Keep Stephen Langton, chosen archbishop
Of Canterbury, from that holy see ?
This, in our 'foresaid holy father's name,
Pope Innocent, I do demand of thee.

K. JOHN. What earthly name to interrogatories", Can task the free breath of a sacred king? Thou canst not, cardinal, devise a name So slight, unworthy, and ridiculous,

To charge me to an answer, as the pope.

8 What earthly, &c.] This must have been at the time when it was written, in our struggles with popery, a very captivating

scene.

So many passages remain in which Shakspeare evidently takes his advantage of the facts then recent, and of the passions then in motion, that I cannot but suspect that time has obscured much of his art, and that many allusions yet remain undiscovered, which perhaps may be gradually retrieved by succeeding commentators. JOHNSON.

The speech stands thus in the old spurious play: "And what hast thou, or the pope thy master, to do, to demand of me how I employ mine own? Know, sir priest, as I honour the church and holy churchmen, so I scorne to be subject to the greatest prelate in the world. Tell thy master so from me; and say, John of England said it, that never an Italian priest of them all, shall either have tythe, toll, or polling penny out of England; but as I am king, so will I reign next under God, supreme head both over spiritual and temporal: and he that contradicts me in this, I'll make him hop headless." STEEVENS.

"What earthly name to interrogatories,

"Can task the free breath," &c. i. e. What earthly name, subjoined to interrogatories, can force a king to speak and answer them?' The old copy reads-earthy. The emendation was made by Mr. Pope. It has also tast instead of task, which was substituted by Mr. Theobald. Breath for speech is common with our author. So, in a subsequent part of this scene:

"The latest breath that gave the sound of words.”

Again, in The Merchant of Venice, "breathing courtesy," for verbal courtesy. MALONE.

The emendation [task] may be justified by the following passage in King Henry IV. Part I.:

"How show'd his tasking? seem'd it in contempt?" Again, in King Henry V.:

"That task our thoughts concerning us and France."

VOL. XV.

T

STEEVENS,

Tell him this tale; and from the mouth of England,
Add thus much more,-That no Italian priest
Shall tithe or toll in our dominions;
But as we under heaven are supreme head,
So, under him, that great supremacy,
Where we do reign, we will alone uphold,
Without the assistance of a mortal hand:
So tell the pope; all reverence set apart,
To him, and his usurp'd authority.

K. PHI. Brother of England, you blaspheme in this.

K. JOHN. Though you, and all the kings of
Christendom,

Are led so grossly by this meddling priest,
Dreading the curse that money may buy out;
And, by the merit of vile gold, dross, dust,
Purchase corrupted pardon of a man,

Who, in that sale, sells pardon from himself:
Though you, and all the rest, so grossly led,
This juggling witchcraft with revenue cherish;
Yet I, alone, alone do me oppose

Against the pope, and count his friends my foes.
PAND. Then, by the lawful power that I have,
Thou shalt stand curs'd, and excommunicate:
And blessed shall he be, that doth revolt
From his allegiance to an heretick;
And meritorious shall that hand be call'd,
Canonized, and worshipp'd as a saint,
That takes away by any secret course
Thy hateful life.

9 That takes away by any secret course

Thy hateful life.] This may allude to the bull published against Queen Elizabeth. Or we may suppose, since we have no proof that this play appeared in its present state before the reign of King James, that it was exhibited soon after the popish plot. I have seen a Spanish book in which Garnet, Faux, and their accomplices, are registered as saints. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnson is incorrect in supposing that there is no

CONST.

O, lawful let it be,

That I have room with Rome to curse a while!
Good father Cardinal, cry thou, amen,

To my keen curses; for, without my wrong,
There is no tongue hath power to curse him right.
PAND. There's law and warrant, lady, for my

curse.

CONST. And for mine too; when law can do no
right,

Let it be lawful, that law bar no wrong:
Law cannot give my child his kingdom here;
For he, that holds his kingdom, holds the law :
Therefore, since law itself is perfect wrong,
How can the law forbid my tongue to curse?
PAND. Philip of France, on peril of a curse,
Let go the hand of that arch-heretick;
And raise the power of France upon his head,
Unless he do submit himself to Rome.

ELI. Look'st thou pale, France? do not let go
thy hand.

CONST. Look to that, devil, lest that France re

pent,

And, by disjoining hands, hell lose a soul,

AUST. King Philip, listen to the cardinal.

