Enter, before Angiers, ⌜at one side, with Forces,⌝ Philip
King of France, Louis ⌜the⌝ Dauphin, Constance, Arthur,
⌜and Attendants; at the other side, with Forces,⌝ Austria,
⌜wearing a lion’s skin.⌝DAUPHIN Before Angiers well met, brave Austria.— Arthur, that great forerunner of thy blood, Richard, that robbed the lion of his heart And fought the holy wars in Palestine,5 By this brave duke came early to his grave. And, for amends to his posterity, At our importance hither is he come To spread his colors, boy, in thy behalf, And to rebuke the usurpation10 Of thy unnatural uncle, English John. Embrace him, love him, give him welcome hither.ARTHUR God shall forgive you Coeur de Lion’s death The rather that you give his offspring life, Shadowing their right under your wings of war.15 I give you welcome with a powerless hand But with a heart full of unstainèd love. Welcome before the gates of Angiers, duke.DAUPHIN A noble boy. Who would not do thee right?
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AUSTRIA, ⌜to Arthur⌝ Upon thy cheek lay I this zealous kiss20 As seal to this indenture of my love: That to my home I will no more return Till Angiers and the right thou hast in France, Together with that pale, that white-faced shore, Whose foot spurns back the ocean’s roaring tides25 And coops from other lands her islanders, Even till that England, hedged in with the main, That water-wallèd bulwark, still secure And confident from foreign purposes, Even till that utmost corner of the West30 Salute thee for her king. Till then, fair boy, Will I not think of home, but follow arms.CONSTANCE O, take his mother’s thanks, a widow’s thanks, Till your strong hand shall help to give him strength To make a more requital to your love.AUSTRIA 35 The peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swords In such a just and charitable war.KING PHILIP Well, then, to work. Our cannon shall be bent Against the brows of this resisting town. Call for our chiefest men of discipline40 To cull the plots of best advantages. We’ll lay before this town our royal bones, Wade to the marketplace in Frenchmen’s blood, But we will make it subject to this boy.CONSTANCE Stay for an answer to your embassy,45 Lest unadvised you stain your swords with blood. My lord Chatillion may from England bring That right in peace which here we urge in war, And then we shall repent each drop of blood That hot rash haste so indirectly shed.
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Enter Chatillion.KING PHILIP 50 A wonder, lady! Lo, upon thy wish Our messenger Chatillion is arrived.— What England says say briefly, gentle lord. We coldly pause for thee. Chatillion, speak.CHATILLION Then turn your forces from this paltry siege55 And stir them up against a mightier task. England, impatient of your just demands, Hath put himself in arms. The adverse winds, Whose leisure I have stayed, have given him time To land his legions all as soon as I.60 His marches are expedient to this town, His forces strong, his soldiers confident. With him along is come the Mother Queen, An ⌜Ate⌝ stirring him to blood and strife; With her her niece, the Lady Blanche of Spain;65 With them a bastard of the King’s deceased. And all th’ unsettled humors of the land— Rash, inconsiderate, fiery voluntaries, With ladies’ faces and fierce dragons’ spleens— Have sold their fortunes at their native homes,70 Bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs, To make a hazard of new fortunes here. In brief, a braver choice of dauntless spirits Than now the English bottoms have waft o’er Did never float upon the swelling tide75 To do offense and scathe in Christendom.Drum beats. The interruption of their churlish drums Cuts off more circumstance. They are at hand, To parley or to fight, therefore prepare.KING PHILIP How much unlooked-for is this expedition.
