instrument, implement. intend, purpose. meagre, emaciated. melancholy, sadness. merriment, mirth. offend, injure.
outrage, injury. philosophy, abstraction. plague, stroke; trial. practises, works. proceedings, doings. redeem, recover. remedy, relief; cure. repentant, penitent. respect, regard. scruples, doubts.
serpent, viper. struggle, contend. suspire, breathe. torture, torment. undergo, incur. undertake, perform.
undeserved, unmerited.
utterance, speaking. vacant, empty. wantonness, playfulness. warrant, commission. watchful, attentive. womanish, effeminate.
NOTES
① Bounden, obliged; beholden. [Old Eng. bindan , to bind; so obligation is from Lat.
ligare , to bind.]
② Gawds, ornaments. [Old Eng. gaud ; whence gaudy , showy.)③ Conceit, thought; that which is conceived in the mind, as opposed to that which is spoken.
④ Troth, truth. Both words are connected in root with true, trust, and trow.
⑤ Adjunct to my act-dependent or consequent upon my act.
⑥ Geffrey.-King John"s elder brother, Geffrey, was the third son of Henry II. In strict law, therefore, Geffrey"s son, Arthur, had a better claim to the crown than his uncle King John had. King John knew this, and hence his anxiety to get rid of his nephew.
⑦ Canker, corroding, cancerous; referring to the effect of sorrow in eating away the spirit and the bloom of health.
⑧ That never had a son.-These words refer, of course, not to "me" but to "he." The meaning is, It is plain, from the way in which he speaks, that he never had a son.
⑨ Remembers, reminds.
⑩ Heat me these irons hot-that is, Make them as hot as possible, red-hot.
The arras, hangings of tapestry with which walls of rooms were covered in olden times;-so called from Arras in the north of France, where they were first made.
As little prince = I am as little of a prince, I have as little of princely power, as may be. An instance of Shakespeare"s fondness for playing upon words, even in the most serious scenes.
Dispiteous, pit"iless; cruel. But the word is not a compound of dis and piteous . Its older form is despitous , meaning full of despite ; which is from the French depit , contempt; and that from Latin despicere , to despise.
An if.-The two words have the same meaning. In modern English if alone is used; in earlier times an alone was sometimes used for if ; but the common construction was an if . An , in this sense, is a form of and .
Heat....create, for heated , created . In Shakespeare, and in older writers, verbs ending int and d very often had no suffix (-ed ) for the past tense or passive participle.
No tongue but Hubert"s.-Supply before these words, I would have believed.
Let, leave. The root meaning is loose, slack. Let , to delay (to be loose in action), and let to hinder (to cause another to delay); late and lazy , less and least , loose and loosen , are all from the same root.
Must needs want pleading.-Want here means, fall short or be inadequate = The utterance even of a brace of tongues would be insufficient to plead for a pair of eyes.-Needs means, of necessity.
Tarre, excite, or provoke.
Owes, possesses; used in the sense of owns , which is from the same root. Owe has three different meanings in Shakespeare-to be indebted; to have a right to; and to possess.
PART II.
KINO JOHN, alarmed at the disaffection of his nobles and people, repent of his conduct towards Prince Arthur, and accuses Hubert of tempting him to accede to the murder.
SCENE. -A Room of State in the Palace.
Enter a Messenger.
K. John. A fearful eye thou hast; where is that blood That I have seen inhabit in those cheeks?
So foul a sky clears not without a storm:
Pour down thy weather: how goes all in France?
Mess. From France to England.①
Never such a power
-
For any foreign preparation
Was levied in the body of a land!
②
The copy of your speed
is learned by them;
For when you should be told they do prepare, The tidings come that they are all arrived.
K. John. O, where hath our intelligence been drunk? Where hath it slept? 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 stopped with dust; the first of April died Your noble mother: and, as I hear, my lord, The Lady Constance in a frenzy diedThree days before: but this from rumour"s tongue③I idly heard; iftrue, or false, I know not.
K. John. Withhold thy speed, dreadful occasion! O, make a league with me, till I have pleasedMy discontented peers!［Exit Messenger.
My mother dead!
Enter HUBERT.
Hub. My lord, they say five moons were seen to-night; Four fixed, and the fifth did whirl aboutThe other four, in wondrous motion.
K. John. Five moons!
Hub.Old men and beldams,④ 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. I saw a smith stand with his hammer, thus,The whilst his iron did on the anvil cool, With open mouth swallowing a tailor"s news;Who, with his shears and measure in his hand, Standing on slippers (which his nimble haste Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet),⑤Told of a many thousandThat were embattailled
warlike French
and ranked in Kent:
Another lean unwashed artificer
Cuts off his tale, and talks of Arthur"s death.
K. John, Why seek"st thou to possess me with these fears? Why urgest thou so oft young Arthur"s death ?
Thy hand hath murdered him: I had mighty cause To wish him dead, but thou hadst none to kill him.
Hub. Had none, my lord ! why, did you not provoke me?
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 meaningOf dangerous majesty, when, perchance, it frowns More upon humour than advised respect.
Hub. Here is your hand and seal for what I did.