King John Loyalty Quotes

Compare Hubert's lines to those of the Bastard in the second quotation from this section. In Hubert's words, we find none of the humor that characterized the Bastard's speech; this guy seems to really mean his frightening pledge of ultimate loyalty. Does this mean that Hubert will turn out to be more loyal than the Bastard? Not necessarily, as later events in the play reveal.

In these lines, we see the horrible things that loyalty can make people do. Arthur points out that his eyes (and, we can assume, he himself) never did anything to Hubert. But, just because Hubert told King John that he would do it, Hubert says that he is going to go ahead and commit this horrible act. Of course, Hubert doesn't actually go through with it, but he comes pretty darn close. We can pretty safely bet that he's carried out lots of other horrendous murders on the king's behalf (Peter of Pomfret, anyone?). So, yeah, loyalty… sometimes not so good.

These lines make King John look pretty low. We'd say they definitely speak to his weakness of character and his inability to take responsibility for his own actions. That said, he does have a bit of a point. If kings weren't served by people so eager to prove themselves loyal—or if they were served by people who had a better understanding of what kings really need done, not just what they think they need done—it might end up sparing everyone a lot of grief. But, then again, you could say it's the king's fault in the first place for placing such a premium on loyalty that people will commit outrageous crimes just to avoid ending up in the king's bad books—and having such crimes committed against them.