This inundation of miftemper'd humour
Refts by you only to be qualify'd.

Then paufe not; for the prefent time's fo fick,
That prefent medicine must be miniftred,

· Or Overthrow incurable infues.

Pand. It was my breath that blew this tempest up, Upon your ftubborn ufage of the Pope :

But fince you are a gentle convertite,

My tongue fhall hush again this ftorm of war;
And make fair weather in your bluft'ring Land.
On this Afcenfion day, remember well,

Upon your oath of fervice to the Pope,

Go I to make the French lay down their arms. [Exit.
K. John. Is this Afcenfion-day? did not the Prophet
Say, that before Afcenfion day at noon

My Crown I fhould give off? even so I have :
I did fuppofe, it should be on constraint;

But, heav'n be thank'd, it is but voluntary.

Enter Faulconbridge.

Faulc. All Kent hath yielded, nothing there holds our

But Dover-Cafile: London hath receiv'd,

Like a kind hoft, the Dauphin and his Powers.
Your Nobles will not hear you, but are gone

To offer fervice to your enemy;

And wild amazement hurries up and down
The little number of your doubtful friends.

K. John. Would not my lords return to me again, After they heard, young Arthur was alive?

Faulc. They found him dead, and cast into the streets, An empty casket, where the jewel, life, By fome damn'd hand was robb'd and ta'en away. K. John. That villain Hubert told me, he did live. Faulc. So on my foul he did, for aught he knew: But wherefore do you droop? why look you fad? Be great in act, as you have been in thought: Let not the world fee fear and fad diftruft Govern the motion of a kingly eye: Be ftirring as the time; be fire with fire; Threaten the threatner, and out-face the brow

OF

Of bragging horror: fo fhall inferior eyes,
That borrow their behaviours from the Great,
Grow great by your example; and put on
The dauntless spirit of refolution.

Away, and glifter like the God of war,
When he intendeth to become the field
Shew boldness and afpiring confidence.
What, fhall they feek the Lion in his den,
And fright him there? and make him tremble there?
Oh, let it not be faid! Forage, and run

To meet displeasure farther from the doors;
And grapple with him, ere he come fo nigh.

K. John. The Legate of the Pope hath been with

me,

And I have made a happy peace with him;

And he hath promis'd to dismiss the Powers
Led by the Dauphin.

Faulc. Oh inglorious league!

Shall we, upon the footing of our Land,
Send fair-play-orders, and make compromife,
Infinuation, parley, and base truce,

To arms invafive? fhall a beardless boy,
A cocker'd, filken, Wanton brave our fields,
And flesh his fpirit in a warlike foil,

Mocking the air with Colours idely spread,
And find no check? let us, my Liege, to arms:
Perchance, the Cardinal can't make your peace;
Or if he do, let it at least be said,

They faw, we had a purpose of defence.

K. John. Have thou the ørd'ring of this prefent

time.

Faulc. Away then, with good courage; yet, I know, Our Party may well meet a prouder foe.

[Exeunt.

SCENE changes to the Dauphin's Camp, at
St. Edmundsbury.' (18.)

Enter, in arms, Lewis, Salisbury, Melun, Pembroke,
Bigot, and Soldiers.

Lewis.

MY

Y lord Melun, let this be copied out,
And keep it fafe for our remembrance:
Return the prefident to these lords again,
That having our fair order written down,
Both they and we, perufing o'er these notes,
May know wherefore we took the Sacrament;
And keep our faiths firm and inviolable.

Sal. Upon our fides it never shall be broken.
And, noble Dauphin, albeit we fwear
A voluntary zeal and un-urg'd faith

To your proceedings; yet believe me, Prince,
I am not glad that fuch a Sore of time
Should feek a plaister by contemn'd revolt;
And heal th' inveterate canker of one wound,
By making many. Oh, it grieves my foul,
That I muft draw this metal from my fide
To be a widow-maker: oh, and there,
Where honourable rescue, and defence,
Cries out upon the name of Salisbury.
But fuch is the infection of the time,

(18) at St. Edmondsbury.] I have ventur'd to fix the Place of the Scene here, which is fpecified by none of the Editors, on the following Authorities. In the preceding Act, where Salis bury has fix'd ro go over to the Dauphin, he fays,

Lords, I will meet him at St. Edmondsbury..

