Enter King Philip of France,Louis the Dauphin,
Pandulph, Attendants. KING PHILIP
So, by a roaring tempest on the flood,
A whole armada of convicted sail
Is scattered and disjoined from fellowship. PANDULPH
Courage and comfort. All shall yet go well. KING PHILIP
What can go well when we have run so ill? 5
Are we not beaten? Is not Angiers lost?
Arthur ta’en prisoner? Divers dear friends slain?
And bloody England into England gone,
O’erbearing interruption, spite of France? DAUPHIN
What he hath won, that hath he fortified. 10
So hot a speed, with such advice disposed,
Such temperate order in so fierce a cause,
Doth want example. Who hath read or heard
Of any kindred action like to this? KING PHILIP
Well could I bear that England had this praise, 15
So we could find some pattern of our shame. Enter Constance, with her hair unbound. Look who comes here! A grave unto a soul,
Holding th’ eternal spirit against her will
In the vile prison of afflicted breath.—
I prithee, lady, go away with me. 20 CONSTANCE
Lo, now, now see the issue of your peace! | King Philip, Louis, and Pandulph enter. King Philip is ticked off because his entire naval fleet has just been destroyed by a crazy storm. Psst! This is a not-so-subtle shout-out to the Spanish Armada, which tried to attack England in 1588 but got scattered by strong winds. Pandulph tells King John to cheer up, but King John thinks he's nuts. Louis the Dauphin (a.k.a. the prince of France) agrees with his dad. Things aren't looking so great for the French. Just when they thought things couldn't get any more depressing, in walks the most depressing sight of all: Constance, frantic and tearing out her hair because she's lost her little boy, Arthur. She's not too pleased with the result of King Philip's efforts at diplomacy. |
KING PHILIP
Patience, good lady. Comfort, gentle Constance. CONSTANCE
No, I defy all counsel, all redress,
But that which ends all counsel, true redress.
Death, death, O amiable, lovely death, 25
Thou odoriferous stench, sound rottenness,
Arise forth from the couch of lasting night,
Thou hate and terror to prosperity,
And I will kiss thy detestable bones
And put my eyeballs in thy vaulty brows, 30
And ring these fingers with thy household worms,
And stop this gap of breath with fulsome dust,
And be a carrion monster like thyself.
Come, grin on me, and I will think thou smil’st,
And buss thee as thy wife. Misery’s love, 35
O, come to me! KING PHILIP
O fair affliction, peace! CONSTANCE
No, no, I will not, having breath to cry.
O, that my tongue were in the thunder’s mouth!
Then with a passion would I shake the world 40
And rouse from sleep that fell anatomy
Which cannot hear a lady’s feeble voice,
Which scorns a modern invocation. PANDULPH
Lady, you utter madness and not sorrow. CONSTANCE
Thou art not holy to belie me so. 45
I am not mad. This hair I tear is mine;
My name is Constance; I was Geoffrey’s wife;
Young Arthur is my son, and he is lost.
I am not mad; I would to heaven I were,
For then ’tis like I should forget myself. 50
O, if I could, what grief should I forget!
Preach some philosophy to make me mad,
And thou shalt be canonized, cardinal.
For, being not mad but sensible of grief,
My reasonable part produces reason 55
How I may be delivered of these woes,
And teaches me to kill or hang myself.
If I were mad, I should forget my son,
Or madly think a babe of clouts were he.
I am not mad. Too well, too well I feel 60
The different plague of each calamity. | King Philip tries to console Constance, but she's too far gone. She calls on Death to come for her. She offers to kiss Death's "detestable bones" and imagines placing her "eyeballs" in the skull of Death's corpse. (Yikes! Has she been reading about "Yorick's Skull" in Hamlet, or what?) Brain Snack: Some critics think Constance's famous speech was inspired by the death of Shakespeare's 11 year-old-son, Hamnet in 1596 (source). But that's debatable, especially since the play may have been written as early as 1594. Pandulph tells Constance she's crazy. Constance lights up Pandulph for being insensitive and then threatens to kill herself. |
KING PHILIP
Bind up those tresses.—O, what love I note
In the fair multitude of those her hairs;
Where but by chance a silver drop hath fall’n,
Even to that drop ten thousand wiry friends 65
Do glue themselves in sociable grief,
Like true, inseparable, faithful loves,
Sticking together in calamity. CONSTANCE
To England, if you will. KING PHILIP
Bind up your hairs. 70 CONSTANCE
Yes, that I will. And wherefore will I do it?
I tore them from their bonds and cried aloud
“O, that these hands could so redeem my son,
As they have given these hairs their liberty!”
But now I envy at their liberty, 75
And will again commit them to their bonds,
Because my poor child is a prisoner. She binds up her hair. And father cardinal, I have heard you say
That we shall see and know our friends in heaven.
If that be true, I shall see my boy again; 80
For since the birth of Cain, the first male child,
To him that did but yesterday suspire,
There was not such a gracious creature born.
