SCENE VI. An open Place in the Neighbourhood of SwinsteadAbbey. Enter FAULCONBRIDGE, and HUBERT, severally. Hub. Who's there? speak, hot speak quickly, or Hub. What's that to thee? Why may I not de mand Of thine affairs, as well as thou of mine? Faulc. Hubert, I think. Hub. Thou hast a perfect thought: I will, upon all hazards, well believe Thou art my friend, that know'st my tongue so well: Who art thou? Faulc. Who thou wilt: an if thou please, Thou may'st befriend me so much, as to think I come one way of the Plantagenets. 380 Hub. Unkind remembrance! thou, and eyeless night, Have done me shame :-Brave soldier, pardon me, Faulc. Faulc. Come, come; sans compliment, what news abroad? Hub. Why, here walk I, in the black brow of night, To find you out. Faulc. Brief, then; and what's the news? Hub. O my sweet sir, news fitted to the night, Black, fearful, comfortless, and horrible. 390 Faulc. Shew me the very wound of this ill news; I am no woman, I'll not swoon at it. Hub. The king, I fear, is poison'd by a monk : Than if you had at leisure known of this. Faulc. How did he take it? who did taste to him? 400 Hub. A monk, I tell you; a resolved villain, Whose bowels suddenly burst out: the king Yet speaks, and, peradventure, may recover. Faulc. Who didst thou leave to tend his majesty ? Hub. Why, know you not, the lords are all come back, And brought prince Henry in their company? Faulc. Withhold thine indignation mighty heaven, Passing Passing these flats, are taken by the tide, 410 [Exeunt. SCENE VII. The Orchard in Swinstead-Abbey. Enter Prince HENRY, SALISBURY, and BIGOT. Hen. 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 dwellinghouse) Doth, by the idle comments that it makes, Foretell the ending of mortality. Enter PEMBROKE. Pemb. His highness yet doth speak; and holds be lief, That being brought into the open air, It would allay the burning quality Of that fell poison which assaileth him. 420 Hen. O vanity of sickness! fierce extremes, In their continuance, will not feel themselves. Death having prey'd upon the outward parts Leaves them invisible his siege is now, : 430 Against the mind, 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. I am the cygnet to this pale faint swan, 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. 440 K. John. Ay, marry, now my soul hath elbow room; It would not out at windows, nor at doors. Hen. How fares your majesty ? 450. K. John. Poison'd-ill fare;-dead, forsook, cast And none of you Nor let my kingdom's rivers take their course And comfort me with cold : much, -I do not ask you I beg cold comfort; and you are so strait, And so ingrateful, you deny me that. 459 Hen. 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 Enter FAULCONBRIDGE. Faulc. 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 crack'd and burnt; 469 And all the shrowds, wherewith my life should sail, Are turned to one thread, one little hair : Faulc. The Dauphin is preparing hitherward; Where, |