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, Hoftility and civil tumult reigns

Between my confcience, and my cousin's death.

HUB. Arm you against your other enemies,
I'll make a peace between your foul 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 bofom never enter'd yet

The dreadful motion of a murd'rous thought,
And you have flander'd nature in my form;
Which, how foever rude exteriorly,

Is yet the cover of a fairer mind

Than to be butcher of an innocent child.

K. JOHN. Doth Arthur live? O, hafte thee to the

peers,

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

Prefented thee more hideous than thou art.
O, answer not; but to my closet bring
The angry lords, with all expedient hafte :
I conjure thee but flowly; run more fast.' [Exeunt.

8 The dreadful motion of a murd'rous thought,] Nothing can be falfer than what Hubert here fays in his own vindication; for we find, from a preceding fcene, the motion of a murd'rous thought had entered into him, and that very deeply: and it was with difficulty that the tears, the intreaties, and the innocence of Arthur had diverted and suppressed it. WARBURTON.

9 The old play is divided into two parts, the firft of which concludes with the King's defpatch of Hubert on this meffage; the fecond begins with "Enter Arthur," &c. as in the following fcene. STEEVENS.

SCENE III.

The fame. Before the Caftle.

Enter ARTHUR, on the Walls.

ARTH. The wall is high; and yet will I leap down: 2

Good ground, be pitiful, and hurt me not!-
There's few, or none, do know me; if they did,
This fhipboy's femblance hath difguis'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.

O me! my uncle's spirit is in these ftones :Heaven take my foul, and England keep my bones!

[Dies.

Enter PEMBROKE, SALISBURY, and BIGOT.

SAL. Lords, I will meet him at faint Edmund'sBury;

2 The wall is high; and yet will I leap down:] Our author has here followed the old play. In what manner Arthur was deprived of his life, is not afcertained. Matthew Paris, relating the event, ufes the word evanuit; and indeed as King Philip afterwards publickly accused King John of putting his nephew to death, without mentioning either the manner of it or his accomplices, we may conclude that it was conducted with impenetrable fecrecy. The French hiftorians however fay, that John coming in a boat, during the night-time, to the caftle of Rouen, where the young prince was confined, ordered him to be brought forth, and having ftabbed him, while fupplicating for mercy, the King faftened a ftone to the dead body, and threw it into the Seine, in order to give fome colour to a report, which he afterwards caufed to be fpread, that the prince attempting to escape out of a window of the tower of the castle, fell into the river, and was drowned.

MALONE.

It is our fafety, and we muft embrace
This gentle offer of the perilous time.

PEMB. 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 fet forward: for 'twill be Two long days' journey, lords, or e'er we meet.3

2 Whofe private, &c.] i. e. whofe private account of the Dauphin's affection to our cause, is much more ample than the letters.

POPE.

3 or e'er we meet.] This phrafe, fo frequent in our old writers, is not well understood. Or is here the fame as ere, i. e. before, and fhould be written (as it is still pronounced in Shrop fhire) ore. There the common people use it often. Thus, they fay, Ore to-morrow, for ere or before to-morrow. The addition of ever, or e'er, is merely augmentative.

That or has the full fenfe of before, and that e'er when joined with it is merely augmentative, is proved from innumerable paffages in our ancient writers, wherein or occurs fimply without e'er, and must bear that fignification. Thus, in the old tragedy of Mafter Arden of Feversham, 1599, quarto, (attributed by fome, though falfely, to Shakspeare) the wife fays:

"He fhall be murdered or the guests come in."

Sig. H. III. b. PERCY.

So, in All for Money, an old Morality, 1574: "I could fit in the cold a good while I fwear, "Or I would be weary fuch fuitors to hear." Again, in Every Man, another Morality, no date: "As, or we departe, thou shalt know."

Again, in the interlude of The Disobedient Child, bl. 1. no date:

"To fend for victuals or I came away."

That or should be written ore, I am by no means convinced. The vulgar pronunciation of a particular county ought not to be received as a general guide. Ere is nearer the Saxon primitive æn.

STEEVENT.

Enter the Bastard.

BAST. Once more to-day well met, diftemper'd lords!

The king, by me, requefts your prefence ftraight.
SAL. The king hath difpoffefs'd himself of us;
We will not line his thin beftained cloak

With our pure honours, nor attend the foot
That leaves the print of blood where-e'er it walks:
Return, and tell him fo; we know the worst.

BAST. Whate'er you think, good words, I think, were beft.

SAL. Our griefs, and not our manners, reafon

now.5

BAST. But there is little reafon in your grief; Therefore, 'twere reason, you had manners now. PEMB. Sir, fir, 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.

PEMB. 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.

4-diftemper'd-] i. e. ruffled, out of humour. So, in

Hamlet:

in his retirement marvellous diftemper'd." STERVENS. 5 — reason now,] To reafon, in Shakspeare, is not so often to argue, as to talk. JOHNSON.

So, in Coriolanus:

6

66

reafon with the fellow,

"Before you punish him." STEEVENS.

no man elfe.] Old copy-no man's. Corrected by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE.

addressing

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 almoft think, although you fee,

That you do fee? could thought, without this ob-
ject,

Form fuch another? This is the very top,

The height, the creft, or creft unto the creft,
Of murder's arms: this is the bloodiest shame,
The wildest favag'ry, the vileft stroke,

*

That ever wall-ey'd wrath, or staring rage,

Prefented to the tears of foft remorfe.

PEMB. All murders paft do ftand excus'd in this:

And this, fo fole, and fo unmatchable,

Shall give a holiness, a purity,

To the yet-unbegotten fin of times;

8

6 Have you beheld,] Old copy-You have, &c. Corrected by the editor of the third folio. MALONE.

7 Or have you read, or heard? &c.] Similar interrogatories have been already urged by the Dauphin, Act III. fc. iv:

Who hath read, or heard,

"Of any kindred action like to this?" STEEVENS.

8 fin of time;] The old copy-of times. I follow Mr. Pope, whofe reading is justified by a line in the celebrated foliloquy of Hamlet:

"For who would bear the whips and fcorns of time?" Again, by another in this play of King John, p. 157:

I am not glad that fuch a fore of time— STEEVENS. of times;] That is, of all future times. So, in King

Henry V:

"By custom and the ordinance of times."

Again, in The Rape of Lucrece:

"For now against himself he founds his doom,

"That through the length of times he ftands difgrac'd."