By giving it the worship of revenge. Pem. Big. Our souls religiously confirm thy words. Enter HUBERT. Hub. Lord, I am hot with haste in seeking you: Arthur doth live; the king hath sent for you. Sal. O, he is bold, and blushes not at death:Avaunt, thou hateful villain, get thee gone! Hub. I am no villain. Sal. Must I rob the law? Bast. Your sword is bright, sir; put it up again9. Sal. Not till I sheath 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: Sal. Thou art a murderer. Hub. Do not prove me soll; Yet I am none: Whose tongue soe'er speaks false, Not truly speaks; who speaks not truly, lies. And in Troilus and Cressida : Jove, let Aeneas live, If to my sword his fate be not the glory, A thousand complete courses of the sun.' 9 So in Othello:-'Keep up your bright swords; for the dew will rust them.' Both Faulconbridge and Othello speak contemptuously. "You have shown that your sword is bright, and now you may put it up again; you shall not use it.' 10 Honest defence, defence in a good cause. 11 Dr. Johnson has, I think, mistaken the sense of this passage, which he explains-Do not make me a murderer, by compelling me to kill you; I am hitherto not a murderer.' By 'Do not prove me so Hubert means 'do not provoke me, or try my patience so. This was a common acceptation of the word. To assay, to prove, to try, to tempt one to do evil' Baret, in v. prove. Pem. Cut him to pieces. Bast. Or teach thy hasty spleen to do me shame, Hub. Lord Bigot, I am none. Who kill'd this prince? Hub. "Tis not an hour since I left him well: I honour'd him, I lov'd him; and will weep My date of life out, for his sweet life's loss. Šal. 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 remorse12. 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 Dauphin there! Pem. There, tell the king, he may inquire us out. [Exeunt Lords. Bast. Here's a good world!-Knew you of this fair work? Beyond the infinite and boundless reach Hub. Do but hear me, sir. Bast. Ha! I'll tell thee what; Thou art damn'd as black,-nay, nothing is so black; Thou art more deep damn'd than prince Lucifer13: 12 Pity. 13 So in the old play : 'Hell, Hubert, trust me, all the plagues of hell This seal, the warrant of the body's bliss, There is not yet so ugly a fiend of hell 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 Put but a little water in a spoon, Hub. If I in act, consent, or sin of thought Bast. 14 See before, p. 374. 15 i. e. unowned: the interest which is not at this moment legally possessed by any one. On the death of Arthur, the right to the crown devolved to his sister Eleaner. Now happy he, whose cloak and cincture16 can ACT V. SCENE I The same. A Room in the Palace. Enter KING JOHN, PANDULPH, with the Crown, and Attendants. K. John. Thus have I yielded up into your hand The circle of my glory. Pand. Take again [Giving JoHN the Crown. From this my hand, as holding of the pope, K. John. Now keep your holy word: go meet the French; And from his holiness use all your power Our people quarrel with obedience; This inundation of mistemper'd humour Then pause not; for the present time's so sick, Or overthrow incurable ensues. Pand. It was my breath that blew this tempest up, Upon your stubborn usage of the pope: 16 Girdle. 1 Counties here most probably mean not the divisions of the kingdom, but the lords and nobility in general. As in Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado about Nothing. Vol. IV. 17 But, since you are a gentle convertite2, My tongue shall hush again this storm of war, Go I to make the French lay down their arms. [Exit. K. John. Is this 'Ascension-day? Did not the prophet Say, that, before Ascension-day at noon, Enter the Bastard. Bast. All Kent hath yielded; nothing there holds out, But Dover castle: London hath receiv'd, Like a kind host, the Dauphin and his powers: And wild amazement hurries up and down Bast. They found him dead, and cast into the streets; An empty casket, where the jewel of life3 2 Convert. Dryden has transferred this image to a speech of Antony, in All for Love: 'An empty circle, since the jewel's gone.' So in King Richard II : A jewel fn a ten times barr'd up chest |