then speak again,—not all thy former tale,
915 But this one word, whether thy tale be true.
Earl of Salisbury
916 As true as I believe you think them false
917 That give you cause to prove my saying true.
Constance
918 O, if thou teach me to believe this sorrow,
919 Teach thou this sorrow how to make me die;
920 And let belief and life encounter so
921 As doth the fury of two desperate men,
922 Which in the very meeting fall and die!—
923 Louis marry Blanch! O boy, then where art thou?
924 France friend with England! what becomes of me?—
925 Fellow, be gone: I cannot brook thy sight;
926 This news hath made thee a most ugly man.
Earl of Salisbury
927 What other harm have I, good lady, done,
928 But spoke the harm that is by others done?
Constance
929 Which harm within itself so heinous is,
930 As it makes harmful all that speak of it.
Arthur, Duke of Bretagne
931 I do beseech you, madam, be content.
Constance
932 If thou, that bid'st me be content, wert grim,
933 Ugly, and slanderous to thy mother's womb,
934 Full of unpleasing blots and sightless stains,
935 Lame, foolish, crooked, swart, prodigious,
936 Patch'd with foul moles and eye-offending marks,
937 I would not care, I then would be content;
938 For then I should not love thee; no, nor thou
939 Become thy great birth, nor deserve a crown.
940 But thou art fair; and at thy birth, dear boy,
941 Nature and fortune join'd to make thee great:
942 Of nature's gifts thou mayst with lilies boast,
943 And with the half-blown rose; but Fortune, O!
944 She is corrupted, chang'd, and won from thee;
945 She adulterates hourly with thine uncle John;
946 And with her golden hand hath pluck'd on France
947 To tread down fair respect of sovereignty,
948 And made his majesty the bawd to theirs.
949 France is a bawd to Fortune and king John—
950 That strumpet Fortune, that usurping John!—
951 Tell me, thou fellow, is not France forsworn?
952 Envenom him with words; or get thee gone,
953 And leave those woes alone, which I alone
954 Am bound to under-bear.
Earl of Salisbury
955 Pardon me, madam,
956 I may not go without you to the kings.
Constance
957 Thou mayst, thou shalt; I will not go with thee:
958 I will instruct my sorrows to be proud;
959 For grief is proud, and makes his owner stout.
960 To me, and to the state of my great grief,
961 Let kings assemble; for my grief's so great
962 That no supporter but the huge firm earth
963 Can hold it up: here I and sorrows sit;
964 Here is my throne, bid kings come bow to it.
[Seats herself on the ground.]
[Enter KING JOHN, KING PHILIP, LOUIS, BLANCH, ELINOR, BASTARD, AUSTRIA, and attendants.]
King Philip of France
965 'Tis true, fair daughter; and this blessed day
966 Ever in France shall be kept festival:
967 To solemnize this day the glorious sun
968 Stays in his course and plays the alchemist,
969 Turning, with splendour of his precious eye,
970 The meagre cloddy earth to glittering gold:
971 The yearly course that brings this day about
972 Shall never see it but a holiday.
[Rising.]
