Bigot.
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,
Foretel the ending of Mortality.
Enter Pembroke.
Pemb.
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 assaileth him.
Henry.
Let him be brought into the Orchard here;
Doth he still rage?
Pemb.
He is more patient
Than when you left him; even now he sung.
Henry.
Oh vanity of Sickness, fierce Extreams
In their continuance will not feel themselves.
Death having prey'd upon the outward parts
Leaves them invisible, and her Siege is now
Against the Wind, the which he pricks 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:
-- 1045 --
I am the Symet to this pale faint Swan;
Who chaunts a doleful Hymn to his own Death,
And from the Organ-pipe of frailty sings
His Soul and Body to their lasting rest.
Sal.
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.
King John brought in.
K. John.
I 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 scribled Form drawn with a Pen,
Upon a Parchment, and against this fire do I shrink up.
Henry.
How fares your Majesty?
K. John.
Poison'd, ill fair: Dead, forsook, cast off,
And none of you will bid the Winter come
To thrust his Icy Fingers in my Maw;
Nor let my Kingdoms Rivers take their course
Through my burn'd Bosom: Nor intreat 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 straight
And so ungrateful, you deny me that.
Henry.
Oh that there were some Virtue in my Tears,
That might relieve you.
K. John.
The Salt of them is hot.
Within me is a Hell, and there the Poison
Is, as a Fiend, confin'd to tyrannize,
On unrepreevable condemned Blood.
Enter Bastard.
Bast.
Oh, I am scalded with my violent Motion
And Spleen of speed to see your Majesty.
K. John.
Oh Cousin, thou art come to set mine Eye:
The tackle of my Heart is crackt and burnt,
And 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,
-- 1046 --
Bast.
The Dauphin is preparing hitherward,
Where Heav'n he knows how we shall answer him.
For in a Night the best part of my Power,
As I upon advantage did remove,
Were in the Washes all, unwarily,
Devoured by the unexpected Flood.
[The King dies.
Sal.
You breath these dead News in as dead an Ear;
My Liege, my Lord; but now a King, now thus.
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?
Bast.
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 Heav'n,
As it on Earth hath been thy Servant still.
Now, now you Stars, that move in your right Spheres,
Where be your Powers? Shew 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.
Sal.
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.
Bast.
He will the rather do it, when he sees
Our selves well sinewed to our Defence.
Sal.
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 your self, my self, and other Lords,
If you think meet, this Afternoon will post,
To consummate this business happily.
Bast.
Let it be so; and you, my noble Prince,
With other Princes that may best be spar'd,
Shall wait upon your Father's Funeral.
-- 1047 --
Henry.
At Worcester must his Body be interr'd,
For so he will'd it.
Bast.
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.
Sal.
And the like tender of our Love we make,
To rest without a Spot for evermore.
Henry.
I have a kind Soul that would give you thanks,
And knows not how to do it but with Tears.
Bast.
Oh let us pay the time but needful Wo,
Since it hath been before hand with our Griefs.
This England never did, nor never shall
Lye at the proud foot of a Conqueror,
But when it first did help to wound it self.
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 it self do rest but true.
[Exeunt omnes.
