Hub. Here is your hand and seal for what I did. K. John. O, when the last account 'twixt heaven and earth Is to be made, then shall this hand and seal K. John. Hadst thou but shook thy head, or made a pause 23, When I spake darkly what I purposed; 22 To quote is to note or mark. See Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. 1:'I am sorry that with better heed and judgment I had not quoted him. 23 There are many touches of nature in this conference of John with Hubert. A man engaged in wickedness would keep the profit to himself, and transfer the guilt to his accomplice. These reproaches vented against Hubert are not the words of art or policy, but the eruptions of a mind swelling with consciousness of a crime, and desirous of discharging its misery on another. This account of the timidity of guilt is drawn, ab ipsis recessibus mentis, from the intimate knowledge of mankind; particularly that line in which he says, that to have bid him tell his tale in express words would have struck him dumb: nothing is more certain than that bad men use all the arts of fallacy upon themselves, palliate their actions to their own minds by gentle terms, and hide themselves from their own detection in ambiguities and subterfuges.-Johnson. And 24 bid me tell my tale in express words; And those thy fears might have wrought fears in me : But thou didst understand me by my signs, And didst in signs again parley with sin; Yea, without stop, didst let thy heart consent, And, consequently, thy rude hand to act The deed, which both our tongues held vile to name. Out of my sight, and never see me more! Hub. Arm you against your other enemies, Than to be butcher of an innocent child. K. John. Doth Arthur live? O, haste thee to the Throw this report on their incensed rage, 24 The old copy reads 'As bid me,' &c. Malone made the correction, in which I concur; though as frequently is used for that, which. See Julius Cæsar, Act i. Sc. 2, note 15. And foul imaginary eyes of blood [Exeunt. SCENE III. The same. Before the Castle. Enter ARTHUR, on the Walls. Arth. The wall is high; and yet will I leap down1: Good ground, be pitiful, and hurt me not!- [Leaps down. O me! my uncle's spirit is in these stones [Dies. Enter PEMBROKE, SALISBURY, and BIGOT. 25 Expeditious. 26 The old play of The Troublesome Raigne of King John is divided into two parts; the first of which concludes with the king's despatch of Hubert on this message; the second begins with Enter Arthur, &c. as in the following scene. 1 Shakspeare has followed the old play. In what manner Arthur was deprived of his life is not ascertained. Matthew Paris relating the event uses the word evanuit; and it appears to have been conducted with impenetrable secrecy. The French historians say that John, coming in a boat during the night to the castle of Rouen, where the young prince was confined, stabbed him while supplicating for mercy, fastened a stone to the body, and threw it into the Seine, in order to give some colour to a report, which he caused to be spread, that the prince, attempting to escape out of a window, fell into the river, and was drowned. Sal. Lords, I will meet him at Saint Edmund's Bury; Pem. Who brought that letter from the cardinal? Bast. Once more to-day well met, distemper'd lords! The king, by me, requests your presence straight. Bast. Whate'er you think, good words, I think, were best. Sal. Our griefs, and not our manners, reason5 now. 2 Private account. 3 The use of or for ere, before, is at least as old as Chaucer's time. It is the Saxon aen, prius, antequam, priusquam, ere, or, sooner than; before. Ever is the Saxon æppe-aliquando, unquam,-ever, e'er, at any time. Ere ever, or ever, or ere, is, in modern English, sooner than at any time; before ever: and this is the sense in which Shakspeare and our elder writers constantly use the phrase. 4 i. e. ruffled, out of humour. So in Hamlet: in his retirement marvellous distemper'd. 5 To reason, in Shakspeare, is not so often to argue as to talk. Bast. But there is little reason in your grief; Therefore, 'twere reason, you had manners now. Pem. Sir, sir, impatience hath its privilege. Bast. 'Tis true: to hurt his master, no man else. Sal. This is the prison: What is he lies here? [Seeing ARTHUR. Pem. O death, made proud with pure and princely beauty! The earth had not a hole to hide this deed. Sal. Murder, as hating what himself hath done, Doth lay it open, to urge on revenge. Big. Or, when he doom'd this beauty to a grave, Found it too precious-princely for a grave. Sal. Sir Richard, what think you? Have you beheld, Or have you read, or heard? or could you think? Pem. All murders past do stand excus'd in this: Bast. It is a damned and a bloody work; Sal. If that it be the work of any hand?- 7 The old copy reads sin of times. The emendation is Pope's. |