K.Iohn. Alack thou dost vsurpe authoritie
Fran. Excuse it is to beat vsurping downe
Queen. Who is it thou dost call vsurper France? Const. Let me make answer: thy vsurping sonne
Queen. Out insolent, thy bastard shall be King, That thou maist be a Queen, and checke the world
Con. My bed was euer to thy sonne as true As thine was to thy husband, and this boy Liker in feature to his father Geffrey Then thou and Iohn, in manners being as like, As raine to water, or deuill to his damme; My boy a bastard? by my soule I thinke His father neuer was so true begot, It cannot be, and if thou wert his mother
Queen. Theres a good mother boy, that blots thy father Const. There's a good grandame boy That would blot thee
Aust. Peace
Bast. Heare the Cryer
Aust. What the deuill art thou? Bast. One that wil play the deuill sir with you, And a may catch your hide and you alone: You are the Hare of whom the Prouerb goes Whose valour plucks dead Lyons by the beard; Ile smoake your skin-coat and I catch you right, Sirra looke too't, yfaith I will, yfaith
Blan. O well did he become that Lyons robe, That did disrobe the Lion of that robe
Bast. It lies as sightly on the backe of him As great Alcides shooes vpon an Asse: But Asse, Ile take that burthen from your backe, Or lay on that shall make your shoulders cracke
Aust. What cracker is this same that deafes our eares With this abundance of superfluous breath? King Lewis, determine what we shall doe strait
Lew. Women & fooles, breake off your conference. King Iohn, this is the very summe of all: England and Ireland, Angiers, Toraine, Maine, In right of Arthur doe I claime of thee: Wilt thou resigne them, and lay downe thy Armes? Iohn. My life as soone: I doe defie thee France, Arthur of Britaine, yeeld thee to my hand, And out of my deere loue Ile giue thee more, Then ere the coward hand of France can win; Submit thee boy
Queen. Come to thy grandame child
Cons. Doe childe, goe to yt grandame childe, Giue grandame kingdome, and it grandame will Giue yt a plum, a cherry, and a figge, There's a good grandame
Arthur. Good my mother peace, I would that I were low laid in my graue, I am not worth this coyle that's made for me
Qu.Mo. His mother shames him so, poore boy hee weepes
Con. Now shame vpon you where she does or no, His grandames wrongs, and not his mothers shames Drawes those heauen-mouing pearles fro[m] his poor eies, Which heauen shall take in nature of a fee: I, with these Christall beads heauen shall be brib'd To doe him Iustice, and reuenge on you
Qu. Thou monstrous slanderer of heauen and earth
Con. Thou monstrous Iniurer of heauen and earth, Call not me slanderer, thou and thine vsurpe The Dominations, Royalties, and rights Of this oppressed boy; this is thy eldest sonnes sonne, Infortunate in nothing but in thee: Thy sinnes are visited in this poore childe, The Canon of the Law is laide on him, Being but the second generation Remoued from thy sinne-conceiuing wombe
Iohn. Bedlam haue done
Con. I haue but this to say, That he is not onely plagued for her sin, But God hath made her sinne and her, the plague On this remoued issue, plagued for her, And with her plague her sinne: his iniury Her iniurie the Beadle to her sinne, All punish'd in the person of this childe, And all for her, a plague vpon her
Que. Thou vnaduised scold, I can produce A Will, that barres the title of thy sonne