Nay, rather, turn this day out of the week 5;
This day of shame, oppreffion, perjury:
Or, if it muft ftand ftill, let wives with child
Pray, that their burthens may not fall this day,
Left that their hopes prodigiously be crofs'd":
But on this day 7, let feamen fear no wreck ;
No bargains break, that are not this day made:
This day, all things begun come to ill end;
Yea, faith itself to hollow falfhood change!

K. Phi. By heaven, lady, you fhall have no cause
To curfe the fair proceedings of this day:
Have I not pawn'd to you my majesty?

Conft. You have beguil'd me with a counterfeit, Refembling majefty; which, being touch'd, and try'd, Proves valueless: You are forfworn, forfworn; You came in arms to fpill mine enemies' blood, But now in arms you ftrengthen it with yours":

5 Nay, rather, turn this day out of the week;] In allufion (as Mr. Upton has obferved) to Job iii. 3. "Let the day perifh," &c. and v. 6. Let it not be joined to the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months." MALONE.

6 - prodigiously be cross'd:] i. e. be disappointed by the production of a prodigy, a monster. So, in the Midsummer Night's Dream:

"Nor mark prodigious, fuch as are

"Defpifed in nativity.'

"" STEEVENS.

7 But on this day,] That is, except on this day. JOHNSON.

In the ancient almanacks (one of which I have in my poffeffion, dated 1562) the days fuppofed to be favourable or unfavourable to bargains, are distinguished among a number of other particulars of the like im portance. This circumftance is alluded to in Webster's Dutchess of Malfy, 1623:

"By the almanac, I think

"To choose good days and fhun the critical." STEEVENS. See alfo Macbeth, p. 393, n. 8. MALONE.

You bave beguil'd me with a counterfeit,

Refembling majefty ;] i. e. a falfe coin. A counterfeit formerly fignified alfo a portrait. A representation of the king being usually impreffed on his coin, the word feems to be here ufed equivocally. MALONE.

You came in arms to spill mine enemies' blood,

But now in arms you ftrengthen it with yours:] I am afraid here is a clinch intended: You came in war to deftroy my enemies, but now you frengthen them in embraces. JOHNSON.

The

The grappling vigour and rough frown of war,
Is cold in amity and painted peace,

And our oppreffion hath made up this league :

Arm, arm, you heavens, against these perjur'd kings! ̧
A widow cries; be husband to me, heavens !
Let not the hours of this ungodly day

Wear out the day in peace; but, ere fun-fet,
Set armed difcord 'twixt thefe perjur'd kings 2!
Hear me, O, hear me!

Auft. Lady Conftance, peace.

Conft. War! war! no peace! peace is to me a war. O Lymoges! O Auftria 3! thou dost shame

That bloody spoil: Thou flave, thou wretch, thou coward; Thou little valiant, great in villainy!

Wear out the day-] Old Copy-days. Corrected by Mr. Theobald. MALONE.

2 Set armed difcord, &c.] Shakspeare makes this bitter curfe effectual. JOHNSON.

30 Lymoges ! 0 Auftria!] The propriety or impropriety of thefe titles, which every editor has fuffered to pafs unnoted, deferves a little confideration. Shakspeare has, on this occafion, followed the old play, which at once furnished him with the character of Faulconbridge, and afcribed the death of Richard I. to the duke of Auftria. In the perfon of Auftria, he has conjoined the two well-known enemies of Caur-delion. Leopold, duke of Auftria, threw him into prifon, in a former expedition [in 1193]; but the caftle of Chalus, before which he fell, [in 1199] belonged to Vidomar, vifcount of Limoges; and the archer, who pierced his thoulder with an arrow (of which wound he died) was Bertrand de Gourdon. The editors feem hitherto to have understood Lymoges as being an appendage to the title of Auftria, and therefore enquired no further about it.

Holinfhed fays on this occafion: "The fame yere, Philip, baftard fonne to king Richard, to whome his father had given the caftell and honor of Coinacke, killed the viscount of Lymoges, in revenge of his father's death, &c." Auftria, in the old play [printed in 1591,] is called Lymoges, the Auftrich duke."

With this note, I was favoured by a gentleman to whom I have yet more confiderable obligations in regard to Shakspeare. His extenfive knowledge of history and manners has frequently fupplied me with apt and necellary illuftrations, at the fame time that his judgment has corrected my errors; yet fuch has been his conftant folicitude to remain concealed, that I know not but I may give offence while I indulge my own vanity in affixing to this note the name of my friend HENRY BLAKE, Efq. STEEVENS.

Thou ever ftrong upon the ftronger fide!
Thou fortune's champion, that doft never fight
But when her humourous ladyship is by
To teach thee fafety! thou art perjur'd too,
And footh'ft up greatnefs. What a fool art thou,
A ramping fool; to brag, and stamp, and swear,
Upon my party! Thou cold-blooded flave,
Haft thou not spoke like thunder on my fide?
Been fworn my foldier? bidding me depend
Upon thy ftars, thy fortune, and thy ftrength?
And doft thou now fall over to my foes?

Thou wear a lion's hide! doff it for fhame,
And hang a calf's-fkin on thofe recreant limbs 5.
Auft. O, that a man fhould speak those words to me!
Baft. And hang a calf's-fkin on thofe recreant limbs.
Auft. Thou dar'ft not fay fo, villain, for thy life.
Baft. And hang a calf's-skin on thofe recreant limbs.
K. John. We like not this; thou doft forget thyfelf.

