I shall indue you with. Meantime but ask What you would have reform'd that is not well,

45

And well shall you perceive how willingly
I will both hear and grant you your requests.
Pem. Then I-as one that am the tongue
of these

To sound the purposes of all their hearts,
Both for myself and them, but, chief of all,
Your safety, for the which myself and them 50
Bend their best studies, - heartily request
The enfranchisement of Arthur; whose re-
straint

Doth move the murmuring lips of discontent
To break into this dangerous argument:
If what in rest you have in right you hold,
Why then your fears, which, as they say, at-
tend

55

The steps of wrong, should move you to mew

194

I saw a smith stand with his hammer, thus,
The whilst his iron did on the anvil cool,
With open mouth swallowing a tailor's news;
Who, with his shears and measure in his hand,
Standing on slippers, which his nimble haste
Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet,
Told of a many thousand warlike French
That were embattailed and rank'd in Kent. 200
Another lean unwash'd artificer

Cuts off his tale and talks of Arthur's death. K. John. Why seek'st thou to possess me with these fears?

Why urgest thou so oft young Arthur's death? Thy hand hath murd'red him. I had a mighty

cause

205

291

Is to be made, then shall this hand and seal
Witness against us to damnation!
How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds
Make deeds ill done! Hadst not thou been by,
A fellow by the hand of nature mark'd,
Quoted, and sign'd to do a deed of shame,
This murder had not come into my mind ;
But taking note of thy abhorr'd aspect,
Finding thee fit for bloody villainy,
Apt, liable to be employ'd in danger,

I faintly broke with thee of Arthur's death;
And thou, to be endeared to a king,
Made it no conscience to destroy a prince.
Hub. My lord,

225

230

K. John. Hadst thou but shook thy head or

made a pause

When I spake darkly what I purposed,
Or turn'd an eye of doubt upon my face,
As bid me tell my tale in express words,
Deep shame had struck me dumb, made me

break off,

235

And those thy fears might have wrought fears

in me.

But thou didst understand me by my signs

The dreadful notion of a murderous thought; And you have slander'd nature in my form, 256 Which, howsoever rude exteriorly,

Is yet the cover of a fairer mind

Than to be butcher of an innocent child.

K. John. Doth Arthur live? O, haste thee to the peers,

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.

SCENE III. [Before the castle.]

Enter ARTHUR, on the walls.

260

265

[Exeunt.

Arth. The wall is high, and yet will I leap down.

Good ground, be pitiful and hurt me not! There's few or none do know me; if they did, This ship-boy's semblance hath disguis'd me

quite.

I am afraid, and yet I'll venture it.

If I get down, and do not break my limbs,
I'll find a thousand shifts to get away.
As good to die and go, as die and stay.

[Leaps down.] O me! my uncle's spirit is in these stones. Heaven take my soul, and England keep my bones! [Dies. 10

Enter PEMBROKE, SALISBURY, and BIGOT. Sal. Lords, I will meet him at Saint Edmundsbury.

It is our safety, and we must embrace
This gentle offer of the perilous time.
Pem. Who brought that letter from the
Cardinal?

Sal. The Count Melun, a noble lord of
France;

15

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.

Or have you read or heard, or could you think? Or do you almost think, although you see, That you do see? Could thought, without this

object,

45

this;

And this, so sole and so unmatchable,
Shall give a holiness, a purity,

To the yet unbegotten sin of times;

And prove a deadly bloodshed but a jest,
Exampled by this heinous spectacle.

Bast. It is a damned and a bloody work;
The graceless action of a heavy hand,
If that it be the work of any hand.

Sal. If that it be the work of any hand! a We had a kind of light what would ensue. It is the shameful work of Hubert's hand, The practice and the purpose of the King; From whose obedience I forbid my soul, Kneeling before this ruin of sweet life,

63

yours.

85

I would not have you, lord, forget yourself,
Nor tempt the danger of my true defence,
Lest I, by marking of your rage, forget
Your worth, your greatness and nobility.
Big. Out, dunghill! dar'st thou brave a
nobleman?

Hub. Not for my life; but yet I dare defend
My innocent life against an emperor.
Sal. Thou art a murderer.
Hub.

Do not prove me so; Yet I am none. Whose tongue soe'er speaks false,

Not truly speaks; who speaks not truly, lies. Pem. Cut him to pieces.

Bast.

91

Keep the peace, I say. Sal. Stand by, or I shall gall you, Faulcon

bridge.

Bast. Thou wert better gall the devil, Salis

Thou 'rt 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.

126

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 thy

self,

Put but a little water in a spoon, And it shall be as all the ocean, Enough to stifle such a villain up. I do suspect thee very grievously.

130

Hub. If I in act, consent, or sin of thought, Be guilty of the stealing that sweet breath 136 Which was embounded in this beauteous clay, Let hell want pains enough to torture me. I left him well.

140

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 145 To tug and scamble 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 155 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.

ACT [V]

SCENE I. [King John's palace.]

150

Enter KING JOHN, PANDULPH, and Attendants. K. John. Thus have I yielded up into your

hand The circle of my glory.

Giving the crown.]

Then pause not; for the present time 's so sick,
That present medicine must be minist❜red,
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,

19

My tongue shall hush again this storm of war,
And make fair weather in your blust'ring land.
On this Ascension-day, remember well,
Upon your oath of service to the Pope,"
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
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.

Enter the Bastard.

25

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. 45
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 threatener 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.

50

55

SCENE II. [The Dauphin's camp at Saint Edmundsbury.]

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.

10

18

Sal. Upon our sides it never shall be broken. And, noble Dauphin, albeit we swear A voluntary zeal and an 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 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 confused wrong. And is 't not pity, O my grieved 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