The Life And Death Of King John

1 Enter King John, crowned, Pembroke, Salisbury and other Lords. The King
2 takes his State.
3 KING JOHN.
4 Here once again we sit, once again crown’d,
5 And look’d upon, I hope, with cheerful eyes.
6 PEMBROKE.
7 This “once again,” but that your highness pleas’d,
8 Was once superfluous. You were crown’d before,
9 And that high royalty was ne’er pluck’d off,
10 The faiths of men ne’er stained with revolt;
11 Fresh expectation troubled not the land
12 With any long’d-for change or better state.
13 SALISBURY.
14 Therefore, to be possess’d with double pomp,
15 To guard a title that was rich before,
16 To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
17 To throw a perfume on the violet,
18 To smooth the ice, or add another hue
19 Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
20 To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
21 Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.
22 PEMBROKE.
23 But that your royal pleasure must be done,
24 This act is as an ancient tale new told,
25 And, in the last repeating, troublesome,
26 Being urged at a time unseasonable.
27 SALISBURY.
28 In this the antique and well-noted face
29 Of plain old form is much disfigured;
30 And, like a shifted wind unto a sail,
31 It makes the course of thoughts to fetch about,
32 Startles and frights consideration,
33 Makes sound opinion sick and truth suspected,
34 For putting on so new a fashion’d robe.
35 PEMBROKE.
36 When workmen strive to do better than well,
37 They do confound their skill in covetousness;
38 And oftentimes excusing of a fault
39 Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse,
40 As patches set upon a little breach
41 Discredit more in hiding of the fault
42 Than did the fault before it was so patch’d.
43 SALISBURY.
44 To this effect, before you were new-crown’d,
45 We breath’d our counsel; but it pleas’d your highness
46 To overbear it, and we are all well pleas’d,
47 Since all and every part of what we would
48 Doth make a stand at what your highness will.
49 KING JOHN.
50 Some reasons of this double coronation
51 I have possess’d you with, and think them strong;
52 And more, more strong, when lesser is my fear,
53 I shall indue you with. Meantime but ask
54 What you would have reform’d that is not well,
55 And well shall you perceive how willingly
56 I will both hear and grant you your requests.
57 PEMBROKE.
58 Then I, as one that am the tongue of these,
59 To sound the purposes of all their hearts,
60 Both for myself and them, but, chief of all,
61 Your safety, for the which myself and them
62 Bend their best studies, heartily request
63 Th’ enfranchisement of Arthur, whose restraint
64 Doth move the murmuring lips of discontent
65 To break into this dangerous argument:
66 If what in rest you have in right you hold,
67 Why then your fears, which, as they say, attend
68 The steps of wrong, should move you to mew up
69 Your tender kinsman, and to choke his days
70 With barbarous ignorance, and deny his youth
71 The rich advantage of good exercise?
72 That the time’s enemies may not have this
73 To grace occasions, let it be our suit
74 That you have bid us ask his liberty;
75 Which for our goods we do no further ask
76 Than whereupon our weal, on you depending,
77 Counts it your weal he have his liberty.
78 KING JOHN.
79 Let it be so. I do commit his youth
80 To your direction.
81 Enter Hubert.
82 Hubert, what news with you?
83 [_Taking him apart._]