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AUSTRIA 80 By how much unexpected, by so much We must awake endeavor for defense, For courage mounteth with occasion. Let them be welcome, then. We are prepared.Enter King ⌜John⌝ of England, Bastard, Queen
⌜Eleanor,⌝ Blanche, ⌜Salisbury,⌝ Pembroke, and others.KING JOHN Peace be to France, if France in peace permit85 Our just and lineal entrance to our own. If not, bleed France, and peace ascend to heaven, Whiles we, God’s wrathful agent, do correct Their proud contempt that beats his peace to heaven.KING PHILIP Peace be to England, if that war return90 From France to England, there to live in peace. England we love, and for that England’s sake With burden of our armor here we sweat. This toil of ours should be a work of thine; But thou from loving England art so far95 That thou hast underwrought his lawful king, Cut off the sequence of posterity, Outfacèd infant state, and done a rape Upon the maiden virtue of the crown. Look here upon thy brother Geoffrey’s face.⌜He points to Arthur.⌝100 These eyes, these brows, were molded out of his; This little abstract doth contain that large Which died in Geoffrey, and the hand of time Shall draw this brief into as huge a volume. That Geoffrey was thy elder brother born,105 And this his son. England was Geoffrey’s right, And this is Geoffrey’s. In the name of God, How comes it then that thou art called a king,
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When living blood doth in these temples beat Which owe the crown that thou o’ermasterest?KING JOHN 110 From whom hast thou this great commission, France, To draw my answer from thy articles?KING PHILIP From that supernal judge that stirs good thoughts In any ⌜breast⌝ of strong authority115 To look into the blots and stains of right. That judge hath made me guardian to this boy, Under whose warrant I impeach thy wrong, And by whose help I mean to chastise it.KING JOHN Alack, thou dost usurp authority.KING PHILIP 120 Excuse it is to beat usurping down.QUEEN ELEANOR Who is it thou dost call usurper, France?CONSTANCE Let me make answer: thy usurping son.QUEEN ELEANOR Out, insolent! Thy bastard shall be king That thou mayst be a queen and check the world.CONSTANCE 125 My bed was ever to thy son as true As thine was to thy husband, and this boy Liker in feature to his father Geoffrey Than thou and John, in manners being as like As rain to water or devil to his dam.130 My boy a bastard? By my soul, I think His father never was so true begot. It cannot be, an if thou wert his mother.QUEEN ELEANOR, ⌜to Arthur⌝ There’s a good mother, boy, that blots thy father.
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CONSTANCE There’s a good grandam, boy, that would blot thee.AUSTRIA 135 Peace!BASTARD Hear the crier!AUSTRIA What the devil art thou?BASTARD One that will play the devil, sir, with you, An he may catch your hide and you alone.140 You are the hare of whom the proverb goes, Whose valor plucks dead lions by the beard. I’ll smoke your skin-coat an I catch you right. Sirrah, look to ’t. I’ faith, I will, i’ faith!BLANCHE O, well did he become that lion’s robe145 That did disrobe the lion of that robe.BASTARD It lies as sightly on the back of him As great Alcides’ shoes upon an ass.— But, ass, I’ll take that burden from your back Or lay on that shall make your shoulders crack.AUSTRIA 150 What cracker is this same that deafs our ears With this abundance of superfluous breath?⌜KING PHILIP⌝ Louis, determine what we shall do straight.DAUPHIN Women and fools, break off your conference.— King John, this is the very sum of all:155 England and Ireland, ⌜Anjou,⌝ Touraine, Maine, In right of Arthur do I claim of thee. Wilt thou resign them and lay down thy arms?KING JOHN My life as soon! I do defy thee, France.— Arthur of Brittany, yield thee to my hand,
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160 And out of my dear love I’ll give thee more Than e’er the coward hand of France can win. Submit thee, boy.QUEEN ELEANOR Come to thy grandam, child.CONSTANCE Do, child, go to it grandam, child.165 Give grandam kingdom, and it grandam will Give it a plum, a cherry, and a fig. There’s a good grandam.ARTHUR, ⌜weeping⌝ Good my mother, peace. I would that I were low laid in my grave.170 I am not worth this coil that’s made for me.QUEEN ELEANOR His mother shames him so, poor boy, he weeps.CONSTANCE Now shame upon you whe’er she does or no! His grandam’s wrongs, and not his mother’s shames,175 Draws those heaven-moving pearls from his poor eyes, Which heaven shall take in nature of a fee. Ay, with these crystal beads heaven shall be bribed To do him justice and revenge on you.QUEEN ELEANOR 180 Thou monstrous slanderer of heaven and Earth!CONSTANCE Thou monstrous injurer of heaven and Earth, Call not me slanderer. Thou and thine usurp The dominations, royalties, and rights Of this oppressèd boy. This is thy eldest son’s son,185 Infortunate in nothing but in thee. Thy sins are visited in this poor child. The canon of the law is laid on him, Being but the second generation Removèd from thy sin-conceiving womb.
