Have I not heard these islanders shout out, Vive le roi! as I have bank'd their towns ?7 Pand. You look but on the outside of this work. [Trumpet sounds. What lusty trumpet thus doth summon us? Enter the Bastard, attended. Bast. According to the fair play of the world, I come, to learn how you have dealt for him ; Pand. The Dauphin is too wilful-opposite, Bast. By all the blood that ever fury breath'd, He is prepar'd; and reason too, he should: This harness'd masque, and unadvised revel, That hand, which had the strength, even at your door, [8] Bank'd their towns may mean, throw up entrenchments before them. STEEV. [9] To take the hatch, is to leap the hatch. To take a hedge or a ditch is the hunter's phrase. STEEV. To lie, like pawns, lock'd up in chests and trunks ; Lew. There end thy brave,and turn thy face in peace; We grant, thou canst outscold us: fare thee well; We hold our time too precious to be spent With such a brabbler. Pand. Give me leave to speak. Bast. No, I will speak. Lew. We will attend to neither : Strike up the drums; and let the tongue of war Plead for our interest, and our being here. Bast. Indeed, your drums, being beaten, will cry out; And so shall you, being beaten : Do but start An echo with the clamour of thy drum, And mock the deep-mouth'd thunder: for at hand Whom he hath us'd rather for sport than need,) Is warlike John; and in his forehead sits A bare-ribb'd death, whose office is this day [1] i.e. at the crowing of a cock; gallus meaning both a cock and a Frenchman. DOUCE. Lew. Strike up our drums, to find this danger out. Bast. And thou shalt find it, Dauphin, do not doubt. [Exeunt. SCENE III. The same. A Field of Battle. Alarums. Enter King JOHN K. John. How goes the day with us? O, tell me, Hu bert. Hub. Badly, I fear: How fares your majesty ? K. John. This fever, that hath troubled me so long, Lies heavy on me ; O, my heart is sick! Enter a Messenger. Mess. My lord, your valiant kinsman, Faulconbridge, Desires your majesty to leave the field; And send him word by me, which way you go. K. John. Tell him, toward Swinstead, to the abbey there. Mess. Be of good comfort; for the great supply, K. John. Ah me! this tyrant fever burns me up, [Exeunt. SCENE IV. The same. Another part of the same. Enter SALISBURY, PEMBROKE, BIGOT, and others. Sal. I did not think the king so stor❜d with friends. Pem. Up once again; put spirit in the French; ithey miscarry, we miscarry too. Sal. That misbegotten devil, Faulconbridge, spite of spite, alone upholds the day. Pem. They say, king John, sore sick, hath left the field. Enter MELUN wounded, and led by Soldiers. Mel. Lead me to the revolts of England here. Sal. When we were happy, we had other names. Pem. It is the count Melun. Sal. Wounded to death. Mel. Fly, noble English, you are bought and sold; Unthread the rude eye of rebellion, And welcome home again discarded faith. Sal. May this be possible? may this be true? Which bleeds away, even as a form of wax Since I must lose the use of all deceit ? Why should I then be false; since it is true I say again, if Lewis do win the day, He is forsworn, if e'er those eyes of yours Behold another day break in the east: But even this night,-whose black contagious breath Already smokes about the burning crest Of the old, feeble, and day-wearied sun,— Even this ill night, your breathing shall expire ; Even with a treacherous fine of all your lives, [3] This is said in allusion to the images made by witches. and dissolve had anciently the same meaning. STEEV. Resolve Where I may think the remnant of my thoughts Sal. We do believe thee,-And beshrew my soul Leaving our rankness and irregular course, 4 Even to our ocean, to our great king John.- Rights in thine eye.-Away, my friends! New flight ; [Exeunt, leading off MELUN. SCENE V. The same. The French Camp. Enter LEWIS and his Train. Lew. The sun of heaven, methought, was loath to set; But stay'd, and made the western welkin blush, When the English measur'd backward their own ground, In faint retire: O, bravely came we off, When with a volley of our needless shot, After such bloody toil, we bid good night; And wound our tatter'd colours clearly up, Last in the field, and almost lords of it! Enter a Messenger. Mess. Where is my prince, the Dauphin? Mess. The count Melun is slain; the English lords, By his persuasion, are again fallen off: [4] Rank, as applied to water, here signifies exuberant, ready to overflow: as applied to the actions of the speaker and his party, it signifies inordinate. MAL. STEEV. [5] Right signifies immediate. It is now obsolete. [6] Happy innovation, that purposed the restoration of the antient rightful government. JOHNS. [7] It is remarkable through such old copies of our author as I have hithcerto seen, that wherever the modern editors read tatter'd, the old editions give us totter'd in its room. Perhaps the present broad pronunciation, almost peculiar to the Scots, was at that time common to both nations. STEEY. |