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 motion of a murd'rous 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

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.

[Exeunt.

The same. 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. [Leaps down.
Oh me! my uncle's spirit is in these stones :-
Heaven take my soul, and England keep my bones!

[Dies.

[9] Our author has here followed the old play. In what manner Arthur was de prived of his life is not ascertained Mathew Paris, relating the event, uses the word evanuit; and, indeed, as King Philip afterwards publicly accused King John of putting his nephew to death, without either mentioning the manner of it, or his accomplices, we may conclude that it was done with impenetrable secrecy. The French historians, however, say, that John coming in a boat 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 some colour to a report, which he afterwards caused to be spread, 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?
Sal. The count Melun, a noble lord of France;
Whose private with me, of the Dauphin'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 'twill be
Two long days' journey, lords, or e'er 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.

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, '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? [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?

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 POPE.

[2] This phrase, so frequent in our old writers, is not well understood. Or is here the same as ere, i. e. before PERCY.

[3] To reason, in Shakespeare, is not so often to argue, as to talk. JOHNSON.

5

VOL. V.

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 murder's arms: this is the bloodiest shame,
The wildest savag'ry, the vilest stroke,
That ever wall-ey'd wrath, or staring rage,
Presented to the tears of soft remorse.

Pem. All murders 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 time;
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 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.

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?

[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.

JOHNSON. [5] The worship is the dignity, the honour. We still say worshipful of magistrates. JOHNSON.

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 1, 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 murderer.

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 your toasting-iron,
That 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. 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.

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
Th' 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

Honest defence; defence in a good cause.

JOHNSON.

Do not make me a murderer, by compelling me to kill you; I am hitherto not a murderer. JOHNSON.

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 art 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 would'st 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 :

[8] I remember once to have met with a book, printed in the time of Henry VIII. (which Shakespeare possibly might have seen,) where we are told that the defor mity of the condemned in the other world, is exactly proportioned to the degrees of their guilt The author of it observes how difficult it would be, on this account, to distinguish between Belzebub and Judas Iscariot.

STEEVENS.

[9] Scamble and scramble have the same meaning. STEEVENS.

That is, the interest which is not at this moment legally possessed by any one, however rightfully entitled to it On the death of Arthur, the right to the English crown devolved to his sister, Eleanor. MALONE.