The breath of heaven hath blown his spirit out, Hub. But with my breath I can revive it, boy. Snatch at his master that doth tarre a him on. you All things that should use to do me wrong 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. [Exeunt. SCENE II. -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; a Tarre. Tooke derives this from a Saxon word, meaning to exasperate. Others think that it has only reference to the custom of exciting terriers-tarriers. The faiths of men ne'er stained with revolt; Sal. Therefore, to be possess'd with double pomp, To smooth the ice, or add another hue To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, Pem. But that your royal pleasure must be done, ; And, in the last repeating, troublesome, Sal. In this, the antique and well-noted face And, like a shifted wind unto a sail, 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, We breath'd our counsel: but it pleas'd your highness a Guard a title. The guard is the border or edging of a garment-the boundary -the defence against injury. The manner in which Shakspere uses the word in 'Love's Labour's Lost' explains it here :- Oh, rhymes are guards on wanton Cupid's hose." The edgings were generally ornamented, and became smart trimmings. In the passage before us the same meaning is preserved :— "To guard a title that was rich before." Since all and every part of what we would, K. John. Some reasons of this double coronation a When lesser is my fear. The folio reads, "then lesser is my fear." b If what in rest you have. Steevens would read wrest,-violence. This is pure nonsense. But neither does rest mean quiet, as Malone, Douce, and others agree. The whole scene shows that John did not hold his power in perfect tranquillity. Rest is, we take it, here employed to mean a fixed position. To "set up a rest" is a term with which every reader of our old dramatic poets must be familiar. Some have thought that the expression was derived from the manner of fixing the harquebuss--a gun so heavy that the soldier, taking up his position, fixed a rest in the ground to enable him to level his piece. But, from a number of examples given by Reed in his edition of Dodsley's Old Plays,' we find the same expression constantly used in the game of Primero, in which game, as far as we may judge, the term seems to imply that the player, at a particular point of the game, makes a decided stand upon the chances he fancies he has secured. In a tale told of Henry VIII. (quoted by Reed), we have "The King, 55 eldest hand, sets up all rests, and discarded flush." The King was satisfied with his position, and "threw his 55 on the board open, with great laughter, supposing the game (as it was) in a manner sure." The analogy in the speech of Pembroke is pretty close:- "If what in rest you have in right you hold." That you have bid us ask his liberty; K. John. Let it be so; I do commit his youth To your direction.-Hubert, what news with you? 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 Pem. And, when it breaks, I fear will issue thence 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: He tells us, Arthur is deceas'd to-night. Sal. Indeed we fear'd his sickness was past cure. Pem. Indeed we heard how near his death he was, Before the child himself felt he was sick : 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 shears of destiny? Have I commandment on the pulse of life? That blood, which ow'd the breadth of all this isle, Three foot of it doth hold. Bad world the while! This must not be thus borne: this will break out [Exeunt Lords. K. John. They burn in indignation. I repent. A fearful eye thou hast. Where is that blood, So foul a sky clears not without a storm : Was levied in the body of a land! The copy of your speed is learn'd by them; K. John. O, where hath our intelligence been drunk? And she not hear of it? Mess. My liege, her ear Is stopp'd with dust; the first of April, died : Three days before but this from rumour's tongue K. John. Withhold thy speed, dreadful occasion! Enter the Bastard and PETER of Pomfret. K. John. VOL. IV. Y |