Anonymous : The troublesome raigne of King Iohn(1591)


compiled by
D H Craig


Version 1


[The] troublesome raigne of Iohn King of England
with the discouerie of King Richard Cordelions base sonne (vulgarly named, the bastard Fawconbridge):
also the death of King Iohn at Swinstead Abbey.
As it was (sundry times) publikely acted by the Queenes Maiesties Players, in the honourable citie of London. ,
Imprinted at London : For Sampson Clarke, and are to be solde at his shop, on the backe-side of the Royal Exchange, 1591.

1591
D. H. Craig, Newcastle


STC 14644

The characters are identified by IDREF pointing to
information in the following declarations.
King John
Queen Elinor, his mother
Chattilion
Earl of Salisbury
Shrieve
Earl of Essex
Philip, the Bastard
Robert
Cardinal Pandulph
Mother
Constance
Arthur
Lewes/Dolphin
Lymoges
King Philip of France
Blanch
Hubert
Abbot
Monk
Pembroke
Heralds
Henry (later King)
multiple voice
Beauchamp
Percy
Citizen
1 Friar
2 Friar
Nunne
Peter
Boy
Attendants
Meloun
Messenger
French Lord
French Herald
English Herald




The languages (other than English) which occur in
the text are identified by IDREF which point to the
following.
Latin
French









Main text
Enter K. Iohn Queene Elinor his mother, William Marshal Earle of Pembrooke the Earles of Essex and of Salisbury
Queen Elianor.
Barons of England and my noble Lords:
Though God and Fortune have bereft from us
Victorious Richard scourge of Infidels,
And clad this Land in stole of dismal hue:
Yet give me leave to joy, and joy you all,
That from this womb hath sprung a second hope,
A King that may in rule and virtue both
Succeed his brother in his Empery.
K. Iohn
My gracious mother Queen, and Barons all;
Though far unworthy of so high a place,
As is the Throne of mighty Englands King:
Yet Iohn your Lord, contented uncontent,
Will as he may) sustain the heavy yoke
Of pressing cares, that hang upon a Crown.
My Lord of Pembrooke and Lord Salsbury
Admit the Lord Shattilion to our presence;
That we may know what Philip King of Fraunce
by his Ambassadors) requires of us.

Q. Elinor
Dare lay my hand that Elinor can guess
Whereto this weighty Ambassade doth tend:
If of my Nephew Arthur and his claim,
Then say my son I have not missed my aim.

Enter Chattilion and the two Earls.
Iohn
My Lord Chattilion welcome into England
How fares our Brother Philip King of Fraunce

Chatt.
His Highness at my coming was in health,
And willed me to salute your Majesty,
And say the message he hath given in charge.

Iohn
And spare not man, we are prepared to hear.

Chattilion
Philip by the grace of God most Christian King of France
having taken into his guardian and protection Arthur Duke of Britain
son and heir to Ieffrey thine elder brother, requireth in the
behalf of the said Arthur the Kingdom of England with the Lordship of Ireland, Poiters, Aniow
Torain, Main and I attend thine answer.

Iohn
A small request: belike he makes account
That England, Ireland, Poiters, Aniow, Torain, Main
Are nothing for a King to give at once:
I wonder what he means to leave for me.
Tell Philip he may keep his Lords at home,
With greater honour than to send them thus
On Ambassades that not concern himself,
Or if they did, would yield but small return.

Chatilion
Is this thine answer?

Iohn
It is, and too good an answer for so proud a message.

Chattilion
Then King of England in my Masters name,
And in Prince Arthur Duke of Britains name,
I do defy thee as an Enemy,
And wish thee to prepare for bloody wars.

Q. Elinor
My Lord that stands upon defiance thus)
Commend me to my Nephew, tell the boy,
That I Queen Elianor his Grandmother)
Upon my blessing charge him leave his Arms,
Whereto his headstrong Mother pricks him so:
her pride we know, and know her for a Dame
that will not stick to bring him to his end,
so she may bring herself to rule a Realm.
Next wish him to forsake the King of Fraunce
And come to me and to his Uncle here,
And he shall want for nothing at our hands.

Chattilion.
This shall I do, and thus I take my leave.

Iohn
Pembrooke convey him safely to the sea,
But not in haste: for as we are advised,
we mean to be in Fraunce as soon as he,
to fortify such towns as we possess
in Aniou, Torain and in Normandy
Exit Chatt.
Enter the Shrive, & whispers the Earl of Sals in the ear
Salisbury.
Please it your Majesty, here is the Shrive of Northhamptonshire with
certain persons that of late committed a riot, and have appealed to your
Majesty beseeching your Highness for special cause to hear them.

Iohn
will them come near, and while we hear the cause,
go Salsbury and make provision,
we mean with speed to pass the sea to Fraunce
Say Shrieve, what are these men, what have they done?
Or whereto tends the course of this appeal?

Shrieue
Please it your Majesty these two brethren unnaturally falling at odds about
their Fathers living have
broken your Highness peace, in seeking to right their own wrongs without
cause of Law, or order of Justice, and unlawfully assembled themselves in
mutinous manner, having committed a riot, appealing from trial in
their Country to your Highness: and here I Thomas
Nidigate Shrieve of Northhamptonshire do deliver them over
to their trial.

Iohn
My Lord of Essex will the offenders to stand forth,
and tell the cause of their quarrel.

Essex
Gentlemen, it is the Kings pleasure that you discover your griefs,
and doubt not but you shall have justice.

Philip
Please it your Majesty, the wrong is mine; yet will
I abide all wrongs, before I once open my mouth to unrip the shameful slander of my parents,
the dishonour of myself, and the wicked dealing of my brother in this princely assembly.

Robert
Then by my Prince his leave shall Robert speak,
And tell your Majesty what right I have
To offer wrong, as he accounteth wrong.
My Father not unknown unto your Grace)
Received his spurs of Knighthood in the Field,
At Kingly Richards hands in Palestine
When as the walls of Acon gave him way:
His name Sir Robert Fauconbridge of Mountbery
What by succession from his Ancestors,
And warlike service under Englands Arms,
His living did amount to at his death
Two thousand Marks revenue every year:
And this my Lord) I challenge for my right,
As lawful heir to Robert Fauconbridge

Philip
If first borne son be heir indubitate
By certain right of Englands ancient Law,
How should myself make any other doubt,
But I am heir to Robert Fauconbridge

Iohn
Fond Youth, to trouble these our Princely ears
Or make a question in so plain a case:
speak, is this man thine elder Brother borne?

Robert
Please it your Grace with patience for to hear;
I not deny but he mine Elder is,
Mine elder Brother too: yet in such sort,
As he can make no title to the Land.

Iohn
A doubtful tale as ever I did hear,
Thy Brother and thine elder, and no heir:
Explain this dark Enigma

Robert
I grant my Lord) he is my mothers son,
Base borne, and base begot, no Fauconbridge
indeed the world reputes him lawful heir,
My Father in his life did count him so,
And here my Mother stands to prove him so:
But I my Lord) can prove, and do aver
Both to my Mothers shame and his reproach,
He is no heir, nor yet legitimate.
Then gracious Lord) let Fauconbridge enjoy
The living that belongs to Fauconbridge
And let not him possess another's right.

Iohn
Prove this, the land is thine by Englands law.

Q. Elianor
Ungracious youth, to rip thy mothers shame,
The womb from whence thou didst thy being take,
All honest ears abhor thy wickedness,
But gold I see doth beat down natures law.

Mother.
My gracious Lord, and you thrice reverend Dame,
that see the tears distilling from mine eyes,
And scalding sighs blown from a rented heart:
for honour and regard of womanhood,
Let me entreat to be commanded hence.
Let not these ears receive the hissing sound
Of such a viper, who with poisoned words
Doth macerate the bowels of my soul.

Iohn
Lady, stand up, be patient for a while:
And fellow, say, whose bastard is thy brother.

Philip
Not for myself, nor for my mother now:
But for the honour of so brave a Man,
Whom he accuseth with adultery:
Here I beseech your Grace upon my knees,
to count him mad, and so dismiss us hence.

Robert
Nor mad, nor mazed, but well advised, I
Charge thee before this royal presence here
to be a Bastard to King Richards self,
son to your Grace, and Brother to your Majesty.
Thus bluntly, and

Elianor
Young man thou needst not be ashamed of thy kin,
Nor of thy Sire. But forward with thy proof.

Robert
The proof so plain, the argument so strong,
As that your Highness and these noble Lords,
And all save those that have no eyes to see)
Shall swear him to be Bastard to the King.
First when my Father was Ambassador
in Germanie unto the Emperor,
The King lay often at my Fathers house;
And all the Realm suspected what befell:
And at my Fathers back return again
My Mother was delivered as it is said,
Six weeks before the account my Father made.
But more than this: look but on Philips face,
His features, actions, and his lineaments,
And all this Princely presence shall confess,
He is no other but King Richards son.
then gracious Lord, rest he King Richards son,
And let me rest safe in my Fathers right,
that am his rightful son and only heir.

Iohn
Is this thy proof, and all thou hast to say?

Robert
I have no more, nor need I greater proof.

Iohn
First, where thou saidst in absence of thy Sire
My Brother often lodged in his house:
And what of that? base groom to slander him,
that honoured his Ambassador so much,
in absence of the man to cheer the wife?
This will not hold, proceed unto the next.

Q Elinor
Thou sayst she teemed six weeks before her time.
Why good Sir Squire are you so cunning grown
to make account of women's reckonings:
Spit in your hand and to your other proofs:
Many mischances hap in such affairs
to make a woman come before her time.

Iohn
And where thou sayst he looketh like the King
in action, feature and proportion:
Therein I hold with thee, for in my life
I never saw so lively counterfeit
Of Richard Cordelion as in him.

Robert
Then good my Lord, be you indifferent Judge,
And let me have my living and my right.

Q. Elinor
Nay hear you Sir, you run away too fast:
Know you not, Omne simile non est idem
Or have read in. Hark ye good sir,
it was thus I warrant, and no otherwise,
She lay with Sir Robert your Father, and thought upon
King Richard my son, and so your Brother was formed in this fashion.

Robert
Madam, you wrong me thus to jest it out,
I crave my right: King Iohn as thou art King,
so be thou just, and let me have my right.

Iohn
Why foolish boy) thy proofs are frivolous,
Nor canst thou challenge anything thereby.
But thou shalt see how I will help thy claim,
This is my doom, and this my doom shall stand
Irrevocable, as I am King of England
for thou knowest not, we will ask of them that know,
His mother and himself shall end this strife:
And as they say, so shall thy living pass.

Robert
My Lord, herein I challenge you of wrong,
to give away my right, and put the doom
Unto themselves. Can there be likelihood
that she will loose?
Or he will give the living from himself?
It may not be my Lord. Why should it be?

Iohn
Lords keep him back, and let him hear the doom.
Essex first ask the Mother thrice who was his Sire?

Essex
Lady Margaret Widow of Fauconbridge
who was Father to thy son Philip

Mother
Please it your Majesty, Sir Robert Fauconbridge

Robert
This is right, ask my fellow there if I be a thief.

Iohn
ask Philip is son he is.

Essex
Philip who was thy Father?

Philip
Master my Lord, and that is a question: if
you had not taken some pains with her before, I should have desired you
to ask my Mother.

Iohn
Say who was thy Father?

Philip
Faith my Lord) to answer you sure he is my father that was nearest my mother
when I was gotten, and him I think to be Sir Robert Fauconbridge

Iohn
Essex for fashions sake demand again,
And so an end to this contention.

Robert
Was ever man thus wronged as Robert is?

Essex
Philip speak I say, who was thy Father?

Iohn
Young man how now, what art thou in a trance?

Elianor
Philip awake, the man is in a dream.

Philip
Philippus at auis aedite Regibus.
What sayst thou Philip sprung of ancient Kings?
Quo me rapit tempestas?
What wind of honour blows this fury forth?
Or whence proceed these fumes of Majesty?
methinks I hear a hollow Echo sound,
That Philip is the son unto a King:
The whistling leaves upon the trembling trees,
Whistle in consort I am Richards son:
The bubbling murmur of the waters fall,
Records Philippus Regius filius
Birds in their flight make music with their wings,
Filling the air with glory of my birth:
Birds, bubbles, leaves, and mountains, Echo, all
Ring in mine ears, that I am Richards son.
Fond man, ah whither art thou carried?
How are thy thoughts ywrapped in Honours heaven?
Forgetful what thou art, and whence thou camest.
Thy Fathers land cannot maintain these thoughts,
These thoughts are far unfitting Fauconbridge
And well they may; for why this mounting mind
Doth soar too high to stoop to Fauconbridge
Why how now? knowest thou where thou art?
And knowest thou who expects thine answer here?
Wilt thou upon a frantic madding vain
go loose thy land, and say thyself base borne?
no, keep thy land, though Richard were thy Sire,
Whatever thou thinkst, say thou art Fauconbridge

Iohn
speak man, be sudden, who thy Father was.

Philip
Please it your Majesty, Sir Robert
Philip that Fauconbridge cleaves to thy jaws:
It will not out, I cannot for my life
Say I am son unto a Fauconbridge
Let land and living go, it is honours fire
that makes me swear King Richard was my Sire.
Base to a King adds title of more State,
Than Knights begotten, though legitimate.
Please it your Grace, I am King Richards son.

Robert
Robert revive thy heart, let sorrow die,
His faltering tongue not suffers him to lie.

Mother
What head strong fury doth enchant my son?

Philip
Philip cannot repent, for he hath done.

Iohn
then Philip blame not me, thyself hast lost
by wilfulness, thy living and thy land.
Robert thou art the heir of Fauconbridge
God give thee joy, greater than thy desert.

Q Elianor
Why how now Philip give away thine own?

Philip
Madam, I am bold to make myself your nephew,
The poorest kinsman that your Highness hath:
And with this Proverb gin the world anew,
Help hands, I have no lands, honour is my desire;
Let Philip live to show himself worthy so great a Sire.

Elinor
Philip I think thou knewest thy Grandams mind:
But cheer thee boy, I will not see thee want
As long as Elinor hath foot of land;
Henceforth thou shalt be taken for my son,
And wait on me and on thine Uncle here,
who shall give honour to thy noble mind.

Iohn
Philip kneel down, that thou mayst thoroughly know
How much thy resolution pleaseth us,
Rise up Sir Richard Plantaginet King Richards son.

Phil.
Grant heavens that Philip once may show himself
Worthy the honour of Plantaginet
Or basest glory of a Bastards name.

Iohn
Now Gentlemen, we will away to France
to check the pride of Arthur and his mates:
Essex thou shalt be Ruler of my Realm,
And toward the maine charges of my wars,
I will seize the lazy Abbey lubbers lands
Into my hands to pay my men of war.
The Pope and Popelings shall not grease themselves
With gold and groats, that are the soldiers due.
Thus forward Lords, let our command be done,
And march we forward mightily to Fraunce
Exeunt.
Manet Philip and his Mother.
Philip
Madam I beseech you deign me so much leisure as
the hearing of a matter that I long to impart to you.

Mother
what is the matter Philip I think your suit in
secret, tends to some money matter, which you
suppose burns in the bottom of my chest.

Phil.
no Madam, it is no such suit as to beg or borrow,
But such a suit, as might some other grant,
I would not now have troubled you withal.

Mother
In Gods name let us hear it.

Philip
then Madam thus, your Ladyship sees well,
How that my scandal grows by means of you,
in that report hath rumoured up and down,
I am a bastard, and no Fauconbridge
This gross attaint so tilteth in my thoughts,
Maintaining combat to abridge my ease,
that field and town, and company alone,
What so I do, or wheresoever I am,
I cannot chase the slander from thy thoughts.
If it be true, resolve me of my Sire,
for pardon Madam, if I think amiss.
Be Philip Philip and no Fauconbridge
His Father doubtless was as brave a man.
to you on knees as sometime Phaeton
Mistrusting silly Merop for his Sire,
Straining a little bashful modesty,
I beg some instance whence I am extraught.

