Sal. O, he is bold and blushes not at death.
Avaunt, thou hateful villain, get thee gone!
Hub. I am no villain.

Sal.

Must I rob the law?

[Drawing his sword.

80

Bast. Your sword is bright, sir; put it up again.
Sal. Not till I sheathe it in a murderer's skin.
Hub. Stand back, Lord Salisbury, stand back, I

say;

By heaven, I think my sword's as sharp as yours:

I would not have you, lord, forget yourself, Nor tempt the danger of my true defense; Lest I, by marking of your rage, forget Your worth, your greatness and nobility. Big. Out, dunghill! darest thou brave a nobleman? Hub. Not for my life: but yet I dare defend My innocent life against an emperor.

Sal. Thou art a murderer.

Hub.

Do not prove me so; 90

Yet I am none: whose tongue soe'er speaks

false,

Not truly speaks; who speaks not truly, lies. Pem. Cut him to pieces.

Bast.

Keep the peace, I say. Sal. Stand by, or I shall gall you, Faulconbridge. Bast. Thou wert better gall the devil, Salisbury:

If thou but frown on me, or stir thy foot,

79. "Your sword is bright"; so in Othello: "Keep up your bright swords; for the dew will rust them."-H. N. H.

84. "True defense"; honest defense, defense in a good cause.

H. N. H.

102

Or teach thy hasty spleen to do me shame, I'll strike thee dead. Put up thy sword betime; Or I'll so maul you and your toasting-iron, That you shall think the devil is come from hell. Big. What wilt thou do, renowned Faulconbridge? Second a villain and a murderer? Hub. Lord Bigot, I am none. Big. Who kill'd this prince? Hub. 'Tis not an hour since I left him well; I honor'd him, I loved him, and will weep My date of life out for his sweet life's loss. Sal. Trust not those cunning waters of his eyes, For villany is not without such rheum; And he, long traded in it, makes it seem Like rivers of remorse and innocency. Away with me, all you whose souls abhor The uncleanly savors of a slaughter-house; For I am stifled with this smell of sin. Big. Away toward Bury, to the Dauphin there! Pem. There tell the king he may inquire us out. [Exeunt Lords.

110

Bast. Here's a good world! Knew you of this fair work?

Beyond the infinite and boundless reach

Of mercy, if thou didst this deed of death,
Art thou damn'd, Hubert.

Hub.

Do but hear me, sir.

Bast. Ha! I'll tell thee what;

120

Thou 'rt damn'd as black-nay, nothing is so

black;

109. "traded," practiced.-C. H. H.

Thou art more deep damn'd than Prince Lucifer:

There is not yet so ugly a fiend of hell

As thou shalt be, if thou didst kill this child.

Hub. Upon my soul

Bast.

If thou didst but consent

To this most cruel act, do but despair;

And if thou want'st a cord, the smallest thread
That ever spider twisted from her womb

Will serve to strangle thee; a rush will be a
beam

To hang thee on; or wouldst thou drown thyself,
Put but a little water in a spoon,

And it shall be as all the ocean,
Enough to stifle such a villain up.

131

I do suspect thee very grievously. Hub. If I in act, consent, or sin of thought, Be guilty of the stealing that sweet breath Which was embounded in this beauteous clay, Let hell want pains enough to torture me. I left him well.

Bast.

Go, bear him in thine arms.
I am amazed, methinks, and lose my way
Among the thorns and dangers of this world.
How easy dost thou take all England up!
From forth this morsel of dead royalty,
The life, the right and truth of all this realm
Is fled to heaven; and England now is left
To tug and scamble and to part by the teeth

132. "ocean" (trisyllabic).-C. H. H.

140

133. "stifle up." "Up" adds the sense of completion to the action. -C. H. H.

The unowed interest of proud-swelling state.
Now for the bare-pick'd bone of majesty
Doth dogged war bristle his angry crest
And snarleth in the gentle eyes of

150

peace:
Now powers from home and discontents at home
Meet in one line; and vast confusion waits,
As doth a raven on a sick-fallen beast,
The imminent decay of wrested pomp.
Now happy he whose cloak and cincture can
Hold out this tempest. Bear away that child
And follow me with speed: I'll to the king:
A thousand businesses are brief in hand,
And heaven itself doth frown upon the land.
[Exeunt.

147. "Unowed interest"; that is, unowned interest; the interest that now has no acknowledged owner. On the death of Arthur, the right to the crown devolved to his sister Eleanor.—H. N. H.

ACT FIFTH

SCENE I

King John's palace.

Enter King John, Pandulph, and Attendants. K. John. Thus have I yielded up into your hand The circle of my glory.

Pand.

Take again

[Giving the crown.

From this my hand, as holding of the pope
Your sovereign greatness and authority.

K. John. Now keep your holy word: go meet the
French,

And from his holiness use all your power
To stop their marches 'fore we are inflamed.
Our discontented counties do revolt;
Our people quarrel with obedience,
Swearing allegiance and the love of soul
To stranger blood, to foreign royalty.
This inundation of mistempered humor
Rests by you only to be qualified:

10

Then pause not; for the present time's so sick,
That present medicine must be minister'd,
Or overthrow incurable ensues.

8. "counties"; it is difficult to determine whether "counties”— (i.) "counts," i. e. "the nobility," or (ii.) "the divisions of the country": probably the former.-I. G.

10. "love of soul," heartfelt love.-C. H. H.