Act V
SCENE VI
AN OPEN PLACE IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF SWINSTEAD ABBEY
Enter the ba*tard and HUBERT, severally
HUBERT
Who's there? speak, ho! speak quickly, or I shoot.
ba*tard
A friend. What art thou?
HUBERT
Of the part of England.
ba*tard
Whither dost thou go?
HUBERT
What's that to thee? why may not I demand
Of thine affairs, as well as thou of mine?
ba*tard
Hubert, I think?
HUBERT
Thou hast a perfect thought:
I will upon all hazards well believe
Thou art my friend, that know'st my tongue so well.
Who art thou?
ba*tard
Who thou wilt: and if thou please,
Thou mayst befriend me so much as to think
I come one way of the Plantagenets.
HUBERT
Unkind remembrance! thou and eyeless night
Have done me shame: brave soldier, pardon me,
That any accent breaking from thy tongue
Should escape the true acquaintance of mine ear.
ba*tard
Come, come; sans compliment, what news abroad?
HUBERT
Why, here walk I in the black brow of night,
To find you out.
ba*tard
Brief, then; and what's the news?
HUBERT
O, my sweet sir, news fitting to the night,
Black, fearful, comfortless and horrible.
ba*tard
Show me the very wound of this ill news:
I am no woman, I'll not swoon at it.
HUBERT
The king, I fear, is poison'd by a monk:
I left him almost speechless; and broke out
To acquaint you with this evil, that you might
The better arm you to the sudden time,
Than if you had at leisure known of this.
ba*tard
How did he take it? who did taste to him?
HUBERT
A monk, I tell you; a resolved villain,
Whose bowels suddenly burst out: the king
Yet speaks and peradventure may recover.
ba*tard
Who didst thou leave to tend his majesty?
HUBERT
Why, know you not? the lords are all come back,
And brought Prince Henry in their company;
At whose request the king hath pardon'd them,
And they are all about his majesty.
ba*tard
Withhold thine indignation, mighty heaven,
And tempt us not to bear above our power!
I'll tell tree, Hubert, half my power this night,
Pa**ing these flats, are taken by the tide;
These Lincoln Washes have devoured them;
Myself, well mounted, hardly have escaped.
Away before: conduct me to the king;
I doubt he will be dead or ere I come.
Exeunt