Mother
Yet more ado to haste me to my grave,
And wilt thou too become a Mothers cross?
Must I accuse myself to close with you?
Slander myself to quiet your affects:
Thou movest me Philip with this idle talk,
which I remit, in hope this mood will die.

Philip
Nay Lady mother, hear me further yet,
for strong conceit drives duty hence awhile:
Your husband Fauconbridge was Father to that son,
that carries marks of Nature like the Sire,
The son that blotteth you with wedlocks breach,
And holds my right, as lineal in descent
From him whose form was figured in his face.
Can Nature so dissemble in her frame,
to make the one so like as like may be,
And in the other print no character
to challenge any mark of true descent?
My brothers mind is base, and too too dull,
to mount where Philip lodgeth his affects,
And his external graces that you view
Though I report it) counterpoise not mine:
His constitution plain debility,
Requires the chair, and mine the seat of steel.
Nay, what is he, or what am I to him?
When any one that knoweth how to carp,
will scarcely judge us both one Country borne.
This Madam, this, hath drove me from myself:
And here by heavens eternal lamps I swear,
As cursed Nero with his mother did,
so I with you, if you resolve me not.

Mother
Let mothers tears quench out thy angers fire,
And urge no further what thou dost require.

Philip
Let sons entreaty sway the mother now,
Or else she dies: I will not infringe my vow.

Mother
Unhappy task: must I recount my shame,
Blab my misdeeds, or by concealing die?
Some power strike me speechless for a time,
Or take from him awhile his hearings use.
Why wish I so, unhappy as I am?
The fault is mine, and he the faulty fruit,
I blush, I faint, o would I might be mute.

Philip
Mother be brief, I long to know my name.

Mother
And longing die to shroud thy Mothers shame.

Philip
Come Madam come, you need not be so loath,
The shame is shared equal twixt us both.
is it not a slackness in me worthy blame,
to be so old, and cannot write my name.
Good Mother resolve me.

Mother
then Philip hear thy fortune and my grief,
My honours loss by purchase of thyself,
My shame, thy name, and husbands secret wrong,
All mained and stained by youths unruly sway.
And when thou knowest from whence thou art extraught,
Or if thou knewest what suits, what threats, what fears,
to move by love, or massacre by death.
to yield with love, or end by loves contempt.
The mightiness of him that courted me,
who tempered terror with his wanton talk,
that something may extenuate the guilt.
But let it not advantage me so much:
Upbraid me rather with the Roman Dame
that shed her blood to wash away her shame.
Why stand I to expostulate the crime
With pro et contra now the deed is done,
When to conclude two words may tell the tale,
that Philips Father was a Princes Son,
Rich Englands rule, worlds only terror he,
for honours loss left me with child of thee:
whose son thou art, then pardon me the rather,
for fair King Richard was thy noble Father.

Philip
then Robin Fauconbridge I wish thee joy,
My Sire a King, and I a landless Boy.
Gods Lady Mother, the world is in my debt,
there is something owing to Plantaginet
Aye marry Sir, let me alone for game,
I will act some wonders now I know my name.
by blessed Marie I will not sell that pride
for Englands wealth, and all the world beside.
Sit fast the proudest of my Fathers foes,
Away good Mother, there the comfort goes.
Exeunt.
Enter Philip the French King, and Lewes, Limoges, Constance and her son Arthur
King
Now gin we broach the title of thy claim
Young Arthur in the Albion Territories,
Scaring proud Angiers with a puissant siege:
Brave Austria cause of Cordelions death,
Is also come to aide thee in thy wars;
And all our Forces join for Arthurs right.
And, but for causes of great consequence,
Pleading delay till news from England come,
Twice should not Titan hide him in the West,
to cool the fetlocks of his weary team,
Till I had with an unresisted shock
Controlled the manage of proud Angiers walls,
Or made a forfeit of my fame to Chance.

Constance
May be that Iohn in conscience or in fear
to offer wrong where you impugn the ill,
will send such calm conditions back to Fraunce
As shall rebate the edge of fearful wars:
If so, forbearance is a deed well done.

Arthur
Ah Mother, possession of a Crown is much,
And Iohn as I have heard reported of,
for present vantage would adventure far.
The world can witness in his Brothers time,
He took upon him rule and almost reign:
then must it follow as a doubtful point,
that he will resign the rule unto his Nephew.
I rather think the menace of the world
Sounds in his ears as threats of no esteem,
And sooner would he scorn Europaes power,
Than loose the smallest title he enjoys;
for questionless he is an Englishman.

Lewes
Why are the English peerless in compare?
Brave Cavaliers as ever that Island bred,
have lived and died, and dared and done enough,
Yet never graced their Country for the cause:
England is England yielding good and bad,
And Iohn of England is as other Iohns
Trust me young Arthur if thou like my reed,
Praise thou the French that help thee in this need.

Lymoges
The Englishman hath little cause I trow,
to spend good speeches on so proud a foe.
Why Arthur here is his spoil that now is gone,
who when he lived out-rode his Brother Iohn
But hasty curs that lie so long to catch,
Come halting home, and meet their overmatch.
But news comes now, here is the Ambassador.
Enter Chattilion

K Philip
And in good time, welcome my Lord Chattilion
What news? will Iohn accord to our command.

Chattilion
Be I not brief to tell your Highness all,
He will approach to interrupt my tale:
for one self bottom brought us both to Fraunce
He on his part will try the chance of war,
And if his words infer assured truth,
will loose himself and all his followers,
Ere yield unto the least of your demands.
The Mother Queen she taketh on amain
against Lady Constance counting her the cause
that doth effect this claim to Albion
Conjuring Arthur with a Grandams care,
to leave his Mother; willing him submit
His state to Iohn and her protection,
who as she saith) are studious for his good:
More circumstance the season intercepts:
This is the sum, which briefly I have shown.

K. Phil.
This bitter wind must nip somebody's spring,
Sudden and brief, why so, it is harvest weather.
But say Chattilion what persons of accompt are with him?

Chattilion
Of England Earl Pembrooke and Salsbury
The only noted men of any name.
Next them a Bastard of the Kings deceased,
A hardy wild head, tough and venturous,
With many other men of high resolve.
then is there with them Elinor Mother Queen,
And Blanch her Niece daughter to the King of Spaine
These are the prime Birds of this hot adventure.

Enter Iohn and his followers, Queen, Bastard, Earls, &c.
K. Philip
Me seemeth Iohn an over daring spirit
Effects some frenzy in thy rash approach,
Treading my Confines with thy armed Troupes.
I rather looked for some submiss reply
Touching the claim thy Nephew Arthur makes
to that which thou unjustly dost usurp.

K Iohn
for that Chattilion can discharge you all,
I list not plead my Title with my tongue.
Nor came I hither with intent of wrong
to Fraunce or thee, or any right of thine;
But in defence and purchase of my right,
The Town of Angiers which thou dost begirt
in the behalf of Lady Constance son,
Whereto nor he nor she can lay just claim.

Constance
Yes false intruder) if that just be just,
And headstrong usurpation put apart,
Arthur my son, heir to thy elder Brother,
Without ambiguous shadow of descent,
Is Sovereign to the substance thou withholdest.

Q. Elinor
Misgoverned Gossip, stain to this resort,
Occasion of these undecided jars,
I say that know) to check thy vain suppose,
Thy son hath nought to do with that he claims.
for proof whereof, I can infer a will,
that bars the way he urgeth by descent.

Constance
A will indeed, a crabbed Woman's will,
Wherein the Devil is an overseer,
And proud dame Elnor sole Executrix:
More wills than so, on peril of my soul,
Were never made to hinder Arthurs right.

Arthur
But say there was, as sure there can be none,
The law intends such testaments as void,
Where right descent can no way be impeached.

Q Elinor
Peace Arthur peace, thy mother makes thee wings
to soar with peril after Icarus
And trust me youngling for the Fathers sake,
I pity much the hazard of thy youth.

Constance
Beshrew you else how pitiful you are,
Ready to weep to hear him ask his own;
Sorrow betide such Grandams and such grief,
that minister a poison for pure love.
But who so blind, as cannot see this beam,
that you forsooth would keep your cousin down,
for fear his Mother should be used too well?
Aye there is the grief, confusion catch the brain,
that hammers shifts to stop a Princes reign.

Q. Elianor
Impatient, frantic, common slanderer,
Immodest Dame, unnurtured quarreller,
I tell thee I, not envy to thy Son,
But justice makes me speak as I have done.

K. Philip
But here is no proof that shows your son a King.

K. Iohn.
What wants, my sword shall more at large set down.

Lewes
But that may break before the truth be known.

Bastard
then this may hold till all his right be shown.

Lymoges
Good words sir sauce, your betters are in place.

Bastard
Not you sir doughty with your Lions case.

Blanch
Ah joy betide his soul, to whom that spoil belonged
Ah Richard how thy glory here is wronged.

Lymoges
Methinks that Richards pride, and Richards fall,
Should be a president to affright you all.

Bastard
What words are these? how do my sinews shake?
My Fathers foe clad in my Fathers spoil,
A thousand furies kindle with revenge,
This heart that choler keeps a consistory,
Searing my inwards with a brand of hate:
How doth Alecto whisper in mine ears?
Delay not Philip kill the villain straight,
Disrobe him of the matchless monument
Thy Fathers triumph over the Savages,
Base heardgroome, coward, peasant, worse than a threshing slave,
What makest thou with the Trophy of a King?
Shamest thou not coistrel, loathsome dunghill swad,
to grace thy carcass with an ornament
too precious for a Monarchs coverture?
Scarce can I temper due obedience
Unto the presence of my Sovereign,
From acting outrage on this trunk of hate:
But arm thee traitor, wronger of renown,
for by his soul I swear, my Fathers soul,
Twice will I not review the Mornings rise,
Till I have torn that Trophy from thy back,
And split thy heart, for wearing it so long.
Philip hath sworn, and if it be not done,
Let not the world repute me Richards son.

Lymoges
Nay soft sir Bastard, hearts are not split so soon,
Let them rejoice that at the end do win:
And take this lesson at thy foeman's hand,
Pawn not thy life, to get thy Fathers skin.

Blanch
Well may the world speak of his knightly valour,
that wins this hide to were a Ladies favour.

Bastard
Ill may I thrive, and nothing brooke with me,
If shortly I present it not to thee.

K. Philip
Lordings forbear, for time is coming fast,
that deeds may try what words cannot determine,
And to the purpose for the cause you come.
Me seems you set right in chance of war,
Yielding no other reasons for your claim,
But so and so, because it shall be so.
so wrong shall be suborned by trust of strength:
A Tyrants practise to invest himself,
Where weak resistance giveth wrong the way.
to check the which, in holy lawful Arms,
I in the right of Arthur Geffreys son,
Am come before this City of Angiers
to bar all other false supposed claim,
From whence or howsoever the error springs.
And in his quarrel on my Princely word,
I will fight it out unto the latest man.

Iohn
Know King of Fraunce I will not be commanded
by any power or Prince in Christendom,
to yield an instance how I hold mine own,
More than to answer, that mine own is mine.
But wilt thou see me parley with the Town,
And hear them offer me allegiance,
Fealty and homage, as true liege men ought.

K. Philip
Summon them, I will not believe it till I see it, and when I see it
I will soon change it.

They summon the Town, the Citizens appear upon the walls.
K. Iohn
You men of Angiers and as I take it my loyal Subjects,
I have summoned you to the walls: to dispute on my right,
were to think you doubtful therein, which I am persuaded
you are not. in few words, our Brothers son,
backed with the King of Fraunce have beleaguered your Town
upon a false pretended title to the same: in defence
whereof I your liege Lord have brought our power to fence
you from the Usurper, to free your intended servitude, and
utterly to supplant the foemen, to my right and
your rest. Say then, who who keep you the Town for?

Citizen
for our lawful King.

Iohn
I was no less persuaded: then in Gods name open your
gates, and let me enter.

Citizen
If it please your Highness we control not your title,
neither will we rashly admit your entrance: if you be
lawful King, with all obedience we keep it to your use,
if not King, our rashness to be impeached for yielding, without
more considerate trial: we answer not as men lawless,
but to the behoof of him that proves lawful.

Iohn
I shall not come in then?

Citizen
no my Lord, till we know more.

K. Philip
then hear me speak in the behalf of Arthur son of
Geffrey elder Brother to Iohn his title manifest without
contradiction to the Crown and Kingdom of England
with Angiers and divers Towns on this side the sea: will
you acknowledge him your liege Lord, who speaketh in my
word to entertain you with all favours as beseemeth a
King to his subjects, or a friend to his well-willers:
or stand to the peril of your contempt, when his
title is proved by the sword.

Citizen
we answer as before till you have proved one right,
we acknowledge none right, he that tries himself our
Sovereign, to him will we remain firm subjects, and
for him, and in his right we hold our Town as
desirous to know the truth as loath to subscribe before
we know? More than this we cannot say, and more than
this we dare not do.

K. Philip
then Iohn I defy thee in the name and behalf of Arthur
Plantaginet thy King and cousin, whose right and patrimony thou detainest, as I doubt not ere the day
end in a set battle make thee confess; whereunto with
a zeal to right I challenge thee.

K. Iohn
I accept the challenge, and turn the defiance to thy throat.

Excursions. The Bastard chaseth Lymoges the Austrich
Duke, and maketh him leave the Lions skin.
Bastard
And art thou gone, misfortune haunt thy steps,
And chill cold fear assail thy times of rest.
Morpheus leave here thy silent Eban cave,
Besiege his thoughts with dismal fantasies,
And ghastly objects of pale threatening Mors
Affright him every minute with stern looks,
Let shadow temper terror in his thoughts,
And let the terror make the coward mad,
And in his madness let him fear pursuit,
And so in frenzy let the peasant die.
here is the ransom that allays his rage,
The first freehold that Richard left his son:
With which I shall surprise his living foes,
As Hectors statue did the fainting Greeks
Exit.
Enter the Kings Herolds with Trumpets to the walls of Angiers they summon the Town.
Eng. Herold
Iohn by the grace of God King of England Lord of
Ireland, Aniou, Toraine, &c. demandeth once again
of you his subjects of Angiers if you will quietly
surrender up the Town into his hands?

Fr. Herold
Philip by the grace of God King of Fraunce demandeth
in the behalf of Arthur Duke of Britain if you
will surrender up the Town into his hands, to the use
of the said Arthur

Citizens
Herrolds go tell the two victorious Princes,
That we the poor Inhabitants of Angiers,
Require a parley of their Majesties.

Herolds
we go.

Enter the Kings, Queen Elianor, Blaunch, Bastard,
Lymoges, Lewes, Castilean, Pembrooke, Salisbury,
Constance and Arthur Duke of Britain
Iohn
Herold, what answer do the Townsmen send?

Philip
will Angiers yield to Philip King of Fraunce

En. Her.
The Townsmen on the walls accept your Grace.

Fr. Her.
And crave a parley of your Majesty.

Iohn
You Citizens of Angiers have your eyes
Beheld the slaughter that our English bows
have made upon the coward fraudful French?
And have you wisely pondered therewithal
Your gain in yielding to the English King?

Philip
their loss in yielding to the English King.
But Iohn they saw from out their highest Towers
The Cheualiers of Fraunce and crossbow shot
Make lanes of slaughtered bodies through thine host,
And are resolved to yield to Arthurs right.

Iohn
Why Philip though thou bravest it fore the walls,
Thy conscience knows that Iohn hath won the field.

Philip
Whatever my conscience knows, thy Army feels
that Philip had the better of the day.

Bastard
Philip indeed hath got the Lions case,
which here he holds to Lymoges disgrace.
Base Duke to fly and leave such spoils behind:
But this thou knewest of force to make me stay.
It fared with thee as with the mariner,
Spying the huge Whale, whose monstrous bulk
Doth bear the waves like mountains fore the wind,
that throws out empty vessels, so to stay
His fury, while the ship doth sail away.
Philip it is thine: and fore this Princely presence,
Madam I humbly lay it at your feet,
Being the first adventure I achieved,
And first exploit your Grace did enjoin:
Yet many more I long to be enjoined.