Constance
973 A wicked day, and not a holy day!
974 What hath this day deserv'd? what hath it done
975 That it in golden letters should be set
976 Among the high tides in the calendar?
977 Nay, rather turn this day out of the week,
978 This day of shame, oppression, perjury:
979 Or, if it must stand still, let wives with child
980 Pray that their burdens may not fall this day,
981 Lest that their hopes prodigiously be cross'd:
982 But on this day let seamen fear no wreck;
983 No bargains break that are not this day made:
984 This day, all things begun come to ill end,—
985 Yea, faith itself to hollow falsehood change!
King Philip of France
986 By heaven, lady, you shall have no cause
987 To curse the fair proceedings of this day.
988 Have I not pawn'd to you my majesty?
Constance
989 You have beguil'd me with a counterfeit
990 Resembling majesty; which, being touch'd and tried,
991 Proves valueless; you are forsworn, forsworn:
992 You came in arms to spill mine enemies' blood,
993 But now in arms you strengthen it with yours:
994 The grappling vigour and rough frown of war
995 Is cold in amity and painted peace,
996 And our oppression hath made up this league.—
997 Arm, arm, you heavens, against these perjur'd kings!
998 A widow cries: be husband to me, heavens!
999 Let not the hours of this ungodly day
1000 Wear out the day in peace; but, ere sunset,
1001 Set armed discord 'twixt these perjur'd kings!
1002 Hear me, O, hear me!
Archduke of Austria
1003 Lady Constance, peace!
Constance
1004 War! war! no peace! peace is to me a war.
1005 O Lymoges! O Austria! thou dost shame
1006 That bloody spoil: thou slave, thou wretch, thou coward!
1007 Thou little valiant, great in villainy!
1008 Thou ever strong upon the stronger side!
1009 Thou Fortune's champion that dost never fight
1010 But when her humorous ladyship is by
1011 To teach thee safety!—thou art perjur'd too,
1012 And sooth'st up greatness. What a fool art thou,
1013 A ramping fool, to brag, and stamp. and swear
1014 Upon my party! Thou cold-blooded slave,
1015 Hast thou not spoke like thunder on my side?
1016 Been sworn my soldier? bidding me depend
1017 Upon thy stars, thy fortune, and thy strength?
1018 And dost thou now fall over to my foes?
1019 Thou wear a lion's hide! doff it for shame,
1020 And hang a calf's-skin on those recreant limbs!
Archduke of Austria
1021 O that a man should speak those words to me!
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
1022 And hang a calf's-skin on those recreant limbs.
Archduke of Austria
1023 Thou dar'st not say so, villain, for thy life.
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
1024 And hang a calf's-skin on those recreant limbs.
King John
1025 We like not this: thou dost forget thyself.
King Philip of France
1026 Here comes the holy legate of the Pope.
[Enter PANDULPH.]
