King John & Henry VIII (17 page)
Read King John & Henry VIII Online
Authors: William Shakespeare
I honoured him, I loved him, and will weep
My
date
110
of life out for his sweet life’s loss.
SALISBURY
Trust not those cunning waters of his eyes,
For villainy is not without such
rheum
112
,
And he, long
traded
113
in it, makes it seem
Like rivers of remorse and innocency.
Away with me, all you whose souls abhor
Th’uncleanly
savours
116
of a slaughter-house,
For I am stifled with this smell of sin.
BIGOT
Away toward Bury, to the dauphin there.
PEMBROKE
There tell the king he may
inquire us out
119
.
Exeunt Lords
BASTARD
Here’s a good world! Knew you of this fair work?
Beyond the infinite and boundless reach
Of mercy, if thou didst this deed of death,
Art thou damned, Hubert.
HUBERT
Do but hear me, sir.
BASTARD
Ha! I’ll tell thee what:
Thou’rt damned as
black
126
— nay, nothing is so black —
Thou art more deep damned than
Prince Lucifer
127
:
There is not yet so ugly a fiend of hell
As thou shalt be, if thou didst kill this child.
HUBERT
Upon my soul—
BASTARD
If thou didst but consent
To this most cruel act, do
but
131
despair:
And if thou
want’st
a
cord
132
, the smallest thread
That ever spider twisted from her womb
Will serve to strangle thee: a
rush
134
will be a beam
To hang thee on: or
wouldst
135
thou drown thyself,
Put but a little water in a spoon,
And it shall be as all the ocean,
Enough to
stifle
138
such a villain up.
I do suspect thee very
grievously
139
.
HUBERT
If I in act, consent, or sin of thought,
Be guilty of the stealing that sweet breath
Which was
embounded
in this beauteous
clay
142
,
Let hell
want
143
pains enough to torture me:
I left him well.
BASTARD
Go, bear him in thine arms:
I am
amazed
146
, methinks, and lose my way
Among the thorns and dangers of this world.
How easy dost thou
take all England up
148
!
From forth this morsel of dead royalty,
The life, the right, and truth of all this realm
Is fled to heaven: and England now is left
To tug and
scamble
and to
part
152
by th’teeth
The
unowed interest
153
of proud-swelling state:
Now
for
the
bare-picked bone of majesty
154
Doth
doggèd
war bristle his angry
crest
155
And snarleth in the gentle eyes of peace:
Now
powers
from
home and
discontents
157
at home
Meet in one
line
: and vast
confusion
158
waits,
As doth a raven on a sick-fall’n beast,
The imminent decay of
wrested pomp
160
.
Now happy
he
whose cloak and
cincture
161
can
Hold out
162
this tempest. Bear away that child
And follow me with speed: I’ll to the king:
A thousand businesses are
brief in hand
164
,
And heaven itself doth frown upon the land.
Hubert carrying the body of Arthur
Exeunt
running scene 9
Enter King John and Pandulph
, [
with
]
Attendants
KING JOHN
Thus have I yielded up into your hand
Giving Cardinal Pandulph the crown
CARDINAL PANDULPH
Take again
Returning the crown to King John
From this my hand,
as holding of
4
the Pope
Your sovereign greatness and authority.
KING JOHN
Now keep your holy word: go meet the French,
And from his holiness use all your power
To stop their marches ’fore we are
inflamed
8
:
Our discontented
counties
9
do revolt:
Our people quarrel with obedience,
Swearing allegiance and the
love of soul
11
To
stranger
12
blood, to foreign royalty;
This
inundation
of
mistempered humour
13
Rests
by you
only
to be
qualified
14
.
Then pause not: for the present time’s so sick,
That
present
med’cine must be
ministered
16
,
Or
overthrow
17
incurable ensues.
CARDINAL PANDULPH
It was my breath that blew this tempest up,
Upon your stubborn
usage
19
of the Pope:
But since you are a gentle
convertite
20
,
My tongue shall hush again this storm of war
And make fair weather in your
blust’ring
22
land:
On this Ascension Day, remember well,
Upon your oath of service to the Pope,
Go I to make the French lay down their arms.
Exeunt
[
all but King John
]
KING JOHN
Is this Ascension Day? Did not the prophet
Say that before Ascension Day at noon
My crown I should
give off
28
? Even so I have:
I did suppose it should be on
constraint
29
,
But, heav’n be thanked, it is but voluntary.
