Read King John & Henry VIII Online
Authors: William Shakespeare
King John & Henry VIII (19 page)
Unthread
the rude
eye
12
of rebellion
And welcome home again discarded faith:
Seek out King John and fall before his feet:
For if the French be lords of this loud day,
He
16
means to recompense the pains you take
By cutting off your heads: thus hath he sworn
And I with him, and many more with me,
Upon the altar at Saint Edmundsbury;
Even on that altar where we swore to you
Dear amity and everlasting love.
SALISBURY
May this be possible? May this be true?
MELUN
Have I not hideous death within my view,
Retaining but a
quantity
24
of life,
Which bleeds away, even as a form of wax
Resolveth
from
his figure
26
gainst the fire?
What in the world should make me now deceive,
Since I must lose the
use
28
of all deceit?
Why should I then be false, since it is true
That I must die here and live
hence
30
by truth?
I say again, if Lewis do win the day,
He is
forsworn
32
if e’er those eyes of yours
Behold another daybreak in the east:
But even this night, whose black contagious breath
Already
smokes
35
about the burning crest
Of the old, feeble and day-wearied sun,
Even this ill night, your breathing shall expire,
Paying the
fine
of
rated
38
treachery
Even with a treacherous
fine
39
of all your lives,
If Lewis by your assistance win the day.
Commend me to one Hubert with your king:
The love of him, and this
respect
42
besides,
For that my grandsire was an Englishman,
Awakes my conscience to confess all this.
In
lieu
whereof
45
, I pray you, bear me hence
From forth the noise and
rumour
46
of the field,
Where I may think the
remnant
47
of my thoughts
In peace, and part this body and my soul
With contemplation and devout desires.
SALISBURY
We do believe thee, and
beshrew
50
my soul,
But I do love the
favour
and the
form
51
Of this most fair occasion, by the which
We will
untread
53
the steps of damnèd flight,
And like a
bated
54
and retirèd flood,
Leaving our
rankness
55
and irregular course,
Stoop low within those
bounds
56
we have o’erlooked
And calmly run on in obedience
Even to our ocean, to our great King John.
My arm shall give thee help to bear thee hence,
For I do see the cruel pangs of death
Right
in thine eye. Away, my friends!
New flight
61
,
And
happy
newness, that intends
old right
62
.
Exeunt
running scene 12
Enter Lewis and his
train
LEWIS
The sun of heaven, methought, was
loath
1
to set,
But stayed and made the western
welkin
2
blush,
When English
measure
3
backward their own ground
In
faint retire
: O,
bravely
came we off
4
,
When with a volley of our
needless
5
shot,
After such bloody toil, we bid goodnight,
And wound our
tott’ring
7
colours clearly up,
Last in the field, and almost lords of it.
Enter a Messenger
MESSENGER
Where is my prince, the dauphin?
LEWIS
Here: what news?
MESSENGER
The count Melun is slain: the English lords
By his persuasion
are again fall’n off
12
,
And your supply, which you have wished so long,
Are cast away and sunk on Goodwin Sands.
LEWIS
Ah, foul
shrewd
15
news! Beshrew thy very heart!
I did not think to be so sad tonight
As this hath made me. Who was he that said
King John did fly an hour or two before
The
stumbling
19
night did part our weary powers?
MESSENGER
Whoever spoke it, it is true, my lord.
LEWIS
Well: keep good
quarter
21
and good care tonight:
The day shall not be up so soon as I,
To try the fair
adventure
23
of tomorrow.
Exeunt
running scene 13
Enter
[
the
]
Bastard and Hubert,
severally
HUBERT
Who’s there? Speak, ho! Speak quickly, or I shoot.
BASTARD
A friend. What art thou?
HUBERT
Of the part
3
of England.
BASTARD
Whither dost thou go?
HUBERT
What’s that to thee? Why may not I demand
Of thine affairs, as well as thou of mine?
BASTARD
Hubert, I think?
HUBERT
Thou hast a
perfect
8
thought:
I will
upon all hazards
9
well believe
Thou art my friend, that know’st my tongue so well.
