King John & Henry VIII Read online

  My nobles leave me, and my state is braved250,

  Even at my gates, with ranks of foreign powers;

  Nay, in the body of this fleshly land252,

  This kingdom, this confine253 of blood and breath,

  Hostility and civil tumult254 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 maiden259 and an innocent hand,

  Not painted with the crimson spots of blood.

  Within this bosom never entered yet

  The dreadful motion262 of a murderous thought;

  And you have slandered nature in my form263,

  Which, howsoever rude exteriorly264,

  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:

  Throw268 this report on their incensèd rage,

  And make them tame269 to their obedience.

  Forgive the comment that my passion made

  Upon thy feature, for my rage was blind,

  And foul imaginary eyes of blood272

  Presented thee more hideous than thou art.

  O, answer not, but to my closet274 bring

  The angry lords with all expedient haste.

  I conjure276 thee but slowly: run more fast.

  Exeunt

  Act 4 Scene 3

  running scene 8

  Enter Arthur, on the walls

  Disguised as a ship-boy

  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 quite4.

  I am afraid, and yet I’ll venture5 it.

  If I get down, and do not break my limbs,

  I’ll find a thousand shifts7 to get away:

  He leaps down

  As good to die and go, as die and stay8.

  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 Lords, I will meet him at Saint Edmundsbury11:

  It is our safety12, and we must embrace

  This gentle13 offer of the perilous time.

  PEMBROKE Who brought that letter from the cardinal?

  SALISBURY The count Melun, a noble lord of France,

  Whose private16 with me of the dauphin’s love

  Is much more general17 than these lines import.

  BIGOT Tomorrow morning let us meet him then.

  SALISBURY Or rather then set forward; for ’twill be

  Two long days’ journey, lords, or ere we20 meet.

  Enter [the] Bastard

  BASTARD Once more today well met, distempered21 lords:

  The king by me requests your presence straight22.

  SALISBURY The king hath dispossessed himself23 of us:

  We will not line his thin bestainèd cloak24

  With our pure honours, nor attend the foot25

  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, reason29 now.

  BASTARD But there is little reason in your grief.

  Therefore ’twere reason you had manners now.

  PEMBROKE Sir, sir, impatience hath his privilege32.

  BASTARD ’Tis true, to hurt his master, no man’s else33.

  Sees Arthur’s body

  SALISBURY This is the prison. What is he lies here?

  PEMBROKE O, death, made proud with pure and princely beauty:

  The earth had not a hole to hide this deed.

  SALISBURY Murder, as37 hating what himself hath done,

  Doth lay it open38 to urge on revenge.

  BIGOT Or whe39n he doomed this beauty to a grave,

  Found it too precious-princely for a grave.

  SALISBURY Sir Richard, what think you? You have beheld41,

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

  Or do you almost think43, although you see,

  That you do see? Could thought, without this object44,

  Form such another? This is the very top,

  The height, the crest46, or crest unto the crest,

  Of murder’s arms47: this is the bloodiest shame,

  The wildest savagery, the vilest stroke,

  That ever wall-eyed49 wrath or staring rage

  Presented to the tears of soft remorse50.

  PEMBROKE All murders past do stand excused in51 this:

  And this, so sole52 and so unmatchable,

  Shall give a holiness, a purity,

  To the yet unbegotten sin of times54,

  And prove a deadly bloodshed but a jest,

  Exampled by this heinous56 spectacle.

  BASTARD It is a damnèd and a bloody work:

  The graceless action of a heavy58 hand,

  If that it be the work of any hand.

  SALISBURY If that it be the work of any hand?

  We had a kind of light61 what would ensue:

  It is the shameful work of Hubert’s hand,

  The practice63 and the purpose of the king:

  From whose obedience I forbid my soul,

  Kneeling before this ruin of sweet life,

  And breathing to his breathless66 excellence

  The incense67 of a vow, a holy vow:

  Never to taste the pleasures of the world,

  Never to be infected69 with delight,

  Nor conversant with ease and idleness,

  Till I have set71 a glory to this hand,

  By giving it the worship72 of revenge.

