Discredit more in hiding of the fault 5,
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 highness To overbear it; and we are all well pleas'd; Since all and every part of what we would o, Doth make a stand at what your highness will.

K. John. Some reasons of this double coronation I have possess'd you with, and think them strong; And more, more strong (when lesser is my fear), I shall indue you with: Mean time, but ask What you would have reform'd, that is not well; And well shall you perceive, how willingly 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), Both for myself and them (but, chief of all, Your safety, for the which myself and them Bend their best studies), heartily request The enfranchisement of Arthur; whose restraint Doth move the murmuring lips of discontent To break into this dangerous argument,― If, what in rest you have, in right you hold, Why then your fears (which, as they say, attend The steps of wrong), should move you to mew up9 Your tender kinsman, and to choke his days With barbarous ignorance, and deny his youth The rich advantage of good exercise 10?

5 Fault means blemish.

6 Since the whole and each particular part of our wishes, &c. 7 To declare, to publish the purposes of all, &c.

8 Releasement.

9 The construction of this passage is 'If you have a good title to what you now have in rest (i. e. quiet), why then is it that your fears should move you,' &c.

10 In the middle ages, 'the whole education of princes and noble youths consisted in martial exercises, &c. Mental improvement might have been had in a prison as well as any where else.

That the time's enemies may not have this
To grace occasions, let it be our suit,
That you have bid us ask his liberty;
Which for our goods we do no further ask,
Than whereupon our weal, on you depending,
Counts it your weal, he have his liberty.

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; And I do fearfully believe, 'tis done,

What we so fear'd he had a charge to do.

Sal. The colour of the king doth come and go, Between his purpose and his conscience 11, Like heralds 'twixt two dreadful battles set: His passion is so ripe, it needs must break.

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.

11 The purpose of the king, to which Salisbury alludes, is that of putting Arthur to death, which he considers as not yet accomplished, and therefore supposes that there might be still a conflict in the king's mind—

K. John. Why do you bend such solemn brows

on me?

Think you, I bear the shears of destiny?
Have I commandment on the pulse of life?
Sal. It is apparent foul-play; and 'tis shame,
That greatness should so grossly offer it:
So thrive it in your game! and so farewell.

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 12 the breadth 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,
That I have seen inhabit in those cheeks?

So foul a sky clears not without a storm:
Pour down thy weather:-How goes all in France?
Mess. From France to England 13.-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;

you

For, when should be told they do prepare,
The tidings come, that they are all arriv'd.

12 i. e. 'own'd the breadth of all this isle.' The two last variorum editions erroneously read breath for breadth,' which is found in the old copy.

13 The king asks how all goes in France; the messenger catches the word goes, and answers, that whatever is in France goes now into England.

K. John. O,where hath our intelligence been drunk? Where hath it slept 14? Where is my mother's care? That such an army could be drawn in France,

And she not hear of it?

Mess.

My liege, her ear

Is stopp'd with dust; the first of April, died
Your noble mother; And, as I hear, my lord,
The Lady Constance in a frenzy died

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 15! — 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 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, Then let the worst, unheard, fall on your head. K. John. Bear with me, cousin; for I was amaz'd 16 Under the tide but now I breathe again Aloft the flood; and can give audience To any tongue, speak it of what it will.

14 So in Macbeth :

Wherein you

Was the hope drunk

drest yourself? hath it slept since?'

15 i. e. how ill my affairs go in France.

16 Astonied, stunned, confounded, are the ancient synonymes of amazed, obstupesco. So in Cymbeline :'I am amazed with matter.'

And in the Merry Wives of Windsor :

'You do amaze her, hear the truth of it.'

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 17, that I brought with me From forth the streets of Pomfret, whom I found With many hundreds treading on his 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. K. John. Hubert, away with him; imprison him; And on that day at noon, whereon, he says, I shall yield up my crown, let him be hang'd: Deliver him to safety 18, and return,

For I must use thee.-O my gentle cousin,

[Exit HUBERT, with PETER. Hear'st thou the news abroad, who are arriv'd? Bast. The French, my lord; men's mouths are full of it:

Besides, I met Lord Bigot, and Lord Salisbury
(With eyes as red as new-enkindled fire),
And others more, going to seek the grave
Of Arthur, who, they say, is kill'd to-night
On your suggestion.

17 This man was a hermit in great repute with the common people. Notwithstanding the event is said to have fallen out as he 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. Holinshed, in anno 1213.— Speed says that Peter the hermit was suborned by the pope's legate, the French king, and the barons for this purpose.

18 i. e. to safe custody.