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King John - Act 4, scene 3
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King John - Act 4, scene 3Act 4, scene 3
Scene 3
Synopsis:
Arthur dies as he attempts to leap from the prison wall. The Bastard reaches the nobles, on their way to meet with the Dauphin, just as they discover Arthur’s body and vow revenge for his death. When Hubert enters, they turn on him as a murderer. The Bastard takes Hubert’s part, and the nobles proceed to their meeting with the Dauphin. Hubert convinces the Bastard of his own innocence, and the Bastard, predicting disaster, returns to King John.
Enter Arthur on the walls, ⌜dressed as a shipboy.⌝ARTHUR
1982 The wall is high, and yet will I leap down.
1983 Good ground, be pitiful and hurt me not.
1984 There’s few or none do know me. If they did,
1985 This shipboy’s semblance hath disguised me quite.
1986 5 I am afraid, and yet I’ll venture it.
1987 If I get down and do not break my limbs,
1988 I’ll find a thousand shifts to get away.
1989 As good to die and go as die and stay.
⌜He jumps.⌝
1990 O me, my uncle’s spirit is in these stones.
1991 10 Heaven take my soul, and England keep my bones.
⌜He⌝ dies.
Enter Pembroke, Salisbury ⌜with a letter,⌝ and Bigot.
SALISBURY
1992 Lords, I will meet him at Saint Edmundsbury;
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1993
It is our safety, and we must embrace1994 This gentle offer of the perilous time.
PEMBROKE
1995 Who brought that letter from the Cardinal?
SALISBURY
1996 15 The Count Melun, a noble lord of France,
1997 Whose private with me of the Dauphin’s love
1998 Is much more general than these lines import.
BIGOT
1999 Tomorrow morning let us meet him, then.
SALISBURY
2000 Or rather then set forward, for ’twill be
2001 20 Two long days’ journey, lords, or ere we meet.
Enter Bastard.
BASTARD
2002 Once more today well met, distempered lords.
2003 The King by me requests your presence straight.
SALISBURY
2004 The King hath dispossessed himself of us.
2005 We will not line his thin bestainèd cloak
2006 25 With our pure honors, nor attend the foot
2007 That leaves the print of blood where’er it walks.
2008 Return, and tell him so. We know the worst.
BASTARD
2009 Whate’er you think, good words I think were best.
SALISBURY
2010 Our griefs and not our manners reason now.
BASTARD
2011 30 But there is little reason in your grief.
2012 Therefore ’twere reason you had manners now.
PEMBROKE
2013 Sir, sir, impatience hath his privilege.
BASTARD
2014 ’Tis true, to hurt his master, no man’s else.
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SALISBURY 2015 This is the prison.
⌜He sees Arthur’s body.⌝
2016 35 What is he lies here?
PEMBROKE
2017 O Death, made proud with pure and princely beauty!
2018 The Earth had not a hole to hide this deed.
SALISBURY
2019 Murder, as hating what himself hath done,
2020 Doth lay it open to urge on revenge.
BIGOT
2021 40 Or when he doomed this beauty to a grave,
2022 Found it too precious-princely for a grave.
SALISBURY, ⌜to Bastard⌝
2023 Sir Richard, what think you? You have beheld.
2024 Or have you read or heard, or could you think,
2025 Or do you almost think, although you see,
2026 45 That you do see? Could thought, without this object,
2027 Form such another? This is the very top,
2028 The height, the crest, or crest unto the crest,
2029 Of murder’s arms. This is the bloodiest shame,
2030 The wildest savagery, the vilest stroke
2031 50 That ever wall-eyed wrath or staring rage
2032 Presented to the tears of soft remorse.
PEMBROKE
2033 All murders past do stand excused in this.
2034 And this, so sole and so unmatchable,
2035 Shall give a holiness, a purity,
2036 55 To the yet unbegotten sin of times
2037 And prove a deadly bloodshed but a jest,
2038 Exampled by this heinous spectacle.
BASTARD
2039 It is a damnèd and a bloody work,
2040 The graceless action of a heavy hand,
2041 60 If that it be the work of any hand.
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SALISBURY 2042 If that it be the work of any hand?
2043 We had a kind of light what would ensue.
2044 It is the shameful work of Hubert’s hand,
2045 The practice and the purpose of the King,
2046 65 From whose obedience I forbid my soul,
2047 Kneeling before this ruin of sweet life⌜He kneels.⌝
2048 And breathing to his breathless excellence
2049 The incense of a vow, a holy vow:
2050 Never to taste the pleasures of the world,
2051 70 Never to be infected with delight,
2052 Nor conversant with ease and idleness,
2053 Till I have set a glory to this hand
2054 By giving it the worship of revenge.
PEMBROKE, BIGOT, ⌜kneeling⌝
2055 Our souls religiously confirm thy words.
⌜They rise.⌝
Enter Hubert.
HUBERT
2056 75 Lords, I am hot with haste in seeking you.
2057 Arthur doth live; the King hath sent for you.
SALISBURY
2058 O, he is bold and blushes not at death!—
2059 Avaunt, thou hateful villain, get thee gone!
HUBERT
2060 I am no villain.
SALISBURY, ⌜drawing his sword⌝ 2061 80 Must I rob the law?
