Why should I then be false; since it is true That Iut die here, and live hence by truth? I say again, if Lewis do win the day, He is forsworn, if ever those eyes of yours Behold another day break in the east:
But eventhis night,--whose black contagious breath Already smokes about the burning crest Of the old, feeble, and day-wearied sun,- Even this ill night, your breathing shall expire; Paying the fine of rated treachery,
Even with a treacherous fine of all your lives, If Lewis by your assistance win the day. Commend me to one Hubert with your king; The love of him, and this respect besides, For that my grandsire was an Englishman,- Awakes my conscience to confess all this. In lieu whereof, I pray you, bear me hence From forth the noise and rumour of the field; Where I may think the remnant of my thoughts In peace, and part this body and my soul With contemplation and devout desires,
Mes. Whoever spoke it, it is true, my lord. Lewis. Well; keep good quarter and good care to-night:
The day shall not be up so soon as I,
5 To try the fair adventure of to-morrow. [Exeunt.
Of thine affairs as well as thou of mine? Faulc. Hubert, I think.
Hub. Thou hast a perfect thought:
I will, upon all hazards, well believe
Thou art my friend, that know'st my tongue so Who art thou?
[well: Faulc. Who thou wilt: an if thou please, 25 Thou may'st befriend me so much, as to think I come one way of the Plantagenets.
Sal. We do believe thee,-and beshrew my But I do love the favour and the form Of this most fair occasion, by the which We will untread the steps of damned flight; And like a bated and retired flood, Leaving our rankness and irregular course, Stoop low within those bounds we have o'er-look'd, And calmly run on in obedience, Even to our ocean, to our great king John.- My arm shall give thee help to bear thee hence; For I do see the cruel pangs of death Right' in thine eye.-Away, my friends! New And happy newness, that intends old right. [Exeunt, leading off Melun 35 SCENE V.
A different part of the French Camp.
Enter Lewis and his train.
Lewis. The sun of heaven, methought, was loth
But staid, and made the western welkin blush, When the English measur'd backward their own ground
In faint retire: Oh, bravely came we off, When with a volley of our needless shot, After such bloody toil, we bid good night ;- And wound our tatter'd colours clearly up, Last in the field, and almost lords of it!- Enter a Messenger. Mes. Where is my prince, the Dauphin? Lewis. Here:-What news?
[lords, Mes. The count Melun is slain; the English By his persuasion, are again fallen off: And your supplies, which you have wish'd so long, Are cast away, and sunk, on Goodwin-sands. Lewis. Ah foul shrewd news!-Beshrew thy very heart!
I did not think to be so sad to-night,
As this hath made me.-Who was he, that said, King John did fly, an hour or two before, The stumbling night did part our weary powers?
Hub. Unkind remembrance! thou, and eyeless night,
Have done me shame :--Brave soldier, pardon me, That any accent, breaking from thy tongue, Should scape the true acquaintance of mine ear. Faulc. Come, come, sans compliment, what
[night, Hub. Why, here walk I, in the black brow of To find you out.
Faulc. Brief, then, and what's the news? Hub. O my sweet sir, news fitted to the night, Black, fearful, comfortless, and horrible. [news; Faule. Shew me the very wound of this ill 40 I am no woman, I'll not swoon at it.
Hub. The king, I fear, is poison'd by a monk: I left him almost speechless, and broke out To acquaint you with this evil, that you might The better arm you to the sudden time, 45 Than if you had at leisure known of this.
Faulc. How did he take it? who did taste to him? Hub. A monk, I tell you; a resolved villain, Whose bowels suddenly burst out: the king Yet speaks, and, peradventure, may recover. 50 Faulc. Who didst thou leave to tend his majesty? Hub. Why, know you not? the lords are all come back,
And brought prince Henry in their company; At whose request the king hath pardoned them, 55 And they are all about his majesty.
Faulc. Withhold thine indignation, mighty hea- And tempt us not to bear above our power!-[ven, I'll tell thee, Hubert, half my power this night, Passing these flats, are taken by the tide, 60 These Lincoln washes have devoured them; Myself, well-mounted, hardly have escap'd. Away, before! conduct me to the king:
I doubt, he will be dead, or ere I come. [Ercunt.
1 Right signifies immediate; this sense, however, is now obsolete.
Pemb. His highness yet doth speak; and holds belief,
That, being brought into the open air, It would allay the burning quality Of that fell poison which assaileth him.
Hen. Let him be brought into theorchard here.Doth he still rage?
Pemb. He is more patient
Than when you left him: even now he sung.
Hen. O vanity of sickness! fierce extremes, In their continuance, will not feel themselves. Death, having prey'd upon the outward parts, Leaves them invisible his siege is now, Against the mind, the which he pricks and wounds With many legions of strange fantasies; Which in their throng and press to that last hold, Confound themselves. 'Tis strange, that death should sing.-
I am the cygnet to this pale faint swan, Who chaunts a doleful hymn to his own death; And, from the organ-pipe of frailty, sings His soul and body to their lasting rest.
Sal. Beof good comfort, prince; for you are born To set a form upon that indigest Which he hath left so shapeless and so rude. King John brought in.
