King John - Уильям Шекспир

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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.

          I give you welcome with a powerless hand,

          But with a heart full of unstained love;

          Welcome before the gates of Angiers, Duke.

        KING PHILIP. A noble boy! Who would not do thee right?

        AUSTRIA. Upon thy cheek lay I this zealous kiss

          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-fac'd shore,

          Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring tides

          And coops from other lands her islanders-

          Even till that England, hedg'd in with the main,

          That water-walled bulwark, still secure

          And confident from foreign purposes-

          Even till that utmost corner of the west

          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. 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 discipline,

          To cull the plots of best advantages.

          We'll lay before this town our royal bones,

          Wade to the market-place in Frenchmen's blood,

          But we will make it subject to this boy.

        CONSTANCE. Stay for an answer to your embassy,

          Lest unadvis'd you stain your swords with blood;

          My Lord Chatillon 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.

      Enter CHATILLON

        KING PHILIP. A wonder, lady! Lo, upon thy wish,

          Our messenger Chatillon is arriv'd.

          What England says, say briefly, gentle lord;

          We coldly pause for thee. Chatillon, speak.

        CHATILLON. Then turn your forces from this paltry siege

          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 stay'd, have given him time

          To land his legions all as soon as I;

          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 the Lady Blanch of Spain;

          With them a bastard of the king's deceas'd;

          And all th' unsettled humours of the land-

          Rash, inconsiderate, fiery voluntaries,

          With ladies' faces and fierce dragons' spleens-

          Have sold their fortunes at their native homes,

          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 tide

          To do offence 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 unlook'd for is this expedition!

        AUSTRIA. By how much unexpected, by so much

          We must awake endeavour for defence,

          For courage mounteth with occasion.

          Let them be welcome then; we are prepar'd.

Enter KING JOHN, ELINOR, BLANCH, the BASTARD, PEMBROKE, and others

        KING JOHN. Peace be to France, if France in peace permit

          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 return

          From France to England, there to live in peace!

          England we love, and for that England's sake

          With burden of our armour here we sweat.

          This toil of ours should be a work of thine;

          But thou from loving England art so far

          That thou hast under-wrought his lawful king,

          Cut off the sequence of posterity,

          Outfaced infant state, and done a rape

          Upon the maiden virtue of the crown.

          Look here upon thy brother Geffrey's face:

          These eyes, these brows, were moulded out of his;

          This little abstract doth contain that large

          Which died in Geffrey, and the hand of time

          Shall draw this brief into as huge a volume.

          That Geffrey was thy elder brother born,

          And this his son; England was Geffrey's right,

          And this is Geffrey's. In the name of God,

          How comes it then that thou art call'd a king,

          When living blood doth in these temples beat

          Which owe the crown that thou o'er-masterest?

        KING JOHN. From whom hast thou this great commission, France,

          To

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