• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

When I was got, I'll send his soul to hell.

Come, lady, I will show thee to my kin;

And they shall say when Richard me begot,

If thou hadst said him nay, it had been sin.

Who says it was, he lies; I say 'twas not.

Exeunt

ACT II.

SCENE 1

France. Before Angiers

Enter, on one side, AUSTRIA and forces; on the other, KING PHILIP

OF FRANCE,

LEWIS the Dauphin, CONSTANCE, ARTHUR, and forces

KING PHILIP.

Before Angiers well met, brave Austria.

Arthur, that great forerunner of thy blood,

Richard, that robb'd the lion of his heart

And fought the holy wars in Palestine,

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 colours, boy, in thy behalf;

And to rebuke the usurpation

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.

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