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
Bast. Here's a good world!-Knew you of
[Exeunt LORDS.
this fair work?
Beyond the infinite and boundless reach
Of mercy, if thou didst this deed of death,
Art thou danin'd, Hubert.
Hub, Do but hear me, Sir.
Bast. Ha! P'll tell thee what;
Thou art damn'd as black-nay, nothing is so black;
Thou art more deep damn'd than prince Lucifer:
There is not yet so ugly a fiend of hell
As thou shalt be, if thou didst kill this child.
Hub. Upon my soul,--
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 would'st
drown thyself,
Put but a little water in a spoon,
And it shall be as all the oceau,
Enough to stifle such a villain up.-
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 embounded in this beauteous clay, Let heli want pains enough to torture me! I left bir 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 home,
Swearing allegiance and the love of soul,
To stranger blood, to foreign royalty.
This inundation of mistemper'd humour
Then pause not; for the present time's so sick,
Re ts by you only to be qualified.
That present medicine must be minister'd,
Or overthrow incurable ensues.
Pand. It was my breath that blew this tein-
pest up,
Upon your stubborn usage of the pope :
But, since you are a gentle convertite,
My tongue shall hush again this storm of war,
And make fair weather in your blustering land.
On this Ascension-day, remember well,
Go I to make the French lay down their arms.
Upon your oath of service to the pope,
[Exit.
K. John. Is this Ascension-day? Did not the
prophet +
Say, that, before Ascension-day at noon,
My crown I should give off? Even so I have:
I did suppose, it should be on constraint;
But, heaven be thank'd it is but voluntary.
Bast. All Kent hath yielded; nothing there
holds out,
But Dover castle: London hath receiv'd,
Like a kind host, the Dauphin and his powers:
Your nobles will not hear you, but are goue
To offer service to your enemy;
And wild amazement hurries up and down
The little number of your doubtful friends.
K. John. Would not my lords return to me
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 damn'd band 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
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:
at Threaten the threat'ner, and outface the brow
Be stirring as the time; be fire with fire;
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.
What, shall they seek the lion in his den,
And fright him there? and make him tremble
there?
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 be, whose cloak and cincture + can
Hold out this tempest. Bearway 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.
Enter King JOHN, PANDULPH with the Crown, and Attendants.
O let it not be said !-Forage, and run
To meet displeasure further from the doors;
And grapple with him, ere he come so nigh.
K. John. The legate of the pope hath been
And I have made a happy peace with him;
with me,
Led by the Dauphin.
And he hath promis'd to dismiss the powers
Bast. O inglorious league!
Shall we, upon the footing of our land,
K. John Thus have I yielded up into your Send fair-play orders, and make compromise
Pand. Take again From this my hand, as holding of the pope, [Giving JouN the Crown. Your sovereign greatness and authority. K. John. Now keep your holy word: go meet the French;
And from His Holiness use all your power
To stop their marches, 'tore we are inflam'd.
Our discontented counties do revolt;
Our people quarrel with obedience;
Insinuation, parley, and base truce,
To arms invasive? shall a beardless boy,
And flesh his spirit in a warlike soil,
A cocker'd silken wanton brave our fields
Perchance, the cardinal cannot make your
Mocking the air with colours idly spread,
And find no check? Let us, my liege, to arms:
Or if he do, let it at least be said
They saw we had a purpose of defence.
K. John. Have thou the ordering of this pre-To give us warrant from the hand of heaven
sent time.
And on our actions set the name of right,
Bast. Away then, with good courage; yet I With holy breath.
know,
Our party may well meet a prouder foe.
[Exeunt. SCENE 11-A Plain near St. Edmund'sBury.
Pand. Hail, noble prince of France !
The next is this,-king Johu hath reconcil'd
Himself to Rome; his spirit is come in,
That so stood out against the holy church,
The great metropolis and see of Rome :
Therefore thy threat'ning colours now wind up,
And tame the savage spirit of wild war;
MELUN,That, like a lion foster'd up at hand,
It may lie gently at the foot of peace,
And be no further harmful than in show.
Lew. Your grace shall pardon me, I will not
back
Enter, in arms, LEWIS, SALISBURY,
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 sacrameut,
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 unurg'd faith,
To your proceedings; yet, believe me, prince,
I am not glad that such a sore of time
Should seek a plaster by contemn'd revolt,
And heal the inveterate canker of one wound,
By making many: Oh! it grieves my soul,
That I must draw this metal from my side
To be a widow-maker; Oh! 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 confused wrong.-
And is't not pity, O my grieved friends!
