A fellow by the hand of nature mark'd,
Quoted and sign'd to do a deed of shame,
This murder had not come into my
mind:
But taking note of thy abhorr'd aspect,
Finding thee fit for bloody villany,
Apt, liable to be employ'd in danger,
I faintly broke with thee of Arthur's death;
And thou, to be endeared to a king,

Made it no conscience to destroy a prince.
Hub. My lord,

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,

As 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.
Out of my sight, and never see me more!
My nobles leave me; and my state is brav'd,
Even at my gates, with ranks of foreign powers:
Nay, in the body of this fleshly land,
This kingdom, this confine of blood and breath,
Hostility and civil tumult reigns

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
Is yet a maiden and an innocent hand,
Not painted with the crimson spots of blood.
Within this bosom never enter'd yet

The dreadful notion of a murderous thought;
And you have slander'd nature in my form,
Which, howsoever rude exteriorly,

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, Throw this report on their incensed rage, And make them tame to their obedience! Forgive the comment that my passion made Upon thy feature; for my rage was blind, And foul imaginary eyes of blood

224 aspect: always accented by S. on the second syllable.

230

240

250

261

Presented thee more hideous than thou art.
O, answer not, but to my closet bring
The angry lords with all expedient haste.
I conjure thee but slowly; run more fast.

SCENE III. Before the castle.

Enter ARTHUR, on the walls.

Arth. The wall is high, and yet will I leap down :
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.
O me! my uncle's spirit is in these stones :

Heaven take

my soul, and England keep my bones!

Enter PEMBROKE, SALISBURY, and BIGOT.

[Exeunt.

[Leaps down.

Sal. Lords, I will meet him at Saint Edmundsbury: It is our safety, and we must embrace

This gentle offer of the perilous time.

Pem. Who brought that letter from the Cardinal?
Sal. The Count Melun, a noble lord of France;
Whose private with me of the Dolphin's love
Is much more general than these lines import.
Big. To-morrow morning let us meet him then.
Sal. Or rather then set forward; for 't will be
Two long days' journey, lords, or ere we meet.

Enter the BASTARD.

Bast. Once more to-day well met, distemper'd lords!
The King by me requests your presence straight.
Sal. The King hath dispossess'd himself of us :
We will not line his thin bestained cloak
With our pure honours, nor attend the foot
That leaves the print of blood where'er it walks.
Return and tell him so: we know the worst.

9

[Dies.

Bast. Whate'er you think, good words, I think, were best.
Sal. Our griefs, and not our manners, reason now.
Bast. But there is little reason in your grief;
Therefore 't were reason you had manners now.

20

30

by its arrangement of words for antithesis and rhyme. There is no authority whatAs good to die and go. This verse is made mere nonsense, not by corruption, but ever for this representation of Arthur's death. S. found the incident in the old play, as he did the prison scene with Hubert, and took one without question, as he did the

other.

16 private private information.

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?

[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 think?
Or do you almost think, although you see,

you

That you do see? could thought, without this object,
Form such another? This is the very top,
The height, the crest, or crest unto the crest,

Of murther's arms: this is the bloodiest shame,

The wildest savagery, the vilest stroke,

40

That ever wall-eyed wrath or staring rage
Presented to the tears of soft remorse.

50

Pem. All murthers past do stand excus'd in this:

And this, so sole and so unmatchable,

Shall give a holiness, a purity,

To the yet unbegotten sin of times;

And prove a deadly bloodshed but a jest,
Exampled by this heinous spectacle.

Bast. It is a damned and a bloody work;
The graceless action of a heavy hand,
If that it be the work of any hand.

Sal. If that it be the work of any hand!
We had a kind of light what would ensue :
It is the shameful work of Hubert's hand;
The practice and the purpose of the King:
From whose obedience I forbid my soul,
Kneeling before this ruin of sweet life,
And breathing to his breathless excellence
The incense of a vow, a holy vow,
Never to taste the pleasures of the world,
Never to be infected with delight,

Nor conversant with ease and idleness,

Till I have set a glory to this hand,

By giving it the worship of revenge.

Pem. Big. Our souls religiously confirm thy words.

Enter HUBERT.

