For I am ftifled with this fmell of fin.

Big. Away toward Bury, to the Dauphin there!
Pemb. There, tell the king, he may enquire us out.

[Exeunt Lords. Baft. Here's a good world!-Knew you of this fair

work?

Beyond the infinite and boundless reach

Of mercy, if thou didst this deed of death,
Art thou damn'd, Hubert.

Hub.

Do but hear me, fir.

Baft. Ha! I'll tell thee what;

Thou art damn'd as black-nay, nothing is fo black;
Thou art more deep damn'd than prince Lucifer:

There is not yet fo ugly a fiend of hell

As thou shalt be, if thou didst kill this child.
Hub. Upon my foul,-

Baft.

If thou didst but confent

To this moft cruel act, do but defpair,

And, if thou want'ft a cord, the smallest thread

That ever fpider twisted from her womb

Will ferve to ftrangle thee; a rush will be

A beam to hang thee on; or, would't thou drown thyself, Put but a little water in a spoon,

And it shall be as all the ocean,

Enough to ftifle fuch a villain up.

I do fufpect thee very grievously.

Hub. If I in act, confent, or fin of thought,
Be guilty of the ftealing that sweet breath
Which was embounded in this beauteous clay,
Let hell want pains enough to torture me!
1 left him well.

Baft.
Go, bear him in thine arms.
I am amaz'd, methinks; and lofe my way
Among the thorns and dangers of this world.-

How

9 I remember once to have met with a book, printed in the time of Henry VIII. (which Shakspeare poffibly might have feen,) where we are told that the deformity of the condemned in the other world, is exactly proportioned to the degrees of their guilt. The author of it obferves how difficult it would be, on this account, to diftinguish between Belzebub and Judas Iscariot. STEEVENS.

To tug,

2

How eafy doft thou take all England up!
From forth this morfel of dead royalty,
The life, the right, and truth of all this realm
Is fled to heaven; and England now is left
and scamble, and to part by the teeth
The unowed intereft of proud-fwelling ftate.
Now, for the bare-pick'd bone of majesty,
Doth dogged war briftle his angry creft,
And fnarleth in the gentle eyes of peace :
Now powers from home, and discontents at home,
Meet in one line; and vast confusion waits
(As doth a raven on a fick-fallen beast,)
The imminent decay of wrefted pomp.4
Now happy he, whofe cloak and cincture can
Hold out this tempeft. Bear away that child,
And follow me with fpeed; I'll to the king:
A thousand bufineffes are brief in hand.
And heaven itself doth frown upon the land.

[Exeunt.

ACT V. SCENE I.

The fame. A Room in the Palace.

Enter King JOHN, PANDULPH with the Crown, and Attendants.

K. John. Thus have I yielded up into your hand The circle of my glory.

2 Scamble and feramble have the fame meaning. STEEVENS. 3 i. e. the intereft which has no proper owner to claim it.

Pand.

STEEVENS.

That is, the intereft which is not at this moment legally possessed by any one, however rightfully entitled to it. On the death of Arthur, the right to the English crown devolved to his fifter, Eleanor. MALONE. Wrefted pomp is greatness obtained by iolence. JOHNSON.

Rather, greatnefs wrefted from. it poffeffor. MALONE.

[Giving JOHN the Crown.

From this my hand, as holding of the pope,

Your fovereign greatnefs and authority.

K. John. Now keep your holy word: go meet the
French;

And from his holiness use all your power
To ftop their marches, 'fore we are inflam'd.s
Our difcontented counties 6 do revolt;
Our people quarrel with obedience;
Swearing allegiance, and the love of foul,
To ftranger blood, to foreign royalty.
This inundation of mistemper'd humour
Refts by you only to be qualified.

Then paufe not; for the prefent time's fo fick,
That prefent medicine must be administer'd,

Or overthrow incurable enfues.

Pand. It was my breath that blew this tempeft up, Upon your ftubborn ufuage of the pope :

But, fince you are a gentle convertite,

My

5 This cannot be right, for the nation was already as much inflamed as it could be, and fo the King himself declares. We thould read for instead f'fore, and then the paffages will run thus:

-ufe all your power

Toftop their marches, for we are inflam'd ;

Our difcontented counties do revolt, &c. M. MASON. α

6 Perhaps counties, in the present inftance, do not mean the divifion of a kingdom, but lords, nobility, as in Romeo and Juliet, Mucb ado, &c. STEEVENS

7 A convertite is a convert.

STEEVENS.

