King John & Henry VIII (15 page)

KING JOHN
    Let it be so: I do
commit
⁶⁷
his youth

    To your
direction
⁶⁸
.—

    Hubert, what news with you?

PEMBROKE
    This is the man
should do
⁷⁰
the bloody deed:

    He showed his warrant to a friend of mine:

    
The image of a wicked
heinous
⁷²
fault

    
Lives
in his eye: that
close
aspect
⁷³
of his

    
Do
⁷⁴
show the mood of a much troubled breast,

    And I do fearfully believe ’tis done,

    What we so feared he had a
charge
⁷⁶
to do.

SALISBURY
    The
colour
⁷⁷
of the king doth come and go

    Between his purpose and his conscience,

    Like heralds
’twixt
two
dreadful battles
⁷⁹
set:

    His passion is so
ripe
, it needs must
break
⁸⁰
.

PEMBROKE
    And when it breaks, I fear will issue thence

    The foul corruption of a sweet child’s death.

KING JOHN
    We cannot
hold
⁸³
mortality’s strong hand.—

    Good lords, although my will to
give
⁸⁴
is living,

    The suit which you demand is gone and dead.

    He tells us Arthur is deceased
tonight
⁸⁶
.

SALISBURY
    Indeed we feared his sickness was past cure.

PEMBROKE
    Indeed we heard how near his death he was

    Before the child himself felt he was sick:

    This must be
answered
either here or
hence
⁹⁰
.

KING JOHN
    Why do you bend such solemn
brows
⁹¹
on me?

    Think you I bear the
shears of destiny
⁹²
?

    Have I
commandment on
⁹³
the pulse of life?

SALISBURY
    It is
apparent
⁹⁴
foul play, and ’tis shame

    That
greatness
should so
grossly
offer
⁹⁵
it:

    
So
thrive it in your
game
⁹⁶
, and so farewell.

PEMBROKE
    Stay yet, Lord Salisbury: I’ll go with thee,

    And find th’inheritance of this poor child,

    His little kingdom of a
forcèd
⁹⁹
grave.

    
That blood which
owed
¹⁰⁰
the breadth of all this isle,

    Three foot of it doth hold: bad world
the while
¹⁰¹
:

    This must not be thus borne: this will break out

    To all our sorrows, and ere long I
doubt
¹⁰³
.

KING JOHN
    They burn in indignation: I repent:

    There is no
sure
foundation
set
¹⁰⁵
on blood:

    No certain life achieved by others’ death.

    A
fearful
¹⁰⁷
eye thou hast. Where is that blood

    That I have seen inhabit in those cheeks?

    So foul a sky clears not without a storm:

    Pour down thy
weather
¹¹⁰
: how goes all in France?

MESSENGER
    
From France to England
: never such a
power
¹¹¹

    For any foreign
preparation
¹¹²

    Was
levied
in the
body
¹¹³
of a land.

    The
copy
¹¹⁴
of your speed is learned by them:

    For when you should be told they do prepare,

    The tidings comes that they are all arrived.

KING JOHN
    O, where hath our
intelligence
¹¹⁷
been drunk?

    Where hath it slept? Where is my mother’s
care
¹¹⁸
,

    That such an army could be
drawn
¹¹⁹
in France,

    And she not hear of it?

MESSENGER
    My liege, her ear

    Is stopped with dust: the first of April died

    Your noble mother; and as I hear, my lord,

    The lady Constance in a
frenzy
¹²⁴
died

    Three days before: but this from Rumour’s tongue

    I
idly
¹²⁶
heard: if true or false I know not.

KING JOHN
    Withhold thy speed, dreadful
Occasion
¹²⁷
:

    O, make a
league
¹²⁸
with me, till I have pleased

    
My discontented peers. What? Mother dead?

    How
wildly
then
walks
my
estate
¹³⁰
in France!—

    Under whose
conduct
¹³¹
came those powers of France

    That thou
for truth giv’st out
¹³²
are landed here?

MESSENGER
    Under the dauphin.

KING JOHN
    Thou hast made me giddy

    With these ill tidings.

              Now, what says the world

    To your
proceedings
¹³⁶
? Do not seek to stuff

    My head with more ill news, for it is full.

BASTARD
    But if you be
afeard
¹³⁸
to hear the worst,

    Then let the worst
unheard fall on your head
¹³⁹
.