Hub. Lords, I am hot with haste in seeking you: Arthur doth live; the King hath sent for you.

6 practice: used here, as often by S., with a sinister significance.

Sal. O, he is bold and blushes not at death. Avaunt, thou hateful villain, get thee gone! Hub. I am no villian.

[Drawing his sword.

Sal.
Must I rob the law?
Bast. Your sword is bright, sir; put it up again.
Sal. Not till I sheathe it in a murderer's skin.
Hub. Stand back, Lord Salisbury, stand back, I say;
By heaven, I think my sword's as sharp as yours:
I would not have you, lord, forget yourself,

Nor

tempt the danger of my true defence;

Lest I, by marking of your rage, forget

Your worth, your greatness and nobility.

Big. Out, dunghill! dar'st thou brave a nobleman?
Hub. Not for my life: but yet I dare defend

My innocent life against an emperor.

Sal. Thou art a murtherer.

Hub.
Do not prove me so;
Yet I am none whose tongue soe'er speaks false,
Not truly speaks; who speaks not truly, lies.

Pem. Cut him to pieces.

Bast.

Keep the peace, I say. Sal. Stand by, or I shall gall you, Faulconbridge. Bast. Thou wert better gall the Devil, Salisbury : If thou but frown on me, or stir thy foot,

Or teach thy hasty spleen to do me shame,

I'll strike thee dead. Put up thy sword betime;
Or I'll SO maul you and

That

your toasting-iron, you shall think the Devil is come from hell. Big. What wilt thou do, renowned Faulconbridge? Second a villain and a murderer?

Hub. Lord Bigot, I am none.
Big.
Hub. 'Tis not an hour since I left him well:

Who kill'd this prince?

I honour'd him, I lov'd him, and will weep

My date of life out for his sweet life's loss.
Sal. Trust not those cunning waters of his eyes,
For villany is not without such rheum;
And he, long traded in it, makes it seem
Like rivers of remorse and innocency.
Away with me, all you whose souls abhor
The uncleanly savours of a slaughter-house ;
For I am stifled with this smell of sin.

Big. Away toward Bury, to the Dolphin there!
Pem. There tell the King he may inquire us out.

[Exeunt Lords.

00 Do not prove me so: that is, do not compel me to kill any one now.

Bast. Here's a good world! Knew you of this fair work? Beyond the infinite and boundless reach

Of mercy, if thou didst this deed of death,
Art thou damn'd, Hubert.

Hub.

Do but hear me,

sir.

Bast. Ha! I'll tell thee what ;

Thou 'rt damn'd as black

- nay, nothing is so black; Thou art more deep damn'd than Prince Lucifer : There is not yet so ugly a fiend of hell

As thou shalt be, if thou didst kill this child.

Hub. Upon my soul

Bast.

If thou didst but consent

To this most cruel act, do but despair;

And if thou want'st a cord, the smallest thread
That ever spider twisted from her womb

Will serve to strangle thee; a rush will be a beam
To hang thee on; or wouldst thou drown thyself,
Put but a little water in a spoon,
And it shall be as all the ocean,
Enough to stifle such a villain up.
I do suspect thee very grievously.

Hub. If I in act, consent, or sin of thought,
Be guilty of the stealing that sweet breath
Which was embounded in this beauteous clay,
Let hell want pains enough to torture me.
I left him well.

Bast.
Go, bear him in thine arms.
I am amaz'd, methinks, and lose my way
Among the thorns and dangers of this world.
How easy dost thou take all England up!
From forth this morsel of dead royalty,
The life, the right and truth of all this realm
Is fled to heaven; and England now is left
To tug and scamble and to part by th' teeth
The unowed interest of proud-swelling state.
Now for the bare-pick'd bone of majesty
Doth dogged war bristle his angry crest
And snarleth in the gentle eyes of peace:

120

130

140

150

Now powers from home and discontents at home

Meet in one line; and vast confusion waits,
As doth a raven on a sick-fall'n beast,
The imminent decay of wrested pomp.

Now happy he whose cloak and cincture can

142 all England: that is, the representative of all England.

147 unowed unpossessed.

155 cincture: pronounced center in S.'s day, and so spelled in the folio.