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 anfwer'd, either here, or hence.

K. John. Why do you bend fuch 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 greatnefs 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 isle, 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, 1 doubt.

SCENE III.

[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 feen inhabit in those cheeks?

So foul a sky clears not without a storm;

9

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

Was levy'd in the body of a land.

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

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

The

The copy of your speed is learn'd by them:
For when you should 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 fhould 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. John. Thou haft made me giddy With these ill tidings.

Enter Faulconbridge, and Peter of Pomfret.

Now, what fays the world

To your proceedings? Do not feek to stuff
My head with more ill news, for it is full.
Faulc. But if you be afraid to hear the worst,
Then let the worst 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 strangely fantasy'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'ft 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 fays
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 cousin,

[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 kinsman, go

And thrust 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 adverfe foreigners affright my towns
With dreadful pomp of ftout invasion.

Be Mercury, fet feathers to thy heels,

・ Deliver him to fafety,-] That is, Give him into fafe cufioty.

And

And fly, like thought, from them to me again.
Faulc. The fpirit of the time shall teach me speed.
[Exit.
K. John. Spoke like a sprightful 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 say, five moons were seen 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 fpeaks, doth gripe the hearer's wrist,
Whilft he, that hears, makes fearful action
With wrinkled brows, with nods, with rolling eyes.
I faw a fmith 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 measure 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 juftice. But Shakespeare seems to have con

founded

Had falfely thruft upon contrary feet,
Told of a many thousand 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 these fears?

Why urgeft thou fo oft young Arthur's death?

Thy hand hath murder'd him: I had a cause

To with 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,' to be attended
By flaves that take their humours for a warrant,
To break into 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 fhall 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 disorder which he

describes.

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 repiefentation. WARBURTON.

Apt,