PEMBROKE, BIGOT [Kneel.]

  Our souls religiously confirm thy words.

  Enter HUBERT.

  HUBERT

  Lords, I am hot with haste in seeking you.

  75 Arthur doth live, the King hath sent for you.

  [The Lords rise.]

  SALISBURY

  O, he is bold, and blushes not at death.

  Avaunt, thou hateful villain, get thee gone!

  HUBERT

  I am no villain.

  SALISBURY [Draws his sword.] Must I rob the law?

  BASTARD

  Your sword is bright, sir, put it up again.

  SALISBURY

  80 Not till I sheathe it in a murderer’s skin.

  HUBERT [Draws his sword.]

  Stand back, Lord Salisbury, stand back I say! [b3rb]

  By God, I think my sword’s as sharp as yours.

  I would not have you, lord, forget yourself,

  Nor tempt the danger of my true defence

  85 Lest I, by marking of your rage, forget

  Your worth, your greatness and nobility.

  BIGOT

  Out, dunghill! Dar’st thou brave a nobleman?

  HUBERT

  Not for my life, but yet I dare defend

  My innocent life against an emperor.

  SALISBURY

  Thou art a murderer.

  90 HUBERT Do not prove me so!

  Yet I am none. Whose tongue soe’er speaks false,

  Not truly speaks; who speaks not truly, lies.

  PEMBROKE

  Cut him to pieces.

  BASTARD [Draws.] Keep the peace, I say.

  SALISBURY

  Stand by, or I shall gall you, Faulconbridge.

  BASTARD

  95 Thou wert better gall the devil, Salisbury.

  If thou but frown on me, or stir thy foot,

  Or teach thy hasty spleen to do me shame,

  I’ll strike thee dead. Put up thy sword betime,

  Or I’ll so maul you and your toasting-iron

  100 That you shall think the devil is come from hell.

  BIGOT

  What wilt thou do, renowned Faulconbridge?

  Second a villain and a murderer?

  HUBERT

  Lord Bigot, I am none.

  BIGOT Who killed this prince?

  HUBERT [Puts up his sword.]

  ’Tis not an hour since I left him well.

  105 [Weeps.] I honoured him, I loved him, and will weep

  My date of life out for his sweet life’s loss.

  [The Lords and the Bastard put up their swords.]

  SALISBURY

  Trust not those cunning waters of his eyes,

  For villainy is not without such rheum,

  And he, long traded in it, makes it seem

  110 Like rivers of remorse and innocency.

  Away with me, all you whose souls abhor

  Th’uncleanly savours of a slaughterhouse,

  For I am stifled with this smell of sin.

  BIGOT

  Away toward Bury, to the Dauphin there.

  PEMBROKE [to Bastard]

  115 There, tell the King, he may inquire us out.

  Ex[eunt] Lords.

  BASTARD

  Here’s a good world! Knew you of this fair work?

  Beyond the infinite and boundless reach

  Of mercy, if thou didst this deed of death,

  Art thou damned, Hubert.

  HUBERT Do but hear me, sir.

  BASTARD

  120 Ha! I’ll tell thee what –

  Thou’rt damned as black – nay nothing is so black!

  Thou art more deep damned than Prince Lucifer.

  There is not yet so ugly a fiend of hell

  As thou shalt be, if thou didst kill this child.

  HUBERT

  Upon my soul –

  125 BASTARD If thou didst but consent

  To this most cruel act, do but despair –

  And if thou want’st a cord, the smallest thread

  That ever spider twisted from her womb

  Will serve to strangle thee; a rush will be a beam

  130 To hang thee on. Or wouldst thou drown thyself,

  Put but a little water in a spoon

  And it shall be as all the ocean,

  Enough to stifle such a villain up.

  I do suspect thee very grievously.

  HUBERT

  135 If I in act, consent or sin of thought,

  Be guilty of the stealing that sweet breath

  Which was embounded in this beauteous clay,

  Let hell want pains enough to torture me.

  I left him well!

  BASTARD Go, bear him in thine arms.

  [Hubert takes up Arthur’s body.]

  140 I am amazed, methinks, and lose my way

  Among the thorns and dangers of this world.

  How easy dost thou take all England up! [b3va]

  From forth this morsel of dead royalty,

  The life, the right and truth of all this realm

  145 Is fled to heaven, and England now is left

  To tug and scamble, and to part by th’ teeth

  The unowed interest of proud-swelling state.

  Now for the bare-picked bone of majesty

  Doth dogged war bristle his angry crest

  150 And snarleth in the gentle eyes of peace.

  Now powers from home and discontents at home

  Meet in one line, and vast confusion waits,

  As doth a raven on a sick-fallen beast,

  The imminent decay of wrested pomp.

