And more, more strong, when lesser is my fear,

  I shall endue you with. Meantime, but ask

  What you would have reformed 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 purposes 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

  Th’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.

  KING JOHN

  Let it be so. I do commit his youth

  To your direction.

  Enter HUBERT.

  Hubert, what news with you?

  [Hubert goes to the throne and speaks with King John aside.]

  PEMBROKE [to Salisbury and Lords]

  This is the man should do the bloody deed;

  70 He showed his warrant to a friend of mine.

  The image of a wicked heinous fault

  Lives in his eye, that close aspect of his

  Doth show the mood of a much-troubled breast,

  And I do fearfully believe ’tis done,

  75 What we so feared 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.

  PEMBROKE

  80 And when it breaks, I fear will issue thence

  The foul corruption of a sweet child’s death.

  KING JOHN [aloud to Lords]

  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 tonight.

  SALISBURY

  Indeed we feared 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 answered, either here or hence.

  KING JOHN

  90 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 th’inheritance of this poor child,

  His little kingdom of a forced grave.

  That blood which owned 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 [Pembroke, Salisbury and other Lords].

  KING JOHN

  They burn in indignation. I repent:

  There is no sure foundation set on blood,

  No certain life achieved by others’ death. [b2ra]

  Enter Messenger.

  106 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?

  MESSENGER

  110 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 learned by them,

  For when you should be told they do prepare,

  115 The tidings comes 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?

  MESSENGER My liege, her ear

  120 Is stopped 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

  I idly heard; if true or false I know not.

  KING JOHN

  125 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!

  Under whose conduct came those powers of France

  130 That thou for truth giv’st out are landed here?

  MESSENGER

  Under the Dauphin.

  KING JOHN Thou hast made me giddy

  With these ill tidings.

  Enter 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

  135 But if you be afeared to hear the worst,

  Then let the worst, unheard, fall on your head.

  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

  140 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 travelled hither through the land

  I find the people strangely fantasied,

  145 Possessed with rumours, full of idle dreams,

  Not knowing what they fear, but full of fear.

  And here’s a prophet that I brought with me

  From forth the streets of Pomfret, whom I found

  With many hundreds treading on his heels,

  150 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

  155 Hubert, away with him, imprison him;

  And on that day at noon whereon he says

  I shall yield up my crown, let him be hanged.

  Deliver him to safety and return,

  For I must use thee. [Exit Hubert with Peter of Pomfret.]

  O my gentle cousin,

  160 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

  165 Of Arthur, whom they say is killed tonight

  On your suggestion.

  KING JOHN Gentle kinsman, go

  And thrust thyself into their companies.

  I have a way to win their loves again; [b2va]

  Bring them before me.

  BASTARD I will seek them out.

  KING JOHN

  170 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

  175 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.

  [to Messenger] 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

  181 My mother dead!

  Enter HUBERT.

  HUBERT

  My lord, they say five moons were seen tonight,

  Four fixed, and the fifth did whirl about

  The other four in wondrous motion.

  KING JOHN

  Five moons?

  185 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;

  190 And he that speaks doth grip 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,

  195 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

  200 That were embattled and ranked in Kent.

  Another lean unwashed 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?

  205 Thy hand hath murdered 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

  210 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 [Shows warrant.]

  215 Here is your hand and seal for what I did.

  KING JOHN [aside]

  O, when the last account ’twixt heaven and earth

  Is to be made, then shall this hand and seal

  Witness against us to damnation!

  [to Hubert] How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds

  220 Makes deeds ill done! Hadst not thou been by,

  A fellow by the hand of nature marked,

  Quoted and signed to do a deed of shame,

  This murder had not come into my mind.

  But taking note of thy abhorred aspect,

  225 Finding thee fit for bloody villainy,

  Apt, liable to be employed 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 –[b2vb]

  KING JOHN

  231 Hadst thou but shook thy head or made a pause

  When I spake darkly what I purposed,

  Or turned an eye of doubt upon my face

  As bid me tell my tale in express words,

  235 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,

  240 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;

  245 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;

  250 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 entered yet

  255 The dreadful motion of a murderous thought,

  And you have slandered 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

  260 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,

  265 And foul imaginary eyes of blood

  Presented thee more hideous than thou art.