  PEMBROKE AND BIGOT Our souls religiously confirm73 thy words.

  Enter Hubert

  HUBERT Lords, I am hot with haste in seeking you:

  Arthur doth live: the king hath sent for you.

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

  Avaunt77, thou hateful villain, get thee gone!

  HUBERT I am no villain.

  Draws his sword

  SALISBURY Must I rob the law79?

  BASTARD Your sword is bright, sir: put it up81 again.

  SALISBURY Not till I sheathe it in a murderer’s skin81.

  HUBERT Stand back, Lord Salisbury, stand back, I say:

  Draws his sword

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

  I would not have you, lord, forget yourself,

  Nor tempt the danger of my true defence85;

  Lest I, by marking86 of your rage, forget

  Your worth, your greatness and nobility.

  BIGOT Out, dunghill! Dar’st thou brave88 a nobleman?

  HUBERT Not for my life: but yet I dare defend

  My innocent life against an emperor.

  SALISBURY Thou art a murderer.

  HUBERT Do not prove me so92:

  Yet I am none. Whose tongue soe’er93 speaks false,

  Not truly speaks: who speaks not truly, lies.

  PEMBROKE Cut him to pieces.

  BASTARD Keep the peace, I say.

  SALISBURY Stand by, or I shall gall97 you, Falconbridge.

  BASTARD Thou wert better gall the devil, Salisbury:

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

  Or teach thy hasty spleen100 to do me shame,

  I’ll strike thee dead. Put up thy sword betime101,

  Or I’ll so maul you and your toasting-iron102,

  That you shall think the devil is come from hell.

  BIGOT What wilt thou do, renownèd Falconbridge?

  Second105 a villain and a murderer?

  HUBERT Lo
rd Bigot, I am none.

  BIGOT Who killed this prince?

  HUBERT ’Tis not an hour since I left him well:

  I honoured him, I loved him, and will weep

  My date110 of life out for his sweet life’s loss.

  SALISBURY Trust not those cunning waters of his eyes,

  For villainy is not without such rheum112,

  And he, long traded113 in it, makes it seem

  Like rivers of remorse and innocency.

  Away with me, all you whose souls abhor

  Th’uncleanly savours116 of a slaughter-house,

  For I am stifled with this smell of sin.

  BIGOT Away toward Bury, to the dauphin there.

  PEMBROKE There tell the king he may inquire us out119.

  Exeunt 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 Ha! I’ll tell thee what:

  Thou’rt damned as black126 — nay, nothing is so black —

  Thou art more deep damned than Prince Lucifer127:

  There is not yet so ugly a fiend of hell

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

  HUBERT Upon my soul—

  BASTARD If thou didst but consent

  To this most cruel act, do but131 despair:

  And if thou want’st a cord132, the smallest thread

  That ever spider twisted from her womb

  Will serve to strangle thee: a rush134 will be a beam

  To hang thee on: or wouldst135 thou drown thyself,

  Put but a little water in a spoon,

  And it shall be as all the ocean,

  Enough to stifle138 such a villain up.

  I do suspect thee very grievously139.

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

  Be guilty of the stealing that sweet breath

  Which was embounded in this beauteous clay142,

  Let hell want143 pains enough to torture me:

  I left him well.

  BASTARD Go, bear him in thine arms:

  I am amazed146, methinks, and lose my way

  Among the thorns and dangers of this world.

  How easy dost thou take all England up148!

  From forth this morsel of dead royalty,

  The life, the right, and truth of all this realm

  Is fled to heaven: and England now is left

  To tug and scamble and to part152 by th’teeth

  The unowed interest153 of proud-swelling state:

  Now for the bare-picked bone of majesty154

  Doth doggèd war bristle his angry crest155

  And snarleth in the gentle eyes of peace:

  Now powers from home and discontents157 at home

  Meet in one line: and vast confusion158 waits,

  As doth a raven on a sick-fall’n beast,

  The imminent decay of wrested pomp160.

  Now happy he whose cloak and cincture161 can

  Hold out162 this tempest. Bear away that child

  And follow me with speed: I’ll to the king:

  A thousand businesses are brief in hand164,

  And heaven itself doth frown upon the land.

