K. Philp. Well then, to work; our engines fhal be bent Against the brows of this refifting town; Conft. Stay for an answer to your Embaffie, * Enter Chatillon. K. Philip. A wonder, lady!-Lo, upon thy with Our meffenger Chatillon is arrived. -What England fays, fay briefly, gentle lord, Chat. Then turn your forces from this paultry fiege, And stir them up against a mightier task. England, impatient of your just demands, His marches are 'expedient to this town, *A wonder, lady.] The wonder is only that Chatillon happened to arrive at the moment when Conftance mentioned him, which the French king, according to a fuperftition which pre vails more or less in every mind agitated by great affairs, turns into a miraculous interpofition, or omen of good. 1 Expedient.] Immediate, ex peditious. And And all th' unfettled humours of the land; With ladies' faces, and fierce dragons' fpleens, In brief, a braver choice of dauntless spirits, To do offence and 3 fcathe in christendom. K. Philip. How much unlook'd for is this expe Auft. By how much unexpected, by fo much SCENE II. Enter King of England, Faulconbridge, Elinor, K. John. Peace be to France, if France in peace Our juft and lineal entrance to our own; If not, bleed France, and peace afcend to heav'n. 2 Bearing their birth-rights, &c.] So in Henry VIII. Many broke their backs With bearing manors on them. That thou haft under-wrought its lawful King i To draw my answer to thy articles ? K. Philip. From that fupernal judge, that ftirs good thoughts In any breaft of strong authority, 4 To look into the blots and ftains of right. That judge hath made me guardian to this boy; K. John. Alack, thou doft ufurp authority. 4 To look into the blots and flains of right.] Mr. Theobald reads, with the firft folin, blots, which being fo early authorised, and fo much better understood, needed not to have been changed by Dr. Warburton to bolts, tho' bolts might be used in that time for Spots: So Shakespeare calls Ban quo fpotted with blood, the bloodbolter'd Banquo. The verb to blot is ufed figuratively for to dif grace, a few lines lower. And, perhaps, after all, bolts was only a typographical mistake. Conft. Conft. My bed was ever to thy son as true, Than thou and John, in manners being as like It cannot be, an if thou wert his mother. Eli. There's a good mother, boy, that blots thy father. Conft. There's a good grandam, boy, that would blot thee. Auft. Peace. Faulc. Here the crier. Auft. What the devil art thou? Faulc. One that will play the devil, Sir, with you, An a' may catch your hide and hide and you alone. You are the hare, of whom the proverb goes, Blanch. O, well did he become that Lion's robe, It lies as lightly on the back of him, As great Alcides' Shoes upon an Afs.] But why his Shoes, in the Name of Propriety? For let Hercules and his Shoes have been really as big as they were ever fuppofed to be, yet they (I mean the Shoes) would not have been an Overload for an Afs. I am perfuaded, I have retrieved the true Reading; and let us obferve the Juftnefs of the Comparison now. Faulconbridge in his Refentment would fay this to Auf tria, "That Lion's Skin, which "my great Father King Richard "once wore, looks as uncoothly "on thy Back, as that other no"ble Hide, which was borne by "Hercules, would look on the "Back of an Afs." A double Allufion was intended; firft, to the Fable of the Afs in the Lion's Skin; then Richard I. is finely fet in Competition with Alcides; as Auftria is fatirically coupled with the Afs. THEOBALD. Mr. Theobald had the art of making the most of his difcoveries. As great Alcides' fhews upon an ass; But, afs, I'll take that burden from your back, K. Philip. Women and fools, break off your conference. King John, this is the very fum of all. England, and Ireland, Anjou, Touraine, Maine, Wilt thou refign them, and lay down thy arms? Eli. Come to thy grandam, child. Conft. Do, child, go to it' grandam, child. Arth. Good my mother, peace; I would, that I were low laid in my grave; Eli. His mother fhames him fo, poor boy, he weeps. Conft. Now fhame upon you, whether the does or no! His grandam's wrong, and not his mother's fhames, Draws those heav'n-moving pearls from his poor eyes, Which heav'n fhall take in nature of a fee: Ay, with thefe crystal beads heav'n shall be brib'd Eli. Thou monftrous flanderer of heav'n and earth! Of this oppreffed boy. This is thy eldeft fon's fon, Infortunate in nothing but in thee; Thy |