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The rich advantage of good exercise 9 ?
That the time's enemies may not have this
To grace occafions, let it be our fuit,
That you have bid us afk his liberty;
Which for our good we do no further ask,
Than whereupon our weal, on you depending,
Counts it your weal, that he have liberty.
K. John. Let it be fo; I do commit his youth
Enter Hubert.

To your direction. Hubert, what news with you?
Pemb. This is the man fhould do the bloody deed :
He fhew'd his warrant to a friend of mine.

The image of a wicked heinous fault
Lives in his eye; that close aspect of his
Does fhew the mood of a much-troubled breaft;
And I do fearfully believe 'tis done,

What we fo fear'd he had a charge to do.

Sal. The colour of the king doth come and go,
Between his purpose and his confcience *,
Like heralds 'twixt two dreadful battles fet:
His paffion is fo ripe, it needs must break,

good exercife? In the middle ages the whole edu cation of princes and noble youths confifted in martial exercifes, &c. Thefe could not be easily had in a prifon, where mental improvements might have been afforded as well as any where else; but this fort of education never entered into the thoughts of our active, warlike, but illiterate nobility. PERCY. Between his purpose and his confcience,] Between his conscious nefs of guilt, and his defign to conceal it by fair profeffions. JOHNSON.

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2 Like heralds 'twixt two dreadful battles fet:] But heralds are not planted, I prefume, in the midft betwixt two lines of battle; though they, and trumpets, are often fent over from party to party, to propofe terms, demand a parley, &c. I have therefore ventured to read, fent. THEOBALD.

This Dr. Warburton has followed without much advantage; fet is not fixed, but only placed; heralds must be fer between battles in order to be sent between them. JOHNSON.

Pemb.

Pemb. And when it breaks 3, I fear, will iffue thence The foul corruption of a fweet child's death.

K. John. We cannot hold mortality's strong hand:Good lords, although my will to give is living, The fuit which you demand is gone, and dead. 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 shears of destiny?

Have I commandment on the pulse 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 farewell!
Pemb. Stay yet, lord Salisbury; I'll go with thee,
And find the inheritance of this poor child,
His little kingdom of a forced grave.

That blood, which ow'd the breadth of all this ifle,
Three foot of it doth hold: bad world the while!
This muft 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 feen inhabit in thofe cheeks?

So foul a fky clears not without a storm:
Pour down thy weather.-How goes all in France?

3 And when it breaks,] This is but an indelicate metaphor, taken from an impoftumated tumour. JOHNSON.

Mef.

1

Mef. From France to England 4. Never fuch a power

For any foreign preparation,

Was levy'd in the body of a land.

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 firft 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 speed, 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 those 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 thefe 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.

Faul. But, if you be afraid to hear the worst,
Then let the worít, unheard, fall on your head!
K. John. Bear with me, coufin; for I was amaz'd
Under the tide but now I breathe again

4 From France to England.-] The king afks how all goes in France, the meffenger catches the word goes, and anfwers, that whatever is in France goes now into England. JOHNSON.

Aloft

Aloft the flood; and can give audience
To any tongue, speak it of what it will.
Faule. 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;
Poffefs'd 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 ftreets of Pomfret, whom I found
With many hundreds treading on his heels,
To whom he fung in rude harth-founding rhimes,
That, ere the next Afcenfion-day at noon,
Your highness fhould deliver up your crown.

K. John. Thou idle dreamer, wherefore did'ft thou fay 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 must use thee.

O 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 kinfman, go

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

'Deliver him to safety,cuftody. JOHNSON.

VOL. V.

-] That is, Give bim into fafe

F

Faulc.

Faulc. I will feck 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,
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
And be thou he.

peers;

Mef. With all my heart, my lege..

K. John. My mother dead!

Enter Hubert.

[Exit.

Hub. My lord, they fay, 2 five moons were seen tonight:

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 whifper one another in the ear;

And he, that fpeaks, doth gripe the hearer's wrift;
Whilft he, that hears, makes fearful action

With wrinkled brows, with nods, with rolling eyes..
I faw a fmith ftand with his hammer, thus,

2

fee moons as were feen to-night, &c.] This incident is méntioned by few of our hiftorians: I have met with it no where, but in Matthew of Wiminfler and Polydore Virgil, with a fmall alteration. Theie kind of appearances were more comimen about that time, than either before or fince. Dr. GRAY.. This incident is likewife mentioned in the old copy of the play. STEEVENS.

The

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