BAST. And hang a calf's-skin on his recreant limbs.

proof that this play appeared before the reign of King James. It is mentioned by Meres in the year 1598: but if any allusion to his own times was intended by the author of the old play, (for this speech is formed on one in King John, 1591,) it must have been to the bull of Pope Pius the Fifth, 1569: "Then I Pandulph of Padua, legate from the Apostolike sea, doe in the name of Saint Peter, and his successor, our holy father Pope Innocent, pronounce thee accursed, discharging every of thy subjects of all dutie and fealtie that they do owe to thee, and pardon and forgivenesse of sinne to those or them whatsoever which shall carrie armes against thee or murder thee. This I pronounce, and charge all good men to abhorre thee as an excommunicate person." MALONE.

AUST. Well, ruffian, I must pocket up these

BAST. Your breeches best may carry them'. K. JOHN. Philip, what say'st thou to the cardinal? CONST. What should he say, but as the cardinal? LEW. Bethink you, father; for the difference Is, purchase of a heavy curse from Rome2, Or the light loss of England for a friend: Forgo the easier.

BLANCH.

CONST. O Lewis,

thee here,

That's the curse of Rome.

stand fast; the devil tempts

In likeness of a new untrimmed bride ".

Your breeches best may carry them.] Perhaps there is somewhat proverbial in this sarcasm. So, in the old play of King Leir, 1605:

66

Mum. Well I have a payre of slops for the nonce,

"Will hold all your mocks." STEEVENS.

Is, purchase of a heavy curse from Rome,] It is a political maxim, that kingdoms are never married. Lewis, upon the wedding, is for making war upon his new relations. JOHNSON.

3

the devil tempts thee here,

In likeness of a new UNTRIMMED bride.] Though all the copies concur in this reading, yet as untrimmed cannot bear any signification to square with the sense required, I cannot help thinking it a corrupted reading. I have ventured to throw out the negative, and read:

"In likeness of a new and trimmed bride."

i. e. of a new bride, and one decked and adorned as well by art as nature. THEOBALD.

Mr. Theobald says, "that as untrimmed cannot bear any sig nification to square with the sense required," it must be corrupt; therefore he will cashier it, and read-and trimmed; in which he is followed by the Oxford editor: but they are both too hasty. It squares very well with the sense, and signifies unsteady. The term is taken from navigation. We say too, in a similar way of speaking, not well manned. WARBURTON.

I think Mr. Theobald's correction more plausible than Dr. Warburton's explanation. A commentator should be grave, and therefore I can read these notes with proper severity of attention; but the idea of trimming a lady to keep her steady, would be too risible for any common power of face. JOHNSON.

BLANCH. The lady Constance speaks not from her faith,

But from her need.

Could

Trim is dress. An untrimmed bride is a bride undrest. the tempter of mankind assume a semblance in which he was more likely to be successful? But notwithstanding what Aristanetus assures us concerning Laisἐνδεδυμένη μὲν, ευπροσωποτάτη δέ· ἐκδῦσα δέ ὅλη πρόσωπον φαίνεται,—that drest she was beautiful, undrest she was all beauty-by Shakspeare's epithet-untrimmed, I do not mean absolutely naked, but

Nuda pedem, discincta sinum, spoliata lacertos;

in short, whatever is comprized in Lothario's idea of unattired. Non mihi sancta Diana placet, nec nuda Cythere;

Illa voluptatis nil habet, hæc nimium.

The devil (says Constance) raises to your imagination your bride disencumbered of the forbidding forms of dress, and the memory of my wrongs is lost in the anticipation of future enjoyment.

Ben Jonson in his New Inn, says :

"Bur. Here's a lady gay.

"Tip. A well-trimm'd lady!"

Again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona :

"And I was trimm'd in madam Julia's gown."

Again, in King Henry VI. Part III. Act II.:

"Trimm'd like a younker prancing to his love."

Again, in Reginald Scott's Discovery of Witchcraft, 1514:

"a good huswife, and also well trimmed up in apparel." Mr. Collins inclines to a colder interpretation, and is willing to suppose that by an "untrimmed bride" is meant a bride unadorned with the usual pomp and formality of a nuptial habit.' The propriety of this epithet he infers from the haste in which the match was made, and further justifies it from King John's preceding words:

"Go we, as well as haste will suffer us,

"To this unlook'd for, unprepared pomp."

Mr. Tollet is of the same opinion, and offers two instances in which untrimmed indicates a deshabille or a frugal vesture. In Minsheu's Dictionary, it signifies one not finely dressed or attired. Again, in Vives's Instruction of a Christian Woman, 1592, p. 98 and 99: "Let her [the mistress of the house] bee content with a maide not faire and wanton, that can sing a ballad with a clere voice, but sad, pale, and untrimmed." STEEVENS.

I incline to think that the transcriber's ear deceived him, and that we should read, as Mr. Theobald has proposed

a new and trimmed bride."