Let me wipe off this honourable dew,
That silverly doth progress on thy cheeks: My heart hath melted at a lady's tears, Being an ordinary inundation;
But this effusion of such manly drops,
This shower, blown up by tempest of the soul, 50 Startles mine eyes, and makes me more amaz'd Than had I seen the vaulty top of heaven Figur'd quite o'er with burning meteors. Lift up thy brow, renowned Salisbury, And with a great heart heave away this storm: Commend these waters to those baby eyes That never saw the giant world enrag'd; Nor met with fortune other than at feasts, Full warm of blood, of mirth. of gossiping. Come, come; for thou shalt thrust thy hand as deep
Into the purse of rich prosperity As Lewis himself so, nobles, shall you all, That knit your sinews to the strength of mine.
Enter PANDULPH, attended.
And even there, methinks, an angel spake : Look! where the holy legate comes apace, To give us warrant from the hand of heaven, And on our actions set the name of right With holy breath.
Hail, noble prince of France! The next is this: King John hath reconcil'd Himself to Rome; his spirit is come in That so stood out against the holy church, The great metropolis and see of Rome.
Bast. According to the fair play of the world, Let me have audience; I am sent to speak: My holy Lord of Milan, from the king I come, to learn how you have dealt for him; And, as you answer, I do know the scope And warrant limited unto my tongue.
Pand. The Dauphin is too wilful-opposite, And will not temporize with my entreaties : He flatly says he'll not lay down his arms.
Bast. By all the blood that ever fury breath'd, The youth says well. Now hear our English king; For thus his royalty doth speak in me. He is prepar'd; and reason too he should : 130 This apish and unmannerly approach, This harness'd masque and unadvised revel, This unhair'd sauciness and boyish troops, The king doth smile at; and is well prepar'd
Therefore thy threat'ning colours now wind up, To whip this dwarfish war, these pigmy arms,
And tame the savage spirit of wild war,
That, like a lion foster'd up at hand,
It may lie gently at the foot of peace,
And be no further harmful than in show.
Lew. Your grace shall pardon me; I will not To dive like buckets in concealed wells; back:
I am too high-born to be propertied,
To be a secondary at control,
Or useful servingman and instrument,
From out the circle of his territories.
To cudgel you and make you take the hatch;
To crouch in litter of your stable planks; To lie like pawns lock'd up in chests and trunks; To hug with swine; to seek sweet safety out In vaults and prisons; and to thrill and shake Even at the crying of your nation's crow, Thinking this voice an armed Englishman: Shall that victorious hand be feebled here That in your chambers gave you chastisement ? No! Know, the gallant monarch is in arms, And like an eagle o'er his aery towers, To souse annoyance that comes near his nest. 150 And you degenerate, you ingrate revolts, You bloody Neroes, ripping up the womb Of your dear mother England, blush for shame:
To any sovereign state throughout the world. Your breath first kindled the dead coal of wars Between this chastis'd kingdom and myself, And brought in matter that should feed this fire; And now 'tis far too huge to be blown out With that same weak wind which enkindled it. You taught me how to know the face of right, Acquainted me with interest to this land, Yea, thrust this enterprise into my heart;
And come ye now to tell me John hath made His peace with Rome? What is that peace to For your own ladies and pale-visag'd maids
I. by the honour of my marriage-bed, After young Arthur, claim this land for mine; And, now it is half-conquer'd, must I back Because that John hath made his peace with Rome?
Am I Rome's slave? What penny hath Rome borne,
What men provided, what munition sent, To underprop this action? Is 't not I That undergo this charge? who else but I, And such as to my claim are liable, Sweat in this business and maintain this war? Have I not heard these islanders shout out, Vive le roy as I have bank'd their towns? Have I not here the best cards for the game To win this easy match play'd for a crown?
Wegrantthou can'st outscold us: fare thee well; We hold our time too precious to be spent With such a brabbler. Pand.
