King John
Uncle Wellington describes Barney Snaith
“He has the identical look of a jail-bird,” snapped Uncle Benjamin. “I noticed it the first time I saw him.”
“‘A fellow by the hand of nature marked,
Quoted and sighed to do a deed of shame’,”
declaimed Uncle James. He looked enormously pleased over the managing to work that quotation in at last. He had been waiting all his life for the chance.
King John
By William Shakespeare
Excerpt from Act 4, Scene 2
HUBERT
Here is your hand and seal for what I did.
KING JOHN O, 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
Make deeds ill done! Hadst not thou been by,
A fellow by the hand of nature mark’d,
Quoted and sign’d to do a deed of shame,
This murder had not come into my mind:
But taking note of thy abhorr’d aspect,
Finding thee fit for bloody villany,
Apt, liable to be employ’d 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.
Complete text available at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2249
