A play where
everything and everyone, every opinion, every wish and every act is constantly
turned upside down and inside out. A play in which the ground is always shaking
and probably a book about our always shaking ground.
“King John: (…)
Behold, the
French, amazed, vouchsafe a parle;
And now, instead
of bullets wrapt in fire,
To make a shaking
fever of your walls,
They shoot but
calm words, folded up in smoke,
To make a faithless
error in your ears” (Shakespeare, 1994, p.307).
“First Citizen:
That can we not,
but he that proves the king,
To him will we
prove loyal: till that time
Have we ramm’d up
our gates against the world.” (Shakespeare, 1994, p.307).
“First Citizen:
Till you compound
whose right is worthiest,
We for the
worthiest hold the right from both.” (Shakespeare, 1994, p.307).
“Constance:
War! War! No peace!
Peace is to me a war.” (Shakespeare, 1994, p.312).
“Cardinal
Pandulph:
All form
formless, order orderless,
Save what is
opposite to England’s love.” (Shakespeare, 1994, p.313).
“King John:(…)
“if the midnight
bell
Did, with his
iron tongue and brazen mouth,
Sound one into
the drowsy ear of night;
If this same were
a churchyard where we stand,
And thou
possessed with a thousand wrongs;
Of if that surly
spirit, melancholy,
Had baked thy
blood, and made it heavy thick,
Which else runs
tickling up and down the veins,
Making that
idiot, laughter, keep men’s eyes,
And strain their
cheeks to idel merriment, -
A passion hateful
to my purposes;
Or if that thou
couldst see me without eyes,
Hear me without
thine ears, and make reply
Without a tongue,
using conceit alone,
without eyes,
ears, and harmful sound of words;
then, in despite
of brooded watchful day,
I would into thy
bosom pour my thoughts.
(…)
Good Hubert,
Hubert, Hubert, throw thine eye
On yon young boy:
I’ll tell thee what, my friend,
He is a very
serpent in my way;
And wheresoe’er
this foot of mine doth tread,
He lies before
me: - dost thou understand me?
Thou art his
keeper.
Hubert de Burgh:
And I’ll keep
him so,
That he shall not
offend you majesty.
King John: Death.”
(Shakespeare, 1994, p.315).
“King Philipp:
You are as fond
of grief as of your child.
Constance:
Grief fills the
room up of my absent child,
Lies in his bed,
walks up and down with me,
Puts on his
pretty looks, repeats his words
Remembers me of
all his gracious parts,
Stuffs out his
vacant garments with his form;
Then have I reason
to be fond of grief.” (Shakespeare, 1994, p.316).
“Cardinal
Pandulph:
If you hd won it,
certainly you had.
No, no; when
Fortune means to men most good,
She looks upon
them with a threatening eye.
‘Tis strange to
think how much King John hath lost
In this he
accounts so clearly won:” (Shakespeare, 1994, p.316).
“King John:
(…)
To your
proceedings? Do not seek to stuff
My head with more
ill news, for it is full.
Bastard:
But if you be
afeard to hear the worst,
Then let the
worst, unheard, fall on your head.” (Shakespeare, 1994, p.320).
“Earl of
Salisbury:
(…)
That, for the
health and physic of our right,
We cannot deal
but with the very hand
Of stern
injustice and confused wrong.” (Shakespeare, 1994, p.324).
“Melun:
(…)
What in the world
should make me now deceive.
Since I must lose
the use of all deceit?
Why should I,
then be false, since it is true
That I must die
here, and live hence by truth?” (Shakespeare, 1994, p.326).
