_K. John._ Poison'd,--ill fare--dead, forsook, cast off:[668] 35 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 burn'd bosom, nor entreat the north To make his bleak winds kiss my parched lips 40 And comfort me with cold. I do not ask you much,[669] I beg cold comfort; and you are so strait[670] And so ingrateful, you deny me that.[671] _P. Hen._ O that there were some virtue in my tears, That might relieve you! _K. John._ The salt in them is hot.[672] 45 Within me is a hell; and there the poison Is as a fiend confined to tyrannize On unreprieveable condemned blood.[673] _Enter the_ BASTARD. _Bast._ O, I am scalded with my violent motion,[674] And spleen of speed to see your majesty! 50 _K. John._ O cousin, thou art come to set mine eye: The tackle of my heart is crack'd and burn'd, And all the shrouds wherewith my life should sail Are turned to one thread, one little hair: My heart hath one poor string to stay it by, 55 Which holds but till thy news be uttered; And then all this thou seest is but a clod And module of confounded royalty.[675] _Bast._ The Dauphin is preparing hitherward, Where heaven He knows how we shall answer him;[676] 60 For in a night the best part of my power, As I upon advantage did remove, Were in the Washes all unwarily[677] Devoured by the unexpected flood. [_The king dies._[678] _Sal._ You breathe these dead news in as dead an ear. 65 My liege! my lord! but now a king, now thus. _P. Hen._ Even so must I run on, and even so stop. What surety of the world, what hope, what stay,[679] When this was now a king, and now is clay?[679] _Bast._ Art thou gone so? I do but stay behind 70 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,[680] Where be your powers? show now your mended faiths, 75 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. 80 _Sal._ 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[681] As we with honour and respect may take, 85 With purpose presently to leave this war.