| ACT IV SCENE II | KING JOHN'S palace. | |
| | Enter KING JOHN, PEMBROKE, SALISBURY, and other Lords. | |
| KING JOHN | Here once again we sit, once again crown'd, | |
| | And looked upon, I hope, with cheerful eyes. | |
| PEMBROKE | This 'once again,' but that your highness pleased, | |
| | Was once superfluous: you were crown'd before, | 5 |
| | And that high royalty was ne'er pluck'd off, | |
| | The faiths of men ne'er stained with revolt; | |
| | Fresh expectation troubled not the land | |
| | With any long'd-for change or better state. | |
| SALISBURY | Therefore, to be possess'd with double pomp, | 10 |
| | To guard a title that was rich before, | |
| | To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, | |
| | To throw a perfume on the violet, | |
| | To smooth the ice, or add another hue | |
| | Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light | 15 |
| | To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, | |
| | Is wasteful and ridiculous excess. | |
| PEMBROKE | But that your royal pleasure must be done, | |
| | This act is as an ancient tale new told, | |
| | And in the last repeating troublesome, | 20 |
| | Being urged at a time unseasonable. | |
| SALISBURY | In this the antique and well noted face | |
| | Of plain old form is much disfigured; | |
| | And, like a shifted wind unto a sail, | |
| | It makes the course of thoughts to fetch about, | 25 |
| | Startles and frights consideration, | |
| | Makes sound opinion sick and truth suspected, | |
| | For putting on so new a fashion'd robe. | |
| PEMBROKE | When workmen strive to do better than well, | |
| | They do confound their skill in covetousness; | 30 |
| | And oftentimes excusing of a fault | |
| | Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse, | |
| | As patches set upon a little breach | |
| | Discredit more in hiding of the fault | |
| | Than did the fault before it was so patch'd. | 35 |
| SALISBURY | To this effect, before you were new crown'd, | |
| | We breathed our counsel: but it pleased your highness | |
| | To overbear it, and we are all well pleased, | |
| | Since all and every part of what we would | |
| | Doth make a stand at what your highness will. | 40 |
| KING JOHN | Some reasons of this double coronation | |
| | I have possess'd you with and think them strong; | |
| | And more, more strong, then lesser is my fear, | |
| | I shall indue you with: meantime but ask | |
| | What you would have reform'd that is not well, | 45 |
| | And well shall you perceive how willingly | |
| | I will both hear and grant you your requests. | |
| PEMBROKE | Then I, as one that am the tongue of these, | |
| | To sound the purpose of all their hearts, | |
| | Both for myself and them, but, chief of all, | 50 |
| | Your safety, for the which myself and them | |
| | Bend their best studies, heartily request | |
| | The enfranchisement of Arthur; whose restraint | |
| | Doth move the murmuring lips of discontent | |
| | To break into this dangerous argument,-- | 55 |
| | If what in rest you have in right you hold, | |
| | Why then your fears, which, as they say, attend | |
| | The steps of wrong, should move you to mew up | |
| | Your tender kinsman and to choke his days | |
| | With barbarous ignorance and deny his youth | 60 |
| | The rich advantage of good exercise? | |
| | That the time's enemies may not have this | |
| | To grace occasions, let it be our suit | |
| | That you have bid us ask his liberty; | |
| | Which for our goods we do no further ask | 65 |
| | Than whereupon our weal, on you depending, | |
| | Counts it your weal he have his liberty. | |
| | Enter HUBERT | |
| KING JOHN | Let it be so: I do commit his youth | |
| | To your direction. Hubert, what news with you? | |
| | Taking him apart | |
| PEMBROKE | This is the man should do the bloody deed; | 70 |
| | He show'd his warrant to a friend of mine: | |
| | The image of a wicked heinous fault | |
| | Lives in his eye; that close aspect of his | |
| | Does show the mood of a much troubled breast; | |
| | And I do fearfully believe 'tis done, | 75 |
| | What we so fear'd he had a charge to do. | |
| SALISBURY | The colour of the king doth come and go | |
| | Between his purpose and his conscience, | |
| | Like heralds 'twixt two dreadful battles 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 mortality's strong hand: | |
| | Good lords, although my will to give is living, | |
| | The suit which you demand is gone and dead: | 85 |
| | He tells us Arthur is deceased to-night. | |