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KING JOHN 190 Bedlam, have done.CONSTANCE I have but this to say, That he is not only plaguèd for her sin, But God hath made her sin and her the plague On this removèd issue, plagued for her,195 And with her plague; her sin his injury, Her injury the beadle to her sin, All punished in the person of this child And all for her. A plague upon her!QUEEN ELEANOR Thou unadvisèd scold, I can produce200 A will that bars the title of thy son.CONSTANCE Ay, who doubts that? A will—a wicked will, A woman’s will, a cankered grandam’s will.KING PHILIP Peace, lady. Pause, or be more temperate. It ill beseems this presence to cry aim205 To these ill-tunèd repetitions.— Some trumpet summon hither to the walls These men of Angiers. Let us hear them speak Whose title they admit, Arthur’s or John’s.Trumpet sounds.Enter ⌜Citizens⌝ upon the walls.CITIZEN Who is it that hath warned us to the walls?KING PHILIP 210 ’Tis France, for England.KING JOHN England, for itself. You men of Angiers, and my loving subjects—KING PHILIP You loving men of Angiers, Arthur’s subjects, Our trumpet called you to this gentle parle—
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KING JOHN 215 For our advantage. Therefore hear us first. These flags of France that are advancèd here Before the eye and prospect of your town, Have hither marched to your endamagement. The cannons have their bowels full of wrath,220 And ready mounted are they to spit forth Their iron indignation ’gainst your walls. All preparation for a bloody siege And merciless proceeding by these French ⌜Confronts your⌝ city’s eyes, your winking gates,225 And, but for our approach, those sleeping stones, That as a waist doth girdle you about, By the compulsion of their ordinance By this time from their fixèd beds of lime Had been dishabited, and wide havoc made230 For bloody power to rush upon your peace. But on the sight of us your lawful king, Who painfully with much expedient march Have brought a countercheck before your gates To save unscratched your city’s threatened cheeks,235 Behold, the French, amazed, vouchsafe a parle. And now, instead of bullets wrapped in fire To make a shaking fever in your walls, They shoot but calm words folded up in smoke To make a faithless error in your ears,240 Which trust accordingly, kind citizens, And let us in. Your king, whose labored spirits Forwearied in this action of swift speed, Craves harborage within your city walls.KING PHILIP When I have said, make answer to us both.⌜He takes Arthur by the hand.⌝245 Lo, in this right hand, whose protection Is most divinely vowed upon the right
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Of him it holds, stands young Plantagenet, Son to the elder brother of this man, And king o’er him and all that he enjoys.250 For this downtrodden equity we tread In warlike march these greens before your town, Being no further enemy to you Than the constraint of hospitable zeal In the relief of this oppressèd child255 Religiously provokes. Be pleasèd then To pay that duty which you truly owe To him that owes it, namely, this young prince, And then our arms, like to a muzzled bear Save in aspect, hath all offense sealed up.260 Our cannons’ malice vainly shall be spent Against th’ invulnerable clouds of heaven, And with a blessèd and unvexed retire, With unbacked swords and helmets all unbruised, We will bear home that lusty blood again265 Which here we came to spout against your town, And leave your children, wives, and you in peace. But if you fondly pass our proffered offer, ’Tis not the roundure of your old-faced walls Can hide you from our messengers of war,270 Though all these English and their discipline Were harbored in their rude circumference. Then tell us, shall your city call us lord In that behalf which we have challenged it? Or shall we give the signal to our rage275 And stalk in blood to our possession?CITIZEN In brief, we are the King of England’s subjects. For him, and in his right, we hold this town.KING JOHN Acknowledge then the King and let me in.CITIZEN That can we not. But he that proves the King,
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280 To him will we prove loyal. Till that time Have we rammed up our gates against the world.KING JOHN Doth not the crown of England prove the King? And if not that, I bring you witnesses, Twice fifteen thousand hearts of England’s breed—BASTARD 285Bastards and else.KING JOHN To verify our title with their lives.KING PHILIP As many and as wellborn bloods as those—BASTARD Some bastards too.KING PHILIP Stand in his face to contradict his claim.CITIZEN 290 Till you compound whose right is worthiest, We for the worthiest hold the right from both.KING JOHN Then God forgive the sin of all those souls That to their everlasting residence, Before the dew of evening fall, shall fleet295 In dreadful trial of our kingdom’s king.KING PHILIP Amen, amen.—Mount, chevaliers! To arms!BASTARD Saint George, that swinged the dragon and e’er since Sits on ’s horseback at mine hostess’ door,300 Teach us some fence! ⌜To Austria.⌝ Sirrah, were I at home At your den, sirrah, with your lioness, I would set an ox head to your lion’s hide And make a monster of you.AUSTRIA 305 Peace! No more.BASTARD O, tremble, for you hear the lion roar.
