Enter King John, Pembroke, Salisbury, and other
Lords. King John ascends the throne. KING JOHN
Here once again we sit, once again crowned
And looked upon, I hope, with cheerful eyes. PEMBROKE
This “once again,” but that your Highness pleased,
Was once superfluous. You were crowned before,
And that high royalty was ne’er plucked off, 5
The faiths of men ne’er stainèd with revolt;
Fresh expectation troubled not the land
With any longed-for change or better state. SALISBURY
Therefore, to be possessed with double pomp,
To guard a title that was rich before, 10
To gild refinèd 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, 15
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 urgèd at a time unseasonable. 20 SALISBURY
In this the antique and well-noted face
Of plain old form is much disfigurèd,
And like a shifted wind unto a sail,
It makes the course of thoughts to fetch about,
Startles and frights consideration, 25
Makes sound opinion sick and truth suspected
For putting on so new a fashioned robe. PEMBROKE
When workmen strive to do better than well,
They do confound their skill in covetousness,
And oftentimes excusing of a fault 30
Doth make the fault the worse by th’ excuse,
As patches set upon a little breach
Discredit more in hiding of the fault
Than did the fault before it was so patched. SALISBURY
To this effect, before you were new-crowned, 35
We breathed our counsel; but it pleased your
Highness
To overbear it, and we are all well pleased,
Since all and every part of what we would
Doth make a stand at what your Highness will. 40 KING JOHN
Some reasons of this double coronation
I have possessed you with, and think them strong;
And more, more strong, when lesser is my fear,
I shall endue you with. Meantime, but ask
What you would have reformed that is not well, 45
And well shall you perceive how willingly
I will both hear and grant you your requests. | Now we are in the English royal court, where King John has just had himself crowned...for a second time. Pembroke and Salisbury, two English noblemen, criticize John for this second coronation. They think it's pointless and wasteful. Also, they think that it makes people suspicious. If everything's on the up and up with John's right to be king, what's the point of getting crowned again? King John replies, "I've got my own reasons for getting crowned again, and when I feel secure, I just might tell you what they are." In the meantime, he says if they have any other concerns, all they have to do is tell him and he'll do what he can to make them happy. |
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 50
Your safety, for the which myself and them
Bend their best studies, heartily request
Th’ enfranchisement of Arthur, whose restraint
Doth move the murmuring lips of discontent
To break into this dangerous argument: 55
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 60
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 65
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? King John and Hubert talk aside. | Pembroke tells the king that he and the other nobles only request that Arthur be set free. He says that imprisoning Arthur makes the people doubt that King John really has a legal right to the crown. Why else would he go to the trouble of locking his nephew up? Uh-oh. King John doesn't blink. He just says, "Yeah, whatever. I'll let you decide what to do with the boy." When Hubert walks into the room, King John calls him over for a private chat, STAT. |
PEMBROKE
This is the man should do the bloody deed.
He showed 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, 75
And I do fearfully believe ’tis done
What we so feared he had a charge to do. SALISBURY
The color of the King doth come and go
Between his purpose and his conscience,
Like heralds ’twixt two dreadful battles set. 80
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, coming forward with Hubert
We cannot hold mortality’s strong hand.—
Good lords, although my will to give is living, 85
The suit which you demand is gone and dead.
He tells us Arthur is deceased tonight. SALISBURY
Indeed, we feared his sickness was past cure. PEMBROKE
Indeed, we heard how near his death he was
Before the child himself felt he was sick. 90
This must be answered 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 95
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 forcèd grave. 100
That blood which owed 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. Pembroke, Salisbury, and other Lords exit. | While King John talks with Hubert, the nobles have a private chat of their own. Pembroke tells Salisbury that he knows, through a friend, that Hubert had a warrant to execute Arthur. He also says that Hubert has a nervous, guilty look to him. Salisbury thinks the king looks nervous, too. When King John is done talking to Hubert, he turns to the two noblemen and says, "Sorry, fellas. You know I'd love to grant your request, but unfortunately, Arthur is dead." As you might expect, Pembroke and Salisbury think this is pretty shady. Even though King John acts like he had nothing to do with it, his noblemen storm out in a huff. |
KING JOHN
They burn in indignation. I repent. 105
There is no sure foundation set on blood,
No certain life achieved by others’ death. Enter 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. 110
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 learned by them, 115
For when you should be told they do prepare,
The tidings comes that they are all arrived. 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 120
And she not hear of it? MESSENGERMy liege, her ear
Is stopped with dust. The first of April died
Your noble mother. And as I hear, my lord,
The Lady Constance in a frenzy died 125
Three days before. But this from rumor’s tongue
I idly heard. If true or false, I know not. KING JOHN, aside
Withhold thy speed, dreadful occasion!