Give me leave to speak. We will attend to neither. Strike up the drums; and let the tongue of war Plead for our interest and our being here.
Bast. Indeed, your drums, being beaten, will cry out;
And so shall you, being beaten. Do but start
An echo with the clamour of thy drum, And even at hand a drum is ready brac'd
By cutting off your heads. Thus hath he sworn, And I with him, and many more with me,
That shall reverberate all as loud as thine; 170 Upon the altar at Saint Edmundsbury;
Even on that altar where we swore to you Dear amity and everlasting love. Sal. May this be possible? may this be true? Mel. Have I not hideous death within my view, Retaining but a quantity of life, Which bleeds away, even as a form of wax Resolveth from his figure 'gainst the fire? What in the world should make me now deceive, Since I must lose the use of all deceit ? Why should I then be false, since it is true That I must die here and live hence by truth? I say again, if Lewis do win the day, He is forsworn, if e'er those eyes of yours Behold another day break in the east: But even this night, whose black contagious
Already smokes 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 treachery Even with a treacherous fine of all your lives, If Lewis by your assistance win the day. Commend me to one Hubert with your king; 40 The love of him, and this respect besides, For that my grandsire was an Englishman, Awakes my conscience to confess all this. In lieu whereof, I pray you, bear me hence From forth the noise and rumour of the field, Where I may think the remnant of my thoughts In peace, and part this body and my soul With contemplation and devout desires.
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Sal. We do believe thee: and beshrew my soul But I do love the favour and the form Of this most fair occasion, by the which We will untread the steps of damned flight, And like a bated and retired flood, Leaving our rankness and irregular course, Stoop low within those bounds we have o'erlook'd, 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
And happy newness, that intends old right. Exeunt, leading off MELUN.
SCENE V. The Same. The French Camp. Enter LEWIS and his Train.
Lew. The sun of heaven methought was loath to set,
But stay'd and made the western welkin blush. When the English measur'd backward their
In faint retire. O! bravely came we off, When with a volley of our needless shot, After such bloody toil, we bid good night. And wound our tattering colours clearly up, Last in the field, and almost lords of it.
By his persuasion, are again fall'n off;
And your supply, which you have wish'd so long, Are cast away and sunk, on Goodwin sands.
Lew. Ah! foul shrewd news. Beshrew thy very heart!
I did not think to be so sad to-night
As this hath made me. Who was he that said King John did fly an hour or two before
The stumbling night did part our weary powers? Mess. Whoever spoke it, it is true, my lord. Lew. Well; keep good quarter and good care to-night:
To try the fair adventure of to-morrow.
The day shall not be up so soon as I,
I'll tell thee, Hubert, half my power this night, Passing these flats, are taken by the tide; These Lincoln Washes have devoured them: Myself, well mounted, hardly have escap'd. Away before! conduct me to the king;
I doubt he will be dead or e'er I come. Exeunt.
He is more patient Than when you left him: even now he sung. P. Hen. O vanity of sickness! fierce extremes In their continuance will not feel themselves. Death, having prey'd upon the outward parts, Leaves them, invisible; and his siege is now Against the mind, the which he pricks and wounds With many legions of strange fantasies. Which, in their throng and press to that last hold.
Confound themselves. "Tis strange that death should sing.
I am the cygnet to this pale faint swan, 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.
Sal. Be of good comfort, prince; for you are born
To set a form upon that indigest Which he hath left so shapeless and so rude.
Re-enter BIGOT and Attendants, carrying King JOHN in a chair.
Hub. The king, I fear, is poison'd by a monk: I left him almost speechless; and broke out To acquaint you with this evil, that you might The better arm you to the sudden time Than if you had at leisure known of this.
Bast. Show me the very wound of this ill news : I am no woman; I'll not swoon at it.
Bast. How did he take it? who did taste to him? Hub. A monk, I tell you; a resolved villain, Whose bowels suddenly burst out: the king 30 Yet speaks, and peradventure may recover. Bast. Whom didst thou leave to tend his majesty?
