"England Never Did, Nor Never Shall Lie At The Proud Foot Of A Conqueror"

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Context: King John has been poisoned by a monk, "a resolved villain," and has died. Philip the Bastard has lost half his forces, and, he thinks, the French dauphin is marching on England with superior numbers. But the Earl of Salisbury says that the dauphin has offered such terms of peace as they "with honour and respect may take." Philip is overjoyed that he will not have to fight a losing battle. He then pledges submission to Prince Henry, son of King John, and, in the final lines of the play, expresses his exaltation over the salvation of England:


BASTARD
O let us pay the time but needful woe,
Since it hath been beforehand with our griefs.
This England never did, nor never shall
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror,
But when it first did help to wound itself.
Now these her princes are come home again,
Come the three corners of the world in arms,
And we shall shock them. Naught shall make us rue,
If England to itself do rest but true.

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