10 (1. 27). Prate, idle talk, child-like
conversation.

11 (1. 29). Dispatch, quickly do the
work for which I was engaged.
12 (l. 31). In sooth, in truth.
13 (l. 36). Rheum, here means tears.
14 (. 37). Dispiteous, having no pity.
The word is obsolete.

15 (1. 40). Fair writ, legibly written.
16 (1. 66). Iron age, hard, unmerciful

26

the one known as an instrument of destruction, the other of torture, and yet they show more mercy than Hubert.

(1. 139). Dogged, watching in the sense of following about as a dog from place to place.

(. 144). Closely, secretly, so as not to be noticed.

20 (1. 103). Boisterous, rough, painful.

THE KING'S REMORSE.-ACT IV.

SCENES 2, 3.

KING JOHN, alarmed at the disaffection of his nobles and people, repents of his conduct towards Prince Arthur, and accuses Hubert of tempting him to accede to the murder.

SCENE. A Room of State in the Palace.

Enter a Messenger.

K. John. A fearful eye thou hast; where is that blood

That I have seen inhabit in those cheeks?
So foul a sky clears not without a storm :
Pour down thy weather: how goes all in
France?

Mess. From France to England-Never such

a power

For any foreign preparation

Was levied in the body of a land!

The copy of your speed is learned by them; For when you should be told they do prepare, The tidings come that they are all arrived.

K. John. Oh, where hath our intelligence been drunk?

5

ΙΟ

Where hath it slept? Where is
Where is my mother's

care,

That such an army could be drawn in France,
And she not hear of it?

Mess.
My liege, her ear
Is stopped with dust; the first of April died
Your noble mother: and, as I hear, my lord,
The Lady Constance in a frenzy died,
Three days before: but this from rumour's
tongue

I idly heard; if true, or false, I know not.

K. John. Withhold thy speed, dreadful

occasion!

Oh, make a league with me, till I have pleased My discontented peers! [Exit Messenger. My mother dead!

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 wondrous motion.

K. John. Five moons!

Hub. Old men and beldams,1 in the streets, Do prophesy upon it dangerously : Young Arthur's death is common in their

mouths:

And when they talk of him, they shake their heads,

And whisper one another in the ear;

2

And he that speaks doth gripe the hearer's

wrist;

15

20

25

30

Whilst he that hears makes fearful action, 35

With wrinkled brows, with nods, with rolling

eyes.

3

I saw a smith stand with his hammer, thus,
The whilst his iron did on the anvil cool,
With open mouth swallowing a tailor's news;
Who, with his shears and measure in his hand, 40
Standing on slippers (which his nimble haste
Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet),*
Told of a many thousand warlike French
That were embattailed and ranked in Kent:
Another lean unwashed artificer
Cuts off his tale, and talks of Arthur's death.
K. John. Why seek'st thou to possess me'
with these fears?

6

Why urgest thou so oft young Arthur's death?

Thy hand hath murdered him : I had mighty

cause

To wish him dead, but thou hadst none to kill

him.

Hub. No had, my lord! why, did you not provoke me?

9

K. John. It is the curse of kings to be attended

By slaves, that take their humours for a

warrant

To break 10 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

More upon humour than advised respect.

45

50

55

Hub. Here is your hand and seal 12 for what I did.

K. John. Oh, when the last account 'twixt heaven and earth

Is to be made, then shall this hand and seal
Witness against us to damnation !
How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds
Makes deeds ill done! Hadst not thou been

by,

A fellow by the hand of Nature marked,
Quoted and signed to do a deed of shame,
This murder had not come into my mind:
But, taking note of thy abhorred aspect,
Finding thee fit for bloody villany,
Apt, liable to be employed 13 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 turned an eye of doubt upon my face,
And 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:

14

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

60

65

70

75

80

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 braved,15
Even at my gates, with ranks of foreign powers:
Nay, in the body of this fleshly land,'

16

85

This kingdom, this confine of blood and breath, 90
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 betwixt your soul and you.
Young Arthur is alive: this hand of mine.
Is yet a maiden1 and an innocent hand,
Not painted with the crimson spots of blood.
K. John. Doth Arthur live? Oh haste thee
to the peers, 18

Throw this report on their incensed rage,
And make them tame to their obedience!

[Exeunt.

95

100

NOTES.

1 (2. 29). Beldams (beldames), old women of repulsive appearance, hags.

2 (1. 34). Gripe, hold tightly, clutch; grip.

3 (1. 37). Thus. Hubert puts himself in the posture assumed by the smith.

4 (1. 42). Contrary feet, the right slipper on the left foot, and the left slipper on the right foot.

5 (l. 44). Embattailed, drawn up in order of battle.

6 (1. 45). Artificer, a man who works at a trade.

7 (l. 47). Possess me, cause me to have.

8 (7. 51). No had, here means, What! had no cause! expressing Hubert's great astonishment at the treache- 18 rous manner of the king in trying

(1. 89). This fleshly land, &c.
king's body.

The

(1. 96). A maiden hand, one not
practised in crime.

(. 98). The Peers, the nobility who
had forsaken the king.