There is not yet fo ugly a fiend of hell3

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 despair,

And, if thou want'ft a cord, the fmalleft thread
That ever spider 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 stifle 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 fweet breath
Which was embounded in this beauteous clay,
Let hell want pains enough to torture me!
I left him well.

Baft. Go, bear him in thine arms.

I am amaz'd, methinks; and lose my way
Among the thorns and dangers of this world.—
How easy dost 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
To tug, and fcamble 4, and to part by the teeth
The unowed intereft of proud-fwelling state.
Now, for the bare-pick'd bone of majesty,

3 There is not yet, &c.] 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.

4 and scamble,] i. e. fcramble. See Vol. V. p. 452, n. 5. MALONE.

5 The unowed intereft-] That is, the intereft which is not at this moment legally poffeffed 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.

VOL. IV.

N n

Doth

Doth dogged war briftle his angry creft,
And fnarleth in the gentle eyes of peace:
Now powers from home, and difcontents at home,
Meet in one line; and vaft confufion waits
(As doth a raven on a fick-fallen beaft)
The imminent decay of wrefted pomp.
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.

Pand. Take again

[giving John the crows.

From this my hand, as holding of the pope,

Your fovereign greatness 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.
Our difcontented counties do revolt;

Our people quarrel with obedience;"

Swearing allegiance, and the love of foul,
To ftranger blood, to foreign royalty.
This inundation of miftemper'd humour

• The imminent decay of wrested pomp.] Wrefted pomp is greatness obtained by violence. JOHNSON.

Rather, greatnefs wrefted from its poffeffor. MALONE.

7- and cincture-] The old copy reads-center, probably for ceis

ture, Fr. STEEVENS.

The emendation was made by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

4

Refts

Refts by you only to be qualify'd.

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

Or overthrow incurable enfues.

Pand. It was my breath that blew this tempeft up,
Upon your ftubborn ufage of the pope :
But, fince you are a gentle convertite,
My tongue fhall hush again this form of war,
And make fair weather in your bluftering 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 should give off? Even fo I have:
I did fuppofe, it should be on constraint;

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

8

-a a gentle convertite,] A convertite is a convert. So, in Marlow's Jew of Malta, 1633:

"Gov. Why, Barabas, wilt thou be chriften'd?

"Bar. No, governour; I'll be no convertite." STEEVENS.

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

Mr. Mafon fays, a convertite cannot mean a convert, because the latter word" in the language of the prefent times means a perfon that changes from one religion to another." But the question is, not what is the language of the prefent time, but what was the language of Shakfpeare'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 strong terms the fupremacy 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 "boly church," and refigned his crown to the Pope's reprefentative, is confidered by the legate as one newly converted to the true faith, and very properly ftyled 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:"

66

out of thefe convertites

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

Enter the BASTARD.

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 cafket, where the jewel of life
By fome damn'd hand was robb'd and ta'en away.
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 distrust,
Govern the motion of a kingly eye:

Be stirring as the time; be fire with fire;
Threaten the threat'ner, and out-face the brow
Of bragging horrour: fo fhall inferior eyes,
That borrow their behaviours from the great,
Grow great by your example, and put on
The dauntless spirit of refolution'.
Away; and glifter like the god of war,
When he intendeth to become the field:
Shew boldness, and afpiring confidence.
What, fhall they seek the lion in his den?
And fright him there; and make him tremble there?

9 An empty cafket, where the jewel of life-] The fame kind of imagery is employed in K. Richard II.

A jewel in a ten-times-barr'd-up cheft

"Is a bold fpirit in a loyal breaft." MALONE.
and put on

The dauntless Spirit of refolution.] So, in Macbeth :
"Let's briefly put on manly readiness,

"And meet i' the hall together." MALONE.

O, let

O, let it not be faid!-Forage, and run
To meet displeasure farther from the doors;
And grapple with him, ere he come so 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 compromise,
Infinuation, parley, and bafe truce,
To arms invafive? fhall a beardlefs boy,
A cocker'd filken wanton brave our fields,
And flesh his fpirit in a warlike foil,

Mocking the air with colours idly spread 3,
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. Baft. Away then, with good courage; yet, I know, Our party may well meet a prouder foe4. [Exeunt.

2

Forage, and run-] To forage is here used in its original sense, for to range abroad. JOHNSON.

3 Mocking the air with colours idly spread,] He has the fame image in Macbeth:

"Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky,

"And fan our people cold." JOHNSON.

From these two paffages Mr. Gray feems to have formed the firft ftanza of his celebrated ode:

"Ruin feize thee, ruthlefs king!
"Confufion on thy banners wait!

"Though fann'd by conqueft's crimson wing
"They mock the air with idle ftate." MALONE.

4 Away then, with good courage; yet, I know,

Our party may well meet a prouder foe.] Faulconbridge means; for all their boafting I know very well that our party is able to cop with one yet prouder and more confident of its ftrength than theirs.

STIEVENS.