But now will canker sorrow eat my bud
And chase the native beauty from his cheek, 85
And he will look as hollow as a ghost,
As dim and meager as an ague’s fit,
And so he’ll die; and, rising so again,
When I shall meet him in the court of heaven
I shall not know him. Therefore never, never 90
Must I behold my pretty Arthur more. PANDULPH
You hold too heinous a respect of grief. CONSTANCE
He talks to me that never had a son. KING PHILIP
You are as fond of grief as of your child. CONSTANCE
Grief fills the room up of my absent child, 95
Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,
Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form;
Then, have I reason to be fond of grief? 100
Fare you well. Had you such a loss as I,
I could give better comfort than you do.
She unbinds her hair.
I will not keep this form upon my head
When there is such disorder in my wit.
O Lord! My boy, my Arthur, my fair son, 105
My life, my joy, my food, my all the world,
My widow-comfort and my sorrows’ cure! She exits. KING PHILIP
I fear some outrage, and I’ll follow her. He exits, with Attendants. | King Philip tells Constance to get a grip and fix her hair. She does, but only because she wants her hair, like her child, to be bound up and held prisoner. (Oh yeah, she's not losing it at all.) King Philip and Pandulph take kind of a tough love approach, and instead of consoling her, they tell her she loves her grief just as much as she loves her child. Constance replies that her grief is all she has left. Then she lets her hair down again, because what's the point of keeping her hair in order when the rest of her life is in chaos? (She really hits that hair symbolism hard.) When Constance leaves, King Philip worries that she'll hurt herself, so he runs after her. |
DAUPHIN
There’s nothing in this world can make me joy.
Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale, 110
Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man;
And bitter shame hath spoiled the sweet world’s
taste,
That it yields naught but shame and bitterness. PANDULPH
Before the curing of a strong disease, 115
Even in the instant of repair and health,
The fit is strongest. Evils that take leave
On their departure most of all show evil.
What have you lost by losing of this day? DAUPHIN
All days of glory, joy, and happiness. 120 PANDULPH
If you had won it, certainly you had.
No, no. When Fortune means to men most good,
She looks upon them with a threat’ning eye.
’Tis strange to think how much King John hath lost
In this which he accounts so clearly won. 125
Are not you grieved that Arthur is his prisoner? DAUPHIN
As heartily as he is glad he hath him. PANDULPH
Your mind is all as youthful as your blood.
Now hear me speak with a prophetic spirit.
For even the breath of what I mean to speak 130
Shall blow each dust, each straw, each little rub,
Out of the path which shall directly lead
Thy foot to England’s throne. And therefore mark:
John hath seized Arthur, and it cannot be
That, whiles warm life plays in that infant’s veins, 135
The misplaced John should entertain an hour,
One minute, nay, one quiet breath of rest.
A scepter snatched with an unruly hand
Must be as boisterously maintained as gained.
And he that stands upon a slipp’ry place 140
Makes nice of no vile hold to stay him up.
That John may stand, then Arthur needs must fall.
So be it, for it cannot be but so. DAUPHIN
But what shall I gain by young Arthur’s fall? PANDULPH
You, in the right of Lady Blanche your wife, 145
May then make all the claim that Arthur did. DAUPHIN
And lose it, life and all, as Arthur did. PANDULPH
How green you are and fresh in this old world!
John lays you plots. The times conspire with you,
For he that steeps his safety in true blood 150
Shall find but bloody safety, and untrue.
This act so evilly borne shall cool the hearts
Of all his people and freeze up their zeal,
That none so small advantage shall step forth
To check his reign but they will cherish it. 155
No natural exhalation in the sky,
No scope of nature, no distempered day,
No common wind, no customèd event,
But they will pluck away his natural cause
And call them meteors, prodigies, and signs, 160
Abortives, presages, and tongues of heaven,
Plainly denouncing vengeance upon John. DAUPHIN
Maybe he will not touch young Arthur’s life,
But hold himself safe in his prisonment. PANDULPH
O, sir, when he shall hear of your approach, 165
If that young Arthur be not gone already,
Even at that news he dies; and then the hearts
Of all his people shall revolt from him
And kiss the lips of unacquainted change,
And pick strong matter of revolt and wrath 170
Out of the bloody fingers’ ends of John.
Methinks I see this hurly all on foot;
And, O, what better matter breeds for you
Than I have named! The bastard Faulconbridge
Is now in England ransacking the Church, 175
Offending charity. If but a dozen French
Were there in arms, they would be as a call
To train ten thousand English to their side,
Or as a little snow, tumbled about,
Anon becomes a mountain. O noble dauphin, 180
Go with me to the King. ’Tis wonderful
What may be wrought out of their discontent,
Now that their souls are topful of offense.
For England, go. I will whet on the King. DAUPHIN
Strong reasons makes strange actions. Let us go. I
If you say ay, the King will not say no. They exit. | With King Philip and Constance gone, Louis and Pandulph start to chat. Louis is pretty bummed, but Pandulph tells him not to worry, because King John is definitely going to kill Arthur. Wait, how's that good news? Simple. Thanks to Louis's marriage to Blanche, Louis will then be next in line to the English throne. Louis is worried that King John will come after him next, but Pandulph tells him not to worry, because 1) the English people aren't going to tolerate a guy who runs around snuffing out little kids, and 2) the English people aren't going to like the fact that King John has got the Bastard running around robbing all the churches. Pandulph encourages Louis to slap together some forces and invade England, and they run off to get permission from Louis's dad to do just that. |