King John Compassion and Forgiveness Quotes

In these lines, King Philip of France introduces Arthur to Austria. This isn't your ordinary introduction, however. In fact, King Philip tells Arthur that Austria is the one who killed Arthur's uncle, King Richard the Lionheart. But Arthur forgives Austria, all the same. Do you think Arthur is sincere in his forgiveness, or is he forced into it by his circumstances?

In these lines, King John suggests that his compassionate treatment of Constance will get her to forgive him for taking the crown of England from her son Arthur. It won't work, unfortunately: she is dead-set against him.

In these lines, King Philip resists Cardinal Pandolf's call to break his alliance with King John by pointing out that they've only just become friends after a bloody battle. King Philip clearly guesses that Pandolf—who is a Catholic clergyman, after all—will appreciate the value of forgiveness. He guesses wrong.

First of all, Arthur complains about how unfair it is that King John won't forgive him for something he didn't have any control over—being Geoffrey's son. Then, Arthur turns to Hubert and makes a plea for his affection. At this point, Hubert turns aside and reveals that he has to be careful to ignore Arthur's pleas: if he listens to Arthur, he'll start feeling pity and compassion, and he'll be unable to carry out the deed he promised King John he would carry out. Do Hubert's words say something about the power of compassion to prevent us from doing evil deeds?

Hubert starts by showing Arthur the warrant for the horrible act he intends to do. Then, Hubert turns aside to hide his face because he is weeping. It looks like compassion is starting to get the better of him. Then he asks Arthur if he can read the warrant. Why do you think he takes the trouble of showing the warrant to Arthur? Why doesn't he just go ahead and blind him? Is Hubert hoping from some reaction from Arthur—like forgiveness, for example? Or is he already subconsciously squirming for a way out of going through with the deed, making his actions here an attempt to buy time?

In these lines, we see Arthur using his presence of mind to try to resist Hubert, and prevent him from carrying out the deed. In his almost helpless situation, Arthur uses the only tool available to him: he appeals to Hubert's sense of compassion. Arthur seems to have hit on the key insight that being compassionate for others means understanding how they are feeling. Thus, Arthur wishes that Hubert had a "grain, a dust, a gnat, a wandering hair" in his eye, so he could imagine what horrible pain must result from something thousands of times worse (a hot iron poker). Of course, Hubert doesn't have anything in his eye; maybe what Arthur's really doing is trying to use his words to awaken Hubert's imagination to the suffering of others.

In these lines, we can see Arthur's rhetoric (the art of convincing people through speech) at its most brilliant. He starts off by pointing out that the iron poker, which Hubert had heated up to burn Arthur's eyes out, has gone cold. This shows that Arthur's speech is working on one very basic level: he has been able to buy time. But then he makes a brilliant mental leap, by turning the poker into a metaphor for Hubert's own emotions; this shift happens after the phrase "see else yourself." Everything after this point is actually referring to Hubert, not to the burning poker. So, Arthur uses the poker as a bridge to talk about the change that is happening with Hubert's own emotions: his heated murderous rage has been cooled by compassion. The final twist comes after Hubert says he can heat "it" (does he mean the poker or himself?) back up: Arthur says that if he does, its red glow won't be an angry glow, but the blushing glow of shame. Given this skillful manipulation—especially coming from a helpless and innocent child—is it any surprise that Hubert finds he can't go through with his plan?

With these words, the Bastard interrogates Hubert, demanding to know whether or not he actually had anything to do with Arthur's death. (Arthur is indeed dead by this point.) The Bastard thinks that such a crime would be so heinous that there would be no possibility for forgiveness: the person who committed it can do nothing "but despair." By bringing in this reference to "despair," with its Christian echoes, the Bastard hints that there won't even be any divine forgiveness for such a crime. Then he goes on to list a lot of weird, small things that he says will be able to kill Hubert if Hubert was guilty of the crime. What do you make of this part of the Bastard's speech? Does he mean that Hubert will feel so guilty that even the smallest thing will be able to kill him?

With these words, Louis tells Salisbury that he forgives him for his tirade against rebellion and against foreigners (like Louis) who menace England. Louis says that he is so astonished by these tears coming from a grown man that he can't help feeling compassion for him. The irony, of course, is that Louis is secretly planning to have Salisbury executed once their war with King John is over.

It's worth comparing this quotation with the first one for this theme. The same question comes up in both of them: do you think these acts of forgiveness come from sincere feelings? Or are these people just forced into forgiveness by circumstances? In this case, King John is at death's door and is at risk of having his kingdom taken over by Louis the Dauphin; he would be pretty darn stupid if he didn't welcome back all those nobles who had defected from his side and joined forces with the Dauphin. Still, it's interesting to note that it's King John's young son Henry who urges him to be compassionate, just as it was young Arthur who forgave Austria in the first quote from this section. Does this mean that King John portrays young children as especially compassionate? And if so, does this mean that being compassionate is naive? Or is the question more complicated than that?