| SALISBURY | Indeed we fear'd 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 answer'd either here or hence. | 90 |
| KING JOHN | Why do you bend such solemn brows on me? | |
| | Think you I bear the shears of destiny? | |
| | Have I commandment on the pulse of life? | |
| SALISBURY | It is apparent foul play; and 'tis shame | |
| | That greatness should so grossly offer it: | 95 |
| | So thrive it in your game! and so, farewell. | |
| PEMBROKE | Stay yet, Lord Salisbury; I'll go with thee, | |
| | And find the inheritance of this poor child, | |
| | His little kingdom of a forced grave. | |
| | That blood which owed the breadth of all this isle, | 100 |
| | Three foot of it doth hold: bad world the while! | |
| | This must not be thus borne: this will break out | |
| | To all our sorrows, and ere long I doubt. | |
| | Exeunt Lords | |
| KING JOHN | They burn in indignation. I repent: | |
| | There is no sure foundation set on blood, | 105 |
| | No certain life achieved by others' death. | |
| | Enter a Messenger | |
| | A fearful 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: how goes all in France? | 110 |
| Messenger | From France to England. Never such a power | |
| | For any foreign preparation | |
| | Was levied in the body of a land. | |
| | The copy of your speed is learn'd by them; | |
| | For when you should be told they do prepare, | 115 |
| | The tidings come that they are all arrived. | |
| KING JOHN | O, where hath our intelligence been drunk? | |
| | Where hath it slept? Where is my mother's care, | |
| | That such an army could be drawn in France, | |
| | And she not hear of it? | 120 |
| Messenger | My liege, her ear | |
| | Is stopp'd with dust; the first of April died | |
| | Your noble mother: and, as I hear, my lord, | |
| | The Lady Constance in a frenzy died | |
| | Three days before: but this from rumour's tongue | 125 |
| | I idly heard; if true or false I know not. | |
| KING JOHN | Withhold thy speed, dreadful occasion! | |
| | O, make a league with me, till I have pleased | |
| | My discontented peers! What! mother dead! | |
| | How wildly then walks my estate in France! | 130 |
| | Under whose conduct came those powers of France | |
| | That thou for truth givest out are landed here? | |
| Messenger | Under the Dauphin. | |
| KING JOHN | Thou hast made me giddy | |
| | With these ill tidings. | 135 |
| | Enter the BASTARD and PETER of Pomfret | |
| | Now, what says the world | |
| | To your proceedings? do not seek to stuff | |
| | My head with more ill news, for it is full. | |
| BASTARD | But if you be afeard to hear the worst, | |
| | Then let the worst unheard fall on your bead. | 140 |
| KING JOHN | Bear with me cousin, for I was amazed | |
| | Under the tide: but now I breathe again | |
| | Aloft the flood, and can give audience | |
| | To any tongue, speak it of what it will. | |
| BASTARD | How I have sped among the clergymen, | 145 |
| | The sums I have collected shall express. | |
| | But as I travell'd hither through the land, | |
| | I find the people strangely fantasied; | |
| | Possess'd with rumours, full of idle dreams, | |
| | Not knowing what they fear, but full of fear: | 150 |
| | And here a prophet, that I brought with me | |
| |
From forth the streets of Pomfret, whom I found | |
| | With many hundreds treading on his heels; | |
| | To whom he sung, in rude harsh-sounding rhymes, | |
| | That, ere the next Ascension-day at noon, | 155 |
| | Your highness should deliver up 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 | 160 |
| | I shall yield up my crown, let him be hang'd. | |
| | Deliver him to safety; and return, | |
| | For I must use thee. | |
| | Exeunt HUBERT with PETER | |
| | O my gentle cousin, | |
| | Hear'st thou the news abroad, who are arrived? | 165 |
| 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 kill'd to-night | 170 |
| | On your suggestion. | |
| KING JOHN | Gentle kinsman, go, | |
| | And thrust thyself into their companies: | |
| | I have a way to win their loves again; | |
| | Bring them before me. | 175 |
| BASTARD | I will seek them out. | |
| KING JOHN | Nay, but make haste; the better foot before. | |
| | O, let me have no subject enemies, | |
| | When adverse foreigners affright my towns | |
| | With dreadful pomp of stout invasion! | 180 |
| | Be Mercury, set feathers to thy heels, | |
| | And fly like thought from them to me again. | |
| BASTARD | The spirit of the time shall teach me speed. | |
| | Exit | |
| KING JOHN | Spoke like a sprightful noble gentleman. | |
| | Go after him; for he perhaps shall need | 185 |