84 PEMBROKE.
85 This is the man should do the bloody deed.
86 He show’d his warrant to a friend of mine.
87 The image of a wicked heinous fault
88 Lives in his eye; that close aspect of his
89 Doth show the mood of a much troubled breast;
90 And I do fearfully believe ’tis done
91 What we so fear’d he had a charge to do.
92 SALISBURY.
93 The colour of the King doth come and go
94 Between his purpose and his conscience,
95 Like heralds ’twixt two dreadful battles set.
96 His passion is so ripe it needs must break.
97 PEMBROKE.
98 And when it breaks, I fear will issue thence
99 The foul corruption of a sweet child’s death.
100 KING JOHN.
101 We cannot hold mortality’s strong hand.
102 Good lords, although my will to give is living,
103 The suit which you demand is gone and dead.
104 He tells us Arthur is deceas’d tonight.
105 SALISBURY.
106 Indeed, we fear’d his sickness was past cure.
107 PEMBROKE.
108 Indeed, we heard how near his death he was,
109 Before the child himself felt he was sick.
110 This must be answer’d either here or hence.
111 KING JOHN.
112 Why do you bend such solemn brows on me?
113 Think you I bear the shears of destiny?
114 Have I commandment on the pulse of life?
115 SALISBURY.
116 It is apparent foul-play; and ’tis shame
117 That greatness should so grossly offer it.
118 So thrive it in your game, and so, farewell.
119 PEMBROKE.
120 Stay yet, Lord Salisbury. I’ll go with thee
121 And find th’ inheritance of this poor child,
122 His little kingdom of a forced grave.
123 That blood which ow’d the breadth of all this isle
124 Three foot of it doth hold. Bad world the while!
125 This must not be thus borne; this will break out
126 To all our sorrows, and ere long, I doubt.
127 [_Exeunt Lords._]
128 KING JOHN.
129 They burn in indignation. I repent.
130 There is no sure foundation set on blood,
131 No certain life achiev’d by others’ death.
132 Enter a Messenger.
133 A fearful eye thou hast. Where is that blood
134 That I have seen inhabit in those cheeks?
135 So foul a sky clears not without a storm.
136 Pour down thy weather: how goes all in France?
137 MESSENGER.
138 From France to England. Never such a power
139 For any foreign preparation
140 Was levied in the body of a land.
141 The copy of your speed is learn’d by them;
142 For when you should be told they do prepare,
143 The tidings comes that they are all arriv’d.
144 KING JOHN.
145 O, where hath our intelligence been drunk?
146 Where hath it slept? Where is my mother’s care,
147 That such an army could be drawn in France,
148 And she not hear of it?
149 MESSENGER.
150 My liege, her ear
151 Is stopp’d with dust. The first of April died
152 Your noble mother; and as I hear, my lord,
153 The Lady Constance in a frenzy died
154 Three days before. But this from rumour’s tongue
155 I idly heard; if true or false I know not.
156 KING JOHN.
157 Withhold thy speed, dreadful occasion!
158 O, make a league with me, till I have pleas’d
159 My discontented peers! What! Mother dead?
160 How wildly then walks my estate in France!
161 Under whose conduct came those powers of France
162 That thou for truth giv’st out are landed here?
163 MESSENGER.
164 Under the Dauphin.
165 KING JOHN.
166 Thou hast made me giddy
167 With these in tidings.
168 Enter the Bastard and Peter of Pomfret.
169 Now, what says the world
170 To your proceedings? Do not seek to stuff
171 My head with more ill news, for it is full.
172 BASTARD.
173 But if you be afeard to hear the worst,
174 Then let the worst, unheard, fall on your head.
175 KING JOHN.
176 Bear with me, cousin, for I was amaz’d
177 Under the tide, but now I breathe again
178 Aloft the flood, and can give audience
179 To any tongue, speak it of what it will.
180 BASTARD.
181 How I have sped among the clergymen
182 The sums I have collected shall express.
183 But as I travaill’d hither through the land,
184 I find the people strangely fantasied;
185 Possess’d with rumours, full of idle dreams,
186 Not knowing what they fear, but full of fear.
187 And here’s a prophet that I brought with me
188 From forth the streets of Pomfret, whom I found
189 With many hundreds treading on his heels;
190 To whom he sung, in rude harsh-sounding rhymes,
191 That, ere the next Ascension-day at noon,
192 Your highness should deliver up your crown.
193 KING JOHN.
194 Thou idle dreamer, wherefore didst thou so?
195 PETER OF POMFRET.
196 Foreknowing that the truth will fall out so.
197 KING JOHN.
198 Hubert, away with him; imprison him.
199 And on that day at noon, whereon he says
200 I shall yield up my crown, let him be hang’d.
201 Deliver him to safety, and return,
202 For I must use thee.
203 [_Exit Hubert with Peter._]
204 O my gentle cousin,
205 Hear’st thou the news abroad, who are arriv’d?
206 BASTARD.
207 The French, my lord. Men’s mouths are full of it.
208 Besides, I met Lord Bigot and Lord Salisbury,
209 With eyes as red as new-enkindled fire,
210 And others more, going to seek the grave
211 Of Arthur, whom they say is kill’d tonight
212 On your suggestion.
213 KING JOHN.
214 Gentle kinsman, go
215 And thrust thyself into their companies.
216 I have a way to will their loves again.
217 Bring them before me.
218 BASTARD.
219 I will seek them out.
220 KING JOHN.
221 Nay, but make haste, the better foot before!
222 O, let me have no subject enemies
223 When adverse foreigners affright my towns
224 With dreadful pomp of stout invasion!
225 Be Mercury, set feathers to thy heels,
226 And fly like thought from them to me again.
227 BASTARD.
228 The spirit of the time shall teach me speed.
229 [_Exit Bastard._]
