Re-enter BIGOT and Attendants, who bring in KING JOHN in a Chair. K. John. Ay, marry, now my soul hath elbow-room ; It would not out at windows, nor at doors. There is so hot a summer in my bosom, That all my bowels crumble up to dust: I am a scribbled form, drawn with a pen Upon a parchment; and against this fire Do I shrink up. P. Hen. How fares your majesty? K. John. Poison'd, -ill fare;-dead, forsook, cast off'; And none of you will bid the winter come, P. Hen. O, that there were some virtue in my tears, That might relieve you. K. John. The salt in them is hot. Within me is a hell; and there the poison Is, as a fiend, confin'd to tyrannize On unreprievable condemned blood. Enter the BASTARD. Bast. O, I am scalded with my violent motion, And spleen of speed to see your majesty. K. John. O cousin, thou art come to set mine eye: The tackle of my heart is crack'd and burn'd; And all the shrouds, wherewith my life should sail, Are turned to one thread, one little hair: My heart hath one poor string to stay it by, Which holds but till thy news be uttered; And then all this thou see'st, is but a clod, And module of confounded royalty. Bast. 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, [The King dies. Sal. You breathe these dead news in as dead an ear. My liege! my lord!-But now a king,-now thus. P. Hen. Even so must I run on, and even so stop. What surety of the world, what hope, what stay, When this was now a king, and now is clay! Bast. 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, As it on earth hath been thy servant still. Now, now, you stars, that move in your right spheres, Where be your powers? Show now your mended faiths; And instantly return with me again, 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 we: The cardidal 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. Bast. He will the rather do it, when he sees Sal. Nay, it is in a manner done already; With whom yourself, myself, and other lords, Bast. Let it be so:-And you, my noble prince, With other princes that may best be spar'd, P. Hen. At Worcester must his body be interr'd; For so he will'd it. Bast. Thither shall it then. And happily may your sweet self on 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. P. Hen. I have a kind soul, that would give you thanks, And knows not how to do it, but with tears. Bast. O, let us pay the time but needful woe, Since it hath been beforehand with our griefs.This England never did (nor never shall) Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror, But when it first did help to wound itself. Now these her princes are come home again, Come the three corners of the world in arms, And we shall shock them: Nought shall make us rue, If England to itself do rest but true. [Exeunt. The tragedy of King John, though not written with the utmost power of Shakspeare, is varied with a very pleasing interchange of incidents and characters. The lady's grief is very affecting; and the character of the Bastard contains that mixture of greatness and levity, which this author delighted to exhibit. JOHNSON. C. Whittingham, Printer, Chiswick. DRAMATIS PERSONE. King Richard II. Uncles to the Edmund of Langley, Duke of York; to John of Gaunt; afterwards King Henry IV. Duke of Aumerle, Son to the Duke of York. Duke of Surry. Earl of Salisbury. Earl Berkley. Bushy, Bagot, Green, Creatures to King Richard. Earl of Northumberland: Henry Percy, his Son. Lord Ross. Lord Willoughby. Lord Fitzwater. Bishop of Carlisle. Abbot of Westminster. Lord Marshal; and another Lord. Sir Pierce of Exton. Sir Stephen Scroop. Queen to King Richard. Lady attending on the Queen. Lords, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, two Gardeners, SCENE, dispersedly in England and Woles. 1 |