That you have bid us afk his liberty;
Which for our good we do no further ask,
Than whereupon our weal, on you depending..
Counts it your weal that he have liberty.

Enter Hubert.

K. John. Let it be fo; I do commit his youth. To your direction. Hubert, what news with you? Pemb. This is the man, fhould do the bloody deed He fhew'd his warrant to a friend of mine. The image of a wicked heinous fault Lives in his eye; that close afpect of his Does fhew the mood of a much-troubled breast. And I do fearfully believe 'tis done, What we fo fear'd he had a charge to do. Sal. The colour of the King doth come and Between his purpose and his confcience,

go,

Like heralds 'twixt two dreadful battles fent: (22)
His paffion is fo ripe, it needs must break.

Pemb. And when it breaks, I fear, will iffue thence The foul corruption of a fweet child's death.

K. John We cannot hold mortality's ftrong hand. Good Lords, although my will to give is, living, The fuit which you demand is gone, and dead. He tells us, Arthur is deceased to-night.

Sal. Indeed, we fear'd, his fickness was paft cure. Pemb. Indeed, we heard how near his death he was, Before the child himself felt he was fick

This must be anfwer'd, either here, or hence.

K.John. Why do you bend fuch folemn brows on me? Think you, I bear the fhears of destiny?

Have I commandment on the pulfe of life?
Sal. It is apparent foul-play, and 'tis fhame
That greatnefs fhould fo grofly offer it:
So thrive it in your game, and so farewel!

(22) Like heralds, 'twixt two dreadful battles fet ;] But heralds. are not planted, I prefume, in the midst betwixt two lines of battle; tho' they, and trumpets, are often fent over from party to party, to propofe terms, demand a parley, c. I have therefore ventur'd to Pemba

read, fent.

Pemb. Stay yet, Lord Salisbury, I'll go with thee, And find th' inheritance of this poor child, His little kingdom of a forced grave.

That blood which own'd the breadth of all this ifle,
Three foot of it doth hold; bad world the while!
This must not be thus borne; this will break out
To all our forrows, and ere long, I doubt. [Exeunt.
Enter a Messenger.

K. John. They burn in indignation; I repent.
There is no fure foundation fet on blood;
No certain life atchiev'd by others death-

[Afide.

A fearfuleye thou haft; where is that blood, [To the Meffen.. That I have feen inhabit in thofe cheeks?

So foul a fky clears not without a storm;

Pour down thy weather: how goes all in France? Mef. From France to England never such a power, For any foreign preparation,

Was levy'd in the body of a land..

The copy of your speed is learn'd by them:-
For when you fhould be told, they do prepare,
The tidings come, that they are all arriv'd.

K.John. Oh, where hath our intelligence been drunk?
Where hath it flept? where is my mother's care?
That fuch an army should be drawn in France,
And the not hear of it?

Me, My Liege, her ear.

Is ftopt, with duft: the first of April, dy'd
Your noble mother; and as I hear, my Lord,
The Lady Conftance in a frenzy dy'd

Three days before: but this from rumour's tongue
idly heard; if true or falfe, I know not.

K. John. With-hold thy fpeed, dreadful occafion! O make a league with me, till I have pleas'd My difcontented peers. What! mother dead? How wildly then walks my eftate in France? Under whofe conduct came thofe powers of France, That, thou for truth giv'ft out, are landed here? Mef. Under the Dauphin..

Enter

Enter Faulconbridge, and Peter of Pomfret.
K. John. Thou haft made me giddy
With thefe ill tidings. Now, what fays the world
To your proceedings? Do not feek to stuff
My head with more ill news, for it is full.

Faulc. But if you be afraid to hear the worst,
Then let the worst unheard fall on your head.

K. John. Bear with me, coufin; for I was amaz'd
Under the tide; but now I breathe again
Aloft the flood, and can give audience
To any tongue, fpeak it of what it will.
Faule. How I have fped among the clergymen,
The fums I have collected fhall exprefs.
But as I travell'd hither through the land,
1 find the people ftrangely fantafied;
Poffeft with rumours, full of idle dreams ;
Not knowing what they fear, but full of fear.
And here's a prophet that I brought with me
From forth the streets of Pomfret, whom I found
With many hundreds treading on his heels:
To whom he fung in rude harth-founding rhimes,
That, ere the next Afcenfion-day at noon,
Your Highness fhould deliver up your crown.