K. John. Ay, marry, now my soul hath elbow
My heart hath one poor string to stay it by, Which holds but 'till thy news be uttered; And then all this thou seest, is but a clod, And module of confounded royalty.
Faulc. The Dauphin is preparing hitherward : Where, heaven he knows, how we shall answer him: For, in a night, the best part of my power, As I upon advantage did remove, Were in the washes, all unwarily,
10 Devoured by the unexpected flood. [The kingdies. Sal. You breathe these dead news in as dead
My liege! my lord!-But now a king,-now thus. Hen. Even so must I run on, and even so stop. 15 What surety of the world, what hope, what stay, When this was now a king, and now is clay!
Faulc. Art thou gone so? I do but stay behind, To do the office for thee of revenge; And then my soul shall wait on thee to heaven, 20 As it on earth hath been thy servant still.Now, now, you stars, that move in your right spheres, [faiths; Where be your powers? Shew now your mended And instantly return with me again, 25 To push destruction, and perpetual shame, Out of the weak door of our fainting land: Straight let us seek, or straight we shall be sought; The Dauphin rages at our very heels.
Sal. It seems, you know not then so much as wea 30 The cardinal Pandulph is within at rest, Who half an hour since came from the Dauphin; And brings from him such offers of our peace As we with honour and respect may take, With purpose presently to leave this war. Faulc. He will the rather do it, when he sees Ourselves well sinewed to our defence.
Sal. Nay, it is in a manner done already; For many carriages he hath dispatch'd To the sea-side, and put his cause and quarrel 40 To the disposing of the cardinal:
K. John. Poisoned,—ill fare;-dead, forsook, And none of you will bid the winter come,
To thrust his icy fingers in my maw;
Nor let my kingdom's rivers take their course
With whom yourself, myself, and other lords, If you think meet, this afternoon will post To consummate this business happily
Faulc. Let it be so:-And you, my noble prince, With other princes that may best be spar'd, Shall wait upon your father's funeral.
Hen. At Worcester must his body be interr'd; For so he will'd it.
Faulc. Thither shall it then.
Through my burn'd bosom; nor intreat the north 50 And happily may your sweet self put on
To make his bleak winds kiss my parched lips, And comfort me with cold:--I do not ask you much, I beg cold comfort; and you are so strait, And so ingrateful, you deny me that.
Hen. Oh, that there were some virtue in my tears, 55 That might relieve you!
K. John. The salt of them is hot.- Within me is a hell; and there the poison Is, as a fiend, confin'd to tyrannize On unreprieveable condemned blood.
Enter Faulconbridge.
Faulc. Oh, I am scalded with my violent motion, And spleen of speed to see your majesty.
K.John. Oh,cousin, thou art cometo set mine eye: The tackle of my heart is crack'd and burnt ; And all the shrowds, wherewith my life should sail, Are turned to one thread, one little hair;
The lineal state and glory of the land! To whom, with all submission, on my knee, I do bequeath my faithful services And true subjection everlastingly.
Sal. And the like tender of our love we make, To rest without a spot for evermore. [thanks, Hen. I have a kind soul, that would give you And knows not how to do it, but with tears.
Faulc. Oh, let us pay the time but needful woe, 60 Since it hath been beforehand with our griefs.This England never did, nor never shall, Lye at the proud foot of a conqueror, But when it first did help to wound itself. Now these her princes are come home again, 65 Come the three corners of the world in arms, [rue, And we shall shock them: nought shall make us If England to itself dorest but true. [Exeunt Omnes.
Earl of NORTHUMBERLAND. PERCY, Son to Northumberland. Lord Ross'.
Lord WILLOUGHBY. Lord FITZWATER. Bishop of CARLIsle.
Sir STEPHEN SCROOP.
Lord Marshal; and another Lord. Abbot of WESTMINSTER.
Sir PIERCE of EXTON.
Captain of a Band of Welchmen.
Queen to King Richard.
Dutchess of GLOSTER.
Dutchess of York.
Ladies, attending on the Queen.
Heralds, Two Gardeners, Keeper, Messenger, Groom, and other Attendants. SCENE, dispersedly, in England and Wales.
K. Rich. Tell me moreover, hast thou sounded If he appeal the duke on ancient malice;
Or worthily, as a good subject should, On some known ground of treachery in him? Gaunt. As near as I could sift him on that ar gument,-
5 On some apparent danger seen in him, Aim'd at your highness, no inveterate malice. K. Rich. Then call them to our presence; face
And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear 10 The accuser, and the accused, freely speak:High-stomach'd are they both, and full of ire, rage deaf as the sea, hasty as fire.
Enter Bolingbroke and Mowbray. Boling. Many years of happy days befal 15 My gracious sovereign, my most loving liege!
This history, however, comprises little more than the two last years of this prince. The action of the drama begins with Bolingbroke's appealing the duke of Norfolk, on an accusation of high treason, Aumerle is the French which fell out in the year 1398; and it closes with the murder of king Richard at Pomfret-castle towards the end of the year 1400, or the beginning of the ensuing year. Mr. Steevens says, it ought to be for what we now call Albemarle, which is a town in Normandy. Lord Berkley, as there was no Earl Berkley 'till some ages after. Now spelt Roos, one of the duke of Rutland's titles.
