Page 196 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

PANDULPH

Your mind is all as youthful as your blood. [125]
Now hear me speak with a prophetic spirit;
For even the breath of what I mean to speak

Shall blow each dust, each straw, each little rub,
Out of the path which shall directly lead
Thy foot to England’s throne; and therefore mark. [130]
John hath seiz’d Arthur; and it cannot be
That, whiles warm life plays in that infant’s veins,

The misplac’d John should entertain an hour,
One minute, nay, one quiet breath of rest.
A sceptre snatch’d with an unruly hand [135]

Must be as boisterously maintain’d as gain’d;
And he that stands upon a slipp’ry place
Makes nice of no vild hold to stay him up:
That John may stand, then, Arthur needs must fall;
So be it, for it cannot but be so. [140]

LEWIS

But what shall I gain by young Arthur’s fall?

PANDULPH

You, in the right of Lady Blanche your wife,
May then make all the claim that Arthur did.

LEWIS
And lose it, life and all, as Arthur did.

PANDULPH
How green you are and fresh in this old world! [145]

John lays you plots; the times conspire with you;
For he that steeps his safety in true blood
Shall find but bloody safety and untrue.
This act so evilly borne shall cool the hearts
Of all his people, and freeze up their zeal, [150]

That none so small advantage shall step forth
To check his reign, but they will cherish it;
No natural exhalation in the sky,