Blaunch
Philip I take it, and I thee command
to were the same as erst thy Father did:
Therewith receive this favour at my hands,
To encourage thee to follow Richards fame.

Arthur
Ye Citizens of Angiers are ye mute?
Arthur or Iohn say which shall be your King?

Citizen
we care not which, if once we knew the right,
But till we know we will not yield our right.

Bastard
Might Philip counsel two so mighty Kings,
As are the Kings of England and of Fraunce
He would advise your Graces to unite
And knit your forces against these Citizens,
Pulling their battered walls about their ears.
The Town once won then strive about the claim,
for they are minded to delude you both.

Citizen
Kings, Princes, Lords and Knights assembled here,
The Citizens of Angiers all by me
Entreat your Majesty to hear them speak:
And as you like the motion they shall make,
so to account and follow their advice.

Iohn. Philip
speak on, we give thee leave.

Citizen
then thus: whereas that young and lusty knight
Incites you on to knit your kingly strengths:
The motion cannot choose but please the good,
And such as love the quiet of the State.
But how my Lords, how should your strengths be knit?
Not to oppress your subjects and your friends,
And fill the world with brawls and mutinies:
But unto peace your forces should be knit
to live in Princely league and amity:
do this, the gates of Angiers shall give way
And stand wide open to your hearts content.
to make this peace a lasting bond of love,
Remains one only honourable means,
which by your pardon I shall here display.
Lewes the Dolphin and the heir of Fraunce
A man of noted valour through the world,
Is yet unmarried: let him take to wife
The beauteous daughter of the King of Spaine
Niece to King Iohn the lovely Lady Blanche
Begotten on his Sister Elianor
With her in marriage will her uncle give
Castles and Towers as fitteth such a match.
The Kings thus joined in league of perfect love,
They may so deal with Arthur Duke of Britain
who is but young, and yet unmeet to reign,
As he shall stand contented every way.
Thus have I boldly for the common good)
Delivered what the City gave in charge.
And as upon conditions you agree,
so shall we stand content to yield the Town.

Arthur
A proper peace, if such a motion hold;
These Kings bear arms for me, and for my right,
And they shall share my lands to make them friends.

Q. Elianor
son Iohn follow this motion, as thou lovest thy mother,
Make league with Philip yield to anything:
Lewes shall have my Niece, and then be sure
Arthur shall have small succour out of Fraunce

Iohn
Brother of Fraunce you hear the Citizens:
then tell me, how you mean to deal herein.

Constance
Why Iohn what canst thou give unto thy Niece,
that hast no foot of land, but Arthurs right?

Lewes
by Our Lady Citizens, I like your choice,
A lovely Damsel is the Lady Blanche
Worthy the heir of Europe for her peer.

Constance
What Kings, why stand you gazing in a trance?
Why how now Lords? accursed Citizens
to fill and tickle their ambitious ears,
With hope of gain, that springs from Arthurs loss.
Some dismal Planet at thy birthday reigned,
for now I see the fall of all thy hopes.

K. Philip
Lady, and Duke of Britain know you both,
The King of Fraunce respects his honour more,
Than to betray his friends and favourers.
Princess of Spaine could you affect my son,
If we upon conditions could agree?

Bastard
'Swounds Madam, take an English Gentleman:
Slave as I was, I thought to have moved the match.
Grandam you made me half a promise once,
that Lady Blanch should bring me wealth enough,
And make me heir of store of English land.

Q. Elianor
Peace Philip I will look thee out a wife,
we must with policy compound this strife.

Bastard
If Lewes get her, well, I say no more:
But let the frolic Frenchman take no scorn,
If Philip front him with an English horn.

Iohn
Lady, what answer make you to the King of France
Can you affect the Dolphin for your Lord?

Blanch
I thank the King that likes of me so well,
to make me Bride unto so great a Prince:
But give me leave my Lord to pause on this,
lest being too too forward in the cause,
It may be blemish to my modesty.

Q Elinor
son Iohn and worthy Philip King of Fraunce
do you confer a while about the Dower,
And I will school my modest Niece so well,
that she shall yield as soon as you have done.

Constance
Aye, there is the wretch that broacheth all this ill,
Why fly I not upon the Beldams face,
And with my nails pull forth her hateful eyes.

Arthur
Sweet Mother cease these hasty madding fits:
for my sake, let my Grandam have her will.
O would she with her hands pull forth my heart,
I could afford it to appease these broils.
But mother let us wisely wink at all:
lest farther harms ensue our hasty speech.

Philip
Brother of England what dowry wilt thou give
Unto my son in marriage with thy Niece?

Iohn
First Philip knows her dowry out of Spaine
to be so great as may content a King:
But more to mend and amplify the same,
I give in money thirty thousand marks.
for land I leave it to thine own demand.

Philip
then I demand Volquesson, Torain, Main
Poiters and Aniou these five Provinces,
which thou as King of England holdest in Fraunce
then shall our peace be soon concluded on.

Bastard
no less than five such Provinces at once?

Iohn
Mother what shall I do? my brother got these lands
With much effusion of our English blood:
And shall I give it all away at once?

Q. Elinor
Iohn give it him, so shalt thou live in peace,
And keep the residue sans jeopardy.

Ion
Philip bring forth thy son, here is my Niece,
And here in marriage I do give with her
From me and my Successors English Kings,
Volquesson, Poiters, Aniou, Torain, Maine,
And thirty thousand marks of stipend coin.
Now Citizens, how like you of this match?

Citizen
we joy to see so sweet a peace begun.

Lewes
Lewes with Blanch shall ever live content.
But now King Iohn what say you to the Duke?
Father, speak as you may in his behalf.

Philip
King Iohn be good unto thy Nephew here,
And give him somewhat that shall please thee best.

Iohn
Arthur although thou troublest Englands peace:
Yet here I give thee Britain for thine own,
Together with the Earldom of Richmont
And this rich City of Angiers withal.

Q. Elianor
And if thou seek to please thine Uncle Iohn
Shalt see my son how I will make of thee.

Iohn
Now everything is sorted to this end,
let us in and there prepare the marriage rites,
which in Saint. Marries Chapel presently
shall be performed ere this Presence part.
Exeunt.
Manent Constance and Arthur
Arthur
Madam good cheer, these drooping languishments
Add no redress to salve our awkward haps.
If heavens have concluded these events,
to small avail is bitter pensiveness:
Seasons will change, and so our present grief
May change with them, and all to our relief.

Constance
Ah boy, thy years I see are far too green
to look into the bottom of these cares.
But I, who see the poise that weigheth down
Thy weal, my wish, and all the willing means
Wherewith thy fortune and thy fame should mount.
What joy, what ease, what rest can lodge in me,
With whom all hope and hap doth disagree?

Arthur
Yet Ladies tears, and cares, and solemn shows,
Rather than helps, heap up more work for woes.

Constance
If any Power will hear a widows plaint,
that from a wounded soul implores revenge;
Send fell contagion to infect this Clime,
This cursed Country, where the traitors breath,
Whose perjury as proud Briareus
Beleaguers all the Sky with misbelief.
He promised Arthur and he swear it too,
to fence thy right, and check thy foeman's pride:
But now black spotted Perjury as he is,
He takes a truce with Elnors damned brat,
And marries Lewes to her lovely Niece,
Sharing thy fortune, and thy birth days gift
between these lovers: ill betide the match.
And as they shoulder thee from out thy own,
And triumph in a widows tearfully cares:
so heavens cross them with a thriftless course.
Is all the blood yspilt on either part,
Closing the cranies of the thirsty earth,
Grown to a love-game and a Bridal feast?
And must thy birthright bid the wedding banes?
Poor helpless boy, hopeless and helpless too,
to whom misfortune seems no yoke at all.
Thy stay, thy state, thy imminent mishaps
Woundeth thy mothers thoughts with feeling care,
Why lookest thou pale? the colour flies thy face,
I trouble now the fountain of thy youth,
And make it moody with my doles discourse,
go in with me, reply not lovely boy,
we must obscure this moan with melody,
lest worser wrack ensue our malcontent.
Exeunt.

Enter the King of England the King of Fraunce, Arthur, Bastard, Lewes, Lymoges, Constance, Blanche, Chattilion, Pembrooke, Salisburie, and Elianor
Iohn
This is the day, the long desired day,
Wherein the Realms of England and of Fraunce
Stand highly blessed in a lasting peace.
Thrice happy is the Bridegroom and the Bride,
From whose sweet Bridal such a concord springs,
to make of mortal foes immortal friends.

Constance
Ungodly peace made by another's war.

Philip
Unhappy peace, that ties thee from revenge.
Rouse thee Plantaginet live not to see
The butcher of the great Plantiginet
Kings, Princes, and ye Peers of either Realms,
Pardon my rashness, and forgive the zeal
That carries me in fury to a deed
Of high desert, of honour, and of arms.
A boon O Kings, a boon doth Philip beg
Prostrate upon his knee: which knee shall cleave
Unto the superficies of the earth,
Till Fraunce and England grant this glorious boon.

Iohn
speak Philip, England grants thee thy request.

Philip
And Fraunce confirms whatever is in his power.

Bastard
Then Duke sit fast, I level at thy head,
Too base a ransom for my fathers life.
Princes, I crave the Combat with the Duke
That braves it in dishonour of my Sire.
Your words are past nor can you now reverse
The Princely promise that revives my soul,
Whereat methinks I see his sinews shake:
This is the boon dread Lords) which granted once
Or life or death are pleasant to my soul;
Since I shall live and die in Richards right.

Lymoges
Base Bastard, misbegotten of a King.
to interrupt these holy nuptial rites
With brawls and tumults to a Dukes disgrace:
Let it suffice, I scorn to join in fight,
With one so far unequal to myself.

Bastard
A fine excuse, Kings if you will be Kings,
then keep your words, and let us combat it.

Iohn
Philip we cannot force the Duke to fight,
Being a subject unto neither Realm:
But tell me Austria if an English Duke
Should dare thee thus, wouldst thou accept the challenge?

Lymoges
else let the world account the Austrich Duke
The greatest coward living on the Earth.

Iohn
then cheer thee Philip, Iohn will keep his word,
Kneel down, in sight of Philip King of Fraunce
And all these Princely Lords assembled here,
I gird thee with the sword of Normandie
And of that land I do invest thee Duke:
So shalt thou be in living and in land
Nothing inferior unto Austria

Lymoges
King Iohn I tell thee flatly to thy face
Thou wrongest mine honour: and that thou mayst see
How much I scorn thy new made Duke and thee,
I flatly say, I will not be compelled:
And so farewell Sir Duke of low degree,
I will find a time to match you for this gear.

Exit.
Iohn
Stay Philip let him go the honour is thine.

Bastard
I cannot live unless his life be mine.

Q. Elianor
Thy forwardness this day hath joyed my soul.
And made me think my Richard lives in thee.

K. Philip
Lordings let us in, and spend the wedding day
in masks and triumphs, letting quarrels cease.
Enter a Cardinal from Rome
Card.
Stay King of France I charge thee join not hands
With him that stands accursed of God and men.
Know Iohn that I Pandulph Cardinal of Millaine and
Legate from the Sea of Rome demand of thee in the name
of our holy Father the Pope Innocent why thou dost contrary
to the laws of our holy mother the Church, and our
holy father the Pope) disturb the quiet of the Church,
and disannul the election of Stephen Langhton whom
his Holiness hath elected Archbishop of Canterburie this
in his Holiness name I demand of thee?

Iohn
And what hast thou or the Pope thy master to do to
demand of me, how I employ mine own? Know sir Priest as
I honour the Church and holy church-men, so I scorn to
be subject to the greatest Prelate in the world. Tell thy
Master so from me, and say, Iohn of England said it, that
never an Italian Priest of them all, shall either have
tithe, toll, or poling penny out of England but as I am King,
so will I reign next under God, supreme head
both over spiritual and temporal: and he that contradicts
me in this, I will make him hop headless.

K. Philip
What King Iohn know you what you say, thus to blaspheme
against our holy father the Pope.

Iohn
Philip though thou and all the Princes of Christendom
suffer themselves to be abused by a Prelates slavery, my
mind is not of such base temper. If the Pope will be
King in England let him win it with the sword, I know
no other title he can allege to mine inheritance.

Card.
Iohn this is thine answer?

Iohn
What then?

Card.
then I Pandulph of Padoa Legate from the Apostolic
Sea, do in the name of Saint. Peter and his
successor our holy Father Pope Innocent pronounce thee
accursed discharging every of thy subjects of all
duty and fealty that they do owe to thee, and pardon
and forgiveness of sin to those or them whatsoever, which
shall carry arms against thee, or murder thee: this I
pronounce, and charge all good men to abhor thee as an excommunicate person.

Iohn
so sir, the more the Fox is cursed the better he fares: if
God bless me and my Land, let the Pope and his shavelings
curse and spare not.

Card.
Furthermore I charge thee Philip King of France and all
the Kings and Princes of Christendom, to make war
upon this miscreant: and whereas thou hast made a league
with him, and confirmed it by oath, I do in the name of
our foresaid father the Pope, acquit thee of that oath as
unlawful, being made with an heretic, how sayst thou
Philip dost thou obey?

Iohn
Brother of Fraunce what say you to the Cardinal?

Philip
I say, I am sorry for your Majesty, requesting you to
submit yourself to the Church of Rome

Iohn
And what say you to our league, if I do not submit?

Philip
What should I say? I must obey the Pope.

Iohn
Obey the Pope, and break your oath to God?

Philip
The Legate hath absolved me of mine oath:
Then yield to Rome or I defy thee here.

Iohn
Why Philip I defy the Pope and thee,
False as thou art, and perjured King of Fraunce
Unworthy man to be accompted King.
Givest thou thy sword into a Prelates hands?
Pandulph where I of Abbots, Monks and Friars
have taken somewhat to maintain my wars,
Now will I take no more but all they have.
I will rouse the lazy lubbers from their Cells,
And in despite I will send them to the Pope.
Mother, come you with me, and for the rest
that will not follow Iohn in this attempt,
Confusion light upon their damned souls.
Come Lords, fight for your King that fighteth for your good?

Philip
And are they gone? Pandulph thyself shalt see
How Fraunce will fight for Rome and Romish rites.
Nobles, to arms, let him not pass the seas,
let us take him captive, and in triumph lead
The King of England to the gates of Rome
Arthur bestir thee man, and thou shalt see
What Philip King of Fraunce will do for thee.

Blanche
And will your Grace upon your wedding day
Forsake your Bride and follow dreadful drums:
Nay, good my Lord, stay you at home with me.

Lewes
Sweet heart content thee, and we shall agree.

Philip
Follow me Lords, Lord Cardinal lead the way,
Drums shall be music to this wedding day.
Exeunt.
Excursions. The Bastard pursues Austria and kills him.
Bastard
Thus hath King Richards son performed his vows.
And offered Austrias blood for sacrifice
Unto his fathers ever-living soul.
Brave Cordelion now my heart doth say,
I have deserved, though not to be thy heir
Yet as I am, thy base begotten son,
A name as pleasing to thy Philips heart,
As to be called the Duke of Normandie
Lie there a pray to every ravening fowl:
And as my Father triumphed in thy spoils,
And trod thine Ensigns underneath his feet,
so do I tread upon thy cursed self,
And leave thy body to the fowls for food.
Exit.
Excursions. Arthur, Constance, Lewes having taken Q. Elianor prisoner.
Constance
Thus hath the God of Kings with conquering arm
Dispersed the foes to true succession.
Proud, and disturber of thy Countries peace,
Constance doth live to tame thine insolence,
And on thy head will now avenged be
for all the mischiefs hatched in thy brain.

Q Elinor
Contemptuous dame unreverent Duchess thou,
to brave so great a Queen as Elianor
Base scold hast thou forgot, that I was wife,
And mother to three mighty English Kings?
I charge thee then, and you forsooth sir Boy,
to set your Grandmother at liberty,
And yield to Iohn your Uncle and your King.

Constance
it is not thy words proud Queen shall carry it.

Elianor
Nor yet thy threats proud Dame shall daunt my mind.

