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what we fhall do

K. PHI. Lewis, determine

ftraight.

LEW. Women and fools, break off your conference.

King John, this is the very fum of all,— England, and Ireland, Anjou,' Touraine, Maine, In right of Arthur do I claim of thee:

Wilt thou refign them, and lay down thy arms?
K. JOHN. My life as foon:-I do defy thee,
France.

Arthur of Bretagne, yield thee to my hand;
And, out of my dear love, I'll give thee more
Than e'er the coward hand of France can win:
Submit thee, boy.

9 K. Phi. Lewis, determine, &c.] Thus Mr. Malone, and perhaps rightly; for the next fpeech is given in the old copy (as it ftands in the prefent text) to Lewis the dauphin, who was afterwards Lewis VIII. The fpeech itfelf, however, feems fufficiently appropriated to the King; and nothing can be inferred from the folio with any certainty, but that the editors of it were careless and ignorant. STEEVENS.

In the old copy this line ftands thus:

King Lewis, determine what we shall do firaight.

To the first three fpeeches fpoken in this fcene by King Philip, the word King only is prefixed. I have therefore given this line to him. The tranfcriber or compofitor having, I imagine, forgotten to diftinguifh the word King by Italicks, and to put a full point after it, thefe words have been printed as part of Austria's fpeech: King Lewis," &c. but fuch an arrangement must be erroneous, for Lewis was not king. Some of our author's editors have left Auftria in poffeffion of the line, and corrected the error by reading here, "King Philip, determine," &c. and giving the next fpeech to him, inftead of Lewis.

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I once thought that the line before us might ftand as part of Auftria's fpeech, and that he might have addrefled Philip and the Dauphin by the words, King,-Lewis, &c. but the addreffing Philip by the title of King, without any addition, feems too familiar, and I therefore think it more probable that the error happened in the way above stated. MALONE.

2 Anjou,] Old copy-Angiers. Corrected by Mr. Theobald.

MALONE.

ELI.

Come to thy grandam, child.

CONST. Do, child, go to it' grandam, child; Give grandam kingdom, and it' grandam will Give it a plum, a cherry, and a fig:

There's a good grandam.

ARTH.

Good my mother, peace!

I would, that I were low laid in my grave;
I am not worth this coil, that's made for me.
ELI. His mother fhames him fo, poor boy, he
weeps.

CONST. Now fhame upon you, whe'r fhe does,

or no! 3

His grandam's wrongs, and not his mother's fhames, Draw those heaven-moving pearls from his poor eyes, Which heaven fhall take in nature of a fee;

Ay, with these crystal beads heaven fhall be brib'd To do him juftice, and revenge on you.

ELI. Thou monftrous flanderer of heaven and earth!

CONST. Thou monftrous injurer of heaven and earth!

Call not me flanderer; thou, and thine, ufurp
The dominations, royalties, and rights,

Of this oppreffed boy: This is thy eldest fon's fon,+4

3 Now Shame upon you, whe'r fhe does, or no!] Whe'r for whether. So, in an Epigram, by Ben Jonfon:

"Who thall doubt, Donne, whe'r I a poet be,

"When I dare fend my epigrams to thee?"

Again, in Gower's De Confeffione Amantis, 1532:

"That maugre where the wolde or not,-." MALONE. Read: he'r he does, or no!-i. e. whether he weeps, or not. Conftance, fo far from admitting, exprefsly denies that he fhames him. RITSON.

4 Of this oppreffed boy: This is thy eldeft fon's for,] Mr. Ritfon would omit the redundant words-This is, and read:

Of this oppreffed boy: thy eldeft fon's fon. STEEVENS.

Infortunate in nothing but in thee;
Thy fins are visited in this poor child;
The canon of the law is laid on him,
Being but the second generation
Removed from thy fin-conceiving womb.
K. JOHN. Bedlam, have done.

CONST.

I have but this to say,

That he's not only plagued for her fin,
But God hath made her fin and her the plague

4 I have but this to say,—

That he's not only plagued for her fin,

But God hath made her fin and her the plague, &c.] This paffage appears to me very obfcure. The chief difficulty arises from this, that Conftance having told Elinor of her fin-conceiving womb, pursues the thought, and uses fin through the next lines in an ambiguous fenfe, fometimes for crime, and fometimes for offspring.

He's not only plagued for her fin, &c. He is not only made miferable by vengeance for her fin or crime; but her fin, her offspring, and the, are made the inftruments of that vengeance, on this defcendant; who, though of the fecond generation, is plagued for her and with her; to whom he is not only the cause but the inftrument of evil.

