So I were out of prison, and kept sheep,
I should be as merry as the day is long;
And fo I would be here, but that I doubt
My uncle practises more harm to me:
He is afraid of me, and I of him:

Is it my fault that I was Geffrey's fon?
No, indeed, is't not; And I would to heaven,
I were your fon, so you would love me, Hubert.

HUB. If I talk to him, with his innocent prate He will awake my mercy, which lies dead: Therefore I will be fudden, and defpatch. [Afide. ARTH. Are you fick, Hubert? you look pale today:

In footh, I would you were a little fick ;
That I might fit all night, and watch with you:
I warrant, I love you more than you do me.

HUB. His words do take poffeffion of my bofom.Read here, young Arthur. [Showing a paper.] How now, foolish rheum!

[Afide.

Turning difpiteous torture out of door!
I must be brief; left refolution drop
Out at mine eyes, in tender womanish tears.-
Can you not read it? is it not fair writ?

ARTH. Too fairly, Hubert, for so foul effect: Muft you with hot irons burn out both mine eyes? HUB. Young boy, I must.

ARTH.

HUB.

And will you?

And I will.

ARTH. Have you the heart? When your head did

but ake,

print, fo there is no one fo carelefs to have him a wretch,-only his right fhape to fhow him a man, his chriftendame to prove his faith." Euphues and his England, 1581. See alfo Vol. VI. p. 201. n. 4. MALONE.

I knit my handkerchief about your brows,
(The best I had, a princess wrought it me,)
And I did never afk it you again:

And with my hand at midnight held your head;
And, like the watchful minutes to the hour,
Still and anon cheer'd up the heavy time;
Saying, What lack you? and, Where lies your grief?
Or, What good love may I perform for you?
Many a poor man's fon would have lain still,
And ne'er have spoke a loving word to you;
But you at your fick fervice had a prince.
Nay, you may think, my love was crafty love,
And call it, cunning; Do, an if you will:
If heaven be pleas'd that you must use me ill,
Why, then you muft.-Will you put out mine eyes?
These eyes, that never did, nor never shall,
So much as frown on you

HUB.

I have fworn to do it;

And with hot irons must I burn them out.

ARTH. Ah, none, but in this iron age, would do it! The iron of itself, though heat red-hot,'

Approaching near these eyes, would drink my tears, And quench his firy indignation,*

3 though heat red-hot,] The participle beat, though now obfolete, was in ufe in our author's time. See Twelfth Night, Vol. IV. p. 8, n. 9.

So, in the facred writings: "He commanded that they should heat the furnace one feven times more than it was wont to be beat." Dan. iii. 19. MALONE.

4 And quench his firy indignation,] The old copy-this firy indignation. STEEVENS.

We should read either "its firy," or "his firy indignation." The late reading was probably an error of the press. His is moft in Shakspeare's ftyle. M. MASON.

By this firy indignation, however, he might mean,-the indignation thus produced by the iron being made red-hot for fuch an inhuman purpose. MALONE.

Even in the matter of mine innocence:
Nay, after that, confume away in rust,
But for containing fire to harm mine eye.

Are you more stubborn-hard than hammer'd iron?
An if an angel fhould have come to me,

And told me, Hubert fhould put out mine eyes,
I would not have believ'd no tongue, but Hubert's.'
HUB. Come forth.

[Stamps.

Re-enter Attendants, with cord, irons, &c.

Do as I bid you do.

ARTH. O, fave me, Hubert, fave me! my eyes

are out,

Even with the fierce looks of these bloody men.
HUB. Give me the iron, I say, and bind him here.
ARTH. Alas, what need you be fo boift'rous-rough?
I will not struggle, I will stand stone-still.
For heaven's fake, Hubert, let me not be bound!
Nay, hear me, Hubert! drive these men away,
And I will fit as quiet as a lamb;

I will not ftir, nor wince, nor fpeak a word,
Nor look upon the iron angerly:

These last words are taken from the Bible. In the Epiftle to the Hebrews, we read-" a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation." ch. x. v. 27. WHALLEY.

s I would not have believ'd no tongue, but Hubert's.] The old copy, and fome of our modern editors, read :

I would not have believ'd him; no tongue but Hubert's. The truth is, that the tranfcriber, not understanding the power of the two negatives not and no, (which are ufually employed not to affirm, but to deny more forcibly,) intruded the redundant pronoun, him. As you like it affords an inftance of the phraseology I have

defended:

"Nor, I am fure, there is no force in eyes
"That can do hurt." STEEVENS.

