SHAKESPEARE'S HISTORIES
SHAKE SHAKESPEARE'S HAND AND MAKE A FRIEND FOR LIFE
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Act 5, scene 7 Night. Swinstead Abbey. Prince Henry enters with Salisbury and Bigot. Prince Henry: It’s too late. His whole body has been poisoned. His pure brain, which some people think is the soul’s frail dwelling house, is telling us from the confused comments that he’s making that his life coming to an end. Pembroke enters. Pembroke: His Highness is still speaking and believes that fresh air would alleviate the burning of the cruel poison that’s making him sick. Prince Henry: Bring him into the orchard. Is he still angry? Pembroke: He is calmer than when you left him. Just now he sang. Prince Henry: That’s the delusion of his sickness. Continuing fierce pains won’t be felt after death has preyed on his body and made them cease. Now death’s siege is facing the mind which it pricks and wounds with many armies of strange hallucinations that crowd and press to that last stronghold destroying themselves. It’s strange that death should sing. I am this dying swan’s cygnet. He is chanting a sad hymn to his own death and from a frail voice he is singing his soul and body to their eternal rest. Salisbury: Be comforted, Prince. You were born to bring order to this time of confusion and chaos that he has left you. Bigot and attendants enter with King John in a chair. King John: Good. Now my soul has elbow room. It couldn’t get out through the windows or doors. There is such a hot summer in my body my bowels have crumbled to dust. I am a scribbled shape drawn with a pen on paper that is being destroyed by fire. Prince Henry: How are you, your Majesty? King John: Poisoned—sick—dead, forsaken, thrown away, and none of you will ask winter to come and thrust his icy fingers in my mouth or let my kingdom’s rivers run through my burning chest, or ask the cold north wind to kiss my parched lips to comfort me with cold. I’m not asking you for much. I am begging for cold comfort, but you are so mean and so ungrateful you deny me that. Prince Henry: I wish my tears could help you. King John : The salt in them is hot. Inside me is a hell. The poison is like a fiend imprisoned there to tyrannize over my unreprievable, condemned blood. Sir Richard enters. Sir Richard: I’ve burned with anxiety and hot speed to see your Majesty. King John: Nephew, you have come to close my eyes. The rigging of my heart is cracked and burnt. All the sails which should put my life to sea have turned to a single thread, one little hair. My heart has only one poor string to keep it going which will hold until you have told me your news and then all this you’re looking at will be just a clod and picture of ruined royalty. Sir Richard :The French prince is advancing here. Only God knows how we will defend ourselves because in a night the best part of my army was accidentally drowned in an unexpected flood in the Washes when I moved them looking for an advantage. The King dies. Salisbury: You’re telling this dead news in as dead an ear. (To the Prince) My Liege, my Lord, but now a King. Prince Henry: This is the way I must live and die. What confidence can we have in the world—what hope—what support when this man who was a king is now clay? Sir Richard: (To King John) Have you gone? I only stay behind to take revenge for you and then I will join you in heaven to serve you there as I always have here on earth. Now lords who have returned to do your rightful duty, where are your armies? Demonstrate your changes of heart and help me to push destruction and perpetual shame out of the flimsy door of our fainting country. Let’s look for the Prince now or he will look for us now. The Dauphin is raging close at our heels. Salisbury: It seems that you don’t know as much as we do. Cardinal Pandulph is resting inside. He came from the Prince just half an hour ago bringing offers of peace with honor and respect that we may accept for the purpose of ending this war now. Sir Richard: He’ll be more inclined to do it when he sees that we are well armed in our defence. Salisbury: No. It’s virtually already done. He has sent many carriages to the coast and he has asked the Cardinal to negotiate for his cause and dispute. You, I and other lords—if you think it fitting—will ride quickly to conclude this fortunate peace this afternoon. Sir Richard: Good. Then you, my noble Prince—with other Princes who can best be spared—can attend your father’s funeral. Prince Henry: He willed that his body should be buried at Worcester. Sir Richard: Then it shall be there. And it will be your good fortune to be crowned King of England to whom I promise on my knee with all submission my loyal services and eternal, true subjection. Salisbury: As do we without reservation for evermore. Prince Henry: I have a kind soul that would thank you but I don’t know how to do it except with tears. Sir Richard: Let’s mourn only for the time needed. Since England has already grieved in the past, it never did and never will lie at the proud foot of a conqueror except when it first helped to injure itself. Now that her nobles have come home again the armies of three corners of the world may come and we will shock them. Nothing will give us cause for regret as long as England always remains true to itself. They exit.
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About the Book
Shakespeare’s Histories is a prose translation of Shakespeare’s eleven history plays into Standard English. These translations stand on their own so that they may be read quickly and easily, eliminating the need to search for the meaning of every second word of Shakespeare’s original text. As well they are supplemented by explanations of the world in which Shakespeare lived for those who are curious about it. Jeanne Arthur’s Shake Shakespeare’s Hand and make a friend for life translations make Shakespeare’s texts accessible to the ordinary person by clearing away four hundred years of changes to the English language to reveal the fresh liveliness of Shakespeare’s dialogue. She hopes that they will enable the reader or audience member to travel back in time to the history of England that Shakespeare wrote for his own audience and make it live in contemporary Western culture once again for many more people. Some lovers of Shakespeare’s writing may object to the idea that his work needs to be translated. However Jeanne Arthur believes that their love of Shakespeare argues for a translation rather than against one. It is over four hundred years since Shakespeare’s death. Not only has the English language evolved since this time but so has the culture of the world. Making a translation of the language enables us to appreciate more accurately the cultural differences and similarities between us and the world he lived in. With the right help our imagination is a wonderful tool that can enable us to move freely into the past, across cultures and into the future. Drama and other fictional forms exploit this capacity that we have to imagine ourselves anywhere and in any time.
About the Author
Jeanne Arthur BA (Honours Drama) is a retired teacher of Drama, English and History who was inspired to translate Shakespeare’s plays into modern English by her students who asked questions about the plays that were not easy to answer even though she had an honors degree in Drama from Flinders University and thirty years of teaching Drama. Retirement gave Jeanne the time and opportunity to write these translations to answer her students’ questions and to allow her to reflect on Shakespeare’s plays at a leisurely pace. She believes the outcome of this experience will be helpful to readers, performers and theatre workers as it brings many years of working on Shakespeare’s plays and poetry to clarify their meaning and create immediately accessible texts supported by thorough explanatory notes about Shakespeare’s world.