Enter the two Kings with their Powers, at several Doors. K. John. France, haft thou yet more blood to caft

away? Say, shall the current of our Right run on? Whose passage, vext with thy impediment, Shall leave his native channel, and o'er-swell With course disturb'd ev'n thy confining-shores ; Unless thou let his filver water keep A peaceful progress to the ocean. K. Philip. England, thou hast not sav'd one drop of

blood In this hot tryal, more than we of France; Rather loft more. And by this hand I swear, That sways the earth this climate overlooks, Before we will lay by 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 scroul, that tells of this war's loss, With slaughter coupled to the name of Kings.

Faulc. Ha! Majesty,-how high thy glory towers,
When the rich blood of Kings is set on fire!
Oh, now doth Death line his dead chaps with steel;
The swords of soldiers are his teeth, his phangs;
And now he feasts, mouthing the filesh of men
In undetermin'd diff'rences of Kings.
Why stand these royal fronts amazed thus ?
Cry havock, 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.

K. John. Whose party do the townsmen yet admit?
K. Philip. Speak, Citizens, for England, who's your

King ?
Cit. The King of England, when we know the King.
K. Philip. Know him in us, that here hold up his

Right.
K. John. In us, that are our own great deputv,
And bear poffeffion of our person here;
Lord of our presence, Angiers, and of you.

Cit. A greater pow'r, than ye, denies all this; (7) And till it be undoubted, we do lock Our former scruple in our strong-barr'd gates. Kings of our fears, until our fears resolv'd Be by some certain King purg'd and depos'd. Faulc. By heav'n, the 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. You royal presences, be ruld by me ; Do like the Mutines of Jerufalem, Be friends a while, and both conjointly bend Your sharpeft deeds of malice on this town. By east and weft let France and England mount Their batt'ring cannon charged to the mouths ; Till their soul-fearing clamours have braul'd down The flinty ribs of this contemptuous City. I'd play incessantly upon these jades; Even till un fenced defolation Leave them as naked as the vulgar air. That done, diffever 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 The fhall 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 K. 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,

(7) A greater Pow'r than We denies all this;] We muft cer: tainly read, as Mr. Warburton acutely observ'd to Me;

A greater Pow'r, than Ye, denies all this: i. e. Tho' each of You pretend to be our rightful Kings, you are as yet only so in swaying over our Fears, in the Terrors we have of you ;. not acknowledg'd Kings in our Obedience.

Then,

1

Then, after, fight who shall be King of it?

Faulc. And if thou haft 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 fawcy walls;
And when that we have dash'd them to the ground,
Why, then defie each other; and, pell-mell,
Make work upon our selves for heav'n or hell.
K. Philip. Let it be so; say, where will

you

assault? K. John. We from the west will send deitruction Into this City's bosom.

Auft. I from the north.
K. Philip. Our thunder from the south
Shall rain their drift of bullets on this town.

Faulc. O prudent discipline! from North to South ;
Auftria and France shoot in each other's mouth.
I'll ftir them to it; come, away, away!
Cit. Hear us, great Kings ; vouchsafe a while to

stay, And I shall shew you peace, and fair-fac'd league ; Win you this city without stroak or wound; Rescue those breathing lives to die in beds, That here come sacrifices for the field ; Persever not, but hear me, mighty Kings. K. John. Speak on, with favour; we are bent to

hear. Cit. That daughter there of Spain, the lady Blanch, Is near to England; look

upon
the

years
Of Lewis the Dauphin, and that lovely maid.
If lufty love should go in quest of beauty,
Where should he find it fairer than in Blanch?
If zealous love should go in search of virtue,
Where should he find it purer than in Blanch?
If love, ambitious, fought a match of Birth,
Whose veins bound richer blood than lady Blanch?
Such as she is, in beauty, virtue, birth,
Is the young Dauphin every way compleat:
If not compleat ofsay, he is not the;
And the again wants nothing, (to name Want,)
If Want it be not, that she is not he.
VOL. III.

Q

He

/

He is the half part of a blessed man, (8)
Left to be finished by such a She:
And she a fair divided Excellence,
Whose fulness of perfection lies in him.
Oh! two such filver currents, when they join,
Do glorifie the banks that bound them in :
And two such fhores, to two such ftreams made one,
Two such controlling bounds shall you be, Kings,
To these two Princes, if you marry them.
This union shall do more than battery can,
To our faft-closed gates : for at this match,
With swifter Spleen than Powder can enforce,
The mouth of paffage shall we fling wide ope,
And give you entrance ; but without this match,
The sea enraged is not half so deaf,
Lions so confident, mountains and rocks
So free from motion ; no, not death himself
In mortal fury half so peremptory,
As we to keep this City.

Faulc. Here's a ftay,
That shakes the rotten carcass of old Death
Out of his rags. Here's a large mouth, indeed,
That spits forth death, and mountains, rocks and feas ;
Talks as familiarly of roaring Lions,
As maids of thirteen do of puppy-dogs.
What Cannoneer begot this lusty blood ?
He speaks plain cannon-fire, and smoak and bounce,
He gives the bastonado with his tongue :
Our ears are cudgeld ; not a word of his,
But buffets better than a fist of France ;
Zounds! I was never fo bethumpt with words,
Since I first calld my brother's father dad.

Eli. Son, lift to this conjunction, make this match, Give with our Neice a dowry large enough ;For by this knot thou shalt so surely tie

(8) He is the half Part of a blessed Man,

Left to be finished by such as She:) The ingenious Dr. Thirhe prescrib'd that Reading, which I have here restor'd to the Text; and which is absolutely requisite to the Sense of the Passage.

Thy

Thy now unsur'd assurance to the Crown,
That yon green boy shall have no Sun to ripe
The bloom, that promiseth a mighty fruit.
I see a Yielding in the looks of France;
Mark, how they whisper; urge them, while their souls
Are capable of this ambition ;
Left zeal now melted by the windy breath
Of soft petitions, pity and remorse,
Cool and congeal again to what it was.

Cit. Why answer not the double Majesties
This friendly Treaty of our threatend town?
K. Philip. Speak, England, first, that hath been for-

ward first
To speak unto this City : what say you ?

K. John. If that the Dauphin there, thy Princely fon,
Can in this book of beauty read, I love ;-
Her dowry shall weigh equal with a Queen.
For Anjou, and fair Touraine, Maine, Poiztiers, (9)
And all that we upon this side the sea,
Except this City now by us besieg'd,
Find liable to our Crown and Dignity,
Shall gild her bridal bed ; and make her rich
In titles, honours, and promotions ;
(9) For ANGIERS and fair Touraine, Maine, Poi&iers,

And all that We upon this Side the Sea,
Except this City now by us besieg'd,

Find liable, &c.] This is a remarkable Instance of Carelerness in a Point that stares common Sense full in the Face : and yet thus all the Editors in their profound Sagacity. What was the City besieg'd, but Angiers? King John, consenting to match the Lady Blanch with the Dauphin, agrees, in Parc of her Dow. ry, to give up all he held in France, except the City of Angiers which he now besieg'd and laid Claim to. But could it be thought, that he should at one and the same time give up all except Angiers, and give up That too: Anjou was one of the Provinces, which the Englist held in France; and which the French King by Chatilion claim'd of K. John in Right of Duke

Arthur, at the very Opening of the Play. Angiers, instead of Anjou, has been falsely printed in several other Pallages of this History