The next clause is more perplexed. All the editions read:

-plagu'd for her,

And with her plague her fin; his injury

Her injury, the beadle to her fin,

All punish'd in the perfon of this child.

I point thus:

-plagu'd for her

And with her.-Plague her fon! his injury
Her injury, the beadle to her fin.

That is; inftead of inflicting vengeance on this innocent and remote defcendant, punish her fon, her immediate offspring: then the affliction will fall where it is deferved; his injury will be her injury, and the mifery of her fin; her fon will be a beadle, or chaftifer, to her crimes, which are now all punish'd in the person of this child. JOHNSON.

We

Mr. Roderick reads:

-plagu'd for her,

And with her plagu'd; her fin, his injury.

may read:

But God hath made her fin and her the plague
On this removed issue, plagu'd for her;

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On this removed iffue, plagu'd for her,
And with her plague, her fin; his injury

And, with her fin, her plague, his injury

Her injury, the beadle to her fin.

i. e. God hath made her and her fin together, the plague of her most remote defcendants, who are plagued for her; the fame power hath likewife made her fin her own plague, and the injury he has done to him her own injury, as a beadle to lafh that fin. i. e. Providence has fo ordered it, that the who is made the inftrument of punishment to another, has, in the end, converted that other into an inftrument of punishment for herself. STEEVENS.

Conftance obferves that he (ifte, pointing to King John," whom from the flow of gall fhe names not,") is not only plagued [with the prefent war] for his mother's fin, but God hath made her fin and her the plague alfo on this removed iffue, [Arthur,] plagued on her account, and by the means of her finful offspring, whofe injury [the ufurpation of Arthur's rights] may be confidered as her injury, or the injury of her fin-conceiving womb; and John's injury may alfo be confidered as the beadle or officer of correction employed by her crimes to inflict all these punishments on the perfon of this child. TOLLET.

Plagued in thefe plays generally means punished. So, in King Richard III:

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"And God, not we, hath plagu'd thy bloody deed." So, Holinfhed: they for very remorfe and dread of the divine plague, will either fhamefully flie," &c.

Not being fatisfied with any of the emendations proposed, I have adhered to the original copy. I fufpect that two half lines have been loft after the words-And with her. If the text be right, with, I think, means by, (as in many other paffages,) and Mr. Tollet's interpretation the true one. fignifies remote. So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream: Removed, I believe, here "From Athens is her house remov'd feven leagues."

MALONE.

Much as the text of this note has been belaboured, the original reading needs no alteration,

I have but this to fay,

That he's not only plagued for her fin,

But God hath made her fin and her the plague

On this removed issue, plagued for her,

And with her plague, her fin; his injury,

Her injury, the beadle to her fin,

Her injury, the beadle to her fin;
All punish'd in the perfon of this child,
And all for her; A plague upon her!

ELI. Thou unadvifed fcold, I can produce
A will, that bars the title of thy fon.

CONST. Ay, who doubts that? a will! a wicked
will;

A woman's will; a canker'd grandam's will!
K. PHI. Peace, lady; paufe, or be more tempe-

rate:

It ill befeems this prefence, to cry aim

The key to these words is contained in the laft fpeech of Conftance, where the alludes to the denunciation in the fecond commandment, of " vifiting the iniquities of the parents upon the children, unto the THIRD and FOURTH generation," &c.

"Thou monftrous injurer of heaven and earth!

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This is thy eldest son's fon,

"Thy fins are vifited in this poor child;
"The canon of the law is laid on him,

Being but the fecond generation

"Removed from thy fin-conceiving womb."

Young Arthur is here reprefented as not only fuffering from the guilt of his grandmother; but, alfo, by her, in perfon, the being made the very inftrument of his fufferings. As he was not her immediate, but REMOVED fue the fecond generation from her finconceiving womb-it might have been expected, that the evils to which, upon her account, he was obnoxious, would have incidentally befallen him; inftead of his being punished for them all, by her immediate infliction. He is not only plagued on account of her fin, according to the threatening of the commandment; but, fhe is preferved alive to her fecond generation, to be the inftrument of inflicting on her grandchild the penalty annexed to her fin; fo that he is plagued on her account, and with her plague, which is, her fin, that is [taking, by a common figure, the cause for the confequence] the penalty entailed upon it. His injury, or the evil he Suffers, her fin brings upon him, and HER injury, or, the evil fhe inflicts, be fuffers from her, as the beadle to her fin, or executioner of the punishment annexed to it. HANLEY.

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