K. John. Come hither, Hubert. O! my gentle

Hubert,

We owe thee much within this wall of flesh

There is a soul, counts thee her creditor,
And with advantage means to pay thy love:
And, my good friend, thy voluntary oath
Lives in this bosom, dearly cherished.
Give me thy hand. I had a thing to say,-
But I will fit it with some better time1o.
By heaven, Hubert, I am almost asham'd
To say what good respect I have of thee.

Hub. I am much bounden to your majesty.

K. John. Good friend, thou hast no cause to say so

yet;

But thou shalt have: and creep time ne'er so slow,
Yet it shall come, for me to do thee good.

I had a thing to say,-but let it go.

The sun is in the heaven, and the proud day,
Attended with the pleasures of the world,
Is all too wanton, and too full of gawds,
To give me audience :-if the midnight bell
Did, with his iron tongue and brazen mouth,
Sound on into the drowsy race of night':

If this same were a churchyard where we stand,

10 But I will fit it with some better TIME.] The old copies have tune for "time" Pope made the correction. As Steevens observes, in the hand-writing of that day, tune could hardly be distinguished from time; and as the improvement is manifest, we may reasonably infer that "time" was Shakespeare's word, which the printer misread. In the printed productions of that period "time" and tune are often confounded.

1 Sound on into the drowsy RACE of night:] We prefer the old reading on all accounts. Many of the commentators would read one instead of "on," which is contradicted by the "midnight bell" in a line just preceding. There is more plausibility for reading ear instead of " race," recollecting that of old ear was spelt eare, and the words might possibly be mistaken by the printer; but still "race," in the sense of course or passage, conveys a finer meaning: the midnight bell, with its twelve times repeated strokes, may be very poetically said to "sound on into the drowsy race of night;" one sound produced by the “iron tongue driving the other "on," or forward, until the whole number was complete, and the prolonged vibration of the last blow on the bell only left to fill the empty space of darkness.

And thou possessed with a thousand wrongs;
Or if that surly spirit, melancholy,

Had bak'd thy blood, and made it heavy, thick,
(Which, else, runs tickling up and down the veins,
Making that idiot, laughter, keep men's eyes,
And strain their cheeks to idle merriment,
A passion hateful to my purposes,)

Or if that thou could'st see me without eyes,
Hear me without thine ears, and make reply
Without a tongue, using conceit alone,
Without eyes, ears, and harmful sound of words,
Then, in despite of brooded watchful day,
I would into thy bosom pour my thoughts.
But ah! I will not :-yet I love thee well;
And, by my troth, I think, thou lov'st me well.

Hub. So well, that what you bid me undertake,
Though that my death were adjunct to my act,
By heaven, I would do it.

K. John.
Do not I know, thou would'st?
Good Hubert! Hubert-Hubert, throw thine eye

On yond' young boy: I'll tell thee what, my friend,
He is a very serpent in my way;

And wheresoe'er this foot of mine doth tread,

Enough.

I could be merry now. Hubert, I love thee;
Well, I'll not say what I intend for thee:
Remember.-Madam, fare you well:

I'll send those powers o'er to your majesty.
Eli. My blessing go with thee!

K. John.

For England, cousin: go.

Hubert shall be your man, attend on you

With all true duty.-On toward Calais, ho!

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

The Same. The French King's Tent.

Enter King PHIlip, Lewis, PanDULPH, and Attendants. K. Phi. So, by a roaring tempest on the flood,

A whole armado of convicted sail2

Is scatter'd, and disjoin'd from fellowship.

Pand. Courage and comfort! all shall yet go well. K. Phi. What can go well, when we have run so ill? Are we not beaten? Is not Angiers lost? Arthur ta'en prisoner? divers dear friends slain? And bloody England into England gone,

O'erbearing interruption, spite of France?

Lew. What he hath won, that hath he fortified:

So hot a speed with such advice dispos'd,

Such temperate order in so fierce a cause,

Doth want example. Who hath read, or heard,
Of any kindred action like to this?

