Page 156 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2
P. 156
Good my mother, peace!
I would that I were low laid in my grave:
I am not worth this coil that’s made for me. [165]
ELEANOR
His mother shames him so, poor boy, he weeps.
CONSTANCE
Now shame upon you, whe’r she does or no!
His grandam’s wrongs, and not his mother’s shames,
Draws those heaven-moving pearls from his poor eyes,
Which heaven shall take in nature of a fee; [170]
Ay, with these crystal beads heaven shall be brib’d
To do him justice and revenge on you.
ELEANOR
Thou monstrous slanderer of heaven and earth!
CONSTANCE
Thou monstrous injurer of heaven and earth!
Call not me slanderer; thou and thine usurp [175]
The dominations, royalties and rights
Of this oppressed boy: this is thy eldest son’s son,
Infortunate in nothing but in thee:
Thy sins are visited in this poor child;
The canon of the law is laid on him, [180]
Being but the second generation
Removed from thy sin-conceiving womb.
KING JOHN
Bedlam, have done.
CONSTANCE
I have but this to say,
That he is not only plagued for her sin,
But God hath made her sin and her the plague [185]
On this removed issue, plagued for her
