Enter HUBERT. To your direction.-Hubert, what news with you? [HUBERT talks apart with the King. Pem. This is the man should do the bloody deed : The image of a wicked heinous fault What we so fear'd he had a charge to do. Sal. The colour of the king doth come and go, Pem. And when it breaks, I fear, will issue thence K. John. We cannot hold mortality's strong hand.- Sal. Indeed, we fear'd his sickness was past cure. K. John. Why do you bend such solemn brows on me? Sal. It is apparent foul-play; and 'tis shame, Pem. Stay yet, lord Salisbury; I'll go with thee, That blood which ow'd' the breadth of all this isle, [Exeunt Lords. K. John. They burn in indignation. I repent: 'That blood which ow'D] To "owe" is of course to own. See also p. 177, and other places where we have deemed a note unnecessary. Enter a Messenger. A fearful eye thou hast: where is that blood, So foul a sky clears not without a storm : Pour down thy weather.-How goes all in France? Mess. From France to England. - Never such a power For any foreign preparation, Was levied 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 slept? Where is my mother's care, And she not hear of it? Mess. My liege, her ear K. John. Withhold thy speed, dreadful Occasion! Mess. Under the Dauphin. Enter the Bastard, and PETER of POMFRET. K. John. Thou hast made me giddy With these ill tidings.-Now, what says the world Bast. But if you be afeard to hear the worst, K. John. Bear with me, cousin, for I was amaz'd Under the tide; but now I breathe again * Under whose conduct COME those powers of France,] It is came in the old copies, but clearly misprinted and set right in the corr. fo. 1632. John is speaking of present danger from a present leader. Aloft the flood, and can give audience K. John. Thou idle dreamer, wherefore didst thou so? For I must use thee. O my gentle cousin ! [Exit HUBERT, with PETER. Hear'st thou the news abroad, who are arriv'd? Bast. The French, my lord; men's mouths are full of it : Besides, 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 say, is kill'd to-night On your suggestion. K. John. Gentle kinsman, go, And thrust thyself into their companies. Bring them before me. Bast. I will seek them out. K. John. Nay, but make haste; the better foot before. O! let me have no subject enemies, 9 And here's a prophet,) "This man," says Douce, "was a hermit in great repute with the common people. Notwithstanding the event is said to have fallen out as he had prophesied, the poor fellow was inhumanly dragged at horses' tails through the streets of Warham, and, together with his son, who appears to have been even more innocent than his father, hanged afterwards upon a gibbet." See "Holinshed's Chronicle," under the year 1213. In the old "King John," there is a scene between the prophet and the people, but otherwise altogether undeserving of notice. When adverse foreigners affright my towns With dreadful pomp of stout invasion. Be Mercury: set feathers to thy heels, And fly like thought from them to me again. Bast. The spirit of the time shall teach me speed. [Exit. K. John. Spoke like a spriteful, noble gentleman. Go after him; for he, perhaps, shall need Some messenger betwixt me and the peers, Hub. My lord, they say, five moons were seen to-night'; Four fixed, and the fifth did whirl about The other four in wonderous motion. K. John. Five moons? Hub. Old men, and beldams, in the streets Do prophesy upon it dangerously. Young Arthur's death is common in their mouths, And when they talk of him, they shake their heads, And whisper one another in the ear; And he that speaks, doth gripe the hearer's wrist, Cuts off his tale, and talks of Arthur's death. K. John. Why seek'st thou to possess me with these fears? Why urgest thou so oft young Arthur's death? Thy hand hath murder'd him: I had a mighty cause To wish him dead, but thou hadst none to kill him. 1 five moons were seen to-night;] In the old "King John," the five moons were in some way made visible to the audience: the stage-direction is, "There the five moons appear." Hub. No had, my lord! why, did you not provoke me? By slaves, that take their humours for a warrant And, on the winking of authority, To understand a law; to know the meaning Hub. Here is your hand and seal for what I did. K. John. O! when the last account 'twixt heaven and earth Is to be made, then shall this hand and seal How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds, Hub. My lord, K. John. Hadst thou but shook thy head, or made a pause, When I spake darkly what I purposed; Or turn'd an eye of doubt upon my face As bid me tell my tale in express words, Deep shame had struck me dumb, made me break off, But thou didst understand me by my signs, And didst in signs again parley with sign '; 2 No had, my lord!) Hubert expresses his surprise at John's statement in a form of speech which was not uncommon in the time of Shakespeare. See Vol. ii. p. 368, where "No hath not?" occurs in just the same way. 3 Makes ill deeds done!] It is "deeds ill done" in the folios, a very intelligible form of speaking; but as the corr. fo. 1632 reverses the order of the words, we may conclude that the placing of the adjective after the substantive was merely an error of the press. Two lines below "quoted" means noted or distinguished. 4 As bid me tell my tale] i. e. "Turned such an eye of doubt, &c. as bade or did bid me tell my tale." Malone and others read And for "As." The corr. fo. 1632 has it "Or bid me tell my tale," but the change is needless. And didst in signs again parley with SIGN;] So the corr. fo. 1632, and there can be no reasonable doubt that "sign" was the poet's word, and not sin as in the |