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.
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.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,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:
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,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 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?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 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.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!
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 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;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:
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,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,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 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.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 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 Idid.KING JOHN O,when the last account 'twixt heaven and earth 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,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,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 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:
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.
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,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 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,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,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.