Arthur
Sweet Grandam, and good Mother leave these brawls.

Elianor
I will find a time to triumph in thy fall.

Constance
My time is now to triumph in thy fall,
And thou shalt know that Constance will triumph.

Arthur
Good Mother weigh it is Queen Elianor
Though she be captive, use her like herself.
Sweet Grandam bear with what my Mother says,
Your Highness shall be used honourably.
Enter a Messenger.

Mess.
Lewes my Lord, Duke Arthur and the rest,
to arms in haste, King Iohn relies his men,
And gins the fight afresh: and swears withal
to lose his life, or set his Mother free.

Lewes
Arthur away, it is time to look about.

Elianor
Why how now dame, what is your courage cooled?

Constance
no Elianor my courage gathers strength,
And hopes to lead both Iohn and thee as slaves:
And in that hope, I hale thee to the field.
Exeunt.
Excursions. Elianor is rescued by Iohn and Arthur is taken prisoner. Exeunt Sound victory.
Enter Iohn, Elianor and Arthur Prisoner, Bastard, Pembrooke, Salisbury and Hubert de Burgh
Iohn
Thus right triumphs, and Iohn triumphs in right.
Arthur thou seest, Fraunce cannot bolster thee:
Thy Mothers pride hath brought thee to this fall.
But if at last, Nephew thou yield thyself
Into the guardance of thine Uncle Iohn
Thou shalt be used as becomes a Prince.

Arthur
Uncle, my Grandam taught her Nephew this,
to bear captivity with patience.
Might hath prevailed not right, for I am King
Of England though thou wear the Diadem.

Q. Elianor
son Iohn soon shall we teach him to forget
These proud presumptions, and to know himself.

Iohn
Mother, he never will forget his claim,
I would he lived not to remember it.
But leaving this, we will to England now,
And take some order with our Popelings there,
that swell with pride, and fat of lay men's lands.
Philip I make thee chief in this affair,
Ransack the Abbeys, Cloisters, Priories,
Convert their coin unto my soldiers use:
And whatsoever he be within my Land,
that goes to Rome for justice and for law,
While he may have his right within the Realm,
Let him be judged a traitor to the State,
And suffer as an enemy to England
Mother, we leave you here beyond the seas,
As Regent of our Provinces in Fraunce
While we to England take a speedy course,
And thank our God that gave us victory.
Hubert de Burgh take Arthur here to thee,
Be he thy prisoner: Hubert keep him safe,
for on his life doth hang thy Sovereigns crown,
But in his death consists thy Sovereigns bliss:
then Hubert as thou shortly hearst from me,
so use the prisoner I have given in charge.

Hubert
Frolic young Prince, though I your keeper be,
Yet shall your keeper live at your command.

Arthur
As please my God, so shall become of me.

Q. Elianor
My son to England I will see thee shipped,
And pray to God to send thee safe ashore.

Bastard
Now wars are done, I long to be at home
to dive into the Monks and Abbots bags,
to make some sport among the smooth skin Nuns,
And keep some revel with the fanzen Friars.

Iohn
to England Lords, each look unto your charge,
And arm yourselves against the Roman pride.
Exeunt.

Enter the K. of Fraunce, Lewes his son, Cardinal Pandolph Legate, and Constance
Philip
What every man attached with this mishap?
Why frown you so, why droop ye Lords of Fraunce
Methinks it differs from a warlike mind
to lower it for a check or two of chance.
Had Lymoges escaped the bastards spite,
A little sorrow might have served our loss.
Brave Austria heaven joys to have thee there.

Card.
His soul is safe and free from Purgatory,
our holy Father hath dispensed his sins,
The blessed Saints have heard our orisons,
And all are Mediators for his soul,
And in the right of these most holy wars,
His holiness free pardon doth pronounce
to all that follow you against English heretics,
who stand accursed in our mother Church.
Enter Constance alone.

Philip
to aggravate the measure of our grief,
All malcontent comes Constance for her son.
Be brief good Madam, for your face imports
A tragic tale behind that is yet untold.
her passions stop the organ of her voice,
Deep sorrow throbbeth misbefallen events,
Out with it Lady, that our Act may end
A full Catastrophe of sad laments.

Const.
My tongue is tuned to story forth mishap:
When did I breath to tell a pleasing tale?
Must Constance speak? let tears prevent her talk:
Must I discourse? let Dido sigh and say,
She weeps again to hear the wrack of Troy
Two words will serve, and then my tale is done:
Elnors proud brat hath robbed me of my son.

Lewes
have patience Madam, this is chance of war:
He may be ransomed, we revenge his wrong.

Constance
Be it never so soon, I shall not live so long.

Philip
Despair not yet, come Constance go with me,
These clouds will fleet, the day will clear again.
Exeunt.

Card.
Now Lewes thy fortune buds with happy spring,
our holy Fathers prayers effecteth this.
Arthur is safe, let Iohn alone with him,
Thy title next is fairest to Englands Crown:
Now stir thy Father to begin with Iohn
The Pope says aye, and so is Albion thine.

Lewes
Thanks my Lord Legate for your good conceit,
it is best we follow now the game is fair,
My Father wants to work him your good words.

Card.
A few will serve to forward him in this,
Those shall not want: but let us about it then.
Exeunt.

Enter Philip leading a Friar, charging him to show where the Abbots gold lay.
Philip
Come on you fat Franciscans, dally no longer, but show me where the Abbots treasure lies, or die.

Frier
Benedicamus Domini was ever such an injury.
Sweet Saint. Withhold of thy lenity, defend us from extremity,
And hear us for Saint. Charity, oppressed with austerity.
In nomini Domini make I my homily,
Gentle Gentility grieve not the Clergy.

Philip
Grey gowned good face, conjure ye,
never trust me for a groat,
If this waste girdle hang thee not
that girdeth in thy coat.
Now bald and barefoot Bungie birds
when up the gallows climbing,
Say Philip he had words enough
to put you down with riming.

Frier
A pardon, O parce Saint Fraunces for mercy,
Shall shield thee from night-spells and dreaming of devils,
If thou wilt forgive me, and never more grieve me,
With fasting and praying, and Hail Marie saying.
From black Purgatory a penance right sorry.
Friar Thomas will warm you,
It shall never harm you.

Philip
Come leave off your rabble,
Sirs hang up this losel.

2. Frier
for charity I beg his life,
Saint Frauncis chiefest Friar,
The best in all our Covent Sir,
to keep a Winters fire.
O strangle not the good old man,
my hostess oldest guest,
And I will bring you by and by
unto the Priors chest.

Philip
Aye, sayst thou so, and if thou wilt the friar is at liberty,
If not, as I am honest man, I will hang you both for company.

Frier
Come hither, this is the chest though simple to behold
that wanteth not a thousand pound in silver and in gold.
Myself will warrant full so much, I know the Abbots store,
I will pawn my life there is no less to have whatever is more.

Philip
I take thy word, the overplus unto thy share shall come,
But if there want of full so much, thy neck shall pay the sum.
Break up the Coffer, Friar.

Frier
o I am undone, fair Alice the Nun
Hath took up her rest in the Abbots chest,
Sancte benedicite pardon my simplicity.
Fie Alice confession will not salve this transgression.

Philip
What have we here, a holy Nun? so keep me God in health,
A smooth fact Nun for aught I know) is all the Abbots wealth.
Is this the Nunneries chastity? Beshrew me but I think
They go as oft to Venery, as niggards to their drink.
Why paltry Friar and Pander too, ye shameless shaven crown,
Is this the chest that held a hoard, at least a thousand pound?
And is the hoard a holy whore? well be the hangman nimble,
he will take the pain to pay you home, and teach you to dissemble.

Nunne
O spare the Friar Anthony a better never was
to sing a Dirge solemnly, or read a morning Mass.
If money be the means of this, I know an ancient Nun,
that hath a hoard this seven years, did never see the sun;
And that is yours, and what is ours, so favour now be shown,
You shall command as commonly, as if it were your own.

Frier
Your honour excepted.

Nunne
Aye Thomas I mean so.

Philip
From all save from Friars.

Nunne
Good Sir, do not think so?

Philip
I think and see so: why how camest thou here?

Frier
to hide her from lay men.

Nunne
it is true sir, for fear.

Philip
for fear of the laity: a pitiful dread
When a Nun flies for succour to a fat Friars bed.
But now for your ransom my Cloister bred Cony,
to the chest that you speak of where lies so much money.

Nunne
fair Sir, within this press, of plate and money is
The value of a thousand marks, and other thing by gis.
Let us alone, and take it all, it is yours Sir, now you know it.

Philip
Come on sir Friar, pick the lock, this gear doth cotton handsome,
that covetousness so cunningly must pay the lechers ransom.
What is in the hoard?

Frier
Friar Laurence my Lord, now holy water help us,
Some witch, or some devil is sent to delude us:
Haud credo Laurentius that thou shouldest be penned thus
in the press of a Nun we are all undone,
And brought to discredence if thou be Friar Laurence

Frier
Amor vincit omnia so Cato affirmeth,
And therefore a Friar whose fancy soon burneth:
Because he is mortal and made of mold,
He omits what he ought, and doth more than he should.

Philip
How goes this gear? the Friars chest filled with a fausen Nun,
The Nun again locks Friar up, to keep him from the Sun.
Belike the press is purgatory, or penance passing grievous:
The Friars chest a hell for Nuns. How do these dolts deceive us?
Is this the labour of their lives to feed and live at ease,
to revel so lasciviously as often as they please.
I will mend the fault or fault my aim, if I do miss amending,
it is better burn the cloisters down than leave them for offending.
But holy you, to you I speak, to you religious devil,
Is this the press that holds the sum to quite you for your evil.

Nunne
I cry Peccaui, parce me good Sir I was beguiled.

Frier
Absolve Sir for charity she would be reconciled.

Phi.
And so I shall, sirs bind them fast, this is their absolution,
Go hang them up for hurting them, haste them to execution.

Fr. Lawrence.
O tempus edax rerum,
Give children books they tear them.
O vanitas vanitatis in this waning aetatis
At threescore well near to go to this gear,
to my conscience a clog to die like a dog.
Exaudi me Domine, siuis me parce
Dabo pecuniam, si habeo veniam
to go and fetch it, I will dispatch it,
A hundred pound sterling for my lives sparing.
Enter Peter a Prophet, with people.

Peter
ho, who is here, Saint. Fraunces be your speed,
Come in my flock, and follow me, your fortunes I will reed
Come hither boy, go get thee home, and clime not overhigh:
for from aloft thy fortunes stands in hazard thou shalt die.

Boy
God be with you Peter I pray you come to our house on Sunday.

Peter
My boy show me thy hand, bless thee my boy,
for in thy palm I see a many troubles are ybent to dwell,
But thou shalt scape them all and do full well.

Boy
I thank you Peter there is a cheese for your labour:
my sister prays ye to come home, and tell her how many husbands
she shall have, and she will give you a rib of bacon.

Peter
My masters, stay at the towns end for me, I will come to you
all anon: I must dispatch some business with a Friar,
and then I will read your fortunes.

Philip
How now, a Prophet? Sir prophet whence are ye?

Peter
I am of the world and in the world, but live not as others
by the world: what I am I know, and what thou wilt
be I know. If thou knowest me now be answered: if not,
enquire no more what I am.

Phil.
Sir, I know you will be a dissembling knave, that deludes
the people with blind prophecies: you are him I look
for, you shall away with me: bring away all the rabble,
and you Friar Laurence remember your ransom
a hundred pound, and a pardon for yourself, and the
rest come on. Sir Prophet, you shall with me, to
receive a Prophets reward.
Exeunt.
Enter Hubert de Burgh with three men.

Hubert
My masters, I have showed you what warrant I have for this
attempt; I perceive by your heavy countenances, you had
rather be otherwise employed, and for my own part, I
would the King had made choice of some other executioner:
only this is my comfort, that a King commands, whose
precepts neglected or omitted, threateneth torture for the
default. Therefore in brief, leave me, and be ready to
attend the adventure: stay within that entry, and when you
hear me cry, God save the King issue suddenly forth,
lay hands on Arthur set him in this chair, wherein
once fast bound) leave him with me to finish the rest.

Attendants
we go, though loath.
Exeunt.

Hubert
My Lord, will it please your Honour to take the benefit
of the fair evening?
Enter Arthur to Hubert de Burgh

Arthur
Gramercy Hubert for thy care of me,
in or to whom restraint is newly known,
The joy of walking is small benefit,
Yet will I take thy offer with small thanks,
I would not loose the pleasure of the eye.
But tell me courteous keeper if you can,
How long the King will have me tarry here.

Hubert
I know not Prince, but as I guess not long.
God send you freedom, and God save the King

They issue forth.
Arthur
Why how now sirs, what may this outrage mean?
O help me Hubert gentle keeper help:
God send this sudden mutinous approach
Tend not to reave a wretched guiltless life.

Hubert
so sirs, depart, and leave the rest for me.

Arthur
then Arthur yield, death frowneth in thy face,
What meaneth this? Good Hubert plead the case.

Hubert
Patience young Lord, and listen words of woe,
Harmful and harsh, hells horror to be heard:
A dismal tale fit for a furies tongue.
I faint to tell, deep sorrow is the sound.

Arthur
What, must I die?

Hubert
no news of death, but tidings of more hate,
A wrathful doom, and most unlucky fate:
Deaths dish were dainty at so fell a feast,
Be deaf, hear not, it is hell to tell the rest.

Arthur
Alas thou wrongest my youth with words of fear,
it is hell, it is horror, not for one to hear:
What is it man if it must needs be done,
Act it, and end it, that the pain were gone.

Hubert
I will not chant such dolour with my tongue,
Yet must I act the outrage with my hand.
My heart my head, and all my powers beside,
to aide the office have at once denied.
Peruse this letter, lines of treble woe,
Read over my charge, and pardon when you know.

Arthur
Hubert these are to command thee, as thou tenderest
our quiet in mind and the estate of our person, that
presently upon the receipt of our command, thou put out
the eyes of Arthur Plantaginet

Ah monstrous damned man, his very breath infects the elements,
Contagious venom dwelleth in his heart,
Effecting means to poison all the world.
Unreverent may I be to blame the heavens
Of great injustice, that the miscreant
lives to oppress the innocents with wrong.
Ah Hubert makes he thee his instrument
to sound the tromp that causeth hell triumph?
Heaven weeps, the Saints do shed celestial tears,
They fear thy fall, and cite thee with remorse,
They knock thy conscience, moving pity there,
Willing to fence thee from the rage of hell:
Hell Hubert trust me all the plagues of hell
Hangs on performance of this damned deed.
This seal, the warrant of the bodies bliss,
Ensureth Satan chieftain of thy soul:
Subscribe not Hubert give not Gods part away.
I speak not only for eyes privilege,
The chief exterior that I would enjoy:
But for thy peril, far beyond my pain,
Thy sweet souls loss, more than my eyes vain lack;
A cause internal, and eternal too.
Advise thee Hubert for the case is hard,
to loose salvation for a Kings reward.

Hubert
My Lord, a subject dwelling in the land
Is tied to execute the Kings command.

Arthur.
Yet God commands, whose power reacheth further,
that no command should stand in force to murther.

Hubert
But that same Essence hath ordained a law,
A death for guilt, to keep the world in awe.

Arthur
I plead not guilty, treasonless and free.

Hubert
But that appeal my Lord concerns not me.

Arthur
Why, thou art he that mayst omit the peril.

Hubert
Aye, if my Sovereign would remit his quarrel.

Arthur
His quarrel is unhallowed false and wrong.

Hubert
then be the blame to whom it doth belong.

Arthur
Why that is to thee if thou as they proceed,
Conclude their judgment with so vile a deed.

Hubert
Why then no execution can be lawful,
If Judges dooms must be reputed doubtful.

Arthur
Yes where in form of Law in place and time,
The offender is convicted of the crime.

Hubert
My Lord, my Lord, this long expostulation,
Heaps up more grief, than promise of redress;
for this I know, and so resolved I end,
that subjects lives on Kings commands depend.
I must not reason why he is your foe,
But do his charge since he commands it so.

