He tells us, Arthur is deceas'd to-night.

Sal. Indeed, we fear'd, his fickness was paft cure. Pemb. Indeed, we heard how near his death he was, Before the child himself felt he was fick.

This must be answer'd, either here, or hence.

K. John. Why do you bend such folemn brows on
me?

Think you, I bear the fhears of destiny?
Have I commandment on the pulfe of life?
Sal. It is apparent foul-play, and 'tis fhame
That greatness fhould fo grofly offer it:
So thrive it in your game, and fo farewel!
Pemb. Stay yet, Lord Salisbury, I'll go
with thee.
And find th' inheritance of this poor child,
His little kingdom of a forced grave.

That blood, which own'd the breadth of all this ifle,
Three foot of it doth hold; bad world the while!
This must not be thus borne; this will break out
To all our forrows, and ere long, I doubt. [Exeunt.

K. John. They burn in indignation; I repent. There is no fure foundation fet on blood;

No certain life atchiev'd by others' death

Enter a Messenger.

A fearful eye thou haft; where is that blood,
That I have seen inhabit in thofe cheeks?

So foul a fky clears not without a storm;

Pour down thy weather. How goes all in France? Mej. From France to England. Never fuch a power, For any foreign preparation,

Was levy'd in the body of a land.

9 From France to England.-] The king afks how all goes in France, the meffenger catches the

word goes, and answers, that whatever is in France goes now into England.

The

The copy of your fpeed is learn'd by them:
For when you fhould be told, they do prepare,
The tidings come, that they are all arriv'd.

K. John, O, where hath our intelligence been drunk? Where hath it flept? where is my mother's care? That fuch an army should be drawn in France, And the not hear of it?

Mef. My Liege, her ear

Is ftopt with duft: the first of April, dy'd
Your noble mother; and, as I hear, my Lord,
The Lady Conftance in a frenzy dy'd

Three days before: but this from rumour's tongue
I idly heard; if true or falfe, I know not.

K. John. With-hold thy fpeed, dreadful occafion! O make a league with me, till I have pleas'd My discontented peers.-What! mother dead? How wildly then walks my estate in France? Under whofe conduct came thofe powers of France, That, thou for truth giv'ft out, are landed here ? Mef. Under the Dauphin.

K. Jobn. Thou haft made me giddy With thefe ill tidings.

Enter Faulconbridge, and Peter of Pomfret.

• Now, what fays the world

To your proceedings? Do not feek to ftuff
My head with more ill news, for it is full.

Faule. But if you be afraid to hear the worst,
Then let the worft unheard fall on your head.
K. John. Bear with me, Coufin; for I was amaz'd
Under the tide; but now I breathe again
Aloft the flood, and can give audience
To any tongue, fpeak it of what it will.

Faulc. How I have fped among the clergymen,
The fums I have collected fhall exprefs.
But as I travell'd hither thro' the land,
I find the people ftrangely fantafy'd;

Poffeft

Poffeft 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 fung in rude harfh-founding rhimes,
That, ere the next Afcenfion-day at noon,
Your Highness should deliver up your crown,

K. John. Thou idle dreamer, wherefore did't thou fo?. Peter. Fore-knowing, that the truth will fall out fo. K. John. Hubert, away with him, imprison him. And on that day at noon, whereon he says

I fhall yield up my crown, let him be hang'd.
Deliver him to fafety, and return,

For I muft ufe thee.

O my gentle coufin,

[Exit Hubert, with Peter.

Hear'ft thou the news abroad, who are arriv'd?
Faulc. The French, my Lord; men's mouths are
full of it:

Befides, I met Lord Bigot and Lord Salisbury,
With eyes as red as new-enkindled fire,
And others more, going to feek the grave
Of Arthur, who, they fay, is kill'd to-night
On your fuggeftion.

K. John. Gentle kinfman, go

And thruft thyself into their company :
I have a way to win their loves again :
Bring them before me.

Faulc. I will feek them out.

K.John. Nay, but make hafte: the better foot before.

O, let me have no fubject enemies,

When adverse foreigners affright my towns

With dreadful pomp of ftout invafion.
Be Mercury, fet feathers to thy heels,

fody.

Deliver him to fafety.] That is, Give him into fafe cu

And

And fly, like thought, from them to me again. Faulc. The spirit of the time fhall teach me fpeed.

[Exit. K. John. Spoke like a fprightful noble gentleman. Go after him; for he, perhaps, fhall need Some meffenger betwixt me and the Peers; And be thou he.

Mef: With all my heart, my Liege.

K. John. My mother dead!

SCENE IV.

Enter Hubert.

[Exit.

Hub. My Lord, they fay, five moons were feen to-night:

Four fixed, and the fifth did whirl about

The other four, in wond'rous motion.

K. John. Five moons?

Hub. Old men and beldams, in the streets,

Do prophefy upon it dangerously:

Young Arthur's death is common in their mouths;
And, when they talk of him, they shake their heads,
And whisper one another in the ear.

And he, that speaks, doth gripe the hearer's wrift;
Whilft he, that hears, makes fearful action
With wrinkled brows, with nods, with rolling eyes.
I faw a finith ftand with his hammer, thus,
The whilft his iron did on the anvil cool,
With open mouth fwallowing a taylor's news;
Who with his fhears and meafure in his hand,
Standing on flippers, which his nimble hafte

Had

portant paffage, which, in Dr. Warburton's edition, is marked as eminently beautiful, and, in the whole, not without justice. But Shakespeare feems to have confound

Had falfely thrust upon contrary feet,
Told of a many thoufand warlike French,
That were embatteled and rank'd in Kent.
Another lean, unwash'd artificer

Cuts off his tale, and talks of Arthur's death.

K. John. Why feek'st thou to poffefs me with thefe fears?

Why urgest thou fo oft young Arthur's death?
Thy hand hath murder'd him: I had a cause

To wifh him dead, but thou had'ft none to kill him. Hub. Had none, my Lord? why, did you not provoke me?

K. John. It is the curfe of Kings 3, to be atttended
By flaves that take their humours for a warrant,
To break into the the bloody house of life:
And, on the winking of authority,

To understand a law, to know the meaning
Of dang'rous majefty; when, perchance, it frowns
More upon humour, than advis'd respect.

Hub. Here is your hand and feal, for what I did. K. John. Oh, when the laft account 'twixt heav'n and earth

Is to be made, then shall this hand and feal
Witness against us to damnation.

How oft the fight of means, to do ill deeds,
Makes deeds ill done? for hadft not thou been by,
A fellow by the hand of nature mark'd,
Quoted, and fign'd to do a deed of shame,
This murder had not come into my mind.
But taking note of thy abhorr'd afpect,
Finding thee fit for bloody villainy,

founded a man's fhoes with his gloves. He that is frighted or hurried may put his hand into the wrong glove, but either fhoe will equally admit either foot. The authour feems to be difturbed by the diforder which he

defcribes.

3 It is the curfe of Kings, &c.] This plainly hints at Davifon's cafe, in the affair of Mary Queen of Scots, and fo muft have been inferted long after the first reprefentation. WARBURTON.

Apt,