Now powers from home, and difcontents at home,
Meet in one line; and vaft confsfion waits
(As doth a raven on a fick-fallen beat)
The imminent decay of wrefted pomp 1,
Now happy he, whose cloak and cinchure can

ACT V.

SCENE I.
The Court of England.

Enter King John, Pandulph, and attendants.
K. John. Tand
HUS have I yielded up into your

Wrefled pomp means, greatnefs obtained by violence. 2 i, e. convert. 3 i. e. range abroad. 4. c. the original treaty between the Dauphin and the English lords.

To give us warrant from the hand of heaven;
And on our actions fet the name of right,
With holy breath.

Pand. Hail, noble prince of France!
The next is this,-king John hath reconcil'd
Himfelf to Rome; his fpirit is come in,
That fo ftood out against the holy church,
The great metropolis and fee of Rome :
Therefore thy threat'ning colours now wind up,
And tame the favage fpirit of wild war;
That, like a lion fofter'd up at hand,

It may lie gently at the foot of peace,
And be no further harmful than in fhew. [back;
Lewis. Your grace thall pardon me, I will not
I am too high-born to be property'd,
To be a fecondary at controul,

Or ufeful ferving-man, and inftrument,

To any fovereign state throughout the world.
Your breath first kindled the dead coal of wars
Between this chaftis'd kingdom and myself,
And brought in matter that should feed this fire;
And now 'tis far too huge to be blown out
With that fame weak wind which enkindled it.

Her enemies' ranks, (I must withdraw and weep You taught me how to know the face of right,

1 This compulfion was the neceffity of a reformation in the fate; which, according to Sulfbury's opinion (who, in his peech preceding, calls it an enjurced caufe), could only be procured by foreign

arms and the brave reffed was the love of his country,

Pand. The Dauphin is too wilful-opposite,
And will not temporize with my entreaties;
He flatly fays, he'll not lay down his arms.

Faule. By all the blood that ever fury breath'd,
The youth fays well:-Now hear our English king;
For thus his royalty doth speak in me.
He is prepar'd; and reafon too, he should:
This apifh and unmannerly approach,

This harnets'd mafque, and unadvised revel,
This unhair'd fawcinefs, and boyith troops,
The king doth file at; and is well prepar'd
To whip this dwarfish war, these pigmy arms,
From out the circle of his territories.

That hand, which had the ftrength, even at your
door,

To cudgel you, and make you take the hatch2;
To dive, like buckets, in concealed wells;
To crouch in litter of your ftable planks ;
To lie, like pawns, lock'd up in chefts and trunks;
To hug with fwine; to feek fweet safety out
In vaults and prifons; and to thrill, and shake,
Even at the crying of your nation's crow,
Thinking this voice an armed Englishman ;—
Shall that victorious hand be feebled here,
That in your chambers gave you chastisement ?
No: Know, the gallant monarch is in arms;
And, like an eagle o'er his aiery 3 towers,
To foufe annoyance that comes near his neft.-
And you degenerate, you ingrate revolts,
You bloody Neroes, ripping up the womb
Of your dear mother England, blufh for fhame :
For your own ladjes, and pale-vitag'd maids,
Like Amazons, come tripping after drums ;
Their thimbles into armed gantlets change,
Their neelds to lances, and their gentle hearts
To fierce and bloody inclination.

Lewis. There end thy brave, and turn thy face
in peace;

We grant, thou canít out-fcold us: fare thee well;
We hold our time too precious to be spent

With fuch a brabler.

Pand. Give me leave to speak.

Faulc. No, I will speak.

Lewis. We will attend to neither:

Strike up the drums; and let the tongue of war
Plead for our intereft, and our being here.
Faule. Indeed, your drums, being beaten, will
cry out;

And fo fhall you, being beaten : Do but start
An echo with the clamour of thy drum,
And even at hand a drum is ready brac'd,
That shall reverberate all as loud as thine;
Sound but another, and another thall,
As loud as thine, rattle the welkin's ear,
And mock the deep-mouth'd thunder: for at hand
(Not trusting to thus halting legate here,
Whom he hath us'd rather for sport than need)
Is warlike John; and in his forehead fits

A bare-ribb'd death, whofe office is this day
To feaft upon whole thoufands of the French.

