That you do see? could thought, without this object, Pem. All murders past do stand excus'd in this : Shall give a holiness, a purity, To the yet-unbegotten sin of time; Bast. It is a damned and a bloody work; Sal. If that be the work of any hand ?-- Nor conversant with ease and idleness, Till I have set a glory to this hand, By giving it the worship of revenge.' Pem. Big. Our souls religiously confirm thy words. Hub. Lords, I am hot with haste in seeking you : 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. Bast. Your sword is bright, sir; put it up again. [4] This is a copy of the vows made in the ages of superstition and chivalry. JOHNSON [5] The morship is the dignity, the honour. We still say worshipful of magistrates. JOHNSON. By heaven, I think, my sword's as sharp as yours: Big. Out, dunghill! dar'st thou brave a nobleman ? Sal. Thou art a murderer. Hub. Do not prove me so; Yet, I am none : Whose tongue soe'er speaks false, Pem. Cut him to pieces. Bast. Keep the peace, I say. Sal. Stand by, or I shall gall you, Faulconbridge. If thou but frown on me, or stir thy foot, Or teach thy hasty spleen to do me shame, I'll strike thee dead. Put up thy sword betime; That you shall think the devil is come from hell. Hub. Lord Bigot, I am none. Big. Who kill'd this prince? Hub. 'Tis not an hour since I left him well: I honour'd him, I lov'd him; and will weep My date of life out, for his sweet life's loss. Sal. Trust not those cunning waters of his eyes, Big. Away, toward Bury, to the Dauphin there! Pem. There, tell the king, he may inquire us out. [Exeunt Lords. Bast. Here's a good world!-Knew you of this fair work? Beyond the infinite and boundless reach Honest defence; defence in a good cause. JOHNSON. [7] Do not make me a murderer, by compelling me to kill you; I am hitherto not a murderer. JOOY Of mercy, if thou didst this deed of death, Hub. Do but hear me, sir. Bast. Ha! I'll tell thee what; Thou art damn'd as black-nay, nothing is so black; As thou shalt be, if thou didst kill this child. Bast. If thou didst but consent To this most cruel act, do but despair, And, if thou want'st a cord, the smallest thread Will serve to strangle thee; a rush will be A beam to hang thee on; or would'st 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. I do suspect thee very grievously. Hub. If I in act, consent, or sin of thought Bast. Go, bear him in thine arms.— I am amaz'd, methinks; and lose my way [8] I remember once to have met with a book, printed in the time of Henry VIII. (which Shakespeare possibly might have seen,) where we are told that the deformity of the condemned in the other world, is exactly proportioned to the degrees of their guilt The author of it observes how difficult it would be, on this account, to distinguish between Belzebub and Judas Iscariot. STEEVENS. [9] Scamble and scramble have the same meaning. STEEVENS. That is, the interest which is not at this moment legally possessed by any one, however rightfully entitled to it On the death of Arthur, the right to the English crown devolved to his sister, Eleanor. MALONE. Now powers from home, and discontents at home, [Exeunt. ACT V. SCENE I. The same. A room in the Palace. Enter King JOHN, PANDULPH with the Crown, and Attendants. King John. THUS have I yielded up into your hand, The circle of my glory. Pand. Take again [Giving JOHN 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 inflam'd. Our discontented counties do revolt; Our people quarrel with obedience; Swearing allegiance, and the love of soul, Rests by you only to be qualified. Then pause not; for the present time's so sick, That present medicine must be minister'd, Or overthrow incurable ensues. Pand. It was my breath that blew this tempest up, Upon your stubborn usage of the pope : But, since you are a gentle convertite,' My tongue shall hush again this storm of war, [2] Wrested pomp, is greatness obtained by violence. JOHNSON. Upon your oath of service to the pope, Go I to make the French lay down their arms. [Exil K. John. Is this Ascension-day? Did not the prophet Say, that, before Ascension-day at noon, My crown I should give off? Even so I have : I did suppose, it should be on constraint; But, heaven be thank'd, it is but voluntary. Enter the Bastard. Bast. All Kent hath yielded; nothing there holds out, But Dover castle: London hath receiv'd, Like a kind host, the Dauphin and his powers: Your nobles will not hear you, but are gone To offer service to your enemy; And wild amazement hurries up and down K. John. Would not my lords return to me again, Bast. They found him dead, and cast into the streets : An empty casket, where the jewel of life By some damn'd hand was robb'd and ta'en away. Be stirring as the time; be fire with fire; And fright him there? and make him tremble there! To meet displeasure further from the doors; And grapple with him, ere he come so nigh. K. John. The legate of the pope hath been with me, [4] To forage is here used in its original sense, for to range abroad. JOHNSON. |