Act 4, Scene 1

Northampton. A Room in the Castle.

[Enter HUBERT and two Attendants.]
Hubert de Burgh
1525 Heat me these irons hot; and look thou stand
1526 Within the arras: when I strike my foot
1527 Upon the bosom of the ground, rush forth
1528 And bind the boy which you shall find with me
1529 Fast to the chair: be heedful: hence, and watch.
Attendant
1530 I hope your warrant will bear out the deed.
Hubert de Burgh
1531 Uncleanly scruples! Fear not you; look to't.—
[Exeunt ATTENDANTS.]
Hubert de Burgh
1532 Young lad, come forth; I have to say with you.
[Enter ARTHUR.]
Arthur, Duke of Bretagne
1533 Good morrow, Hubert.
Hubert de Burgh
1534 Good morrow, little prince.
Arthur, Duke of Bretagne
1535 As little prince, having so great a tide
1536 To be more prince, as may be.—You are sad.
Hubert de Burgh
1537 Indeed I have been merrier.
Arthur, Duke of Bretagne
1538 Mercy on me!
1539 Methinks no body should be sad but I:
1540 Yet, I remember, when I was in France,
1541 Young gentlemen would be as sad as night,
1542 Only for wantonness. By my christendom,
1543 So I were out of prison, and kept sheep,
1544 I should be as merry as the day is long;
1545 And so I would be here, but that I doubt
1546 My uncle practises more harm to me:
1547 He is afraid of me, and I of him:
1548 Is it my fault that I was Geffrey's son?
1549 No, indeed, is't not; and I would to heaven
1550 I were your son, so you would love me, Hubert.
[Aside.]
Hubert de Burgh
1551 If I talk to him, with his innocent prate
1552 He will awake my mercy, which lies dead:
1553 Therefore I will be sudden and despatch.
Arthur, Duke of Bretagne
1554 Are you sick, Hubert? you look pale to-day:
1555 In sooth, I would you were a little sick,
1556 That I might sit all night and watch with you:
1557 I warrant I love you more than you do me.
[Aside.]
Hubert de Burgh
1558 His words do take possession of my bosom.—
1559 Read here, young Arthur.
[Showing a paper.]
[Aside.]
Hubert de Burgh
1560 How now, foolish rheum!
1561 Turning dispiteous torture out of door!
1562 I must be brief, lest resolution drop
1563 Out at mine eyes in tender womanish tears.—
1564 Can you not read it? is it not fair writ?
Arthur, Duke of Bretagne
1565 Too fairly, Hubert, for so foul effect.
1566 Must you with hot irons burn out both mine eyes?
Hubert de Burgh
1567 Young boy, I must.
Arthur, Duke of Bretagne
1568 And will you?
Hubert de Burgh
1569 And I will.
Arthur, Duke of Bretagne
1570 Have you the heart? When your head did but ache,
1571 I knit my handkerchief about your brows,—
1572 The best I had, a princess wrought it me,—
1573 And I did never ask it you again;
1574 And with my hand at midnight held your head;
1575 And, like the watchful minutes to the hour,
1576 Still and anon cheer'd up the heavy time,
1577 Saying 'What lack you?' and 'Where lies your grief?'
1578 Or 'What good love may I perform for you?'
1579 Many a poor man's son would have lien still,
1580 And ne'er have spoke a loving word to you;
1581 But you at your sick service had a prince.
1582 Nay, you may think my love was crafty love,
1583 And call it cunning.—do, an if you will:
1584 If heaven be pleas'd that you must use me ill,
1585 Why, then you must.—Will you put out mine eyes,
1586 These eyes that never did nor never shall
1587 So much as frown on you?
Hubert de Burgh
1588 I have sworn to do it!
1589 And with hot irons must I burn them out.
Arthur, Duke of Bretagne
1590 Ah, none but in this iron age would do it!
1591 The iron of itself, though heat red-hot,
1592 Approaching near these eyes would drink my tears,
1593 And quench his fiery indignation,
1594 Even in the matter of mine innocence;
1595 Nay, after that, consume away in rust,
1596 But for containing fire to harm mine eye.
1597 Are you more stubborn-hard than hammer'd iron?
1598 An if an angel should have come to me
1599 And told me Hubert should put out mine eyes,
1600 I would not have believ'd him,—no tongue but Hubert's.
[Stamps.]
Hubert de Burgh
1601 Come forth.
[Re-enter Attendants, with cords, irons, &c.]