Alarums. Enter King John and Hubert.

K. John. How goes the day with us? oh, tell
me, Hubert.

Hub. Badly, I fear: How fares your majesty?
K. John. This fever,that hath troubled me fo long,
Lies heavy on me; Oh, my heart is fick !
Enter a Mellonger.

Mef. My lord, your valiant kinfman, Faulcon-
bridge,

Defires your majesty to leave the field;
And fend him word by me, which way you go.
K. Jobn. Tell him, toward Swinftead, to the
abbey there.

Mef. Be of good comfort; for the great fupply,
That was expected by the Dauphin here,
Are wreck'd three nights ago on Goodwin-fands.
This news was brought to Richard but even now:
The French fight coldly, and retire themfelves.

K. John. Ahme! this tyrant fever burns me up,
And will not let me welcome this good news.
Set on toward Swinftead: to my litter ftraight;
Weaknefs poffeffeth me, and I am faint. [Exeunt.
SCENE

The French Camp.

IV.

Enter Salisbury, Pembroke, and Bigot.

Sal. I did not think the king foftor'd with friends.
Pemb. Up once again; put fpirit in the French;
If they mifcarry, we mifcarry too.

Sal. That mi begotten devil, Faulconbridge,
In fpight of fpight, alone upholds the day. [field.
Pemb. They fay, king John,fore sick, hath left the
Enter Melun wounded, and led by foldiers.
Melun. Lead me to the revolts of England here.
Sal. When we were happy, we had other names.
Pb. It is the count Melun.

Sal. Wounded to death.

M.. Fly, noble English, you are bought and fold;
Unthread the rude eye of rebellion,
And welcome home again difcarded faith.
Seek out king John, and fall before his feet;
For, if the French be lords of this load day,
He means to recompenfe the pains you take,
By cutting off your heads: Thus hath he fworn,
And I with him, and many more with me,
Upon the altar at Saint Edmund's-bury;
Even on that altar where we fwore to you
Dear amity and everlafting love.

Sal. May this be poffible! may this be true!
Melun. Have I not hideous death within my
Retaining but a quantity of life;
[view,

1 i. c. unbearded fawcinefs, alluding to the Dauphin's youth. 2 To take the hatch, is to leap the batch. 3 An aley is the uit of an eagle. 4 Meaning, Faulconbridge. 5 Alluding to the images made by witches.

Why

Why fhould I then be false; fince it is true
That I muft die here, and live hence by truth?
I fay again, if Lewis do win the day,

He is forfworn, if e'er those eyes of yours
Behold another day break in the east:

But even this night,-whofe black contagious breath
Already fmokes about the burning crest
Of the old, feeble, and day-wearied fun,-
Even this ill night, your breathing fhall expire;
Paying the fine of rated treachery,

Even with a treacherous fine of all your lives,
If Lewis by your affittance win the day.
Commend me to one Hubert, with your king;
The love of him,--and this refpect befides,
For that my grandfire was an Englishman,-
Awakes my confcience to confefs all this.
In licu whereof, I pray you, bear me hence
From forth the noife and rumour of the field;
Where I may think the remnant of my thoughts
peace, and
part this body and my foul
With contemplation and devout defires.

In

Sal. We do believe thee,-And befhrew my foul
But I do love the favour and the form
Of this moft fair occafion, by the which
We will untread the fteps of damned flight;
And, like a bated and retired flood,
Leaving our ranknefs and irregular courfe,
Stoop low within those bounds we have o'er-look'd,
And calmly run on in obedience,

Even to our ocean, to our great king John
My arm fhall give thee help to bear thee hence';
For I do fee the cruel pangs of death [right;
Right in thine eye.-Away, my friends! New
And happy newness, that intends old right.
[Exeunt, leading off Melun.