That we, the sous 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
Upon the spot of this enforced cause,)
To grace the gentry of a land remote,
And follow unacquainted colours here?
What, here ?-O nation, that thou coulds't re-
That Neptune's arms, who clippeth thee about, Would bear thee from the knowledge of thyself,
And grapple thee unto a pagan shore;
Where these two Christian armies might com-
The blood of malice in a vein of league,
And not to spend it so unneighbourly!
Lew. A noble temper dost thou show in this;
And great affections, wrestling in thy bosom,
Do make an earthquake of nobility.
Oh! what a noble combat hast thou fought,
Between compulsion, and a brave respect ! •
Let me wipe off this honourable dew,
That silverly doth progress on thy cheeks;
My heart hath melted at a lady's tears,
Being an ordinary inundation!
But this effusion of such manly drops,
This shower, blown up by tempest of the soul,
Startles mine eyes, and makes me more amaz'd
Than I had seen the vaulty top of heaven
Figur'd quite o'er with burning meteors.
Lift up thy brow, renowned Salisbury,
And with a great heart heave away this storm.
Commend these waters to those baby eyes,
That never saw the giant world enrag'd;
Nor met with fortune other than at feasts,
Full warm of blood, of mirth, of gossiping.
I am too high-born to be propertied,
To be a secoudary at control,
Or useful serving-man, and instrument,
To any sovereign state throughout the world.
Your breath first kindled the dead coal of wars,
Between this chastis'd kingdom and myself,
And brought in matter that should should feed
this fire;
And now 'tis far too huge to be blown out
With that same weak wind which enkindled it.
You taught me how to know the face of right,
Acquainted me with interest to this land,
Yea, thrust this enterprize into my heart;
And come you now to tell me, John hath made
His peace with Rome? What is that peace to
I, by the honour of my marriage-bed,
After young Arthur, claim this land for mine;
Aud, now it is half-conquer'd, must I back,
Because that Jobu hath made his peace with
Rome ?
Am I Rome's slave? What penny hath Rome
borne,
What men provided, what munition sent,
To underprop this action? is't not I,
That undergo this charge? who else but I,
And such as to my claim are liable,
Sweat in this business, and maintain this war?
Have I not heard these islanders shout out,
Vive le roy! as I have bank'd their towns?
Have I not here the best cards for the game,
To win this easy match play'd for a crown?
And shall I now give o'er the yielded set?
No, on my soul, it never shall be said.
Pand. You look but on the outside of this
work.
Lew. Outside or inside, I will not return
Till my attempt so much be glorified
Before I drew this gallant head of war,
As to my ample hope was promised
And cult'd these fiery spirits from the world,
To outlook conque, and to win renown
Even in the jaws of danger and of death.-
[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;
And, as you answer, I do know the scope
And warrant limited unto my tongue.
Pand. The Dauphin is too wilful-opposite,
And will not temporize with my entreaties;
He flatly says, he'll not lay down his arms.
Bast. By all the blood that ever fury breath'd,
Come, come! for thou shalt thrust thy hand as The youth says well :-Now hear our English
Into the purse of rich prosperity,
As Lewis himself :-so, nobles, shall you all,
That knit your sinews to the strength of mine.
Enter PANDULPH, attended.
And even there, methinks, an angel spake :
Look where the holy legate comnes apace,
For thus his royalty doth speak in me.
He is prepar'd; and reason too, he should:
This apish and unmannerly approach,
This harness'd masque, aud uuadvised revel,
This unhair'd sauciness, and boyish troops,
The king doth smile at; and is well prepar'd
To whip this dwarfish war, these pigmy arms,
From out the circle of his territories.
That hand, which had the strength, even at your | SCENE IV.-The same.-Another part of the 359 door,
To cudgel you, and make you take the hatch; Enter SALISBURY, PEMBROKE, Bigot, and
To dive, like buckets, in concealed wells;
To crouch in litter of your stable planks;
To lie, like pawns, lock'd up in chests and
trunks;
To hug with swine; to seek sweet safety out
In vaults and prisons; and to thrill, and shake,
Even at the crying of your nation's crow, t
Thinking his voice an armed Englishmau ;-
Shall that victorious hand be feebled here,
That in your chambers gave you chastisement?
No Know, the gallant monarch is in arms;
And like an eagle o'er his aeric towers,
To souse annoyance that comes near his nest.-
And you degenerate, you ingrate revolts,
You bloody Neros, ripping up the womb
of your dear mother England, blush for shame :
For your own ladies, and pale visag'd maids,
Like Amazons, come tripping after drums;
Their thimbles into armed gauntlets change,
Their neelds to lances, and their gentle hearts
To fierce and bloody inclination.
