So I were out of prison, and kept sheep, Is it my fault that I was Geffrey's fon? 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 ; 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! 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, And with my hand at midnight held your head; 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: Are you more stubborn-hard than hammer'd iron? And told me, Hubert fhould put out mine eyes, [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. I will not ftir, nor wince, nor fpeak a word, 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 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, 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; HUB. But with my breath I can revive it, boy. 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. |