8

BAST. By heaven, thefe fcroyles of Angiers flout you, kings;

And stand securely on their battlements,
As in a theatre, whence they gape and point
At your induftrious fcenes and acts of death.
Your royal prefences be rul'd by me;

King'd of our fears;] i. e. our fears being our kings, or rulers. King'd is again ufed in King Richard II:

"Then I am king'd again:"

It is manifeft that the paffage in the old copy is corrupt, and that it must have been fo worded, that their fears should be ftyled their kings or mafters, and not they, kings or mafters of their fears; because in the next line mention is made of these fears being depofed. Mr. Tyrwhitt's emendation produces this meaning by a very flight alteration, and is, therefore, I think, entitled to a place in the text.

The following paffage in our author's Rape of Lucrece, strongly, in my opinion, confirms his conjecture:

So fhall thefe flaves [Tarquin's unruly passions] be kings, and thou their flave."

Again, in King Lear:

It seems, fhe was a queen

"Over her paffion, who, moft rebel-like,

"Sought to be king o'er her."

This paffage in the folio is given to King Philip, and in a fubfequent part of this scene, all the fpeeches of the citizens are given to Hubert; which I mention, because these, and innumerable other inftances, where the fame error has been committed in that edition, juftify fome licence in transferring fpeeches from one perfon to another. MALONE.

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thefe fcroyles of Angiers-] Efcrouelles, Fr. i. e. fcabby fcrophulous fellows.

Ben Jonfon ufes the word in Every Man in his Humour:

"hang them fcroyles!" STEEVENS.

9 At your induftrious fcenes-] I once wifhed to read-illuftrious; but now I believe the text to be right. MALONE.

Your induftrious

The old reading is undoubtedly the true one. fcenes and acts of death, is the fame as if the speaker had faid— your laborious induftry of war. So, in Macbeth:

Do like the mutines of Jerufalem,*

2 Do like the mutines of Jerufalem,] The mutines are the mutineers, the feditious. So again, in Hamlet :

and lay

"Worfe than the mutines in the bilboes."

Our autor had probably read the following paffages in A Compendious and moft marvellous Hiftory of the latter times of the fewes Common-weale, &c. Written in Hebrew, by Jofeph Ben Gorion,tranflated into English, by Peter Morwyn: The fame yeere the civil warres grew and increafed in Jerufalem; for the citizens flew one another without any truce, reft, or quietneffe.-The people were divided into three parties; whereof the first and best followed Anani, the high-prieft; another part followed feditious Jehochanan; the third most cruel Schimeon.-Anani, being a perfect godly man, and feeing the common-wcale of Jerufalem governed by the feditious, gave over his third part, that ftacke to him, to Eliafar, his fonne. Eliafar with his companie took the Temple, and the courts about it; appointing of his men, fome to bee spyes, fome to keepe watche and warde.-But Jehochanan tooke the marketplace and ftreetes, the lower part of the citie. Then Schimeon, the Jerofolimite, tooke the highest part of the towne, wherefore his men annoyed Jehochanan's parte fore with flings and croffebowes. Betweene these three there was alfo moft cruel battailes in Jerufalem for the space of four daies.

"Titus' campe was about fixe furlongs from the towne. The next morrow they of the towne feeing Titus to be encamped upon the mount Olivet, the captaines of the feditious affembled together, and fell at argument, every man with another, intending to turne their cruelty upon the Romaines, confirming and ratifying the fame atonement and purpose, by fwearing one to another; and fo became peace amongst them. Wherefore joyning together, that before were three feverall parts, they fet open the gates, and all the best of them iffued out with an horrible noyfe and fhoute, that they made the Romaines afraide withall, in fuch wife that they fled before the feditious, which fodainly did set uppon them unawares."

The book from which I have tranfcribed thefe paffages, was printed in 1602, but there was a former edition, as that before me is faid to be" newly corrected and amended by the tranflatour." From the fpelling and the ftyle, I imagine the first edition of this book had appeared before 1580. This allufion is not found in the old play.

Since this note was written, I have met with an edition of the book which Shakspeare had here in his thoughts, printed in 1575. MALONE.

