Enter a Messenger Messenger My lord,your valiant kinsman,Faulconbridge,Desires your majesty to leave the field And send him word by me which way you go.KING JOHN Tell him,toward Swinstead,to the abbey there.Messenger 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.KING JOHN Ay 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.Exeunt
SCENE IV.England.Another part of the battlefield
Enter SALISBURY,PEMBROKE,and BIGOT SALISBURY I did not think the king so stored with friends.PEMBROKE Up once again;put spirit in the French:
If they miscarry,we miscarry too.SALISBURY That misbegotten devil,Faulconbridge,In spite of spite,alone upholds the day.PEMBROKE They say King John sore sick hath left the field.
Enter MELUN,wounded MELUN Lead me to the revolts of England here.SALISBURY When we were happy we had other names.PEMBROKE It is the Count Melun.SALISBURY Wounded to death.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 recompense the pains you take By cutting off your heads:thus hath he sworn And I with him,and many moe with me,Upon the altar at Saint Edmundsbury;Even on that altar where we swore to you Dear amity and everlasting love.SALISBURY 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?