  155 Now happy he, whose cloak and ceinture can

  Hold out this tempest. Bear away that child,

  And follow me with speed; I’ll to the King.

  A thousand businesses are brief in hand,

  And heaven itself doth frown upon the land.

  Ex[eunt, Hubert carrying Arthur’s body].

  [5.]1 [Flourish.] Enter KING JOHN and PANDULPH [with the crown], Attendants.

  KING JOHN [Gives the crown to Pandulph.]

  Thus have I yielded up into your hand

  The circle of my glory.

  PANDULPH [Gives back the crown.] Take again

  From this my hand, as holding of the Pope,

  Your sovereign greatness and authority.

  KING JOHN

  5 Now keep your holy word, go meet the French,

  And from his Holiness use all your power

  To stop their marches ’fore we are inflamed.

  Our discontented counties do revolt;

  Our people quarrel with obedience,

  10 Swearing allegiance and the love of soul

  To stranger blood, to foreign royalty.

  This inundation of mistempered humour

  Rests by you only to be qualified.

  Then pause not, for the present time’s so sick

  15 That present medicine must be ministered,

  Or overthrow incurably ensues.

  PANDULPH

  It was my breath that blew this tempest up

  Upon your stubborn usage of the Pope;

  But since you are a gentle convertite,

  20 My tongue shall hush again this storm of war

  And make fair weather in your blustering land.

  On this Ascension Day, remember well,

  Upon your oath of service to the Pope,

  Go I to make the French lay down their arms.

  Exit [with Attendants].

  KING JOHN

  25 Is this Ascension Day? Did not the prophet

  Say that before Ascension Day at noon

  My crown I should give off? Even so I have –

  I did suppose it should be on constraint,

  But, God be thanked, it is but voluntary.

  Enter BASTARD.

  BASTARD

  30 All Kent hath yielded: nothing there holds out

  But Dover Castle. London hath received,

  Like a kind host, the Dauphin and his powers.

  Your nobles will not hear you, but are gone

  To offer service to your enemy,

  35 And wild amazement hurries up and down

  The little number of your doubtful friends.

  KING JOHN

  Would not my lords return to me again

  After they heard young Arthur was alive?

  BASTARD

  They found him dead, and cast into the streets, [b3vb]

  40 An empty casket, where the jewel of life

  By some damned hand was robbed and ta’en away.

  KING JOHN

  That villain Hubert told me he did live.

  BASTARD

  So on my soul he did for aught he knew.

  But wherefore do you droop? Why look you sad?

  45 Be great in act, as you have been in thought!

  Let not the world see fear and sad distrust

  Govern the motion of a kingly eye.

  Be stirring as the time, be fire with fire,

  Threaten the threatener, and outface the brow

  50 Of bragging horror: so shall inferior eyes

  That borrow their behaviours from the great,

  Grow great by your example, and put on

  The dauntless spirit of resolution.

  Away, and glister like the god of war

  55 When he intendeth to become the field;

  Show boldness and aspiring confidence!

  What, shall they seek the lion in his den,

  And fright him there, and make him tremble there?

  O, let it not be said! Forage, and run

  60 To meet displeasure farther from the doors,

  And grapple with him ere he come so nigh.

  KING JOHN

  The legate of the Pope hath been with me,

  And I have made a happy peace with him,

  And he hath promised to dismiss the powers

  Led by the Dauphin.

  65 BASTARD O, inglorious league!

  Shall we, upon the footing of our land,

  Send fair-play orders, and make compromise,

  Insinuation, parley and base truce

  To arms invasive? Shall a beardless boy,

  70 A cockered-silken wanton, brave our fields

  And flesh his spirit in a warlike soil,

  Mocking the air with colours idly spread,

  And find no check? Let us, my liege, to arms!

  Perchance the cardinal cannot make your peace,

  75 Or if he do, let it at least be said

  They saw we had a purpose of defence.

  KING JOHN

  Have thou the ordering of this present time.

  BASTARD

  Away then with good courage! [aside] Yet I know

  Our party may well meet a prouder foe. Exeunt.

  [5.]2 Enter (in arms) [Lewis the] DAUPHIN, [with a document], SALISBURY, MELUN, PEMBROKE, BIGOT, Soldiers.

  DAUPHIN [Gives document to Melun.]

  My Lord Melun, let this be copied out,

  And keep it safe for our remembrance.

  Return the precedent to these lords again,

  That having our fair order written down,

  5 Both they and we, perusing o’er these notes,

  May know wherefore we took the sacrament

  And keep our faiths firm and inviolable.

  SALISBURY

  Upon our sides it never shall be broken.

