Like true, infeparable, faithful loves,
Sticking together in calamity.

CONST. To England, if you will.3

K. PHI.

Bind up your hairs.

CONST. Yes, that I will; And wherefore will I

do it?

I tore them from their bonds; and cried aloud,
O that thefe hands could fo redeem my fon,
As they have given these hairs their liberty!
But now I envy at their liberty,

And will again commit them to their bonds,
Because my poor child is a prisoner.

And, father cardinal, I have heard you say,

That we shall fee and know our friends in heaven:
If that be true, I fhall fee my boy again;

For, fince the birth of Cain, the first male child,
To him that did but yesterday fufpire,"
There was not fuch a gracious creature born.*

8 To England, if you will.] Neither the French king nor Pandulph, has faid a word of England, fince the entry of Conftance. Perhaps therefore, in defpair, the means to addrefs the abfent King John: "Take my fon to England, if you will;"-now that he is in your power, I have no profpect of feeing him again. It is therefore of no confequence to me where he is. MALONE.

9but yesterday fufpire,] To fufpire in Shakspeare, I believe, only means to breathe. So, in K. Henry IV. Part II:

"Did he fufpire, that light and weightless down
"Perforce must move."

Again, in a Copy of Verfes prefixed to Thomas Powell's Paffionate Poet, 1601:

2

"Beleeve it, I fufpire no frefher aire,

"Than are my hopes of thee, and they ftand faire."

STEEVENS.

a gracious creature born.] Gracious, i. e. graceful. So, in Albion's Triumph, a Mafque, 1631:

on the which (the freeze) were feftoons of several fruits in their natural colours, on which, in gracious poftures, lay children fleeping."

again, in Chapman's version of the XVIII glad: Then tumbled round, & tore His gracious curles.

"

14

But now will canker forrow eat my bud,
And chafe the native beauty from his cheek,
And he will look as hollow as a ghoft;

As dim and meagre as an ague's fit;

And fo he'll die; and, rising so again,

When I shall meet him in the court of heaven
I fhall not know him: therefore never, never
Muft I behold my pretty Arthur more.

PAND. You hold too heinous a refpect of grief.
CONST. He talks to me, that never had a fon.'
K. PHI. You are as fond of grief, as of your
child.

CONST. Grief fills the room up of my abfent
child,+

Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me;

Again, in the fame piece:

they ftood about him, not in fet ranks, but in feveral gracious poftures." STEEVENS.

A paffage quoted by Mr. Steevens from Marton's Malcontent, 1604, induces me to think that gracious likewife in our author's time included the idea of beauty: he is the moft exquifite in forging of veins, fpright'ning of eyes,-fleeking of skinnes, blufhing of cheeks,-blanching and bleaching of teeth, that ever made an ould lady gracious by torch-light." MALONE.

He talks to me, that never had a fon.] To the fame purpose Macduff obferves

"He has no children."

This thought occurs alfo in King Henry VI. Part III.

STEEVENS.

3 Grief fills the room up of my abfent child,]
"Perfruitur lachrymis, et amat pro conjuge luctum."

Lucan, Lib. IX.

"Mon deuil me plaît, et me doit toujours plaire,
“Il me tient lieu de celle que je plains.'

MALONE.

Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form;
Then, have I reason to be fond of grief.
Fare you well: had you fuch a lofs as I,
I could give better comfort than you do.-
I will not keep this form upon my head,

[Tearing off her bead-dress.
When there is fuch diforder in my wit.
O lord! my boy, my Arthur, my fair son!
My life, my joy, my food, my all the world!
My widow-comfort, and my forrows' cure!.

[Exit.

K. PHI. I fear fome outrage, and I'll follow her.

[Exit. LEW. There's nothing in this world, can make me joy: 5

Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale,"
Vexing the dull ear of a drowfy man;

had you fuch a lofs as I,

I could give better comfort-] This is a fentiment which great forrow always dictates. Whoever cannot help himself cafts his eyes on others for affistance, and often mistakes their inability for coldnefs. JOHNSON.

