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, And that high royalty was ne'er pluck'd off; The faiths of men ne'er stained with revolt; Fresh expectation troubled not the land, With any long'd-for change, or better state. Sal. Therefore, to be possess'd with double pomp, To guard a title that was rich before, 5 To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, Pem. But that your royal pleasure must be done, Sal. In this, the antique and well-noted face Of plain old form is much disfigured: And, like a shifted wind unto a sail, It makes the course of thoughts to fetch about; Makes sound opinion sick, and truth suspected, 5 To guard] i. e. to fringe, or lace. Pem. When workmen strive to do better than well, They do confound their skill in covetousness": And, oftentimes, excusing of a fault, Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse; As patches, set upon a little breach, 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, K. John. Some reasons of this double coronation I will both hear and grant you your requests. Pem. Then I, (as one that am the tongue of these, To sound the purposes of all their hearts,) 7 Both for myself and them, (but, chief of all, They do confound their skill in covetousness:] i. e. not by their avarice, but in an eager emulation, an intense desire of excelling. 7 To sound the purposes-] To declare, to publish the desires of all those. VOL. IV. R The rich advantage of good exercise? K. John. Let it be so; I do commit his youth 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 Does show the mood of a much-troubled breast; What we so fear'd he had a charge to do. Sal. 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 hand:Good lords, although my will to give is living, The suit which you demand is gone and dead: He tells us, Arthur is deceas'd to-night. Sal. Indeed, we fear'd, his sickness was past cure. Pem. Indeed, we heard how near his death he was, Before the child himself felt he was sick: This must be answer'd, either here, or hence. good exercise?] In the middle ages, the whole education of princes and noble youths consisted in martial exercises, &c. These could not be easily had in a prison, where mental improvements might have been afforded as well as any where else; but this sort of education never entered into the thoughts of our active, warlike, but illiterate nobility. PERCY. K. John. Why do you bend such solemn brows on me? Sal. It is apparent foul-play; and 'tis shame, Pem. Stay yet, lord Salisbury; I'll go with thee, That blood, which ow'd the breadth of all this isle, [Exeunt Lords. 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 For any foreign preparation Was levied in the body of a land! The copy of your speed is learn'd by them; For, when you should be told they do prepare, The tidings come, that they are all arriv'd. 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? My liege, her ear Mess. Three days before: but this from rumour's tongue K. John. Withhold thy speed, dreadful occasion! K. John. Enter the Bastard and PETER of POMFRET. Thou hast made me giddy With these ill tidings.-Now, what says the world To your proceedings? do not seek to stuff My head with more ill news, for it is full. Bast. But, if you be afeard to hear the worst, Bast. How I have sped among the clergymen, 9 How wildly then walks my estate in France !] i. e. how ill my affairs go in France !-The verb, to walk, is used with great license by old writers. 1 I was amaz'd] i. e. stunned, confounded. 2 And here's a prophet,] This man was a hermit in great repute with the common people. Notwithstanding the event is said to have fallen out as he had 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. See Holinshed's Chronicle, under the year 1213. |