Hub. Silence; no more: Go closely* in with me; Much danger do I undergo for thee. [Exeunt. 1. SCENE II. The same. A room of state in the palace. Enter King John, crowned; Pembroke, Salisbury, and other lords. The king takes his state. K. John. Here once again we sit, once again crown'd, And look'd upon, I hope, with cheerful eyes. Pem. This once again, but that your highness pleas'd, Was once superfluous: you were crown'd before, Sal. Therefore, to be possess'd with double pomp, To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, Pem. But that your royal pleasure must be done, This act is as an ancient tale new told; And, in the last repeating, troublesome, Being urged at a time unseasonable. Sal. In this, the antique and well-noted face Of plain old form is much disfigured: * Secretly. + Lace. Decorate. And, like a shifted wind unto a sail, It makes the course of thoughts to fetch about; Makes sound opinion sick, and truth suspected, Pem. When workmen strive to do better than well, Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse; Discredit more in hiding of the fault, Than did the fault before it was so patch'd.. Sal. To this effect, before you were new-crown'd, We breath'd our counsel: but it pleas'd your high ness To overbear it; and we are all well pleas'd; Since all and every part of what we would, K. John. Some reasons of this double coronation ⚫ Desire of excelling. Releasement. + Publish. With barbarous ignorance, and deny his youth That the time's enemies may not have this Enter Hubert. To your direction.-Hubert, what news with you? Pem. This is the man should do the bloody deed; He show'd his warrant to a friend of mine: The image of a wicked heinous fault Lives in his eye; that close aspéct of his What we so fear'd he had a charge to do. Sul. The colour of the king doth come and go, Pem. And, when it breaks, I fear, will issue thence The foul corruption of a sweet child's death. K. John. We cannot hold mortality's strong Good lords, although my will to give is living, Sal. Indeed, we fear'd, his sickness was past cure. K. John. Why do you bend such solemn brows Think you, I bear the shears of destiny? Sal. It is apparent foul play; and 'tis shame, Pem. Stay yet, lord Salisbury; I'll go with thee, And find the inheritance of this poor child, His little kingdom of a forced grave. That blood, which ow'd the breath of all this isle, Three foot of it doth hold; Bad world the while! This must not be thus borne: this will break out To all our sorrows, and ere long, I doubt. [Exeunt Lords. K. John. They burn in indignation; I repent; There is no sure foundation set on blood; No certain life achiev'd by others' death. Enter a Messenger. A fearful eye thou hast; Where is that blood, So foul a sky clears not without a storm: Pour down thy weather:-How goes all in France ? Mess. From France to England.-Never such a power t For any foreign preparation, Was levied in the body of a land! The copy of your speed is learn'd by them; K. John. O, where hath our intelligence been drunk? Where hath it slept? Where is my mother's care; That such an army could be drawn in France, And she not hear of it? Mess. Three days before: but this from rumour's tongue I idly heard; if true, or false, I know not. K.John. Withhold thy speed, dreadful occasion! O, make a league with me, till I have pleas'd My discontented peers!-What! mother dead? How wildly then walks my estate in France !Under whose conduct came those powers of France, That thou for truth giv'st out, are landed here? Mess. Under the Dauphin. Enter the Bastard and Peter of Pomfret. K. John. Thou hast made me giddy With these ill tidings.-Now, what says the world. Bast. But, if you be afeard to hear the worst, Bast. How I have sped among the clergymen, The sums I have collected shall express. But, as I travelled hither through the land, I find the people strangely fantasied; Possess'd 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 bis heels; To whom he sung, in rude harsh-sounding rhymes, That, ere the next Ascension-day at noon, 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. Stunned, confounded. |