Enter
[
the
]
Bastard
BASTARD
All Kent hath yielded: nothing there holds out
But Dover Castle: London hath received,
Like a kind host, the dauphin and his powers.
Your nobles will not
hear
34
you, but are gone
To offer service to your enemy:
And wild amazement hurries up and down
The little number of your
doubtful
37
friends.
KING JOHN
Would not my lords return to me again
After they heard young Arthur was alive?
BASTARD
They found him dead and cast into the streets,
An empty casket, where the jewel of life
By some damned hand was robbed and ta’en away.
KING JOHN
That villain Hubert told me he did live.
BASTARD
So on my soul he did, for aught he knew:
But wherefore do you
droop
45
? Why look you sad?
Be great in act as you have been in thought:
Let not the world see fear and sad distrust
Govern the
motion
48
of a kingly eye:
Be
stirring
as
the time
49
, be fire with fire,
Threaten the threat’ner and
outface
the
brow
50
Of
bragging
horror: so shall
inferior eyes
51
,
That
borrow their behaviours from
52
the great,
Grow great by your example, and put on
The dauntless spirit of resolution.
Away, and glisten like the
god of war
55
When he intendeth to
become
the
field
56
:
Show boldness and aspiring confidence:
What, shall they seek the lion in his den,
And fright him there? And make him tremble there?
O, let it not be said:
forage
60
, and run
To meet displeasure farther from the doors,
And grapple with him ere he come so
nigh
62
.
KING JOHN
The legate of the Pope hath been with me,
And I have made a
happy
64
peace with him,
And he hath promised to dismiss the powers
Led by the dauphin.
BASTARD
O
inglorious
67
league!
Shall we,
upon the footing of our land
68
,
Send
fair-play
69
orders, and make compromise,
Insinuation
, parley and
base
70
truce
To arms invasive? Shall a beardless boy,
A
cockered
silken
wanton
,
brave
72
our fields,
And
flesh
73
his spirit in a warlike soil,
Mocking the air with
colours
idly
74
spread,
And find no
check
75
? Let us, my liege, to arms:
Perchance the cardinal cannot make your peace;
Or if he do, let it at least be said
They saw we had a
purpose
78
of defence.
KING JOHN
Have thou the
ordering
79
of this present time.
Aside
BASTARD
Away, then, with good courage!— Yet, I know,
Our party may well meet a
prouder
81
foe.
Exeunt
running scene 10
Enter, in arms, Lewis, Salisbury, Melun, Pembroke, Bigot
[
and
]
Soldiers
LEWIS
My lord Melun, let this be copied out,
And keep it safe for our remembrance:
Return the
precedent
3
to these lords again,
That having our
fair
order
4
written down,
Both they and we, perusing o’er these notes,
May know wherefore we
took the sacrament
6
And keep our
faiths
7
firm and inviolable.
SALISBURY
Upon our sides it never shall be broken.
And, noble dauphin,
albeit
9
we swear
A voluntary zeal and an unurged faith
To your proceedings: yet believe me, prince,
I am not glad that such a
sore of time
12
Should seek a plaster by
contemned
13
revolt,
And heal the inveterate
canker
14
of one wound
By making many: O, it grieves my soul
That I must draw this
metal
16
from my side
To be a widow-maker: O, and there
Where honourable
rescue and defence
18
Cries out upon
19
the name of Salisbury!
But such is the infection of the time,
That for the health and
physic
21
of our right,
We cannot
deal but
22
with the very hand
Of stern injustice and
confusèd
23
wrong:
And is’t not pity, O my grievèd friends,
That we, the sons and children of this isle,
Was born to see so sad an hour as this,
Wherein we
step after
a
stranger
27
, march
Upon her gentle bosom, and fill up
Her enemies’ ranks? I must withdraw and weep
Upon the
spot
30
of this enforcèd cause —
To
grace
31
the gentry of a land remote,
And follow
unacquainted
32
colours here.
What, here? O nation, that thou couldst
remove
33
,
That
Neptune
’s arms who
clippeth
34
thee about,
Would
bear
35
thee from the knowledge of thyself,
And
grapple
thee unto a
pagan shore
36
,
Where these two Christian armies might combine
The blood of malice in a vein of league,
And not to
spend it so unneighbourly
39
.
