When I fpake darkly what I purposed;
Or turn'd an eye of doubt upon my face,
As bid me tell my tale in exprefs words;

Deep shame had ftruck me dumb, made me break off,
And thofe thy fears might have wrought fears in me:
But thou didst understand me by my figns,
And didft in figns again parley with fin;
Yea, without stop, didft let thy heart confent,
And, confequently, thy rude hand to act

The deed, which both our tongues held vile to

name.

Out of my fight, and never see me more!
My nobles leave me; and my ftate is brav'd,

fwelling with confciousness of a crime, and defirous of discharging its mifery on another.

This account of the timidity of guilt is drawn ab ipfis receffibus mentis, from the intimate knowledge of mankind, particularly that line in which he fays, that to have bid him tell his tale in exprefs words, would have ftruck him dumb: nothing is more certain, than that bad men ufe all the arts of fallacy upon themselves, palliate their actions to their own minds by gentle terms, and hide themfelves from their own detection in ambiguities and fubterfuges. JOHNSON.

7 As bid-] Thus the old copy. Mr. Malone reads—And. STEEVENS.

Mr. Pope reads-Or bid me, &c. but As is very unlikely to have been printed for Or.

As we have here As printed inftead of And, so vice versâ in King Henry V. 4to. 1600, we find And mifprinted for As:

"And in this glorious and well foughten field

"We kept together in our chivalry." MALONE. As, in ancient language, has fometimes the power of-as for inftance. So, in Hamlet:

"As, ftars with trains of fire," &c.

In the prefent inftance it feems to mean, as if.

"Had you, (fays

the King, fpeaking elliptically,) turn'd an eye of doubt on my face, as if to bid me tell my tale in express words," &c. So, in Spenfer's Faery Queen:

"That with the noise it shook as it would fall;" i. e. as if.—I have not therefore disturbed the old reading.

STEEVENS,

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 coufin'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 passion 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 faft.' [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 fuppreffed 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.

The fame. Before the Castle.

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 stones :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 secrecy. 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 fastened a stone to the dead body, and threw it into the Seine, in order to give fome colour to a report, which he afterwards caused to be fpread, that the prince attempting to escape out of a window of the tower of the caftle, fell into the river, and was drowned.

MALONE.

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

PEMB. Who brought that letter from the car-
dinal?

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 them. SAL. Or, rather then fet forward: for 'twill be Two long days' journey, lords, or e'er we meet.❜

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

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 ufe it often. Thus, they fay, Ore to-morrow, for ere or before to-morrow. ever, or e'er, is merely augmentative.

The addition of

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 fhalt know."

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

"To fend for victuals or I came away."

That or fhould 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.

STEEVENS.

Enter the Baftard.

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

The king, by me, requests your prefence straight.
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.s

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.

Hamlet:

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

- in his retirement marvellous diftemper'd." STEEVENS. s reafon now,] To reafon, in Shakspeare, is not fo often to argue, as to talk. JOHNSON.

So, in Coriolanus:

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.