K. John. O,where hath our intelligence been drunk? Where hath it slept 14? Where is my mother's care? That such an army could be drawn in France, And she not hear of it? Mess. My liege, her ear Is stopp'd with dust; the first of April, died Your noble mother; And, as I hear, my lord, The Lady Constance in a frenzy died Three days before: but this from rumour's tongue I idly heard; if true, or false, I know not. K.John. Withhold thy speed, dreadful occasion! Enter the Bastard and PETER of POMFRET. With these ill tidings. Thou hast made me giddy Now, what says the world To your proceedings? do not seek to stuff Was the hope drunk Wherein you drest yourself? hath it slept since?' 15 i. e. how ill my affairs go in France. 16 Astonied, stunned, confounded, are the ancient synonymes of amazed, obstupesco. So in Cymbeline 'I am amazed with matter.' And in the Merry Wives of Windsor : 'You do amaze her, hear the truth of it.' Bast. How I have sped among the clergymen, The sums I have collected shall express. But, as I travelled hither through the land, I find the people strangely fantasied; Possess'd with rumours, full of idle dreams; Not knowing what they fear, but full of fear: And here's a prophet 17, that I brought with me From forth the streets of Pomfret, whom I found With many hundreds treading on his heels; To whom he sung, in rude harsh-sounding rhymes, That, ere the next Ascension-day at noon, Your highness should deliver up your crown. K.John.Thou idle dreamer, wherefore didst thou so? Peter. Foreknowing that the truth will fall out so. K. John. Hubert, away with him; imprison him; And on that day at noon, whereon, he says, I shall yield up my crown, let him be hang'd: Deliver him to safety 18, and return, For I must use thee.-O my gentle cousin, [Exit HUBERT, with PETER. Hear'st thou the news abroad, who are arriv'd? Bast. The French, my lord; men's mouths are full of it: Besides, I met Lord Bigot, and Lord Salisbury 17 This man was a hermit in great repute with the common people. Notwithstanding the event is said to have fallen out as he prophesied, the poor fellow was inhumanly dragged at horses' tails through the streets of Warham, and, together with his son, who appears to have been even more innocent than his father, hanged afterwards upon a gibbet. Holinshed, in anno 1213.Speed says that Peter the hermit was suborned by the pope's legate, the French king, and the barons for this purpose. 18 i. e. to safe custody. K. John. Gentle kinsman, go, And thrust thyself into their companies: Bast. I will seek them out. K. John. Nay, but make haste; the better foot O, let me have no subject enemies, man. Go after him; for he, perhaps, shall need Mess. With all my heart, my liege. [Exit. K. John. My mother dead! Re-enter Hubert. Hub. My lord, they say, five moons were seen to-night: Four fixed; and the fifth did whirl about The other four, in wondrous motion. K. John. Five moons? Hub. Old men, and beldams, in the streets Do prophesy upon it dangerously: Young Arthur's death is common in their mouths: And when they talk of him, they shake their heads, And whisper one another in the ear; And he, that speaks, doth gripe the hearer's wrist; Whilst he, that hears, makes fearful action, With wrinkled brows, with nods, with rolling eyes 19. Cuts off his tale, and talks of Arthur's death. Why urgest thou so oft young Arthur's death? K. John. It is the curse of kings to be attended By slaves, that take their humours for a warrant To break within the bloody house of life: And, on the winking of authority, To understand a law; to know the meaning 19 This may be compared with a spirited passage in Edward III. Capel's Prolusions, p. 75 :— 'Our men, with open mouths and staring eyes, Each other's words, and yet no creature speaks; A tongue-tied fear hath made a midnight hour, And speeches sleep through all the waking region.' 20 This passage, which called forth the antiquarian knowledge of so many learned commentators, now, from the return of the fashion of right and left shoes, become intelligible without a note. 21 Deliberate consideration. So in Hamlet: There's the respect That makes calamity of so long life.' Hub. Here is your hand and seal for what I did. Is to be made, then shall this hand and seal How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds, K. John. Hadst thou but shook thy head, or made a pause 23 When I spake darkly what I purposed; 22 To quote is to note or mark. See Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. 1:'I am sorry that with better heed and judgment I had not quoted him. 23 There are many touches of nature in this conference of John with Hubert. A man engaged in wickedness would keep the profit to himself, and transfer the guilt to his accomplice. These reproaches vented against Hubert are not the words of art or policy, but the eruptions of a mind swelling with consciousness of a crime, and desirous of discharging its misery on another. This account of the timidity of guilt is drawn, ab ipsis recessibus mentis, from the intimate knowledge of mankind; particularly that line in which he says, that to have bid him tell his tale in express words would have struck him dumb: nothing is more certain than that bad men use all the arts of fallacy upon themselves, palliate their actions to their own minds by gentle terms, and hide themselves from their own detection in ambiguities and subterfuges.-Johnson. |