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Ay, marry, now my soul hath elbow-room

King John
Ay, marry, now my soul hath elbow-room.
It would not out at windows nor at doors.
There is so hot a summer in my bosom
That all my bowels crumble up to dust.
I am a scribbled form drawn with a pen
Upon a parchment, and against this fire
Do I shrink up.
Prince Henry
How fares your Majesty?
King John
Poisoned—ill fare—dead, forsook, cast off,
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 burned bosom, nor entreat the North
To make his bleak winds kiss my parchèd lips
And comfort me with cold. I do not ask you much.
I beg cold comfort, and you are so strait
And so ingrateful, you deny me that.
Prince Henry
O, that there were some virtue in my tears
That might relieve you!
King John
The salt in them is hot.
Within me is a hell, and there the poison
Is, as a fiend, confined to tyrannize
On unreprievable, condemnèd blood.

Source:
Act 5
Scene 7
Line 30

Source Type:

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