Be friends a while,' and both conjointly bend
Your sharpeft deeds of malice on this town:
By east and weft let France and England mount
Their battering cannon, charged to the mouths;
Till their foul-fearing clamours have brawl'd
down

4

The flinty ribs of this contemptuous city:
I'd play inceffantly upon these jades,
Even till unfenced defolation

Leave them as naked as the vulgar air.
That done, diffever your united strengths,
And part your mingled colours once again;
Turn face to face, and bloody point to point:
Then,in a moment, fortune fhall cull forth
Out of one fide her happy minion;

To whom in favour the fhall give the day,
And kifs him with a glorious victory.
How like you this wild counsel, mighty states?
Smacks it not fomething of the policy?

K. JOHN. Now, by the sky that hangs above our

heads,

I like it well;-France, fhall we knit our powers,
And lay this Angiers even with the ground;
Then, after, fight who shall be king of it?

BAST. An if thou haft the mettle of a king,Being wrong'd, as we are, by this peevish town,Turn thou the mouth of thy artillery,

As we will ours, against these faucy walls:
And when that we have dafh'd them to the ground,
Why, then defy each other; and, pell-mell,
Make work upon ourselves, for heaven, or hell.

3 Be friends a while, &c.] This advice is given by the Baftard in the old copy of the play, though comprized in fewer and leis fpirited lines. STEEVENS.

Till their foul-fearing clamours-] i. e. foul-appalling. See Vol, V. p. 423, n. 9. MALONE.

K. PHI. Let it be fo:-Say, where will you

affault?

K. JOHN. We from the weft will send destruction Into this city's bofom.

AUST. I from the north.

K. PHI.

Our thunder from the fouth,

Shall rain their drift of bullets on this town.

BAST. O prudent difcipline! From north to

fouth;

Auftria and France fhoot in each other's mouth:

I'll ftir them to it:-Come, away, away!

[Afide.

I CIT. Hear us, great kings: vouchfafe a while to stay,

And I shall show you peace, and fair-faced league;
Win you this city without ftroke, or wound;
Rescue those breathing lives to die in beds,
That here come facrifices for the field:
Perféver not, but hear me, mighty kings.

K. JOHN. Speak on, with favour; we are bent to hear.

I CIT. That daughter there of Spain, the lady
Blanch,'

Is near to England; Look upon the years
Of Lewis the Dauphin, and that lovely maid:
If lufty love should go in queft of beauty,
Where fhould he find it fairer than in Blanch?
If zealous love fhould go in fearch of virtue,"
Where should he find it purer than in Blanch?
If love ambitious fought a match of birth,

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the lady Blanch,] The lady Blanch was daughter to Alphonfo the Ninth, king of Castile, and was niece to King John by his fifter Elianor. STEEVENS.

6 If zealous love, &c.] Zealous feems here to fignify pious, or influenced by motives of religion. JOHNSON.

Whose veins bound richer blood than lady Blanch?
Such as the is, in beauty, virtue, birth,
Is the young Dauphin every way complete:
If not complete, O fay," he is not she;
And the again wants nothing, to name want,
If want it be not, that she is not he:
He is the half part of a bleffed man,
Left to be finished by such a she;
And fhe a fair divided excellence,
Whofe fulness of perfection lies in him.
O, two fuch filver currents, when they join,
Do glorify the banks that bound them in:

And two fuch fhores to two fuch streams made

one,

Two fuch controlling bounds fhall you be, kings,
To these two princes, if you marry them.
This union fhall do more than battery can,
To our faft-clofed gates; for, at this match,
With swifter fpleen' than powder can enforce,
The mouth of paffage fhall we fling wide ope,
And give you entrance: but, without this match,
The fea enraged is not half fo deaf,

Lions more confident, mountains and rocks
More free from motion; no, not death himself
In mortal fury half fo
peremptory,

As we to keep this city.

"If not complete, Ofay,] The old copy reads-If not complete of, Jay, &c. Corrected by Sir T. Hanmer. MALONE.

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-Such a fhe;] The old copy-as fhe. STEEVENS.

Dr. Thirlby prefcribed that reading, which I have here restored THEOBALD.

to the text.

9

at this match,

With fifter fpleen, &c.] Our author ufes Spleen for any violent hurry, or tumultuous fpeed. So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, he applies Spleen to the lightning. I am loath to think that Shakspeare meant to play with the double of match for nuptial, and the match of a gun. JOHNSON.