The fame expreffion occurs in As you Like it, where Jaques, speaking of the young Duke, fays:

"There is much matter in thefe convertites."

In both these places, the word convertite means a repenting finner; not, as Steevens fays, a convert, by which, in the language of the prefent time, is meant a perfon who changes from one religion to another; in which fenfe the word could neither apply to K. John, or to Duke Frederick In the fenfe I have given it, it will apply to both. M. MASON.

A convertite (a word often used by our old writers, where we should now ufe convert,) fignified either, one converted to the faith, or one reClaimed from worldly pursuits, and devoted to penitence and religion.

VOL, IV.

F

Mr.

& Suppose ~ marches; for weare informed "Our ve semicolon after "marches"; & comme after "revolt," d'obidiene, _ & no stop after

"

My tongue fhall hufh again this ftorm of war,
And make fair weather in your blustering land.
On this Afcenfion day, remember well,
Upon your oath of fervice to the pope,

Go I to make the French lay down their arms.

[Exit.

K. John. Is this Afcenfion-day? Did not the prophet

Say, that, before Afcenfion-day at noon,

My crown I fhould give off? Even fo I have :
I did fuppofe, it should be on constraint;

But, heaven be thank'd, it is but voluntary.

Enter the Baftard.

Baft. All Kent hath yielded; nothing there holds out, But Dover caftle: London hath receiv'd,

Like a kind host, the Dauphin and his powers:
Your nobles will not hear you, but are gone

To offer fervice to your enemy;

And wild amazement hurries up and down
The little number of your doubtful friends.

K. John. Would not my lords return to me again,
After they heard young Arthur was alive?

Baft. They found him dead, and caft into the streets;

An empty casket, where the jewel of life

By fome damn'd hand was robb'd and ta'en away.

K. John.

Mr. M. Mafon fays, a convertite cannot mean a convert, because the latter word in the language of the prefent time means a perfon that changes from one religion to another." But the question is, not what is the language of the present time, but what was the language of Shakspeare's age. Marlowe ufes the word convertite exactly in the fenfe now affixed to Convert. John, who had in the former part of this play afferted in very ftrong terms the supremacy of the king of England in all ecclefiaftical matters, and told Pandulph that he had no reverence for the Pope or his ufurp'd authority," having now made his peace with the "boly cburch," and refigned his crown to the Pope's representative, is confidered by the legate as one newly converted to the true faith, and very properly styled by him a convertite. The fame term, in the fecond fenfe above mentioned, is applied to the ufurper, Duke Frederick, in As you Like it, on his having "put on a religious life, and thrown into neglect the pompous court":

-out of these convertites

There is much matter to be heard and learn'd." MALONE.

K. John. That villain Hubert told me, he did live.
Baft. So, on my foul, he did, for aught he knew.
But wherefore do you droop? why look you fad ?
Be great in act, as you have been in thought;
Let not the world fee fear, and fad distruit,
Govern the motion of a kingly eye:

Be ftirring as the time; be fire with fire;
Threaten the threat'ner, and outface the brow
Of bragging horror: fo fhall inferior eyes,
That borrow their behaviours from the great,
Grow great by your example, and put on
The dauntless fpirit of refolution.
Away; and glifter like the god of war,
When he intendeth to become the field:
Show boldness, and aspiring confidence.
What, fhall they seek the lion in his den?
And fright him there; and make him tremble there?
O, let it not be faid!-Forage, and run 8
To meet difpleasure further from the doors;
And grapple with him, ere he come fo nigh.

K. John. The legate of the pope hath been with me,
And I have made a happy peace with him;
And he hath promis'd to difmifs the powers
Led by the Dauphin.

Baft.

O inglorious league!
Shall we, upon the footing of our land,
Send fair-play orders, and make compromife,
Infinuation, parley, and bafe truce,

To arms invafive? fhall a beardless boy,
A cocker'd filken wanton brave our fields,
And flesh his spirit in a warlike foil,
Mocking the air with colours idl fpread,
And find no check? Let us, my liege, to arms:
Perchance, the cardinal cannot make your peace;
Or if he do, let it at least be faid,

They faw we had a purpose of defence.

K. John. Have thou the ordering of this prefent time.

F 2

Baft

JOHNSON.

$ To forage is here ufed in its original fenfe, for to range abroad.