Hubert de Burgh
1602 Do as I bid you do.
Arthur, Duke of Bretagne
1603 O, save me, Hubert, save me! my eyes are out
1604 Even with the fierce looks of these bloody men.
Hubert de Burgh
1605 Give me the iron, I say, and bind him here.
Arthur, Duke of Bretagne
1606 Alas, what need you be so boist'rous rough?
1607 I will not struggle, I will stand stone-still.
1608 For heaven sake, Hubert, let me not be bound!
1609 Nay, hear me, Hubert!—drive these men away,
1610 And I will sit as quiet as a lamb;
1611 I will not stir, nor wince, nor speak a word,
1612 Nor look upon the iron angerly:
1613 Thrust but these men away, and I'll forgive you,
1614 Whatever torment you do put me to.
Hubert de Burgh
1615 Go, stand within; let me alone with him.
Attendant
1616 I am best pleas'd to be from such a deed.
[Exeunt Attendants.]
Arthur, Duke of Bretagne
1617 Alas, I then have chid away my friend!
1618 He hath a stern look but a gentle heart:—
1619 Let him come back, that his compassion may
1620 Give life to yours.
Hubert de Burgh
1621 Come, boy, prepare yourself.
Arthur, Duke of Bretagne
1622 Is there no remedy?
Hubert de Burgh
1623 None, but to lose your eyes.
Arthur, Duke of Bretagne
1624 O heaven!—that there were but a mote in yours,
1625 A grain, a dust, a gnat, a wandering hair,
1626 Any annoyance in that precious sense!
1627 Then, feeling what small things are boisterous there,
1628 Your vile intent must needs seem horrible.
Hubert de Burgh
1629 Is this your promise? go to, hold your tongue.
Arthur, Duke of Bretagne
1630 Hubert, the utterance of a brace of tongues
1631 Must needs want pleading for a pair of eyes:
1632 Let me not hold my tongue,—let me not, Hubert;
1633 Or, Hubert, if you will, cut out my tongue,
1634 So I may keep mine eyes: O, spare mine eyes,
1635 Though to no use but still to look on you!—
1636 Lo, by my troth, the instrument is cold
1637 And would not harm me.
Hubert de Burgh
1638 I can heat it, boy.
Arthur, Duke of Bretagne
1639 No, in good sooth; the fire is dead with grief,
1640 Being create for comfort, to be us'd
1641 In undeserv'd extremes: see else yourself;
1642 There is no malice in this burning coal;
1643 The breath of heaven hath blown his spirit out,
1644 And strew'd repentant ashes on his head.
Hubert de Burgh
1645 But with my breath I can revive it, boy.
Arthur, Duke of Bretagne
1646 An if you do, you will but make it blush,
1647 And glow with shame of your proceedings, Hubert.
1648 Nay, it, perchance will sparkle in your eyes;
1649 And, like a dog that is compell'd to fight,
1650 Snatch at his master that doth tarre him on.
1651 All things that you should use to do me wrong,
1652 Deny their office: only you do lack
1653 That mercy which fierce fire and iron extends,
1654 Creatures of note for mercy-lacking uses.
Hubert de Burgh
1655 Well, see to live; I will not touch thine eye
1656 For all the treasure that thine uncle owes:
1657 Yet I am sworn, and I did purpose, boy,
1658 With this same very iron to burn them out.
Arthur, Duke of Bretagne
1659 O, now you look like Hubert! all this while
1660 You were disguised.
Hubert de Burgh
1661 Peace; no more. Adieu!
1662 Your uncle must not know but you are dead;
1663 I'll fill these dogged spies with false reports:
1664 And, pretty child, sleep doubtless and secure
1665 That Hubert, for the wealth of all the world,
1666 Will not offend thee.
Arthur, Duke of Bretagne
1667 O heaven! I thank you, Hubert.
Hubert de Burgh
1668 Silence; no more: go closely in with me:
1669 Much danger do I undergo for thee.
[Exeunt.]

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Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 1526archaic vocab
“Within the arras”
'Arras' is a heavy tapestry hung from the walls of a room, often concealing a space behind it wide enough for a person to stand hidden. Hubert tells the attendants to wait behind the wall-hanging and rush out when he stamps his foot. The arras is a standard prop for concealment in Elizabethan drama (Polonius hides behind one in Hamlet).
TLN 1535wordplay
“As little prince, having so great a tide / To be more prince”
Arthur puns bitterly on 'little': Hubert called him 'little prince,' and Arthur replies that he is 'little' (small, a child) precisely because he has so great a 'tide' (tide/title) to be 'more prince' — i.e., king. The quibble on 'tide'/'title' (both from Latin titulus) captures his situation: the larger the rightful claim, the smaller and more helpless his actual position.
