Therefore, good warlike lord, take this in brief;
We wish King Richard well, but can send no relief.
LEI. O, let not my heart break with inward grief!
JOHN. Yes, let it, Leicester: it is not amiss,
That twenty such hearts break as your heart is.
LEI. Are you a mother? were you England's queen?
Were Henry, Richard, Geoffery, your sons?
All sons but Richard--sun of all those sons
And can you let this little meteor,
This _ignis fatuus_, this same wandering fire,
This goblin of the night, this brand, this spark,
Seem through a lanthorn greater than he is?
By heaven, you do not well: by earth, you do not?
Chester, nor you, nor you, Earl Salisbury;
Ye do not, no, ye do not what ye should.
QUEEN. Were this bear loose, how he would tear our maws.
CHES. Pale death and vengeance dwell within his jaws.
SAL. But we can muzzle him, and bind his paws:
If King John say we shall, we will indeed.
JOHN. Do, if you can.
LEI. It's well thou hast some fear.
No, curs! ye have no teeth to bait this bear.[220]
I will not bid mine ensign-bearer wave
My tattered colours in this worthless air,
Which your vile breaths vilely contaminate.
Bearer,[221] thou'st been my ancient-bearer long,
And borne up Leicester's bear in foreign lands;
Yet now resign these colours to my hands,
For I am full of grief and full of rage.
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