  And, noble Dauphin, albeit we swear

  10 A voluntary zeal and unurged faith

  To your proceedings, yet believe me, prince,

  I am not glad that such a sore of time

  Should seek a plaster by contemned revolt

  And heal the inveterate canker of one wound

  By making many. O, it grieves my soul [b4ra]

  16 That I must draw this metal from my side

  To be a widow-maker – O, and there

  Where honourable rescue and defence

  Cries out upon the name of Salisbury.

  20 But such is the infection of the time

  That for the health and physic of our right

  We cannot deal but with the very hand

  Of stern injustice and confused wrong.

  And is’t not pity, O my grieved friends,

  25 That we, the sons and children of this isle,

  Were born to see so sad an hour as this,

  Wherein we step after a stranger, march

  Upon her gentle bosom, and fill up

  Her enemy’s ranks – I must withdraw and weep

  30 Upon the spot of this enforced cause –

  To grace the gentry of a land remote,

  And follow unacquainted colours here.

  [Weeps.] What, here? O nation, that thou couldst remove:

  That Neptune’s arms who clippeth thee about,

  35 Would bear thee from the knowledge of thyself,

  And grapple thee unto a pagan shore,

  Where these two Christian armies might combine

  The blood of malice in a vein of league,

  And not to spend it so unneighbourly.

  DAUPHIN

  40 A noble temper dost thou show in this,

  And great affections wrestling in thy bosom

  Doth make an earthquake of nobility.

  O, what a noble combat hast thou fought

  Between compulsion and a brave respect!

  45 Let me wipe off this honourable dew

  That silverly doth progress on thy cheeks.

  [Wipes Salisbury’s eyes.] My heart hath melted at a lady’s tears,

  Being an ordinary inundation;

  But this effusion of such manly drops,

  50 This shower, blown up by tempest of the soul,

  Startles mine eyes and makes me more amazed

  Than had I seen the vaulty top of heaven

  Figured quite o’er with burning meteors.

  Lift up thy brow, renowned Salisbury,

  55 And with a great heart heave away this storm.

  Commend these waters to those baby eyes

  That never saw the giant world enraged,

  Nor met with fortune other than at feasts,

  Full warm of blood, of mirth, of gossiping.

  60 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,

  [Trumpet sounds.]

  And even there, methinks an angel spake.

  Enter PANDULPH[, attended].

  65 Look where the holy legate comes apace

  To give us warrant from the hand of God,

  And on our actions set the name of right

  With holy breath.

  PANDULPH Hail, noble prince of France;

  The next is this: King John hath reconciled

  70 Himself to Rome, his spirit is come in

  That so stood out against the holy Church,

  The great metropolis and see of Rome.

  Therefore thy threatening colours now wind up,

  And tame the savage spirit of wild war

  75 That, like a lion fostered up at hand,

  It may lie gently at the foot of peace

  And be no further harmful than in show.

  DAUPHIN

  Your grace shall pardon me, I will not back.

  I am too high-born to be propertied, [b4rb]

  80 To be a secondary at control,

  Or useful serving-man and instrument

  To any sovereign state throughout the world.

  Your breath first kindled the dead coals of war

  Between this chastised kingdom and myself

  85 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,

  90 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 me?

  I, by the honour of my marriage-bed,

  After young Arthur, claim this land for mine;

  95 And now it is half-conquered, 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

  100 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 roi!’ as I have banked their towns?

  105 Have I not here the best cards for the game

  To win this easy match played for a crown?

  And shall I now give o’er the yielded set?

  No! No, on my soul, it never shall be said.

  PANDULPH

  You look but on the outside of this work.

  DAUPHIN

  110 Outside or inside, I will not return

  Till my attempt so much be glorified

  As to my ample hope was promised

  Before I drew this gallant head of war

  And culled these fiery spirits from the world

  115 To outlook conquest and to win renown

  Even in the jaws of danger and of death. [Trumpet sounds.]

  What lusty trumpet thus doth summon us?

  Enter BASTARD.

  BASTARD

  According to the fair play of the world

  Let me have audience: I am sent to speak.

  120 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.

  PANDULPH

  The Dauphin is too wilful-opposite,

  125 And will not temporize with my entreaties:

  He flatly says he’ll not lay down his arms.

  BASTARD

  By all the blood that ever fury breathed,

  The youth says well! Now hear our English king,

  For thus his royalty doth speak in me:

  130 He is prepared, and reason too he should.

  This apish and unmannerly approach,

  This harnessed mask and unadvised revel,

  This unhaired sauciness and boyish troops,

  The King doth smile at; and is well prepared

  135 To whip this dwarfish war, these pygmy arms,

  From out the circle of his territories.

  That hand which had the strength, even at your door,

  To cudgel you and make you take the hatch,

  To dive like buckets in concealed wells,