Shakespeare's Monologues
Tip Jar
First Citizen — “That daughter there of Spain, the Lady Blanch” — King John, Act 2, Scene 1, line 439
King John
·II i 439 ·
Verse
First Citizen That daughter there of Spain, the Lady Blanch, Is niece to England: 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 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, 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; And she a fair divided excellence, Whose fulness of perfection lies in him. 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. This union shall do more than battery can To our fast-closed gates; for at this match, With swifter spleen than powder can enforce, The mouth of passage shall we fling wide ope, And give you entrance: but without this match, The sea enraged is not half so deaf, Lions more confident, mountains and rocks More free from motion, no, not Death himself In moral fury half so peremptory, As we to keep this city. 
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King John opens with King Philip of France supporting Arthur, the young son of John’s deceased brother Geoffrey, as the rightful heir to the English throne. John’s mother, Queen Eleanor, and the French court engage in heated disputes over legitimacy. Meanwhile, the Bastard (Philip Faulconbridge), illegitimate son of Richard the Lionheart, joins John’s cause after being legitimized. War breaks out between England and France, with the strategic town of Angiers caught between the two armies.
The conflict temporarily resolves when John’s niece Blanche marries the French Dauphin Lewis, uniting the two kingdoms. However, Cardinal Pandulph arrives from Rome and excommunicates John for refusing to accept Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury. The Cardinal persuades France to break the peace and resume war against the excommunicated English king. In the ensuing battle, Arthur is captured by John’s forces.
John orders Hubert to kill the young Arthur, but Hubert cannot bring himself to murder the child and instead hides him. When Arthur later dies attempting to escape from his prison tower, the English nobles believe John has murdered him and defect to join the invading French forces led by the Dauphin. As John faces rebellion from within and invasion from without, he submits to the Pope’s authority to regain legitimacy. However, he falls ill and is poisoned by a monk at Swinstead Abbey.
The Bastard rallies the remaining English forces and discovers that the French nobles plan to kill their English allies after victory. This intelligence helps reconcile the English lords to their king. John dies, and his young son Henry is crowned King Henry III. The Dauphin withdraws his forces, and Cardinal Pandulph negotiates peace. The play concludes with the Bastard delivering a patriotic speech about England’s strength when united against foreign threats.
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