First, this scoundrelly King could only keep power by making away with his little nephew Arthur, and out of this tragedy Shakespeare has woven his play of John—not very much read perhaps, and rarely acted; but in the old, school reader-books of my time there used to be excerpted a passage—a whole scene, in fact—representing the interview between Arthur and his gaoler Hubert, who is to put out the poor boy’s eyes. I quote a fragment:—
Arthur—Must you with irons burn out both mine eyes?
Hubert—Young boy, I must.
Arthur—And will you?
Hubert—And I will.
Arthur—Have you the heart? When your head did but ache,
I knit my handkerchief about your brows.
And again, when the ruffians come in with the irons, Hubert says—
“Give me the irons, I say, and bind him here.”