Page 162 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

Arthur of Britain England’s king, and yours.

Enter English Herald, with Trumpeter.

ENGLISH HERALD
Rejoice, you men of Angiers, ring your bells;
King John, your king and England’s, doth approach,
Commander of this hot malicious day.

Their armours, that march’d hence so silver-bright, [315]
Hither return all gilt with Frenchmen’s blood;
There stuck no plume in any English crest
That is removed by a staff of France;

Our colours do return in those same hands
That did display them when we first march’d forth; [320]
And, like a jolly troop of huntsmen, come
Our lusty English, all with purpled hands,

Dyed in the dying slaughter of their foes:
Open your gates and give the victors way.

HUBERT
Heralds, from off our towers we might behold, [325]
From first to last, the onset and retire
Of both your armies; whose equality

By our best eyes cannot be censured:
Blood hath bought blood and blows have answer’d blows;
Strength match’d with strength, and power confronted power: [330]

Both are alike, and both alike we like.
One must prove greatest: while they weigh so even
We hold our town for neither, yet for both.

Re-enter, on one side, King John, Eleanor, Blanche, the Bastard, Lords and
Forces; on the other, King Philip, Lewis, Austria, and Forces.

KING JOHN

France, hast thou yet more blood to cast away?
Say, shall the current of our right roam on? [335]
Whose passage, vex’d with thy impediment,
Shall leave his native channel and o’erswell,