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HUBERT.

Lord Bigot, I am none.

BIGOT.

Who kill'd this prince?

HUBERT.

'Tis not an hour since I left him well.

I honour'd him, I lov'd him, and will weep

My date of life out for his sweet life's loss.

SALISBURY.

Trust not those cunning waters of his eyes,

For villainy is not without such rheum;

And he, long traded in it, makes it seem

Like rivers of remorse and innocency.

Away with me, all you whose souls abhor

Th' uncleanly savours of a slaughter-house;

For I am stifled with this smell of sin.

BIGOT.

Away toward Bury, to the Dauphin there!

PEMBROKE.

There tell the King he may inquire us out.

Exeunt

LORDS

BASTARD.

Here's a good world! Knew you of this fair work?

Beyond the infinite and boundless reach

Of mercy, if thou didst this deed of death,

Art thou damn'd, Hubert.

HUBERT.

Do but hear me, sir.

BASTARD.

Ha! I'll tell thee what:

Thou'rt damn'd as black-nay, nothing is so black-

Thou art more deep damn'd than Prince Lucifer;

There is not yet so ugly a fiend of hell

As thou shalt be, if thou didst kill this child.

HUBERT.

Upon my soul-

BASTARD.

If thou didst but consent

To this most cruel act, do but despair;

And if thou want'st a cord, the smallest thread

That ever spider twisted from her womb

Will serve to strangle thee; a rush will be a beam

To hang thee on; or wouldst thou drown thyself,

Put but a little water in a spoon

And it shall be as all the ocean,

Enough to stifle such a villain up

I do suspect thee very grievously.

HUBERT.

If I in act, consent, or sin of thought,

Be guilty of the stealing that sweet breath

Which was embounded in this beauteous clay,

Let hell want pains enough to torture me!

I left him well.

BASTARD.

Go, bear him in thine arms.

I am amaz'd, methinks, and lose my way

Among the thorns and dangers of this world.

How easy dost thou take all England up!

From forth this morsel of dead royalty

The life, the right, and truth of all this realm

Is fled to heaven; and England now is left

To tug and scamble, and to part by th' teeth

The unowed interest of proud-swelling state.

Now for the bare-pick'd bone of majesty

Doth dogged war bristle his angry crest

And snarleth in the gentle eyes of peace;

Now powers from home and discontents at home

Meet in one line; and vast confusion waits,

As doth a raven on a sick-fall'n beast,

The imminent decay of wrested pomp.

Now happy he whose cloak and cincture can

Hold out this tempest. Bear away that child,

And follow me with speed. I'll to the King;

A thousand businesses are brief in hand,

And heaven itself doth frown upon the land.

Exeunt

ACT V.

SCENE 1. England. KING JOHN'S palace

Enter KING JOHN, PANDULPH, and attendants

KING JOHN.

Thus have I yielded up into your hand

The circle of my glory.

PANDULPH.

[Gives back the crown] Take again

From this my hand, as holding of the Pope,

Your sovereign greatness and authority.

KING JOHN.

Now keep your holy word; go meet the French;

And from his Holiness use all your power

To stop their marches fore we are inflam'd.

Our discontented counties do revolt;

Our people quarrel with obedience,

Swearing allegiance and the love of soul

To stranger blood, to foreign royalty.

This inundation of mistemp'red humour

Rests by you only to be qualified.

Then pause not; for the present time's so sick

That present med'cine must be minist'red

Or overthrow incurable ensues.

PANDULPH.

It was my breath that blew this tempest up,

Upon your stubborn usage of the Pope;

But since you are a gentle convertite,

My tongue shall hush again this storm of war

And make fair weather in your blust'ring land.

On this Ascension-day, remember well,

Upon your oath of service to the Pope,

Go I to make the French lay down their arms.

Exit

KING JOHN. Is this Ascension-day? Did not the prophet

Say that before Ascension-day at noon

My crown I should give off? Even so I have.

I did suppose it should be on constraint;

But, heaven be thank'd, it is but voluntary.

Enter the BASTARD

BASTARD.