Mitarai Digital Folio

King John, Act 5 Scene 3

17Lines 3Speakers

King John, Act 5 Scene 3 runs 17 lines of dialogue, spoken by 3 speakers. That is shorter than the play’s average scene length of about 166 lines. This scene is part of Act 5 of King John.


Full Dialogue
King John
How goes the day with us? O, tell me, Hubert.
Hubert
Badly, I fear. How fares your majesty?
King John
This fever, that hath troubled me so long,
Lies heavy on me; O, my heart is sick!
Messenger
My lord, your valiant kinsman, Faulconbridge,
Desires your majesty to leave the field
And send him word by me which way you go.
King John
Tell him, toward Swinstead, to the abbey there.
Messenger
Be of good comfort; for the great supply
That was expected by the Dauphin here,
Are wreck'd three nights ago on Goodwin Sands.
This news was brought to Richard but even now:
The French fight coldly, and retire themselves.
King John
Ay me! this tyrant fever burns me up,
And will not let me welcome this good news.
Set on toward Swinstead: to my litter straight;
Weakness possesseth me, and I am faint.
17 lines rendered verbatim from the dialogue corpus.

Who’s On Stage

Speaking characters in this scene

Character Lines Share
Messenger 8 47.1%
King John 8 47.1%
Hubert 1 5.9%

Line distribution

The top speaker in this scene delivers 8 lines, while the scene’s average per speaker is about 6 lines.

Total speakers on stage

3 named characters speak in this scene.

Scene in Context

Position within Act 5

This is Scene 3 of 7 in Act 5 of King John.

Scene length vs. play average

At 17 lines, this scene is shorter than the King John average scene in King John (~166 lines).

Adjacent scenes

Previous: Act 5 Scene 2 · Next: Act 5 Scene 4