The copy of your speed is learn'd by them : K. John, O, where hath our intelligence been drunk? Mef. My Liege, her ear Is ftopt with duft: the first of April, dy'd Three days before: but this from rumour's tongue K. John. With-hold thy fpeed, dreadful occafion! K. John. Thou haft made me giddy Enter Faulconbridge, and Peter of Pomfret. Now, what fays the world To your proceedings? Do not feek to stuff Faulc. How I have fped among the clergymen, Poffet Poffeft with rumours, full of idle dreams; Your Highness fhould deliver up your crown, K. John. Thou idle dreamer, wherefore did't thou fo? Peter. Fore-knowing, that the truth will fall out fo. K. John. Hubert, away with him, imprison him. And on that day at noon, whereon he says I fhall yield up my crown, let him be hang'd. Deliver him to fafety ', and return, For I must use thee. O my gentle coufin, [Exit Hubert, with Peter. Hear'ft thou the news abroad, who are arriv'd? Befides, I met Lord Bigot and Lord Salisbury, K. John. Gentle kinfman, go And thrust thyself into their company: Faulc. I will feek them out. K.John. Nay, but make hafte: the better foot before. O, let me have no subject enemies, When adverse foreigners affright my towns With dreadful pomp of ftout invafion. fody. Deliver him to fafety.] That is, Give him into safe cu And And fly, like thought, from them to me again. Faulc. The spirit of the time fhall teach me speed. [Exit. Mef. With all my heart, my Liege. SCENE IV. Enter Hubert. [Exit: Hub. My Lord, they fay, five moons were feen to-night: Four fixed, and the fifth did whirl about. The other four, in wond'rous motion. K. John. Five moons? Hub. Old men and beldams, in the ftreets, Do prophely upon it dangeroufly: Young Arthur's death is common in their mouths; And he, that speaks, doth gripe the hearer's wrift; flippers, which his nimble hafte Had falfely thrust upon contrary feet,] I know not how the commentators underfland this im Had Had falfely thruft upon contrary feet, Cuts off his tale, and talks of Arthur's death. K. John. Why feek'st thou to poffefs me with these fears? Why urgeft thou so oft young Arthur's death? To wifh him dead, but thou had'ft none to kill him. Hub. Had none, my Lord? why, did you not provoke me? K. John. It is the curfe of Kings 3, to be atttended To understand a law, to know the meaning Hub. Here is your hand and feal, for what I did. Is to be made, then fhall this hand and feal How oft the fight of means, to do ill deeds, founded a man's fhoes with his gloves. He that is frighted or hurried may put his hand into the wrong glove, but either fhoe will equally admit either foot. The authour feems to be dif turbed by the diforder which he defcribes. 3 It is the curfe of Kings, &c.] This plainly hints at Davison's cafe, in the affair of Mary Queen of Scots, and fo must have been inferted long after the first reprefentation. WARBURTON. Apt, Apt, liable to be employ'd in danger, K. John. Hadft thou but shook thy head, or made a pause, When I fpake darkly what I purpofed: Or turn'd an eye of doubt upon my face, 'Or bid me tell my tale in exprefs words; Deep shame had struck me dumb, made me break off, The deed, which both our tongues held vile to name- This kingdom, this confine of blood and breath, Between my confcience and my cousin's death. 4 Hadft thou but book thy head, &c.] 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 tranffer the guilt to his accomplice. Thefe reproaches vented against Hubert are not the words of art or policy, but the eruptions of a mind fwelling with confcioufnefs of a crime, and defirous of difcharging its mifery on another. This account of the timidity foul and you. of guilt is drawn ab ipfis receffibus mentis, from an intimate knowledge of mankind, particularly that line in which he fays, that to have bid him tell his tale in exprifs words, would have truck him dumb; nothing is more certain, than that bad men ufe all the arts of fallacy upon themselves, palliate their actions to their own minds by gentle terms, and hide themfelves from their own detection in ambiguities and subterfuges. Young |