I did not think to be so sad to-night, As this hath made me.-Who was he, that said, The stumbling night did part our weary powers? Lew. Well; keep good quarter, and good care to-night, To try the fair adventure of to-morrow. [Exeunt. SCENE VI.-AN OPEN PLACE IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF SWINSTEAD ABBEY. Enter the Bastard and Hubert meeting. Hub. Who's there? speak, ho! speak quickly, or I shoot. Hub. Of the part of England. Bast. Whither dost thou go? Hub. What's that to thee? Why may not I demand Of thine affairs, as well as thou of mine? Bust. Hubert, I think. Hub. Thou hast a perfect thought: I will upon all hazards, well believe Thou art my friend, that know'st my tongue so well: Bast. Who thou wilt: an if thou please, Thou mayst befriend me so much as to think I come one way of the Plantagenets. Hub. Unkind remembrance! thou, and eyeless night, Have done me shame:- Brave soldier, pardon me, That any accent, breaking from thy tongue, Should 'scape the true acquaintance of mine ear. Bast. Come, come; sans' compliment, what news abroad? Hub. Why, here walk I in the black brow of night, To find you out. Bast. Brief, then; and what's the news? Hub. O, my sweet sir, news fitting to the night, Black, fearful, comfortless, and horrible. Bast. Show me the very wound of this ill news; I am no woman, I'll not swoon at it. Hub. The king, I fear, is poison'd by a monk : 1 left him almost speechless, and broke out To acquaint you with this evil; that you might, Than if you had at leisure known of this. Bast. How did he take it? who did taste to him? Whose bowels suddenly burst out: the king Yet speaks, and, peradventure, may recover. Bast. Who didst thou leave to tend his majesty? Hub. Why, know you not? the lords are all come back, 1 Without. Base. Withhold thine indignation, mighty heaven! [Exeunt. SCENE VII.—THE ORCHARD OF SWINSTEAD ABBEY. Enter Prince Henry, Salisbury, and Bigot. P. Hen. It is too late; the life of all his blood Is touch'd corruptibly; and his pure brain (Which some suppose the soul's frail dwelling-house), Doth by the idle comments that it makes, Foretell the ending of mortality. Enter Pembroke. Pem. His highness yet doth speak; and holds belief, That, being brought into the open air, It would allay the burning quality Of that fell poison which assaileth him. P. Hen. Let him be brought into the orchard here.-Doth he still rage? [Exit Bigot. Pem. Which, in their throng and press to that last hold, Confound themselves. "Tis strange, that death should sing. I am the cygnet to this pale faint swan, Who chants a doleful hymn to his own death; And, from the organ-pipe of frailty, sings His soul and body to their lasting rest. Sal. Be of good comfort, prince; for you are born To set a form upon that indigest Which he hath left so shapeless and so rude. Re-enter Bigot and Attendants, who bring in King John in a chair. K. John. Ay, marry, now my soul hath elbow-room; P. Hen. How fares your majesty? K. John. Poison'd,-ill-fare;-dead, forsook, cast off; And none of you will bid the winter come, And comfort me with cold :-I do not ask you much, And so ingrateful, you deny me that. P. Hen. O, that there were some virtue in my tears, That might relieve you! K. John. The salt in them is hot. Within me is a hell; and there the poison Is, as a fiend, confin'd to tyrannize On unreprievable condemned blood. Enter the Bastard. Bast. O, I am scalded with my violent motion, K. John. O cousin, thou art come to set mine eye: Bast. The Dauphin is preparing hitherward; [The King dies. Sal. You breathe these dead news in as dead an ear.--- Bast. Art thou gone so? I do but stay behind, And then my soul shall wait on thee to heaven, As it on earth hath been thy servant still. Now, now, you stars, that move in your right spheres, Where be your powers? Show now your mended faiths; And instantly return with me again, To push destruction, and perpetual shame,. Out of the weak door of our fainting land: Straight let us seek, or straight we shall be sought; The Dauphin rages at our very heels. Sal. It seems, you know not then so much as we: The cardinal Pandulph is within at rest, Who half an hour since came from the Dauphin; 1 Niggardly. 2 Model. With purpose presently to leave this war. Sal. Nay, it is in a manner done already; With whom yourself, myself, and other lords, Bast. Let it be so :-And you, my noble prince, P. Hen. At Worcester must his body be interr'd; Bast. Thither shall it then. And happily may your sweet self put on To whom, with all submission, on my knee, And true subjection everlastingly. Sal. And the like tender of our love we make, To rest without a spot for evermore. P. Hen. I have a kind soul that would give you thanks, And knows not how to do it, but with tears. Bast. O, let us pay the time but needful woe, Since it hath been beforehand with our griefs.- But when it first did help to wound itself. Now these her princes are come home again, And we shall shock them: Nought shall make us rue, [Exeunt. BAGOT, Creatures to King GREEN, EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND. HENRY PERCY, his Son. LORD WILLOUGHBY. LORD FITZWATER. BISHOP OF CARLISLE. ABBOT OF WESTMINSTER. Lord Marshal; and another Lord. Captain of a Band of Welshmen. Lady attending on the Queen. Lords, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, Two Gardeners, Keeper, Messenger, Groom, and other Attendants. SCENE.-Dispersedly in England and Wales. Act First. SCENE I.-LONDON. A ROOM IN THE PALACE. Enter King Richard, attended; John of Gaunt, and other Nobles, with him. K. Rich. Old John of Gaunt, time-honour'd Lancaster, Brought hither Henry Hereford, thy bold son; K. Rich. Tell me, moreover, hast thou sounded him, Or worthily as a good subject should, On some known ground of treachery in him? Gaunt. As near as I could sift him on that argument, On some apparent danger seen in him, Aim'd at your highness; no inveterate malice. K. Rich. Then call them to our presence; face to face. 1 Bond. |