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 fhears of destiny? Pemb. Stay yet, Lord Salisbury, I'll go with thee. That blood, which own'd the breadth of all this isle, 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, 1 doubt. SCENE III. [Exeunt. K. John. They burn in indignation; I repent. Enter a Messenger. A fearful eye thou haft; where is that blood, So foul a sky clears not without a storm; 9 Pour down thy weather. How goes all in France? Mef. From France to England. Never such a power, For any foreign preparation, Was levy'd in the body of a land. 9 From France to England.-] The kings afks how all goes in France, the messenger catches the word goes, and anfwers, that whatever is in France gees now into England. The The copy of your speed is learn'd by them: 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 first of April, dy'd Three days before: but this from rumour's tongue K. John. With-hold 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 thofe 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 these ill tidings. Enter Faulconbridge, and Peter of Pomfret. Now, what fays the world To your proceedings? Do not feek to stuff 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 Faulc. How I have fped among the clergymen, Poffeft Poffeft with rumours, full of idle dreams; K.John. Thou idle dreamer, wherefore did'ft thou fo? For I muft ufe thee. O my 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 K. John. Gentle kinsman, go And thrust thyself into their company : Faulc. I will feek them out. K. John. Nay, but make hafte: the better foot before. O, let me have no fubject enemies, When adverfe foreigners affright my towns Be Mercury, fet feathers to thy heels, ・ Deliver him to fafety,-] That is, Give him into fafe cufioty. And And fly, like thought, from them to me again. Mef. With all my heart, my Liege. SCENE IV. Enter Hubert. "Exit. Hub. My Lord, they say, five moons were seen to night : 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 he, that fpeaks, doth gripe the hearer's wrist, Had portant paffage, which, in Dr. Warburton's edition, is marked as eminently beautiful, and, in the whole, not without juftice. But Shakespeare seems to have con founded Had falfely thruft upon contrary feet, Cuts off his tale, and talks of Arthur's death. K. John. Why feek'st thou to poffefs me with these fears? Why urgeft thou fo oft young Arthur's death? Thy hand hath murder'd him: I had a cause To with him dead, but thou had'ft none to kill him. Hub. Had none, my Lord? why, did you not provoke me? K. John. It is the curfe of Kings,' to be attended To understand a law, to know the meaning Hub. Here is your hand and feal, for what I did. and earth Is to be made, then fhall this hand and feal How oft the fight of means, to do ill deeds, founded a man's fhoes with his gloves. He that is frighted or hurried may put his hand into the wrong glove, but either fhoe will equally admit either foot. The authour feems to be difturbed by the disorder which he describes. 3 It is the curfe of Kings, &c.] This plainly hints at Davifon's cafe, in the affair of Mary Queen of Scots, and fo muft have been inferted long after the first repiefentation. WARBURTON. Apt, |