Your tender kinsman, and to choke his days K. John. Let it be so; I do commit his youth To your direction.-Hubert, what news with you? Does show the mood of a much-troubled breast; And I do fearfully believe, 't is done Sal. The colour of the king doth come and go, Good lords, although my will to give is living, Sal. Indeed we fear'd his sickness was past cure. Pem. Indeed we heard how near his death he Before the child himself felt he was sick : [was, This must be answer'd, either here, or hence. [me? K. John. Why do you bend such solemn brows on Think you I bear the shears of destiny? Pem. Stay yet, lord Salisbury; I'll go with thee, That blood, which ow'd the breadth of all this isle, Three foot of it doth hold. Bad world the while! This must not be thus borne: this will break out To all our sorrows, and ere long, I doubt. [Exeunt Lords. K. John. They burn in indignation. I repent. There is no sure foundation set on blood; No certain life achiev'd by others' death. The copy of your speed is learn'd by them; K. John. O, where hath our intelligence been drunk? Where hath it slept? Where is my mother's care? K. John. Withhold thy speed, dreadful occasion! Enter the Bastard and Peter of Pomfret. K. John. Thou hast made me giddy With these ill tidings.--Now, what says the world To your proceedings? do not seek to stuff My head with more ill news, for it is full. Bast. But, if you be afeard to hear the worst, Then let the worst, unheard, fall on your head. K. John. Bear with me, cousin; for I was amaz'd Under the tide : but now I breathe again Aloft the flood; and can give audience To any tongue, speak it of what it will. Bast. How I have sped among the clergymen, The sums I have collected shall express. But, as I travelled hither through the land, I find the people strangely fantasied; Possess'd with rumours, full of idle dreams; Not knowing what they fear, but full of fear: And here's a prophet, that I brought with me From forth the streets of Pomfret, whom I found With many hundreds treading on his heels; To whom he sung, in rude harsh-sounding rhymes, That, ere the next Ascension-day at noon, Your highness should deliver up your crown. [so? K. John. Thou idle dreamer, wherefore didst thou Peter. Foreknowing that the truth will fall out so. K. John. Hubert, away with him; imprison him; And on that day at noon, whereon, he says, I shall yield up my crown, let him be hang'd : Besides, I met lord Bigot, and lord Salisbury, K. John. Gentle kinsman, go, And thrust thyself into their companies : I have a way to win their loves again; Bring them before me. Bast. I will seek them out. K. John. Nay, but make haste: the better foot O, let me have no subject enemies, [before. When adverse foreigners affright my towns K. John. Spoke like a spriteful noble gentleman. With all my heart, my liege. [Exit. K. John, My mother dead! Re-enter Hubert. Hub. My lord, they say, five moons were seen toFour fixed; and the fifth did whirl about [night : The other four, in wondrous motion. K. John. Five moons? Hub. Old men, and beldams, in the streets And he that speaks doth gripe the hearer's wrist; Cuts off his tale, and talks of Arthur's death. [fears? voke me? K. John. It is the curse of kings, to be attended To understand a law; to know the meaning Hub. Here is your hand and seal for what I did. K. John. O, when the last account 'twixt heaven and earth Is to be made, then shall this hand and seal How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds I faintly broke with thee of Arthur's death; Made it no conscience to destroy a prince. K. John. Hadst thou but shook thy head, or made When I spake darkly what I purposed, [a pause, Or turn'd an eye of doubt upon my face, The deed, which both our tongues held vile to name. Between my conscience and my cousin's death. Is yet the cover of a fairer mind' Than to be butcher of an innocent child. [peers, K. John. Doth Arthur live? O, haste thee to the Throw this report on their incensed rage, And make them tame to their obedience! Forgive the comment that my passion made Upon thy feature; for my rage was blind, And foul imaginary eyes of blood Presented thee more hideous than thou art. O, answer not; but to my closet bring The angry lords, with all expedient haste : I conjure thee but slowly; run more fast. [Exeunt. SCENE III.-The same. Before the Castle. Enter Pembroke, Salisbury, and Bigot. Sal. Lords, I will meet him at Saint Edmund'sIt is our safety, and we must embrace [Bury; This gentle offer of the perilous time. Pem. Who brought that letter from the cardinal? Sal. The count Melun, a noble lord of France; Whose private with me, of the Dauphin's love, Is much more general than these lines import. Big. To-morrow morning let us meet him then. Sal. Or rather then set forward: for 't will be Two long days' journey, lords, or e'er we meet. Enter the Bastard. Bast. Once more to-day well met, distemper'd lords! The king, by me, requests your presence straight. Sal. The king hath dispossess'd himself of us. We will not line his thin bestained cloak With our pure honours, nor attend the foot That leaves the print of blood where'er it walks : Return, and tell him so; we know the worst. Bast. Whate'er you think, good words, I think, were best. Sal. Our griefs, and not our manners, reason now. Bast. But there is little reason in your grief; Therefore, 't were reason you had manners now. Pem. Sir, sir, impatience hath his privilege. Bast. 