BASTARD
2062 Your sword is bright, sir. Put it up again.
SALISBURY
2063 Not till I sheathe it in a murderer’s skin.
HUBERT
2064 Stand back, Lord Salisbury, stand back, I say.
2065 By heaven, I think my sword’s as sharp as yours.
⌜He puts his hand on his sword.⌝
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2066
85 I would not have you, lord, forget yourself,2067 Nor tempt the danger of my true defense,
2068 Lest I, by marking of your rage, forget
2069 Your worth, your greatness, and nobility.
BIGOT
2070 Out, dunghill! Dar’st thou brave a nobleman?
HUBERT
2071 90 Not for my life. But yet I dare defend
2072 My innocent life against an emperor.
SALISBURY
2073 Thou art a murderer.
HUBERT 2074 Do not prove me so.
2075 Yet I am none. Whose tongue soe’er speaks false,
2076 95 Not truly speaks. Who speaks not truly, lies.
PEMBROKE, ⌜drawing his sword⌝
2077 Cut him to pieces.
BASTARD, ⌜drawing his sword⌝ 2078 Keep the peace, I say.
SALISBURY
2079 Stand by, or I shall gall you, Faulconbridge.
BASTARD
2080 Thou wert better gall the devil, Salisbury.
2081 100 If thou but frown on me, or stir thy foot,
2082 Or teach thy hasty spleen to do me shame,
2083 I’ll strike thee dead. Put up thy sword betime,
2084 Or I’ll so maul you and your toasting-iron
2085 That you shall think the devil is come from hell.
BIGOT
2086 105 What wilt thou do, renownèd Faulconbridge?
2087 Second a villain and a murderer?
HUBERT
2088 Lord Bigot, I am none.
BIGOT 2089 Who killed this prince?
HUBERT
2090 ’Tis not an hour since I left him well.
2091 110 I honored him, I loved him, and will weep
2092 My date of life out for his sweet life’s loss.
⌜He weeps.⌝
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SALISBURY 2093 Trust not those cunning waters of his eyes,
2094 For villainy is not without such rheum,
2095 And he, long traded in it, makes it seem
2096 115 like rivers of remorse and innocency.
2097 Away with me, all you whose souls abhor
2098 Th’ uncleanly savors of a slaughterhouse,
2099 For I am stifled with this smell of sin.
BIGOT
2100 Away, toward Bury, to the Dauphin there.
PEMBROKE
2101 120 There, tell the King, he may inquire us out.
Lords exit.
BASTARD
2102 Here’s a good world! Knew you of this fair work?
2103 Beyond the infinite and boundless reach
2104 Of mercy, if thou didst this deed of death,
2105 Art thou damned, Hubert.
HUBERT 2106 125Do but hear me, sir.
BASTARD 2107 Ha! I’ll tell thee what.
2108 Thou ’rt damned as black—nay, nothing is so black—
2109 Thou art more deep damned than Prince Lucifer.
2110 There is not yet so ugly a fiend of hell
2111 130 As thou shalt be, if thou didst kill this child.
HUBERT
2112 Upon my soul—
BASTARD 2113 If thou didst but consent
2114 To this most cruel act, do but despair,
2115 And if thou want’st a cord, the smallest thread
2116 135 That ever spider twisted from her womb
2117 Will serve to strangle thee; a rush will be a beam
2118 To hang thee on. Or wouldst thou drown thyself,
2119 Put but a little water in a spoon
2120 And it shall be as all the ocean,
2121 140 Enough to stifle such a villain up.
2122 I do suspect thee very grievously.
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HUBERT 2123 If I in act, consent, or sin of thought
2124 Be guilty of the stealing that sweet breath
2125 Which was embounded in this beauteous clay,
2126 145 Let hell want pains enough to torture me.
2127 I left him well.
BASTARD 2128 Go, bear him in thine arms.
2129 I am amazed, methinks, and lose my way
2130 Among the thorns and dangers of this world.
⌜Hubert takes up Arthur’s body.⌝
2131 150 How easy dost thou take all England up!
2132 From forth this morsel of dead royalty,
2133 The life, the right, and truth of all this realm
2134 Is fled to heaven, and England now is left
2135 To tug and scamble and to part by th’ teeth
2136 155 The unowed interest of proud-swelling state.
2137 Now for the bare-picked bone of majesty
2138 Doth doggèd war bristle his angry crest
2139 And snarleth in the gentle eyes of peace.
2140 Now powers from home and discontents at home
2141 160 Meet in one line, and vast confusion waits,
2142 As doth a raven on a sick-fall’n beast,
2143 The imminent decay of wrested pomp.
2144 Now happy he whose cloak and cincture can
2145 Hold out this tempest. Bear away that child,
2146 165 And follow me with speed. I’ll to the King.
2147 A thousand businesses are brief in hand,
2148 And heaven itself doth frown upon the land.
⌜They⌝ exit, ⌜with Hubert carrying Arthur’s body.⌝