had now recourse to the very strong measure of an interdiet. The dispute raged till 15th May, 1213, when John made his submission to the pope, and accepted Stephen Langton as archbishop. 139 Lines 147, 148: What EARTHLY name to interrogatories Can TASK the free BREATH of a sacred king? Ff. read earthie. Earthly is Pope's emendation. F. 1, F 2 have tast instead of task, which is Theobald's ingenious correction. Compare Henry V. i. 2. 5, 6: some things of weight That task our thoughts, concerning us and France. Breath is used = "speech" not unfrequently in Shakespeare. Compare Merchant of Venice, ii. 9. 90: besides commends and courteous breath. The meaning of these two lines is: "What earthly name appended to interrogatories can force a king, whose office is sacred, and whose speech is free, to answer them?" In the old play the speech runs thus: "And what hast thou or the Pope thy maister to doo to demaund of me, how I employ mine own? Know Sir Priest, as 1 honour the Church and holy Churchmen, so I scorne to be subiect to the greatest Prelate in the world. Tell thy Maister so from me, and say, John of England said it, that neuer an Italian Priest of them all, shal either haue tythe, tole, or polling penie out of England; but as I am King, so will I raigne next vnder God, supreame head both ouer spiritual and temrall: and hee that contradicts me in this, Ile make him hoppe headlesse" (Troublesome Raigne, pp. 254, 255). That gentle-minded and immaculate reformer, Henry VIII., might certainly have spoken that speech. 140. Lines 174-179: And blessed shall he be that doth revolt And meritorious shall that hand be call'd, In the old play the sentence of excommunication is given thus: "Then I Pandulph of Padoa, 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 one of thy subjectes of all dutie and fealtie that they do owe to thee, and pardon and forgivenesse of sinne to those or them whatever which shall carrie armes against thee or murder thee: This I pronounce, and charge all good men to abhorre thee as an excommunicate person" (Troublesome Raigne, p. 255). Probably, there is an allusion to the Bull of Pius V., 1569, which was signed by the pope on 25th February, 1570; on 8th August, in the same year, Felton was executed for the publication of it. Johnson thought that these lines might refer to the Gunpowder Plot, in which case they must have been added long after the first production of the play. 141. Line 209: In likeness of a new UNTRIMMED bride.— Dyce proposed new UP-TRIMMED in the sense of "newlydressed-up," quoting Romeo and Juliet, iv. 4. 24: Go waken Juliet, go and trim her up. There is no doubt that to trim meant "to dress more or less finely" and not simply "to clothe;" so that those commentators who maintain that the meaning of untrimmed is undrest have gone, probably, a little too far. At the most it would mean only in déshabille; but the epithet here might refer to the fact that Blanch was not fully dressed as a bride should be. I cannot see any reason for Grant White's statement that here is an allusion to the temptation of St. Anthony. For the use of trimmed" smartly dressed," compare Two Gent. of Verona, iv. 4. 166: And I was trimm'd in Madam Julia's gown, and in III. Henry VI. ii. 1. 24: Trimm'd like a younker prancing to his love That Blanch could not have been trimm'd, in this sense, is evident from the haste with which the marriage was celebrated. See above, ii. 1. 559, 560: Go we, as well as haste will suffer us, To this unlook'd for, unprepared pomp. But another meaning has been assigned to untrimmed with much plausibility, namely, that it refers to the custom of brides going with their hair dishevelled. Fleay, who is of this opinion, quotes Tancred and Gismunda, So let thy tresses, flaring in the wind, Untrimmed hang about thy bared neck. V. 2: -Dodsley, vol. vii. p. 86. 142. Lines 211-216.-This speech of Constance is very characteristic of Shakespeare's earlier style; in its elaborate antithesis and play upon words it rivals some of the most affected speeches in Richard II. Compare Gaunt's speeches in act ii. scene 1 of that play. 143. Line 235: To CLAP this royal bargain UP of peace.-To clap up="to clap hands," as used in Henry V. v. 2. 