Pemb. When workmen ftrige to do better than well, They do confound their fkill in covetournefs:

And, oftentimes, excufing of a fault

Doth make the fault the worfe by the excufe;
As patches, fet upon a little breach,
Difcredit more in hiding of the fault,
Than did the fault before it was fo patch'd.

Sal. To this effect, before you were new-crown'd,
We breath'd our counsel: but it pleas'd your highness
To over-bear 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.

K. John. Some reafons of this double coronation I have poffefs'd you with, and think them strong; And more, more ftrong (when leffer is my fear) I shall endue you with: Mean time, 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. Pemb. Then I, (as one that am the tongue of these, To found the purpofes of all their hearts) Both for myself and them (but, chief of all, Your fafety, for the which myself and them Bend their best ftudies) heartily request The enfranchisement of Arthur; whofe reftraint Doth move the murmuring lips of difcontent To break into this dangerous argument,

If, what in rest you have, in right you hold,

1

* do confound their skill in covetousness :]-defeat, fruftrate all the efforts of their ingenuity thro' their emulation, their eager thirst after anattainable excellence. fault,]-blemish-flasu.

* poffefs'd]—acquainted.

Is he yet poffefs'd

"How much you would?"

MERCHANT OF VENICE, Vol. II. p. 96. Anth.

To found ]-To declare.

Why

Why fhould your fears (which, as they fay, attend
The steps of wrong) then move you to mew up
Your tender kinfman, and to choak 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 occafions, let it be our fuit
That you have bid us afk, 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.
K. John. Let it be fo; I do commit his youth

To your

Enter Hubert.

direction.-Hubert, what news with you? Pemb. This is the man should 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 conscience,

Like heralds 'twixt two dreadful battles fet:
His paffion is fo ripe, it needs must break.

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

K. John. We cannot hold mortality's ftrong hand :Good lords, although my will to give is living,

Between bis purpose and his confcience,]-Between his confcious guilt, and aim to hide it-Between his horrid defign, and the dread of accomplishing it, the king's mind is violently agitated,

The

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 past cure.

Pemb. Indeed, we hear'd how near his death he was, Before the child himself felt he was fick :

This must be answer'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 pulse of life? Sal. It is apparent foul-play; and 'tis fhame,

с

That greatness should fo grofsly 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.

d

That blood, which ow'd the breadth of all this ifte,
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, I doubt.

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 seen inhabit in those cheeks?

So foul a fky clears not without a ftorm:

[Exeunt.

Pour down thy weather :-How goes all in France?

Mef. From France to England. Never fuch a power For any foreign preparation,

Was levy'd in the body of a land!

So thrive it in your game!]-May your game thrive as it deserves, from your management of the cards; may the iffue answer the outset. dow'd]-own'd.

From France to England,]-All goes from France, &c.

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 could be drawn in France,

And the not hear of it?

Mef. My liege, her ear

Is stopt 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. Withhold 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 those powers of France,
That, thou for truth giv'ft out, are landed here?
Mef. Under the Dauphin.

Enter Faulconbridge and Peter of Pomfret.

K. John. Thou haft made me giddy

With these ill tidings.-Now, what says 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 afeard 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.

$ 0, where bath our intelligence been drunk?
Where bath it flept?]-MACBETH, A&t I. S. 7. Lady.

Faule!

Faule. How I have fped among the clergymen,
The fums I have collected fhall express.

But, as I travell'd hither through 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 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 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 says,

I fhall yield up my crown, let him be hang'd:
Deliver him to fafety, and return,

For I must use thee.-O my gentle coufin,

[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 seek 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.

Faulc. I will seek them out.

K. John.