SCENE

V.

A different part of the French Camp.

Enter Levis and bis train.

Lewis. The fun of heaven, methought, was loth

to fet;

But ftaid, and made the western welkin blush,
When the English meafur'd backward their own
ground

In faint retire: Oh, bravely came we off,
When with a volley of our needlefs fhot,
After fuch bloody toil, we bid good night;
And wound our tatter'd colours clearly up,
Laft in the field, and almoft lords of it!-
Enter a Menger.

Mef. Where is my prince, the Dauphin ?
Lewis. Here :-What news?
[lords,
Mef. The Count Melun is flain; the English
By his perfuafion, are again fallen off:
And your fupplies, which you have wifh'd fo long,
Are caft away, and funk, on Goodwin fands.
Lewis. Ah foul fhrewd news!-Befhrew thy
very heart!

I did not think to be fo fad to-night,

As this hath made me.-Who was he, that faid,
King John did fly, an hour or two before
The ftumbling night did part our weary powers?

An open place in the neighbourhood of Swinstead Abbey,
Enter Faulconbridge, and Hubert, severally.
Hub. Who's there? fpeak, ho! speak quickly,
or I fhoot.

Faule. A friend :---What art thou?
Hub. Of the part of England.

Faule. Whither doft thou go?

Hub. What's that to thee? Why may I not de-
mand

Of thine affairs, as well as thou of mine?
Faule. Hubert, I think,

Hub. Thou haft a perfect thought;

I will, upon all hazards, well believe
Thou art my friend, that know'st my tongue fo well:
Who art thou?

Faule. Who thou wilt: an if thou please,
Thou may'ft befriend me fo much, as to think
I come one way of the Plantagenets.

Hub. Unkind remembrance! thou, and eyelefs
night,

Have done me fhame:-Brave foldier, pardon me,
Should fcape the true acquaintance of mine ear.
That any accent, breaking from thy tongue,
Faule. Come, come; fans compliment, what
news abroad?
Hub. Why, here walk I, in the black brow of
To find you out.

[night,

Faulc. Brief, then; and what's the news? Hub. O my fweet fir, news fitted to the night, Black, fearful, comfortless, and horrible.

Faulc. Shew me the very wound of this ill news¡

I am no woman, I'll not fwoon at it.

Hub. The king, I fear, is poifon'd by a monk a
I left him almoft fpeechlefs, and broke out
To acquaint you with this evil; that you might
The better arm you to the fudden time,
Than if you had at leifure known of this.
Faule. How did he take it? who did tafte to him?
Hub. A monk, I tell you; a refolved villain,
Whofe bowels fuddenly burft out: the king
Yet fpeaks, and, peradventure, may recover.
Faule. Who didft thou leave to tend his majesty?
Hub. Why, know you not? the lords are all
come back,

And brought prince Henry in their company;
At whofe request the king hath pardon'd them,
And they are all about his majesty.

Faulc.Withhold thine indignation,mighty heaven
And tempt us not to bear above our power!—
I'll tell thee, Hubert, half my power this night,
Paffing thefe flats, are taken by the tide,
Thefe Lincoln washes have devoured them;
Myfelf, well-mounted, hardly have efcap'd.
Away, before! conduct me to the king;
I doubt, he will be dead, or ere I come. [Excunt,

I Right fignifics immediate: this fenfe, however, is now obsoletę,

SCENE

Pemb. His highnefs yet doth fpeak; and holds belief,

That, being brought into the open air,

It would allay the burning quality

Of that fell poifon which affaileth him.

ear.

My liege my lord!-But now a king,—now thus.
Hen. Even fo must I run on, and even so stop.
What furety of the world, what hope, what stay,

Hen. Let him be brought into the orchard here. When this was now a king, and now is clay !

Doth he still rage?