Thrust but these men away, and I'll forgive you, Whatever torment you do put me to.

HUB. Go, ftand within; let me alone with him. I ATTEND. I am beft pleas'd to be from fuch a deed. Exeunt Attendants. ARTH. Alas! I then have chid away my friend; He hath a stern look, but a gentle heart :Let him come back, that his compaffion may Give life to yours.

HUB.

Come, boy, prepare yourself.

ARTH. Is there no remedy?

HUB.

None, but to lose your eyes.

ARTH. O heaven!-that there were but a mote

A grain, a duft, a gnat, a wand'ring hair,

Any annoyance in that precious fenfe!

Then, feeling what small things are boist'rous there, Your vile intent muft needs feem horrible.

HUB. Is this your promife? go to, hold your tongue. ARTH. Hubert, the utterance of a brace of tongues Muft needs want pleading for a pair of eyes: Let me not hold my tongue; let me not, Hubert!

6 a mote in yours,] Old copy-a moth. STEEVENS. Surely we should read-a mote. Our author, who has borrowed fo much from the facred writings, without doubt remembered,— "And why beholdeft thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye," &c. Matth. vii. 3. So, in Hamlet:

"A mote it is, to trouble the mind's eye."

A mote is a fmall particle of ftraw or chaff. It is likewise used by old writers for an atom.

I have fince found my conjecture confirmed. Moth was merely the old fpelling of mote. In the paffage quoted from Hamlet, the word is fpelt moth in the original copy, as it is here. So alfo, in the preface to Lodge's Incarnate Devils of the Age, 4to. 1596: they are in the aire, like atomi in fole, MOTHES in the fonne." See alfo Florio's Italian Dict. 1598: "Feftucco.-a moh, a little beam." MALONE.

Or, Hubert, if you will, cut out my tongue,
So I may keep mine eyes; O, fpare mine eyes;
Though to no ufe, but ftill to look on you!
Lo, by my troth, the inftrument is cold,
And would not harm me.

HUB.

I can heat it, boy.

ARTH. No, in good footh; the fire is dead with grief,

Being create for comfort, to be us'd

In undeferv'd extremes: See else yourself;
There is no malice in this burning coal;"
The breath of heaven hath blown his fpirit out,
And ftrew'd repentant ashes on his head.

HUB. But with my breath I can revive it, boy.
ARTH. And if you do, you will but make it blush,
And glow with fhame of your proceedings, Hubert:
Nay, it, perchance, will sparkle in your eyes;
And, like a dog that is compell'd to fight,
Snatch at his mafter that doth tarre him on.2

7 Or, Hubert, if you will, cut out my tongue,] This is according We imagine no evil fo great as that which is near us. JOHNSON.

to nature.

8

the fire is dead with grief, &c.] The fenfe is: the fire, being created not to hurt, but to comfort, is dead with grief for finding itfelf used in acts of cruelty, which, being innocent, I have not deferved. JOHNSON.

9 There is no malice in this burning coal;] Dr. Grey fays, "that no malice in a burning coal is certainly abfurd, and that we should read:

There is no malice burning in this coal." STEEVENS.

Dr. Grey's remark on this paffage is an hypercriticifm. The coal was ftill burning, for Hubert says, "he could revive it with his breath:" but it had loft for a time its power of injuring by the abatement of its heat. M. MASON.

2

tarre him on.] i. e. ftimulate, fet him on. Suppofed to be derived from Taparla, excito. The word occurs again in Hamlet: " and the nation holds it no fin to tarre them on

to controverfy." Again, in Troilus and Creffida:

"Pride alone muft tarre the maftiffs on." STEEVENS.