133: "and so clap hands and a bargain." The reference is undoubtedly to the formal pledging by lovers of their troth before marriage, one party putting his or her hand in that of the other. Compare Taming of the Shrew, ii. 1. 327: Was ever match clapp'd up so suddenly? 144. Line 242: Play FAST AND LOOSE with faith. - This very common expression had its origin, apparently, from a cheating game played by gypsies and other vagrants, of which the following description is found in Nares: "It is said to be still used by low sharpers, and is called pricking at the belt or girdle. It is thus described: 'A leathern belt is made up into a number of intricate folds, and placed edgewise upon a table. One of the folds is made to resemble the middle of the girdle, so that whoever should thrust a skewer into it would think he held it fast to the table; whereas, when he has so done, the person with whom he plays may take hold of both ends and draw it away. Sir J. Hawkins.' The drift of it was, to encourage wagers whether it was fast or loose, which the juggler could make it at his option." Compare Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 12. 28, 29: Like a right gipsy, hath, at fast and loose, From the following passage (quoted by Nares) it would seem that the game was sometimes played with other stock in trade than a girdle: He like a gypsy oftentimes would go, All kinds of gibberish he hath learn'd to know; And with a stick, a short string, and a noose, Would show the people tricks at fast and loose. -Drayton's Mooncalf, p. 500. 145. Line 251: Some gentle order; then we shall be blest. -Ff. read "and then we shall be blest.' Pope omitted then. We have adopted Lettsom's suggestion that and "seems to have intruded from the line below," and have omitted that word instead of then. 146. Line 259: A CHAFED lion by the mortal paw.-Ff. have cased, which Dyce says could only mean "a lion stripped of his skin, flayed;" and he quotes All's Well, iii. 6. 110, 111: "We'll make you some sport with the fox ere we case him" (See Nares, sub voce). Caged, chased, are amongst the various suggestions, while Steevens, retaining the reading of Ff., says: "a cased lion' is 'a lion irritated by confinement.' So, in King Henry VI. pt. iii. act. i. sc. 3, lines 12, 13: So looks the pent-up lion o'er the wretch Malone adds: "Again, in Rowley's When you See Me you The Lyon in his cagel is not so sterne As royal Henry in his wrathful spleene. Our author was probably thinking on the lions, which in his time, as at present, were kept in the Tower in dens so small as fully to justify the epithet he has used" (Var. Ed. vol. xv. p. 280). This is plausible enough; but no instance has been adduced of a similar use of case in this peculiar sense. Schmidt also prefers the reading of Ff., and explains cased as="a lion hid in his cave." Dyce in a note (59) on this passage says: "The right reading is undoubtedly ‘a chafed lion,' &c. In the following passage of Beaumont and Fletcher's Philaster, where the 4to of 1620 has 'Chaf'd,' the other eds. have Chast,' and (let it be particularly observed) Cast:' And what there is of vengeance in a lion Chaf'd among dogs or robb'd of his dear young, &c. -Act v. sc. 3. Moreover, in our author's Henry VIII., we find: so looks the chafed lion Upon the daring huntsman that has gall'd him, &c. We have adopted chafed as being, on the whole, the most probable reading. 147. Lines 270-273: For that which thou hast sworn to do amiss Is not amiss when it is truly done, And being not done, where doing tends to ill, The whole of this speech of Pandulph's, to which there is no parallel in the old play, is full of affected obscurities which are absolutely exasperating. Shakespeare was under the influence of this hyper-antithetical style, which aimed at brevity and point, but only accomplished obscurity and tediousness. It may be that this speech is 1 In the copy of this play in my possession the word is very indistinct, and seems intended for rage more than cage (Edn. 1632, sig. i. 3). intended to be a serious parody of so-called Jesuitical casuistry. In line 271 several commentators have proposed to substitute some other word for not; but no change of the text is necessary. As Malone justly ob-. serves, if we place the second part of the sentence first, the meaning of the passage will be perfectly clear. It may be thus paraphrased: "Truth (that is religious fidelity to one's oath) is best done by not doing that which is evil, even when you have sworn to do so; and therefore, what wrong you have sworn to do is not wrong if truly done, i.e. not done at all (in accordance with truth as I have explained it)." Johnson says: "Truth, through the whole speech, means rectitude of conduct" (Var. Ed. vol. xv. p. 282). It may be so; and for such a use of the word, compare the Gospel of St. John, iii. 21: "But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." 