O, make a league with me till I have pleased
My discontented peers. What? Mother dead? 130
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 135
With these ill tidings. Enter Bastard and Peter of Pomfret. To Bastard. 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 afeard to hear the worst, 140
Then let the worst, unheard, fall on your head. KING JOHN
Bear with me, cousin, for I was amazed
Under the tide, but now I breathe again
Aloft the flood and can give audience
To any tongue, speak it of what it will. 145 BASTARD
How I have sped among the clergymen
The sums I have collected shall express.
But as I traveled hither through the land,
I find the people strangely fantasied,
Possessed with rumors, full of idle dreams, 150
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 155
That ere the next Ascension Day at noon,
Your Highness should deliver up your crown. | King John's beginning to regret his decision to have Arthur killed. A messenger enters, looking grim, and the king asks him what's going on in France. The messenger says the French have gotten together a giant invasion force—and have already landed in England. King John can't believe his ears. How come his mother Eleanor, who is still in France, didn't warn him? The messenger replies that Queen Eleanor is dead. Constance is dead, too. According to the rumor, anyway. King John's all, "Oh no! My mom's dead? Now what's going to happen to all my land in France?" Because priorities. Next, King John says he wants to know who's leading the French forces. The messenger tells him it's Louis, the Dauphin of France. Just then, in walks the Bastard, accompanied by a man named Peter of Pomfret. King John doesn't think he can take more bad news, but clearly the Bastard has some. First, the good news: his church robbing has been a huge success—he's got a ton of treasure. The bad news? In the course of all his looting and pillaging, he's noticed that the people of the land seem pretty freaked out and full of strange ideas. Get your highlighters, because this is important. It turns out that Peter of Pomfret is a manic street preacher. He's predicted that King John will give up his crown before the next Ascension Day and people are buying it. (Ascension Day celebrates the day when Christians believe Jesus ascended to Heaven, forty days after he came back from the dead.) |
KING JOHN, to Peter
Thou idle dreamer, wherefore didst thou so? PETER
Foreknowing that the truth will fall out so. KING JOHN
Hubert, away with him! Imprison him. 160
And on that day at noon, whereon he says
I shall yield up my crown, let him be hanged.
Deliver him to safety and return,
For I must use thee. Hubert and Peter exit. O my gentle cousin, 165
Hear’st thou the news abroad, who are arrived? 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 170
Of Arthur, whom they say is killed tonight
On your suggestion. KING JOHN
Gentle kinsman, go
And thrust thyself into their companies.
I have a way to win their loves again. 175
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 180
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. He exits. KING JOHN
Spoke like a sprightful noble gentleman. 185
To Messenger. Go after him, for he perhaps shall
need
Some messenger betwixt me and the peers,
And be thou he. MESSENGER
With all my heart, my liege. 190 Messenger exits. | King John orders Hubert to throw the preacher in the slammer—and to hang him on Ascension Day. Problem solved. Hubert takes Peter away. With that out of the way, King John asks the Bastard what else is going on. The Bastard reveals that he encountered Lord Bigot and the Earl of Salisbury on their way to find the grave of Arthur. King John orders the Bastard to go meet up with them and try to bring them back around to his side. With France invading England, he needs all the help he can get. As an afterthought, he sends the messenger who just came from France to go with the Bastard. |
KING JOHN
My mother dead! Enter Hubert. HUBERT
My lord, they say five moons were seen tonight—
Four fixèd, and the fifth did whirl about
The other four in wondrous motion. KING JOHN
Five moons! 195 HUBERT
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, 200
And he that speaks doth grip the hearer’s wrist,
Whilst he that hears makes fearful action
With wrinkled brows, with nods, with rolling eyes.