4-doff it for fhame,] To deff is to do eff, to put off. STEEVENS. 5 And bang a calf's-fkin on thofe recreant limbs.] When fools were kept for diverfion in great families, they were diftinguished by a calffkin coat, which had the buttons down the back; and this they wore that they might be known for fools, and escape the refentment of those whom they provoked with their waggeries.

In a little penny book, intitled The Birth, Life, and Death of John Franks, with the Pranks be played though a meer Fool, mention is made in feveral places of a calf's-fkin. In chap. x. of this book, Jack is faid to have made his appearance at his lord's table, having then a new calffkin fuit, red and white (potted. This fact will explain the farcafm of Constance and Faulconbridge, who mean to call Auftria a fool. SIR J. HAWKINS.

I may add, that the cuftom is still preferved in Ireland; and the fool, in any of the legends which the mummers act at Christmas, always appears in a calf's or cow's skin. In the prologue to Wily Beguiled, 1606, is the following paffage: I'll make him do penance upon the ftage in a calf's fkin." Again, in the play: "I'll wrap me in a roufing calffkin fuit, and come like fome Hobgoblin."-" I mean my Chriftmas calf-fkin fuit." STEEVENS.

The fpeaker in the play is Robin Goodfellow. Perhaps, as has been fuggefted, Conftance, by cloathing Auftria in a calf's-skin, means only to infinuate that he is a coward. The word recreant feems to favour such a supposition. MALONE.

VOL. IV.

K k

Ente,

Enter PANDULPH.

K. Phi. Here comes the holy legate of the pope.
Pand. Hail, you anointed deputies of heaven!
To thee, king John, my holy errand is.
I Pandulph, of fair Milan cardinal,
And from pope Innocent the legate here,
Do, in his name, religiously demand,
Why thou against the church, our holy mother,
So wilfully doft fpurn; and, force perforce,
Keep Stephen Langton, chofen archbishop
Of Canterbury, from that holy fee?
This, in our 'forefaid holy father's name,
Pope Innocent, I do demand of thee.

K. John. What earthly name to interrogatories,
Can task the free breath of a facred king"?

6 What earthly name to interrogatories,

Can talk the free breath, &c.] i. e. What earthly name, fubjoined to interrogatories, can force a king to speak and answer them? The old copy reads-earthy. The emendation was made by Mr. Pope. It has alfo taft instead of task, which was fubftituted by Mr. Theobald. Breath for fpeech is common in our author. So, in a subsequent scene in this play:

The latest breath that gave the found of words." Again, in the Merchant of Venice, " breathing courtesy," for verbal courtefy. MALONE.

The emendation [task] may be justified by the following paffage in K. Henry IV. P. I.

How fhow'd his tasking? feem'd it in contempt?"

Again, in K. Henry V.

That task our thoughts concerning us and France."

STEEVENS. This must have been at the time when it was written, in our struggies with popery, a very captivating scene.

So many paffages remain in which Shakspeare evidently takes his advantage of the facts then recent, and of the paffions then in motion, that I cannot but fufpect that time has obfcured much of his art, and that many allufions yet remain undiscovered, which perhaps may be gradually retrieved by fucceeding commentators. JOHNSON.

The fpeech ftands thus in the old play: "And what haft thou or the pope thy master to do, to demand of me how I employ mine own? Know, fir prieft, as I honour the church and holy churchmen, fo I fcorne to be subject to the greatest prelate in the world. Tell thy master so from me; and fay, John of England said it, that never an Italian priest of them all shall either have tythe, toll, or polling penny

ΘΗΣ

Thou canst not, cardinal, devise a name
So flight, unworthy, and ridiculous,
To charge me to an answer, as the pope.

Tell him this tale; and from the mouth of England,
Add thus much more,-That no Italian priest

Shall tithe or toll in our dominions;

But as we under heaven are fupreme head,
So, under him, that great fupremacy,
Where we do reign, we will alone uphold,
Without the affiftance of a mortal hand:
So tell the pope; all reverence fet apart,
To him, and his ufurp'd authority.

K. Phi. Brother of England, you blafpheme in this.
K. John. Though you, and all the kings of Chriften.
dom,

Are led fo grofsly by this meddling prieft,
Dreading the curfe that money may buy out;
And, by the merit of vile gold, drofs, duft,
Purchase corrupted pardon of a man,

Who, in that fale, fells pardon from himself:
Though you, and all the reft, fo grossly led,
This juggling witchcraft with revenue cherish;
Yet I, alone, alone do me oppose

Against the pope, and count his friends my foes.
Pand. Then, by the lawful power that I have,
Thou shalt ftand curs'd, and excommunicate:
And blessed shall he be, that doth revolt
From his allegiance to an heretick;
And meritorious fhall that hand be call'd,
Canonized, and worship'd as a faint,
That takes away by any fecret course
Thy hateful life7.

Conft

out of England; but as I am king, fo will I reign next under God, fupreme head both over fpiritual and temporal: and he that contradicts me in this, I'll make him hop headlefs." STEEVENS.

7 That takes away by any fecret course

Thy bateful life.] This may allude to the bull published against queen Elizabeth, Or we may fuppofe, fince we have no proof that K ka

this