BAST. They found him dead, and cast into the streets; An empty casket, where the jewel of life' By some damn'd hand was robb'd and ta'en away. K. JOHN. That villain Hubert told me, he did live. BAST. So, on my soul, he did, for aught he knew. But wherefore do you droop? why look you sad? Be stirring as the time; be fire with fire; O, let it not be said!-Forage, and run1 7 An EMPTY CASKET, where the JEWEL of life-] Dryden has transferred this image to a speech of Antony, in All for Love: "An empty circle, since the jewel's gone." STEEVENS. The same kind of imagery is employed in King Richard II. : 8 66 A jewel in a ten-times-barr'd-up chest "Is a bold spirit in a loyal breast." MALONE. and put on The dauntless spirit of resolution.] So, in Macbeth: 91 11 MALONE. to become the field :] So, in Hamlet : 66 such a sight as this "Becomes the field." STEEVENS. FORAGE, and run-] To forage is here used in its original sense, for to range abroad. JOHNSON. To meet displeasure further from the doors; me, And I have made a happy peace with him; BAST. O inglorious league! To arms invasive? shall a beardless boy, Mocking the air with colours idly spread 2, They saw we had a purpose of defence. K. JOHN. Have thou the ordering of this present time. BAST. Away then, with good courage; yet, I know, Our party may well meet a prouder foe3. [Exeunt. 2 Mocking the air with colours idly spread,] He has the same image in Macbeth: Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky, "And fan our people cold." JOHNSON. From these two passages Mr. Gray seems to have formed the first stanza of his celebrated Ode: "Ruin seize thee, ruthless king! "Though fann'd by conquest's crimson wing 66 "Let us then 3 Away then, with good courage; yet, I know, Our party may well meet a prouder foe.] away with courage; yet I so well know the faintness of our party, that I think it may easily happen that they shall encounter enemies who have more spirit than themselves." JOHNSON. SCENE II. A Plain, near St. Edmund's-Bury‘. Enter, in arms, LEWIS, SALISBURY, MELUN, PEM- LEW. My lord Melun, let this be copied out, SAL. Upon our sides it never shall be broken. Dr. Johnson is, I believe, mistaken. Faulconbridge means'for all their boasting, I know very well that our party is able to cope with one yet prouder and more confident of its strength than theirs. Faulconbridge would otherwise dispirit the King, whom he means to animate. STEEVENS. Yet I know, is-still I know. BOSWELL. 4 — near St. Edmund's-Bury.] I have ventured to fix the place of the scene here, which is specified by none of the editors, on the following authorities. In the preceding Act, where Salisbury has fixed to go over to the Dauphin, he says: "Lords, I will meet him at St. Edmund's-Bury." And Count Melun, in this last Act, says: 66 66 —and many more with me, Upon the altar at St. Edmund's-Bury; "Even on that altar, where we swore to you "Dear amity, and everlasting love." And it appears likewise, from The Troublesome Reign of King John, in two Parts, (the first rough model of this play.) that the interchange of vows betwixt the Dauphin and the English barons was at St. Edmund's-Bury. THEOBALD. the PRECEDENT, &c.] i. e. the rough draught of the original treaty between the Dauphin and the English lords. Thus (adds Mr. M. Mason) in King Richard III. the scrivener employed to engross the indictment of Lord Hastings, says, "that it took him eleven hours to write it, and that the precedent was full as long a doing." STEEVENS. Would bear thee from the knowledge of thyself, To your proceedings; yet, believe me, prince, ; Her enemies' ranks, (I must withdraw and weep Upon the spot of this enforced cause',) To grace the gentry of a land remote, And follow unacquainted colours here? What, here?-O nation, that thou could'st remove! That Neptune's arms, who clippeth thee about 6 after a STRANGER march ] Our author often uses stranger as an adjective. See the last scene, p. 341: Swearing allegiance, and the love of soul, "To stranger blood, to foreign royalty." So, in A Midsummer-Night's Dream, vol. v. p. 190: "To seek new friends, and stranger companies." 7 MALONE. the SPOT of this enforced cause,] Spot probably means, stain or disgrace. M. MASON. So, in a former passage: "To look into the spots and stains of right." MALONE. 8 - CLIPPETH thee about,] i. e. embraceth. So, in Coriolanus: "Enter the city; clip your wives." STEEVENS. 1 And grapple thee unto a pagan shore 1; LEW. A noble temper dost thou show in this; 3 O, what a noble combat hast thou fought 9 And GRAPPLE thee-] The old copy reads-" And cripple thee," &c. Perhaps our author wrote gripple, a word used by Drayton, in his Polyolbion, Song 1: "That thrusts his gripple hand into her golden maw." Our author, however, in Macbeth, has the verb-grapple : Grapples thee to the heart and love of us—." The emendation (as Mr. Malone observes) was made by Mr. Pope. STEEVENS. - unto a PAGAN shore ;] Our author seems to have been thinking on the wars carried on by Christian princes in the holy land against the Saracens, where the united armies of France and England might have laid their mutual animosities aside, and fought in the cause of Christ, instead of fighting against brethren and countrymen, as Salisbury and the other English noblemen who had joined the Dauphin were about to do. MALONE. And not To-spend it so unneighbourly.] Shakspeare employs, in the present instance, a phraseology which he had used before in The Merry Wives of Windsor: "And fairy-like, to-pinch the unclean-knight." To, in composition with verbs, is common enough in ancient language. See Mr. Tyrwhitt's observations on this last passage, and many instances in support of his position, vol. viii. p. 164, n. 9. STEEVENS. 3 hast THOU fought,] Thou, which appears to have been accidentally omitted by the transcriber or compositor, was inserted by the editor of the fourth folio. MALONE. 4 Between COMPULSION and a brave respect!] This compulsion was the necessity of a reformation in the state; which, according to Salisbury's opinion, (who, in his speech preceding, calls it an enforced cause,) could only be procured by foreign arms and the brave respect was the love of his country. WARBURTON. |