K. Phi. Well could I bear that England had this praise,

So we could find some pattern of our shame.

Enter CONSTANCE.

Look, who comes here? a grave unto a soul;
Holding th' eternal spirit against her will,

2 A whole armado of CONVICTED sail] i. e. of conquered sail. In Minshew's Dictionary, 1617, as quoted by Malone, we read "To convict or convince: a Lat. convictus, overcome." In "Love's Labour's Lost," vol. ii. p. 377, we have 66 convince," used in the sense of overcome. Webster in his "Appius and Virginia" uses convince for convict. Edit. Dyce, vol. ii. p. 241.

In the vile prison of afflicted breath.—

I pr'ythee, lady, go away with me.

Const. Lo now, now see the issue of your peace!
K. Phi. Patience, good lady: comfort, gentle Con-

stance.

Const. No, I defy all counsel', all redress,
But that which ends all counsel, true redress,
Death, death.-O, amiable lovely death!
Thou odoriferous stench! sound rottenness!
Arise forth from the couch of lasting night,
Thou hate and terror to prosperity,
And I will kiss thy detestable bones;

And put my eye-balls in thy vaulty brows;
And ring these fingers with thy household worms;
And stop this gap of breath with fulsome dust,
And be a carrion monster like thyself:

Come, grin on me; and I will think thou smil'st,
And buss thee as thy wife! Misery's love,

O, come to me!

K. Phi.

O, fair affliction, peace!

Const. No, no, I will not, having breath to cry.—
O! that my tongue were in the thunder's mouth ;
Then with a passion would I shake the world,
And rouse from sleep that fell anatomy,
Which cannot hear a lady's feeble voice,
Which scorns a modern invocation1.

Pand. Lady, you utter madness, and not sorrow.
Const. Thou art not holy to belie me so.
I am not mad: this hair I tear, is mine;
My name is Constance; I was Geffrey's wife;
Young Arthur is my son, and he is lost!

I am not mad:-I would to heaven, I were,

3 No, I DEFY all counsel,] One of the old senses of “defy” was refuse. Which scorns a MODERN invocation.] i. e. a common or ordinary invocation, a sense in which the word often occurs. See vol. iii. pp. 44. 238, 309, &c.

5 Thou art NOT holy, &c.] The negative having dropped out in the first folio, the deficiency was not supplied until the publication of the fourth folio in 1685.

For then, 'tis like I should forget myself:
O, if I could, what grief should I forget!—
Preach some philosophy to make me mad,
And thou shalt be canoniz'd, cardinal;
For, being not mad, but sensible of grief,
My reasonable part produces reason
How I may be deliver'd of these woes,
And teaches me to kill or hang myself:
If I were mad, I should forget my son,
Or madly think, a babe of clouts were he.
I am not mad: too well, too well I feel
The different plague of each calamity.

K. Phi. Bind up those tresses. O! what love I note

In the fair multitude of those her hairs!

Where but by chance a silver drop hath fallen,

Even to that drop ten thousand wiry friends
Do glue themselves in sociable grief;

Like true, inseparable, faithful loves,
Sticking together in calamity.

Const. To England, if you will.
K. Phi.

6

Bind up your hairs. Const. Yes, that I will; and wherefore will I do it? I tore them from their bonds, and cried aloud, "O, that these hands could so redeem my son, As they have given these hairs their liberty!" But now, I envy at their liberty, And will again commit them to their bonds, Because my poor child is a prisoner.And, father cardinal, I have heard you say,

That we shall see and know our friends in heaven:

If that be true, I shall see my boy again;

For, since the birth of Cain, the first male child,

To him that did but yesterday suspire,

There was not such a gracious creature born.

But now will canker sorrow eat my bud,

61

– ten thousand wiry friends] In the old copies fiends is misprinted for "friends" there can be no doubt that it is an error of the press.