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KING JOHN, ⌜to his officers⌝ Up higher to the plain, where we’ll set forth In best appointment all our regiments.BASTARD Speed, then, to take advantage of the field.KING PHILIP, ⌜to his officers⌝ 310 It shall be so, and at the other hill Command the rest to stand. God and our right!They exit. ⌜Citizens remain, above.⌝Here, after excursions, enter the Herald of France, with
Trumpets, to the gates.FRENCH HERALD You men of Angiers, open wide your gates, And let young Arthur, Duke of Brittany, in, Who by the hand of France this day hath made315 Much work for tears in many an English mother, Whose sons lie scattered on the bleeding ground. Many a widow’s husband groveling lies Coldly embracing the discolored earth, And victory with little loss doth play320 Upon the dancing banners of the French, Who are at hand, triumphantly displayed, To enter conquerors and to proclaim Arthur of Brittany England’s king and yours.Enter English Herald, with Trumpet.ENGLISH HERALD Rejoice, you men of Angiers, ring your bells!325 King John, your king and England’s, doth approach, Commander of this hot malicious day. Their armors, that marched hence so silver bright, Hither return all gilt with Frenchmen’s blood. There stuck no plume in any English crest330 That is removèd by a staff of France.
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Our colors do return in those same hands That did display them when we first marched forth, And like a jolly troop of huntsmen come Our lusty English, all with purpled hands,335 Dyed in the dying slaughter of their foes. Open your gates, and give the victors way.⌜CITIZEN⌝ Heralds, from off our towers we might behold From first to last the onset and retire Of both your armies, whose equality340 By our best eyes cannot be censurèd. Blood hath bought blood, and blows have answered blows, Strength matched with strength, and power confronted power.345 Both are alike, and both alike we like. One must prove greatest. While they weigh so even, We hold our town for neither, yet for both.Enter the two Kings with their Powers (⌜including the
Bastard, Queen Eleanor, Blanche, and Salisbury;
Austria, and Louis the Dauphin⌝), at several doors.KING JOHN France, hast thou yet more blood to cast away? Say, shall the current of our right roam on,350 Whose passage, vexed with thy impediment, Shall leave his native channel and o’erswell With course disturbed even thy confining shores, Unless thou let his silver water keep A peaceful progress to the ocean?KING PHILIP 355 England, thou hast not saved one drop of blood In this hot trial more than we of France, Rather lost more. And by this hand I swear That sways the earth this climate overlooks,
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Before we will lay down our just-borne arms,360 We’ll put thee down, ’gainst whom these arms we bear, Or add a royal number to the dead, Gracing the scroll that tells of this war’s loss With slaughter coupled to the name of kings.BASTARD, ⌜aside⌝ 365 Ha, majesty! How high thy glory towers When the rich blood of kings is set on fire! O, now doth Death line his dead chaps with steel, The swords of soldiers are his teeth, his fangs, And now he feasts, mousing the flesh of men370 In undetermined differences of kings. Why stand these royal fronts amazèd thus? Cry havoc, kings! Back to the stainèd field, You equal potents, fiery-kindled spirits. Then let confusion of one part confirm375 The other’s peace. Till then, blows, blood, and death!KING JOHN Whose party do the townsmen yet admit?KING PHILIP Speak, citizens, for England. Who’s your king?⌜CITIZEN⌝ The King of England, when we know the King.KING PHILIP 380 Know him in us, that here hold up his right.KING JOHN In us, that are our own great deputy And bear possession of our person here, Lord of our presence, Angiers, and of you.⌜CITIZEN⌝ A greater power than we denies all this,385 And till it be undoubted, we do lock Our former scruple in our strong-barred gates,
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Kings of our fear, until our fears resolved Be by some certain king purged and deposed.BASTARD By heaven, these scroyles of Angiers flout you, kings,390 And stand securely on their battlements As in a theater, whence they gape and point At your industrious scenes and acts of death. Your royal presences, be ruled by me: Do like the mutines of Jerusalem,395 Be friends awhile, and both conjointly bend Your sharpest deeds of malice on this town. By east and west let France and England mount Their battering cannon chargèd to the mouths, Till their soul-fearing clamors have brawled down400 The flinty ribs of this contemptuous city. I’d play incessantly upon these jades, Even till unfencèd desolation Leave them as naked as the vulgar air. That done, dissever your united strengths405 And part your mingled colors once again; Turn face to face and bloody point to point. Then in a moment Fortune shall cull forth Out of one side her happy minion, To whom in favor she shall give the day410 And kiss him with a glorious victory. How like you this wild counsel, mighty states? Smacks it not something of the policy?KING JOHN Now by the sky that hangs above our heads, I like it well. France, shall we knit our powers415 And lay this Angiers even with the ground, Then after fight who shall be king of it?BASTARD, ⌜to King Philip⌝ An if thou hast the mettle of a king, Being wronged as we are by this peevish town,