Cardinal Pandulph
1027 Hail, you anointed deputies of heaven!—
1028 To thee, King John, my holy errand is.
1029 I Pandulph, of fair Milan cardinal,
1030 And from Pope Innocent the legate here,
1031 Do in his name religiously demand
1032 Why thou against the church, our holy mother,
1033 So wilfully dost spurn; and, force perforce
1034 Keep Stephen Langton, chosen Archbishop
1035 Of Canterbury, from that holy see?
1036 This, in our foresaid holy father's name,
1037 Pope Innocent, I do demand of thee.
King John
1038 What earthly name to interrogatories
1039 Can task the free breath of a sacred king?
1040 Thou canst not, cardinal, devise a name
1041 So slight, unworthy, and ridiculous,
1042 To charge me to an answer, as the pope.
1043 Tell him this tale; and from the mouth of England
1044 Add thus much more,—that no Italian priest
1045 Shall tithe or toll in our dominions:
1046 But as we under heaven are supreme head,
1047 So, under him, that great supremacy,
1048 Where we do reign, we will alone uphold,
1049 Without the assistance of a mortal hand:
1050 So tell the pope, all reverence set apart
1051 To him and his usurp'd authority.
King Philip of France
1052 Brother of England, you blaspheme in this.
King John
1053 Though you and all the kings of Christendom
1054 Are led so grossly by this meddling priest,
1055 Dreading the curse that money may buy out;
1056 And by the merit of vile gold, dross, dust,
1057 Purchase corrupted pardon of a man,
1058 Who in that sale sells pardon from himself;
1059 Though you and all the rest, so grossly led,
1060 This juggling witchcraft with revenue cherish;
1061 Yet I, alone, alone do me oppose
1062 Against the pope, and count his friends my foes.
Cardinal Pandulph
1063 Then by the lawful power that I have,
1064 Thou shalt stand curs'd and excommunicate:
1065 And blessed shall he be that doth revolt
1066 From his allegiance to an heretic;
1067 And meritorious shall that hand be call'd,
1068 Canonized, and worshipp'd as a saint,
1069 That takes away by any secret course
1070 Thy hateful life.
Constance
1071 O, lawful let it be
1072 That I have room with Rome to curse awhile!
1073 Good father Cardinal, cry thou amen
1074 To my keen curses: for without my wrong
1075 There is no tongue hath power to curse him right.
Cardinal Pandulph
1076 There's law and warrant, lady, for my curse.
Constance
1077 And for mine too: when law can do no right,
1078 Let it be lawful that law bar no wrong:
1079 Law cannot give my child his kingdom here;
1080 For he that holds his kingdom holds the law:
1081 Therefore, since law itself is perfect wrong,
1082 How can the law forbid my tongue to curse?
Cardinal Pandulph
1083 Philip of France, on peril of a curse,
1084 Let go the hand of that arch-heretic,
1085 And raise the power of France upon his head,
1086 Unless he do submit himself to Rome.
Queen Elinor
1087 Look'st thou pale, France; do not let go thy hand.
Constance
1088 Look to that, devil; lest that France repent
1089 And, by disjoining hands, hell lose a soul.
Archduke of Austria
1090 King Philip, listen to the cardinal.
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
1091 And hang a calf's-skin on his recreant limbs.
Archduke of Austria
1092 Well, ruffian, I must pocket up these wrongs,
1093 Because—
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
1094 Your breeches best may carry them.
King John
1095 Philip, what say'st thou to the cardinal?
Constance
1096 What should he say, but as the cardinal?
Louis the Dauphin
1097 Bethink you, father; for the difference
1098 Is, purchase of a heavy curse from Rome,
1099 Or the light loss of England for a friend:
1100 Forgo the easier.
Blanch of Spain
1101 That's the curse of Rome.
Constance
1102 O Louis, stand fast! The devil tempts thee here
1103 In likeness of a new uptrimmed bride.
Blanch of Spain
1104 The Lady Constance speaks not from her faith,
1105 But from her need.
Constance
1106 O, if thou grant my need,
1107 Which only lives but by the death of faith,
1108 That need must needs infer this principle,—
1109 That faith would live again by death of need!
1110 O then, tread down my need, and faith mounts up;
1111 Keep my need up, and faith is trodden down!
King John
1112 The king is mov'd, and answers not to this.
Constance
1113 O be remov'd from him, and answer well!
Archduke of Austria
1114 Do so, King Philip; hang no more in doubt.
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
1115 Hang nothing but a calf's-skin, most sweet lout.
King Philip of France
1116 I am perplex'd, and know not what to say.
Cardinal Pandulph
1117 What canst thou say, but will perplex thee more,
1118 If thou stand excommunicate and curs'd?
King Philip of France
1119 Good reverend father, make my person yours,
1120 And tell me how you would bestow yourself.
1121 This royal hand and mine are newly knit,
1122 And the conjunction of our inward souls
1123 Married in league, coupled and link'd together
1124 With all religious strength of sacred vows;
1125 The latest breath that gave the sound of words
1126 Was deep-sworn faith, peace, amity, true love,
1127 Between our kingdoms and our royal selves;
1128 And even before this truce, but new before,—
1129 No longer than we well could wash our hands,
1130 To clap this royal bargain up of peace,—
1131 Heaven knows, they were besmear'd and overstain'd
