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Thruft but these men away, and I'll forgive you, Whatever torment you do put me to.

HUB. Go, fland within; let me alone with him. I ATTEND. I am beft pleas'd to be from such a deed. [Exeunt Attendants. ARTH. Alas! I then have chid away my friend; He hath aftern look, but a gentle heart:Let him come back, that his compaffion may Give life to yours.

HUB.

Come, boy, prepare yourself.

ARTH. Is there no remedy?

HUB.

None, but to lofe your eyes.

ARTH. O heaven! that there were but a mote

in yours,

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A grain, a duft, a gnat, a wand'ring hair,
Any annoyance in that precious fenfe!

Then, feeling what fmall things are boift'rous there,
Your vile intent muft needs feem horrible.

HUB. Is this your promife? go to, hold your tongue. ARTH. Hubert, the utterance of a brace of tongues Muft needs want pleading for a pair of eyes: Let me not hold my tongue; let me not, Hubert!

-a mote.

6 a mote in yours, ] Old copy-a moth. STEEVENS. Surely we should read. Our author, who has borrowed fo much from the facred writings, without doubt remembered, "And why beholdeft thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye," &c. Matth. vii. 3. So, in Hamlet:

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"A mote it is, to trouble the mind's eye. A mote is a small particle of ftraw or chaff. old writers for an atom.

I have fince found my conje&ure confirmed. Moth was merely the old fpelling of mote. In the paffage quoted from Hamlet, the word is fpelt moth in the original copy, as it is here. So alfo, in the preface to Lodge's Incarnate Devils of the Age, 4to. 1596: they are in the aire, like atomi in fole, MOTHES in the fonne. " See alfo Florio's Italian Dia. 1598: Feftucco. moth, a little beam." MALONE,

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Or, Hubert, if you will, cut out my tongue?
So I may keep mine eyes; O, fpare mine eyes;
Though to no ufe, but ftill to look on you!
Lo, by my troth, the inftrument is cold,
And would not harm me.

HUB.

I can heat it, boy.

ARTH. No, in good footh; the fire is dead with

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In undeferv'd extremes: See else yourself;
There is no malice in this burning coal;
The breath of heaven hath blown his fpirit out,
And flrew'd repentant afhes on his head.

HUB. But with my breath I can revive it, boy. ARTH. And if you do, you will but make it blush, And glow with fhame of your proceedings, Hubert: Nay, it, perchance, will fparkle in your eyes; And, like a dog that is compell'd to fight, Snatch at his mafter that doth tarre him on.

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7 Or, Hubert, if you will, cut out my tongue,] This is according to nature. We imagine no evil fo great as that which is near us. JOHNSON.

the fire is dead with grief, c.] The fenfe 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 deferved. JOHNSON.

9 There is no malice in this burning coal;] Dr. Grey says, "that no malice in a burning coal is certainly abfurd, and that we should read: There is no malice burning in this coal. STEEVENS.

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Dr. Grey's remark on this paffage is an hypercriticism. coal was ftill burning, for Hubert says, "he could revive it with his breath: " but it had loft for a time its power of injuring by the abatement of its heat. M. MASON.

2' tarre him on. } i. e. ftimulate, set him on. Supposed to be derived from ταράττω, excito. The word occurs again in and the nation holds it no fin to tarre them on

Hamlet: "

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to controverfy. Again, in Troilus and Creffida:

Pride alone muft tarre the maftiffs on." STEEVENS.

All things, that you fhould ufe to do me wrong, Deny their office: only you do lack

That mercy, which fierce fire, and iron, extends, Creatures of note for mercy - lacking uses.

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HUB. Well, fee to live; I will not touch thine

eyes

For all the treasure that thine uncle owes:
Yet am I fworn, and I did purpose, boy,
With this fame very iron to burn them out.
ARTH. O, now you look like Hubert! all this while
You were disguised.

Peace: no more.

