Enter Arthur on the walls, dressed as a shipboy. ARTHUR
The wall is high, and yet will I leap down.
Good ground, be pitiful and hurt me not.
There’s few or none do know me. If they did,
This shipboy’s semblance hath disguised me quite.
I am afraid, and yet I’ll venture it. 5
If I get down and do not break my limbs,
I’ll find a thousand shifts to get away.
As good to die and go as die and stay. He jumps. O me, my uncle’s spirit is in these stones.
Heaven take my soul, and England keep my bones. 10 He dies. | It's not easy to walk out the front gate of a well-guarded castle, which is why Arthur—in his attempt to escape—is now standing atop the castle walls. He contemplates his options. If he stays where he is, he's dead meat. If he jumps? Well...he decides it's his only option. The stage direction sums things up nicely: He jumps. He dies. |
Enter Pembroke, Salisbury with a letter, and Bigot. SALISBURY
Lords, I will meet him at Saint Edmundsbury;
It is our safety, and we must embrace
This gentle offer of the perilous time. PEMBROKE
Who brought that letter from the Cardinal? SALISBURY
The Count Melun, a noble lord of France, 15
Whose private with me of the Dauphin’s love
Is much more general than these lines import. BIGOT
Tomorrow morning let us meet him, then. SALISBURY
Or rather then set forward, for ’twill be
Two long days’ journey, lords, or ere we meet. 20 Enter Bastard. BASTARD
Once more today well met, distempered lords.
The King by me requests your presence straight. SALISBURY
The King hath dispossessed himself of us.
We will not line his thin bestainèd cloak
With our pure honors, nor attend the foot 25
That leaves the print of blood where’er it walks.
Return, and tell him so. We know the worst. BASTARD
Whate’er you think, good words I think were best. SALISBURY
Our griefs and not our manners reason now. BASTARD
But there is little reason in your grief. 30
Therefore ’twere reason you had manners now. PEMBROKE
Sir, sir, impatience hath his privilege. BASTARD
’Tis true, to hurt his master, no man’s else. SALISBURY
This is the prison. He sees Arthur’s body. What is he lies here? 35 PEMBROKE
O Death, made proud with pure and princely beauty!
The Earth had not a hole to hide this deed. SALISBURY
Murder, as hating what himself hath done,
Doth lay it open to urge on revenge. BIGOT
Or when he doomed this beauty to a grave, 40
Found it too precious-princely for a grave. SALISBURY, to Bastard
Sir Richard, what think you? You have beheld.
Or have you read or heard, or could you think,
Or do you almost think, although you see,
That you do see? Could thought, without this object, 45
Form such another? This is the very top,
The height, the crest, or crest unto the crest,
Of murder’s arms. This is the bloodiest shame,
The wildest savagery, the vilest stroke
That ever wall-eyed wrath or staring rage 50
Presented to the tears of soft remorse. PEMBROKE
All murders past do stand excused in this.
And this, so sole and so unmatchable,
Shall give a holiness, a purity,
To the yet unbegotten sin of times 55
And prove a deadly bloodshed but a jest,
Exampled by this heinous spectacle. | Pembroke, Salisbury, and Lord Bigot walk in with a letter from the Cardinal. Turns out these English noblemen plan to join forces with Louis the Dauphin (the Prince of France)—against King John. The Bastard shows up and tries to persuade them to give King John another chance, but they want nothing to do with him. They think King John is a murderer. Right on cue, Salisbury sees Arthur's dead body. The noblemen make a big show of their grief and anger. |
BASTARD
It is a damnèd and a bloody work,
The graceless action of a heavy hand,
If that it be the work of any hand. 60 SALISBURY
If that it be the work of any hand?
We had a kind of light what would ensue.
It is the shameful work of Hubert’s hand,
The practice and the purpose of the King,
From whose obedience I forbid my soul, 65
Kneeling before this ruin of sweet life He kneels.
And breathing to his breathless excellence
The incense of a vow, a holy vow:
Never to taste the pleasures of the world,
Never to be infected with delight, 70
Nor conversant with ease and idleness,
Till I have set a glory to this hand
By giving it the worship of revenge. PEMBROKE, BIGOT, kneeling
Our souls religiously confirm thy words. They rise. Enter Hubert. HUBERT
Lords, I am hot with haste in seeking you. 75
Arthur doth live; the King hath sent for you. SALISBURY
O, he is bold and blushes not at death!—
Avaunt, thou hateful villain, get thee gone! HUBERT
I am no villain. SALISBURY, drawing his sword
Must I rob the law? 80 BASTARD
Your sword is bright, sir. Put it up again. SALISBURY
Not till I sheathe it in a murderer’s skin. HUBERT
Stand back, Lord Salisbury, stand back, I say.
By heaven, I think my sword’s as sharp as yours.
He puts his hand on his sword.