148. Lines 279-284: It is religion that doth make vows kept; By that thou swear'st against the thing thou swear'st BY, In F. 1 the passage is printed thus: It is religion that doth make vowes kept, By what thou swear'st against the thing thou swear'st, To sweare, sweares onely not to be forsworne. The passage is very difficult to understand. We have adopted Hanmer's alteration of what to that in line 281, and have ventured to insert by after swear'st, which makes the sense clearer. The by may easily have been omitted, the transcriber only seeing the By at the beginning of the line. The objection to such an emendation is the extreme rarity of double endings in the verse of this scene. The meaning of the passage (lines 281-284), as we print it, may be thus paraphrased: “By that (i.e. by swearing against religion) you swear against that by which you swear, and make your second oath the guarantee of your truth in not keeping your first one. The truth (ie. the loyalty to the Church) to which you are unsure (¿.e. hesitating) to swear, takes an oath only with the object of not breaking it," and he adds (line 286): But you take an oath only with the object of breaking it;" that is. by taking an oath of fidelity to John, who was the declared enemy of the Church to which he had already sworn allegiance, Philip was deliberately forswearing himself. Some editors have altered swears in line 284 to swear (imperative); but the change is not necessary. Malone thought that two half lines had been lost. All attempts, however, to render this passage clear must be only partially successful, the obscurity being intentional. 149. Line 289: rebellion To thyself. -Compare Much Ado, ii. 1. 243: "The Lady Beatrice hath a quarrel to you." 151. Line 303: loud churlish drums.-Compare Venus and Adonis, line 107: Scorning his churlish drum and ensign red. 152. Line 320. England, I'll FALL FROM thee.---Compare III. Henry VI. iii. 3. 209: He's very likely now to fall from him. 153. Line 330. They whirl asunder and dismember me. -The allusion is probably, not to the Roman punishment, inflicted by Tullus Hostilius on Mettius Fuffetius for withdrawing the Alban troops from the field of battle in the war with the Veientines (see Virgil, Eneid, viii. 642), namely, being torn to pieces by two chariots,--but to those punishments inflicted, in Shakespeare's own time, on some murderers who were torn to pieces by wild horses; notably, according to Malone, on Balthazar de Gerrard, who assassinated William Prince of Orange in 1584; and on John Chastel for attempting to assassinate Henry IV. of France in 1594. (See Var. Ed. vol. xiv. p. 127.) 154 Line 337: Lady, with me; with me thy fortune lies-This is the punctuation usually adopted: Ff. have with me, with me. Capell altered lies to lives because of Blanch's answer in the next line : There where my fortune lives, there my life dies. But surely the antithesis between lives and dies is made by Blanch independently of Lewis's speech. ACT III. SCENE 2. 155. Line 2: Some AIRY devil hovers in the sky. -Theobald altered airy to fiery "by Mr. Warburton's suggestion." The alteration was not only unnecessary, but quite out of place. Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy, pt. 1, sec. 2, memb. 1. subsec. 2, in describing the different sort of devils, tells us: "Aerial spirits or Devils are such as keep quarter most part in the air, cause many tempests, thunder, and lightnings, tear Oaks, fire Steeples, Houses, strike men and beasts, make it rain stones, as in Livies time, Wooll, Frogs," &c. (p. 28, edn. 1676.) 156. Line 5: Hubert, keep THOU this boy. Philip, make up.-Ff. have: Hubert, keep this boy, the defective syllable making a very halting verse. Pope inserted there before Hubert. The reading in the text is Tyrwhitt's, adopted by Dyce. Though John had knighted the Bastard by the name of "Sir Richard," he here calls him by his former Christian name Philip. In the old play John does so constantly. 