Bast. O! tremble, for you hear the lion roar.

K. John. Up higher to the plain; where we 'll set forth

In best appointment all our regiments.

Bast. Speed then, to take advantage of the field.

K. Phi. It shall be so;

Command the rest to stand.

[To LEWIS.] and at the other hill

God, and our right!

SCENE II.

The Same.

[Exeunt.

Alarums and Excursions; then a Retreat. Enter a French Herald, with

trumpets, to the gates.

F. Her. You men of Angiers, open wide your gates,

And let young Arthur, duke of Bretagne, in,

Who by the hand of France this day hath made
Much work for tears in many an English mother,
Whose sons lie scatter'd on the bleeding ground;
Many a widow's husband grovelling lies,
Coldly embracing the discolour'd earth, 1
And victory, with little loss, doth play
Upon the dancing banners of the French,
Who are at hand, triumphantly display'd,
To enter conquerors, and to proclaim

Arthur of Bretagne, England's king, and yours.

Enter an English Herald, with trumpets.

E. Her. Rejoice, you men of Angiers, ring your bells:
King John, your king and England's, doth approach,
Commander of this hot malicious day. 2

Their armours, that march'd hence so silver-bright,
Hither return all gilt with Frenchmen's blood. 3
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;
And, like a jolly troop of huntsmen, come
Our lusty English, all with purpled hands,
Dyed in the dying slaughter of their foes. 4
Open your gates, and give the victors way.

1) Die Erde ist entfärbt, missfarbig, von dem vergossenen Blute, wie sie selbst eben vorher deshalb bleeding ground hiess.

2) John ist Sieger dieses heissen, bösen Schlachttages geblieben.

3) So in Macbeth (A. 2, Sc. 3) here lay Duncan, || His silver skin lac'd with his golden

blood.

*) Wortspiel zwischen to dye

= färben, und to die

= sterben.

Cit. 5

Heralds, from off our towers we might behold,

From first to last, the onset and retire

Of both your armies; whose equality

By our best eyes cannot be censured: 6

Blood hath bought blood, and blows have answer'd blows;
Strength match'd with strength, and power confronted power:

Both are alike; and both alike we like. 7

One must prove greatest: while they weigh so even,

We hold our town for neither, yet for both.

Enter, at one side, KING JOHN, with his power, ELINOR, BLANCH, and the Bastard; at the other, King PHILIP, LEWIS, AUSTRIA, and forces. 8

K. John. France, hast thou yet more blood to cast away?

Say, shall the current of our right roam on?
Whose passage, vex'd with thy impediment,
Shall leave his native channel, and o'er-swell
With course disturb'd even thy confining shores,
Unless thou let his silver water keep

A peaceful progress to the ocean.

K. Phi. England, thou hast not sav'd one drop of blood, In this hot trial, more than we of France;

Rather, lost more: And by this hand I swear,

That sways the earth this climate overlooks,
Before we will lay down our just-borne arms,

We'll put thee down, 'gainst whom these arms we bear,
Or add a royal number to the dead, 9

Gracing the scroll, 10 that tells of this war's loss,

With slaughter coupled to the name of kings.

Bast. Ha! majesty, how high thy glory towers,

When the rich blood of kings is set on fire!

O now doth death line his dead chaps with steel;

5) Die Fol. legt diese Rede und die folgenden des Bürgers von Angers dem Hubert in den Mund, wahrscheinlich weil auf den Sh.'schen Theater derselbe Schauspieler beide Rollen übernahm. Im alten K. John spricht der Citizen, dem die Worte offenbar auch zukommen.

6) Die gleiche Stellung oder Stärke beider Heere können auch die besten Augen nicht bekritteln. Den Bürgern von Angers scheint während des Kampfes, dem sie zusahen, Gewinn und Verlust auf beiden Seiten gleich vertheilt gewesen zu sein.

7) Wortspiel zwischen alike und like.

ཅ)

9)

Die einfachere Bühnenweisung der Fol. lautet: Enter the two Kings with their powers, at several doors. In der zweiten Zeile lesen viele Hgg. mit der Fol. von 1632 run

statt roam.