Pemb. He is more patient

Than when you left him: even now he fung.
Hen. O vanity of fickness! fierce extremes,
In their continuance, will not feel themfelves.
Death, having prey'd upon the outward parts,
Leaves them: invifible his fiege is now,
Against the mind, the which he pricks and wounds
With many legions of ftrange fantafies;
Which, in their throng and prefs to that laft hold,
Confound themselves. 'Tis ftrange, that death
fhould fing.-

I am the cygnet to this pale faint fwan,
Who chants a doleful hymn to his own death;
And, from the organ-pipe of frailty, fings
His foul and body to their lafting rett.

Faule. Art thou gone fo? I do but stay behind,
To do the office for thee of revenge;

And then my foul fhall wait on thee to heaven,
As it on earth hath been thy fervant ftill.-
Now, now, you stars, that move in your right
fpheres,
[faiths:
Where be your powers? Shew now your mended
And inftantly return with me again,
To push destruction, and perpetual shame,
Out of the weak door of our fainting land:
Straight let us feek, or ftraight we fhall be fought;
The Dauphin rages at our very heels.

Sal. It feems, you know not then fo much as we:
The cardinal Pandulph is within at reft,
Who half an hour fince came from the Dauphin;
And brings from him fuch offers of our peace

Sal. Be of good comfort, prince; for you are born As we with honour and respect may take,
To let a form upon that indigeft

Which he hath left fo fhapeiefs and fo rude.

King John brought in.

K. John. Ay marry, now my foul hath elbow

room;

It would not out at windows, nor at doors.
There is to hot a fummer in my bofom,
That all my bowels crumble up to dust :
I am a fcribbled form, drawn with a pen
Upon a parchment; and against this fire
Do I fhrink up.

Hen. How fares your majefty? [caft off:
K. John. Poifon'd,-ill fare;-dead, forfook,
And none of you will bid the winter come,
To thruft his icy fingers in my maw ;
Nor let my kingdom's rivers take their courfe
Through my burn'd bofom ; nor intreat the north
To make his bleak winds kifs my parched lips,
And comfort me with cold:-I do not ask you much,
I beg cold comfort; and you are so ftrait,
And fo ingrateful, you deny me that.

Hen. Oh, that there were fome virtue in my tears,
That might relieve you!

K. John. The fait of them is hot.—
Within me is a hell; and there the poifon
Is, as a fiend, confin'd to tyrannize
On unreprievable condemned blood.

Enter Faulconbridge.

Faule. Oh, I am fcalded with my violent motion,
And fpleen of speed to fee your majesty.

K. John. Oh, coufin, thou art come to fet mine eye:
The tackle of my heart is crack'd and burnt ;
And all the fhrowds, wherewith my life should fail,
Are turned to one thread, one little hair;

With purpose presently to leave this war.

Faule. He will the rather do it, when he fees
Ourfelves well finewed to our defence.

Sal. Nay, it is in a manner done already ;
For many carriages he hath difpatch'd
To the fea-fide, and put his caufe and quarrel
To the difpofing of the cardinal:

With whom yourself, myself, and other lords,
If you think meet, this afternoon will poft
To confummate this bufinefs happily.

Faulc. Let it be fo :-And you, my noble prince,
With other princes that may best be spar'd,
Shall wait upon your father's funeral.

Hen. At Worcester muft his body be interr'd;
For fo he will'd it.

Faulc. Thither fhall it then.
And happily may your sweet self put on
The lineal ftate and glory of the land!
To whom, with all fubmiffion, on my knee,
I do bequeath my faithful fervices
And true fubjection everlaftingly.

Sal. And the like tender of our love we make,
To reft without a fpot for evermore. [thanks,

Hen. I have a kind foul, that would give you
And knows not how to do it, but with tears.

Faulc. Oh, let us pay the time but needful woe,
Since it hath been beforehand with our griefs.--
This England never did, nor never shall,
Lye at the proud foot of a conqueror,
But when it firft did help to wound itself.
Now thefe her princes are come home again,
Come the three corners of the world in arms, [rue,
And we fhall fhock them: Nought shall make us
If England to itfelf do rest but true. [Exeunt omnes,