I would not have you, lord, forget yourself, 85
Nor tempt the danger of my true defense,
Lest I, by marking of your rage, forget
Your worth, your greatness, and nobility. BIGOT
Out, dunghill! Dar’st thou brave a nobleman? HUBERT
Not for my life. But yet I dare defend 90
My innocent life against an emperor. SALISBURY
Thou art a murderer. HUBERT
Do not prove me so.
Yet I am none. Whose tongue soe’er speaks false,
Not truly speaks. Who speaks not truly, lies. 95 PEMBROKE, drawing his sword
Cut him to pieces. BASTARD, drawing his sword
Keep the peace, I say. SALISBURY
Stand by, or I shall gall you, Faulconbridge. BASTARD
Thou wert better gall the devil, Salisbury.
If thou but frown on me, or stir thy foot, 100
Or teach thy hasty spleen to do me shame,
I’ll strike thee dead. Put up thy sword betime,
Or I’ll so maul you and your toasting-iron
That you shall think the devil is come from hell. BIGOT
What wilt thou do, renownèd Faulconbridge? 105
Second a villain and a murderer? HUBERT
Lord Bigot, I am none. BIGOT Who killed this prince? HUBERT
’Tis not an hour since I left him well.
I honored him, I loved him, and will weep 110
My date of life out for his sweet life’s loss. He weeps. SALISBURY
Trust not those cunning waters of his eyes,
For villainy is not without such rheum,
And he, long traded in it, makes it seem
like rivers of remorse and innocency. 115
Away with me, all you whose souls abhor
Th’ uncleanly savors of a slaughterhouse,
For I am stifled with this smell of sin. BIGOT
Away, toward Bury, to the Dauphin there. PEMBROKE
There, tell the King, he may inquire us out. 120 Lords exit. | Finally, the Bastard manages to get a word in edgewise. He says that it's definitely a bad thing that all this has happened, but he points out that Arthur could have died by accident. Salisbury isn't buying it—he's pretty sure Arthur was murdered by King John. He and the other nobles kneel in front of Arthur's corpse and swear allegiance to it. Hubert shows up and tells everyone the good news: "Arthur's alive!" Yeah, oops. As you might imagine, Salisbury is pretty outraged. In fact, he pulls out his sword and threatens to stab Hubert in the guts. The Bastard tries to calm Salisbury down, but he's pretty worked up. In the meantime, Hubert isn't budging an inch: he swears he didn't kill Arthur and (like everyone else in this scene) puts his hand on his sword. Bigot calls Hubert a dunghill, there's a lot of threatening all around, and then nobles all head off to join Louis the Dauphin and his army. |
BASTARD
Here’s a good world! Knew you of this fair work?
Beyond the infinite and boundless reach
Of mercy, if thou didst this deed of death,
Art thou damned, Hubert HUBERT
Do but hear me, sir. 125 BASTARD Ha! I’ll tell thee what.
Thou ’rt damned as black—nay, nothing is so black—
Thou art more deep damned than Prince Lucifer.
There is not yet so ugly a fiend of hell
As thou shalt be, if thou didst kill this child. 130 HUBERT
Upon my soul— BASTARD
If thou didst but consent
To this most cruel act, do but despair,
And if thou want’st a cord, the smallest thread
That ever spider twisted from her womb 135
Will serve to strangle thee; a rush will be a beam
To hang thee on. Or wouldst thou drown thyself,
Put but a little water in a spoon
And it shall be as all the ocean,
Enough to stifle such a villain up. 140
I do suspect thee very grievously. HUBERT
If I in act, consent, or sin of thought
Be guilty of the stealing that sweet breath
Which was embounded in this beauteous clay,
Let hell want pains enough to torture me. 145
I left him well. BASTARD
Go, bear him in thine arms.
I am amazed, methinks, and lose my way
Among the thorns and dangers of this world.
Hubert takes up Arthur’s body.
How easy dost thou take all England up! 150
From forth this morsel of dead royalty,
The life, the right, and truth of all this realm
Is fled to heaven, and England now is left
To tug and scamble and to part by th’ teeth
The unowed interest of proud-swelling state. 155
Now for the bare-picked bone of majesty
Doth doggèd war bristle his angry crest
And snarleth in the gentle eyes of peace.
Now powers from home and discontents at home
Meet in one line, and vast confusion waits, 160
As doth a raven on a sick-fall’n beast,
The imminent decay of wrested pomp.
Now happy he whose cloak and cincture can
Hold out this tempest. Bear away that child,
And follow me with speed. I’ll to the King. 165
A thousand businesses are brief in hand,
And heaven itself doth frown upon the land. They exit, with Hubert carrying Arthur’s body. | Now that they're alone, the Bastard says to Hubert, "Hey man, tell me the truth: did you do it? Because, if you did, you are definitely—and I mean definitely—going to suffer in hell for all eternity." Hubert insists Arthur was alive and well when he left him. The Bastard accepts Hubert's words. He tells Hubert to carry away the child's body. In the meantime, he plans to go see King John. They've got a rebellion to quash. |