Or do

you almost think, although you see,

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

Pem. All murders past do stand excused in this; And this, so sole, and so unmatchable,

Shall give a holiness, a purity,

To the yet unbegotten sins of time,1
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 head,2
By giving it the worship of revenge.

Pem. Big. Our souls religiously confirm thy words.

1 The old copy reads sin of times. The emendation is Pope's. 2 The old copy reads, "Till I have set a glory to this hand." This is a copy of the vows made in the ages of superstition and chivalry. Pope thought that we should read "a glory to this head," pointing to the head of the dead prince, and using worship in its common acceptation. A glory is a circle of rays, such as is represented surrounding the heads of saints and other holy persons. The solemn confirmation of the other lords seems to require this sense. Gray, the poet (says Dr. Farmer), was much pleased with this correction. The old reading has been explained, "till I have famed and renowned my own hand by giving it the honor of revenge for so foul a deed."

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; 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 true1 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 murderer.

Hub.

2

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?

1 Honest defence, defence in a good cause.

2 i. e. as yet I am none. Hubert means to say, "Do not prove me a murderer, by obliging me to take your life in defending my own."

Hub. Lord Bigot, I am none.
Big.

Who killed this prince? Hub. 'Tis not an hour since I left him well.

I honored him, I loved 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 savors 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

Of mercy, if thou didst this deed of death,

Art thou damned, Hubert.

Hub.

Do but hear me, sir.

Bast. Ha! I'll tell thee what;

Thou art damned as black-nay, nothing is so black; Thou art more deep damned 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 imbounded in this beauteous clay,
Let hell want pains enough to torture me!

I left him well.

Bast.

2

Go, bear him in thine arms.-
I am amazed,' 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 scramble, and to part by the teeth
The unowed interest of proud-swelling state.
Now, for the bare-picked bone of majesty,
Doth dogged war bristle his angry crest,
And snarleth in the gentle eyes of peace;
Now powers from home, and discontents at home,
Meet in one line; and vast confusion waits
(As doth a raven on a sick-fallen beast)
The imminent decay of wrested pomp.
Now happy he, whose cloak and cincture3 can
Hold out this tempest. Bear away that child,
And follow me with speed; I'll to the king.
A thousand businesses are brief in hand,
And Heaven itself doth frown upon the land.

1 i. e. confounded.

[Exeunt.

2 i. e. the interest which is not at this moment legally possessed by any On the death of Arthur, the right to the crown devolved to his sister Eleanor.

one.

3 Girdle.

ACT V.

SCENE I. 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,

Your sovereign greatness and authority.

K. John. Now keep your holy word. Go meet the French;

And from his holiness use all your power

To stop their marches, 'fore we are inflamed.
Our discontented counties' do revolt;

Our people quarrel with obedience;

Swearing allegiance, and the love of soul,
To stranger blood, to foreign royalty.
This inundation of mistempered humor

Rests by you only to be qualified.

Then pause not; for the present time's so sick,

That present medicine must be ministered,

Or overthrow incurable ensues.

Pand. It was my breath that blew this tempest up,

Upon your stubborn usage of the pope;

But, since you are a gentle convertite,2

My tongue shall hush again this storm of war,

And make fair weather in your blustering land.
On this Ascension-day, remember well,

Upon your oath of service to the pope,

Go I to make the French lay down their arms. [Exit. K. John. Is this Ascension-day? Did not the prophet

1 Counties here most probably mean, not the divisions of the kingdom, but the lords and nobility in general.

2 Convert.