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Summary
Arthur stands on the walls of the castle in disguise. He decides he will jump off the wall to escape. No one will recognize the body if he dies, he decides, and it is as good to die in England as to escape. He jumps and falls to his death.
Salisbury and Pembroke enter with Lord Bigot. The lords discuss their imminent meeting with Louis. The Bastard enters to speak on behalf of King John. Salisbury tells him to return to the king with news that they no longer honor him. They exchange barbed comments, until Salisbury sees Arthur’s body. Each of the lords is horrified by what they believe to be an act of assassination ordered by John, and they struggle to imagine the vile nature of a man who would carry out such an order.
Just then, Hubert enters and announces his message from the king: Arthur is alive! Before Hubert realizes that Arthur’s body is nearby, Salisbury angrily accuses him of being a murderer and draws his sword. The Bastard tries to keep the peace, and Bigot demands to know who killed Arthur. Hubert says he had last seen him alive but a short while ago. The lords don’t believe him and depart to join the dauphin’s forces against the king.
The Bastard tells Hubert that he will certainly be damned if he knew of the plan to kill Arthur in this way. Hubert again insists that Arthur was alive when he left him. The Bastard tells Hubert to carry the body away and reflects that he can’t discern the truth of the situation. And indeed, much confusion awaits now that the king must do battle against a foreign army reinforced with his own turned lords. They rush off to the king.
Analysis
The final scene of act 4 is rich in tragic irony. After Hubert has spared Arthur’s life and subsequently pleased the king with the news of his own mercy, Arthur now dies in an ill-considered attempt at escape. It is somewhat of a mystery why Arthur decides to jump off the castle walls instead of sitting tight. Evidently, he has come to distrust Hubert after the terrifying experience of nearly being executed. Even so, Hubert has spared his life and spoken soothing words to him, which makes it more difficult to understand why Arthur has both donned a disguise and attempted such a risky escape.
One possible explanation may simply be Arthur’s age. Although the historical Arthur was of marriageable age at the time of the events depicted, Shakespeare emphasizes the boy’s youth. Note, for instance, how nearly every reference to Arthur emphasizes his youthful beauty. When Constance grieves his abduction, she laments how she will never “behold [her] pretty Arthur more” (3.4.89). Hubert likewise addresses Arthur as “pretty child” (4.1.130), and soon after his body is discovered Pembroke laments, “O death, made proud with pure and princely beauty” (4.3.35). These references to his beauty seem collectively to emphasize that Arthur is a boy rather than a man, an idea that Shakespeare reinforces when he had Arthur succumb to childish weeping in the argument that took place in act 2, scene 1. It is therefore plausible that Arthur’s ill-conceived escape is little more than a tragic matter of youthful ignorance.