Arthur
then do thy charge, and charged be thy soul
With wrongful persecution done this day.
You rolling eyes, whose superficies yet
I do behold with eyes that Nature lent:
Send forth the terror of your Movers frown,
to wreak my wrong upon the murtherers
that rob me of your fair reflecting view:
Let hell to them as earth they wish to me)
Be dark and direful guerdon for their guilt,
And let the black tormentors of deep Tartary
Upbraid them with this damned enterprise,
Inflicting change of tortures on their souls.
Delay not Hubert my orisons are ended,
Begin I pray thee, reave me of my sight:
But to perform a tragedy indeed,
Conclude the period with a mortal stab.
Constance farewell, tormentor come away,
Make my dispatch the Tyrants feasting day.

Hubert
I faint, I fear, my conscience bids desist:
Faint did I say, fear was it that I named?
My King commands, that warrant sets me free:
But God forbids, and he commandeth Kings,
that great Commander counterchecks my charge,
He stays my hand, he maketh soft my heart,
go cursed tools, your office is exempt,
Cheer thee young Lord, thou shalt not loose an eye,
Though I should purchase it with loss of life.
I will to the King, and say his will is done,
And of the languor tell him thou art dead,
go in with me, for Hubert was not borne
to blind those lamps that Nature polished so,

Arthur
Hubert if ever Arthur be in state,
look for amends of this received gift
I took my eyesight by thy courtesy,
Thou lentest them me, I will not be ingrate.
But now procrastination may offend
The issue that thy kindness undertakes:
Depart we Hubert to prevent the worst.
Exeunt.
Enter King Iohn, Essex, Salisbury, Penbrooke.
Iohn
Now warlike followers resteth aught undone
that may impeach us of fond oversight?
The French have felt the temper of our swords,
Cold terror keeps possession in their souls,
Checking their overdaring arrogance
for buckling with so great an overmatch.
The Arch proud titled Priest of Italy
that calls himself grand Vicar under God
Is busied now with trentall obsequies,
Mass and months mind, dirge and I know not what
to ease their souls in painful purgatory,
that have miscarried in these bloody wars.
Heard you not Lords when first his holiness
Had tidings of our small account of him,
How with a taunt vaunting upon his toes
He urge a reason why the English Ass
Disdained the blessed ordinance of Rome
The title reverently might I infer)
Became the Kings that erst have borne the load,
The slavish weight of that controlling Priest:
who at his pleasure tempered them like wax
to carry arms on danger of his curse,
Banding their souls with warrants of his hand.
I grieve to think how Kings in ages past
Simply devoted to the Sea of Rome
have run into a thousand acts of shame.
But now for confirmation of our State,
Sith we have pruned the more than needful branch
that did oppress the true well-growing stock,
It resteth we throughout our Territories
Be reproclaimed and invested King.

Pembrook
My Liege, that were to busy men with doubts,
Once were you crowned, proclaimed, and with applause
Your City streets have echoed to the ear,
God save the King, God save our Sovereign Iohn
Pardon my fear, my censure doth infer
Your Highness not deposed from Regal State,
Would breed a mutiny in peoples minds,
What it should mean to have you crowned again.

Iohn
Pembrooke perform what I have bid thee do,
Thou knowest not what induceth me to this,
Essex go in, and Lordings all be gone
About this task, I will be crowned anon.
Enter the Bastard.
Philip, what news, how do the Abbots chests?
Are Friars fatter than the Nuns are fair?
What cheer with church-men, had they gold or no?
Tell me how hath thy office took effect?

Philip
My Lord, I have performed your Highness charge:
The ease-bred Abbots and the barefoot Friars,
The Monks the Priors and holy cloistered Nuns,
Are all in health, and were my Lord in wealth,
Till I had tithed and told their holy hoards.
I doubt not when your Highness sees my prize,
You may proportion all their former pride.

Iohn
Why so, now sorts it Philip as it should:
This small intrusion into Abbey trunks,
will make the Popelings excommunicate,
Curse, ban, and breath out damned orisons,
As thick as hailstones fore the springs approach:
But yet as harmless and without effect,
As is the echo of a Cannons crack
Discharged against the battlements of heaven.
But what news else befell there Philip

Bastard
Strange news my Lord: within your territories,
near Pomfret is a Prophet new sprung up,
whose divination volleys wonders forth;
to him the Commons throng with Country gifts,
He sets a date unto the Beldams death,
Prescribes how long the Virgins state shall last,
Distinguisheth the moving of the heavens,
gives limits unto holy nuptial rites,
Foretelleth famine, aboundeth plenty forth,
Of fate, of fortune, life and death he chats,
With such assurance, scruples put apart,
As if he knew the certain dooms of heaven,
Or kept a Register of all the Destinies.

Iohn
Thou tellest me marvels, would thou hadst brought the man,
we might have questioned him of things to come.

Bastard
My Lord, I took a care of had I wist,
And brought the Prophet with me to the Court,
He stays my Lord but at the Presence door:
Pleaseth your Highness, I will call him in.

Iohn
Nay stay awhile, we will have him here anon,
A thing of weight is first to be performed.

Enter the Nobles and crown King Iohn and then cry God save the King.
Iohn
Lordings and friends supporters of our state,
Admire not at this unaccustomed course,
Nor in your thoughts blame not this deed of yours.
Once ere this time was I invested King,
Your fealty sworn as Liegemen to our state:
Once since that time ambitious weeds have sprung
to stain the beauty of our garden plot:
But heavens in our conduct rooting thence
The false intruders, breakers of worlds peace,
have to our joy, made Sunshine chase the storm.
After the which, to try your constancy,
that now I see is worthy of your names,
we craved once more your helps for to invest us
Into the right that envy sought to wrack.
Once was I not deposed, your former choice;
Now twice been crowned and applauded King:
Your cheered action to install me so,
Infers assured witness of your loves,
And binds me over in a Kingly care
to render love with love, rewards of worth
to balance down requital to the full.
But thanks the while, thanks Lordings to you all:
ask me and use me, try me and find me yours.

Essex
A boon my Lord, at vantage of your words
we ask to guerdon all our loyalties.

Pembrooke
we take the time your Highness bids us ask:
Please it you grant, you make your promise good,
With lesser loss than one superfluous hair
that not remembered falleth from your head.

Iohn
My word is past, receive your boon my Lords.
What may it be? ask it, and it is yours.

Essex
we crave my Lord, to please the Commons with
The liberty of Lady Constance son:
whose durance darkeneth your Highness right,
As if you kept him prisoner, to the end
Yourself were doubtful of the thing you have.
Dismiss him thence, your Highness needs not fear,
Twice by consent you are proclaimed our King.

Pembrooke
This if you grant, were all unto your good:
for simple people muse you keep him close.

Iohn
Your words have searched the centre of my thoughts,
Confirming warrant of your loyalties,
Dismiss your counsel, sway my state,
Let Iohn do nothing but by your consents.
Why how now Philip what ecstasy is this?
Why casts thou up thy eyes to heaven so?

There the five Moons appear.
Bastard
See, see my Lord strange apparitions.
Glancing mine eye to see the Diadem
Placed by the Bishops on your Highness head,
From forth a gloomy cloud, which curtain-like
Displayed itself, I suddenly espied
Five Moons reflecting, as you see them now:
even in the moment that the Crown was placed
Gan they appear, holding the course you see.

Iohn
What might portend these apparitions,
Unusual signs, forerunners of event,
Presages of strange terror to the world:
Believe me Lords the object fears me much.
Philip thou toldest me of me of a Wizard late,
Fetch in the man to descant of this show.

Pembrooke
The heavens frown upon the sinful earth,
When with prodigious unaccustomed signs
They spot their superficies with such wonder.

Essex
Before the ruins of Jerusalem
Such Meteors were the Ensigns of his wrath
that hastened to destroy the faultful Town.

Enter the Bastard with the Prophet.
Iohn
Is this the man?

Bastard
It is my Lord.

Iohn
Prophet of Pomfret for so I hear thou art,
that calculatest of many things to come:
who by a power replete with heavenly gift
Canst blab the counsel of thy Makers will.
If fame be true, or truth be wronged by thee,
Decide in ciphering what these five Moons
Portend this Clime, if they presage at all.
Breath out thy gift, and if I live to see
Thy divination take a true effect,
I will honour thee above all earthly men.

Peter
The Sky wherein these Moons have residence,
Presenteth Rome the great Metropolis
Where sits the Pope in all his holy pomp.
Four of the Moons present four Provinces,
to wit, Spaine, Denmarke, Germanie and Fraunce
that bear the yoke of proud commanding Rome
And stand in fear to tempt the Prelates curse.
The smallest Moon that whirls about the rest,
Impatient of the place he holds with them,
Doth figure forth this Island Albion
who gins to scorn the Sea and State of Rome
And seeks to shun the Edicts of the Pope:
This shows the heaven, and this I do aver
Is figured in these apparitions.

Iohn
Why then it seems the heavens smile on us,
Giving applause for leaving of the Pope.
But for they chance in our Meridian,
do they effect no private growing ill
to be inflicted on us in this Clime?

Peter
The Moons effect no more than what I said:
But on some other knowledge that I have
by my prescience, ere Ascension day
have brought the Sun unto his usual height,
Of Crown, Estate, and Royal dignity,
Thou shalt be clean despoiled and dispossessed.

Iohn
False Dreamer, perish with thy witched news,
Villain thou woundest me with thy fallacies:
If it be true, die for thy tidings price;
If false, for fearing me with vain suppose:
Hence with the Witch, hells damned secretary.
Lock him up sure: for by my faith I swear,
True or not true, the Wizard shall not live.
Before Ascension day: who should be cause hereof?
Cut off the cause and then the effect will die.
Tut, tut, my mercy serves to maim myself,
The root doth live, from whence these thorns spring up,
I and my promise past for his delivery:
Frown friends, fail faith, the devil go withal,
The brat shall die, that terrifies me thus.
Pembrooke and Essex I recall my grant,
I will not buy your favours with my fear:
Nay murmur not, my will is law enough,
I love you well, but if I loved you better,
I would not buy it with my discontent.

Enter Hubert
Iohn
How now, what news with thee.

Hubert
According to your Highness strict command
Young Arthurs eyes are blinded and extinct.

Iohn
Why so, then he may feel the crown, but never see it.

Hubert
Nor see nor feel, for of the extreme pain,
Within one hour gave he up the Ghost.

Iohn
What is he dead?

Hubert
He is my Lord.

Iohn
then with him die my cares.

Essex
Now joy betide thy soul.

Pembrooke
And heavens revenge thy death.

Essex
What have you done my Lord? Was ever heard
A deed of more inhumane consequence?
Your foes will curse, your friends will cry revenge.
Unkindly rage more rough than Northern wind,
to chip the beauty of so sweet a flower.
What hope in us for mercy on a fault,
When kinsman dies without impeach of cause,
As you have done, so come to cheer you with,
The guilt shall never be cast me in my teeth.
Exeunt.
Iohn
And are you gone? The devil be your guide:
Proud Rebels as you are to brave me so:
Saucy, uncivil, checkers of my will.
Your tongues give edge unto the fatal knife:
that shall have passage through your traitorous throats.
But hushed, breath not buggeswords too soon abroad,
lest time prevent the issue of thy reach.
Arthur is dead, aye there the corzie grows:
But while he lived, the danger was the more;
His death hath freed me from a thousand fears,
But it hath purchased me ten times ten thousand foes.
Why all is one, such luck shall haunt his game,
to whom the devil owes an open shame:
His life a foe that leveled at my crown,
His death a frame to pull my building down.
My thoughts harped still on quiet by his end,
who living aimed shroudly at my room:
But to prevent that plea twice was I crowned,
Twice did my subjects swear me fealty,
And in my conscience loved me as their liege,
in whose defence they would have pawned their lives.
But now they shun me as a Serpents sting,
A tragic Tyrant stern and pitiless,
And not a title follows after Iohn
But Butcher, blood-sucker and murtherer,
What Planet governed my nativity,
to bode me sovereign types of high estate,
so interlaced with hellish discontent,
Wherein fell fury hath no interest.
Cursed be the Crown chief author of my care,
Nay cursed my will that made the Crown my care:
Cursed be my birthday, cursed ten times the womb
that yielded me alive into the world.
art thou there villain, Furies haunt thee still,
for killing him whom all the world laments.

Hubert
Why here is my Lord your Highness hand and seal,
Charging on lives regard to do the deed.

Iohn
Ah dull conceited peasant knowest thou not,
It was a damned execrable deed:
Showest me a seal? o villain, both our souls
have sold their freedom to the thrall of hell,
Under the warrant of that cursed seal.
Hence villain, hang thyself, and say in hell
that I am coming for a kingdom there.

Hubert
My Lord attend the happy tale I tell,
for heavens health send Satan packing hence
that instigates your Highness to despair.
If Arthurs death be dismal to be heard,
Bandy the news for rumours of untruth:
He lives my Lord, the sweetest youth alive,
in health, with eyesight, not a hair amiss.
This heart took vigour from this forward hand,
Making it weak to execute your charge.

Iohn
What lives he? then sweet hope come home again,
Chase hence despair, the purveyor for hell.
Hie Hubert tell these tidings to my Lords
that throb in passions for young Arthurs death:
Hence Hubert stay not till thou hast revealed
The wished news of Arthurs happy health.
I go myself, the joyfullest man alive
to story out this new supposed crime.

Main text
Enter young Arthur on the walls.
Now help good hap to further mine intent,
Cross not my youth with any more extremes:
I venture life to gain my liberty,
And if I die, worlds troubles have an end.
fear gins dissuade the strength of my resolve,
My hold will fail, and then alas I fall,
And if I fall, no question death is next:
Better desist, and live in prison still.
Prison said I? nay rather death than so:
Comfort and courage come again to me.
I will venture sure: it is but a leap for life.
He leaps, and bruising his bones, after he was from his trance, speaks thus;
ho, who is nigh? somebody take me up.
Where is my mother? let me speak with her.
who hurts me thus? speak ho, where are you gone?
Aye me poor Arthur I am here alone.
Why called I mother, how did I forget?
My fall, my fall, hath killed my Mothers son.
How will she weep at tidings of my death?
My death indeed, O God my bones are burst.
Sweet Iesu save my soul, forgive my rash attempt.
Comfort my Mother, shield her from despair,
When she shall hear my tragic overthrow.
My heart controls the office of my tongue,
My vital powers forsake my bruised trunk,
I die I die, heaven take my fleeting soul,
And Lady Mother all good hap to thee.
He dies.
Enter Penbrooke, Salsburie, Essex
Essex
My Lords of Penbroke and of Salsbury
we must be careful in our policy
to undermine the keepers of this place,
Else shall we never find the Princes grave.

Penbrooke
My Lord of Essex take no care for that,
I warrant you it was not closely done.
But who is this? lo Lords the withered flower
who in his life shined like the Mornings blush,
Cast out a-door, denied his burial right,
A pray for birds and beasts to gorge upon.

Salsburie
O ruthful spectacle, O damned deed;
My sinews shake, my very heart doth bleed.

Essex
Leave childish tears brave Lords of England
If water floods could fetch his life again,
My eyes should conduit forth a sea of tears.
If sobs would help, or sorrows serve the turn,
My heart should volley out deep piercing plaints.
But bootless were it to breath as many sighs
As might eclipse the brightest Summers sun,
here rests the help, a service to his ghost.
Let not the tyrant causer of this dole,
live to triumph in ruthful massacres,
give hand and heart, and Englishmen to arms,
it is Gods decree to wreak us of these harms,

Penbrok
The best advise: But who comes posting here.
Enter Hughbert
Right noble Lords, I speak unto you all,
The King entreats your soonest speed
to visit him, who on your present want,
Did ban and curse his birth, himself and me.
for executing of his strict command.
I saw his passion, and at fittest time,
Assured him of his cousins being safe,
whom pity would not let me do to death,
He craves your company my Lords in haste,
to whom I will conduct young Arthur straight,
who is in health under my custody.