Zu den bereits Gefallenen soll noch eine Königsnummer kommen; die Todten sollen unter sich noch einen König zählen.

10) scroll ist das Verzeichniss der in der Schlacht Gebliebenen; so in K. Henry V. (A. 4, Sc. 8) Where is the number of our dead?

The swords of soldiers are his teeth, his fangs;
And now he feasts, mousing 11 the flesh of men,
In undetermin'd differences of kings.

Why stand these royal fronts amazed thus?
Cry, havoc, kings! back to the stained field,
You equal-potents, 12 fiery-kindled spirits!
Then let confusion of one part confirm

The other's peace; till then, blows, blood, and death!
K. John. Whose party do the townsmen yet admit?
K. Phi. Speak, citizens, for England; who 's your king?
Cit. The king of England, when we know the king.
K. Phi. Know him in us, that here hold up his right.
K. John. In us, that are our own great deputy,

And bear possession of our person here,

Lord of our presence, 13 Angiers, and of you.

Cit. A greater power than we denies all this;

And, till it be undoubted, we do lock

Our former scruple in our strong-barr'd gates,

Kings, of our fear; 14 until our fears, resolv'd,

Be by some certain king purg'd and depos'd.

Bast. By heaven, these scroyles 15 of Angiers flout you, kings, And stand securely on their battlements,

As in a theatre, whence they gape and point

At your industrious 16 scenes and acts of death.
Your royal presences be rul'd by me:

Do like the mutines of Jerusalem, 17

111 to mouse = zerreissen, zerfetzen, von Raubvögeln gebraucht.

12) equal-potent

gleichmächtig, ist gewiss als Compositum zu fassen, obwohl die Igg..

der Fol. folgend, die Worte trennen.

13) Vgl. A. 1, Sc. 1, Anm. 30. Die folgende Antwort des Bürgers ertheilt die Fol. irrthümlich dem König von Frankreich zu.

==

1) So die Fol., ur dass sie hinter gates ein Colon, hinter Kings kein Comma setzt. Kings ist Vocativ, die häufig wiederkehrende Anrede an beide Könige, welche eingeschoben ist in das zusammengehörige our strong-barr'd gates of our fear, d. h. our gates strong-bared of our fear unsere von oder vermöge unsrer Furcht stark verrammelten Thore. Die meisten Hgg. lesen mit Tyrwhitt King'd of our fears. Vielleicht ist auch in der Fol. fear aus Verwechslung mit dem gleich darauf folgenden fears an die Stelle eines andern Wortes getreten, und Sh. schrieb vielleicht: Kings of

ourselves.

15) scroyle, eigentlich Skrophel, wird hier als Schimpfwort auf Personen ebenso angewandt, wie bei Sh. anderswo scab Lump. scroyle, das bei Sh. sonst nicht vorkommt, hat Ben Jonson in seinem Every Man in his Humour in demselben Sinne. 16) industrious mit Eifer betrieben, geflissentlich.

17) mutine Meuterer, Aufrührer.

(A. 5, Sc. 2).

Sh. hat dasselbe seltene Substantiv in Hamlet

Die Menterer in dem von Titus belagerten Jerusalem vereinigten

sich, obwohl iu drei Parteien einander befehdend, doch zu einem gemeinschaftlichen Ausfalle gegen die römischen Belagerer.

Be friends a while, and both conjointly bend
Your sharpest deeds of malice on this town.

By east and west let France and England mount
Their battering cannon charged to the mouths,
Till their soul-fearing 18 clamours have brawl'd down
The flinty ribs of this contemptuous city:
I'd play incessantly upon these jades,
Even till unfenced desolation

Leave them as naked as the vulgar air.
That done, dissever your united strengths,
And part your mingled colours once again;
Turn face to face, and bloody point to point;
Then, in a moment, fortune shall cull forth
Out of one side her happy minion,

To whom in favour she shall give the day,

And kiss him with a glorious victory.

19

How like you this wild counsel, mighty states? 20

Smacks it not something of the policy?

