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Whose passage, vex'd with thy impediment,

Shall leave his native channel and o'erswell

With course disturb'd even thy confining shores,

Unless thou let his silver water keep

A peaceful progress to the ocean.

KING PHILIP.

England, thou hast not sav'd 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,

Before we will lay down our just-borne arms,

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.

Ha, majesty! how high thy glory tow'rs

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 men,

In undetermin'd differences of kings.

Why stand these royal fronts amazed thus?

Cry 'havoc!' kings; back to the stained field,

You equal potents, fiery kindled spirits!

Then let confusion of one part confirm

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.

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 pow'r than we denies all this;

And till it be undoubted, we do lock

Our former scruple in our strong-barr'd gates;

King'd of our fears, until our fears, resolv'd,

Be by some certain king purg'd and depos'd.

BASTARD.

By heaven, these scroyles of Angiers flout you, kings,

And stand securely on their battlements

As in a theatre, whence they gape and point

At your industrious scenes and acts of death.

Your royal presences be rul'd by me:

Do like the mutines of Jerusalem,

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, charged to the mouths,

Till their soul-fearing clamours have brawl'd down

The flinty ribs of this contemptuous city.

I'd play incessantly upon these jades,

Even till unfenced desolation

Leave them as naked as the vulgar air.

That done, dissever your united strengths

And part your mingled colours 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 favour she shall give the day,

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 pow'rs

And lay this Angiers even with the ground;

Then after fight who shall be king of it?

BASTARD.

An if thou hast the mettle of a king,

Being wrong'd as we are by this peevish town,

Turn thou the mouth of thy artillery,

As we will ours, against these saucy walls;

And when that we have dash'd 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.

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] 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-fac'd league;

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 favour; we are bent to hear.

CITIZEN.