What you would have reformed, that is not well,
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 ftudies), heartily requeft
Th' infranchisement of Arthur, whose restraint
Doth move the murmuring lips of Discontent
To break into this dangerous argument.
If what in rest you have, in right you hold,
Why fhould your fears, (which, as they fay, attend
The fteps of wrong) then move you to mew up
Your tender kinfman, and to choak his days
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 afk his liberty;
Which for our good we do no further ask,
Than whereupon our weal, on you depending,
Counts it our weal that he have liberty.

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 fhewed 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 fo feared he had a charge to do.

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

t

Like heralds, 'twixt two dreadful battles fent: (22) His paffion is fo ripe it needs must break.

Pemb. And when it breaks, I fear, will iffue thence The foul corruption of a sweet 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 deceased to-night.

Sal. Indeed we feared 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 answered either here or hence.

f

K. John. Why do you bend fuch folemn brows Think you I bear the fhears of deftiny? [on me? Have I commandment on the pulfe of life? Sal. It is apparent foul play, and 'tis shame That greatnefs fhould fo grofsly 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 owned 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. Enter a Meffenger.

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

No certain life atchieved by others' death.-[Afide. A fearful eye thou haft; where is that blood [To the Meffen.

(az) Like heralds, 'twixt two dreadful battles fet :] But heralds are not planted, I prefume, in the midft betwixt two lines of battle; though they, and trumpets, are often fent over from party to party, to propofe terms, demand a parley, . I have therefore ventured to read fent.

That I have feen inhabit in those cheeks?

So foul a fky clears not without a storm;
Pour down thy weather. How goes all in France?
Me. From France to England never such a power
For any foreign preparation,

Was levied in the body of a land.

The copy of our speed is learned by them :
For when you fhould be told they do prepare,
The tidings come, that they are all arrived.

K. John. Oh, 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 fhe not hear of it?

Me. My Liege, her ear

Is ftop'd with duit: the first of April died
Your noble mother; and as I hear, my Lord,
The Lady Conftance in a phrenzy died.
Three days before: but this from Rumour's tongue
I idly 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 pleafed
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 giveft out are landed here?
Me. Under the Dauphin.

Enter FAULCONBRIDGE and PETER of Pomfret. K. John. Thou haft made me giddy With these 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.

Faulc. But if you be afraid to hear the worst, Then let the worst unheard fall on your head. K. John. Bear with me, coufin; for I was amazed

Under the tide; but now I breathe again
Aloft the flood, and can give audience
To any tongue, fpeak it of what it will.

Faule, How I have fped among the clergymen,
The fums I have collected thall express.
But as I travelled thither through the land,
I find the people ftrangely fantasied;

Poffefs'd 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 fhould deliver up your crown.

K. John. Thou idle dreamer, wherefore didft
thou fo?

Peter. Foreknowing that the truth will fall out for 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 hanged.
Deliver him to fafety, and return,

For I must use thee.O my gentle coufin,

[Exit Hubert with Peter. Heareft thou the news abroad, who are arrived? Faule. The French, my Lord; mens 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 killed 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 feck them out.

K. John. Nay, but make hafte: the better foot O, let me have no fubjects enemies, [before. When adverse foreigners affright my towns With dreadful pomp of ftout invafion. Be Mercury, fet feathers to thy heels, And fly like thought from them to me again. Faulc. The fpirit of the time shall teach me fpeed. [Exit K. John. Spoke like a fprightful noble gentleman. Go after him; for he perhaps fhall need Some meffenger betwixt me and the peers; And be thou he.

Me. With all my heart, my Liege.

K. John. My mother dead!

Enter HUBERT.

[Exit.

Hub. My Lord, they fay five moons were feen Four fixed, and the fifth did whirl about [to-night: The other four in wond'rous motion.

K. John. Five moons?

Hub. Old men and beldams in the ftreets Do prophefy 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,
Whilft 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 tailor'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