I saw a smith stand with his hammer, thus,
The whilst his iron did on the anvil cool, 205
With open mouth swallowing a tailor’s news,
Who with his shears and measure in his hand,
Standing on slippers which his nimble haste
Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet,
Told of a many thousand warlike French 210
That were embattlèd and ranked in Kent.
Another lean, unwashed artificer
Cuts off his tale and talks of Arthur’s death. KING JOHN
Why seek’st thou to possess me with these fears?
Why urgest thou so oft young Arthur’s death? 215
Thy hand hath murdered him. I had a mighty cause
To wish him dead, but thou hadst none to kill him. HUBERT
No had, my lord! Why, did you not provoke me? KING JOHN
It is the curse of kings to be attended
By slaves that take their humors for a warrant 220
To break within the bloody house of life,
And on the winking of authority
To understand a law, to know the meaning
Of dangerous majesty, when perchance it frowns
More upon humor than advised respect. 225 HUBERT, showing a paper
Here is your hand and seal for what I did. KING JOHN
O, when the last accompt twixt heaven and Earth
Is to be made, then shall this hand and seal
Witness against us to damnation!
How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds 230
Make deeds ill done! Hadst not thou been by,
A fellow by the hand of nature marked,
Quoted, and signed to do a deed of shame,
This murder had not come into my mind.
But taking note of thy abhorred aspect, 235
Finding thee fit for bloody villainy,
Apt, liable to be employed in danger,
I faintly broke with thee of Arthur’s death;
And thou, to be endearèd to a king,
Made it no conscience to destroy a prince. 240 HUBERT
My lord— KING JOHN
Hadst thou but shook thy head or made a pause
When I spake darkly what I purposèd,
Or turned an eye of doubt upon my face,
As bid me tell my tale in express words, 245
Deep shame had struck me dumb, made me break
off,
And those thy fears might have wrought fears in me.
But thou didst understand me by my signs
And didst in signs again parley with sin, 250
Yea, without stop didst let thy heart consent
And consequently thy rude hand to act
The deed which both our tongues held vile to name.
Out of my sight, and never see me more.
My nobles leave me, and my state is braved, 255
Even at my gates, with ranks of foreign powers.
Nay, in the body of this fleshly land,
This kingdom, this confine of blood and breath,
Hostility and civil tumult reigns
Between my conscience and my cousin’s death. 260 HUBERT
Arm you against your other enemies.
I’ll make a peace between your soul and you.
Young Arthur is alive. This hand of mine
Is yet a maiden and an innocent hand,
Not painted with the crimson spots of blood. 265
Within this bosom never entered yet
The dreadful motion of a murderous thought,
And you have slandered nature in my form,
Which, howsoever rude exteriorly,
Is yet the cover of a fairer mind 270
Than to be butcher of an innocent child. KING JOHN
Doth Arthur live? O, haste thee to the peers,
Throw this report on their incensèd rage,
And make them tame to their obedience.
Forgive the comment that my passion made 275
Upon thy feature, for my rage was blind,
And foul imaginary eyes of blood
Presented thee more hideous than thou art.
O, answer not, but to my closet bring
The angry lords with all expedient haste. 280
I conjure thee but slowly; run more fast. They exit. | King John is lamenting his losses when Hubert comes back. Hubert tells King John that Arthur's death has got people freaked out throughout all of England. There have been some strange astronomical occurrences, weird lights in the sky, and people are saying it's because of Arthur's death. King John starts blaming Hubert for Arthur's death, but Hubert won't have it. He pulls out the order that King James gave him, but King John says He says if Hubert had so much as paused when King John suggested it, he never would have written it. Hmm. Is it just us, or does this remind you of what goes down in another Shakespearean history play, Richard II? Remember how Henry IV orders the execution of Richard II and then freaks out and denies it when the deed is done (in Act 5, Scene 6, of Richard II)? After listening to more griping from King John, Hubert finally interrupts and explains that actually, Arthur isn't really dead. Well, hooray. King John is overjoyed. He tells Hubert to hurry after the noblemen who are looking for Arthur's grave. King John hopes that once Hubert reveals the truth that Arthur is alive, the noblemen will come back to his side. |