Imatges de pàgina
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Thinking his voice an armed Englishman ;-
Shall that victorious hand be feebled here,
That in your chambers gave you chastisement?
No: Know, the gallant monarch is in arms;
And like an eagle o'er his aiery towers,

To souse annoyance that comes near his nest.-
And you degenerate, you ingrate revolts,
You bloody Neroes, ripping up the womb
Of your dear mother England, blush for shame :
For your own ladies, and pale-visag'd maids,
Like Amazons, come tripping after drums;
Their thimbles into armed gauntlets change,
Their neelds to lances, and their gentle hearts
To fierce and bloody inclination.

LEW. There end thy brave, and turn thy face in peace;

We grant, thou canst outscold us: fare thee well; We hold our time too precious to be spent

With such a brabbler.

PAND,

Give me leave to speak.

sequent editors, read-our nation's crow; not observing that the Bastard is speaking of John's atchievements in France. He likewise reads, in the next line-his voice; but this voice, the voice or caw of the French crow, is sufficiently clear. MALONE. your nation's crow," i. e. at the crowing of a cock; gallus meaning both a cock and a Frenchman. Douce.

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8

like an eagle o'er his AIERY towers,] An aiery is the nest of an eagle. So, in King Richard III. :

"Our aiery buildeth in the cedar's top."

STEEVENS.

9 Their NEELDS to lances,] So, in A Midsummer-Night's

Dream :

"Have with our neelds created both one flower." Fairfax has the same contraction of the word-needle.

STEEVENS.

In the old copy the word is contractedly written needl's, but it was certainly intended to be pronounced neelds, as it is frequently written in old English books. Many dissyllables are used by Shakspeare and other writers as monosyllables, as whether, spirit, &c. though they generally appear at length in the original editions of these plays. MALONE.

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BAST. No, I will speak.
LEW.

We will attend to neither :Strike up the drums; and let the tongue of war Plead for our interest, and our being here.

BAST. Indeed, your drums, being beaten, will cry out;

And so shall you, being beaten : Do but start
An echo with the clamour of thy drum,
And even at hand a drum is ready brac'd,
That shall reverberate all as loud as thine;
Sound but another, and another shall,
As loud as thine, rattle the welkin's ear,
And mock the deep-mouth'd thunder: for at hand
(Not trusting to this halting legate here,
Whom he hath us'd rather for sport than need,)
Is warlike John; and in his forehead sits

A bare-ribb'd death, whose office is this day
To feast upon whole thousands of the French.
LEW. Strike up our drums, to find this danger

out.

BAST. And thou shalt find it, Dauphin, do not [Exeunt.

doubt.

SCENE III.

The Same. A Field of Battle.

Alarums. Enter King JoHN and HUBERT. K. JOHN. How goes the day with us? O, tell me, Hubert.

HUB. Badly, I fear: How fares your majesty? K. JOHN. This fever, that hath troubled me so

long,

9 A bare-ribb'd death,] So, in our author's Rape of Lucrece: "Shows me a bare-bon'd death by time outworn."

STEEVENS.

Lies heavy on me; O, my heart is sick!

Enter a Messenger.

MESS. My lord, your valiant kinsman, Faulconbridge,

Desires your majesty to leave the field;

And send him word by me, which way you go. K. JOHN. Tell him, toward Swinstead, to the abbey there.

MESS. Be of good comfort; for the great supply, That was expected by the Dauphin here, Are wreck'd three nights ago on Goodwin sands. This news was brought to Richard" but even now: The French fight coldly, and retire themselves.

K. JOHN. Ah me! this tyrant fever burns me up, And will not let me welcome this good news. Set on toward Swinstead: to my litter straight; Weakness possesseth me, and I am faint.

SCENE IV.

[Exeunt.

The Same. Another Part of the Same.

Enter SALISBURY, PEMBROKE, BIGOT, and Others. SAL. I did not think the king so stor'd with friends.

PEM. Up once again; put spirit in the French;

- Swinstead,] i. e. Swineshead, as I am informed by Mr. Dodd, the present vicar of that place. REED.