Mowb. Each day still better other's happiness;| Until the heavens, envying earth's good hap, Add an immortal title to your crown!
K. Rich. We thank you both: yet one but
As well appeareth by the cause you come ; Namely, to appeal each other of high treason.- Cousin of Hereford, what dost thou object Against the duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray? Boling.First(heaven be the recordtomy speech!) In the devotion of a subject's love,
Tendering the precious safety of my prince, And free from other misbegotten hate, Comed appellant to this princely presence.— Now, Thomas Mowbray, do I turn to thee, And mark my greeting well; for what I speak, My body shall make good upon this earth, Or my divine soul answer it in heaven. Thou art a traitor, and a miscreant; Too good to be so, and too bad to live; Since, the more fair and crystal is the sky, The uglier seem the clouds that in it fly. Once more, the more to aggravate the note, With a foul traitor's name stuff I thy throat; And wish (so please my sovereign) ere I move, What my tongue speaks, my right-drawn' sword
Or chivalrous design of knightly trial: And, when I mount, alive may I not light, If I be traitor, or unjustly fight!
[charge? K. Rich. What doth our cousin lay to Mowbray's It must be great, than can inherit us3
So much as of a thought of ill in him. [true;
Boling. Look, what I said, my life shall prove it That Mowbray hath receiv'd eight thousand nobles, In name of lendings for your highness' soldiers; 10 The which he hath detain'd for lewd employments, Like a false traitor, and injurious villain. Besides I say, and will in battle prove,- Or here, or elsewhere, to the furthest verge That ever was survey'd by English eye,— 15 That all the treasons, for these eighteen years Complotted and contrived in this land, [spring. Fetch from false Mowbray their first head and Further I say,-and further will maintain Upon his bad life, to make all this good,— 20 That he did plot the duke of Gloster's death; Suggest his soon-believing adversaries; And, consequently, like a traitor coward, [blood; Sluic'd out his innocent soul through streams of Which blood, like sacrificing Abel's, cries, 25 Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth, To me, for justice, and rough chastisement; And, by the glorious worth of my descent, This arm shall do it, or this life be spent.
Mowb. Let not my cold words here accuse my 'Tis not the trial of a woman's war, The bitter clamour of two eager tongues, Can arbitrate this cause betwixt us twain; The blood is hot, that must be cool'd for this. Yet can I not of such tame patience boast, As to be hush'd, and nought at all to say: First, the fair reverence of your highness curbs me, 35 From giving reins and spurs to my free speech; Which else would post, until it had return'd These terms of treason doubled down his throat. Setting aside his high blood's royalty, And let him be no kinsman to my liege,
I do defy him, and I spit at him;
Call him-a slanderous coward, and a villain: Which to maintain, I would allow him odds; And meet him, were I ty'd to run a-foot Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps, Or any other ground' inhabitable Where ever Englishman durst set his foot. Mean time, let this defend my loyalty,- By all my hopes, most falsely doth he lie.
K. Rich. How high apitch his resolution soars!— Thomas of Norfolk, what say'st thou to this?
Mowb. O, let my sovereign turn away his face, And bid his ears a little while be deaf, "Till I have told this slander of his blood, How God, and good men, hate so foul a liar. [ears: K. Rich. Mowbray, impartial are our eyes, and Were he my brother, nay, my kingdom's heir, (As he is but my father's brother's son) Now by my sceptre's awe I make a vow, Such neighbour nearness to our sacred blood 40 Should nothing privilege him, nor partialize The unstooping firmness of my upright soul: He is our subject, Mowbray, so art thou; Free speech, and fearless, I to thee allow. I
Morb. Then, Bolingbroke, as low as to thy heart, 45 Through the false passage of thy throat, thou liest! Three parts of that receipt I had for Calais, Disburs'd I to his highness' soldiers: The other part reserv'dl by consent; For that my sovereign liege was in my debt,
Boling. Pale trembling coward, there I throw 50 Upon remainder of a dear account,
Since last I went to France, to fetch his queen: Now swallow down that lie. For Gloster's
I slew him not; but, to mine own disgrace, 55 Neglected my sworn duty in that case.— For you, my noble lord of Lancaster, The honourable father to my foe,— Once did I lay an ambush for your life,
Disclaiming here the kindred of a king; And lay aside my high blood's royalty, Which fear, not reverence, makes thee to except: If guilty dread hath left thee so much strength, As to take up mine honour's pawn, then stoop; By that, and all the rights of knighthood else, Will I make good against thee, arm to arm, What I have spoke, or thou canst worst devise. Mowb. I take it up; and, by that sword I swear, 60 Which gently lay'd my knighthood on my shoulder, I'll answer thee in any fair degree,
! Meaning his sword drawn in a right or just cause.
A trespass that doth vex my grieved soul: But, ere I last receiv'd the sacrament, did confess it; and exactly begg'd Your grace's pardon, and, I hope, I had it.
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