1132 With slaughter's pencil, where revenge did paint
1133 The fearful difference of incensed kings:
1134 And shall these hands, so lately purg'd of blood,
1135 So newly join'd in love, so strong in both,
1136 Unyoke this seizure and this kind regreet?
1137 Play fast and loose with faith? so jest with heaven,
1138 Make such unconstant children of ourselves,
1139 As now again to snatch our palm from palm;
1140 Unswear faith sworn; and on the marriage-bed
1141 Of smiling peace to march a bloody host,
1142 And make a riot on the gentle brow
1143 Of true sincerity? O, holy sir.
1144 My reverend father, let it not be so!
1145 Out of your grace, devise, ordain, impose,
1146 Some gentle order; and then we shall be bless'd
1147 To do your pleasure, and continue friends.
Cardinal Pandulph
1148 All form is formless, order orderless,
1149 Save what is opposite to England's love.
1150 Therefore, to arms! be champion of our church,
1151 Or let the church, our mother, breathe her curse,—
1152 A mother's curse,—on her revolting son.
1153 France, thou mayst hold a serpent by the tongue,
1154 A chafed lion by the mortal paw,
1155 A fasting tiger safer by the tooth,
1156 Than keep in peace that hand which thou dost hold.
King Philip of France
1157 I may disjoin my hand, but not my faith.
Cardinal Pandulph
1158 So mak'st thou faith an enemy to faith;
1159 And, like a civil war, sett'st oath to oath,
1160 Thy tongue against thy tongue. O, let thy vow
1161 First made to heaven, first be to heaven perform'd,—
1162 That is, to be the champion of our church.
1163 What since thou swor'st is sworn against thyself
1164 And may not be performed by thyself:
1165 For that which thou hast sworn to do amiss
1166 Is not amiss when it is truly done;
1167 And being not done, where doing tends to ill,
1168 The truth is then most done not doing it:
1169 The better act of purposes mistook
1170 Is to mistake again; though indirect,
1171 Yet indirection thereby grows direct,
1172 And falsehood falsehood cures, as fire cools fire
1173 Within the scorched veins of one new-burn'd.
1174 It is religion that doth make vows kept;
1175 But thou hast sworn against religion,
1176 By what thou swear'st against the thing thou swear'st;
1177 And mak'st an oath the surety for thy truth
1178 Against an oath: the truth thou art unsure
1179 To swear, swears only not to be forsworn;
1180 Else what a mockery should it be to swear!
1181 But thou dost swear only to be forsworn;
1182 And most forsworn, to keep what thou dost swear.
1183 Therefore thy latter vows against thy first
1184 Is in thyself rebellion to thyself;
1185 And better conquest never canst thou make
1186 Than arm thy constant and thy nobler parts
1187 Against these giddy loose suggestions:
1188 Upon which better part our prayers come in,
1189 If thou vouchsafe them; but if not, then know
1190 The peril of our curses fight on thee,
1191 So heavy as thou shalt not shake them off,
1192 But in despair die under the black weight.
Archduke of Austria
1193 Rebellion, flat rebellion!
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
1194 Will't not be?
1195 Will not a calf's-skin stop that mouth of thine?
Louis the Dauphin
1196 Father, to arms!
Blanch of Spain
1197 Upon thy wedding-day?
1198 Against the blood that thou hast married?
1199 What, shall our feast be kept with slaughter'd men?
1200 Shall braying trumpets and loud churlish drums,—
1201 Clamours of hell,—be measures to our pomp?
1202 O husband, hear me!—ay, alack, how new
1203 Is husband in my mouth!—even for that name,
1204 Which till this time my tongue did ne'er pronounce,
1205 Upon my knee I beg, go not to arms
1206 Against mine uncle.
Constance
1207 O, upon my knee,
1208 Made hard with kneeling, I do pray to thee,
1209 Thou virtuous Dauphin, alter not the doom
1210 Forethought by heaven.
Blanch of Spain
1211 Now shall I see thy love: what motive may
1212 Be stronger with thee than the name of wife?
Constance
1213 That which upholdeth him that thee upholds,
1214 His honour:—O, thine honour, Louis, thine honour!
Louis the Dauphin
1215 I muse your majesty doth seem so cold,
1216 When such profound respects do pull you on.
Cardinal Pandulph
1217 I will denounce a curse upon his head.
King Philip of France
1218 Thou shalt not need.—England, I will fall from thee.
Constance
1219 O fair return of banish'd majesty!
Queen Elinor
1220 O foul revolt of French inconstancy!
King John
1221 France, thou shalt rue this hour within this hour.
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
1222 Old Time the clock-setter, that bald sexton Time,
1223 Is it as he will? well, then, France shall rue.
Blanch of Spain
1224 The sun's o'ercast with blood: fair day, adieu!
1225 Which is the side that I must go withal?
1226 I am with both: each army hath a hand;
1227 And in their rage, I having hold of both,
1228 They whirl asunder and dismember me.
1229 Husband, I cannot pray that thou mayst win;
1230 Uncle, I needs must pray that thou mayst lose;
1231 Father, I may not wish the fortune thine;
1232 Grandam, I will not wish thy wishes thrive:
1233 Whoever wins, on that side shall I lose;
1234 Assured loss before the match be play'd.
Louis the Dauphin
1235 Lady, with me: with me thy fortune lies.
Blanch of Spain
1236 There where my fortune lives, there my life dies.
King John
1237 Cousin, go draw our puissance together.—
[Exit BASTARD.]
