Enter a Messenger Messenger My lord,your valiant kinsman,Faulconbridge,Desires your majesty to leave the field And send him word by me which way you go.KING JOHN Tell him,toward Swinstead,to the abbey there.Messenger Be of good comfort;for the great supply That was expected by the Dauphin here,Are wreck'd three nights ago on Goodwin Sands.
This news was brought to Richard but even now:
The French fight coldly,and retire themselves.KING JOHN Ay me!this tyrant fever burns me up,And will not let me welcome this good news.
Set on toward Swinstead:to my litter straight;Weakness possesseth me,and I am faint.Exeunt
SCENE IV.England.Another part of the battlefield
Enter SALISBURY,PEMBROKE,and BIGOT SALISBURY I did not think the king so stored with friends.PEMBROKE Up once again;put spirit in the French:
If they miscarry,we miscarry too.SALISBURY That misbegotten devil,Faulconbridge,In spite of spite,alone upholds the day.PEMBROKE They say King John sore sick hath left the field.
Enter MELUN,wounded MELUN Lead me to the revolts of England here.SALISBURY When we were happy we had other names.PEMBROKE It is the Count Melun.SALISBURY Wounded to death.MELUN Fly,noble English,you are bought and sold;Unthread the rude eye of rebellion And welcome home again discarded faith.
Seek out King John and fall before his feet;
For if the French be lords of this loud day,He means to recompense the pains you take By cutting off your heads:thus hath he sworn And I with him,and many moe with me,Upon the altar at Saint Edmundsbury;Even on that altar where we swore to you Dear amity and everlasting love.SALISBURY May this be possible?may this be true?MELUN Have I not hideous death within my view,Retaining but a quantity of life,Which bleeds away,even as a form of wax Resolveth from his figure 'gainst the fire?
What in the world should make me now deceive,Since I must lose the use of all deceit?
Why should I then be false,since it is true That I must die here and live hence by truth?
I say again,if Lewis do win the day,He is forsworn,if e'er those eyes of yours Behold another day break in the east:
But even this night,whose black contagious breath Already smokes about the burning crest Of the old,feeble and day-wearied sun,Even this ill night,your breathing shall expire,Paying the fine of rated treachery Even with a treacherous fine of all your lives,If Lewis by your assistance win the day.
Commend me to one Hubert with your king:
The love of him,and this respect besides,For that my grandsire was an Englishman,Awakes my conscience to confess all this.
In lieu whereof,I pray you,bear me hence From forth the noise and rumour of the field,Where I may think the remnant of my thoughts In peace,and part this body and my soul With contemplation and devout desires.SALISBURY We do believe thee:and beshrew my soul But I do love the favour and the form Of this most fair occasion,by the which We will untread the steps of damned flight,And like a bated and retired flood,Leaving our rankness and irregular course,Stoop low within those bounds we have o'erlook'd And cabby run on in obedience Even to our ocean,to our great King John.
My arm shall give thee help to bear thee hence;For I do see the cruel pangs of death Right in thine eye.Away,my friends!New flight;And happy newness,that intends old right.
Exeunt,leading off MELUN
SCENE V.England.The French camp
Enter LEWIS and his train
LEWIS The sun of heaven methought was loath to set,But stay'd and made the western welkin blush,When English measure backward their own ground In faint retire.O,bravely came we off,When with a volley of our needless shot,After such bloody toil,we bid good night;And wound our tattering colours clearly up,Last in the field,and almost lords of it!
Enter a Messenge
Messenger Where is my prince,the Dauphin?LEWIS Here:what news?Messenger The Count Melun is slain;the English lords By his persuasion are again fall'n off,And your supply,which you have wish'd so long,Are cast away and sunk on Goodwin Sands.LEWIS Ah,foul shrewd news!beshrew thy very heart!
I did not think to be so sad to-night As this hath made me.Who was he that said King John did fly an hour or two before The stumbling night did part our weary powers?Messenger Whoever spoke it,it is true,my lord.LEWIS Well;keep good quarter and good care to-night:
The day shall not be up so soon as I,To try the fair adventure of to-morrow.
Exeunt
SCENE VI.An open place wear Swinstead Abbey
Enter the BASTARD and HUBERT,severally
HUBERT Who's there?speak,ho!speak quickly,or I shoot.BASTARD A friend.What art thou?HUBERT Of the part of England.BASTARD Whither dost thou go?HUBERT What's that to thee?why may not I demand Of thine affairs,as well as thou of mine?BASTARD Hubert,I think?HUBERT Thou hast a perfect thought:
I will upon all hazards well believe Thou art my friend,that know'st my tongue so well.
Who art thou?BASTARD Who thou wilt:and if thou please,Thou mayst befriend me so much as to think I come one way of the Plantagenets.HUBERT Unkind remembrance!thou and eyeless night Have done me shame:brave soldier,pardon me,That any accent breaking from thy tongue Should 'scape the true acquaintance of mine ear.BASTARD Come,come;sans compliment,what news abroad?HUBERT Why,here walk I in the black brow of night,To find you out.BASTARD Brief,then;and what's the news?HUBERT O,my sweet sir,news fitting to the night,Black,fearful,comfortless and horrible.BASTARD Show me the very wound of this ill news:
I am no woman,I'll not swoon at it.HUBERT The king,I fear,is poison'd by a monk.