King John/Henry VIII (Signet Classics)
Page 10
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, renowned Falconbridge?
Second105 a villain and a murderer?
HUBERT Lord 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 dogged 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 t
ime49, 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 purpose78 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,
That for the health and physic21 of our right,
We cannot deal but22 with the very hand
Of stern injustice and confused23 wrong:
And is't not pity, O my grieved friends,
That we, the sons and children of this isle,
Was born to see so sad an hour as this,
Wherein we step after a stranger27, march
Upon her gentle bosom, and fill up
Her enemies' ranks? I must withdraw and weep
Upon the spot30 of this enforced cause --
To grace31 the gentry of a land remote,
And follow unacquainted32 colours here.
What, here? O nation, that thou couldst remove33,
That Neptune's arms who clippeth34 thee about,
Would bear35 thee from the knowledge of thyself,
And grapple thee unto a pagan shore36,
Where these two Christian armies might combine
The blood of malice in a vein of league,
And not to spend it so unneighbourly39.
LEWIS A noble temper40 dost thou show in this,
And great affections41 wrestling in thy bosom
Doth make an earthquake42 of nobility.
O, what a noble combat hast thou fought
Between compulsion and a brave respect44:
Let me wipe off this honourable dew45,
That silverly doth progress on thy cheeks:
My heart hath melted at a lady's tears,
Being an ordinary48 inundation:
But this effusion of such manly drops,
This shower, blown up by tempest of the soul,
Startles mine eyes, and makes me more amazed
Than had I seen the vaulty52 top of heaven
Figured53 quite o'er with burning meteors.
Lift up thy brow, renowned Salisbury,
And with a great heart heave55 away this storm:
Commend these waters to those baby eyes56
That never saw the giant world enraged,
Nor met with fortune other than at feasts,
Full warm of blood59, of mirth, of gossiping:
Come, come; for thou shalt thrust thy hand as deep
Into the purse of rich prosperity
As Lewis himself: so, nobles62, shall you all,
That knit your sinews63 to the strength of mine.
And even there methinks an angel64 spake.
Enter Cardinal Pandulph
Look where the holy legate comes apace65,
To give us warrant from the hand of heaven
And on our actions set the name of right
With holy breath.
CARDINAL PANDULPH Hail, noble Prince of France!
The next is this: King John hath reconciled
Himself to Rome: his spirit is come in71
That so stood out against the Holy Church,
The great metropolis and see73 of Rome.
Therefore thy threat'ning colours now wind up74,
And tame the savage spirit of wild war,
That like a lion fostered up at hand76,
It may lie gently at the foot of peace,
And be no further harmful than in show78.
LEWIS Your grace shall pardon me, I will not back79:
I am too high-born to be propertied80,
To be a secondary at control81,
Or useful serving-man and instrument
To any sovereign state throughout the world.
Your breath first kindled the dead coal of wars
Between this chastised 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 right89,
Acquainted me with interest90 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 me?
I, by the honour of my marriage-bed,
After young Arthur, claim this land for mine:
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 borne98,
What men provided, what munition sent,
To underprop100 this action? Is't not I
That undergo this charge101? Who else but I,
And such as to my claim are liable102,
Sweat in this business and maintain this war?
Have I not heard these islanders shout out
'Vive le roi' as I have banked105 their towns?
Have I not here the best cards for the game
To win this easy match played for a crown107?
And shall I now give o'er the yielded set108?
No, no, on my soul, it never shall be said.
CARDINAL PANDULP
H You look but on the outside of this work.
LEWIS Outside or inside, I will not return
Till my attempt so much be glorified
As to my ample113 hope was promised
Before I drew this gallant head114 of war,
And culled115 these fiery spirits from the world
To outlook116 conquest and to win renown
Even in the jaws of danger and of death.
Trumpet sounds
What lusty118 trumpet thus doth summon us?
Enter [the] Bastard
BASTARD According to119 the fair play of the world,
Let me have audience120: I am sent to speak.
My holy lord of Milan, from the king
I come to learn how you have dealt for him122:
And, as you answer, I do know the scope123
And warrant limited124 unto my tongue.
CARDINAL PANDULPH The dauphin is too wilful-opposite125,
And will not temporize126 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:
He is prepared, and reason131 too he should:
This apish and unmannerly132 approach,
This harnessed masque and unadvised133 revel,
This unheard134 sauciness and boyish troops,
The king doth smile at, and is well prepared
To whip this dwarfish war, these pigmy136 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 hatch139,
To dive like buckets in concealed wells,
To crouch in litter of your stable planks141,
To lie like pawns142 locked up in chests and trunks,
To hug143 with swine, to seek sweet safety out
In vaults and prisons, and to thrill144 and shake
Even at the crying of your nation's crow145,
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 eyrie150 towers,
To souse151 annoyance that comes near his nest:
And you degenerate, you ingrate revolts152,
You bloody Neroes153, ripping up the womb
Of your dear mother England, blush for shame:
For your own ladies and pale-visaged maids
Like Amazons come tripping156 after drums: