The Tempered

Chapter 9

Enter Prince Henry, Salisbury, and Bigot. It is too late. The life of all his blood Is touched corruptibly, and his pure brain, Which some suppose the soul’s frail dwelling-house, Doth, by the idle comments that it makes, Foretell the ending of mortality.Enter Pembroke. His Highness yet doth speak, and holds belief That being brought into the open air It would allay the burning quality Of that fell poison which assaileth him. Let him be brought into the orchard here. Doth he still rage? He is more patient Than when you left him. Even now he sung. O vanity of sickness! Fierce extremes In their continuance will not feel themselves. Death, having preyed upon the outward parts, Leaves them invisible, and his siege is now Against the mind, the which he pricks and wounds With many legions of strange fantasies, Which in their throng and press to that last hold Confound themselves. ’Tis strange that Death should sing. I am the cygnet to this pale faint swan, Who chants a doleful hymn to his own death, And from the organ-pipe of frailty sings His soul and body to their lasting rest. Be of good comfort, prince, for you are born To set a form upon that indigest Which he hath left so shapeless and so rude.King John brought in, attended by Bigot. Ay, marry, now my soul hath elbow-room. It would not out at windows nor at doors. There is so hot a summer in my bosom That all my bowels crumble up to dust. I am a scribbled form drawn with a pen Upon a parchment, and against this fire Do I shrink up. How fares your Majesty? Poisoned—ill fare—dead, forsook, cast off, And none of you will bid the winter come To thrust his icy fingers in my maw, Nor let my kingdom’s rivers take their course Through my burned bosom, nor entreat the North To make his bleak winds kiss my parchèd lips And comfort me with cold. I do not ask you much. I beg cold comfort, and you are so strait And so ingrateful, you deny me that. O, that there were some virtue in my tears That might relieve you! The salt in them is hot. Within me is a hell, and there the poison Is, as a fiend, confined to tyrannize On unreprievable, condemnèd blood.Enter Bastard. O, I am scalded with my violent motion And spleen of speed to see your Majesty. O cousin, thou art come to set mine eye. The tackle of my heart is cracked and burnt, And all the shrouds wherewith my life should sail Are turnèd to one thread, one little hair. My heart hath one poor string to stay it by, Which holds but till thy news be utterèd, And then all this thou seest is but a clod And module of confounded royalty. The Dauphin is preparing hitherward, Where God He knows how we shall answer him. For in a night the best part of my power, As I upon advantage did remove, Were in the Washes all unwarily Devourèd by the unexpected flood. You breathe these dead news in as dead an ear.— My liege! My lord!—But now a king, now thus. Even so must I run on, and even so stop. What surety of the world, what hope, what stay, When this was now a king and now is clay? Art thou gone so? I do but stay behind To do the office for thee of revenge, And then my soul shall wait on thee to heaven, As it on Earth hath been thy servant still.Now, now, you stars, that move in your right spheres, Where be your powers? Show now your mended faiths And instantly return with me again To push destruction and perpetual shame Out of the weak door of our fainting land. Straight let us seek, or straight we shall be sought; The Dauphin rages at our very heels. It seems you know not, then, so much as we. The Cardinal Pandulph is within at rest, Who half an hour since came from the Dauphin, And brings from him such offers of our peace As we with honor and respect may take, With purpose presently to leave this war. He will the rather do it when he sees Ourselves well-sinewèd to our defense. Nay, ’tis in a manner done already, For many carriages he hath dispatched To the sea-side, and put his cause and quarrel To the disposing of the Cardinal, With whom yourself, myself, and other lords, If you think meet, this afternoon will post To consummate this business happily. Let it be so.—And you, my noble prince, With other princes that may best be spared, Shall wait upon your father’s funeral. At Worcester must his body be interred, For so he willed it. Thither shall it, then, And happily may your sweet self put on The lineal state and glory of the land, To whom with all submission on my knee I do bequeath my faithful services And true subjection everlastingly. And the like tender of our love we make To rest without a spot forevermore. I have a kind soul that would give you thanks And knows not how to do it but with tears. O, let us pay the time but needful woe, Since it hath been beforehand with our griefs. This England never did nor never shall Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror But when it first did help to wound itself. Now these her princes are come home again, Come the three corners of the world in arms And we shall shock them. Naught shall make us rue, If England to itself do rest but true.