This juggling witchcraft with revenue cherish;
Yet I, alone, alone do me oppofe

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 saint, That takes away by any fecret course Thy hateful life."

That I have room with Rome to curfe a while!
Good father cardinal, cry thou, amen,

To my keen curfes; for, without my wrong,
There is no tongue hath power to curse him right.
PAND. There's law and warrant, lady, for my

curfe.

CONST. And for mine too; when law can do no right,

2 That takes arvay by any fecret course,

Thy hateful life.] This may allude to the bull published against Queen Elizabeth. Or we may fuppofe, fince we have no proof that this play appeared in its prefent ftate before the reign of King James, that it was exhibited foon after the popish plot. I have seen a Spanish book in which Garnet, Faux, and their accomplices, are registered as faints. JOHNSON.

"Then

If any allufion to his own times was intended by the author of the old play, (for this fpeech is formed on one in King John, 1591) it muft have been to the bull of Pope Pius the Fifth, 1569: I Pandulph of Padua, legate from the Apoftolike fea, doe in the name of Saint Peter, and his fucceffor, our holy father Pope Innocent, pronounce thee accurfed, discharging every of thy fubjects of all dutie and fealtie that they do owe to thee, and pardon and forgiveneffe of finne to thofe or them what foever which shall carrie armes against thee or murder thee. This I pronounce, and charge all good men to abhorre thee as an excommunicate perfon." MALONE.

Let it be lawful, that law bar no wrong:
Law cannot give my child his kingdom here;
For he, that holds his kingdom, holds the law:
Therefore, fince law itself is perfect wrong,
How can the law forbid my tongue to curfe?

PAND. Philip of France, on peril of a curse,
Let go the hand of that archheretick;
And raise the power of France upon his head,
Unless he do fubmit himself to Rome.

ELI. Look'st thou pale, France? do not let go thy hand.

CONST. Look to that, devil! left that France repent,

And, by disjoining hands, hell lofe a foul.

Ausr. King Philip, liften to the cardinal. BAST. And hang a calf's-fkin on his recreant limbs.

AUST. Well, ruffian, I muft pocket up these

Becaufe

BAST.

wrongs,

Your breeches beft may carry them. K. JOHN. Philip, what fay'ft thou to the cardi

nal?

CONST. What fhould he fay, but as the cardinal?

LEW. Bethink you, father; for the difference Is, purchase of a heavy curfe from Rome,' Or the light lofs of England for a friend: Forgo the easier.

BLANCH.

That's the curfe of Rome.

3 Is, purchase of a heavy curse from Rome,] It is a political maxim, that kingdoms are never married. Lewis, upon the wedding. is for making war upon his new relations. JOHNSON.

CONST. O Lewis, ftand faft; the devil tempts thee here,

In likeness of a new untrimmed bride.*

the devil tempts thee here,

In likeness of a new untrimmed bride.] Though all the copies concur in this reading, yet as untrimmed cannot bear any fignification to fquare with the fenfe required, I cannot help thinking it a corrupted reading. I have ventured to throw out the negative, and read:

In likeness of a new and trimmed bride.

i. e. of a new bride, and one decked and adorned as well by art as nature. THEOBALD.

Mr. Theobald fays, "that as untrimmed cannot bear any fignification to fquare with the fenfe required," it must be corrupt; therefore he will cafhier it, and read-and trimmed; in which he is followed by the Oxford editor; but they are both too hafty. It fquares very well with the fenfe, and fignifies unsteady. The term is taken from navigation. We fay too, in a fimilar way of speaking, not well manned. WARBURTON.

I think Mr. Theobald's correction more plaufible than Dr. Warburton's explanation. A commentator fhould be grave, and therefore I can read these notes with proper severity of attention; but the idea of trimming a lady to keep her fteady, would be too rifible for any common power of face. JOHNSON.

Trim is drefs. An untrimmed bride is a bride undreft. Could the tempter of mankind affume a femblance in which he was more likely to be fuccefsful? The devil (fays Conftance) raises to your imagination your bride difencumbered of the forbidding forms of drefs, and the memory of my wrongs is loft in the anticipation of future enjoyment.