157. Lines 1, 2: ACT III. SCENE 3. So shall it be; your grace shall stay behind So strongly guarded. Lettsom says the second so should be more. But if we refer to line 70 below of this scene we find that Queen Eleanor had asked for some specified number of forces: I'll send those powers o'er to your majesty. So, therefore, although it looks very much like an accidental repetition by mistake of the word in the line above, may be the right reading, the meaning being: "so strongly guarded as you have asked to be." In the old play Queen Eleanor is left: As Regent of our Prouinces in Fraunce. -Troublesome Raigne, p. 259. 158. Lines 7-9: see thou shake the bags Of hoarding abbots; set at liberty Imprison'd angels. Ff. read: imprisoned angells Set at libertie; making two very unrhythmical lines. The transposition of the two sentences, which makes the metre perfect, was suggested by Walker. Shakespeare has very much toned down all that part of the old play which relates to the plundering of the monasteries by John, and contains coarse and vulgar abuse of the monks and nuns. 159. Lines 9, 10: the fat ribs of peace Must by the hungry NOW be fed upon. For now Warburton substituted war, and Hanmer maw. Steevens suggests that "the hungry now" is "the hungry instant," and quotes from Measure for Measure, ii. 2. 186, 187: till this very now, When men were fond, I smil'd and wonder'd how. But, unfortunately, that is only the conjectural reading of Pope. Ff. have "EVER TILL now." Malone suggested: Must by the hungry soldiers now be fed on. It is most probable that Shakespeare uses the hungry in the same way as it is used in the Magnificat. "He hath filled the hungry with good things" (St. Luke i. 53); that is, in a general and collective sense. 160. Line 12: Bell, book, and candle.-Dr. Grey quotes a long description of the old ceremony of excommunication as "given by Henry Care," according to which three candles were severally extinguished at different points of the curse; but he only mentions "two wax tapers" at the beginning of his account (Grey's Notes on Shakespeare, vol. i. pp. 285, 286). Compare Marlowe's Doctor Faustus (Qto., 1616): Bell book and candle,-candle book and bell,- Ff. omit my; added by Pope. My is necessary to complete the metre; the two speeches are evidently intended to form only one line. 162. Line 26: But I will fit it with some better TIME. — Ff. have tune: the emendation is Pope's. So in Macbeth, iv. 3. 235: "This time goes manly," instead of "This tune goes manly." 163. Line 39: Sound ON into the drowsy RACE of night.— Theobald altered on into one, which Dyce adopts, together with ear for race, the latter conjecture being also adopted by Staunton, and, independently, by Walker. It is neither a grateful nor a safe task to differ from a commentator at once so temperate and learned as Mr. Dyce; but it certainly seems to me that, in this case at least, he has rashly adopted alterations which not only are not required by the text, but which absolutely enfeeble and corrupt a beautiful passage. Let us look at the context. The king declares he has something to say to Hubert, but he could not say it in broad daylight with the sun shining brightly: if the midnight bell Did, with his iron tongue and brazen mouth. If this same were a churchyard where we stand, That is to say, the king is trying to picture the most solemn and gloomy surroundings for his intended revelation to Hubert. Now the question is, which best expresses this the undoubted meaning of the passage; the midnight bell, sounding with its deep resonant voice the hour of midnight, the echoes of which voice float as it were into the drowsy stream of the night, and linger for some time on the ear of the listeners; or the same bell sounding one only-a short sound-which has no time to impress the senses, and which heralds the approach of morning, and the termination of that hour of darkness and silence usually known as midnight; namely, from 12 to 1 o'clock? It is beside the question to show that, because one was often printed on, and even pronounced so, therefore it is, necessarily, so misprinted in this case. Nor does it follow because eare, as F. 1 prints ear, might easily be