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see to live; I will not touch thine eye

       For all the treasure that thine uncle owes:

       Yet I am sworn, and I did purpose, boy,

       With this same very iron to burn them out.

       ARTHUR.

       O, now you look like Hubert! all this while

       You were disguised.

       HUBERT.

       Peace; no more. Adieu!

       Your uncle must not know but you are dead;

       I’ll fill these dogged spies with false reports:

       And, pretty child, sleep doubtless and secure

       That Hubert, for the wealth of all the world,

       Will not offend thee.

       ARTHUR.

       O heaven! I thank you, Hubert.

       HUBERT.

       Silence; no more: go closely in with me:

       Much danger do I undergo for thee.

       [Exeunt.]

       SCENE 2.The same. A Room of State in the Palace.

       [Enter KING JOHN, crowned, PEMBROKE, SALISBURY, and other LORDS.

       The KING takes his State.]

       KING JOHN.

       Here once again we sit, once again crown’d,

       And look’d upon, I hope, with cheerful eyes.

       PEMBROKE.

       This once again, but that your highness pleas’d,

       Was once superfluous: you were crown’d before,

       And that high royalty was ne’er pluck’d off;

       The faiths of men ne’er stained with revolt;

       Fresh expectation troubled not the land

       With any long’d-for change or better state.

       SALISBURY.

       Therefore, to be possess’d with double pomp,

       To guard a title that was rich before,

       To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,

       To throw a perfume on the violet,

       To smooth the ice, or add another hue

       Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light

       To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,

       Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.

       PEMBROKE.

       But that your royal pleasure must be done,

       This act is as an ancient tale new told;

       And, in the last repeating troublesome,

       Being urged at a time unseasonable.

       SALISBURY.

       In this, the antique and well-noted face

       Of plain old form is much disfigured;

       And, like a shifted wind unto a sail,

       It makes the course of thoughts to fetch about;

       Startles and frights consideration;

       Makes sound opinion sick, and truth suspected,

       For putting on so new a fashion’d robe.

       PEMBROKE.

       When workmen strive to do better than well,

       They do confound their skill in covetousness;

       And oftentimes excusing of a fault

       Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse,—

       As patches set upon a little breach

       Discredit more in hiding of the fault

       Than did the fault before it was so patch’d.

       SALISBURY.

       To this effect, before you were new-crown’d,

       We breath’d our counsel: but it pleas’d your highness

       To overbear it; and we are all well pleas’d,

       Since all and every part of what we would

       Doth make a stand at what your highness will.

       KING JOHN.

       Some reasons of this double coronation

       I have possess’d you with, and think them strong;

       And more, more strong, when lesser is my fear,

       I shall indue you with: meantime but ask

       What you would have reform’d that is not well,

       And well shall you perceive how willingly

       I will both hear and grant you your requests.

       PEMBROKE.

       Then I,—as one that am the tongue of these,

       To sound the purposes of all their hearts,—

       Both for myself and them,—but, chief of all,

       Your safety, for the which myself and them

       Bend their best studies,—heartily request

       The enfranchisement of Arthur, whose restraint

       Doth move the murmuring lips of discontent

       To break into this dangerous argument,—

       If what in rest you have in right you hold,

       Why then your fears,—which, as they say, attend

       The steps of wrong,—should move you to mew up

       Your tender kinsman, and to choke his days

       With barbarous ignorance, and deny his youth

       The rich advantage of good exercise?

       That the time’s enemies may not have this

       To grace occasions, let it be our suit

       That you have bid us ask his liberty;

       Which for our goods we do no further ask

       Than whereupon our weal, on you depending,

       Counts it your weal he have his liberty.

       KING JOHN.

       Let it be so: I do commit his youth

       To your direction.

       [Enter HUBERT.]

       Hubert, what news with you?

       PEMBROKE.

       This is the man should do the bloody deed;

       He show’d his warrant to a friend of mine:

       The image of a wicked heinous fault

       Lives in his eye; that close aspect of his

       Doth show the mood of a much-troubled breast;

       And I do fearfully believe ‘tis done

       What we so fear’d he had a charge to do.

       SALISBURY.

       The colour of the king doth come and go

       Between his purpose and his conscience,

       Like heralds ‘twixt two dreadful battles set.

       His passion is so ripe it needs must break.

       PEMBROKE.

       And when it breaks, I fear will issue thence

       The foul corruption of a sweet child’s death.

       KING JOHN.

       We cannot hold mortality’s strong hand:—

       Good lords, although my will to give is living,

       The suit which you demand is gone and dead:

       He tells us Arthur is deceas’d tonight.

      

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