King John & Henry VIII (12 page)

LEWIS
    Lady, with me, with me thy fortune lies.

BLANCHE
    There where my fortune lives, there my life dies.

KING JOHN
    
Cousin
, go draw our
puissance
²⁷²
together.

    France, I am burned up with inflaming wrath,

    A rage whose heat hath this
condition
²⁷⁴
:

    That nothing can allay, nothing but blood,

    The blood, and
dearest-valued
²⁷⁶
blood, of France.

KING PHILIP
    Thy rage shall burn thee up, and thou shalt turn

    To ashes, ere our blood shall quench that fire:

    Look to thyself, thou art in jeopardy.

KING JOHN
    No more than he that
threats
. To arms let’s
hie
²⁸⁰
!

BASTARD
    Now, by my life, this day grows wondrous hot:

    Some
airy devil
²
hovers in the sky

    And pours down mischief. Austria’s head lie there,

    While
Philip
breathes
⁴
.

KING JOHN
    Hubert,
keep
this boy.— Philip,
make up
⁵
:

    My mother is
assailèd
⁶
in our tent,

    And
ta’en
⁷
, I fear.

BASTARD
    My lord, I rescued her:

    Her highness is in safety, fear you not:

    But on, my
liege
, for very little
pains
¹⁰

    Will bring this labour to an
happy end
¹¹
.

KING JOHN
    So shall it be: your grace shall
stay behind
¹²

    So strongly guarded:— Cousin, look not sad:

    Thy grandam loves thee; and thy uncle will

    As dear be to thee as thy father was.

ARTHUR
    O, this will make my mother die with grief.

KING JOHN
    Cousin, away for England!
Haste before
¹⁷
,

    And ere our coming see thou shake the bags

    Of hoarding abbots: imprisoned
angels
¹⁹

    Set at liberty: the fat ribs of peace

    Must by the hungry now be fed upon:

    Use our
commission
in
his
²²
utmost force.

BASTARD
    
Bell, book and candle
²³
shall not drive me back,

    When gold and silver
becks
²⁴
me to come on.

    I leave your highness:— grandam, I will pray,

    If ever I remember to be holy,

    For your fair safety: so I kiss your hand.

ELINOR
    Farewell,
gentle
²⁸
cousin.

KING JOHN
    
Coz
²⁹
, farewell.

QUEEN ELINOR
    Come hither, little kinsman: hark, a word.

KING JOHN
    Come hither, Hubert.

                 O my gentle Hubert,

    We owe thee much: within this wall of flesh

    There is a soul counts thee her creditor

    
And with
advantage
means to
pay
³⁴
thy love:

    And, my good friend, thy
voluntary
³⁵
oath

    Lives in this
bosom
³⁶
, dearly cherishèd.

    Give me thy hand: I had a thing to say,

    But I will fit it with some better
tune
³⁸
.

    By heaven, Hubert, I am almost ashamed

    To say what good
respect
⁴⁰
I have of thee.

HUBERT
    I am much
bounden
⁴¹
to your majesty.

KING JOHN
    Good friend, thou hast no cause to say so yet,

    But thou shalt have: and creep time ne’er so slow,

    Yet it shall come for me to do thee good.

    I had a thing to say, but let it go:

    The sun is in the heaven, and the proud day,

    Attended with the pleasures of the world,

    Is all too
wanton
and too full of
gauds
⁴⁸

    To
give me audience
: if the
midnight bell
⁴⁹

    Did with his iron tongue and
brazen
⁵⁰
mouth

    
Sound on
into the drowsy
race
⁵¹
of night:

    If this same were a churchyard where we stand,

    And thou possessèd with a thousand wrongs:

    Or if that surly spirit, melancholy,

    Had baked thy blood and made it heavy, thick,

    Which
else
⁵⁶
runs tickling up and down the veins,

    Making that
idiot
, laughter,
keep
⁵⁷
men’s eyes

    And strain their cheeks to idle merriment,

    A
passion
⁵⁹
hateful to my purposes:

    Or if that thou couldst see me without eyes,

    Hear me without thine ears, and make reply

    Without a tongue, using
conceit
⁶²
alone,

    
Without eyes, ears and harmful sound of words:

    Then, in
despite
of broad-eyed
watchful
⁶⁴
day,

    I would into thy bosom pour my thoughts.

    But, ah, I will not: yet I love thee well,

    And by my
troth
⁶⁷
, I think thou lov’st me well.

HUBERT
    So well, that
what
⁶⁸
you bid me undertake,

    Though that my death were
adjunct to
⁶⁹
my act,

    By heaven, I would do it.