King John
1238 France, I am burn'd up with inflaming wrath;
1239 A rage whose heat hath this condition,
1240 That nothing can allay, nothing but blood,—
1241 The blood, and dearest-valu'd blood of France.
King Philip of France
1242 Thy rage shall burn thee up, and thou shalt turn
1243 To ashes, ere our blood shall quench that fire:
1244 Look to thyself, thou art in jeopardy.
King John
1245 No more than he that threats.—To arms let's hie!
[Exeunt severally.]

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Notes

TLN 890rhetorical device
“Gone to be married! gone to swear a peace”
Constance opens with anaphora — the hammering repetition of 'gone' and then 'fears' — to dramatize her shock and grief. The device mimics a mind that cannot move forward, circling the same unbearable fact. The four 'born to fears' lines (901-904) are a separate anaphoric list built on social and physical reasons for female vulnerability.
TLN 911archaic vocab
“lamentable rheum, Like a proud river peering o'er his bounds”
'Rheum' means watering of the eyes, tears. Constance asks Salisbury why his eye holds 'that lamentable rheum' — why it brims with tears he is holding back. She then compares it to a river about to overflow its banks, a simile for restrained weeping on the verge of flooding.
TLN 935archaic vocab
“crooked, swart, prodigious, Patch'd with foul moles”
'Swart' means dark-complexioned or swarthy. 'Prodigious' here means monstrous or like an evil omen — a birth-defect that signals divine disfavor, not simply 'very large' as the word means today. Constance is listing all the physical blemishes that would make Arthur unworthy of love and of a crown, in order to argue that his being none of these things is exactly why she loves him so much.
TLN 941rhetorical device
“nature and fortune join'd to make thee great”
Constance personifies Fortune as an unfaithful woman who has 'adulterates hourly with thine uncle John' — that is, commits adultery with John, betraying Arthur. She then calls France 'a bawd to Fortune and King John': a bawd is a procurer, someone who manages prostitutes. The extended metaphor casts the whole political deal as sexual treachery against Arthur.
classical Fortune and her wheel
TLN 943archaic vocab
“with the half-blown rose”
'Half-blown' means half-opened, half in bloom — a flower not yet fully opened. The image fixes Arthur at adolescence: a boy in the first flowering of beauty and promise, whose gifts are still unfolding. It reinforces Constance's argument that his natural endowments made Fortune's betrayal the more outrageous.
TLN 958rhetorical device
“I will instruct my sorrows to be proud”
Constance refuses to go before the kings as a suppliant; instead she seats herself on the ground and declares that her grief is so vast it needs the whole earth to support it, and that kings should come bow to her sorrow rather than she to them. This is deliberate, theatrical inversion of royal ceremony: the ground becomes her throne.
TLN 975cultural context
“in golden letters should be set Among the high tides in the calendar”
'High tides' are major holy days (high feasts) in the church calendar — Christmas, Easter, and the like. These were often printed in red or gold in almanacs and prayer books, while ordinary days appeared in black. Philip had proposed to make the day a permanent French holiday; Constance asks bitterly whether it really belongs among the great feasts.
TLN 979cultural context
“wives with child Pray that their burdens may not fall this day, Lest that their hopes prodigiously be cross'd”
Constance calls the wedding day so cursed that a child born on it would be 'prodigiously cross'd' — that is, blighted by an evil omen at birth. In Elizabethan belief a 'prodigy' (an unnatural birth, a monstrous child) was a sign of divine wrath and predicted disaster. She is constructing a liturgy of bad luck for the day.