Lew. There end thy brave, and turn thy
face in peace;
We graut thou canst outscold us: fare thee
[well;
We hold our time too precious to be spent
With such a brabbler.
Pand. Give me leave to speak.
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
And so shall you, being beaten : Do but start
And echo with the clamour of thy drum,
And even at hand a drum is ready brac'd,
That shall reverberate all as loud as thine;
Sound but another, and another shall
As loud as thine, rattle the welkin's ear,
And mock the deep-mouth'd thunder:
(Not trusting to this halting legate here,
Whom he hath us'd rather for sport than need,)
Is warlike John; and in his forehead sits
A bare-ribb'd death, whose office is this day
To feast upon whole thousands of the French.
Lew. Strike up our drums, to find this dan-
Bast. And thou shalt and it, Dauphin, do not [Exeunt. 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 jesty ?
K. John. This fever, that hath troubled me so long,
Lies heavy on me; O my heart is sick!
Enter a MESSENGER.
Sal. I did not think the king so stored with
friends.
If they miscarry, we miscarry too.
Pem. Up once again; put spirit in the French;
Sal. That misbegotton devil, Faulconbridge,
In spite of spite, alone upholds the day.
Pem. They say, king John, sore sick, hath
left the field.
Enter MELUN wounded, and led by Soldiers.
Mel. Lead me to the revolts of England here.
Sal. When we were happy, we had other
Pem. It is the count Melun.
Sal. Wounded to death.
Mel. Fly, noble English, you are bought and
Unthread the rude eye of rebellion,
And welcome home again discarded faith.
[sold;
Seek out king John, and fall before his feet;
For, if the French be lords of this loud day,
By cutting off your heads: Thus hath be sworn,
He means to recompense the pains you take,
And I with him, and many more with me
Upon the altar at Saint Edmund's-Bury;
Even on that altar, where we swore to you
Dear amity and everlasting love.
Sal. May this be possible? may this be true?
Mel. Have I not hideous death within my
Retaining but a quantity of life:
Which bleeds away, even as a form of wax
Resolved from his figure 'gainst the fire?‡
What in the world should make me now deceive,
Since I must lose the use of all deceit ?
Why should I then be false; since it is true
That I must die here, and live hence by truth f
I say again, if Lewis do win the day,
Behold another day break in the east:
He is forsworn, if e'er those eyes of your's
But even this night,-whose black contagious
[breath
Already smokes about the burning crest
Of the old, feeble, and day-wearied sun,-
Even this ill night, your breathing shall expire ;
Paying the fine of rated treachery,
Even with a treacherous fine of all your lives,
If Lewis by your assistance win the day.
Commend me to one Hubert, with your king;
The love of him,-and this respect besides,
For that my grandsire was an Englishman,-
Awakes my conscience to confess all this.
In lieu whereof, I pray you, bear me hence
From forth the noise and rumour of the field;
Where I may think the remnant of my thoughts
In peace and part this body and my soul
With contemplation and devout desires.
of this most fair occasion, by the which
Sal. We do believe thee,-And beshrew my
But I do love the favour and the form
We will untread the steps of damned flight;
And like a bated and retired flood,
Leaving our rankness and irregular course,
Mess. My lord, your valiant kinsman, Faul- Stoop low within those bounds we have e'er
Desires your majesty to leave the field;
And send him word by me, which way you go.
K. John. Tell him, toward Swinstead, to the
abbey there.
Mess. Be of good comfort; for the great
That was expected by the Dauphin here,
Are wreck'd three nights ago on Godwin sands.
This news was brought to Richard but even now;
The French fight coldly, and retire themselves.
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.
And calmly run on in obedience, [look'd,
Even to our ocean, to our great king John.--
My arm shall give thee help to bear thee hence;
For I do see the cruel pangs of death [flight;
Right in thine eye.-Away, my friends! New
And happy newness, that intends old right.
[Exeunt, leading of MELUN.
SCENE V.-The same.-The French Camp.
Enter LEWis and his Train.
Lew. The sun of heaven, methought, was
loath to set;
• Pembroke was not amongst the revolters: He
maintained his loyalty unshaken, during the lowest
fortune of the king. Hume.
+ Lewis
1 An allusion to the images made by witches.
Immediate.
Innovation.
But stay'd, and made the western welkin blush,
When the English measur'd backward their own
In faint retire: O bravely came we off, [ground,
When with a volley of our needless shot,
After such bloody toil, we bid good night;
And wound our tatter'd colours clearly up,
Last in the field, and almost lords of it!