KING JOHN
    Do not I know thou wouldst?

    Good Hubert, Hubert, Hubert, throw thine eye

    On
yon
⁷³
young boy: I’ll tell thee what, my friend,

    He is a very serpent in my way,

    And whereso’er this foot of mine doth tread,

    He lies before me: dost thou understand me?

    Thou art his keeper.

HUBERT
    And I’ll keep him
so
⁷⁸
,

    That he shall not offend your majesty.

KING JOHN
    Death.

HUBERT
    My lord?

KING JOHN
    A grave.

HUBERT
    He shall not live.

KING JOHN
    Enough.

    I could be merry now: Hubert, I love thee.

    Well, I’ll not say what I intend for thee:

    Remember.— Madam, fare you well:

    I’ll send those
powers
⁸⁸
o’er to your majesty.

ELINOR
    My blessing go with thee.

KING JOHN
    For England,
cousin
⁹⁰
, go.

    Hubert shall be your
man
⁹¹
, attend on you

    With all true duty.— On toward Calais, ho!

KING PHILIP
    So by a roaring tempest on the
flood
¹
,

    A whole
armado
of
convicted
²
sail

    Is scattered and disjoined from
fellowship
³
.

CARDINAL PANDULPH
    Courage and comfort: all shall yet go well.

KING PHILIP
    What can go well when we have
run
⁵
so ill?

    Are we not beaten? Is not Angiers lost?

    Arthur ta’en prisoner?
Divers
⁷
dear friends slain?

    And
bloody
England
⁸
into England gone,

    
O’erbearing
interruption
,
spite
⁹
of France?

LEWIS
    What he hath won, that hath he fortified:

    So
hot
a speed with such
advice
disposed
¹¹
,

    Such
temperate
¹²
order in so fierce a cause,

    Doth
want example
¹³
: who hath read or heard

    Of any
kindred
action
like
¹⁴
to this?

KING PHILIP
    Well could I bear that England had this praise,

    
So
we could find some
pattern
¹⁶
of our shame.

    Look, who comes here! A
grave
¹⁷
unto a soul:

    Holding th’eternal spirit against her will,

    In the vile prison of afflicted breath:

    I prithee, lady, go away with me.

CONSTANCE
    Lo, now: now see the
issue
of your
peace
²¹
.

KING PHILIP
    Patience, good lady: comfort, gentle Constance.

CONSTANCE
    No, I
defy
all
counsel
, all
redress
²³
,

    
But
²⁴
that which ends all counsel, true redress:

    Death, death, O
amiable
²⁵
, lovely death:

    
Thou
odoriferous
stench:
sound
²⁶
rottenness:

    Arise forth from the couch of
lasting
²⁷
night,

    Thou hate and terror to prosperity,

    And I will kiss thy detestable bones,

    And put my eyeballs in thy
vaulty
³⁰
brows,

    And ring these fingers with thy household worms,

    And stop this
gap of breath
with
fulsome
³²
dust,

    And be a
carrion
³³
monster like thyself:

    Come, grin on me, and I will think thou smil’st

    And
buss
³⁵
thee as thy wife: misery’s love,

    O, come to me!

KING PHILIP
    O fair
affliction
³⁷
, peace!

CONSTANCE
    No, no, I will not, having breath to cry:

    O, that my tongue were in the thunder’s mouth!

    Then with a passion would I shake the world,

    And rouse from sleep that
fell
anatomy
⁴¹

    Which cannot hear a lady’s feeble voice,

    Which scorns a
modern
invocation
⁴³
.

CARDINAL PANDULPH
    Lady, you utter madness, and not sorrow.

CONSTANCE
    Thou art not holy to
belie
⁴⁵
me so:

    I am not mad: this hair I tear is mine:

    My name is Constance: I was Geoffrey’s wife:

    Young Arthur is my son, and he is lost:

    I am not mad: I would to heaven I were,

    For then, ’tis
like
⁵⁰
I should forget myself:

    O, if I could, what grief should I forget!

    Preach some philosophy to make me mad,

    And thou shalt be canonized, cardinal:

    For, being not mad, but
sensible of
⁵⁴
grief,

    My
reasonable part
⁵⁵
produces reason

    How I may be
delivered of
⁵⁶
these woes,

    
And teaches me to kill or hang myself:

    If I were mad, I should forget my son,

    Or madly think a
babe of
clouts
⁵⁹
were he:

    I am not mad: too well, too well I feel

    The
different
plague
⁶¹
of each calamity.