Re-enter HUBERT. Hub. My lord, they say, five moons were seen to-night: Four fixed; and the fifth did whirl about The other four, in wond'rous motion. K. John. Five moons? Hub. Old men, and beldams, in the streets Do prophecy upon it dangerously : Young Arthur's death is common in their mouths: And he, that speaks, doth gripe the hearer's wrist; Cuts off his tale, and talks of Arthur's death. K. John. Why seek'st thou to possess me with these fears? Why urgest thou so oft young Arthur's death? Thy hand hath murder'd him: I had mighty cause Hub. Had none, my lord! Why, did you not provoke me? K. John. It is the curse of kings, to be attended By slaves, that take their humours for a warrant To break within the bloody house of life: And, on the winking of authority, To understand a law; to know the meaning Of dangerous majesty, when, perchance, it frowns Hub. Here is your hand and seal for what I did. Is to be made, then shall this hand and seal [6] i, e. deliberate consideration, reflection. STEEY. How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds, Made it no conscience to destroy a prince. 8 K. John. Hadst thou but shook thy head, or made a pause, When I spake darkly what I purposed ; Or turn'd an eye of doubt upon my face, Or bid me tell my tale in express words; Deep shame had struck me dumb, made me break off, 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.- My nobles leave me; and my state is brav❜d, This kingdom, this confine of blood and breath, Between my conscience, and my cousin's death. Hub. Arm you against your other enemies, I'll make a peace between your soul and you. Young Arthur is alive: This hand of mine [7] Quoted, i. e. observed, distinguished. STEEV. [8] 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, par icularly 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. JOHNS. VOL. IV. 6* Is yet a maiden and an innocent hand, The dreadful motion of a murd'rous thought, Is yet the cover of a fairer mind Than to be butcher of an innocent child. K. John. Doth Arthur live? O, haste thee to the peers, Presented thee more hideous than thou art. SCENE III. [Exeunt. The same. Before the Castle. Enter ARTHUR on the Walls. Arth. The wall is high; and yet will I leap down:9— Good ground, be pitiful, and hurt me not ! There's few, or none, do know me; if they did, This ship-boy's semblance hath disguis'd me quite. I am afraid; and yet I'll venture it. If I get down, and do not break my limbs, I'll find a thousand shifts to get away: As good to die, and go, as die, and stay. [Leaps down. [Dies. [9] Our author has here followed the old play In what manner Arthur was deprived of his life is not ascertained. Mathew Paris, relating the event, uses the word evanuit; and, indeed, as King Philip afterwards publickly ac cusd King John of putting his nephew to death, without either mentioning the manner of it, or his accomplices, we may conclud that it was done with impenetrable secrecy. The French historians, however, say, that John coming in a bo t during the night-time, to the castle of Rouen, where the young prince was confined, ordered him to be brought forth, and having stabbed him while supplicating for mercy, the King fastened a stone to the dead body, and threw it into the Seine, in order to give so e colour to a report, which he afterwards caused to be spre d that the prince attempting to escape out of a window of the tower of the castle, fell into the river, and was drowned. MALONE. Enter PEMBROKE, SALISBURY, and BIGOT. Sal. Lords, I will meet him at St. Edmund's-Bury; It is our safety, and we must embrace This gentle offer of the perilous time. Pem. Who brought that letter from the cardinal? Enter the Bastard. Bast. Once more to-day well met, distemper'd lords! We will not line his thin bestained cloak That leaves the print of blood where-e'er it walks: Bast. Whate'er you think, good words, I think, were best. Sal. Our griefs, and not our manners, reason now.3 Bast. But there is little reason in your grief; Therefore, 'twere reason, you had manners now. Pem. Sir, sir, impatience hath his privilege. Bast. 'Tis true; to hurt his master, no man else. Sal. This is the prison: What is he lies here? [Secing 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? Or do you almost think, although you see, [1] i. e. whose private account of the Dauphin's affection to our cause is much more ample than the letters. That you do see? could thought, without this object, Pem. All murders past do stand excus'd in this : Shall give a holiness, a purity, To the yet-unbegotten sin of time; Bast. It is a damned and a bloody work ; Sal. If that it be the work of any hand ?— Never to taste the pleasures of the world,4 Nor conversant with ease and idleness, By giving it the worship of revenge. Pem. Big. Our souls religiously confirm thy words Hub. Lords, I am hot with haste in seeking you: Sal. Must I rob the law? [Drawing his sword. Bast. Your sword is bright, sir; put it up again. Sal. Not till I sheath it in a murderer's skin. Hub. Stand back, lord Salisbury, stand back, I say; [4] This is a copy of the vows made in the ages of superstition and chivalry. JOHNS [5] The worship is the dignity, the honour. We still say worshipful of magistrates. JOHNS. |