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Nay, hear me, Hubert, drive these men away,
And I will fit as quiet as a lamb.

I will not ftir, nor wince, nor speak a word,
Nor look upon the iron angrily:

Thruft 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.
Exec. I am beft pleas'd to be from fuch a deed. [Exeunt.
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 your felf.
Arth. Is there no remedy?

Hub. None, but to lose your eyes.

Arth. O heav'n! that there were but a moth in

A grain, a dust, a gnat, a wandring hair,

Any annoyance in that precious sense:

yours,

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

tongues

Hub. Is this your promife? go to, hold your tongue.--Arth. Hubert, the utterance of a brace of Muft needs want pleading for a pair of eyes: Let me not hold my tongue: let me not, Hubert; 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 extreams; fee elfe your self,
There is no malice in this burning coal;
The breath of heav'n hath blown its fpirit out,
And ftrew'd repentant afhes on its 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

And like a Dog, that is compell'd to fight,
Snatch at his Mafter that doth tarre him on.
All things, that you should ufe to do me wrong,
Deny their office; only You do lack

That mercy which fierce fire and iron extend,
Creatures of note for mercy-lacking uses.

Hub. Well, fee to live; I will not touch thine eye, For all the treasure that thine uncle owns:

Yet am I fworn; and I did purpose, boy,
With this fame very iron to burn them out.

Arth. O, now you look like Hubert. All this while You were disguised.

Hub. Peace: no more. Adieu,

Your Uncle muft not know but you are dead.
I'll fill thefe dogged fpies with false reports:
And, pretty child, fleep doubtlefs, and fecure,
That Hubert, for the wealth of all the world,
Will not offend thee.

Arth. O heav'n! I thank you, Hubert.

Hub. Silence, no more; go closely in with me.' Much danger do I undergo for thee.,

[Exeunt. SCENE changes to the Court of England.

Enter King John, Pembroke, Salisbury, and other Lords.

K. John.

HE

ERE once again we fit, once again crown'd,

And look'd upon, I hope, with chearful eyes.

Pemb. This once again, but that your Highness
pleas'd,

Was once fuperfluous; you were crown'd before,
And that high Royalty was ne'er pluck'd off:
The faiths of men, ne'er ftained with revolt:
Fresh expectation troubled not the Land
With any long'd-for Change, or better State.
Sal. Therefore to be poffefs'd with double pomp,
To guard a Title that was rich before;
To gild refined gold, to paint the lilly,
To throw a perfume on the violet,

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To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
To feek the beauteous eye of heav'n to garnish,
Is wafteful and ridiculous excess.

Pemb. But that your royal pleasure must be done,
This act is as an ancient Tale new told,
And in the last repeating troublesome;
Being urged at a time unfeafonable.

Sal. In this the antique and well-noted face
Of plain old form is much disfigured;
And, like a fhifted wind unto a fail,

It makes the course of thoughts to fetch about;
Startles and frights confideration;

Makes found opinion fick, and truth suspected,
For putting on fo new a fashion'd robe.

Pemb. When workmen strive to do better than well, They do confound their skill in covetoufnefs; (21) And oftentimes excufing of a fault

Doth make the fault the worse by the excufe:
As patches, fet upon a little breach,

Difcredit more in hiding of the fault,

Than did the fault before it was fo patch'd.

Sal. To this effect, before you were new-crown'd, We breath'd our counsel; but it pleas'd your Highness To over-bear it; and we're all well pleas'd; Since all and every part of what we would, Must make a Stand at what your Highnels will. K. John. Some reasons of this double Coronation I have poffeft you with, and think them ftrong. And more, more ftrong (the leffer is my fear) I shall endue you with: mean time, but ask What you would have reform'd, that is not well, And well fhall you perceive how willingly

I will both hear and grant you your requests.

Pemb. Then I, as one that am the Tongue of thefe,

(21) They do confound their Skill in Covetoufnels.] i. e. Not by their Avarice, but in an eager Emulation, an intense Delire of excelling; as in Henry V.

But if it be a Sin to covet Honour,
I am the moft offending Soul alive.

To

To found the purposes of all their hearts,
(Both for my felf and them; but chief of all,
Your fafety; for the which, my felf and they
Bend their beft Studies ;) heartily request
Th' infranchisement of Arthur; whofe restraint
Doth move the murm'ring lips of difcontent
To break into this dang'rous argument;
If what in Reft you have, in Right you hold,
Why shou'd your fears, (which, as they fay, attend
The fteps of wrong) then move you to mew up
Your tender kinfman, and to choke his days
With barb'rous ignorance, and deny his youth
The rich advantage of good exercife?
That the time's enemies may not have this
To grace occafions, let it be our fuit,
That you have bid us ask his liberty;
Which for our good we do no further ask,
Than whereupon our Weal, on you depending,
Counts it your Weal that he have liberty.,

Enter Hubert.

K. John. Let it be fo; I do commit his youth
To your direction. Hubert, what news with you?
Pemb. This is the man, fhould do the bloody deed:
He fhew'd his warrant to a Friend of mine.

The image of a wicked heinous fault
Lives in his eye; that close aspect of his
Does fhew the mood of a much-troubled breast.
And I do fearfully believe 'tis done,

What we so fear'd he had a Charge to do.

Sal. The colour of the King doth come and go,
Between his purpose and his conscience,

Like heralds 'twixt two dreadful battels fent: (22)
His paffion is fo ripe, it needs must break.

(22) Like Heralds, 'twixt two dreadful Battles fet;] But Heralds are not planted, I prefume, in the midft betwixt two Lines of Battle; tho' they, and Trumpets, are often fent over from Party to Party, to propose Terms, demand a Parley, &c. I have therefore ventur'd to read, fent.

Pemb.

Pemb. And when it breaks, I fear, will iffue thence The foul corruption of a fweet child's death.

K. John. We cannot hold Mortality's ftrong hand. Good lords, although my will to give is living, The fuit which you demand is gone, and dead. He tells us, Arthur is deceas'd to night.

Sal. Indeed, we fear'd, his fickness was paft cure. Pemb. Indeed, we heard how near his death he was, Before the child himself felt he was fick.

This must be anfwer'd, either here, or hence.

K. John. Why do you bend fuch folemn brows on me? Think you, I bear the fhears of Destiny? Have I commandment on the pulse of life? Sal. It is apparent foul-play, and 'tis fhame That Greatness fhould fo grofly offer it: So thrive it in your game, and fo farewel! Pemb. Stay yet, lord Salisbury, I'll go with thee, And find th'inheritance of this poor child, His little Kingdom of a forced grave.

That blood which own'd the breadth of all this Ifle, Three foot of it doth hold; bad world the while! This must not be thus borne; this will break out To all our forrows, and ere long, I doubt.

Enter a Meffenger.

[Exeunt.

K. John. They burn in indignation; I repent.
There is no fure foundation fet on blood;
No certain life atchiev'd by others death
A fearful eye thou haft; where is that blood,

That I have feen inhabit in those cheeks?

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[Afide.

[To the Mef.

So foul á sky clears not without, a ftorm;
Pour down thy weather: how goes all in France?
Mef. From France to England never such a Power,
For any foreign Preparation,

Was levy'd in the body of a Land.

The copy of your fpeed is learn'd by them:
For when you should be told, they do prepare,
The tidings come, that they are all arriv'd.

K. John.

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