Adieu;

HUB. Your uncle muft not know but you are dead: I'll fill thefe dogged fpies with false reports. And, pretty child, fleep doubtlefs, and fecure, That Hubert, for the wealth of all the world, Will not offend thee.

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ARTH. O heaven! I thank you, Hubert. HUB. Silence; no more: Go closely in with me; Much danger do I undergo for thee.

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[Exeunt.

fee to live;] The meaning is not, I believe, keep your eye-fight, that you may live (for he might have lived though blind). The words, agreeably to a common idiom of our language, mean, I conceive, no more than live. MALONE.

See to live means only Continue to enjoy the means of life. STEEVENS.

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On further confideration of these words, I believe the author meant, Well, live, and live with the means of seeing; that is, with your eyes uninjured. MALONE.

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3 Go clofely in with me; ] i. e. fecretly, privately. So, in Albumazar, 1610. A&. III. fc. i:

“I'll entertain him here, mean while, fteal you'

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Clofely into the room, &c.

Again, in The Atheist's Tragedy, 1612, Aa IV. fc. i:

Enter Frifco clofely.

Again, in Sir Henry Wotton's Parallel:

That when he was free from reftraint, he should closely take an out lodging at Greenwich."

REED,

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The fame. A Room of ftate in the Palace. Enter King JOHN, crowned; PEMBROKE, SALISBURY, and other Lords. The King takes his flate.

K. JOHN. Here once again we fit, once again crown'd, 4

And look'd upon, I hope, with cheerful eyes. PEM. This once again, but that your highness

pleas'd,

Was once fuperfluous: 5 you were crown'd before,
And that high royalty was ne'er pluck'd off;
The faiths of men ne'er flained with revolt;
Fresh expectation troubled not the land,
With any long'd-for change, or better flate.
SAL. Therefore, to be poffefs'd with double

pomp,

To guard a title that was rich before,

4

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--once again crown'd, [ Old copy againft. Corrected in the fourth folio. MALONE.

This once again,

Was once fuperfluous:] This one time more was one time more than enough. JOHNSON.

It should be remembered that King John was at present crowned for the fourth time. STEEVENS.

John's fecond coronation was at Canterbury in the year 1201. He was crowned a third time at the fame place, after the murder of his nephew, in April 1202; probably with a view of confirming his title to the throne, his competitor no longer ftanding in his way.

MALONE.

To guard a title that was rich before, ] To guard, is to fringe.

Rather, to lace. So, in The Merchant of Venice:

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give him a livery

"More guarded than his fellows. STEEVENS.

JOHNSON.

See Meafure for Measure, Vol. VI. p. 108-9, n. 2. MALONE.

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To gild refined gold, to paint the lily
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To fmooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
To feek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wafteful, and ridiculous excefs.

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PEMB. But that your royal pleasure must be done, This act is as an ancient tale new told; And, in the last repeating, troublesome, Being urged at a time unfeafonable.

SAL. In this, the antique and well-noted face
Of plain old form is much disfigured:
And, like a fhifted wind unto a fail,

It makes the courfe of thoughts to fetch about;
Startles and frights confideration;

Makes found opinion fick, and truth fufpected,
For putting on fo, new a fafhion'd robe.

PEMB. When workmen flrive to do better than

well,

They do confound their skill in covetoufness: *
And, oftentimes, excufing of a fault,

7 as an ancient tale new told; ] Had Shakspeare been a diligent examiner of his own compofitions, he would not fo foon have repeated an idea which he had firft put into the mouth of the Dauphin:

"Life is as tedious as a twice told tale,

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Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.

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Mr. Malone has a remark to the fame tendency. STEEVENS. They do confound their skill in covetousness: ] i. e. not by their avarice, but in an eager emulation, an intense defire of excelling; as in Henry V:

But if it be a fin to covet honour,

"

"I am the moft offending foul alive. THEOBALD. So, in our author's 103d Sonnet:

"Were it not finful then, ftriving to mend,
"To mar the subject that before was well?

Again, in King Lear:

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66 Striving to better, oft we mar what's well.

MALONE.

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