Enter a MESSENGER.
Mess. Where is my prince the Dauphin?
Lew. Here:-What news ?
Mess. The count Melan is slain; the English SCENE VII.-The Orchard of Swinstead. lords,
By his persuasion, are again fallen off: [long,
And your supply, which you have wish'd so
Are cast away, and sunk, on Godwin sands.
Lew. Ah! foul shrewd news!-Beshrew thy
very heart!
I did not think to be so sad to-night,
As this hath made me.-Who was he, that said
King John did fly, an hour or two before
The stumbling night did part our weary powers?
Mess. Whoever spoke it, it is true, my lord.
Lew. Well; keep good quarter and good care
The day shall not be up so soon as 1, [to-night;
To try the fair adventure of to-morrow.
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.
Pem. His highness yet doth speak; and holds belief,
That, being brought into the open air, SCENE VI-An open Place in the Neigh-It would allay the burning quality
bourhood of Swinstead-Abbey.
Enter the BASTARD and HUBERT, meeting.
Hub. Who's there? speak, ho! speak quickly,
Bast. A friend :-What art thou?
Hub. Of the part of England.
Bast. Whither dost thou go?
Of that fell poison which assaileth Eim.
P. Hen. Let him he brought into the orchard
Pem. He is more patient,
Than when you left him; even now he sung.
P. Hen. O vanity of sickness! fierce ex-
tremes,
Hub. What's that to thee? Why may not 1 In their continuance, will not feel themselves.
Hub. Why, here walk 1, 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.
Death, having prey'd upon the outward parts,
Leaves them insensible; and his siege is now
Against the mind, the which he pricks and
wounds
With many legions of strange fantasies;
Which, in their throng and press to that last
hold,
Confound themselves. 'Tis strange, that dea:a
should sing.
I am the cygnet to this pale faint swap,
Who chants a doleful hymn to his own death;
And, from the organ-pipe of frailty, siugs
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 Joux in a Chair.
K. John. Aye, marry, now my soul hath el-
bow-room;
It would not out at windows, nor at doors,
There is so hot a summer in my bosom,
That all my bowels crumble tip to dust:
Bast. Show me the very wound of this ill I am a scribbled form, drawn with a pen
Upon a parchment; and against this tire
Do I shrink up.
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,
To thrust his icy fingers in my maw;
Nor let my kingdom's rivers take their course
Through my burn'd bosom; nor entreat the
north
To make his bleak winds kiss my parched lips,
And comfort me with cold:-1 do not ask you
I beg cold comfort; and you are so strait,
And so ingrateful, you deny me that,
P. Hen. O that there were some virtue in
my tears,
That might relieve you!
• This occurred to King John himself.
K. John. The salt in them is het.Within tre is a hell; and there the poison Is, as a fiend, confiu'd to tyrannize Ou unreprievable condemned blood.
Bast. Oh! I am scalded with my violent motion,
And spleen of speed to see your majesty.
K. John. O cousin, thou art come to set mine eye:
The tackle of my heart is crack'd and burn'd; And all the shrouds, wherewith my life should sail,
Are turned to one thread, one little hair:
My heart hath one poor string to stay it by,
Which holds but till thy news be uttered:
And then all this thou see'st, is but a clod,
And module of confounded royalty.
Bast. The Dauphin is preparing hitherward; Where, heaven he knows, how we shall answer him:
For, in a night, the best part of my power,
As I upon advantage did remove,
Were, in the washes, all unwarily,
Devoured by the unexpected flood.
[The King dies. Sal. You breathe these dead news in as dead
Sal. It seems you know not then so much
The cardinal Pandalph is within at rest,
Who half an hour since came from the Dau-
phim:
And brings from him such offers of our peace
As we with honour and respect may take,
With purpose presently to leave this war.
Bast. He will the rather do it, when he sees Ourselves well sinewed to our defence.
Sal. Nay, it is in a manner done already;
For many carriages he hath despatch'd
To the sea-side, and put his cause and quarrel
To the disposing of the cardinal:
With whom yourself, myself, and other lords,
If you think meet, this afternoon will post
To consummate this business happily.
Bast. Let it be so;-And you, my noble prince,
With other princes that may best be spar'd,
Shall wait upon your father's funeral.
P. Hen. At Worceste. must his body be in terr'd;
For so he will'd it.
Bast. Thither shall it then,
And happily may your sweet self put on
The lineal state and glory of the land!
To whom, with all submission, on my knee,
I do bequeath my faithful services
And true subjection everlastingly.
Sul. 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
|