The Complete Historical Plays of William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare
see to live; I will not touch thine eye
For all the treasure that thine uncle owes:
Yet I am sworn, and I did purpose, boy,
With this same very iron to burn them out.
ARTHUR.
O, now you look like Hubert! all this while
You were disguised.
HUBERT.
Peace; no more. Adieu!
Your uncle must not know but you are dead;
I’ll fill these dogged spies with false reports:
And, pretty child, sleep doubtless and secure
That Hubert, for the wealth of all the world,
Will not offend thee.
ARTHUR.
O heaven! I thank you, Hubert.
HUBERT.
Silence; no more: go closely in with me:
Much danger do I undergo for thee.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE 2.The same. A Room of State in the Palace.
[Enter KING JOHN, crowned, PEMBROKE, SALISBURY, and other LORDS.
The KING takes his State.]
KING JOHN.
Here once again we sit, once again crown’d,
And look’d upon, I hope, with cheerful eyes.
PEMBROKE.
This once again, but that your highness pleas’d,
Was once superfluous: you were crown’d before,
And that high royalty was ne’er pluck’d off;
The faiths of men ne’er stained with revolt;
Fresh expectation troubled not the land
With any long’d-for change or better state.
SALISBURY.
Therefore, to be possess’d with double pomp,
To guard a title that was rich before,
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.
PEMBROKE.
But that your royal pleasure must be done,
This act is as an ancient tale new told;
And, in the last repeating troublesome,
Being urged at a time unseasonable.
SALISBURY.
In this, the antique and well-noted face
Of plain old form is much disfigured;
And, like a shifted wind unto a sail,
It makes the course of thoughts to fetch about;
Startles and frights consideration;
Makes sound opinion sick, and truth suspected,
For putting on so new a fashion’d robe.
PEMBROKE.
When workmen strive to do better than well,
They do confound their skill in covetousness;
And oftentimes excusing of a fault
Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse,—
As patches set upon a little breach
Discredit more in hiding of the fault
Than did the fault before it was so patch’d.
SALISBURY.
To this effect, before you were new-crown’d,
We breath’d our counsel: but it pleas’d your highness
To overbear it; and we are all well pleas’d,
Since all and every part of what we would
Doth make a stand at what your highness will.
KING JOHN.
Some reasons of this double coronation
I have possess’d you with, and think them strong;
And more, more strong, when lesser is my fear,
I shall indue you with: meantime but ask
What you would have reform’d that is not well,
And well shall you perceive how willingly
I will both hear and grant you your requests.
PEMBROKE.
Then I,—as one that am the tongue of these,
To sound the purposes of all their hearts,—
Both for myself and them,—but, chief of all,
Your safety, for the which myself and them
Bend their best studies,—heartily request
The enfranchisement of Arthur, whose restraint
Doth move the murmuring lips of discontent
To break into this dangerous argument,—
If what in rest you have in right you hold,
Why then your fears,—which, as they say, attend
The steps of wrong,—should move you to mew up
Your tender kinsman, and to choke his days
With barbarous ignorance, and deny his youth
The rich advantage of good exercise?
That the time’s enemies may not have this
To grace occasions, let it be our suit
That you have bid us ask his liberty;
Which for our goods we do no further ask
Than whereupon our weal, on you depending,
Counts it your weal he have his liberty.
KING JOHN.
Let it be so: I do commit his youth
To your direction.
[Enter HUBERT.]
Hubert, what news with you?
PEMBROKE.
This is the man should do the bloody deed;
He show’d his warrant to a friend of mine:
The image of a wicked heinous fault
Lives in his eye; that close aspect of his
Doth show the mood of a much-troubled breast;
And I do fearfully believe ‘tis done
What we so fear’d he had a charge to do.
SALISBURY.
The colour of the king doth come and go
Between his purpose and his conscience,
Like heralds ‘twixt two dreadful battles set.
His passion is so ripe it needs must break.
PEMBROKE.
And when it breaks, I fear will issue thence
The foul corruption of a sweet child’s death.
KING JOHN.
We cannot hold mortality’s strong hand:—
Good lords, although my will to give is living,
The suit which you demand is gone and dead:
He tells us Arthur is deceas’d tonight.