| | Some messenger betwixt me and the peers; | |
| | And be thou he. | |
| Messenger | With all my heart, my liege. | |
| | Exit | |
| KING JOHN | My mother dead! | |
| | Re-enter HUBERT | |
| HUBERT | My lord, they say five moons were seen to-night; | 190 |
| | Four fixed, and the fifth did whirl about | |
| | The other four in wondrous motion. | |
| KING JOHN | Five moons! | |
| HUBERT | Old men and beldams in the streets | |
| | Do prophesy upon it dangerously: | 195 |
| | Young Arthur's death is common in their mouths: | |
| | And when they talk of him, they shake their heads | |
| | And whisper one another in the ear; | |
| | And he that speaks doth gripe the hearer's wrist, | |
| | Whilst he that hears makes fearful action, | 200 |
| | 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, | 205 |
| | Standing on slippers, which his nimble haste | |
| | Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet, | |
| | Told of a many thousand warlike French | |
| | That were embattailed and rank'd in Kent: | |
| | Another lean unwash'd artificer | 210 |
| | Cuts off his tale and talks of Arthur's death. | |
| KING JOHN | Why seek'st thou to possess me with these fears? | |
| | Why urgest thou so oft young Arthur's death? | |
| | Thy hand hath murder'd him: I had a mighty cause | |
| | To wish him dead, but thou hadst none to kill him. | 215 |
| HUBERT | No had, my lord! why, did you not provoke me? | |
| KING JOHN | It is the curse of kings to be attended | |
| | By slaves that take their humours for a warrant | |
| | To break within the bloody house of life, | |
| | And on the winking of authority | 220 |
| | To understand a law, to know the meaning | |
| | Of dangerous majesty, when perchance it frowns | |
| | More upon humour than advised respect. | |
| HUBERT | Here is your hand and seal for what I did. | |
| KING JOHN | O, when the last account 'twixt heaven and earth | 225 |
| | Is to be made, then shall this hand and seal | |
| | Witness against us to damnation! | |
| | How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds | |
| | Make deeds ill done! Hadst not thou been by, | |
| | A fellow by the hand of nature mark'd, | 230 |
| | Quoted and sign'd to do a deed of shame, | |
| | This murder had not come into my mind: | |
| | But taking note of thy abhorr'd aspect, | |
| | Finding thee fit for bloody villany, | |
| | Apt, liable to be employ'd in danger, | 235 |
| | I faintly broke with thee of Arthur's death; | |
| | And thou, to be endeared to a king, | |
| | Made it no conscience to destroy a prince. | |
| HUBERT | My lord-- | |
| KING JOHN | Hadst thou but shook thy head or made a pause | 240 |
| | When I spake darkly what I purposed, | |
| | Or turn'd an eye of doubt upon my face, | |
| | As bid me tell my tale in express words, | |
| | Deep shame had struck me dumb, made me break off, | |
| | And those thy fears might have wrought fears in me: | 245 |
| | But thou didst understand me by my signs | |
| | And didst in signs again parley with sin; | |
| | Yea, without stop, didst let thy heart consent, | |
| | And consequently thy rude hand to act | |
| | The deed, which both our tongues held vile to name. | 250 |
| | Out of my sight, and never see me more! | |
| | My nobles leave me; and my state is braved, | |
| | Even at my gates, with ranks of foreign powers: | |
| | Nay, in the body of this fleshly land, | |
| | This kingdom, this confine of blood and breath, | 255 |
| | Hostility and civil tumult reigns | |
| | Between my conscience and my cousin's death. | |
| HUBERT | Arm you against your other enemies, | |
| | I'll make a peace between your soul and you. | |
| | Young Arthur is alive: this hand of mine | 260 |
| | Is yet a maiden and an innocent hand, | |
| | Not painted with the crimson spots of blood. | |
| | Within this bosom never enter'd yet | |
| | The dreadful motion of a murderous thought; | |
| | And you have slander'd nature in my form, | 265 |
| | Which, howsoever rude exteriorly, | |
| | Is yet the cover of a fairer mind | |
| | Than to be butcher of an innocent child. | |
| KING JOHN | Doth Arthur live? O, haste thee to the peers, | |
| | Throw this report on their incensed rage, | 270 |
| | And make them tame to their obedience! | |
| | Forgive the comment that my passion made | |
| | Upon thy feature; for my rage was blind, | |
| | And foul imaginary eyes of blood | |
| | Presented thee more hideous than thou art. | 275 |
| | O, answer not, but to my closet bring | |
| | The angry lords with all expedient haste. | |
| | I conjure thee but slowly; run more fast. | |
| | Exeunt | |
