To the yet unbegotten sin of times;
And prove a deadly bloodshed but a jest,
Exampled by this heinous spectacle.

Bast. It is a damned and a bloody work;
The graceless action of a heavy hand,
If that it be the work of any hand.

Sal. If that it be the work of any hand!
We had a kind of light what would ensue :
It is the shameful work of Hubert's hand;
The practice and the purpose of the king:
From whose obedience I forbid my soul,
Kneeling before this ruin of sweet life,
And breathing to his breathless excellence
The incense of a vow, a holy vow,
Never to taste the pleasures of the world,
Never to be infected with delight,

Nor conversant with ease and idleness,
Till I have set a glory to this hand,

By giving it the worship of revenge.

Pem. Our souls religiously confirm thy
Big. S words.

Enter HUBERT.

Hub. Lords, I am hot with haste in seeking

you:

Arthur doth live; the king hath sent for you.
Sal. O, he is bold and blushes not at death.
Avaunt, thou hateful villain, get thee gone!
Hub. I am no villain.

Sal.

Must I rob the law?

[Drawing his sword.

Bast. Your sword is bright, sir; put it up again.
Sal. Not till I sheathe it in a murderer's skin.
Hub. Stand back, Lord Salisbury, stand back,

I say;

63. practice, plot.

60

70

80

By heaven, I think my sword's as sharp as yours:
I would not have you, lord, forget yourself,
Nor tempt the danger of my true defence;
Lest I, by marking of your rage, forget
Your worth, your greatness and nobility.

Big. Out, dunghill! darest thou brave a nobleman?

Hub. Not for my life: but yet I dare defend My innocent life against an emperor.

Sal. Thou art a murderer.

Do not prove me so;

90

Hub.
Yet I am none: whose tongue soe'er speaks false,
Not truly speaks; who speaks not truly, lies.

Pem. Cut him to pieces.

Bast.

Keep the peace, I say.

Sal. Stand by, or I shall gall you, Faulconbridge.

Bast. Thou wert better gall the devil, Salisbury:

If thou but frown on me, or stir thy foot,

Or teach thy hasty spleen to do me shame,
I'll strike thee dead. Put up thy sword betime;
Or I'll so maul you and your toasting-iron,
That you shall think the devil is come from hell.
Big. What wilt thou do, renowned Faulcon-
bridge?

Second a villain and a murderer?

Hub. Lord Bigot, I am none.

Big.

Who kill'd this prince?

Hub. 'Tis not an hour since I left him well:

I honour'd him, I loved him, and will weep

My date of life out for his sweet life's loss.

Sal. Trust not those cunning waters of his eyes, For villany is not without such rheum;

84. my true defence, my defence of my uprightness.

94. gall, hurt.

97. spleen, passion.

100

And he, long traded in it, makes it seem
Like rivers of remorse and innocency.

Away with me, all you whose souls abhor
The uncleanly savours of a slaughter-house;
For I am stifled with this smell of sin.

Big. Away toward Bury, to the Dauphin there! Pem. There tell the king he may inquire us [Exeunt Lords.

out.

Bast. Here's a good world! Knew you of this

fair work?

Beyond the infinite and boundless reach

Of mercy, if thou didst this deed of death,
Art thou damn'd, Hubert.

Hub.

Do but hear me, sir.

Bast. Ha! I'll tell thee what;

Thou 'rt damn'd as black-nay, nothing is so

black;

Thou art more deep damn'd than Prince Lucifer :
There is not yet so ugly a fiend of hell

As thou shalt be, if thou didst kill this child.

Hub. Upon my soul

Bast.

If thou didst but consent

To this most cruel act, do but despair;

And if thou want'st a cord, the smallest thread
That ever spider twisted from her womb

110

120

Will serve to strangle thee; a rush will be a beam
To hang thee on; or wouldst thou drown thyself, 130
Put but a little water in a spoon,
And it shall be as all the ocean,
Enough to stifle such a villain up.
I do suspect thee very grievously.

Hub. If I in act, consent, or sin of thought,
Be guilty of the stealing that sweet breath.
Which was embounded in this beauteous clay,

109. traded, practised. 132. ocean (trisyllabic).

133. stifle up. 'Up' adds the sense of completion to the action.

Let hell want pains enough to torture me.

I left him well.

Bast.

Go, bear him in thine arms.
I am amazed, methinks, and lose my way
Among the thorns and dangers of this world.
How easy dost thou take all England up!
From forth this morsel of dead royalty,
The life, the right and truth of all this realm
Is fled to heaven; and England now is left
To tug and scamble and to part by the teeth
The unowed interest of proud-swelling state.
Now for the bare-pick'd bone of majesty
Doth dogged war bristle his angry crest
And snarleth in the gentle eyes of peace:
Now powers from home and discontents at home
Meet in one line; and vast confusion waits,
As doth a raven on a sick-fall'n beast,
The imminent decay of wrested pomp.
Now happy he whose cloak and cincture can
Hold out this tempest. Bear away that child
And follow me with speed: I'll to the king:
A thousand businesses are brief in hand,
And heaven itself doth frown upon the land.

[Exeunt.

140

150

158. brief in hand, urged for despatch; brief' expresses the concentration of the thousand businesses' in a narrow space of time.

ACT V.

SCENE I. KING JOHN'S palace.

Enter KING JOHN, PANDULPH, and Attendants.

K. John. Thus have I yielded up into your

hand

The circle of my glory.

Pand.

[Giving the crown.

Take again

From this my hand, as holding of the pope

Your sovereign greatness and authority.

K. John. Now keep your holy word: go meet

the French,

And from his holiness use all your power

To stop their marches 'fore we are inflamed.
Our discontented counties do revolt;
Our people quarrel with obedience,
Swearing allegiance and the love of soul
To stranger blood, to foreign royalty.
This inundation of mistemper'd humour
Rests by you only to be qualified:

Then pause not; for the present time's so sick,
That present medicine must be minister'd,

Or overthrow incurable ensues.

Pand. It was my breath that blew this tempest

up,

Upon your stubborn usage of the pope;

But since you are a gentle convertite,

My tongue shall hush again this storm of war
And make fair weather in your blustering land.
On this Ascension-day, remember well,

10. love of soul, heartfelt love.

19. convertite, convert.