Pemb. Big. Our souls religiously confirm thy words.

Enter Hubert.
Hub. Lords, I am hot with hafte in seeking you:
Arthur doth live ; the king hath sent for 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 bis sword.
Baft. Your sword is bright, fir; put it up again.
Sal. Not till I sheath it in a murderer's skin.

Hub. Stand back, lord Salisbury, stand back, I fay;
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 defence ?;
Left I, by marking of your rage, forget
Your worth, your greatness, and nobility.

Big. Out, dunghill! dar'it thou brave a nobleman
Hub. Not for my life: but yet I dare defend
My innocent life against an emperor.

Sel. Thou art a murderer.

Hub. Do not prove me fo;
Yet, I am none 8 : Whose tongue foe'er speaks false,
Not truly speaks; who speaks not truly, lies.

Pemb. Cut him to pieces.
Baft. Keep the peace, I say.
Sal. Stand by, or I shall gaul you, Faulconbridge.
Baft. Thou wert better gaul the devil, Salisbury :
If thou but frown on me, or ftir thy foot,
Or teach thy hasty spleen to do me shame,
I'll frike thee dead. Put up thy sword betime;

I will not return,
« Till my attempt so much be glorify'd

“ As to my ample hope was promised." MALONE. 7 true defence ;] Huneft defence; defence in a good cause.

JOHNSON • Do not prove me fo;

Yet, I am none: s Do not make me a murderer by compelling me to kill you; I am bicberto not a murderer. JOHNSON.

Or

Òr I'll fo maul you and your toasting-irono,
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 fince 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 eyesy
For villainy 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 savours of a faughter-house ;
For I am stifled with this smell of fin.

Big. Away, toward Bury, to the Dauphin there!
Pemb. There, tell the king, he may enquire us out.

(Exeunt Lords. Baft. 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, fir.
Baft. Ha! I'll tell thee what ;
Thou art damn'd as black-nay, nothing is so black;
Thou art more deep damn’d than prince Lucifer?:

9 - your toafing iron,] The same thought is found in K. Henry V: « I dare not fight, but I will wink and hold out mine iren. It is a fimple one, but what though? it will toaft cbeese." STEVENS.

Like rivers of remorse-) Remorse here, as almost every where in these plays, and the contemporary books, hgnifies piry. MALONE.

2 Tbou art more deep damnd iban prince Lucifer :] So, in the old play:

“ Hell, Hubert, trust me, all the plagues of hell
“ Hangs on performance of this damned deed;
“ This seal, the warrant of the body's bliss,
« Ensureth Satan chieftain of thy foud." MALONI,

There

There is not yet so ugly a fiend of hell 3
As thou shalt be, if thou didst kill this child.

Hub. Upon my soul,

Baft. 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 ftrangle 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 aet, consent, or fin 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.

Baft. Go, bear him in thine arms.
I am amaz’d, methinks; and lose my way
Among the thorns and dangers of this world.-
How easy dost thou take all England up!
From forth this morfel 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
The unowed interests of proud-swelling state.
Now, for the bare-pick'd bone of majesty,

3 There is not yet, &c.] I remember once to have met with a book, printed in the time of Henry VIII. (which Shakspcare 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. 4 - and scamble,] i, e, scramble. See Vol. V. p. 452, n. 50

MALONE 5 Tbe unowed intereft-] That is, the interest which is not at this moment legally poleffed by any one, however rightfully entitled to it. On the death of Arthur, the rigbe to the English crowa devolved to his fifter, Eleanor. MALONI. Vol. IV. Nn

Doth

Doth dogged war bristle bis angry crefi,
And snarieth in the gentle eyes of peace :
Now powers from home, and discontents a: bcast,
Meet in one line; and vaft confufiod waits
(As doth a raven on a fick-falien beas)
The imminent decay of wreited pompo.
Now happy he, whose cloak and cincture can
Hold out this tempeft. 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. [Exeant.

A CT V. SCENE I.

The fame. A Room in the Palace.
Enter King JOHN, PANDULPH with the Crows, azé

Attendants.
K. John. Thus have I yielded up into your hand
The circle of my glory.
Pand. Take again

[giving John the crows.
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,
To stranger blood, to foreign royalty.
This inundation of mistemper'd humour

6 Tbe imminent. decay of wrested pomp.): Wrefted pomp is grearres: obrained by violence. JOHNSON.

Rather, greatness wrested from its poffefTor. MALONE.

1 -- and cincture] The old copy readscenter, probably for ais Cure, Fr. STIEVINS. The emendation was made by Ms. Popc. MALONI. 4

Reits

Rests by you only to be qualify’d.
Then pause not; for the present time's so fick,
That present medicine must be minister'd,
Or overthrow incurable ensues.

Pand. It was my breath that blew this tempeít up,
Upon your stubborn usage of the pope :
But, since you are a gentle convertites,
My tongue shall hush again this storm of war,
And make fair weather in your blustering land.
On this Ascension-day, remember well,
Upon your oath of service to the pope,
Go I to make the French lay down their arms. [Exit.

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.

- a gentle convertite,] A convertite is a convers. So, in Mara low's Jew of Malta, 1633 :

“ Gov. Why, Barabas, wilt thou be chriften'd ?
“ Bar. No, governour; I'll be no convertite." STEEVENS.

A convertite (a word often ufed by our old writers, where we should now use convert,) fignified either, one converted to the fairb, or one seclaimed from wordly pursuits, and devoted to penitence and religion.

Mr. Mason says, a convertite cannot mean a convert, because the late ter word " in the language of the present times means a person that changes from one religion to another." But the question is, not what is the language of the present time, but what was the language of Shakspeare's age. Marlowe uses the word convertite exactly in the sense now affixed to convert. John, who had in the former part of this play asserted in very strong terms the supremacy of the king of England in all ecclefiaftical matters, and told Pandulph that he had no reverence for “ the Pope or his ufurp'd authority," having now made his peace with “ boly churcb," and resigned his crown to the Pope's representative, is considered by the legate as one newly converted to the true faith, and very properly styled by him a convertite. The fame term, in the second sense above mentioned, is applied to the ufurper, Duke Frederick, in As you like it, on his having "put on a religious life, and thrown in. to neglect the pompous court :"

out of thele convertires “ There is much matter to be heard and learn'd." MALONE.