Ben Jonfon, in his New Inn, fays:

"Bur. Here's a lady gay.

Tip. A well-trimm'd lady!”

Again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

"And I was trimm'd in madam Julia's gown."

Again, in King Henry VI. P. III. Act II:

"Trimm'd like a younker prancing to his love." Again, in Reginald Scott's Difcovery of Witchcraft, 1584:

66

a good hufwife, and also well trimmed up in apparel.” Mr. Collins inclines to a colder interpretation, and is willing to fuppofe that by an untrimmed bride is meant a bride unadorned with the ufual pomp and formality of a nuptial habit. The propriety of

BLANCH. The lady Conftance speaks not from her faith,

But from her need.

this epithet he infers from the hafte in which the match was made, and further juftifies it from King John's preceding words:

"Go we, as well as hafte will suffer us,

"To this unlook'd for, unprepared pomp."

Mr. Tollet is of the fame opinion, and offers two instances in which untrimmed indicates a defhabille or a frugal vefture. In Minfheu's Dictionary, it fignifies one not finely dreffed or attired. Again, in Vives's Inftruction of a Chriftian Woman, 1592, p. 98 and 99: "Let her [the mistress of the house] bee content with a maide not faire and wanton, that can fing a ballad with a clere voice, but fad, pale, and untrimmed." STEEVENS.

I incline to think that the tranfcriber's ear deceived him, and that we should read, as Mr. Theobald has propofed,—

a new and trimmed bride.

The following paffage in King Henry IV. P. I. appears to me strongly to fupport his conjecture:

"When I was dry with rage, and extreme toil,

"Came there a certain lord, neat, trimly drefs'd,
"Fresh as a bridegroom

Again, more appofitely, in Romeo and Juliet:

"Go, waken Juliet; go, and trim her up;

"Make hafte; the bridegroom he is come already."

Again, in Cymbeline:

and forget

"Your labourfome and dainty trims, wherein
"You made great Juno angry."

Again, in our author's Venus and Adonis:

"The flowers are sweet, their colours fresh and trim-.” The freshness which our author has connected with the word trim, in the first and last of these paffages, and the "labourfome and dainty trims that made great Juno angry," which surely a bride may be fuppofed most likely to indulge in, (however fcantily Blanch's toilet may have been furnished in a camp,) prove, either that this emendation is right, or that Mr. Collins's interpretation of the word untrimmed is the true one. Minfhieu's definition of untrimmed, qui n'eft point orné,—inornatus, incultus," as well as his explanation of the verb "to trim," which, according to him, means the fame as "to prank up," may alfo be adduced to the fame point. See his DICT. 1617. Mr. M. Mafon juftly observes, that "to trim means to drefs out, but not to clothe; and confequently, though it might mean unadorned, it cannot mean unclad, or naked.”

MALONE.

CONST.

O, if thou grant my need, Which only lives but by the death of faith, That need muft needs infer this principle,That faith would live again by death of need; O, then, tread down my need, and faith mounts up;

Keep my need up, and faith is trodden down.

K. JOHN. The king is mov'd, and answers not to

this.

CONST. O, be remov'd from him, and answer well.

AUST. Do fo, king Philip; hang no more in doubt.

BAST. Hang nothing but a calf's-fkin, moft sweet lout.

K. PHI. I am perplex'd, and know not what to

fay.

PAND. What can'ft thou fay, but will perplex thee more,

If thou ftand excommunicate, and curs'd?

K. PHI. Good reverend father, make my perfon

yours,

And tell me, how you would beftow yourself.
This royal hand and mine are newly knit;
And the conjunction of our inward fouls
Married in league, coupled and link'd together
With all religious ftrength of facred vows;
The latest breath, that gave the found of words,
Was deep-fworn faith, peace, amity, true love,
Between our kingdoms, and our royal selves;
And even before this truce, but new before,-
No longer than we well could wash our hands,
To clap this royal bargain up of peace,-
Heaven knows, they were befmear'd and over-
ftain'd