The Complete Historical Plays of William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare. Читать онлайн. Newlib. NEWLIB.NET

Автор: William Shakespeare
Издательство: Bookwire
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Жанр произведения: Языкознание
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isbn: 9788027236930
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Indeed, we fear’d his sickness was past cure.

       PEMBROKE.

       Indeed, we heard how near his death he was,

       Before the child himself felt he was sick:

       This must be answer’d either here or hence.

       KING JOHN.

       Why do you bend such solemn brows on me?

       Think you I bear the shears of destiny?

       Have I commandment on the pulse of life?

       SALISBURY.

       It is apparent foul-play; and ‘tis shame

       That greatness should so grossly offer it:

       So thrive it in your game! and so, farewell.

       PEMBROKE.

       Stay yet, Lord Salisbury, I’ll go with thee

       And find th’ inheritance of this poor child,

       His little kingdom of a forced grave.

       That blood which ow’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 sorrows, and ere long, I doubt.

       [Exeunt LORDS.]

       KING JOHN.

       They burn in indignation. I repent:

       There is no sure foundation set on blood;

       No certain life achiev’d by others’ death.—

       [Enter a MESSENGER.]

       A fearful eye thou hast: where is that blood

       That I have seen inhabit in those cheeks?

       So foul a sky clears not without a storm:

       Pour down thy weather:—how goes all in France?

       MESSENGER.

       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 comes that they are all arriv’d.

       KING JOHN.

       O, where hath our intelligence been drunk?

       Where hath it slept? Where is my mother’s care,

       That such an army could be drawn in France,

       And she not hear of it?

       MESSENGER.

       My liege, her ear

       Is stopp’d with dust; the first of April died

       Your noble mother; and as I hear, my lord,

       The Lady Constance in a frenzy died

       Three days before; but this from rumour’s tongue

       I idly heard,—if true or false I know not.

       KING JOHN.

       Withhold thy speed, dreadful occasion!

       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 whose conduct came those powers of France

       That thou for truth giv’st out are landed here?

       MESSENGER.

       Under the Dauphin.

       KING JOHN.

       Thou hast made me giddy

       With these in tidings.

       [Enter the BASTARD and PETER OF POMFRET.]

       Now! What says the world

       To your proceedings? do not seek to stuff

       My head with more ill news, for it is full.

       BASTARD.

       But if you be afear’d to hear the worst,

       Then let the worst, unheard, fall on your head.

       KING JOHN.

       Bear with me, cousin, for I was amaz’d

       Under the tide: but now I breathe again

       Aloft the flood; and can give audience

       To any tongue, speak it of what it will.

       BASTARD.

       How I have sped among the clergymen,

       The sums I have collected shall express.

       But as I travell’d hither through the land,

       I find the people strangely fantasied;

       Possess’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 sung, in rude harsh-sounding rhymes,

       That, ere the next Ascension-day at noon,

       Your highness should deliver up your crown.

       KING JOHN.

       Thou idle dreamer, wherefore didst thou so?

       PETER.

       Foreknowing that the truth will fall out so.

       KING JOHN.

       Hubert, away with him; imprison him;

       And on that day at noon, whereon he says

       I shall yield up my crown, let him be hang’d.

       Deliver him to safety; and return,

       For I must use thee.

       [Exit HUBERT with PETER.]

       O my gentle cousin,

       Hear’st thou the news abroad, who are arriv’d?

       BASTARD.

       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, whom they say is kill’d tonight

       On your suggestion.

       KING JOHN.

       Gentle kinsman, go

       And thrust thyself into their companies:

       I have a way to will their loves again:

       Bring them before me.

       BASTARD.

       I will seek them out.

       KING JOHN.

       Nay, but make haste; the better foot before.

       O, let me have no subject enemies

       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.

       BASTARD.

       The spirit of the time shall teach me speed.

       KING JOHN.

       Spoke like a sprightful noble gentleman!

       [Exit BASTARD.]

       Go after him; for he perhaps shall need

       Some messenger betwixt me