Aloft the flood; and can give audience Bast. How I have sped among the clergymen, Your highness should deliver up your crown. K. John. Thou idle dreamer, wherefore didst thou so? Peter. Foreknowing that the truth will fall out so. K. John. Hubert, away with him; imprison him; And on that day at noon, whereon, he says, I shall yield up my crown, let him be hanged. For I must use thee.-O, my gentle cousin, [Exit HUBERT, with PETER. Hear'st thou the news abroad, who are arrived? Bast. The French, my lord; men's mouths are full of it. Besides, I met lord Bigot, and lord Salisbury, K. John. Gentle kinsman, go, And thrust thyself into their companies. 1 This man was a hermit, in great repute with the common people. Notwithstanding the event is said to have fallen out as he prophesied, the poor fellow was inhumanly dragged at horses' tails through the streets of Warham, and, together with his son, who appears to have been even more innocent than his father, hanged, afterwards, upon a gibbet.—Holinshed, in anno 1213.-Speed says that Peter the hermit was suborned by the pope's legate, the French king, and the barons, for this purpose. 2 i. e. to safe custody. I have a way to win their loves again; Bast. I will seek them out. K. John. Nay, but make haste; the better foot before. O, let me have no subject enemies, And fly, like thought, from them to me again. Bast. The spirit of the time shall teach me speed. [Exit. K. John. Spoke like a spriteful, noble gentleman.— Go after him; for he, perhaps, shall need Some messenger betwixt me and the peers; And be thou he. Mess. With all my heart, my liege. K. John. My mother dead! Re-enter Hubert. [Exit. Hub. My lord, they say, five moons were scen tonight; Four fixed; and the fifth did whirl about The other four, in wondrous motion. K. John. Five moons? Hub. Old men, and beldams, in the streets Do prophesy upon it dangerously. Young Arthur's death is common in their mouths; And when they talk of him, they shake their heads, And whisper one another in the ear; And he that speaks doth gripe the hearer's wrist; Had falsely thrust upon contráry feet,)' Cuts off his tale, and talks of Arthur's death. K. John. Why seek'st thou to possess me with these fears? Why urgest thou so oft young Arthur's death? K. John. It is the curse of kings to be attended To understand a law; to know the meaning Hub. Here is your hand and seal for what I did. Is to be made, then shall this hand and seal How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds, 1 This passage, which called forth the antiquarian knowledge of so many learned commentators, is now, from the return of the fashion of right and left shoes, become intelligible without a note. 2 Deliberate consideration. 3 To quote is to note or mark. K. John. Hadst thou but shook thy head, or made a pause, When I spake darkly what I purposed; Or turned an eye of doubt upon my face, Deep shame had struck me dumb, made me break off, And those thy fears might have wrought fears in me. And didst in signs again parley with sin; The deed, which both our tongues held vile to name.- This kingdom, this confine of blood and breath, Between my conscience, and my cousin's death. The dreadful motion of a murderous thought, Is yet the cover of a fairer mind' Than to be butcher of an innocent child. K. John. Doth Arthur live? O, haste thee to the peers, Throw this report on their incensed rage, And make them tame to their obedience! 1 The old copy reads "As bid me," &c. Malone made the correction; as, however, frequently is used for that, which. Presented thee more hideous than thou art. SCENE III. The same. Before the Castle. Enter ARTHUR, on the walls. Arth. The wall is high; and yet will I leap down.3— 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 quite. I am afraid; and yet I'll venture it. If I get down, and do not break my limbs, I'll find a thousand shifts to get away: As good to die, and go, as die, and stay. [Leaps down. O me! my uncle's spirit is in these stones.- Enter PEMBROKE, SALISBURY, and BIGOT. [Dies. Sal. Lords, I will meet him at Saint Edmund's Bury; It is our safety, and we must embrace This gentle offer of the perilous time. Pem. Who brought that letter from the cardinal? 1 Expeditious. 2 The old play of The Troublesome Raigne of King John, is divided into two parts; the first of which concludes with the king's despatch of Hubert on this message; the second begins with Enter Arthur, &c., as in the following scene. 3 Shakspeare has followed the old play. In what manner Arthur was deprived of his life is not ascertained. Matthew Paris, relating the event, uses the word evanuit; and it appears to have been conducted with impenetrable secrecy. The French historians say that John, coming in a boat during the night to the castle of Rouen, where the young prince was confined, stabbed him while supplicating for mercy, fastened a stone to the body, and threw it into the Seine, in order to give some color to a report, which he caused to be spread, that the prince, attempting to escape out of a window, fell into the river, and was drowned. |