Hubert
Play
Summary
Hubert de Burgh is King John's loyal servant who is given the terrible commission of blinding and killing the young Prince Arthur. In the pivotal scene of the play, the young Arthur's appeals — innocent, trusting, and heartbreaking — move Hubert to relent and spare the boy, though Arthur dies anyway in a fall while trying to escape. Hubert's struggle between obedience and humanity is one of the play's key moral examinations.
Notable Quotations
"Come forth! Do as I bid you do." *(4.1)*
"Silence; no more. Go closely in with me: / Much danger do I undergo for thee." *(4.1)*
"Within this bosom never enter'd yet / The dreadful motion of a murderous thought." *(4.2)*