mistaken for race, that it was so mistaken here. If the sense absolutely required ear, we should not hesitate to adopt it; but is not the sense weakened by such a change? On the other hand, it must be granted that no exactly similar use of race can be found in Shakespeare. In Sonnet li. 10, 11 we have: Therefore desire, of perfect'st love being made, But that is the only passage I can find, in which race is used at all in the sense of course, and that is not very satisfactory, as one wants the same use of the word as in "mill-race," where it signifies "a swift stream;" and here, being qualified by the epithet drowsy, the very paradoxical use of the word would of itself be forcible. But it may be that race here means " disposition," "nature," as in Tempest, i. 2. 358-360: But thy vile race, Though thou didst learn, had that in't which good natures And in Measure for Measure, ii. 4. 160: And now I give my sensual race the rein. Or by "drowsy race of night" Shakespeare might have meant the sleeping people and animals. The first meaning of the word given above, viz. "course" (as of a stream) is decidedly the one to be preferred; in which case, we need not take into to mean unto as most of the commentators do; nor, indeed, if ear be adopted, would any other than the ordinary sense of the preposition be required. 164. Line 59: Good Hubert, Hubert, Hubert.-Note here the triple repetition of the name Hubert. To repeat a word or phrase three times has been alleged to be one of the signs of insanity, apropos of Hamlet's thrice-repeated "except my life" (ii. 2. 221); but it would rather seem to be intended to indicate the brooding over some grief or anxiety. Sometimes Shakespeare uses the triple repetition in order to intensify the pathetic expression of some passage, as in Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 15 11, 12: O Antony, Antony, Antony! Here, certainly, John is seeking to impress Hubert with the deep trouble of his mind which is caused by the existence of Arthur, and wishes to be as pathetic as possible. It may be here observed that this fine scene between John and Hubert, one of the most dramatic bits in this tragedy. has no parallel whatever in the old play. 165. Line 72: Hubert shall be your man, attend on you. -So F. 1, F. 2; but F. 3, F. 4 have to attend, which Pope altered l'attend for the sake of the metre. But does not the elliptical construction better express the agitated state of John's mind? ACT III. SCENE 4. 166. Line 2: A whole ARMADO of CONVICTED sail. - The word armado, which is Shakespeare's form of the Spanish word armada, occurs only once again, in the Comedy of Errors, iii. 2. 140. See note 88 of that play. Various emendations have been proposed in place of convicted; but there is no necessity for any change. The word meant "conquered" in Shakespeare's time, a meaning strictly in keeping with its derivation. Compare the use of to convince to overcome, in more than one passage, e.g. in Cymbeline, i. 4. 104: "to convince the honour of my mistress.' 167. Line 12: Such temperate order in so fierce a CAUSE. -Hanmer, adopting a suggestion of Theobald, substituted course for cause. Among other editors, Dyce and Staunton adopt the same reading, the latter explaining course as here = "the carrière of a horse, or a charge, in a passage of arms." But no change of the text seems necessary. Cause, from meaning "the ground of an action,' came to mean the "action," or "course of action" itself. 168. Lines 18, 19: " Holding th' eternal spirit, against her will, For breath Farmer suggested earth; but, by the rile prison of afflicted breath, Shakespeare means the body which is the prison of the breath of life. So Hubert below (iv 3. 135-137): If I in act, consent, or sin of thought, Be guilty of the stealing that sweet breath 169. Line 21: Lo, now! NOW see the issue of your peace. -Is not this second now a mistake of the transcriber's for you? 170 Lines 22-25: K. Phi. Patience, good lady! comfort, gentle Constance! But that which ends all counsel, true redress, Compare Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 15. 2-4: Char. Be comforted, dear madam. No, I will not: 171. Line 35: And buss thee as thy wife.