5 There's nothing in this, &c.] The young prince feels his defeat with more fenfibility than his father. Shame operates most strongly in the earlier years; and when can difgrace be less welcome than when a man is going to his bride? JOHNSON.

6 Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale,] Our author, here and in another play, feems to have had the 90th Pfalm in his thoughts: "For when thou art angry, all our days are gone, we bring out years to an end, as it were a tale that is told." So again, in Macbeth:

"Life's but a walking fhadow;-
it is a tale

And bitter fhame hath spoil'd the fweet world's

taste,'

That it yields naught, but shame, and bitterness.
PAND. Before the curing of a strong disease,
Even in the instant of repair and health,
The fit is ftrongeft; evils, that take leave,
On their departure moft of all show evil:
What have you loft by lofing of this day?

LEW. All days of glory, joy, and happiness.
PAND. If you had won it, certainly, you had.
No, no: when fortune means to men most good,
She looks upon them with a threatening eye.
'Tis ftrange, to think how much king John hath loft
In this which he accounts fo clearly won:
Are not you griev'd, that Arthur is his prisoner?
LEW. As heartily, as he is glad he hath him.
PAND. Your mind is all as youthful as your blood.
Now hear me speak, with a prophetick spirit;
For even the breath of what I mean to speak
Shall blow each dust, each straw, each little rub,
Qut of the path which fhall directly lead

Thy foot to England's throne; and, therefore, mark.

-the fweet world's tafte,] The old copy-fweet word. STEEVENS.

The fweet word is life; which, fays the fpeaker, is no longer fweet, yielding now nothing but shame and bitterness. Mr. Pope, with fome plaufibility, but certainly without neceffity, reads-the fweet world's tafte. MALONE.

I prefer Mr. Pope's reading, which is fufficiently juftified by the following paffage in Hamlet:

"How weary, ftale, flat and unprofitable

"Seem to me all the ufes of this world!"

Our prefent rage for restoration from ancient copies, may induce fome of our readers to exclaim, with Othello,

again" STEEVENS.

VOL. VIII.

I

Chaos is come

Virgil's Shepherd;

Claudite jam rivos, pueri, sat prata biberunt

John hath feiz'd Arthur; and it cannot be,
That, whiles warm life plays in that infant's veins,
The mifplac'd John fhould entertain an hour,
One minute, nay, one quiet breath of rest:
A fcepter, fnatch'd with an unruly hand,
Must be as boisterously maintain❜d as gain'd:
And he, that stands upon a flippery place,
Makes nice of no vile hold to stay him up:
That John may ftand, then Arthur needs muft fall;
So be it, for it cannot be but fo.

LEW. But what fhall I gain by young Arthur's

fall?

PAND. You, in the right of lady Blanch your

wife,

May then make all the claim that Arthur did.

LEW. And lofe it, life and all, as Arthur did.

PAND. How green you are, and fresh in this old

world! 8

John lays you plots; the times confpire with you:
For he, that steeps his fafety in true blood,*
Shall find but bloody fafety, and untrue.
This act, fo evilly born, fhall cool the hearts

66

& How green, &c.] Hall in his Chronicle of Richard III. fays, what neede in that grene worlde the protector had," &c.

HENDERSON.

9 John lays you plots;] That is, lays plots, which must be ferviceable to you. Perhaps our author wrote-your plots. John is doing your bufinefs. MALONE.

The old reading is undoubtedly the true one.

occurs in the Firft Part of K. Henry VI:

"He writes me here,—that," &c.

A fimilar phrafe

Again, in the Second Part of the fame play-" He would have carried you a fore-hand fhaft," &c. STEEVENS.

true blood,] The blood of him that has the just claim. JOHNSON.

The expreffion feems to mean no more than innocent blood in general. RITSON.