First Cit. That daughter there of Spain, the Lady Blanch,
Is niece to England: look upon the years[192]
Of Lewis the Dauphin and that lovely maid:[193]425
If lusty love should go in quest of beauty,
Where should he find it fairer than in Blanch?
If zealous love should go in search of virtue,[194]
Where should he find it purer than in Blanch?
If love ambitious sought a match of birth,430
Whose veins bound richer blood than Lady Blanch?
Such as she is, in beauty, virtue, birth,
Is the young Dauphin every way complete:[193]
If not complete of, say he is not she;[195]
And she again wants nothing, to name want,435
If want it be not that she is not he:[196]
He is the half part of a blessed man,
Left to be finished by such as she;[197]
And she a fair divided excellence,[198]
Whose fulness of perfection lies in him.440
O, two such silver currents, when they join,
Do glorify the banks that bound them in;
And two such shores to two such streams made one,
Two such controlling bounds shall you be, kings,
To these two princes, if you marry them.445
This union shall do more than battery can
To our fast-closed gates; for at this match,
With swifter spleen than powder can enforce,[199]
The mouth of passage shall we fling wide ope.
And give you entrance: but without this match,450
The sea enraged is not half so deaf,
Lions more confident, mountains and rocks[200]
More free from motion, no, not Death himself[200]
In mortal fury half so peremptory,
As we to keep this city.
Bast. Here's a stay[201]455
That shakes the rotten carcass of old Death
Out of his rags! Here's a large mouth, indeed,
That spits forth death and mountains, rocks and seas,
Talks as familiarly of roaring lions
As maids of thirteen do of puppy-dogs!460
What cannoneer begot this lusty blood?[202]
He speaks plain cannon fire, and smoke and bounce;[203]
He gives the bastinado with his tongue:
Our ears are cudgell'd; not a word of his
But buffets better than a fist of France:465
Zounds! I was never so bethump'd with words
Since I first call'd my brother's father dad.[204]
Eli. Son, list to this conjunction, make this match;[205][206]
Give with our niece a dowry large enough:[206]
For by this knot thou shalt so surely tie[206]470
Thy now unsured assurance to the crown,[206][207]
That yon green boy shall have no sun to ripe[206]
The bloom that promiseth a mighty fruit.[206]
I see a yielding in the looks of France;[206]
Mark, how they whisper: urge them while their souls[206]475
Are capable of this ambition,[206]
Lest zeal, now melted by the windy breath[206][208]
Of soft petitions, pity and remorse,[206]
Cool and congeal again to what it was.[206]
First Cit. Why answer not the double majesties480
This friendly treaty of our threaten'd town?
K. Phi. Speak England first, that hath been forward first[209]
To speak unto this city: what say you?
K. John. If that the Dauphin there, thy princely son,[193]
Can in this book of beauty read 'I love,'485
Her dowry shall weigh equal with a queen:[210]
For Anjou, and fair Touraine, Maine, Poictiers,[211]
And all that we upon this side the sea,
Except this city now by us besieged,
Find liable to our crown and dignity,490
Shall gild her bridal bed and make her rich
In titles, honours and promotions,
As she in beauty, education, blood,[212]
Holds hand with any princess of the world.[213]
K. Phi. What say'st thou, boy? look in the lady's face.495
Lew. I do, my lord; and in her eye I find[214]
A wonder, or a wondrous miracle,
The shadow of myself form'd in her eye;[215]
Which, being but the shadow of your son,[215]
Becomes a sun and makes your son a shadow:[215][216]500
I do protest I never loved myself
Till now infixed I beheld myself[217]
Drawn in the flattering table of her eye.[218]
[Whispers with Blanch.