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. By heaven, I think my sword's as sharp as yours. Hub. Not for my life: but yet I dare defend My innocent life against an emperor. Sal. Thou art a murderer. Keep the peace, I say. Sal. Stand by, or I shall gall you, Falconbridge. Bast. Thou wert better gall the devil, Salisbury: If thou but frown on me, or stir thy foot, Or teach thy hasty spleen to do me shame, I'll strike thee dead! Put up thy sword betime; Or I'll so maul you and your toasting-iron, That you shall think the devil is come from hell. Big. What wilt thou do, renowned Falconbridge? Second a villain and a murderer? Hub. Lord Bigot, I am none. Who killed this prince? Hub. T is not an hour since I left him well. I honoured him; I loved 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 villany 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 [Exeunt Lords. out. 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 thyself, Put but a little water in a spoon, And it shall be as all the ocean, I do suspect thee very grievously. Hub. If I in act, consent, or sin of thought, Be guilty of the stealing that sweet breath Which was imbounded 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 amazed, 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 th' teeth The unowed interest of proud-swelling state. Now, for the bare-picked bone of majesty, Doth doggéd 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. [Exeunt. SCENE I.-Northampton. 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 French; And from his holiness use all your power Then pause not; for the present time's so sick Pand. It was my breath that blew this tempest up, Upon your stubborn usage of the pope : My tongue shall hush again this storm of war, Go I to make the French lay down their arms. [Exit. K. John. Is this Ascension-day? Did not the prophet Say that, before Ascension-day at noon, Enter the Bastard. Bast. All Kent hath yielded; nothing there holds out But Dover castle: London hath received, 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 streets : An empty casket, where the jewel of life By some damned hand was robbed 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. O let it not be said!-Forage and run Shall we, upon the footing of our land, To arms invasive? Shall a beardless boy, K. John. Have thou the ordering of this present time. Bast. Away then, with good courage: yet I know Our party may well meet a prouder foe. [Exeunt. SCENE II-A Plain near St. Edmund's-bury. Enter, in arms, LEWIS, SALISBURY, MELUN, PEMBROKE, BIGOT, and Soldiers. Lew. My lord Melun, let this be copied out, And keep it safe for our remembrance: Return the precedent to these lords again : That, having our fair order written down, Both they and we, perusing o'er these notes, May know wherefore we took the sacrament, And keep our faiths firm and inviolable. Sal. Upon our sides it never shall be broken. And, noble Dauphin, albeit we swear A voluntary zeal and unurged faith To your proceedings; yet believe me, prince, I am not glad that such a sore of time Should seek a plaster by contemned revolt, And heal the inveterate canker of one wound By making many. O it grieves my soul That I must draw this metal from my side To be a widow-maker;-O and there Where honourable rescue and defence Cries out upon the name of Salisbury! But such is the infection of the time, That, for the health and physic of our right, We cannot deal but with the very hand Of stern injustice and confuséd wrong.— And is 't not pity, O my grievéd friends, That we, the sons and children of this isle, Were born to see so sad an hour as this? Wherein we step after a stranger march Upon her gentle bosom, and fill up Her enemies' ranks (I must withdraw and weep Upon the spot of this enforcéd cause), move! That Neptune's arms, who clippeth thee about, Lew. A noble temper dost thou shew in this; But this effusion of such manly drops, As Lewis himself. So, nobles, shall you all Enter PANDULPH, attended. And even there, methinks, an angel spake :- And be no further harmful than in show. Lew. Your grace shall pardon me; I will not back: I am too high-born to be propertied, To be a secondary at control, Or useful serving-man and instrument, To any sovereign state throughout the world. Am I Rome's slave? What penny hath Rome borne, What men provided, what munition sent, Pand. You look but on the outside of this work. Till my attempt so much be glorified [Trumpet sounds. What lusty trumpet thus doth summon us? Enter the Bastard, attended. Bast. According to the fair play of the world, Let me have audience: I am sent to speak.— My holy lord of Milan, from the King I come, to learn how you have dealt for him : Pan. The Dauphin is too wilful-opposite, Bast. By all the blood that ever fury breathed, The youth says well!-Now hear our English king: For thus his royalty doth speak in me. This unhaired sauciness and boyish troops, The King doth smile at; and is well prepared To whip this dwarfish war, these pigmy arms, From out the circle of his territories. That hand which had the strength, even at your door, To cudgel you and make you take the hatch; To hug with swine; to seek sweet safety out Lew. There end thy brave, and turn thy face Bast. No, I will speak. Lew. We will attend to neither.Strike up the drums; and let the tongue of war Plead for our interest and our being here. Bast. Indeed your drums, being beaten, will cry out ; And so shall you, being beaten. Do but start (Not trusting to this halting legate here, Bast. And thou shalt find it, Dauphin, do not SCENE III.-The same. A Field of Battle. Alarums. Enter KING JOHN and HUBERT. K. John. How goes the day with us? O tell me, Hubert. Hub. Badly, I fear. How fares your majesty? K. John. This fever that hath troubled me so long Lies heavy on me: O my heart is sick! Enter a Messenger. Mess. My lord, your valiant kinsman, Falconbridge, Desires your majesty to leave the field, Mess. Be of good comfort; for the great supply K. John. Ah me! this tyrant fever burns me up, And will not let me welcome this good news.— Set on toward Swinstead: to my litter straight; Weakness possesseth me, and I am faint. Even on that altar where we swore to you Sal. May this be possible? may this be true? Mel. Have I not hideous death within my view; Retaining but a quantity of life, Which bleeds away, even as a form of wax Already smokes about the burning crest Sal. We do believe thee :-and beshrew my soul Even to our ocean, to our great King John.- And happy newness, that intends old right! |