For he that holds his kingdom holds the law:
Therefore, since law itself is perfect wrong,
How can the law forbid my tongue to curse?
Pand. Philip of France, on peril of a curse,
Let go the hand of that arch-heretic,

And raise the power of France upon his head,
Unless he do submit himself to Rome.

Eli. Look'st thou pale, France? do not let go thy hand. Const. Look to that, devil! lest that France repent, And, by disjoining hands, hell lose a soul.

Aust. King Philip, listen to the cardinal.

Bast. And hang a calf's-skin on his recreant limbs. Aust. Well, ruffian, I must pocket up these wrongs, Because

Bast. Your breeches best may carry them.

K. John. Philip, what say'st thou to the cardinal?
Const. What should he say but as the cardinal ?1
Lew. Bethink you, father; for the difference

Is, purchase of a heavy curse from Rome,
Or the light loss of England for a friend :
Forego the easier.

Blanch.

That's 2 the curse of Rome.

Const. O Lewis, stand fast; the devil tempts thee here, In likeness of a new uptrimmed 3 bride.

Blanch. The lady Constance speaks not from her faith, But from her need.

Const.

O, if thou grant my need,

Which only lives but by the death of faith,4

1 As the cardinal.] As the cardinal says; in agreement with the cardinal.

2 That is.] The easier is.

3 Uptrimmed.] The old text has untrimmed. We adopt Dyce's

emendation.

• Which only lives, &c.] Which is occasioned only by the viola

That need must needs infer this principle,

That faith would live again by death of need:
O, then, tread down my need, and faith mounts up,
Keep my need up, and faith is trodden down.

K. John. The king is moved, and answers not to this.
Const. O, be removed from him, and answer well.
Aust. Do so, king Philip, hang no more in doubt.
Bast. Hang nothing but a calf's-skin, most sweet lout.
K. Phi. I am perplexed, and know not what to say.
Pand. What canst thou say but will perplex thee more,
If thou stand excommunicate and cursed?

K. Phi. Good reverend father, make my person yours,
And tell me how you would bestow yourself.1

This royal hand and mine are newly knit,
And the conjunction of our inward souls
Married in league, coupled and linked together
With all religious strength of sacred vows.
The latest breath that gave the sound of words
Was deep-sworn faith, peace, amity, true love,
Between our kingdoms and our royal selves:
And even before this truce, but new before,2
No longer than we well could wash our hands,
To clap this royal bargain up of peace,

Heaven knows, they were besmeared and overstained
With slaughter's pencil; where revenge did paint
The fearful difference of incensed kings:

And shall these hands, so lately purged of blood,

tion of faith on the part of those who were sworn to support my cause. But, only, is emphatic, though pleonastic.

=

1 How you would bestow yourself.] How you would dispose of yourself. So in 2 K. Henry IV. ii. 2, 'See Falstaff bestow himself in his true colours,' and in As you Like It, iv. 3, 'Bestows himself like a ripe sister.'

2 But new before.] But newly, or almost immediately before.

4

So newly joined in love, so strong in both,
Unyoke this seizure,' and this kind regreet?
Play fast and loose with faith? so jest with heaven,
Make such unconstant children of ourselves,
As now again to snatch our palm from palm?
Unswear faith sworn? and on the marriage bed
Of smiling peace to march a bloody host,
And make a riot on the gentle brow
Of true sincerity? O, holy sir,

My reverend father, let it not be so⚫
Out of your grace devise, ordain, impose
Some gentle order; and then we shall be blessed
To do your pleasure, and continue friends.
Pand. All form is formless, order orderless,
Save what is opposite to England's love.
Therefore, to arms! be champion of our church!
Or let the church, our mother, breathe her curse,
A mother's curse, on her revolting son.
France, thou mayst hold a serpent by the tongue,
A chafed lion by the mortal paw,

A fasting tiger, safer, by the tooth,

Than keep in peace that hand which thou dost hold.
K. Phi. I may disjoin my hand, but not my faith.
Pand. So mak'st thou faith an enemy to faith;2
And, like a civil war, sett'st oath to oath,
Thy tongue against thy tongue. O, let thy vow
First made to heaven, first be to heaven performed,
That is, to be the champion of our church!
What since thou swor'st, is sworn against thyself,
And may not be performed by thyself:
For that which thou hast sworn to do amiss,

1 Unyoke this seizure.] Let go this hold or grasp.

2 Faith an enemy to faith.] Thy faith to John at enmity with thy faith towards the church.

Is not amiss when it is truly done;1

And being not done, where doing tends to ill,
The truth is then most done not doing it:
The better act of purposes mistook
Is, to mistake again; though indirect,2
Yet indirection thereby grows direct,

And falsehood falsehood cures, as fire cools fire
Within the scorched veins of one new burned.
It is religion that doth make vows kept;
But thou hast sworn against religion,

3

By what thou swear'st against the thing thou swear'st;
And mak'st an oath the surety for thy truth
Against an oath: the truth thou art unsure
To swear, swears only not to be forsworn ;
Else, what a mockery should it be to swear!
But thou dost swear only to be forsworn,
And most forsworn to keep what thou dost swear.4
Therefore, thy later vows against thy first

Is in thyself rebellion to thyself;

5

And better conquest never canst thou make,
Than arm thy constant 6 and thy nobler parts
Against these giddy loose suggestions:

Upon which better part 7 our prayers come in,

1 For that which, &c.] Here Shakspeare's habit of inverting arrangement has, as in many other instances, puzzled his commentators. I believe he meant, 'For to do amiss that which thou hast sworn,' &c.; that is, to act against what thou hast sworn, when such acting is done according to the truth, is not really amiss.

2 Indirect.] Not straightforward.

The truth thou art, &c.] The asserted truth which thou art not fully warranted to swear, swears only against thy being forsworn. And most forsworn, &c.] And thou wilt be most forsworn in keepi &c.

In thyself, &c.] Rebellion in thyself against thyself.

• Constant.] Stedfast; that cannot change.

7

Upon which better part, &c.] And then, on this worthier side,

If thou vouchsafe them; but, if not, then know,
The peril of our curses light on thee

So heavy, as 1 thou shalt not shake them off,
But, in despair, die under their black weight.
Aust. Rebellion, flat rebellion!

Bast.

Will't not be?

Will not a calf's-skin stop that mouth of thine?

Lew. Father, to arms !

Blanch.

Upon thy wedding day?
Against the blood that thou hast married?

What, shall our feast be kept with slaughtered men?
Shall braying trumpets, and loud churlish drums,
Clamours of hell, be measures to our pomp? 2

O husband, hear me !—ay, alack, how new
Is husband in my mouth !—even for that name
Which till this time my tongue did ne'er pronounce,
Upon my knee I beg, go not to arms

Against mine uncle.

Made hard with kneeling, I do pray to thee,

Thou virtuous Dauphin, alter not the doom
Fore-thought by heaven.

Blanch. Now shall I see thy love.

What motive may

Be stronger with thee than the name of wife?

Const. That which upholdeth him that thee upholds, His honour: O, thine honour, Lewis, thine honour!

Lew. I muse 3 your majesty doth seem so cold, When such profound respects do pull you on.

thou wilt have the advantage of our prayers, if thou wilt accept

them.

1 As.] That. Formerly very often used in this way.

2 Measures to our pomp.] For keeping time to our wedding procession. Measures were dancing paces. Pomp denoted processions. 3 I muse.] I wonder.