2

for the great SUPPLY

ARE wreck'd] Supply is here, and in a subsequent passage in Scene V. p. 360, used as a noun of multitude. MALONE. 3 Richard Sir Richard Faulconbridge;—and yet the King, a little before, (Act III. Sc. II.) calls him by his original name of Philip. STEEVENS.

The King calls him familiarly by his old name of Philip, but the messenger could not take the same liberty. MALONE.

If they miscarry, we miscarry too.

SAL. That misbegotten devil, Faulconbridge, In spite of spite, alone upholds the day.

PEM. They say, king John, sore sick, hath left the field.

Enter MELUN wounded, and led by Soldiers. MEL. Lead me to the revolts of England here. SAL. When we were happy, we had other names. PEM. It is the count Melun.

SAL.

· Wounded to death. MEL. Fly, noble English, you are bought and

sold *;

Unthread the rude eye of rebellion 3,

4-bought and sold;] This expression seems to have been proverbial; intimating that foul play has been used. It is used again in King Richard III. :

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Jocky of Norfolk be not too bold,

"For Dickon, thy master, is bought and sold." MALONE. It is used also in King Henry VI. Part I. Act IV. Sc. IV. and in The Comedy of Errors, Act III. Sc. I. STEEVENS.

5 UNTHREAD the rude EYE of rebellion,] Though all the copies concur in this reading, how poor is the metaphor of unthreading the eye of a needle? And besides, as there is no mention made of a needle, how remote and obscure is the allusion without it? The text, as I have restored it, is easy and natural; and it is the mode of expression which our author is every where fond of, to tread and untread, the way, paths, steps, &c. THEOBALD.

The metaphor is certainly harsh, but I do not think the passage corrupted. JOHNSON.

Mr. Theobald reads-untread; but Shakspeare, in King Lear, uses the expression, "threading dark ey'd night;" and Coriolanus says:

"Even when the navel of the state was touch'd,

"They would not thread the gates."

This quotation, in support of the old reading, has also been adduced by Mr. M. Mason. STEEVENS.

Some one, observing on this passage, has been idle enough to suppose that the eye of rebellion was used like the eye of the mind, &c. Shakspeare's metaphor is of a much humbler kind. He was evidently thinking of the "eye of a needle.”

Undo

And welcome home again discarded faith.
Seek out king John, and fall before his feet;
For, if the French be lords of this loud day,

6

He means to recompense the pains you take,
By cutting off your heads: Thus hath he sworn,
And I with him, and many more with me,
Upon the altar at Saint Edmund's-Bury;
Even on that altar, where we swore to you
Dear amity and everlasting love.

SAL. May this be possible? may this be true? MEL. Have I not hideous death within my view, Retaining but a quantity of life;

Which bleeds away, even as a form of wax
Resolveth from his figure 'gainst the fire 7?
What in the world should make me now deceive,
Since I must lose the use of all deceit ?
Why should I then be false; since it is true
That I must die here, and live hence by truth?
I say again, if Lewis do win the day,

He is forsworn, if e'er those eyes of yours

Behold another day break in the east:

(says Melun to the English nobles) what you have done; desert the rebellious project in which you have engaged. In Coriolanus we have a kindred expression:

"They would not thread the gates,"

Our author is not always careful that the epithet which he applies to a figurative term should answer on both sides. Rude is applicable to rebellion, but not to eye. He means, in fact,—the eye of rude rebellion. MALOne.

6 HE means-] The Frenchman, i. e. Lewis, means, &c. See Melun's next speech: "If Lewis do win the day-."

7 -even as a FORM OF WAX

MALONE.

RESOLVETH, &c.] i. e. dissolveth. So, in Hamlet:

"Thaw and resolve itself into a dew." MALONE. This is said in allusion to the images made by witches. Holinshed observes, that it was alledged against dame Eleanor Cobham and her confederates, "that they had devised "an image of wax," representing the king, which, by their sorcerie, by little and little consumed, intending thereby, in conclusion, to waste and destroy the king's person." STEEVENS.

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