'T is true; to hurt his master, no man else. Sal. This is the prison: What is he lies here? [Seeing Arthur. Pem. O death, made proud with pure and princely beauty! The earth had not a hole to hide this deed. Big. Or, when he doom'd this beauty to a grave, Found it too precious-princely for a grave. Sal. Sir Richard, what think you? You have beheld. Or have you read, or heard? or could you think? Pem. All murthers past do stand excus'd in this : To the yet unbegotten sin of times; Bast. It is a damned and a bloody work; Sal. If that it be the work of any hand?- Nor conversant with ease and idleness, Pem. Big. Our souls religiously confirm thy words. Enter Hubert. Hub. Lords, I am hot with haste in seeking you: Arthur doth live; the king hath sent for you. Sal. O, he is bold, and blushes not at death :Avaunt, thou hateful villain, get thee gone! Hub. I am no villain. Sal. Must I rob the law? [Drawing his sword. Bast. Your sword is bright, sir; put it up again. Sal. Not till I sheath it in a murtherer's skin. Hub. Stand back, lord Salisbury, stand back, I say; By heaven, I think, my sword 's as sharp as yours: Big. Out, dunghill! dar'st thou brave a nobleman? Who kill'd this prince? Hub. 'T is not an hour since I left him well: I honour'd him, I lov'd him; and will weep My date of life out, for his sweet life's loss. Sal. Trust not those cunning waters of his eyes, For villainy is not without such rheum; And he, long traded in it, makes it seem Like rivers of remorse and innocency. Away, with me, all you whose souls abhor The uncleanly savours of a slaughter-house; For I am stifled with this smell of sin. Big. Away, toward Bury, to the Dauphin there! Pem. There, tell the king, he may inquire us out. [Exeunt Lords. Bast. Here's a good world!-Knew you of this fair Beyond the infinite and boundless reach [work? Of mercy, if thou didst this deed of death, Art thou damn'd, Hubert. Hub. Do but hear me, sir. As thou shalt be, if thou didst kill this child. Bast. If thou didst but consent To this most cruel act, do but despair, And, if thou want'st a cord, the smallest thread That ever spider twisted from her womb Will serve to strangle thee; a rush will be A beam to hang thee on; or wouldst thou drown And it shall be, as all the ocean, I do suspect thee very grievously. [thyself, Hub. If I in act, consent, or sin of thought, Be guilty of the stealing that sweet breath Which was embounded in this beauteous clay, Let hell want pains enough to torture me! I left him well. Bast. Go, bear him in thine arms.— I am amaz'd, methinks; and lose my way Among the thorns and dangers of this world.— How easy dost thou take all England up! From forth this morsel of dead royalty, The life, the right, and truth of all this realm Is fled to heaven; and England now is left To tug and scramble, and to part by the teeth The unowed interest of proud-swelling state. Now, for the bare-pick'd bone of majesty Doth dogged war bristle his angry crest, And snarleth in the gentle eyes of peace: Now powers from home, and discontents at home, Meet in one line; and vast confusion waits, As doth a raven on a sick-fallen beast, The imminent decay of wrested pomp. Now happy he, whose cloak and cincture can Hold out this tempest. Bear away that child, And follow me with speed; I'll to the king: A thousand businesses are brief in hand, And heaven itself doth frown upon the land. [Exe. ACT V. SCENE I.-The same. A Room in the Palace. Enter King John, Pandulph with the Crown, and Attendants. K. John. Thus have I yielded up into your hand The circle of my glory. Pand. Take again [Giving John the Crown. From this my hand, as holding of the pope, Your sovereign greatness and authority. K. John. Now keep your holy word : go meet the And from his holiness use all your power [French; To stop their marches, 'fore we are inflam'd. Our discontented counties do revolt; Our people quarrel with obedience; Swearing allegiance, and the love of soul, To stranger blood, to foreign royalty. This inundation of mistemper'd humour Rests by you only to be qualified. Then pause not; for the present time's so sick, Or overthrow incurable ensues. Pand. It was my breath that blew this tempest up, Upon your stubborn usage of the pope : But, since you are a gentle convertite, My tongue shall hush again this storm of war, [phet K. John. Would not my lords return to me again, After they heard young Arthur was alive? Bast. They found him dead, and cast into the An empty casket, where the jewel of life [streets; By some damn'd hand was robb'd and ta'en away. K. John. That villain Hubert told me he did live. Bast. So, on my soul, he did, for aught he knew. But wherefore do you droop? why look you sad? Be great in act, as you have been in thought; Let not the world see fear, and sad distrust, Govern the motion of a kingly eye: Be stirring as the time; be fire with fire; Threaten the threat'ner, and outface the brow Of bragging horror: so shall inferior eyes, That borrow their behaviours from the great, Grow great by your example, and put on The dauntless spirit of resolution. Away; and glister like the god of war, When he intendeth to become the field: Show boldness and aspiring confidence. K. John. The legate of the pope hath been with Bast. |