TLN 1542archaic vocab
“By my christendom”
'By my christendom' is an oath swearing on one's baptism — the Christian identity conferred by the sacrament. It is a mild, child-appropriate oath equivalent to 'I swear on my soul as a Christian.' Arthur's use of it here underlines both his innocence and his sincere faith, contrasting with the cold-blooded errand Hubert is there to carry out.
TLN 1551archaic vocab
“his innocent prate / He will awake my mercy, which lies dead”
'Prate' means idle, childish talk or chatter — speech without consequence or guile. Hubert says (in an aside) that Arthur's innocent chatter will rouse a mercy he has deliberately suppressed, so he must act quickly before his resolve collapses. The word reveals that he knows Arthur is harmless, which makes his mission uglier.
TLN 1560archaic vocab
“foolish rheum! / Turning dispiteous torture out of door”
'Rheum' means tears (or mucus), fluids thought to flow from the brain. Hubert is angry that he is beginning to cry — his tears ('rheum') are, he scolds himself, turning the intended cruelty ('dispiteous torture') away by driving it out of the door before he can act. 'Dispiteous' means merciless, without pity. The aside reveals Hubert's struggle: his body is betraying his commission.
TLN 1566historical topical
“Must you with hot irons burn out both mine eyes”
Blinding with hot irons was a real medieval punishment used to incapacitate a rival claimant to the throne without killing him: a blinded man could not lead armies or be publicly recognised as a king. John's order targets Arthur's eyes specifically because a blind prince would cease to be a political threat. The practice was known in both Byzantine and Western medieval courts.
historical The Troublesome Raigne of King Johnhistorical The Angevin succession and Arthur's claim
TLN 1575rhetorical device
“like the watchful minutes to the hour, / Still and anon cheer'd up the heavy time”
Arthur compares his bedside nursing of Hubert to minutes attending upon an hour: just as each minute adds up, one after another, to fill the hour, so Arthur kept filling the 'heavy' (slow, oppressive) time of Hubert's illness by continually asking what he needed. The simile turns a small act of care into a sustained, patient vigil measured out minute by minute.
TLN 1590classical allusion
“none but in this iron age would do it”
The 'iron age' is the last and worst of the four ages of the world in classical mythology: after the golden age of innocence, the silver age, and the bronze age of heroes, the iron age brought cruelty, greed, war, and the death of justice. Arthur's cry — only in an age as degenerate as this iron age could such a thing be done — also plays on the literal irons that are about to burn his eyes.
TLN 1630rhetorical device
“the utterance of a brace of tongues / Must needs want pleading for a pair of eyes”
Arthur argues in a rhetorical proportion: even two tongues ('a brace of tongues') speaking at once could not plead adequately for the loss of two eyes ('a pair of eyes'). 'Want' here means 'fall short of, be inadequate to.' The figure balances paired nouns — brace/pair, tongues/eyes — to show that words are unequal to the stakes. It is a desperate argument for why he cannot hold his tongue as Hubert demands.
TLN 1639rhetorical device
“the fire is dead with grief, / Being create for comfort, to be us'd / In undeserv'd extremes”
Arthur personifies the fire itself, arguing that it has gone out in sympathy: fire was 'created for comfort' (warmth, light, cooking) and cannot bear to be turned to such an undeserved use. The coal has no 'malice'; the 'breath of heaven' has blown out its spirit and strewn repentant ashes on its head. This is prosopopoeia — giving human feeling and conscience to an inanimate object — used to shame Hubert by showing that even fire is more merciful than he is being asked to be.
TLN 1649archaic vocab
“like a dog that is compell'd to fight, / Snatch at his master that doth tarre him on”
'Tarre' (also spelled 'tar') means to provoke, incite, or set on — used specifically for urging a dog to attack. Arthur argues that the burning coal, like a dog forced against its will to fight, will turn and bite the very hand that drives it ('his master that doth tarre him on'). The simile makes John the cruel master who forces natural objects to act against their nature — and their nature is mercy.
TLN 1662historical topical
“Your uncle must not know but you are dead; / I'll fill these dogged spies with false reports”
Hubert reveals the political logic he must now navigate: John must be told Arthur is dead (otherwise Hubert will be punished for disobeying), and the attendants ('dogged spies' — tenacious watchers who report back) must be deceived with false accounts. 'Dogged' means relentless, stubborn, like a dog that will not let go. This moment shows that Hubert is not merely sparing Arthur from kindness — he is taking a dangerous political risk, because the king will eventually discover the deception.
historical The Angevin succession and Arthur's claim