KING JOHN
    Bear with me cousin, for I was
amazed
¹⁴⁰

    Under the
tide
¹⁴¹
: but now I breathe again

    
Aloft
¹⁴²
the flood, and can give audience

    To any tongue, speak it of what it will.

BASTARD
    How I have
sped
¹⁴⁴
among the clergymen,

    The sums I have collected shall
express
¹⁴⁵
:

    But as I travelled hither through the land,

    I find the people
strangely fantasied
¹⁴⁷
:

    Possessed with rumours, full of
idle
¹⁴⁸
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
¹⁵²
:

    To whom he sung in
rude
¹⁵³
harsh-sounding rhymes,

    That ere the next
Ascension Day
¹⁵⁴
at noon,

    Your highness should
deliver up
¹⁵⁵
your crown.

KING JOHN
    Thou idle dreamer, wherefore didst thou so?

PETER
    Foreknowing that the truth will fall out so.

KING JOHN
    Hubert, away with him: imprison him,

    And on that day at noon, whereon he says

    I shall yield up my crown, let him be hanged.

    Deliver him to
safety
¹⁶¹
, and return,

    For I must use thee.—

              O my
gentle
cousin,

    Hear’st thou the news
abroad
¹⁶³
, who are arrived?

BASTARD
    The French, my lord: men’s mouths are full of it.

    Besides, I met Lord Bigot and Lord Salisbury,

    With eyes as red as new-enkindled fire,

    And others more, going to seek the grave

    Of Arthur, who they say
is
killed
tonight
¹⁶⁸

    On your
suggestion
¹⁶⁹
.

KING JOHN
    Gentle kinsman, go,

    And thrust thyself into their companies.

    I have a way to win their loves again:

    Bring them before me.

BASTARD
    I will seek them out.

KING JOHN
    Nay, but make haste:
the better foot before
¹⁷⁵
.

    O, let me have no
subject enemies
¹⁷⁶
,

    When
adverse
¹⁷⁷
foreigners affright my towns

    With dreadful pomp of
stout
¹⁷⁸
invasion.

    Be
Mercury
¹⁷⁹
, set feathers to thy heels,

    And fly like thought from them to me again.

BASTARD
    The
spirit of the time
¹⁸¹
shall teach me speed.

KING JOHN
    Spoke like a
sprightful
¹⁸²
noble gentleman.

    Go after him: for he perhaps shall need

    Some messenger
betwixt
¹⁸⁴
me and the peers,

    And be thou he.

MESSENGER
    With all my heart, my liege.

KING JOHN
    My mother dead!

HUBERT
    My lord, they say five moons were seen
tonight
¹⁸⁸
:

    Four fixèd, and the fifth did whirl about

    The other four in
wondrous
¹⁹⁰
motion.

KING JOHN
    Five moons?

HUBERT
    Old men and
beldams
¹⁹²
in the streets

    Do
prophesy upon it
¹⁹³
dangerously:

    Young Arthur’s death is common in their mouths,

    And when they talk of him, they shake their heads

    And whisper
one
¹⁹⁶
another in the ear.

    And he that speaks doth grip the hearer’s wrist,

    Whilst he that hears makes
fearful action
¹⁹⁸
,

    With wrinkled brows, with nods, with rolling eyes.

    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
²⁰⁵
,

    Told of
a many thousand
²⁰⁶
warlike French

    That were
embattailèd
and
ranked
²⁰⁷
in Kent.

    Another lean, unwashed
artificer
²⁰⁸

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

KING JOHN
    Why seek’st thou to
possess
²¹⁰
me with these fears?

    Why
urgest thou
so
oft
²¹¹
young Arthur’s death?

    Thy hand hath murdered him: I had a mighty
cause
²¹²

    To wish him dead, but thou hadst none to kill him.

HUBERT
    
No had
, my lord! Why, did you not
provoke
²¹⁴
me?

KING JOHN
    It is the curse of kings to be attended

    By slaves that take their
humours
²¹⁶
for a warrant

    
To break within the
bloody house of life
²¹⁷
,

    And on the
winking
²¹⁸
of authority

    To
understand a law
²¹⁹
, to know the meaning

    Of
dangerous
majesty, when
perchance
²²⁰
it frowns

    More
upon humour
than
advised respect
²²¹
.

HUBERT
    Here is your
hand
²²²
and seal for what I did.

KING JOHN
    O, when the last
account
²²³
’twixt heaven and earth