Essex
in health base villain, were it not I leave thy crime
to Gods revenge, to whom revenge belongs,
here shouldest thou perish on my Rapiers point.
Callest thou this health? such health betide thy friends,
And all that are of thy condition.

Hughbert
My Lords, but hear me speak, and kill me then,
If here I left not this young Prince alive,
Maugre the hasty Edict of the King,
who gave me charge to put out both his eyes,
that God that gave me living to this hour,
Thunder revenge upon me in this place:
And as I tendered him with earnest love,
so God love me, and then I shall be well.

Sals.
Hence traitor hence thy council is herein.
Exit Hughb.
Some in this place appointed by the King
have thrown him from this lodging here above,
And sure the murther hath been newly done,
for yet the body is not fully cold.

Essex
How say you Lords, shall we with speed dispatch
Under our hands a packet into Fraunce
to bid the Dolphin enter with his force
to claim the Kingdom for his proper right,
His title maketh lawful strength thereto.
Besides the Pope, on peril of his curse,
Hath bard us of obedience unto Iohn
This hateful murder, Lewes his true descent,
The holy charge that we received from Rome
Are weighty reasons if you like my reed,
to make us all persevere in this deed.

Pembrooke
My Lord of Essex well have you advised,
I will accord to further you in this.

Salsbury
And Salsbury will not gainsay the same.
But aid that course as far forth as he can.

Essex
then each of us send straight to his Allies.
to win them to this famous enterprise,
And let us all yclad in Palmers weed,
The tenth of April at Saint Edmonds Bury
Meet to confer, and on the Altar there
Swear secrecy and aid to this advise.
Meanwhile let us convey this body hence,
And give him burial as befits his state,
Keeping his months mind and his obsequies
With solemn intercession for his soul.
How say you Lordings, are you all agreed?

Pembrooke
The tenth of April at Saint Edmonds Bury
God letting not, I will not fail the time.

Essex
then let us all convey the body hence.
Exeunt.

Enter King Iohn with two or three and the Prophet.
Iohn
Disturbed thoughts, foredoomers of mine ill,
Distracted passions, signs of growing harms,
Strange Prophecies of imminent mishaps,
Confound my wits, and dull my senses so,
that every object these mine eyes behold
seem instruments to bring me to my end.
Ascension day is come, Iohn fear not then
The prodigies this prattling Prophet threats.
it is come indeed: ah were it fully past,
then were I careless of a thousand fears.
The Dial tells me, it is twelve at noon.
Were twelve at midnight past, then might I vaunt
False seers prophecies of no import.
Could I as well with this right hand of mine
Remove the Sun from our Meridian,
Unto the moonsted circle of the Antipodes,
As turn this steel from twelve to twelve again,
then Iohn the date of fatal prophecies
Should with the Prophets life together end.
But Multa cadunt inter calicem supremaque labra
Peter unsay thy foolish doting dream,
And by the Crown of England here I swear,
to make thee great, and greatest of thy kin.

Peter
King Iohn although the time I have prescribed
Be but twelve hours remaining yet behind,
Yet do I know by inspiration,
Ere that fixed time be fully come about,
King Iohn shall not be King as heretofore.

Iohn
Vain buzzard, what mischance can chance so soon
to set a King beside his regal seat:
My heart is good, my body passing strong,
My land in peace, my enemies subdued,
Only my Barons storm at Arthurs death,
But Arthur lives, aye there the challenge grows,
Were he dispatched unto his longest home,
then were the King secure of thousand foes.
Hubert what news with thee, where are my Lords?

Hubert
Hard news my Lord, Arthur the lovely Prince
Seeking to escape over the Castle walls,
Fell headlong down, and in the cursed fall
He brake his bones, and there before the gate
Your Barons found him dead, and breathless quite.

Iohn
Is Arthur dead? then Hubert without more words hang the Prophet.
Away with Peter villain out of my sight,
I am deaf, be gone, let him not speak a word.
Now Iohn thy fears are vanished into smoke,
Arthur is dead, thou guiltless of his death.
Sweet Youth, but that I strived for a Crown,
I could have well afforded to thine age
Long life, and happiness to thy content.

Enter the Bastard.
Iohn
Philip what news with thee?

Bastard
The news I heard was Peters prayers,
who wished like fortune to befall us all:
And with that word, the rope his latest friend,
Kept him from falling headlong to the ground.

Iohn
There let him hang, and be the Ravens food,
While Iohn triumphs in spite of Prophecies.
But what is the tidings from the Popelings now.
What say the Monks and Priests to our proceedings?
Or where is the Barons that so suddenly
Did leave the King upon a false surmise?

Bastard
The Prelates storm and thirst for sharpe revenge
But please your Majesty, were that the worst,
It little skilled: a greater danger grows,
which must be weeded out by careful speed,
Or all is lost, for all is leveled at.

Iohn
More frights and fears, whatever thy tidings be,
I am prepared: then Philip quickly say,
Mean they to murder, or imprison me,
to give my crown away to Rome or Fraunce
Or will they each of them become a King?
Worse than I think it is, it cannot be.

Bastard
Not worse my Lord, but every whit as bad.
The Nobles have elected Lewes King,
in right of Lady Blanche your Niece, his Wife:
His landing is expected every hour,
The Nobles, Commons, Clergy, all Estates,
Incited chiefly by the Cardinal
Pandulph that lies here Legate for the Pope,
Thinks long to see their new elected King.
And for undoubted proof, see here my Liege
Letters to me from your Nobility,
to be a party in this action:
Who under show of fained holiness,
Appoint their meeting at Saint. Edmonds Bury
There to consult, conspire, and conclude
The overthrow and downfall of your State.

Iohn
Why so it must be: one hour of content
Matched with a month of passionate effects.
Why shines the Sun to favour this consort?
Why do the winds not break their brazen gates,
And scatter all these perjured complices,
With all their counsels and their damned drifts.
But see the welkin rolleth gently on,
there is not a lowering cloud to frown on them;
The heaven, the earth, the sun, the moon and all
Conspire with those confederates my decay.
then hell for me if any power be there,
Forsake that place, and guide me step by step
to poison, strangle, murder in their steps
These traitors: o that name is too good for them,
And death is easy: is there nothing worse
to wreak me on this proud peace breaking crew?
What sayst thou Philip why assists thou not,

Bastard
These curses good my Lord) fit not the season:
Help must descend from heaven against this treason?

Iohn
Nay thou wilt prove a traitor with the rest,
go get thee to them, shame come to you all.

Bastard
I would be loath to leave your Highness thus,
Yet you command, and I though grieved will go.

Iohn
Ah Philip whether goest thou, come again.

Bastard
My Lord these motions are as passions of a mad man.

Iohn
A mad man Philip I am mad indeed,
My heart is mazed, my senses all foredone.
And Iohn of England now is quite undone.
Was ever King as I oppressed with cares?
Dame Elianor my noble Mother Queen,
My only hope and comfort in distress,
Is dead, and England excommunicate,
And I am interdicted by the Pope,
All Churches cursed, their doors are sealed up,
And for the pleasure of the Romish Priest,
The service of the Highest is neglected;
The multitude a beast of many heads)
do with confusion to their Sovereign;
The Nobles blinded with ambitions fumes,
Assemble powers to beat mine Empire down,
And more than this, elect a foreign King.
O England wert thou ever miserable,
King Iohn of England sees thee miserable:
Iohn it is thy sins that makes it miserable,
Quicquid delirunt Reges, plectuntur Achiui.
Philip as thou hast ever loved thy King,
so show it now: post to Saint. Edmonds Bury
Dissemble with the Nobles, know their drifts,
Confound their devilish plots, and damned devices.
Though Iohn be faulty, yet let subjects bear,
He will amend and right the peoples wrongs.
A Mother though she were unnatural,
Is better than the kindest Stepdame is:
Let never Englishman trust foreign rule.
then Philip show thy fealty to thy King,
And amongst the Nobles plead thou for the King.

Bastard
I go my Lord: see how he is distraught,
This is the cursed Priest of Italy
Hath heaped these mischiefs on this hapless Land.
Now Philip hadst thou Tullyes eloquence,
then mightst thou hope to plead with good success.
Exit.

Iohn
And art thou gone? success may follow thee:
Thus hast thou showed thy kindness to thy King.
Sirrah, in haste go greet the Cardinal,
Pandulph I mean, the Legate from the Pope.
Say that the King desires to speak with him.
Now John bethink thee how thou mayst resolve:
And if thou wilt continue Englands King,
then cast about to keep thy Diadem;
for life and land, and all is leveled at.
The Pope of Rome it is he that is the cause,
He curseth thee, he sets thy subjects free
From due obedience to their Sovereign:
He animates the Nobles in their wars,
He gives away the Crown to Philips son,
And pardons all that seek to murther thee:
And thus blind zeal is still predominant.
then Iohn there is no way to keep thy Crown,
But finely to dissemble with the Pope:
that hand that gave the wound must give the salve
to cure the hurt, else quite incurable.
Thy sins are far too great to be the man
To abolish Pope, and Popery from thy Realm:
But in thy Seat, if I may guess at all,
A King shall reign that shall suppress them all.
Peace John here comes the Legate of the Pope,
Dissemble thou, and whatsoever thou sayst,
Yet with thy heart with their confusion.

Enter Pandulph
Pand.
Now Iohn unworthy man to breath on earth,
that dost oppugn against thy Mother Church:
Why am I sent for to thy cursed self?

Iohn
Thou man of God, Vicegerent for the Pope,
The holy Vicar of Saint. Peters Church,
upon my knees, I pardon crave of thee,
And do submit me to the sea of Rome
And vow for penance of my high offence,
to take on me the holy Cross of Christ,
And carry Arms in holy Christian wars.

Pandulph.
no Iohn thy crouching and dissembling thus
Cannot deceive the Legate of the Pope,
Say what thou wilt, I will not credit thee:
Thy Crown and Kingdom both are taken away,
And thou art cursed without redemption.

Iohn
Accursed indeed to kneel to such a drudge,
And get no help with thy submission,
Unsheathe thy sword, and slay the misproud Priest
that thus triumphs over thee a mighty King:
no Iohn submit again dissemble yet,
for Priests and Women must be flattered.
Yet holy Father thou thyself dost know
no time too late for sinners to repent,
Absolve me then, and Iohn doth swear to do
The uttermost whatever thou demandest.

Pandulph
Iohn now I see thy hearty penitence,
I rue and pity thy distressed estate,
One way is left to reconcile thyself,
And only one which I shall show to thee.
Thou must surrender to the sea of Rome
Thy Crown and Diadem, then shall the Pope
Defend thee from the invasion of thy foes.
And where his holiness hath kindled Fraunce
And set thy subjects hearts at war with thee,
then shall he curse thy foes, and beat them down,
that seek the discontentment of the King.

Iohn
From bad to worse or I must loose my realm,
Or give my Crown for penance unto Rome
A misery more piercing than the darts
that break from burning exhalations power.
What? shall I give my Crown with this right hand?
no: with this hand defend thy Crown and thee.
What news with thee.
Enter Messenger.
Please it your Majesty, there is descried on the Coast of
Kent an hundred Sail of Ships, which of all men is
thought to be the French Fleet, under the conduct of the
Dolphin, so that it puts the Country in a mutiny, so they send to your Grace for succour.

K. Iohn
How now Lord Cardinal, what is your best advise,
These mutinies must be allayed in time
by policy or headstrong rage at least.
O Iohn these troubles tire thy wearied soul,
And like to Luna in a sad Eclipse,
so are thy thoughts and passions for this news.
Well may it be when Kings are grieved so,
The vulgar sort work Princes overthrow.

Cardinall
King Iohn for not effecting of thy plighted vow,
This strange annoyance happens to thy land:
But yet be reconciled unto the Church,
And nothing shall be grievous to thy state.

Iohn
on Pandulph be it as thou hast decreed,
Iohn will not spurn against thy sound advise,
Come let us away, and with thy help I trow
My Realm shall flourish and my Crown in peace.

Enter the Nobles, Penbrooke, Essex, Chester, Bewchampe, Clare with others.
Penbrooke
Now sweet Saint. Edmond holy Saint in heaven,
whose Shrine is sacred, high esteemed on earth,
Infuse a constant zeal in all our hearts
to prosecute this act of mickle weight,
Lord Bewchampe say, what friends have you procured.

Bewchamp.
The Lord Fitz Water Lord Percy and Lord Rosse
Vowed meeting here this day the eleventh hour.

Essex
Under the cloak of holy Pilgrimage,
by that same hour on warrant of their faith,
Phillip Plantagenet a bird of swiftest wing,
Lord Eustace, Vescy Lord Cressy and Lord Mowbrey
Appointed meeting at Saint. Edmonds Shrine.

Pembroke
Until their presence I will conceal my tale,
Sweet complices in holy Christian acts,
that venture for the purchase of renown,
Thrice welcome to the league of high resolve,
that pawn their bodies for their souls regard.

Essex
Now wanteth but the rest to end this work,
in Pilgrims habit comes our holy troupe
A furlong hence with swift unwonted pace,
May be they are the persons you expect.

Pembroke
With swift unwonted gate, see what a thing is zeal,
that spurs them on with fervence to this Shrine,
Now joy come to them for their true intent
And in good time here come the warmen all
that sweat in body by the minds disease
Hap and hearts-ease brave Lordings be your lot.
Enter the Bastard Philip &c.
Amen my Lords, the like betide your luck,
And all that travail in a Christian cause.

Essex
Cheerily replied brave branch of kingly stock,
A right Plantaginet should reason so.
But silence Lords, attend our comings cause,
The servile yoke that pained us with toil,
on strong instinct hath framed this conventicle,
to ease our necks of servitudes contempt.
Should I not name the foeman of our rest,
which of you all so barren in conceit,
As cannot level at the man I mean?
But lest Enigmas shadow shining truth
Plainly to paint as truth requires no art.
The effect of this resort importeth this,
to root and clean extirpate tyrant Iohn
Tyrant I say, appealing to the man,
If any here that loves him, and I ask
What kindship, lenity, or christian reign
Rules in the man, to bar this foul impeach.
First I infer the Chesters banishment:
for reprehending him in most unchristian crimes,
Was special notice of a tyrants will.
But were this all, the devil should be saved,
But this the least of many thousand faults,
that circumstance with leisure might display.
our private wrongs, no parcel of my tale
which now in presence, but for some great cause
Might wish to him as to a mortal foe.
But shall I close the period with an act
Abhorring in the ears of Christian men,
His Cousins death, that sweet unguilty child,
Untimely butchered by the tyrants means,
here is my proofs as clear as gravel brooke,
And on the same I further must infer,
that who upholds a tyrant in his course,
Is culpable of all his damned guilt.
to show the which, is yet to be described.
My Lord of Penbrooke show what is behind,
Only I say that were there nothing else
to move us but the Popes most dreadful curse,
Whereof we are assured if we fail,
It were enough to instigate us all
With earnestness of spirit to seek a mean
to dispossess Iohn of his regiment.

Penbrooke
Well hath my Lord of Essex told his tale,
which I aver for most substantial truth,
And more to make the matter to our mind,
I say that Lewes in challenge of his wife,
Hath title of an uncontrolled plea
to all that longeth to our English Crown.
Short tale to make, the Sea apostolic
Hath offered dispensation for the fault.
If any be, as trust me none I know
by planting Lewes in the Usurpers room:
This is the cause of all our presence here,
that on the holy Altar we protest
to aid the right of Lewes with goods and life,
who on our knowledge is in Arms for England
What say you Lords?

Salsburie
As Pembrooke saith, affirmeth Salsburie
fair Lewes of Fraunce that spoused Lady Blanch
Hath title of an uncontrolled strength
to England and what longeth to the Crown:
in right whereof, as we are true informed,
The Prince is marching hitherward in Arms.
our purpose to conclude that with a word,
Is to invest him as we may devise,
King of our Country in the tyrants stead:
And so the warrant on the Altar sworn,
And so the intent for which we hither came.

