| ACT V SCENE I | KING JOHN'S palace. | |
| | Enter KING JOHN, CARDINAL PANDULPH, and Attendants. | |
| KING JOHN | Thus have I yielded up into your hand | |
| | The circle of my glory. | |
| | Giving the crown. | |
| CARDINAL PANDULPH | Take again | |
| | From this my hand, as holding of the pope | 5 |
| | Your sovereign greatness and authority. | |
| KING JOHN | Now keep your holy word: go meet the French, | |
| | And from his holiness use all your power | |
| | To stop their marches 'fore we are inflamed. | |
| | Our discontented counties do revolt; | 10 |
| | Our people quarrel with obedience, | |
| | Swearing allegiance and the love of soul | |
| | To stranger blood, to foreign royalty. | |
| | This inundation of mistemper'd humour | |
| | Rests by you only to be qualified: | 15 |
| | Then pause not; for the present time's so sick, | |
| | That present medicine must be minister'd, | |
| | Or overthrow incurable ensues. | |
| CARDINAL PANDULPH | It was my breath that blew this tempest up, | |
| | Upon your stubborn usage of the pope; | 20 |
| | But since you are a gentle convertite, | |
| | My tongue shall hush again this storm of war | |
| | And make fair weather in your blustering land. | |
| | On this Ascension-day, remember well, | |
| | Upon your oath of service to the pope, | 25 |
| | Go I to make the French lay down their arms. | |
| | Exit | |
| KING JOHN | Is this Ascension-day? Did not the prophet | |
| | Say that before Ascension-day at noon | |
| | My crown I should give off? Even so I have: | |
| | I did suppose it should be on constraint: | 30 |
| | But, heaven be thank'd, it is but voluntary. | |
| | Enter the BASTARD | |
| BASTARD | All Kent hath yielded; nothing there holds out | |
| | But Dover castle: London hath received, | |
| | Like a kind host, the Dauphin and his powers: | |
| | Your nobles will not hear you, but are gone | 35 |
| | To offer service to your enemy, | |
| | And wild amazement hurries up and down | |
| | The little number of your doubtful friends. | |
| KING JOHN | Would not my lords return to me again, | |
| | After they heard young Arthur was alive? | 40 |
| BASTARD | They found him dead and cast into the streets, | |
| | An empty casket, where the jewel of life | |
| | By some damn'd hand was robb'd and ta'en away. | |
| KING JOHN | That villain Hubert told me he did live. | |
| BASTARD | So, on my soul, he did, for aught he knew. | 45 |
| | But wherefore do you droop? why look you sad? | |
| | Be great in act, as you have been in thought; | |
| | Let not the world see fear and sad distrust | |
| | Govern the motion of a kingly eye: | |
| | Be stirring as the time; be fire with fire; | 50 |
| | Threaten the threatener and outface the brow | |
| | Of bragging horror: so shall inferior eyes, | |
| | That borrow their behaviors from the great, | |
| | Grow great by your example and put on | |
| | The dauntless spirit of resolution. | 55 |
| | Away, and glister like the god of war, | |
| | When he intendeth to become the field: | |
| | Show boldness and aspiring confidence. | |
| | What, shall they seek the lion in his den, | |
| | And fright him there? and make him tremble there? | 60 |
| | O, let it not be said: forage, and run | |
| | To meet displeasure farther from the doors, | |
| | And grapple with him ere he comes so nigh. | |
| KING JOHN | The legate of the pope hath been with me, | |
| | And I have made a happy peace with him; | 65 |
| | And he hath promised to dismiss the powers | |
| | Led by the Dauphin. | |
| BASTARD | O inglorious league! | |
| | Shall we, upon the footing of our land, | |
| | Send fair-play orders and make compromise, | 70 |
| | Insinuation, parley and base truce | |
| | To arms invasive? shall a beardless boy, | |
| | A cocker'd silken wanton, brave our fields, | |
| | And flesh his spirit in a warlike soil, | |
| | Mocking the air with colours idly spread, | 75 |
| | And find no cheque? Let us, my liege, to arms: | |
| | Perchance the cardinal cannot make your peace; | |
| | Or if he do, let it at least be said | |
| | They saw we had a purpose of defence. | |
| KING JOHN | Have thou the ordering of this present time. | 80 |
| BASTARD | Away, then, with good courage! yet, I know, | |
| | Our party may well meet a prouder foe. | |
| | Exeunt | |