TLN 989cultural context
“beguil'd me with a counterfeit Resembling majesty; which, being touch'd and tried, Proves valueless”
Constance uses the language of coin-testing: 'touch'd and tried' refers to testing metal by rubbing it on a touchstone and then with acid. A counterfeit gold coin looks genuine but fails the test. Philip's pledge of 'majesty' — his royal word — has been tested and proved worthless, like base metal disguised as gold.
TLN 1005historical topical
“O Lymoges! O Austria! thou dost shame That bloody spoil”
Constance addresses Austria as 'Lymoges' — the Viscount of Limoges — and 'that bloody spoil' is the lion-skin Austria wears. The play combines two historical figures into one: Leopold of Austria, who took Richard I prisoner on his return from crusade, and the Viscount of Limoges, at whose castle Richard took a fatal crossbow bolt in 1199. Austria wears the lion-skin as a war-trophy of Richard's defeat.
historical Richard the Lionheart (Coeur-de-lion)historical The Troublesome Raigne of King John
TLN 1009rhetorical device
“Fortune's champion that dost never fight But when her humorous ladyship is by”
Constance calls Austria 'Fortune's champion' sarcastically: he only fights when Fortune — the fickle goddess — is on his side. 'Humorous ladyship' means Fortune in one of her capricious moods ('humor' = whim or temper). The insult is that Austria is not brave but merely lucky — a coward who picks winning sides.
classical Fortune and her wheel
TLN 1019historical topical
“Thou wear a lion's hide! doff it for shame, And hang a calf's-skin on those recreant limbs”
Austria wears a lion-skin, the trophy of the man who killed or captured Richard Coeur-de-lion (Lionheart). Constance demands he take it off: a coward ('recreant' = one who has surrendered his faith or courage) has no right to wear the lion. She offers a calf-skin instead — the skin of the most timid and passive animal she can name.
historical Richard the Lionheart (Coeur-de-lion)classical The Nemean lion (Hercules' first labour)
TLN 1020rhetorical device
“And hang a calf's-skin on those recreant limbs”
The Bastard, Philip Faulconbridge, picks up Constance's taunt word for word and repeats it twice — once after Austria objects (TLN 1022), once after Austria threatens to kill him (TLN 1024). The exact repetition is deliberate mockery: Austria's threats slide off the insult as if he never spoke. The Bastard is already the most dangerous man on stage, and he knows it.
TLN 1027historical topical
“Hail, you anointed deputies of heaven!”
Pandulph opens by calling the kings 'anointed deputies of heaven' — acknowledging that they hold their thrones by divine appointment (kings were literally anointed with holy oil at their coronations). But the greeting is double-edged: it immediately positions the Pope's legate as a superior authority, since deputies answer to their principal. Pandulph is about to tell John that this divine appointment still answers to Rome.
historical The divine right of kings
TLN 1029historical topical
“I Pandulph, of fair Milan cardinal, And from Pope Innocent the legate here”
Pandulph identifies himself as a cardinal and papal legate — the Pope's official representative with full authority to act in his name. The historical Pandulph was an Italian clergyman who delivered Pope Innocent III's ultimatum to John in France in 1211-12, excommunicated him, and later accepted John's submission in 1213. His mission here: demand John explain his refusal to accept Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury.
historical King John, the Pope, and the Interdict
TLN 1034historical topical
“Keep Stephen Langton, chosen Archbishop Of Canterbury, from that holy see”
Stephen Langton was the scholar and theologian Pope Innocent III appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 1207, over King John's objection. The see of Canterbury was England's highest churchman; John refused to let Langton enter the country, claiming the right to appoint English bishops himself. This standoff triggered the Interdict and John's excommunication. Langton later helped draft Magna Carta (1215) — though the play omits that entirely.
historical King John, the Pope, and the Interdict
TLN 1038historical topical
“What earthly name to interrogatories Can task the free breath of a sacred king”
John argues that no earthly authority — not even the Pope's — can compel a king to answer like a suspect. 'Interrogatories' are formal legal questions put to a witness or defendant; John objects that the Pope has no jurisdiction over him. He then denies that any 'Italian priest' can collect tithes (church taxes) in England or exercise authority there.
