And well fhall you perceive how willingly I will both hear and grant you your requests. Pemb. Then I, as one that am the tongue of thefe, To found the purposes of all their hearts, (Both for myself and them; but chief of all, Your fafety; for the which, myself and they Bend their best studies ;) heartily request Th' infranchifement of Arthur; whofe reftraint Doth move the murm'ring lips of discontent To break into this dang'rous argument; If what in reft you have, in right you hold, Why fhou'd your fears, (which, as they fay, attend The fteps of wrong) then move you to mew up Your tender kinfman, and to choke his days 1 With barb❜rous ignorance, and deny his youth The rich advantage of good exercise? That the time's enemies may not have this To grace occafions, let it be our fuit, That you have bid us ask his liberty; Which for our good we do no further ask, Than whereupon our weal, on you depending, Counts it your weal, that he have liberty.

1

Enter Hubert.

K. John. Let it be fo; I do commit his youth
To your
direction. Hubert, what news with you?
Pemb. This is the man, fhould do the bloody deed :
He fhew'd his warrant to a friend of mine.

The image of a wicked heinous fault

Lives in his eye; that clofe afpect of his
Does fhew the mood of a much-troubled breast.
And I do fearfully believe 'tis done,

What we so fear'd he had a charge to do.

Sal. The colour of the King doth come and go,
Between his purpofe and his confcience,

Like heralds 'twixt two dreadful battles (a) fent:
[(a) fent. Mr. Theobald Vulg. fet.]

-

His paffion is fo ripe it needs must break.

Pemb. And when it breaks, I fear, will iffue thence The foul corruption of a fweet child's death.

K. John. We cannot hold mortality's ftrong hand. Good lords, although my will to give is living, The fuit which you demand is gone, and dead. He tells us, Arthur is deceas'd to night.

Sal. Indeed, we fear'd, his fickness was paft cure. Pemb. Indeed, we heard how near his death he was, Before the child himself felt he was fick.

This must be answer'd, either here, or hence.

K. John. Why do you bend fuch folemn brows on

me?

Think you, I bear the fhears of destiny?
Have I commandment on the pulse of life?
Sal. It is apparent foul-play, and 'tis fhame
That greatnefs fhould fo grofly offer it:
So thrive it in your game, and fo farewel!
Pemb. Stay yet, lord Salisbury, I'll go with thee,
And find th' inheritance of this poor child,
His little kingdom of a forced grave.

That blood, which own'd the breadth of all this ifle,
Three foot of it doth hold; bad world the while!
This must not be thus borne; this will break out
To all our forrows, and ere long, I doubt. [Exeunt.

K. John. They burn in indignation; I repent. There is no fure foundation fet on blood;

No certain life atchiev'd by others' death- [Afide. A fearful eye thou haft; where is that blood,

[To the Meffenger. That I have feen inhabit in thofe cheeks? So foul a sky clears not without a storm; Pour down thy weather: how goes all in France?

Mej.

Mef. From France to England never fuch a power, For any foreign preparation,

Was levy'd in the body of a land.

The copy of your fpeed is learn'd by them:
For when you should be told, they do prepare,
The tidings come, that they are all arriv'd.

K. John. O, where hath our intelligence been drunk?
Where hath it flept? where is my mother's care?
That fuch an army fhould be drawn in France,
And she not hear of it?

Mef. My Liege, her ear

Is ftopt with duft: the first of April, dy'd
Your noble mother; and, as I hear, my lord,
The lady Conftance in a frenzie dy'd

Three days before: but this from rumour's tongue
I idlely heard; if true or falfe, I know not.

K. John. With-hold thy fpeed, dreadful occafion!
O make a league with me, till I have pleas'd
My difcontented peers. What! mother dead?
How wildly then walks my eftate in France?
Under whofe conduct came thofe powers of France,
That, thou for truth giv'ft out," are landed here?
Mef. Under the Dauphin.;

Enter Faulconbridge, and Peter of Pomfret.
K. John. Thou haft made me giddy

With thefe ill tidings. Now, what fays the world
To your proceedings? Do not feek to stuff
My head with more ill news, for it is full.

Faul. But if you be afraid to hear the worst,
Then let the worft unheard fall on your head.
K. John. Bear with me, Coufin; for I was amaz'd
Under the tide; but now I breath again
Aloft the flood, and can give audience
To any tongue, fpeak it of what it will.
Faulc. How I have fped among the clergymen,
The fums I have collected fhall exprefs.

But as I travell'd hither thro' the land,
I find the people ftrangely fantafied;
Poffeft 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 fung in rude harfh-founding rhimes,
That, ere the next Afcenfion-day at noon,
Your Highness should deliver up your crown.

K. John. Thou idle dreamer, wherefore did'st thou fo?
Peter. Fore-knowing, that the truth will fall out fo.
K. John. Hubert, away with him, imprison him,
And on that day at noon, whereon he says
I fhall yield up my crown, let him be hang'd.
Deliver him to fafety, and return,

For I muft ufe thee.- O my gentle coufin, [Exit Hubert, with Peter.

Hear'ft thou the news abroad, who are arriv'd? Faulc. The French, my Lord; men's mouths are full of it:

Befides, I met lord Bigot and lord Salisbury,

With eyes as red as new-enkindled fire,
And others more, going to feek the grave

Of Arthur, who, they fay, is kill'd to night
On your fuggeftion.

K. John. Gentle kinfman, go

And thrust thyself into their company:
I have a way to win their loves again :
Bring them before me.

Faulc. I will feek them out.

K. John. Nay, but make hafte: the better foot before.

O, let me have no fubject enemies,

When adverse foreigners affright my towns

With dreadful pomp of ftout invafion.

Be Mercury, fet feathers to thy heels ;

And

And fly, like thought, from them to me again.
Faule. The fpirit of the time fhall teach me speed.
[Exit.
K. John. Spoke like a fprightful noble gentleman.
Go after him; for he, perhaps, shall need
Some meffenger betwixt me and the Peers;
And be thou he.

Mef. With all my heart, my Liege.

K. John. My mother dead!

SCENE IV.

Enter Hubert.

[Exit,

Hub. My lord, they fay, five moons were seen to night:

Four fixed, and the fifth did whirl about

The other four, in wond'rous motion.

K. John. Five moons?

Hub. Old men and beldams, in the streets, Do prophefic upon it dangerously:

Young Arthur's death is common in their mouths; And, when they talk of him, they shake their heads, And whisper one another in the ear.

And he, that speaks, doth gripe the hearer's wrift, "Whilst he, that hears, makes fearful action

• With wrinkled brows, with nods, with rolling eyes. • I faw a fmith ftand with his hammer, thus,

The whilft his iron did on the anvil cool,

• With open mouth fwallowing a taylor's news; • Who with his fhears and measure in his hand, Standing on flippers, which his nimble hafte

• Had falfely thruft upon contrary feet,

• Told of a many thousand warlike French, That were embatteled and rank'd in Kent. Another lean, unwash'd artificer

Cuts off his tale, and talks of Arthur's death.'