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Turn thou the mouth of thy artillery,420 As we will ours, against these saucy walls, And when that we have dashed them to the ground, Why, then, defy each other and pell-mell Make work upon ourselves, for heaven or hell.KING PHILIP Let it be so. Say, where will you assault?KING JOHN 425 We from the west will send destruction Into this city’s bosom.AUSTRIA I from the north.KING PHILIP Our thunder from the south Shall rain their drift of bullets on this town.BASTARD, ⌜aside⌝ 430 O, prudent discipline! From north to south, Austria and France shoot in each other’s mouth. I’ll stir them to it. — Come, away, away!⌜CITIZEN⌝ Hear us, great kings. Vouchsafe awhile to stay, And I shall show you peace and fair-faced league,435 Win you this city without stroke or wound, Rescue those breathing lives to die in beds That here come sacrifices for the field. Persever not, but hear me, mighty kings.KING JOHN Speak on with favor. We are bent to hear.⌜CITIZEN⌝ 440 That daughter there of Spain, the Lady Blanche, Is near to England. Look upon the years Of Louis the Dauphin and that lovely maid. If lusty love should go in quest of beauty, Where should he find it fairer than in Blanche?445 If zealous love should go in search of virtue, Where should he find it purer than in Blanche? If love ambitious sought a match of birth,
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Whose veins bound richer blood than Lady Blanche?450 Such as she is, in beauty, virtue, birth, Is the young Dauphin every way complete. If not complete of, say he is not she, And she again wants nothing, to name want, If want it be not that she is not he.455 He is the half part of a blessèd man, Left to be finishèd by such as she, And she a fair divided excellence, Whose fullness of perfection lies in him. O, two such silver currents when they join460 Do glorify the banks that bound them in, And two such shores to two such streams made one, Two such controlling bounds shall you be, kings, To these two princes, if you marry them. This union shall do more than battery can465 To our fast-closèd gates, for at this match, With swifter spleen than powder can enforce, The mouth of passage shall we fling wide ope And give you entrance. But without this match, The sea enragèd is not half so deaf,470 Lions more confident, mountains and rocks More free from motion, no, not Death himself In mortal fury half so peremptory As we to keep this city.⌜King Philip and Louis the Dauphin
walk aside and talk.⌝BASTARD, ⌜aside⌝ Here’s a stay475 That shakes the rotten carcass of old Death Out of his rags! Here’s a large mouth indeed That spits forth death and mountains, rocks and seas; Talks as familiarly of roaring lions480 As maids of thirteen do of puppy dogs.
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What cannoneer begot this lusty blood? He speaks plain cannon fire, and smoke, and bounce. He gives the bastinado with his tongue.485 Our ears are cudgeled. Not a word of his But buffets better than a fist of France. Zounds, I was never so bethumped with words Since I first called my brother’s father Dad.QUEEN ELEANOR, ⌜aside to King John⌝ Son, list to this conjunction; make this match.490 Give with our niece a dowry large enough, For by this knot thou shalt so surely tie Thy now unsured assurance to the crown That yon green boy shall have no sun to ripe The bloom that promiseth a mighty fruit.495 I see a yielding in the looks of France. Mark how they whisper. Urge them while their souls Are capable of this ambition, Lest zeal, now melted by the windy breath500 Of soft petitions, pity, and remorse, Cool and congeal again to what it was.⌜CITIZEN⌝ Why answer not the double majesties This friendly treaty of our threatened town?KING PHILIP Speak England first, that hath been forward first505 To speak unto this city. What say you?KING JOHN If that the Dauphin there, thy princely son, Can in this book of beauty read “I love,” Her dowry shall weigh equal with a queen. For ⌜Anjou⌝ and fair Touraine, Maine, Poitiers,510 And all that we upon this side the sea— Except this city now by us besieged—
