KING JOHN

Speak on with favour; we are bent to hear.

⌈CITIZEN⌉

That daughter there of Spain, the Lady Blanche,

Is niece to England. Look upon the years 425

Of Louis the Dauphin and that lovely maid.

If lusty love should go in quest of beauty,

Where should he find it fairer than in Blanche?

If zealous love should go in search of virtue,

Where should he find it purer than in Blanche? 430

If love ambitious sought a match of birth,

Whose veins bound richer blood than Lady Blanche?

Such as she is in beauty, virtue, birth,

Is the young Dauphin every way complete;

If not complete, O, say he is not she; 435

And she again wants nothing—to name want—

If want it be not that she is not he.

He is the half part of a blessed man,

Left to be finished by such as she;

And she a fair divided excellence, 440

Whose fullness of perfection lies in him.

O, two such silver currents when they join

Do glorify the banks that bound them in,

And two such shores to two such streams made one,

Two such controlling bounds, shall you be, Kings, 445

To these two princes if you marry them.

This union shall do more than battery can

To our fast-closed gates, for at this match,

With swifter spleen than powder can enforce,

The mouth of passage shall we fling wide ope, 450

And give you entrance. But without this match

The sea enraged is not half so deaf,

Lions more confident, mountains and rocks

More free from motion, no, not Death himself

In mortal fury half so peremptory, 455

As we to keep this city.

BASTARD ⌈aside⌉ Here’s a stay

That shakes the rotten carcass of old Death

Out of his rags. Here’s a large mouth, indeed,

That spits forth Death and mountains, rocks and seas,

Talks as familiarly of roaring lions 460

As maids of thirteen do of puppy-dogs.

What cannoneer begot this lusty blood?

He speaks plain cannon: fire, and smoke, and bounce;

He gives the bastinado with his tongue;

Our ears are cudgelled; not a word of his 465

But buffets better than a fist of France.

Zounds! I was never so bethumped with words

Since I first called my brother’s father Dad.

QUEEN ELEANOR (aside to King John)

Son, list to this conjunction, make this match,

Give with our niece a dowry large enough; 470

For, by this knot, thou shalt so surely tie

Thy now unsured assurance to the crown

That yon green boy shall have no sun to ripe

The bloom that promiseth a mighty fruit.

I see a yielding in the looks of France; 475

Mark how they whisper. Urge them while their souls

Are capable of this ambition,

Lest zeal, now melted by the windy breath

Of soft petitions, pity, and remorse,

Cool and congeal again to what it was.

⌈CITIZEN⌉

Why answer not the double majesties

This friendly treaty of our threatened town?

KING PHILIP

Speak England first, that hath been forward first

To speak unto this city: what say you?

KING JOHN

If that the Dauphin there, thy princely son, 485

Can in this book of beauty read ‘I love’,

Her dowry shall weigh equal with a queen;

For Anjou and fair Touraine, Maine, Poitou,

And all that we upon this side the sea—

Except this city now by us besieged—490

Find liable to our crown and dignity,

Shall gild her bridal bed, and make her rich

In titles, honours, and promotions,

As she in beauty, education, blood,

Holds hand with any princess of the world. 495

KING PHILIP

What sayst thou, boy? Look in the lady’s face.

LOUIS THE DAUPHIN

I do, my lord, and in her eye I find

A wonder, or a wondrous miracle,

The shadow of myself formed in her eye;

Which, being but the shadow of your son, 500

Becomes a sun and makes your son a shadow.

I do protest I never loved myself

Till now enfixèd I beheld myself

Drawn in the flattering table of her eye.

He whispers with Blanche

BASTARD (aside)

Drawn in the flattering table of her eye, 505

Hanged in the frowning wrinkle of her brow,

And quartered in her heart: he doth espy

Himself love’s traitor. This is pity now,

That hanged and drawn and quartered there should be

In such a love so vile a lout as he. 510

BLANCHE (to Louis the Dauphin)

My uncle’s will in this respect is mine.

If he see aught in you that makes him like,

That anything he sees which moves his liking

I can with ease translate it to my will;

Or if you will, to speak more properly,

I will enforce it easily to my love.

Further I will not flatter you, my lord,

That all I see in you is worthy love,

Than this: that nothing do I see in you,