230 KING JOHN.
231 Spoke like a sprightful noble gentleman!
232 Go after him; for he perhaps shall need
233 Some messenger betwixt me and the peers;
234 And be thou he.
235 MESSENGER.
236 With all my heart, my liege.
237 [_Exit._]
238 KING JOHN.
239 My mother dead!
240 Enter Hubert.
241 HUBERT.
242 My lord, they say five moons were seen tonight—
243 Four fixed, and the fifth did whirl about
244 The other four in wondrous motion.
245 KING JOHN.
246 Five moons!
247 HUBERT.
248 Old men and beldams in the streets
249 Do prophesy upon it dangerously.
250 Young Arthur’s death is common in their mouths.
251 And when they talk of him, they shake their heads
252 And whisper one another in the ear;
253 And he that speaks doth gripe the hearer’s wrist,
254 Whilst he that hears makes fearful action
255 With wrinkled brows, with nods, with rolling eyes.
256 I saw a smith stand with his hammer, thus,
257 The whilst his iron did on the anvil cool,
258 With open mouth swallowing a tailor’s news;
259 Who, with his shears and measure in his hand,
260 Standing on slippers, which his nimble haste
261 Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet,
262 Told of a many thousand warlike French
263 That were embattailed and rank’d in Kent.
264 Another lean unwash’d artificer
265 Cuts off his tale and talks of Arthur’s death.
266 KING JOHN.
267 Why seek’st thou to possess me with these fears?
268 Why urgest thou so oft young Arthur’s death?
269 Thy hand hath murder’d him. I had a mighty cause
270 To wish him dead, but thou hadst none to kill him.
271 HUBERT.
272 No had, my lord! Why, did you not provoke me?
273 KING JOHN.
274 It is the curse of kings to be attended
275 By slaves that take their humours for a warrant
276 To break within the bloody house of life,
277 And, on the winking of authority
278 To understand a law, to know the meaning
279 Of dangerous majesty, when perchance it frowns
280 More upon humour than advis’d respect.
281 HUBERT.
282 Here is your hand and seal for what I did.
283 KING JOHN.
284 O, when the last account ’twixt heaven and earth
285 Is to be made, then shall this hand and seal
286 Witness against us to damnation!
287 How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds
288 Make deeds ill done! Hadst not thou been by,
289 A fellow by the hand of nature mark’d,
290 Quoted and sign’d to do a deed of shame,
291 This murder had not come into my mind.
292 But taking note of thy abhorr’d aspect,
293 Finding thee fit for bloody villainy,
294 Apt, liable to be employ’d in danger,
295 I faintly broke with thee of Arthur’s death;
296 And thou, to be endeared to a king,
297 Made it no conscience to destroy a prince.
298 HUBERT.
299 My lord—
300 KING JOHN.
301 Hadst thou but shook thy head or made pause
302 When I spake darkly what I purpos’d,
303 Or turn’d an eye of doubt upon my face,
304 As bid me tell my tale in express words,
305 Deep shame had struck me dumb, made me break off,
306 And those thy fears might have wrought fears in me.
307 But thou didst understand me by my signs
308 And didst in signs again parley with sin;
309 Yea, without stop, didst let thy heart consent,
310 And consequently thy rude hand to act
311 The deed which both our tongues held vile to name.
312 Out of my sight, and never see me more!
313 My nobles leave me, and my state is brav’d,
314 Even at my gates, with ranks of foreign powers.
315 Nay, in the body of the fleshly land,
316 This kingdom, this confine of blood and breath,
317 Hostility and civil tumult reigns
318 Between my conscience and my cousin’s death.
319 HUBERT.
320 Arm you against your other enemies,
321 I’ll make a peace between your soul and you.
322 Young Arthur is alive. This hand of mine
323 Is yet a maiden and an innocent hand,
324 Not painted with the crimson spots of blood.
325 Within this bosom never enter’d yet
326 The dreadful motion of a murderous thought;
327 And you have slander’d nature in my form,
328 Which, howsoever rude exteriorly,
329 Is yet the cover of a fairer mind
330 Than to be butcher of an innocent child.
331 KING JOHN.
332 Doth Arthur live? O, haste thee to the peers,
333 Throw this report on their incensed rage,
334 And make them tame to their obedience!
335 Forgive the comment that my passion made
336 Upon thy feature; for my rage was blind,
337 And foul imaginary eyes of blood
338 Presented thee more hideous than thou art.
339 O, answer not, but to my closet bring
340 The angry lords with all expedient haste.
341 I conjure thee but slowly; run more fast.
342 [_Exeunt._]