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Find liable to our crown and dignity, Shall gild her bridal bed and make her rich In titles, honors, and promotions,515 As she in beauty, education, blood, Holds hand with any princess of the world.KING PHILIP What sayst thou, boy? Look in the lady’s face.DAUPHIN I do, my lord, and in her eye I find A wonder or a wondrous miracle,520 The shadow of myself formed in her eye, Which, being but the shadow of your son, Becomes a sun and makes your son a shadow. I do protest I never loved myself Till now infixèd I beheld myself525 Drawn in the flattering table of her eye.⌜He⌝ whispers with Blanche.BASTARD, ⌜aside⌝ “Drawn in the flattering table of her eye”? Hanged in the frowning wrinkle of her brow And quartered in her heart! He doth espy Himself love’s traitor. This is pity now,530 That hanged and drawn and quartered there should be In such a love so vile a lout as he.BLANCHE, ⌜aside to Dauphin⌝ My uncle’s will in this respect is mine. If he see aught in you that makes him like,535 That anything he sees which moves his liking I can with ease translate it to my will. Or if you will, to speak more properly, I will enforce it eas’ly to my love. Further I will not flatter you, my lord,540 That all I see in you is worthy love, Than this: that nothing do I see in you,
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Though churlish thoughts themselves should be your judge, That I can find should merit any hate.KING JOHN 545 What say these young ones? What say you, my niece?BLANCHE That she is bound in honor still to do What you in wisdom still vouchsafe to say.KING JOHN Speak then, Prince Dauphin. Can you love this lady?DAUPHIN 550 Nay, ask me if I can refrain from love, For I do love her most unfeignedly.KING JOHN Then do I give Volquessen, Touraine, Maine, Poitiers and Anjou, these five provinces With her to thee, and this addition more:555 Full thirty thousand marks of English coin.— Philip of France, if thou be pleased withal, Command thy son and daughter to join hands.KING PHILIP It likes us well.—Young princes, close your hands.AUSTRIA And your lips too, for I am well assured560 That I did so when I was first assured.⌜Dauphin and Blanche join hands and kiss.⌝KING PHILIP Now, citizens of Angiers, ope your gates. Let in that amity which you have made, For at Saint Mary’s Chapel presently The rites of marriage shall be solemnized.—565 Is not the Lady Constance in this troop? I know she is not, for this match made up Her presence would have interrupted much. Where is she and her son? Tell me, who knows.
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DAUPHIN She is sad and passionate at your Highness’ tent.KING PHILIP 570 And by my faith, this league that we have made Will give her sadness very little cure.— Brother of England, how may we content This widow lady? In her right we came, Which we, God knows, have turned another way575 To our own vantage.KING JOHN We will heal up all, For we’ll create young Arthur Duke of Brittany And Earl of Richmond, and this rich, fair town We make him lord of.—Call the Lady Constance.580 Some speedy messenger bid her repair To our solemnity. ⌜Salisbury exits.⌝ I trust we shall, If not fill up the measure of her will, Yet in some measure satisfy her so585 That we shall stop her exclamation. Go we as well as haste will suffer us To this unlooked-for, unpreparèd pomp.⌜All but the Bastard⌝ exit.BASTARD Mad world, mad kings, mad composition! John, to stop Arthur’s title in the whole,590 Hath willingly departed with a part; And France, whose armor conscience buckled on, Whom zeal and charity brought to the field As God’s own soldier, rounded in the ear With that same purpose-changer, that sly devil,595 That broker that still breaks the pate of faith, That daily break-vow, he that wins of all, Of kings, of beggars, old men, young men, maids— Who having no external thing to lose But the word “maid,” cheats the poor maid of600 that—
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That smooth-faced gentleman, tickling Commodity, Commodity, the bias of the world— The world, who of itself is peisèd well, Made to run even upon even ground,605 Till this advantage, this vile-drawing bias, This sway of motion, this Commodity, Makes it take head from all indifferency, From all direction, purpose, course, intent. And this same bias, this Commodity,610 This bawd, this broker, this all-changing word, Clapped on the outward eye of fickle France, Hath drawn him from his own determined aid, From a resolved and honorable war To a most base and vile-concluded peace.615 And why rail I on this Commodity? But for because he hath not wooed me yet. Not that I have the power to clutch my hand When his fair angels would salute my palm, But for my hand, as unattempted yet,620 Like a poor beggar raileth on the rich. Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail And say there is no sin but to be rich; And being rich, my virtue then shall be To say there is no vice but beggary.625 Since kings break faith upon Commodity, Gain, be my lord, for I will worship thee!He exits.