  Hubert carrying the body of Arthur

  Exeunt

  Act 5 Scene 1

  running scene 9

  Enter King John and Pandulph, [with] Attendants

  KING JOHN Thus have I yielded up into your hand

  Giving Cardinal Pandulph the crown

  The circle of my glory2.

  CARDINAL PANDULPH Take again

  Returning the crown to King John

  From this my hand, as holding of4 the Pope

  Your sovereign greatness and authority.

  KING JOHN Now keep your holy word: go meet the French,

  And from his holiness use all your power

  To stop their marches ’fore we are inflamed8:

  Our discontented counties9 do revolt:

  Our people quarrel with obedience,

  Swearing allegiance and the love of soul11

  To stranger12 blood, to foreign royalty;

  This inundation of mistempered humour13

  Rests by you only to be qualified14.

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

  That present med’cine must be ministered16,

  Or overthrow17 incurable ensues.

  CARDINAL PANDULPH It was my breath that blew this tempest up,

  Upon your stubborn usage19 of the Pope:

  But since you are a gentle convertite20,

  My tongue shall hush again this storm of war

  And make fair weather in your blust’ring22 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.

  Exeunt [all but King John]

  KING JOHN Is this Ascension Day? Did not the prophet

  Say that before Ascension Day at noon

  My crown I should give off28? Even so I have:

  I did suppose it should be on constraint29,

  But, heav’n be thanked, it is but voluntary.

  Enter [the] Bastard

  BASTARD 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 hear34 you, but are gone

  To offer service to your enemy:

  And wild amazement hurries up and down

  The little number of your doubtful37 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,

  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 droop45? Why look you sad?

  Be great in act as you have been in thought:

  Let not the world see fear and sad distrust

  Govern the motion48 of a kingly eye:

  Be stirring as the time49, be fire with fire,

  Threaten the threat’ner and outface the brow50

  Of bragging horror: so shall inferior eyes51,

  That borrow their behaviours from52 the great,

  Grow great by your example, and put on

  The dauntless spirit of resolution.

  Away, and glisten like the god of war55

  When he intendeth to become the field56:

  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: forage60, and run

  To meet displeasure farther from the doors,

  And grapple with him ere he come so nigh62.

  KING JOHN The legate of the Pope hath been with me,

  And I have made a happy64 peace with him,

  And he hath promised to dismiss the powers

  Led by the dauphin.

  BASTARD O inglorious67 league!

  Shall we, upon the footing of our land68,

  Send fair-play69 orders, and make compromise,

  Insinuation, parley and base70 truce

  To arms invasive? Shall a beardless boy,

  A cockered silken wanton, brave72 our fields,

  And flesh73 his spirit in a warlike soil,

  Mocking the air with colours idly74 spread,

  And find no check75? Let us, my liege, to arms:

  Perchance the cardinal cannot make your peace;

  Or if he do, let it at least be said

  They saw we had a p
urpose78 of defence.

  KING JOHN Have thou the ordering79 of this present time.

  Aside

  BASTARD Away, then, with good courage!— Yet, I know,

  Our party may well meet a prouder81 foe.

  Exeunt

  Act 5 Scene 2

  running scene 10

  Enter, in arms, Lewis, Salisbury, Melun, Pembroke, Bigot [and] Soldiers

  LEWIS My lord Melun, let this be copied out,

  And keep it safe for our remembrance:

  Return the precedent3 to these lords again,

  That having our fair order4 written down,

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

  May know wherefore we took the sacrament6

  And keep our faiths7 firm and inviolable.

  SALISBURY Upon our sides it never shall be broken.

  And, noble dauphin, albeit9 we swear

  A voluntary zeal and an unurged faith

  To your proceedings: yet believe me, prince,

  I am not glad that such a sore of time12

  Should seek a plaster by contemned13 revolt,

  And heal the inveterate canker14 of one wound

  By making many: O, it grieves my soul

  That I must draw this metal16 from my side

  To be a widow-maker: O, and there

  Where honourable rescue and defence18

  Cries out upon19 the name of Salisbury!

  But such is the infection of the time,