Bastard.
My Lord of Salsbury I cannot couch
My speeches with the needful words of art,
As doth beseem in such a weighty work,
But what my conscience and my duty will
I purpose to impart.
for Chesters exile, blame his busy wit,
that meddled where his duty quite forbade:
for any private causes that you have,
Methink they should not mount to such a height,
As to depose a King in their revenge.
for Arthurs death King Iohn was innocent,
He desperate was the deathsman to himself,
With you to make a colour to your crime injustly do impute to his default,
But where fell traitorism hath residence,
There wants no words to set despite on work.
I say it is shame, and worthy all reproof,
to wrest such petty wrongs in terms of right,
Against a King anointed by the Lord.
Why Salsburie admit the wrongs are true,
Yet subjects may not take in hand revenge,
And rob the heavens of their proper power,
Where sitteth he to whom revenge belongs.
And doth a Pope, a Priest, a man of pride
give charters for the lives of lawful Kings?
What can he bless, or who regards his curse,
But such as give to man, and takes from God.
I speak it in the sight of God above,
there is not a man that dies in your belief,
But sells his soul perpetually to pain.
Aid Lewes leave God, kill Iohn please hell,
Make havoc of the welfare of your souls,
for here I leave you in the sight of heaven,
A troupe of traitors food for hellish fiends;
If you desist, then follow me as friends,
If not, then do your worst as hateful traitors.
for Lewes his right alas it is too too lame,
A senseless claim, if truth be titles friend.
in brief, if this be cause of our resort,
our Pilgrimage is to the Devils Shrine.
I came not Lords to troop as traitors do,
Nor will I counsel in so bad a cause:
Please you return, we go again as friends,
If not, I to my King, and you where traitors please.
Exit.

Percy
A hot young man, and so my Lords proceed,
I let him go, and better lost than found.

Penbrooke
What say you Lords, will all the rest proceed,
will you all with me swear upon the Alter
that you will to the death be aid to Lewes and enemy to Iohn
every man lay his hand by mine, in witness of his hearts accord,
Well then, every man to Arms to meet the King
who is already before London
Messenger Enter.

Penbrooke
What news Harrold.
The right Christian Prince my Master, Lewes of Fraunce
is at hand, coming to visit your Honours, directed hither
by the right honourable Richard Earl of Bigot to confer
with your Honours.

Penbrooke
How near is his Highness,

Messenger
Ready to enter your presence.

Enter Lewes Earl Bigot with his troupe.
Lewes
fair Lords of England, Lewes salutes you all
As friends, and firm well-willers of his weal,
At is request from plenty flowing Fraunce
Crossing the Ocean with a Southern gale,
He is in person come at your commands
to undertake and gratify withal
The fulness of your favours proffered him.
But worlds brave men, omitting promises,
Till time be minister of more amends,
I must acquaint you with our fortunes course.
The heavens dewing favours on my head,
have in their conduct safe with victory,
Brought me along your well manured bounds,
With small repulse, and little cross of chance.
Your City Rochester with great applause
by some divine instinct laid arms aside:
And from the hollow holes of Thamesis
Echo apace replied Viue la roy
From thence, along the wanton rolling glade
to Troynouant your fair Metropolis
With luck came Lewes to show his troupes of Fraunce
Waving our Ensigns with the dallying winds,
The fearful object of fell frowning war;
Where after some assault, and small defence,
Heavens may I say, and not my warlike troupe,
Tempered their hearts to take a friendly foe
Within the compass of their high built walls,
Giving me title as it seemed they wish.
Thus Fortune Lords) acts to your forwardness
Means of content in lieu of former grief:
And may I live but to requite you all,
Worlds wish were mine in dying noted yours.

Salisbury
Welcome the balm that closeth up our wounds,
The sovereign medicine for our quick recure,
The anchor of our hope, the only prop,
Whereon depends our lives, our lands, our weal,
Without the which, as sheep without their heard,
Except a shepherd winking at the wolf)
we stray, we pine, we run to thousand harms.
no marvel then though with unwonted joy,
we welcome him that beateth woes away.

Lewes
Thanks to you all of this religious league,
A holy knot of Catholic consent.
I cannot name you Lordings, man by man,
But like a stranger unacquainted yet,
in general I promise faithful love:
Lord Bigot brought me to Saint. Edmonds Shrine,
Giving me warrant of a Christian oath,
that this assembly came devoted here,
to swear according as your packets showed,
Homage and loyal service to ourself,
I need not doubt the surety of your wills;
Since well I know for many of your sakes
The towns have yielded on their own accords:
Yet for a fashion, not for misbelief,
My eyes must witness, and these ears must hear
Your oath upon the holy Altar sworn,
And after march to end our comings cause.

Sals.
that we intend no other than good truth,
All that are present of this holy League,
for confirmation of our better trust,
in presence of his Highness swear with me,
The sequel that myself shall utter here.
I Thomas Plantaginet Earl of Salisbury swear
upon the Altar, and by the holy Army of Saints, homage
and allegiance to the right Christian Prince Lewes of
Fraunce as true and rightful King to England, Cornwall
and Wales and to their Territories, in the defence
whereof I upon the holy Altar swear all forwardness.
All the Eng. Lords swear,
As the noble Earl hath sworn, so swear we all.

Lewes
I rest assured on your holy oath,
And on this Altar in like sort I swear
love to you all, and Princely recompense
to guerdon your good wills unto the full.
And since I am at this religious Shrine,
My good well-willers, give us leave awhile
to use some orisons ourselves apart
to all the holy company of heaven,
that they will smile upon our purposes,
And bring them to a fortunate event.

Salsbury
we leave your Highness to your good intent.
Exeunt Lords of England

Lewes
Now Viscount Meloun what remains behind?
Trust me these traitors to their sovereign State
Are not to be believed in any sort.

Meloun
Indeed my Lord, they that infringe their oaths,
And play the rebels against their native King,
will for as little cause revolt from you,
If ever opportunity incite them so:
for once forsworn, and never after sound,
there is no affiance after perjury.

Lewes
Well Meloun well, let us smooth with them awhile,
Until we have as much as they can do:
And when their virtue is exhaled dry,
I will hang them for the guerdon of their help,
Meanwhile we will use them as a precious poison
to undertake the issue of our hope.

Fr. Lord
it is policy my Lord) to bait our hooks
With merry smiles, and promise of much weight:
But when your Highness needeth them no more,
it is good make sure work with them, lest indeed
They prove to you as to their natural King.

Melun
Trust me my Lord, right well have you advised
Venom for use, but never for a sport
Is to be dallied with, lest it infect.
Were you installed, as soon I hope you shall:
Be free from traitors, and dispatch them all.

Lewes
that so I mean, I swear before you all
on this same Altar, and by heavens power,
there is not an English traitor of them all,
Iohn once dispatched, and I fair Englands King,
Shall on his shoulders bear his head one day,
But I will crop it for their guilts desert:
Nor shall their heirs enjoy their Seigniories,
But perish by their parents foul amiss.
This have I sworn, and this will I perform,
If ere I come unto the height I hope.
Lay down your hands, and swear the same with me.
The French Lords swear.
Why so, now call them in, and speak them fair,
A smile of France will feed an English fool.
Bear them in hand as friends, for so they be:
But in the heart like traitors as they are.

Enter the English Lords.
Now famous followers, chieftains of the world,
have we solicited with hearty prayer
The heaven in favour of our high attempt.
Leave we this place, and march we with our power
to rouse the Tyrant from his chiefest hold:
And when our labours have a prosperous end,
Each man shall reap the fruit of his desert.
And so resolved, brave followers let us hence.

Enter K. Iohn, Bastard, Pandulph and a many priests with them.
Thus Iohn thou art absolved from all thy sins,
And freed by order from our Fathers curse.
Receive thy Crown again, with this proviso,
that thou remain true liegeman to the Pope,
And carry arms in right of holy Rome

Iohn
I hold the same as tenant to the Pope,
And thank your Holiness for your kindness shown.

Philip
A proper jest, when Kings must stoop to Friars,
need hath no law, when Friars must be Kings.

Enter a Messenger.
Mess.
Please it your Majesty, the Prince of Fraunce
With all the Nobles of your Graces Land,
Are marching hitherward in good array.
wherever they set their foot, all places yield:
Thy Land is theirs, and not a foot holds out
But Douer Castle, which is hard besieged.

Pandulph
fear not King Iohn thy kingdom is the popes,
And they shall know his Holiness hath power,
to beat them soon from whence he hath to do.

Drums and Trumpets. Enter Lewes, Melun, Salisbury, Essex, Pembrooke and all the Nobles from Fraunce and England
Lewes
Pandulph as gave his Holiness in charge,
so hath the Dolphin mustered up his troupes
And won the greatest part of all this Land.
But ill becomes your Grace Lord Cardinal,
Thus to converse with Iohn that is accursed.

Pandulph
Lewes of France victorious Conqueror,
is sword hath made this Island quake for fear;
Thy forwardness to fight for holy Rome
shall be remunerated to the full:
But know my Lord, King Iohn is now absolved,
The Pope is pleased, the Land is blessed again,
And thou hast brought each thing to good effect.
It resteth then that thou withdraw thy powers,
And quietly return to Fraunce again:
for all is done the Pope would wish thee do.

Lewes
But all is not done that Lewes came to do.
Why Pandulph hath King Philip sent his son
And been at such excessive charge in wars,
to be dismissed with words? King Iohn shall know,
England is mine, and he usurps my right.

Pand.
Lewes I charge thee and thy complices
upon the pain of Pandulphs holy curse,
that thou withdraw thy powers to Fraunce again,
And yield up London and the neighbour Towns
that thou hast taken in England by the sword.

Melun
Lord Cardinal, by Lewes princely leave,
It can be nought but usurpation
in thee, the Pope, and all the Church of Rome
Thus to insult on Kings of Christendom,
Now with a word to make them carry arms,
then with a word to make them leave their arms.
This must not be: Prince Lewes keep thine own,
Let Pope and Popelings curse their bellies full.

Bast.
My Lord of Melun what title had the Prince
to England and the Crown of Albion
But such a title as the Pope confirmed:
The Prelate now lets fall his fained claim:
Lewes is but the agent for the Pope,
then must the Dolphin cease, sith he hath ceased:
But cease or no, it greatly matters not,
If you my Lords and Barons of the Land
will leave the French, and cleave unto your King.
for shame ye Peers of England suffer not
Yourselves, your honours, and your land to fall:
But with resolved thoughts beat back the French,
And free the Land from yoke of servitude.

Salisbury
Philip not so, Lord Lewes is our King,
And we will follow him unto the death.

Pand.
then in the name of Innocent the Pope,
I curse the Prince and all that take his part,
And excommunicate the rebel Peers
As traitors to the King, and to the Pope.

Lewes
Pandolph our swords shall bless ourselves again:
Prepare thee Iohn Lords follow me your King.

Exeunt.
Iohn
Accursed Iohn the devil owes thee shame,
Resisting Rome or yielding to the Pope, all is one.
The devil take the Pope, the Peers, and Fraunce
Shame be my share for yielding to the Priest.

Pand.
Comfort thyself King Iohn the Cardinal goes
upon his curse to make them leave their arms.

Exit.
Bastard
Comfort my Lord, and curse the Cardinal,
Betake yourself to arms, my troupes are pressed
to answer Lewes with a lusty shock:
The English Archers have their quivers full,
their bows are bent, the pikes are pressed to push:
God cheer my Lord, King Richards fortune hangs
upon the plume of warlike Philips helm.
then let them know his brother and his son
Are leaders of the Englishmen at arms.

Iohn
Philip I know not how to answer thee:
But let us hence, to answer Lewes pride.

Excursions. Enter Meloun with English Lords.
Mel.
O I am slain, Nobles, Salsbury, Pembrooke
My soul is charged, hear me: for what I say
Concerns the Peers of England and their State.
Listen, brave Lords, a fearful mourning tale
to be delivered by a man of death.
Behold these scars, the dole of bloody Mars
Are harbingers from natures common foe,
Citing this trunk to Tellus prison house;
Lifes charter Lordings) lasteth not an hour:
And fearful thoughts, forerunners of my end,
Bids me give Physic to a sickly soul.
O Peers of England know you what you do,
there is but a hair that sunders you from harm,
The hook is baited, and the train is made,
And simply you run doting to your deaths.
But lest I die, and leave my tale untold,
With silence slaughtering so brave a crew,
This I aver, if Lewes win the day,
there is not an Englishman that lifts his hand
Against King Iohn to plant the heir of Fraunce
But is already damned to cruel death.
I heard it vowed; myself amongst the rest
Swore on the Altar aid to this Edict.
Two causes Lords, makes me display this drift,
The greatest for the freedom of my soul,
that longs to leave this mansion free from guilt:
The other on a natural instinct,
for that my Grandsire was an Englishman.
Misdoubt not Lords the truth of my discourse,
no frenzy, nor no brainsick idle fit,
But well advised, and wotting what I say,
Pronounce I here before the face of heaven,
that nothing is discovered but a truth.
it is time to fly, submit yourselves to Iohn
The smiles of Fraunce shade in the frowns of death,
Lift up your swords, turn face against the French,
Expel the yoke that is framed for your necks.
Back warmen, back, embowel not the clime,
Your seat, your nurse, your birth days breathing place,
that bred you, bears you, brought you up in arms.
Ah be not so ingrate to dig your Mothers grave,
Preserve your lambs and beat away the Wolf.
My soul hath said, contritions penitence
Lays hold on man's redemption for my sin.
Farewell my Lords, witness my faith when we are met in heaven,
And for my kindness give me grave room here.
My soul doth fleet, worlds vanities farewell.

Sals.
Now joy betide thy soul well-meaning man.
Now now my Lords, what cooling card is this,
A greater grief grows now than erst hath been.
What counsel give you, shall we stay and die?
Or shall we home, and kneel unto the King.

Pemb.
My heart misgave this sad accursed news:
What have we done, fie Lords, what frenzy moved
our hearts to yield unto the pride of Fraunce
If we persevere, we are sure to die:
If we desist, small hope again of life.

Salsb.
Bear hence the body of this wretched man,
that made us wretched with his dying tale,
And stand not wailing on our present harms,
As women wont: but seek our harms redress.
As for myself, I will in haste be gone:
And kneel for pardon to our Sovereign Iohn

Pemb.
Aye, there is the way, let us rather kneel to him,
Than to the French that would confound us all.

Exeunt.
Enter King Iohn carried between 2. Lords
Iohn
Set down, set down the load not worth your pain,
for done I am with deadly wounding grief:
Sickly and succourless, hopeless of any good,
The world hath wearied me, and I have wearied it:
It loathes I live, I live and loath myself.
who pities me? to whom have I been kind?
But to a few; a few will pity me.
Why die I not? Death scorns so vild a pray.
Why live I not, life hates so sad a prize.
I sue to both to be retained of either,
But both are deaf, I can be heard of neither.
Nor death nor life, yet life and near the near,
ymixed with death biding I wot not where.

Philip.
How fares my Lord that he is carried thus,
Not all the awkward fortunes yet befallen,
Made such impression of lament in me.
Nor ever did my eye attaint my heart
With any object moving more remorse,
Than now beholding of a mighty King,
Borne by his Lords in such distressed state.

Iohn
What news with thee, if bad, report if straight:
If good, be mute, it doth but flatter me.

Phillip
Such as it is, and heavy though it be
to glut the world with tragic elegies,
Once will I breath to aggravate the rest,
Another moan to make the measure full.
The bravest bowman had not yet sent forth
Two arrows from the quiver at his side,
But that a rumour went throughout our Camp,
that Iohn was fled, the King had left the field.
At last the rumour scald these ears of mine,
who rather chose as sacrifice for Mars
Than ignominious scandal by retire.
I cheered the troupes as did the Prince of Troy
His weary followers against the Mirmidons,
Crying aloud Saint. George the day is ours.
But fear had captivated courage quite,
And like the Lamb before the greedy Wolf,
so heartless fled our warmen from the field.
Short tale to make, myself amongst the rest,
Was fain to fly before the eager foe.
by this time night had shadowed all the earth,
With sable curtains of the blackest hue,
And fenced us from the fury of the French,
As Io from the jealous Juno's eye,
When in the morning our troupes did gather head,
Passing the washes with our carriages,
The impartial tide deadly and inexorable,
Came raging in with billows threatening death,
And swallowed up the most of all our men,
Myself upon a Galloway right free, well paced,
Out-stripped the floods that followed wave by wave,
I so escaped to tell this tragic tale.

