Pem. Then I, (as one that am the tongue of To sound the purposes of all their hearts,) The enfranchisement of Arthur; whose restraint If, what in rest you have, in right you hold, K. John. Let it be so; I do commit his youth Enter HUBERT. To your direction.-Hubert, what news with you? 7 To sound the purposes-] To declare, to publish the desires of all those. 8 - 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. Does show the mood of a much-troubled breast; 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. Good lords, although my will to give is living, Sal. Indeed, we fear'd, his sickness was past cure. K. John. Why do you bend such solemn brows on me? Think you, I bear the shears of destiny? Pem. Stay yet, lord Salisbury; I'll go with thee, That blood, which ow'd the breath 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; Enter a Messenger. A fearful eye thou hast; Where is that blood, For any foreign preparation, The copy of your speed is learn'd by them; K. John. O, where hath our intelligence been drunk? Where hath it slept? Where is my mother's care? 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 occa- O, make a league with me, till I have pleas'd That thou for truth giv'st out, are landed here? 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. 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' Under the tide: but now I breathe again Aloft the flood; and can give audience To any tongue, speak it of what it will. 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, 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. 2 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, 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. I shall yield up my crown, let him be hang'd: 3 For I must use thee.-O my gentle cousin, [Exit HUBERT, with PETER. Besides, I met lord Bigot, and lord Salisbury, K. John. Gentle kinsman, gó, And thrust thyself into their companies: Bring them before me. Bast. I will seek them out. K. John. Nay, but make haste; the better foot O, let me have no subject enemies, man. Go after him; for he, perhaps, shall need 3 Mess. With all my heart, my liege. K. John. My mother dead! [Exit. Deliver him to safety,] That is, Give him into safe custody. |