Arth. Alas! I then have chid away my friend; Give life to yours. Hub. Come, boy, prepare yourself. Arth. Is there no remedy? Hub. None, but to lose your eyes. Arth. O heaven !-that there were but a mote in yours, A grain, a dust, a gnat, a wand'ring hair, Any annoyance in that precious sense! Then, feeling what small things are boist'rous there, Hub. Is this your promise? go to, hold your tongue. Hub. I can heat it, boy. Arth. No, in good sooth; the fire is dead with grief" Being create for comfort, to be us'd In undeserv'd extremes: See else yourself: There is no malice in this burning coal; The breath of heaven hath blown his spirit out, And strew'd repentant ashes on his head. Hub. But with my breath I can revive it, boy.. All things, that you should use to do me wrong, the fire is dead with grief, &c.] The sense is, the fire being created not to hurt but to comfort, is dead with grief for finding itself used in acts of cruelty, which being innocent I have not deserved.-JOHNSON. X tarre him on.] i. e. Set him on. It is particularly applied to setting on a dog. Attempts have been made to derive it from the Greek and the Saxon, but it comes more probably from setting on a tarrier.—ARCHDEACON NARES' Glossary. Deny their office: only you do lack That mercy, which fierce fire, and iron, extends, Hub. Well, see to live: I will not touch thine eyes Yet am I sworn, and I did purpose, boy, With this same very iron to burn them out. Arth. O, now you look like Hubert! all this while You were disguised. Peace: no more. Adieu : Hub. Arth. O heaven!-I thank you, Hubert. Hub. Silence; no more: Go closely in with me. Much danger do I undergo for thee. SCENE II. [Exeunt. The same. A Room of State in the Palace. Enter King JOHN, crowned; PEMBROKE, SALISBURY, and other Lords. The King takes his state. K. John. Here once again we sit, once again crown'd, And look'd upon, I hope, with cheerful eyes. Pem. This once again, but that your highness pleas'd, Was once superfluous: you were crown'd before, And that high royalty was ne'er pluck'd off; Sal. Therefore, to be possess'd with double pomp, To guard' a title that was rich before, To smooth the ice, and add another hue yowes:] i. closely-] i. e. Secretly, privately. a Was once superfluous:] i. e. One time more than enough.-JOHNSON. To guard--]i. e. To fringe, or lace. Unto the rainbow, or with taper light To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, Pem. But that your royal pleasure must be done, Sal. In this, the antique and well-noted face It makes the course of thoughts to fetch about; Makes sound opinion sick, and truth suspected, For putting on so new a fashion'd robe. Pem. When workmen strive to do better than well, They do confound their skill in covetousness: And oftentimes, excusing of a fault, Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse; As patches, set upon a little breach, Discredit more in hiding of the fault, Than did the fault before it was so patch'd. Sal. To this effect, before you were new-crown'd, K. John. Some reasons of this double coronation I will both hear and grant you your requests. Pem. Then I, (as one that am the tongue of these, To sound the purposes of all their hearts,) c They do confound their skill in covetousness:] i. e. Not by their avarice, but in an eager emulation, an intense desire of excelling.-THEOBALD. And more, more strong (when lesser is my fear,) I shall indue you with:] i. e. I shall communicate to you some more and stronger reasons when my fear of your disapprobation is less. e To sound the purposes-] To declare, to publish the desires of all those.JOHNSON. Both for myself and them, (but, chief of all, K. John. Let it be so; I do commit his youth Enter HUBERT. To your direction.-Hubert, what news with you? The image of a wicked heinous fault Lives in his eye; that close aspect of his Does show the mood of a much-troubled breast; What we ́so fear'd he had a charge to do. Sal. The colour of the king doth come and go, Like heralds 'twixt two dreadful battles set: Pem. And. when it breaks, I fear, will issue thence The foul corruption of a sweet child's death. If, what in rest you have,] The phrase is from the old game of Primero, and means, if the cards you have in your hand. good exercise?] In the middle ages, the whole education of princes and noble youths consisted in martial exercises, &c. These could not be easily had in a prison, where mental improvements might have been afforded as well as any where else; but this sort of education never entered into the thoughts of our active, warlike, but illiterate nobility.-PERCY. K. John. We cannot hold mortality's strong hand :— Good lords, although my will to give is living, The suit which you demand is gone and dead: Sal. Indeed, we fear'd, his sickness was past cure. This must be answer'd, either here, or hence. K. John. Why do you bend such solemn brows on me? Think you, I bear the shares of destiny? Have I commandment on the pulse of life? Pem. Stay yet, lord Salisbury; I'll go with thee, That blood, which ow'd the breadth of all this isle [Exeunt Lords Enter a Messenger. A fearful eye thou hast; Where is that blood, So foul a sky clears not without a storm: Pour down thy weather:-How goes all in France? For any foreign preparation, Was levied in the body of a land! The copy of your speed is learn'd by them; For, when you should be told they do prepare, The tidings come, that they are all arriv❜d. K. John. O, where hath our intelligence been drunk? Where hath it slept? Where is my mother's care? |