Volume Vii Part 86 (1/2)
QUEEN. My dear son Jack!
JOHN. Your dear son Jack-an-apes; Your monkey, your baboon, your a.s.s, your gull!
LEI. What ails Earl John?
JOHN. Hence, further from my sight!
My fiery thoughts and wrath have work in hand; I'll curse ye blacker than th'Avernian[489] Lake, If you stand wond'ring at my sorrow thus.
I am with child, big, hugely swoll'n with rage, Who'll play the midwife, and my throbs a.s.suage?
KING. I will, my son.
HEN. I will, high-hearted brother.
JOHN. You will? and you? tut, tut, all you are nothing!
'Twill out, 'twill out, myself myself can ease: You chafe, you swell: ye are commanding King.
My father is your footstool, when ye please.
Your word's a law; these lords dare never speak.
Gloster must die; your enemies must fall!
HEN. What means our brother?
JOHN. He means that thou art mad: She frantic: Leicester foolish: I the babe-- Thou grind us, bite us, vex us, charge and discharge.
Gloster, O Gloster!
QUEEN. Where is Gloster, son?
HEN. Where is Gloster, brother?
KING. I hope he be escaped.
JOHN. O, I could tear my hair, and, falling thus Upon the solid earth, Dig into Gloster's grave, So he were dead, and gone into the depth Of under-world-- Or get sedition's hundreth thousand hand, And, like Briareus, battle with the stars, To pull him down from heaven, if he were there!
FAU. Look to Earl John; the gentleman is mad.
JOHN. O, who would not be mad at this disgrace?
Gloster the fox is fled; there lies his case.
[_Points to the gown_.
He cozen'd me of mine; the porter helped him.
HEN. The porter shall be hang'd; let's part and seek him: Gloster shall die; all Europe shall not save him.
JOHN. He is wise, too wise for us; yet I'll go with you To get more fools into my company.
QUEEN. This is your father's plot; revenge it, son.
HEN. Father, by heaven, if this were your advice, Your head or heart shall pay the bitter price.
Come, mother, brother, Leicester; let's away.
JOHN. Ay, I'll be one, in hope to meet the b.a.s.t.a.r.d, And then no more: myself will be his headsman.