And Count Melun, in this last A&, says;`

-and many more with me,

Upon the Altar at St. Edmondsbury;

Even on that Altar, where We swore to You

Dear Amity, and everlasting Love.

And it appears likewife from the Troublefom Reign of King Joht, in two Parts, (the first rough Model of this Play) that the Interchange of Vows betwixt the Dauphin and the English Barons was at St. Edmondsbury,

That,

That, for the health and phyfick of our Right,
We cannot deal but with the very hand
Of ftern injustice, and confufed wrong.
And is't not pity, oh my grieved friends!
That we, the fons and children of this Ifle,
Were born to see so fad an hour as this,
Wherein we step after a stranger March (19)
Upon her gentle bofom, and fill up
Her enemies ranks? (I muft withdraw
Upon the Spot of this enforced caufe ;)
To grace the gentry of a Land remote,
And follow unacquainted Colours here?

and weep

What, here? O nation, that thou could'st remove!
That Neptune's arms, who clippeth thee about,
Would bear thee from the knowledge of thy felf,
And grapple thee unto a Pagan fhore!

Where these two chriftian armies might combine
The blood of malice in a vein of league,
And not to spend it fo un-neighbourly.

Lewis. A noble temper doft thou fhew in this;
And great affection, wrestling in thy bofom,
Doth make an earthquake of Nobility.
Oh, what a noble combat haft thou fought,
Between compulfion, and a brave refpect!
Let me wipe off this honourable dew,
That filverly doth progrefs on thy cheeks.
My heart hath melted at a lady's tears,
Being an ordinary inundation:

But this effufion of fuch manly drops,

This fhow'r, blown up by tempeft of the foul,
Startles mine eyes, and makes me more amaz'd,
Than had I seen the vaulty top of heav'n
Figur'd quite o'er with burning meteors.

(19) Wherein we step after a stranger, march

Upon her gentle Bofom,] Thus all the printed Copies have mistakingly pointed this Paffage: but, with Submiffion to the former Editors, the Word Stranger is here an Adjective in its Ufage, and to be coupled to March, which is its Subftantive and no Verb. And to ftep after a stranger March, is, What he presently calls in other Terms, following unacquainted Colours.

Lift up thy brow, renowned Salisbury,
And with a great heart heave away this ftorm.
Commend these waters to those baby-eyes,
That never faw the giant world enrag'd;
Nor met with fortune, other than at feasts,
Full warm of blood, of mirth, of goffipping.
Come, come; for thou shalt thruft thy hand as deep
Into the purfe of rich profperity,

As Lewis himself; fo, Nobles, shall you all,
That knit your finews to the ftrength of mine.
Enter Pandulph.

And even there, methinks, an angel spake!
Look, where the holy legate comes apace,
To give us warrant from the hand of heav'n,
And on our actions fet the name of Right
With holy breath.

Pand. Hail, noble Prince of France!
The next is this: King John hath reconcil'd
Himfelf to Rome; his fpirit is come in,
That fo ftood out against the holy Church,
The great Metropolis and See of Rome.
Therefore thy threatning Colours now wind up,
And tame the favage fpirit of wild war;
That, like a Lion fofter'd up at hand,

It may lye gently at the foot of peace:
And be no further harmful than in fhew.

Lewis. Your Grace fhall pardon me, I will not back: I am too high-born to be propertied,

To be a fecondary at controul;

Or useful ferving-man, and inftrument,
To any fovereign State throughout the world.
Your breath firft kindled the dead coal of war,
Between this chaftis'd Kingdom and my felf;
And brought in matter, that should feed this fire.
And now 'tis far too huge to be blown out,
With that fame weak wind which enkindled it.
You taught me how to know the face of Right,
Acquainted me with int'reft to this Land;
Yea, thruft this enterprize into my heart:

And