Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

A bare-ribb'd death, whose office is this day
To feast upon whole thousands of the French.

Lewis. Strike up our drums, to find this danger

out.

Faulc. And thou shalt find it, Dauphin, do not

doubt.

SCENE III.

[Exeunt.

A Field of Battle. Alarums. Enter King JOHN, and HUBERT.

K. John. How goes the day with us? oh, tell me, Hubert.

Hub. Badly, I fear: How fares your majesty ?

K. John. This fever, that hath troubled me so long, Lies heavy on me; Oh, my heart is sick!

Enter a Messenger.

Mes. My lord, your valiant kinsman, Faulcon

bridge,

Desires your majesty to leave the field;

And send him word by me, which way you go.

270

K. John. Tell him, toward Swinstead, to the abbey

there.

Mes. Be of good comfort; for the great supply, That was expected by the Dauphin here,

Are wreck'd three nights ago on Goodwin sands. This news was brought to Richard but even now: The French fight coldly, and retire themselves.

K. John.

K. John. Ah me! this tyrant fever burns me up, And will not let me welcome this good news. Set on toward Swinstead: to my litter straight; Weakness possesseth me, and I am faint.

280 [Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

The French Camp. Enter SALISBURY, PEMBROKE, and BIGOT.

Sal. I did not think the king so stor❜d with friends. Pemb. Up once again; put spirit in the French; If they miscarry, we miscarry too.

Sal. That misbegotten devil, Faulconbridge,

In spight of spight, alone upholds the day.

Pemb. They say, king John, sore sick, hath left the field.

Enter MELUN wounded, and led by Soldiers.

Melun. Lead me to the revolts of England here. Sal. When we were happy, we had other names. Pemb. It is the count Melun.

Sal. Wounded to death.

290

Melun. Fly, noble English, you are bought and sold? Unthread the rude eye of rebellion,

And welcome home again discarded faith.
Seek out king John, and fall before his feet
For, if the French be lords of this loud day,
He means to recompence the pains you take,

By

By cutting off your heads: Thus hath he sworn,
And I with him, and many more with me,
Upon the altar at Saint Edmund's-Bury;
Even on that altar, where we swore to you
Dear amity and everlasting love.

300

Sal. May this be possible! may this be true! Melun. Have I not hideous death within my view, Retaining but a quantity of life;

Which bleeds away, even as a form of wax

Resolveth from his figure 'gainst the fire?

What in the world should make me now deceive,
Since I must lose the use of all deceit ?

Why should I then be false; since it is true

310

That I must die here, and live hence by truth?

I say again, if Lewis do win the day,

He is forsworn, if e'er those eyes of your's
Behold another day break in the east:

But even this night-whose black contagious breath
Already smokes about the burning crest

Of the old, feeble, and day-wearied sun-
Even this ill night, your breathing shall expire;
Paying the fine of rated treachery,
Even with a treacherous fine of all your lives,
If Lewis by your assistance win the day.
Commend me to one Hubert, with your king;
The love of him-and this respect besides,
For that my grandsire was an Englishman—
Awakes my conscience to confess all this.
In lieu whereof, I pray you, bear me hence
From forth the noise and rumour of the field;

320

Where

Where I may think the remnant of my thoughts
In peace, and part this body and my soul
With contemplation and devout desires.

330

Sal. We do believe thee-And beshrew my soul

But I do love the favour and the form

Of this most fair occasion, by the which
We will untread the steps of damned flight;
And, like a bated and retired flood,

Leaving our rankness and irregular course,
Stoop low within those bounds we have o'er-look'd,
And calmly run on in obedience,

Even to our ocean, to our great king John.

My arm shall give thee help to bear thee hence; 340 For I do see the cruel pangs of death

Right in thine eye.-Away, my friends! New flight; And happy newness, that intends old right.

[Exeunt, leading off MELUN.

SCENE V.

A different Part of the French Camp. Enter LEWIS, and his Train.

Lewis. The sun of heaven, methought was loth to

set;

But staid, and made the western welkin blush,

When the English measur'd backward their own

ground

In faint retire; Oh, bravely came we off,

When

When with a volley of our needless shot,
After such bloody toil, we bid good night;
And wound our tatter'd colours clearly up,
Last in the field, and almost lords of it !—
Enter a Messenger.

Mes. Where is my prince, the Dauphin ?
Lewis. Here:What news?

350

Mes. The count Melun is slain; the English lords,

By his persuasion, are again fallen off:

And your supplies, which you have wish'd so long, Are cast away, and sunk, on Goodwin sands.

Lewis. Ah foul shrewd news!-Beshrew thy very heart !

I did not think to be so sad to-night,

As this hath made me.-Who was he, that said, 360
King John did fly, an hour or two before

The stumbling night did part our weary powers?
Mes. Whoever spoke it, it is true, my lord.

Lewis. Well; keep good quarter, and good care

to-night:

The day shall not be up so soon as I,
To try the fair adventure of to-morrow.

[Exeunt.

SCENE

« ПредишнаНапред »