Hub. Why, know you not? the lords are all
And brought Prince Henry in their company; At whose request the king hath pardon'd them, And they are all about his majesty.
Bast. Withhold thine indignation, mighty
And tempt us not to bear above our power!
And none of you will bid the winter come To thrust his icy fingers in my maw; Nor let my kingdom's rivers take their course Through my burn'd bosom; nor entreat the north
To make his bleak winds kiss my parched lips And comfort me with cold. I do not ask you much:
I beg cold comfort; and you are so strait And so ingrateful you deny me that.
The Cardinal Pandulph is within at rest, Who half an hour since came from the Dauphin, And brings from him such offers of our peace As we with honour and respect may take, With purpose presently to leave this war. Bast. He will the rather do it when he sees Ourselves well sinewed to our defence.
Sal. Nay, it is in a manner done already; For many carriages he hath dispatch'd To the sea-side, and put his cause and quarrel To the disposing of the cardinal: With whom yourself, myself, and other lords, If you think meet, this afternoon will post To consummate this business happily.
Bast. Let it be so. And you, my noble prince, With other princes that may best be spar'd, Shall wait upon your father's funeral.
P. Hen. At Worcester must his body be interr'd;
For so he will'd it. Bast.
And happily may your sweet self put on The lineal state and glory of the land! To whom, with all submission, on my knee, I do bequeath my faithful services And true subjection everlastingly.
Sal. And the like tender of our love we make. To rest without a spot for evermore.
P. Hen. I have a kind soul that would give you thanks,
And knows not how to do it but with tears. 100 Bast. O! let us pay the time but needful woe Since it hath been beforehand with our griefs. This England never did, nor never shall. Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror, But when it first did help to wound itself. Now these her princes are come home again, Come the three corners of the world in arms, And we shall shock them. Nought shall make
If England to itself do rest but true.
Lords, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, Gardeners, Keeper, Messenger, Groom, and
SCENE. Dispersedly in England and Wales.
SCENE I.-London. A Room in the Palace.
Enter King RICHARD, attended; JOHN OF GAUNT, and other Nobles, with him.
K. Rich. Old John of Gaunt, time-honour'd Lancaster,
Hast thou, according to thy oath and band, Brought hither Henry Hereford thy bold son, Here to make good the boisterous late appeal, Which then our leisure would not let us hear, Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray? Gaunt. I have, my liege.
K. Rick. Tell me, moreover, hast thou sounded him,
If he appeal the duke on ancient malice, Or worthily, as a good subject should,
On some known ground of treachery in him? Gaunt. As near as I could sift him on that argument,
On some apparent danger seen in him Aim'd at your highness, no inveterate malice. K. Rich. Then call them to our presence; face to face,
And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear The accuser and the accused freely speak : High-stomach'd are they both, and full of ire, Exeunt some Attendants. In rage deaf as the sea, hasty as fire.
Re-enter Attendants, with BOLINGBROKE and MOWBRAY.
Boling. Many years of happy days befall My gracious sovereign, my most loving liege! Until the heavens, envying earth's good hap, Mow. Each day still better other's happiness; Add an immortal title to your crown!
K. Rich. We thank you both: yet one but flatters us,
As well appeareth by the cause you come; Cousin of Hereford, what dost thou object Namely, to appeal each other of high treason. Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray? Boling. First, heaven be the record to my speech!
In the devotion of a subject's love, Tendering the precious safety of my prince, Come I appellant to this princely presence. And free from other misbegotten hate, Now, Thomas Mowbray, do I turn to thee, And mark my greeting well; for what I speak Or my divine soul answer it in heaven. My body shall make good upon this earth, Thou art a traitor and a miscreant;
Too good to be so and too bad to live, Since the more fair and crystal is the sky, The uglier seem the clouds that in it fly. Once more, the more to aggravate the note, With a foul traitor's name stuff I thy throat;
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