Than arm thy constant and thy nobler parts So heavy, as thou shalt not shake them off, Bast. Will 't not be? Will not a calf's-skin stop that mouth of thine? Blanch. Upon thy wedding day? Against the blood that thou hast married? 5 What, shall our feast be kept with slaughter'd men? O husband, hear me !-ah, alack, how new Against mine uncle. Const. O, upon my knee, Made hard with kneeling, I do pray to thee, 5 Blanch. Now shall I see thy love; What motive may braying trumpets,] Bray appears to have been particu larly applied to express the harsh grating sound of the trumpet. So, in Spenser s Fairy Queen, B. IV, c. xii, st. 6: "And when it ceast shrill trompets loud did bray." Again, B. IV, c. iv, st. 48: "Then shrilling trompets loudly 'gan to bray." And elsewhere in the play before us: Hard-resounding trumpets' dreadful bray.“ Again, in Hamlet: "The trumpet shall bray out H. White. 6 be measures] The measures, it has been already more than once observed, were a species of solemn dance in our author's time. This speech is formed on the following lines in the old play: "Blanch. And will your grace upon your wedding-day "Forsake your bride and follow dreadful drums? "Phil. Drums shall be musick to this wedding-day." Malone. Be stronger with thee than the name of wife? Const. That which upholdeth him that thee upholds, His honour: O, thine honour, Lewis, thine honour! 7 Lew. I muse, your majesty doth seem so cold, When such profound respects do pull you on. Pand. I will denounce a curse upon his head. Const. O fair return of banish'd majesty! K. John. France, thou shalt rue this hour within this hour. Bast. Old time the clock-setter, that bald sexton time, Is it as he will? well then, France shall rue. Blanch. The sun's o'ercast with blood: Fair day, adieu! Lew. Lady, with me; with me thy fortune lies. dies. life K. John. Cousin, go draw our puissance together.— France, I am burn'd up with inflaming wrath; 7 I muse,] i. e. I wonder. Reed. So, in Middleton's "Tragi-Coomodie, called The Witch:" "And why thou staist so long, I muse, "Since the air 's so sweet and good. 99 Steevens. 8 They whirl asunder, and dismember me.] Alluding to a wellknown Roman punishment: 66 Metium in diversa quadriga "Distulerant." Eneid, VIII, 642. Steevens. K. Phi. Thy rage shall burn thee up, and thou shalt turn To ashes, ere our blood shall quench that fire: Look to thyself, thou art in jeopardy. K. John. No more than he that threats.-To arms Bast. Now, by my life, this day grows wondrous hot; Some airy devil hovers in the sky, And pours down mischief. Austria's head lie there; 9 Some airy devil-] Shakspeare here probably alludes to the distinctions and divisions of some of the demonologists, so much regarded in his time. They distributed the devils into different tribes and classes, each of which had its peculiar qualities, attributes, &c. These are described at length in Burton's Anatomie of Melancholy, P. I, sect. ii, p. 45, 1632: "Of these sublunary devils-Psellus makes six kinds; fiery, aeriall, terrestriall, watery, and subterranean devils, besides those faieries, satyres, nymphes," &c. "Fiery spirits or divells are such as commonly worke by blazing starres, fire-drakes, and counterfeit sunnes and moones, and sit on ships' masts," &c. &c. "Aeriall spirits or divells are such as keep quarter most part in the aire, cause many tempests, thunder and lightnings, teare oakes, fire steeples, houses, strike men and beasts, make it raine stones," &c. Percy. There is a minute description of different devils or spirits, and their different functions, in Pierce Pennilesse his Supplication, 1592: -With respect to the passage in question take the following: - the spirits of the aire will mixe themselves with thunder and lightning, and so infect the clyme where they raise any tempest, that sodainely great mortalitie shall ensue to the inhabitants. The spirits of fire have their mansions under the regions of the moone." Henderson. 1 Here Mr. Pope, without authority, adds from the old play already mentioned: "Thus hath king Richard's son perform'd his vow, "And offer'd Austria's blood for sacrifice "Unto his father's ever-living soul." Steevens. Enter King John, Arthur, and Hubert. K. John. Hubert, keep this boy: 2-Philip,3 make up: My mother is assailed in our tent, And ta'en, I fear. Bast. SCENE III. The same. [Exeunt. Alarums; Excursions; Retreat. Enter King JOHN, ELI- So strongly guarded.-Cousin, look not sad: Thy grandam loves thee; and thy uncle will [To ARTH. Arth. O, this will make my mother die with grief. K. John. Cousin, [to the Bast.] away for England; haste before: And, ere our coming, see thou shake the bags Of hoarding abbots; imprisoned angels Set thou at liberty: the fat ribs of peace 2 Hubert, keep this boy:] Thus the old copies. Mr. Tyrwhitt would read: 3 Hubert, keep thou this boy: Steevens. Philip,] Here the King, who had knighted him by the name of Sir Richard, calls him by his former name. Steevens. 4 My mother is assailed in our tent,] The author has not attended closely to the history. The Queen-mother, whom King John had made Regent in Anjou, was in possession of the town of Mirabeau, in that province. On the approach of the French army with Arthur at their head, she sent letters to King John to come to her relief; which he did immediately. As he advanced to the town, he encountered the army that lay before it, routed them, and took Arthur prisoner. The Queen in the mean while remained in perfect security in the castle of Mirabeau. Such is the best authenticated account. Other historians however say that Arthur took Elinor prisoner. The author of the old play has followed them. In that piece Elinor is taken by Arthur, and rescued by her son. Malone. Must by the hungry now be fed upon:6 Bast. Bell, book, and candle shall not drive me back, When gold and silver becks me to come on. I leave your highness:-Grandam, I will pray For your fair safety; so I kiss your hand. K. John. Coz, farewel. [Exit Bast. [She takes ARTH. aside. Eli. Come hither, little kinsman; hark, a word. 5 Set thou at liberty:] The word thou (which is wanting in the old copy) was judiciously added, for the sake of metre, by Sir T. Hanmer. Steevens. 6 the fat ribs of peace Must by the hungry now be fed upon:] This word now seems a very idle term here, and conveys no satisfactory idea. An antithesis, and opposition of terms, so perpetual with our author, requires: Must by the hungry war be fed upon. War, demanding a large expense, is very poetically said to be hungry, and to prey on the wealth and fat of peace. Warburton. This emendation is better than the former word, but yet not necessary. Sir T. Hanmer reads-hungry maw, with less deviation from the common reading, but with not so much force or elegance as war. Johnson. Either emendation may be unnecessary. Perhaps the hungry now is this hungry instant. Shakspeare uses the word now as a substantive, in Measure for Measure: 66 till this very now, "When men were fond, I smil'd and wonder'd how." Steevens. 7 Bell, book, and candle-] In an account of the Romish curse given by Dr. Grey, it appears that three candles were extinguished, one by one, in different parts of the execration. Johnson. I meet with the same expression in Ram-Alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611: "I'll have a priest shall mumble up a marriage In Archbishop Winchelsea's Sentences of Excommunication, anno 1298, (see Johnson's Ecclesiastical Laws, Vol. II,) it is directed that the sentence against infringers of certain articles should be "6 - throughout explained in order in English, with bells tolling, and candles lighted, that it may cause the greater dread; for lavmen have greater regard to this solemnity, than to the effect of such sentences." See Dodsley's Old Plays, Vol. XII, p. 397, edit. 1780. Reed. |