Iohn
Grief upon grief, yet none so great a grief,
to end this life, and thereby rid my grief.
Was ever any so infortunate,
The right Idea of a cursed man,
As I, poor I, a triumph for despite,
My fever grows, what ague shakes me so?
How far to Swinsteed, tell me do you know,
Present unto the Abbot word of my repair.
My sickness rages, to tyrannize upon me,
I cannot live unless this fever leave me.

Phillip.
Good cheer my Lord, the Abbey is at hand,
Behold my Lord the church-men come to meet you.

Enter the Abbot, and certain Monks.
Abbot
All health and happiness to our sovereign Lord the King,

Iohn
Nor health nor happiness hath Iohn at all.
Say Abbot am I welcome to thy house.

Abbot
Such welcome as our Abbey can afford,
Your Majesty shall be assured of.

Phillip
The King thou seest is weak and very faint,
What victuals hast thou to refresh his Grace.

Abbot
Good store my Lord, of that you need not fear,
for Lincolneshire, and these our Abbey grounds
Were never fatter, nor in better plight.

Iohn
Phillip thou never needst to doubt of cates,
Nor King nor Lord is seated half so well,
As are the Abbeys throughout all the land,
If any plot of ground do pass another,
The Friars fasten on it straight:
But let us in to taste of their repast,
It goes against my heart to feed with them,
Or be beholding to such Abbey grooms.
Exeunt.

Manet the Monk
Monk.
Is this the King that never loved a Friar?
Is this the man that doth contemn the Pope?
Is this the man that robbed the holy Church,
And yet will fly unto a Friary?
Is this the King that aims at Abbeys lands?
Is this the man whom all the world abhors,
And yet will fly unto a Friary?
Accursed be Swinsteed Abbey, Abbot, Friars,
Monks, Nuns, and Clerks, and all that dwells therein,
If wicked Iohn escape alive away.
Now if that thou wilt look to merit heaven,
And be canonised for a holy Saint:
to please the world with a deserving work,
Be thou the man to set thy country free,
And murder him that seeks to murder thee.

Enter the Abbot.
Abbot
Why are not you within to cheer the King?
He now begins to mend, and will to meat.

Monk
What if I say to strangle him in his sleep?

Abbot
What at thy mumpsimus away,
And seek some means for to pastime the King.

Monk
I will set a dudgeon dagger at his heart,
And with a mallet knock him on the head.

Abbot
Alas, what means this Monk to murther me?
Dare lay my life heel kill me for my place.

Monk
I will poison him, and it shall never be known,
And than shall I be chiefest of my house.

Abbot
If I were dead, indeed he is the next,
But I will away, for why the Monk is mad,
And in his madness he will murther me.

Monk
My Lord I cry your Lordship mercy, I saw you not.

Abbot
Alas good Thomas do not murther me, and thou shalt have my place with thousand thanks.

Monk
I murther you, God shield from such a thought.

Abbot
If thou wilt needs, yet let me say my prayers.

Monk
I will not hurt your Lordship good my Lord: but if you please,
I will impart a thing that shall be beneficial to us all.

Abbot
Wilt thou not hurt me holy Monk, say on.

Monk
You know my Lord the King is in our house,

Abbot
True.

Monk
You know likewise the King abhors a Friar,

Abbot
True.

Monk
And he that loves not a Friar is our enemy.

Abbot
Thou sayst true.

Monk
Then the King is our enemy.

Abbot
True.

Monk
Why then should we not kill our enemy, and the King being
our enemy, why then should we not kill the King.

Abbot
O blessed Monk, I see God moves thy mind to free this land from tyrants slavery.
But who dare venture for to do this deed?

Monk
who dare? why I my Lord dare do the deed,
I will free my Country and the Church from foes,
And merit heaven by killing of a King.

Abbot
Thomas kneel down, and if thou art resolved,
I will absolve thee here from all thy sins,
for why the deed is meritorious.
Forward and fear not man, for every month,
our Friars shall sing a Mass for Thomas soul.

Monk
God and Saint. Francis prosper my attempt,
for now my Lord I go about my work.
Exeunt.
Enter Lewes and his army.

Lewes
Thus victory in bloody Laurel clad,
Follows the fortune of young Lodowicke
The Englishmen as daunted at our sight,
Fall as the fowl before the Eagles eyes.
Only two crosses of contrary change
Do nip my heart, and vex me with unrest.
Lord Melons death, the one part of my soul,
A braver man did never live in Fraunce
The other grief, aye that is a gall in deed,
to think that Douer Castle should hold out
against all assaults, and rest impregnable.
ye warlike race of Francus Hectors son,
Triumph in conquest of that tyrant Iohn
The better half of England is our own,
And towards the conquest of the other part,
we have the face of all the English Lords,
What then remains but overrun the land.
Be resolute my warlike followers,
And if good fortune serve as she begins,
The poorest peasant of the Realm of Fraunce
Shall be a master over an English Lord.

Enter a Messenger.
Lewes
Fellow what news.

Messen.
Pleaseth your Grace, the Earl of Salsbury, Penbroke Essex, Clare and Arundell with all the
Barons that did fight for thee, are on a sudden fled with all their powers, to join with
Iohn to drive thee back again.

Enter another Messenger.
Messen.
Lewes my Lord why standest thou in a maze,
Gather thy troops, hope out of help from Fraunce
for all thy forces being fifty sail,
Containing twenty thousand soldiers,
With victual and munition for the war,
Putting from Callis in unlucky time,
Did cross the seas, and on the Goodwin sands,
The men, munition, and the ships are lost.

Enter another Messenger.
Lewes
More news? say on.

Messen.
Iohn my Lord) with all his scattered troupes,
Flying the fury of your conquering sword,
As Pharaoh erst within the bloody sea,
so he and his environed with the tide,
on Lincolne washes all were overwhelmed,
The Barons fled, our forces cast away.

Lewes
Was ever heard such unexpected news?

Messenger
Yet Lodowike revive thy dying heart,
King Iohn and all his forces are consumed.
The less thou needst the aid of English Earls,
The less thou needst to grieve thy Navies wrack,
And follow times advantage with success.

Lewes
Brave Frenchmen armed with magnanimity,
March after Lewes who will lead you on
to chase the Barons power that wants a head,
for Iohn is drowned, and I am Englands King.
Though our munition and our men be lost,
Phillip of Fraunce will send us fresh supplies.
Exeunt.
Enter two Friars laying a Cloth.
Frier
Dispatch, dispatch, the King desires to eat,
Would he might eat his last for the love
he bears to church-men.

Frier
I am of thy mind too, and so it should be and we might be
our own carvers.
I marvel why they dine here in the Orchard.

Frier
I know not, nor I care not. The King comes.

Iohn
Come on Lord Abbot, shall we sit together?

Abbot
Pleaseth your Grace sit down.

Iohn
Take your places sirs, no pomp in penury, all beggars
and friends may come, where necessity keeps the house, courtesy is bard the
table, sit down Phillip

Bast.
My Lord, I am loath to allude so much to the proverb
honours change manners: a King is a King, though fortune do her worst, and we as dutiful
in despite of her frown, as if your highness were now in the highest type of dignity.

Iohn
Come, no more ado, if you tell me much of
dignity, you will mar my appetite in a surfeit of sorrow.
What cheer Lord Abbot, methinks you frown like
an host that knows his guest hath no money to pay the reckoning?

Abbot
no my Liege, if I frown at all, it is for I fear
this cheer too homely to entertain so mighty a guest as your Majesty.

Bastard
I think rather my Lord Abbot you remember
my last being here, when I went in progress for
pouches, and the rancour of his heart breaks out in his countenance,
to show he hath not forgot me.

Abbot
Not so my Lord, you, and the meanest follower of his majesty, are heartily welcome to me.

Monke
Vassal my Liege, and as a poor Monk may say, welcome to Swinsted.

Iohn
Begin Monk, and report hereafter thou wast taster to a King.

Monk
As much health to your highness, as to my own heart.

Iohn
I pledge thee kind Monk.

Monke
The merriest draught that ever was drunk in England Am I
not too bold with your Highness.

Iohn
Not a whit, all friends and fellows for a time.

Monke
If the inwards of a Toad be a compound of any proof: why so it works.

Iohn
Stay Phillip where is the Monk?

Bastard
He is dead my Lord.

Iohn
Then drink not Phillip for a world of wealth.

Bast.
What cheer my Liege, your colour gins to change.

Iohn
so doth my life, O Phillip I am poisoned.
The Monk, the Devil, the poison gins to rage,
It will depose myself a King from reign.

Bastard
This Abbot hath an interest in this act.
At all adventures take thou that from me.
There lie the Abbot, Abbey, Lubber, Devil.
March with the Monk unto the gates of hell.
How fares my Lord?

Iohn
Phillip some drink, o for the frozen Alps,
to tumble on and cool this inward heat,
that rageth as the furnace seven-fold hot.
to burn the holy tree in Babylon
Power after power forsake their proper power,
Only the heart impugns with faint resist
The fierce invade of him that conquers Kings,
Help God, O pain, die Iohn O plague
Inflicted on thee for thy grievous sins.
Phillip a chair, and by and by a grave,
My legs disdain the carriage of a King.

Bastard.
A good my Liege with patience conquer grief,
And bear this pain with kingly fortitude.

Iohn
Me thinks I see a catalogue of sin
Wrote by a fiend in Marble characters,
The least enough to loose my part in heaven.
Methinks the Devil whispers in mine ears
And tells me it is in vain to hope for grace,
I must be damned for Arthurs sudden death,
I see I see a thousand thousand men
Come to accuse me for my wrong on earth,
And there is none so merciful a God
that will forgive the number of my sins.
How have I lived, but by another's loss?
What have I loved but wrack of others weal?
When have I vowed, and not infringed mine oath?
Where have I done a deed deserving well?
How, what, when, and where, have I bestowed a day
that tended not to some notorious ill.
My life replete with rage and tyranny,
Craves little pity for so strange a death.
Or who will say that Iohn deceased too soon,
who will not say he rather lived too long.
Dishonour did attaint me in my life,
And shame attendeth Iohn unto his death.
Why did I scape the fury of the French,
And died not by the temper of their swords?
Shameless my life, and shamefully it ends,
Scorned by my foes, disdained of my friends.

Bastard
Forgive the world and all your earthly foes,
And call on Christ, who is your latest friend.

Iohn
My tongue doth falter: Philip I tell thee man,
Since Iohn did yield unto the Priest of Rome
Nor he nor his have prospered on the earth:
Cursed are his blessings, and his curse is bliss.
But in the spirit I cry unto my God,
As did the Kingly Prophet Dauid cry,
Whose hands, as mine, with murder were attaint)
I am not he shall build the Lord a house,
Or root these Locusts from the face of earth:
But if my dying heart deceive me not,
From out these loins shall spring a Kingly branch
Whose arms shall reach unto the gates of Rome
And with his feet treads down the Strumpets pride,
that sits upon the chair of Babylon
Philip my heart strings break, the poisons flame
Hath overcome in me weak Natures power,
And in the faith of Iesu Iohn doth die.

Bastard
See how he strives for life, unhappy Lord,
Whose bowels are divided in themselves.
This is the fruit of Popery, when true Kings
Are slain and shouldered out by Monks and Friars.

Enter a Messenger.
Mess.
Please it your Grace, the Barons of the Land,
which all this while bare arms against the King,
Conducted by the Legate of the Pope,
Together with the Prince his Highness son,
do crave to be admitted to the presence of the King.

Bastard
Your son my Lord, young Henry craves to see
Your Majesty, and brings with him beside
The Barons that revolted from your Grace.
O piercing sight, he fumbleth in the mouth,
His speech doth fail: lift up yourself my Lord,
And see the Prince to comfort you in death.

Enter Pandulph young Henry the Barons with daggers in their hands.
Prince
O let me see my Father ere he die:
O Uncle were you here, and suffered him
to be thus poisoned by a damned Monk.
Ah he is dead, Father sweet Father speak.

Bastard
His speech doth fail, he hasteth to his end.

Pandulph
Lords, give me leave to joy the dying King,
With sight of these his Nobles kneeling here
With daggers in their hands, who offer up
their lives for ransom of their foul offence.
Then good my Lord, if you forgive them all,
Lift up your hand in token you forgive.

Salisbury
we humbly thank your royal Majesty,
And vow to fight for England and her King:
And in the sight of Iohn our sovereign Lord,
in spite of Lewes and the power of Fraunce
who hitherward are marching in all haste,
we crown young Henry in his Fathers stead.

Henry
Help, help, he dies, a Father, look on me.

Legat
King Iohn farewell: in token of thy faith,
And sign thou diest the servant of the Lord,
Lift up thy hand, that we may witness here
Thou diedest the servant of our Saviour Christ.
Now joy betide thy soul: what noise is this?

Enter a Messenger.
Mess.
Help Lords, the Dolphin maketh hitherward
With Ensigns of defiance in the wind,
And all our army standeth at a gaze
Expecting what their Leaders will command.

Bastard
let us arm ourselves in young King Henries right,
And beat the power of Fraunce to sea again.

Legat
Philip not so, but I will to the Prince,
And bring him face to face to parley with you.

Bastard
Lord Salsbury yourself shall march with me,
so shall we bring these troubles to an end.

King
Sweet Uncle, if thou love thy Sovereign,
Let not a stone of Swinsted Abbey stand,
But pull the house about the Friars ears:
for they have killed my Father and my King.
Exeunt.

A parley sounded, Lewes, Pandulph, Salsbury, &c.
Pandulph
Lewes of Fraunce young Henry Englands King
Requires to know the reason of the claim
that thou canst make to any thing of his.
King Iohn that did offend is dead and gone,
See where his breathless trunk in presence lies,
And he as heir apparent to the crown
Is now succeeded in his Fathers room.

Henry
Lewes what law of Arms doth lead thee thus,
to keep possession of my lawful right?
Answer in fine if thou wilt take a peace,
And make surrender of my right again,
Or try thy title with the dint of sword?
I tell thee Dolphin, Henry fears thee not,
for now the Barons cleave unto their King,
And what thou hast in England they did get.

Lewes
Henry of England now that Iohn is dead,
that was the chiefest enemy to Fraunce
I may the rather be induced to peace.
But Salsbury and you Barons of the Realm.
This strange revolt agrees not with the oath
that you on Bury Altar lately swear.

Salsbury
Nor did the oath your Highness there did take
Agree with honour of the Prince of Fraunce

Bastard
My Lord, what answer make you to the King.

Dolphin
Faith Philip this I say: It boots not me,
Nor any Prince, nor power of Christendom
to seek to win this Island Albion
Unless he have a party in the Realm
by treason for to help him in his wars.
The Peers which were the party on my side,
Are fled from me: than boots not me to fight,
But on conditions, as mine honour wills,
I am contented to depart the Realm.

Henry
on what conditions will your Highness yield?

Lewes
that shall we think upon by more advice.

Bastard
Then Kings and Princes, let these broils have end,
And at more leisure talk upon the League.
Meanwhile to Worster let us bear the King,
And there inter his body, as beseems.
But first, in sight of Lewes heir of Fraunce
Lords take the crown, and set it on his head,
that by succession is our lawful King.

They crown young Henry.
Bastard
Thus Englands peace begins in Henryes Reign,
And bloody wars are closed with happy league.
Let England live but true within itself,
And all the world can never wrong her State.
Lewes thou shalt be bravely shipped to France
for never Frenchman got of English ground
The twentieth part that thou hast conquered.
Dolphin thy hand, to Worster we will march,
Lords all lay hands to bear your Sovereign
With obsequies of honour to his grave:
If Englands Peers and people join in one,
Nor Pope, nor Fraunce, nor Spaine can do them wrong.