PART III.-PRINCE ARTHUR is supposed to have been assassinated.

Enter KING JOHN and HUBERT.

Hub.-My lord, they say five moons were seen to

night:

Four fixed; and the fifth did whirl about

The other four in wondrous motion.

K. J.-Five moons?

Hub.

Old men, and beldams, 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,
While 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),
Told of many thousand warlike French,
That were embattled and ranked in Kent:
Another lean, unwashed artificer

Cuts off his tale, and talks of Arthur's death.

K. J.-Why seekst thou to possess me with thes

fears?

Why urgest thou so oft young Arthur's death?
Thy hand hath murdered him: I had a mighty cause
To wish him dead, but thou hadst none to kill him.

Hub.-Had none, my lord! Why, did not you pro

voke me?

K. J.—It is the curse of kings to be attended
By slaves, that take their humors for a warrant
To break within the bloody house of life:
And, on the winking of authority,

To understand a law; to know the meaning

Of dangerous majesty, when, perchance, it frowns
More upon humor than advised respect.

Hub.-Here is your hand and seal for what I did.
K. J.—Oh, when the last account 'twixt heaven and
earth

Is to be made, then shall this hand and seal

Witness against us to damnation !

How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds
Makes deeds ill done! Hadst not thou been by,
A fellow by the hand of nature marked,
Quoted, and signed, to do a deed of shame,
This murder had not come into my mind:
But, taking note of thy abhorred aspect,
Finding thee fit for bloody villany,
Apt, liable to be employed in danger,

I faintly broke with thee of Arthur's death,
And thou, to be endeared to a king,

Made it no conscience to destroy a prince.
Hub.-My lord-

K. J.-Hadst thou but shook thy head, or made ≈

pause,

When I spake darkly what I purposed;

Or turned an eye of doubt upon my face,

As bid me tell my tale in express words:

Deep shame had struck me dumb, made me break off, And those thy fears might have wrought fears in me: But thou didst understand me by my signs,

And didst in signs again parley with sin;

Yea, without stop, didst let thy heart consent,
And, consequently, thy rude hand to act

The deed, which both our tongues held vile to name.
Out of my sight, and never see me more!

My nobles leave me; and my state is braved,
Even at my gates, with ranks of foreign powers:
Nay, in the body of this fleshly land,

This kingdom, this confine of blood and breath,
Hostility and civil tumult reigns

Between my conscience and my cousin's death.
Hub.-Arm you against your other enemies;
I'll make a peace between your soul and you.
Young Arthur is alive. This hand of mine.
Is yet a maiden and an innocent hand,
Not painted with the crimson spots of blood.
Within this bosom never entered yet

The dreadful motion of a murderous thought,
And you have slandered nature in my form;
Which, howsoever rude exteriorly,

Is yet the cover of a fairer mind

Than to be butcher of an innocent child.

K. J.-Doth Arthur live? O, haste thee to the peers, Throw this report on their incensed rage, And make them tame to their obedience! Forgive the comment that my passion made Upon thy features; for my rage was blind, And foul imaginary eyes of blood Presented thee more hideous than thou art. O, answer not; but to my closet bring The angry lords, with all expedient haste : I conjure thee but slowly; run more fast.

WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

THE PROFESSOR PUZZLED.

PROFESSOR. PUPIL.

SCENE.-The PROFESSOR's Study. PROFESSOR seated by table examining some manuscripts.

PUPIL-Good-evening, Professor.

of

[Throws himself into a chair.] Prof.-Good-evening, sir. As this is the last lesson your course, I wish to call your attention to the dif ferent topics that we have taken up in your previous lessons. I must say, Mr. S., that your success has not been as great as it might have been. You have been in too great a hurry. hurry. You wished to be drilled on the "Raven" and Shakspeare before you fully understood the tones of voice. Emphasis and slide, the great beauty of good reading, have been almost wholly overlooked by you, notwithstanding my repeated cautions. It is not my intention to criticize your performance this evening. I shall take up all the essential elements that constitute an orator, and I am confident that from the drill you have had, you ought to be able to give them correctly. I therefore consider this lesson a sort of an examination. You may place yourself where the audience can see you, and take first position, sitting. [Pupil takes position.]

Pupil-Shall I now give a personation of a band of minstrels opening an entertainment?

Prof. You may, and then be done with burlesque. Pupil-(Picking up programme from floor)-Colored folks, seein' you 've 'sembled yourself dis evening fer de purpose of entertaining de white population, de fus' thing dat strikes my optical observation on dis evening's programme am de overture, so throw yourself away.

[Throws himself upon the PROFESSOR.]

Prof.-Let us now leave the minstrels to finish their own performance, and go on with ours. Rise, take first position. Give the sentence, "Let me grasp thee," in the orotund.

Pupil-(Takes position) - "Let me grasp thee." [Catches hold of PROFESSOR.]

Prof.-Back! I asked for the tone, not the action. Pupil-But what power have words without action? Prof. Without action all oratory sinks into insignificance. Demosthenes gave action as the first, second and third requisites to a perfect orator. But you are now not performing the part of a speaker, you are simply giving the elements that constitute one. Take now the selection, "She loved me," etc.

Pupil.

"She loved me for the tales I told,
I loved her for the beer she sold."

Prof.-Is your memory so weak, or is the burlesque so deeply seated in you that you murder the most beautiful passages?

Pupil-You gave me to understand that it was tone you wanted, not action, so I concluded that if I gave you the tone correctly, even words were of minor importance.

Prof.- Different selections require different tones. Words have all to do with tone. As you are inclined to the comic, you may recite a stanza from the "Irish Picket." Pupil.

"I'm standing in the mud, Biddy,

With not a spalpeen near;

And silence spachless as the grave
Is the only sound I hear;

This southern climate 's quare, Biddy,

A quare and beastly thing,

Wid winter absent all the year,

And summer in the spring."

Prof.-A little too much of the dramatic, but we will