Have I not here the best cards for the game, [Trumpet sounds. What lusty trumpet thus doth summon us? Enter the Bastard, attended. Bast. According to the fair play of the world, I come to learn how you have dealt for him; Pand. The Dauphin is too wilful-opposite, From thence along the wanton rolling glade We still say to coast and to flank; and to bank has no less pro- "And that his friends by deputation could not So soon be drawn.' So in King 14 Face down, bear down by a show of magnanimity. So before: --outface the brow Of bragging horror.' This apish and unmannerly approach, This harness'd masque, and unadvised revel, That hand, which had the strength, even at your door, To cudgel you, and make you take the hatch16; Lew. There end thy brave20, and turn thy face in peace: We grant, thou canst outscold us: fare thee well; 15 The old copies read unheard: the emendation is Theobald's. It should be remarked that hair was often spelt hear. 16 To take, for to leap. Hunters still say to take a hedge or gate, meaning to leap over them. Baret has to take horse, to leap on horseback' it i. e. the crowing of a cock; Gallus being both a cock and a Frenchman. 18 Nest. 19 Needles. 20 Boast. Vol. IV. 17* We hold our time too precious to be spent Pand. Give me leave to speak. Bast. No, I will speak. And so shall you, being beaten: Do but start As loud as thine, rattle the welkin's ear, A bare-ribb'd death, whose office is this day doubt. SCENE III. The same. A Field of Battle. Alarums. Enter KING JOHN and HUBERT. Hub. Badly, I fear: How fares your majesty? long, Lies heavy on me: O, my heart is sick! Enter a Messenger. Mess. My lord, your valiant kinsman, Faulconbridge, Desires your majesty to leave the field; And send him word by me, which way you go. K. John. Tell him, toward Swinstead, to the abbey there. Mess. Be of good comfort; for the great supply1, That was expected by the Dauphin here, Are wreck'd three nights ago on Goodwin Sands. This news was brought to Richard2 but even now: The French fight coldly, and retire themselves. K. John. Ah me! this tyrant fever burns me up, And will not let me welcome this good news.—— Set on toward Swinstead: to my litter straight; Weakness possesseth me, and I am faint. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. The same. Another Part of the same. Enter SALISBURy, Pembroke, BIGOT, and Others. Sal. I did not think the king so stor❜d with friends. Pem. Up once again; put spirit in the French; If they miscarry, we miscarry too. Sal. That misbegotten devil, Faulconbridge, In spite of spite, alone upholds the day. Pem. They say, King John, sore sick, hath left the field. Enter MELUN wounded, and led by Soldiers. Mel. Lead me to the revolts of England here. Sal. When we were happy, we had other names. Pem. It is the Count Melun. Sal. Wounded to death. Mel. Fly, noble English, you are bought and sold1; Unthread the rude eye of rebellion, And welcome home again discarded faith. Seek out King John, and fall before his feet: For, if the French be lords of this loud day, 1 Supply is here used as a noun of multitude, as it is again in Scene v. p. 398 2 The king had not long since called him by his original name of Philip, but the messenger could not take the same liberty. 1 A proverbial expression intimating treachery. See King Henry VI. Part 1. Act iv. Sc. 4. He2 means to recompense the pains you take, Sal. May this be possible? may this be true? Mel. Have I not hideous death within my view, Retaining but a quantity of life; Which bleeds away, even as a form of wax He is forsworn, if e'er those eyes of yours But even this night,-whose black contagious breath Even with a treacherous fine of all your lives, 2 The Frenchman, i. e. Lewis means, &c. i. e. dissolveth. So in Hamlet: Thaw and resolve itself into a dew.' Again in Baret's Alvearie, 1575, T. 120, 'to thaw or resolve that which is frosen.' |