historical King John, the Pope, and the Interdicthistorical The divine right of kings
TLN 1044historical topical
“no Italian priest Shall tithe or toll in our dominions”
John refuses to allow the Pope to levy tithes (a tenth of income or produce paid to the church) or any other financial exactions ('toll') in England. He claims to be 'supreme head' of the church in his own realm 'under' God alone — precisely the title Henry VIII assumed during the Reformation. For Shakespeare's Protestant audience, this declaration would sound strikingly contemporary.
historical King John, the Pope, and the Interdict
TLN 1055historical topical
“Dreading the curse that money may buy out; And by the merit of vile gold, dross, dust, Purchase corrupted pardon of a man”
John accuses the Pope and those who obey Rome of trafficking in paid absolutions — paying money to escape ecclesiastical censure. 'Corrupted pardon' attacks the sale of indulgences, by which the Pope sold remission of sin for cash. This was the precise target of Martin Luther's attack on the papacy in 1517; a Protestant audience would cheer the line.
TLN 1064historical topical
“thou shalt stand curs'd and excommunicate”
Pandulph pronounces excommunication — formal expulsion from the Catholic Church. An excommunicated person was cut off from all sacraments, could not be buried in consecrated ground, and — crucially for a king — was released from the loyalty of all his subjects. Any Catholic who killed him was doing a meritorious act: 'blessed shall he be that doth revolt / From his allegiance to an heretic, / And meritorious shall that hand be call'd... that takes away by any secret course / Thy hateful life.' Pandulph is licensing John's assassination.
historical King John, the Pope, and the Interdict
TLN 1071wordplay
“lawful let it be That I have room with Rome to curse awhile”
Constance puns on 'room' and 'Rome' — which were pronounced the same in Elizabethan English ('Rome' rhymed with 'room'). She is saying she wants space (room) to join Rome in cursing John, but the near-homophone makes her allied with Rome itself: 'let it be lawful that I have room — and Rome — to curse.' The pun is sly but pointed given the play's anti-papal politics.
TLN 1077rhetorical device
“when law can do no right, Let it be lawful that law bar no wrong”
Constance argues that if the law cannot deliver justice for Arthur (because John both holds the crown and controls the law), then there is no legitimate reason for law to restrain her curses either. The argument is built on antithesis and paradox: law that fails to do right loses the authority to forbid wrong. It is the logic of the powerless: when institutional channels fail, why obey institutional rules?
historical The Angevin succession and Arthur's claim
TLN 1087stage direction note
“Look'st thou pale, France; do not let go thy hand”
The two queens' lines play out as a tug-of-war over King Philip's hand, which he holds joined with John's as a symbol of their treaty. Elinor urges him to hold it; Constance tells him to drop it ('Look to that, devil; lest that France repent / And, by disjoining hands, hell lose a soul'). 'Devil' is Constance's name for Elinor — John's mother, who backs the very deal that has destroyed Arthur's cause.
TLN 1092wordplay
“ruffian, I must pocket up these wrongs, Because— Your breeches best may carry them”
Austria tries to claim dignity by saying he will 'pocket up' the insults (suppress them, put them away) — a common idiom for swallowing an affront. The Bastard cuts him off and finishes the line mockingly: if Austria must pocket his injuries, his breeches (trousers) are the best pocket for them — an insult aimed at his backside. It is the play's bluntest piece of comic relief amid the crisis.
TLN 1097historical topical
“the difference Is, purchase of a heavy curse from Rome, Or the light loss of England for a friend”
Lewis the Dauphin frames Philip's choice in mercantile terms: the 'price' of keeping the Anglo-French peace is a papal curse; the 'price' of breaking it is merely losing England as an ally, which the Dauphin calls a 'light' (trivial) loss. His logic is that a papal curse is far more costly than a political friendship, so France should break with John. The word 'purchase' ('acquisition') reveals the Dauphin thinking entirely in terms of gain and loss.
historical King John, the Pope, and the Interdict
TLN 1121rhetorical device
“This royal hand and mine are newly knit, And the conjunction of our inward souls Married in league, coupled and link'd together”
Philip heaps up synonyms for the alliance — 'knit,' 'conjunction,' 'married,' 'coupled,' 'link'd' — to argue that breaking it would be as monstrous as sundering a marriage. The accumulation (a device called 'synonymia' or commoratio) is meant to show how total and binding the peace is. He even extends the metaphor to the literal blood on the hands ('besmear'd and overstain'd / with slaughter's pencil') that has just been washed away.
