York. Give me my boots, I say. And rob me of a happy mother's name? A dozen of them here have ta'en the sacrament, And interchangeably set down their hands, To kill the king at Oxford. Duch. He shall be none; We'll keep him here: then what is that to him? 100 York. Away, fond woman! were he twenty times my son, I would appeach him. He is as like thee as a man may be, York. Make way, unruly woman! 110 [Exit. Duch. After, Aumerle! mount thee upon his horse; Spur post, and get before him to the king, SCENE III. A royal palace. "Tis full three months since I did see him Aum. God save your grace! I do beseech your majesty, To have some conference with your grace alone. Boling. Withdraw yourselves, and leave us here alone. [Exeunt Percy and Lords. What is the matter with our cousin now? Aum. For ever may my knees grow to the earth, 30 My tongue cleave to my roof within my mouth, Unless a pardon ere I rise or speak. Boling. Intended or committed was this fault? If on the first, how heinous e'er it be, That no man enter till my tale be done. York. [Within] My liege, beware: look to thyself; Thou hast a traitor in thy presence there. 40 Boling. Villain, I'll make thee safe. [Drawing. Aum. Stay thy revengeful hand; thou hast no cause to fear. York. [Within] Open the door, secure, foolhardy king: Shall I for love speak treason to thy face? Enter YORK. Boling. What is the matter, uncle? speak, Recover breath; tell us how near is danger, That we may arm us to encounter it. York. Peruse this writing here, and thou shalt know The treason that my haste forbids me show.50 Aum. Remember, as thou read'st, thy promise pass'd: I do repent me; read not my name there; I tore it from the traitor's bosom, king; 70 And he shall spend mine honor with his shame, Boling. What shrill-voiced suppliant makes this eager cry? Duch. A woman, and thy aunt, great king; 'tis I. Speak with me, pity me, open the door : Boling. Our scene is alter'd from a serious thing, And now changed to 'The Beggar and the I never long'd to hear a word till now; Say 'pardon,' king; let pity teach thee how: The word is short, but not so short as sweet; No word like 'pardon' for kings' mouths so meet. York. Speak it in French, king; say, 'pardonne moi.' Duch. Dost thou teach pardon pardon to destroy? 120 Ah, my sour husband, my hard-hearted lord, That set'st the word itself against the word! Speak pardon' as 'tis current in our land; The chopping French we do not understand. Thine eye begins to speak; set thy tongue there; Or in thy piteous heart plant thou thine ear; That hearing how our plaints and prayers do pierce, Pity may move thee 'pardon' to rehearse. Good uncle, help to order several powers 140 To Oxford, or where'er these traitors are: They shall not live within this world, I swear, But I will have them, if I once know where. Uncle, farewell and, cousin too, adieu : Your mother well hath pray'd, and prove you true. Duch. Come, my old son: I pray God make thee new. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. The same. Enter EXTON and Servant. Exton. Didst thou not mark the king, what words he spake, 'Have I no friend will rid me of this living fear?' Was it not so? That would divorce this terror from my heart;' Meaning the king at Pomfret. Come, let's go: I am the king's friend, and will rid his foe. 11 [Exeunt. SCENE V. Pomfret castle. Enter KING RICHARD. K. Rich. I have been studying how I may compare This prison where I live unto the world: 10 In humors like the people of this world, As thus, Come, little ones,' and then again, 30 Ha, ha! keep time: how sour sweet music is, My thoughts are minutes; and with sighs they jar Their watches on unto mine eyes, the outward watch, Whereto my finger, like a dial's point, Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears. Now sir, the sound that tells what hour it is Are clamorous groans, which strike upon my heart, Which is the bell so sighs and tears and groans Show minutes, times, and hours: but my time Thanks, noble peer; The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear. What art thou? and how comest thou hither, Where no man never comes but that sad dog That brings me food to make misfortune live? Groom. I was a poor groom of thy stable, king, When thou wert king; who, travelling towards With much ado at length have gotten leave face. O, how it yearn'd my heart when I beheld How went he under him? Groom. So proudly as if he disdain'd the ground. K. Rich. So proud that Bolingbroke was on his back! That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand; This hand hath made him proud with clapping him. Would he not stumble ? would he not fall down, Since pride must have a fall, and break the neck Of that proud man that did usurp his back? Enter Keeper, with a dish. Keep. Fellow, give place; here is no longer stay. K. Rich. If thou love me, tis time thou wert away. Groom. What my tongue dares not, that my heart shall say. [Exit. Keep. My lord, will't please you to fall to? K. Rich. Taste of it first, as thou art wont to do. 99 Keep. My lord, I dare not: Sir Pierce of Exton, who lately came from the king, commands the contrary. K. Rich. The devil take Henry of Lancaster and thee ! Patience is stale, and I am weary of it. [Beats the keeper. Keep. Help, help, help! Enter EXTON and Servants, armed. K. Rich. How now! what means death in this rude assault? Villain, thy own hand yields thy death's instru 10 The manner of their taking may appear And to thy worth will add right worthy gains. Fitz. My lord, I have from Oxford sent to The heads of Brocas and Sir Bennet Seely, Right noble is thy merit, well I wot. Enter PERCY, and the BISHOP OF CARLISLE. Percy. The grand conspirator, Abbot of Westminster, 21 With clog of conscience and sour melancholy More than thou hast, and with it joy thy life; So as thou livest in peace, die free from strife : For though mine enemy thou hast ever been, High sparks of honor in thee have I seen. Enter EXTON, with persons bearing a coffin. Exton. Great king, within this coffin I pre sent 30 King John departs farther from the facts of history than any other of Shakespeare's historicai plays. He here follows for the most part not Holinshed, but an old play which appeared in 1591 entitled The Troublesome Raigne of King John of England. He follows it, however, not in the close way in which he had previously worked when writing 2 and 3 Henry VI.; the main incidents are the same, but Shakespeare elevates and almost recreates the characters; for the most eloquent and poetical passages no original is to be found in the old play. The character of the king grows more darkly treacherous in Shakespeare's barely a hint of the earlier author suggested the scene, so powerful and so subtle, in which John insinuates to Hubert his murderous desires; the boyish innocence of Arthur and the pathos of his life become real and living as they are dealt with by the imagination of Shakespeare; Constance is no longer a fierce and ambitious virago, but a passionate, sorrowing mother; Faulconbridge is ennobled by a manly tenderness and a purer patriotisin. Shakespeare depicts, with true English spirit, the faithlessness, the ambition, the political greed, and the sophistry of the court of Rome; but he wholly omits a ribald scene of the old play, in which the licentiousness of monasteries is exposed to ridicule. As to the date of King John all that can be asserted with confidence is that it lies somewhere between the early histories (Henry VI. with Richard III.) and the group of later histories, the trilogy consisting of 1 and 2 Henry IV. and Henry V. Thus in the historical series it is brought close to Richard II. Neither play contains prose, but the treatment of Faulconbridge's part shows more approach to the alliance of a humorous or comic element with history (which becomes complete in Henry IV.) than does anything in the play of Richard II. King John and Richard II. have the common characteristic of containing very inferior dramatic work side by side with work of a high and difficult kind. The chief point of difference with respect to form is that Richard II. contains a much larger proportion of rhymed verse, and on the whole we shall perhaps not err in regarding Richard II, as the earlier of the two. SCENE I. KING JOHN's palace. Enter KING JOHN, QUEEN ELINOR, PEM- K. John. Now, say, Chatillon, what would Chat. Thus, after greeting, speaks the King In my behavior to the majesty, The borrow'd majesty, of England here. |