-Strange as it may seem, Pope altered buss to kiss. He forgot the wellknown passage in the Fairy Queen, where Malbecco finds his wife amongst the satyrs, bk. iii. 3, c. 10, st. 46: But every Satyre first did give a busse To Hellenore; so busses did abound. Compare Troilus and Cressida, ív. 5. 220: Yond towers, whose wanton tops do buss the clouds. 172. Line 42: a MODERN invocation.-Johnson says: "It is hard to say what Shakespeare means by modern: it is not opposed to ancient." But from this passage, and the well-known line in As You Like It, ii. 7. 156: Full of wise saws and modern instances, That I have utter'd: bring me to the test, 175 Line 64: ten thousand wiry FRIENDS.-Ff. read riends, which is nonsense; the obvious emendation is Rowe's. 176. Line 68: To England, if you will.-Surely it is not necessary to give these few words of Constance-evidently uttered when her distracted mind is not paying any attention to what Philip had just been saying-such a farfetched meaning as some commentators have assigned to them. She does not mean: "Tell all that to England (Le. to John);" nor does she mean, as Malone suggests, "Take my son to England if you will;" still less is she addressing her hair, as Staunton conjectures; but she is most probably answering what King Philip said to her when she first entered (see above line 20): I prithee, lady, go away with me. She has not yet given any reply to that request; and, as she sits brooding over her grief, she remembers he had asked her to go away with him and answers mechanically: "To England-if you will." Clarke takes the same view. 177. Line 80: To him that did but yesterday SUSPIRE. — Suspire is only used by Shakespeare in one other passage, II. Henry IV. iv. 5. 33, 34: Did he suspire, that light and weightless down Perforce must move. VOL. III. 178 Line 91: He talks to me that never had a son.-Compare in Macbeth (iv. 3. 216) the touching exclamation of Macduff: He has no children. 179. Line 93: Grief fills the room up of my absent child. Malone quotes a line from Lucan where exactly the same idea occurs (Var. Ed. vol. v. p. 302); Perfruitur lachrymis, et amat pro conjuge luctum, -Pharsalia, lib. ix. He also quotes from Maynard, a French poet, a passage which resembles this even more closely: Mon deuil me plaît, et me doit toujours plaire, 180. Lines 107-111.-Johnson points out that the young prince naturally feels the shame of their defeat more strongly than his father. This short speech bears some resemblance to the more beautiful one in Macbeth, v. 5. 24-28: Life's but a walking shadow, it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Possibly, as Malone suggests, Shakespeare had in his mind Psalm xc. verse 9: "For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told." 181. Lines 110, 111: And bitter shame hath spoil'd the sweet WORLD's taste, That it yields nought but SHAME and bitterness. Ff. have words: the emendation is Pope's. For the second shame in line 111 Walker proposed to read gall, on the ground that "something is wanting that shall class with bitterness." Fleay thought the reading of Ff., in the first case, might be the correct one, the sweet word being "the tedious tale of life." But it might mean simply life, which is a sweet word to many people. Delius would read: "that sweet word's taste," which, certainly, is an improvement, as the repetition of world, after its occurrence in line 108, is rather weak; and so is the repetition of shame, as the passage stands at present. 182. Line 149: This act, so evilly born.-Shakespeare only uses evilly in one other passage, in Timon of Athens, iv. 3. 467: "good deeds evilly bestow'd." 183. Line 154: No scope of nature. - Pope changed scope to scape, a change utterly unnecessary and destructive of all sense in the passage. Scape would mean "a transgression," something out of the common course, and against the normal laws of nature; while the very force of Pandulph's speech lies in the fact that he is urging that no common and ordinary operation of nature will take place without the people calling it a prodigy. Mark, for instance, in line 153, "No natural exhalation," &c., and below, line 155: No common wind, no customed event. It is difficult to see how any editor could read the passage, and yet print scape in the text. Scope is exactly the word required, signifying "the sphere in which the proper action of any force lies," and so, any "usual operation or effect" produced by nature. |