  O, answer not, but to my closet bring

  The angry lords with all expedient haste.

  I conjure thee but slowly; run more fast! Exeunt.

  4.3 Enter ARTHUR on the walls.

  ARTHUR

  The wall is high, and yet will I leap down.

  Good ground be pitiful and hurt me not!

  There’s few or none do know me; if they did,

  This ship-boy’s semblance hath disguised me quite.

  5 I am afraid, and yet I’ll venture it.

  If I get down and do not break my limbs,

  I’ll find a thousand shifts to get away.

  As good to die and go, as die and stay. [Leaps down.]

  9 O me, my uncle’s spirit is in these stones.

  Heaven take my soul and England keep my bones. Dies.

  Enter PEMBROKE, SALISBURY and BIGOT.

  SALISBURY

  11 Lords, I will meet him at Saint Edmundsbury.

  It is our safety, and we must embrace

  This gentle offer of the perilous time.

  PEMBROKE

  Who brought that letter from the cardinal?

  SALISBURY

  15 The Count Melun, a noble lord of France,

  Whose private with me of the Dauphin’s love

  Is much more general than these lines import.

  BIGOT

  Tomorrow morning let us meet him then. [b3ra]

  SALISBURY

  Or rather then set forward, for ’twill be

  20 Two long days’ journey, lords, or ere we meet.

  Enter BASTARD.

  BASTARD

  Once more today well met, distempered lords.

  The King by me requests your presence straight.

  SALISBURY

  The King hath dispossessed himself of us.

  We will not line his thin-bestained cloak

  25 With our pure honours, nor attend the foot

  That leaves the print of blood where’er it walks.

  Return and tell him so; we know the worst.

  BASTARD

  Whate’er you think, good words I think were best.

  SALISBURY

  Our griefs and not our manners reason now.

  BASTARD

  30 But there is little reason in your grief.

  Therefore ’twere reason you had manners now.

  PEMBROKE

  Sir, sir, impatience hath his privilege.

  BASTARD

  ’Tis true: to hurt his master, no man else.

  SALISBURY

  This is the prison.

  [Sees Arthur’s body.]

  What is he lies here?

  PEMBROKE

  35 O death, made proud with pure and princely beauty!

  The earth had not a hole to hide this deed.

  SALISBURY

  Murder, as hating what himself hath done,

  Doth lay it open to urge on revenge.

  BIGOT

  Or when he doomed this beauty to a grave,

  40 Found it too precious-princely for a grave.

  SALISBURY [to Bastard]

  Sir Richard, what think you? Have you beheld.

  Or have you read, or heard, or could you think,

  Or do you almost think, although you see,

  That you do see? Could thought, without this object,

  45 Form such another? This is the very top,

  The height, the crest, or crest unto the crest,

  Of murder’s arms. This is the bloodiest shame,

  The wildest savagery, the vilest stroke

  That ever wall-eyed wrath or staring rage

  50 Presented to the tears of soft remorse.

  PEMBROKE

  All murders past do stand excused in this,

  And this so sole, and so unmatcheable,

  Shall give a holiness, a purity,

  To the yet unbegotten sin of times,

  55 And prove a deadly bloodshed but a jest,

  Exampled by this heinous spectacle.

  BASTARD

  It is a damned and a bloody work,

  The graceless action of a heavy hand,

  If that it be the work of any hand.

  SALISBURY

  60 If that it be the work of any hand?

  We had a kind of light what would ensue.

  It is the shameful work of Hubert’s hand;

  The practice and the purpose of the King –

  From whose obedience I forbid my soul,

  65 Kneeling before this ruin of sweet life,

  And breathing to his breathless excellence

  The incense of a vow, a holy vow,

  Never to taste the pleasures of the world,

  Never to be infected with delight,

  70 Nor conversant with ease and idleness,

  Till I have set a glory to this hand

  By giving it the worship of revenge.