TLN 1137cultural context
“Play fast and loose with faith? so jest with heaven”
'Fast and loose' was a cheating carnival game in which a belt or cord was folded and the player bet whether it was 'fast' (fixed) or 'loose' (free). The cheat could make it appear either way. Philip uses it to accuse Pandulph of demanding that he cheat on his sworn word — to make his faith appear binding when convenient and loose when Rome commands. The phrase survives in modern English as 'playing fast and loose.'
TLN 1148historical topical
“All form is formless, order orderless, Save what is opposite to England's love”
Pandulph delivers one of the play's most notorious speeches: a casuistic argument that Philip is not breaking faith by abandoning John, because a vow made against a prior and higher religious obligation is void. In brief: Philip had already sworn to be the Church's champion against John; his new vow of peace with John contradicts the earlier oath; the later vow is therefore sinful and must be broken. Breaking it is the holier act. This kind of hair-splitting ethical reasoning was called 'casuistry.'
historical King John, the Pope, and the Interdict
TLN 1153rhetorical device
“thou mayst hold a serpent by the tongue, A chafed lion by the mortal paw, A fasting tiger safer by the tooth, Than keep in peace that hand which thou dost hold”
Pandulph uses a triple comparison (a rhetorical figure called 'congeries' or 'amplification by example') to argue that keeping the peace with John is more dangerous than any of three impossibly risky acts. 'Chafed' means enraged; a lion's paw could be 'mortal' (deadly). The trio escalates from serpent (venom in the tongue) to lion (deadly paw) to tiger (deadly tooth) — each beast more dangerous than the last — to prove that John's alliance is the most dangerous thing of all.
TLN 1199rhetorical device
“What, shall our feast be kept with slaughter'd men? Shall braying trumpets and loud churlish drums,— Clamours of hell,—be measures to our pomp”
Blanch's question is built on a bitter oxymoron: a wedding feast accompanies itself with music, but here the 'music' would be the 'braying trumpets' and 'drums' of war — which she calls 'clamours of hell.' 'Measures' normally means dance-tunes or rhythmic music at a celebration; Blanch asks whether warfare's noise is to 'measure' (accompany in rhythm) the wedding pomp. The rhetorical question makes the obscenity of the situation viscerally clear.
TLN 1222cultural context
“Old Time the clock-setter, that bald sexton Time”
The Bastard personifies Time as a bald old sexton (a church-warden who digs graves and maintains church buildings). Time is 'bald' because the classical personification of Occasio (Opportunity) was bald at the back — you could seize her by the forelock as she approached but not once she had passed. A 'sexton' keeps the clock and the churchyard — he marks time and death together. The Bastard is saying, grimly: Time will show whether France regrets this.
TLN 1224rhetorical device
“The sun's o'ercast with blood: fair day, adieu! Which is the side that I must go withal? I am with both: each army hath a hand; And in their rage, I having hold of both, They whirl asunder and dismember me”
Blanch's speech is the scene's most purely lyrical. A 'sun o'ercast with blood' was an Elizabethan omen of war and disaster; she then images herself as literally dismembered by the two armies pulling in opposite directions — France (her husband's side) and England (her uncle's). 'Whirl asunder and dismember me' is hyperbole, but it captures the reality: whoever wins, Blanch is on the losing side.
TLN 1235wordplay
“Lady, with me: with me thy fortune lies. There where my fortune lives, there my life dies”
The exchange turns on a grim double meaning of 'fortune.' Lewis tells Blanch her fortune (luck, future prosperity) is with him; Blanch answers that wherever her 'fortune' (husband and his cause) lives, her own life 'dies.' She has already said she will lose on either side; here 'life dies' is both literal (the war will kill people she loves) and figurative (whichever army wins, her happiness is over).