K. John. Now, by the sky that hangs above our heads, I like it well. France, shall we knit our powers,

And lay this Angiers even with the ground,
Then, after, fight who shall be king of it?

Bast. An if thou hast the mettle of a king,
Being wrong'd as we are by this peevish 21 town,
Turn thou the mouth of thy artillery,

As we will ours, against these saucy walls;

And when that we have dash'd them to the ground,
Why, then defy each other, and, pell-mell,

Make work upon ourselves, for heaven, or hell. 22

K. Phi. Let it be so.

w

Say, where will you assault?
K. John. We from the west will send destruction

Into this city's bosom.

Aust. I from the north.

K. Phi.

Our thunder from the south

Shall rain their drift of bullets on this town.

Bast. O, prudent discipline! From north to south, Austria and France shoot in each other's mouth:

I'll stir them to it. Come, away, away!

[Aside.

18) soul-fearing

=

die Seele erschreckend, von to fear

in Furcht oder Schrecken versetzen.

19) Schwert- oder Lanzenspitze, wie in Macbeth (A. 1, Sc. 2) Point against point, rebellious arm 'gainst arm.

20) states

Regierende, Staatenlenker.

21) peevish unlenksam, widerwillig, in Sh.'s Sprachgebrauch.

22) so dass wir fallen und so in den Himmel oder in die Hölle kommen. So in Macbeth

(A. 2, Sc. 1) it is a knell, That summons thee to heaven or to hell.

Cit. Hear us, great kings: vouchsafe a while to stay,
And I shall show you peace, and fair-fac'd league;
Win you this city without stroke, or wound;
Rescue those breathing lives to die in beds,
That here come sacrifices for the field.

Persever 23 not, but hear me, mighty kings.

K. John. Speak on, with favour: we are bent to hear.
Cit. That daughter there of Spain, the lady Bianch,

Is niece to England. 24 Look upon the years
Of Lewis the Dauphin, and that lovely maid.
If lusty love should go in quest of beauty,
Where should he find it fairer than in Blanch?
If zealous love 25 should go in search of virtue,
Where should he find it purer than in Blanch?
If love ambitious sought a match of birth,
Whose veins bound richer blood than lady Blanch?
Such as she is, in beauty, virtue, birth,
Is the young Dauphin every way complete:
If not complete of, 26 say, he is not she;
And she again wants nothing, to name want,
If want it be not, that she is not he:
He is the half part of a blessed man,
Left to be finished by such as she, 28
And she a fair divided excellence,
Whose fulness of perfection lies in him.
0! two such silver currents, when they join,
Do glorify the banks that bound them in;

27

23) to persever, mit betonter zweiter Sylbe, ist das Sh.'sche Wort für das moderne to

persevere.

neere in der Fol., was leicht aus neece verdruckt werden konnte.
lesen near; niece ist eine Emendation von Perkins.

Die meisten Hgg. Der alte K. John hat an

der entsprechenden Stelle: let him take to wife | The beauteous daughter of the king of Spain || Niece to King John, the lovely Lady Blanch.

-

25) Dem lusty love = sinnliche Liebe, wird zealous love = ernste, von frommem Eifer getragene Liebe, entgegengestellt. So kommt zealous contemplation in K. Richard III. (A. 3, Sc. 7) vor, und vielleicht ist zealous kiss in A. 2, Sc. 1 in demselben Sinne zu fassen.

Die

26) of ist hier zur Ergänzung statt des vorhergehenden in hinzugefügt, da sich sowohl complete of, wie complete in vollkommen in oder an Etwas, sagen lässt. meisten Hgg. lesen mit Hanmer: If not complete, O say, elc. Der Sinn ist: Wenn der Dauphin nicht daran, d. h. an den genannten Eigenschaften, vollkommen ist, so nehmt an, dass er nicht sie ist, dass er also zu grösserer Vollkommenheit der Vereinigung mit der Lady Blanch bedarf.

27) Ihr fehlt Nichts, was man als Mangel namhaft machen könnte, wenn es nicht ein Mangel ist, dass sie nicht er ist.

2) durch eine Solche wie sie ist.

Die meisten Hgg. lesen mit Thirlby such a she.