Who art thou?
BASTARD
Who thou wilt: and if thou please,
Thou mayst befriend me so much as to think
I
come one way of
14
the Plantagenets.
HUBERT
Unkind remembrance
15
! Thou and endless night
Have done me shame: brave soldier, pardon me,
That any
accent
breaking
17
from thy tongue
Should
scape
18
the true acquaintance of mine ear.
BASTARD
Come, come:
sans
compliment: what news
abroad
19
?
HUBERT
Why, here walk I in the black brow of night,
BASTARD
Brief
22
, then: and what’s the news?
HUBERT
O my sweet sir, news fitting to the night,
Black, fearful, comfortless and horrible.
BASTARD
Show me the
very wound
25
of this ill news:
I am no woman, I’ll not swoon at it.
HUBERT
The king, I fear, is poisoned by a monk:
I left him almost speechless, and
broke out
28
To acquaint you with this evil, that you might
The better arm you
to
the
sudden time
30
,
Than if you had
at leisure
31
known of this.
BASTARD
How did he take it? Who did
taste
32
to him?
HUBERT
A monk, I tell you, a resolvèd villain,
Whose
bowels
34
suddenly burst out: the king
Yet
speaks and
peradventure
35
may recover.
BASTARD
Who didst thou leave to tend his majesty?
HUBERT
Why, know you not? The lords are all come back,
And brought
Prince Henry
38
in their company,
At whose request the king hath pardoned them,
And they are all about his majesty.
BASTARD
Withhold thine indignation, mighty heaven,
And tempt us not to
bear above our power
42
.
I’ll tell thee, Hubert, half my
power
43
this night,
Passing
these
flats
44
, are taken by the tide:
These
Lincoln Washes
45
have devourèd them:
Myself, well mounted,
hardly
46
have escaped.
Away before
47
: conduct me to the king:
Exeunt
running scene 14
Enter Prince Henry, Salisbury and Bigot
PRINCE HENRY
It is too late: the life of all his blood
Is
touched
corruptibly
, and his
pure
2
brain,
Which some suppose the soul’s frail dwelling-house,
Doth by the
idle
4
comments that it makes
Foretell the ending of mortality.
Enter Pembroke
PEMBROKE
His highness yet doth speak, and holds belief
That, being brought into the open air,
It would allay the burning quality
Of that
fell
9
poison which assaileth him.
PRINCE HENRY
Let him be brought into the
orchard
10
here.
[
Exit Bigot
]
Doth he still
rage
11
?
PEMBROKE
He is more patient
Than when you left him; even now he sung.
PRINCE HENRY
O
vanity
14
of sickness! Fierce extremes
In their continuance will
not feel themselves
15
.
Death, having preyed upon the outward parts,
Leaves them
invisible
17
, and his siege is now
Against the mind, the which he pricks and wounds
With many
legions
19
of strange fantasies,
Which, in their throng and press to that last
hold
20
,
Confound
21
themselves. ’Tis strange that death should sing.
I am the
cygnet
to this pale faint
swan
22
,
Who chants a doleful hymn to his own death,
And from the organ-pipe of frailty sings
His soul and body to their lasting rest.
SALISBURY
Be of good comfort, Prince, for you are born
To set a form upon that
indigest
27
Which he hath left so shapeless and so
rude
28
.
King John
[
is
]
brought in
KING JOHN
Ay, marry, now my soul hath
elbow-room
29
:
It would not out at windows nor at doors:
There is so hot a summer in my bosom
That all my bowels crumble up to dust:
I am a
scribbled form
33
, drawn with a pen
Upon a parchment, and against this fire
Do I shrink up.
And none of you will bid the winter come
To thrust his icy fingers in my
maw
39
,
Nor let my kingdom’s rivers take their course
Through my burned bosom, nor entreat the
north
41
To make his bleak winds kiss my parchèd lips
And comfort me with cold. I do not ask you much,
I beg
cold comfort
: and you are so
strait
44
And so
ingrateful
45
, you deny me that.