K John. Thou idle dreamer, wherefore didst thou fo
Peter. Fore-knowing, that the truth will fall out fo.
K. John. Hubert, away with him, imprison him,
And on that day at noon, whereon he lays
I fhall yield up my crown, let him be hang'd.
Deliver him to fafety, and return,

For I must use thee. O my gentle cousin,

t

[Exit Hubert, with Peter.

Hear'ft thou the news abroad, who are arriv'd?

Faulc.The French, my Lord; mens mouths are full of it: Befides, I met Lord Bigo and Lord Saipury, With eyes as red as new-enkindled fire, And others more, going to feek the grave Of Arthur, who, they fay, is kill'd to-night On your fuggeftion

K. John.

K. John. Gentle kinfman, go

And thrust thyself into their company :
I have a way to win their loves again :
Bring them before me.

Faule. I will feek them out.

K.John. Nay, but make hafte; the better foot before O, let me have no fubje&t enemies, When adverfe foreigners affright my towns. With dreadful pomp of hout invafion,

Be Mercury, fet feathers to thy heels;

And fly, like thought, from them to me again..
Faule. The fpirit of the time fhall teach me speed. [Exit.
K. John. Spoke like a fprightful noble gentleman.
Go after him; for he, perhaps, fhall need

Some meffenger betwixt me and the peers;
And be thou he.

Mef. With all my heart, my Liege.

K. John, My mother dead!

Enter Hubert.

[Exit

Hub. My Lord, they fay, five moons were feen to-night: Four fixed, and the fifth did whirl about

The other four, in wond'rous motion..

K. John. Five moons?

Hub. Old men and beldams, in the ftreets,

Do prophefy upon it dangerously :

Young Arthur's death is common in their mouths;
And, when they talk of him, they shake their heads,
And whifper one another in the ear.

And he, that fpeaks, doth gripe the hearer's wrift,
Whilft he, that hears, makes fearful action
With wrinkled brows, with nods, with rolling eyes.
I faw a fmith ftand with his hammer, thus,
The whift his iron did on the anvil cool,
With open mouth fwallowing a taylor's news;
Who with his fhears and measure in his hand,
Standing on flippers, which his nimble hafte
Had falfely thrust upon contrary feet,
Told of a many thousand warlike French,

That

That were embattled and rank'd in Kent.
Another lean, unwash'd artificer

Cuts off his tale, and talks of Arthur's death.

K.John. Why feek'st thou to poffefs me with these fears?
Why urgeft thou fo oft young Arthur's death?
Thy hand hath murder'd him: I had a caufe
To with him dead, but thou had'ft none to kill him.
Hub. Had none, my Lord why, did you not provoke me?
K. John. It is the curfe of Kings, to be attended
By flaves that take their humours for a warrant,
To break into the bloody house of life:
And, on the winking of authority,

To understand a law, to know the meaning
Of dang'rous Majefty; when, perchance, it frowns
More upon humour, than advis'd refpect.

Hub. Here is your hand and seal, for what I did. K.7o.Oh when the laft account 'twixt heav'n and earth Is to be made, then fhall this hand and feal

Witness against us to damnation.

How oft the fight of means, to do ill deeds,
Makes deeds ill done? for had it not thou been by,
A fellow by the hand of nature mark'd,
Quoted, and fign'd to do a deed of fhame,
This murder had not come into my mind.
But taking note of thy abhorr'd afpect,
Finding thee fit for bloody villainy,
Apt, liable to be employ'd in danger,
I faintly broke with thee of Arthur's death.
And thou, to be endeared to a King,
Mad'it it no confcience to destroy a Prince.
Hub. My Lord-

K.Joh. Hadft thou but fhook thy head, or made a paufe, When I fpake darkly what I purposed:

Or turn'd an eye of doubt upon my face,

Or bid me tell my tale in exprefs words;

Deep fhame had ftruck me dumb, made me break off,
And thofe thy fears might have wrought fears in me.
But thou didst understand me by my figns,
And didft in figns again parley with fin;

Year