The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Part 254

HUBERT. Why, here walk I in the black brow of night To find you out.

b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Brief, then; and what's the news?

HUBERT. O, my sweet sir, news fitting to the night, Black, fearful, comfortless, and horrible.

b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Show me the very wound of this ill news; I am no woman, I'll not swoon at it.

HUBERT. The King, I fear, is poison'd by a monk; I left him almost speechless and broke out To acquaint you with this evil, that you might The better arm you to the sudden time Than if you had at leisure known of this.

b.a.s.t.a.r.d. How did he take it; who did taste to him?

HUBERT. A monk, I tell you; a resolved villain, Whose bowels suddenly burst out. The King Yet speaks, and peradventure may recover.

b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Who didst thou leave to tend his Majesty?

HUBERT. Why, know you not? The lords are all come back, And brought Prince Henry in their company; At whose request the King hath pardon'd them, And they are all about his Majesty.

b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Withhold thine indignation, mighty heaven, And tempt us not to bear above our power!

I'll tell thee, Hubert, half my power this night, Pa.s.sing these flats, are taken by the tide- These Lincoln Washes have devoured them; Myself, well-mounted, hardly have escap'd.

Away, before! conduct me to the King; I doubt he will be dead or ere I come. Exeunt

SCENE 7.

The orchard at Swinstead Abbey

Enter PRINCE HENRY, SALISBURY, and BIGOT

PRINCE HENRY. It is too late; the life of all his blood Is touch'd corruptibly, and his pure brain.

Which some suppose the soul's frail dwelling-house, Doth by the idle comments that it makes Foretell the ending of mortality.

Enter PEMBROKE

PEMBROKE. His Highness yet doth speak, and holds belief That, being brought into the open air, It would allay the burning quality Of that fell poison which a.s.saileth him.

PRINCE HENRY. Let him be brought into the orchard here.

Doth he still rage? Exit BIGOT PEMBROKE. He is more patient Than when you left him; even now he sung.

PRINCE HENRY. O vanity of sickness! Fierce extremes In their continuance will not feel themselves.

Death, having prey'd upon the outward parts, Leaves them invisible, and his siege is now Against the mind, the which he p.r.i.c.ks and wounds With many legions of strange fantasies, Which, in their throng and press to that last hold, Confound themselves. 'Tis strange that death should sing.

I am the cygnet to this pale faint swan Who chants a doleful hymn to his own death, And from the organ-pipe of frailty sings His soul and body to their lasting rest.

SALISBURY. Be of good comfort, Prince; for you are born To set a form upon that indigest Which he hath left so shapeless and so rude.

Re-enter BIGOT and attendants, who bring in KING JOHN in a chair

KING JOHN. Ay, marry, now my soul hath elbow-room; It would not out at windows nor at doors.

There is so hot a summer in my bosom That all my bowels crumble up to dust.

I am a scribbled form drawn with a pen Upon a parchment, and against this fire Do I shrink up.

PRINCE HENRY. How fares your Majesty?

KING JOHN. Poison'd-ill-fare! Dead, forsook, cast off; And none of you will bid the winter come To thrust his icy fingers in my maw, Nor let my kingdom's rivers take their course Through my burn'd bosom, nor entreat the north To make his bleak winds kiss my parched lips And comfort me with cold. I do not ask you much; I beg cold comfort; and you are so strait And so ingrateful you deny me that.

PRINCE HENRY. O that there were some virtue in my tears, That might relieve you!

KING JOHN. The salt in them is hot.

Within me is a h.e.l.l; and there the poison Is as a fiend confin'd to tyrannize On unreprievable condemned blood.

Enter the b.a.s.t.a.r.d

b.a.s.t.a.r.d. O, I am scalded with my violent motion And spleen of speed to see your Majesty!

KING JOHN. O cousin, thou art come to set mine eye!

The tackle of my heart is crack'd and burnt, And all the shrouds wherewith my life should sail Are turned to one thread, one little hair; My heart hath one poor string to stay it by, Which holds but till thy news be uttered; And then all this thou seest is but a clod And module of confounded royalty.

b.a.s.t.a.r.d. The Dauphin is preparing hitherward, Where G.o.d He knows how we shall answer him; For in a night the best part of my pow'r, As I upon advantage did remove, Were in the Washes all unwarily Devoured by the unexpected flood. [The KING dies]

SALISBURY. You breathe these dead news in as dead an ear.

My liege! my lord! But now a king-now thus.

PRINCE HENRY. Even so must I run on, and even so stop.

What surety of the world, what hope, what stay, When this was now a king, and now is clay?

b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Art thou gone so? I do but stay behind To do the office for thee of revenge, And then my soul shall wait on thee to heaven, As it on earth hath been thy servant still.

Now, now, you stars that move in your right spheres, Where be your pow'rs? Show now your mended faiths, And instantly return with me again To push destruction and perpetual shame Out of the weak door of our fainting land.

Straight let us seek, or straight we shall be sought; The Dauphin rages at our very heels.

SALISBURY. It seems you know not, then, so much as we: The Cardinal Pandulph is within at rest, Who half an hour since came from the Dauphin, And brings from him such offers of our peace As we with honour and respect may take, With purpose presently to leave this war.

b.a.s.t.a.r.d. He will the rather do it when he sees Ourselves well sinewed to our defence.

SALISBURY. Nay, 'tis in a manner done already; For many carriages he hath dispatch'd To the sea-side, and put his cause and quarrel To the disposing of the Cardinal; With whom yourself, myself, and other lords, If you think meet, this afternoon will post To consummate this business happily.

b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Let it be so. And you, my n.o.ble Prince, With other princes that may best be spar'd, Shall wait upon your father's funeral.

PRINCE HENRY. At Worcester must his body be interr'd; For so he will'd it.

b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Thither shall it, then; And happily may your sweet self put on The lineal state and glory of the land!

To whom, with all submission, on my knee I do bequeath my faithful services And true subjection everlastingly.

SALISBURY. And the like tender of our love we make, To rest without a spot for evermore.

PRINCE HENRY. I have a kind soul that would give you thanks, And knows not how to do it but with tears.

b.a.s.t.a.r.d. O, let us pay the time but needful woe, Since it hath been beforehand with our griefs.

This England never did, nor never shall, Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror, But when it first did help to wound itself.

Now these her princes are come home again, Come the three corners of the world in arms, And we shall shock them. Nought shall make us rue, If England to itself do rest but true. Exeunt

THE END

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1599

THE TRAGEDY OF JULIUS CAESAR

by William Shakespeare

Dramatis Personae

JULIUS CAESAR, Roman statesman and general OCTAVIUS, Triumvir after Caesar's death, later Augustus Caesar, first emperor of Rome MARK ANTONY, general and friend of Caesar, a Triumvir after his death LEPIDUS, third member of the Triumvirate MARCUS BRUTUS, leader of the conspiracy against Caesar Ca.s.sIUS, instigator of the conspiracy CASCA, conspirator against Caesar TREBONIUS, " " "

CAIUS LIGARIUS, " " "

DECIUS BRUTUS, " " "

METELLUS CIMBER, " " "

CINNA, " " "

CALPURNIA, wife of Caesar PORTIA, wife of Brutus CICERO, senator POPILIUS, "