Page images
PDF
EPUB

The fame.

SCENE

II.

A Room of ftate in the Palace.

Enter King JOHN, crowned; PEMBROKE, SALISBURY, and other Lords. The King takes his ftate.

K. JOHN. Here once again we fit, once again crown'd,+

And look'd upon, I hope, with cheerful eyes.

PEM. This once again, but that your highness

pleas'd,

Was once fuperfluous: you were crown'd before,
And that high royalty was ne'er pluck'd off;
The faiths of men ne'er ftained with revolt;
Fresh expectation troubled not the land,
With any long'd-for change, or better state.
SAL. Therefore, to be poffefs'd with double
pomp,

To guard a title that was rich before,"

once again crown'd,] Old copy-againft. Corrected in the fourth folio. MALONE.

$ This once again,

Was once fuperfluous:] This one time more was one time more than enough. JOHNSON.

It should be remembered that King John was at prefent crowned for the fourth time. STEEVENS.

John's fecond coronation was at Canterbury in the year 1201. He was crowned a third time at the fame place, after the murder of his nephew, in April 1202; probably with a view of confirming his title to the throne, his competitor no longer ftanding in his way. MALONE.

"To guard a title that was rich before,] To guard, is to fringe. JOHNSON.

Rather, to lace. So, in The Merchant of Venice:

[ocr errors]

give him a livery

"More guarded than his fellows." STEEVENS.

See Measure for Measure, Vol. IV. p. 282-3, n. 2. MALONE.

To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light

To feek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wafteful, and ridiculous excefs.

PEMB. But that your royal pleasure must be done,
This act is as an ancient tale new told;"
And, in the last repeating, troublesome,
Being urged at a time unfeasonable.

SAL. In this, the antique and well-noted face
Of plain old form is much disfigured:
And, like a shifted wind unto a fail,

It makes the courfe of thoughts to fetch about;
Startles and frights confideration;

Makes found opinion fick, and truth suspected,
For putting on fo new a fashion'd robe.

PEMB. When workmen ftrive to do better than

well,

They do confound their skill in covetoufness:
And, oftentimes, excufing of a fault,

7

as an ancient tale new told;] Had Shakspeare been a diligent examiner of his own compofitions, he would not fo foon have repeated an idea which he had firft put into the mouth of the Dauphin :

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

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Mr. Malone has a remark to the fame tendency. STEEVENS.

8 They do confound their skill in covetoufnefs:] i. e. not by their avarice, but in an eager emulation, an intenfe defire of excelling; as in Henry V:

"But if it be a fin to covet honour,

"I am the moft offending foul alive." THEOBALD.

So, in our author's 103d Sonnet :

"Were it not finful then, ftriving to mend,

"To mar the fubject that before was well?"

Again, in King Lear:

Striving to better, oft we mar what's well." MALONE.

Doth make the fault the worfe by the excufe;
As patches, fet upon a little breach,
Difcredit more in hiding of the fault,

Than did the fault before it was fo patch'd.

SAL. To this effect, before you were new-crown'd, We breath'd our counfel: but it pleas'd your highnefs

To overbear it; and we are all well pleas'd;
Since all and every part of what we would,"
Doth make a ftand at what your highness will.

K. JOHN. Some reafons of this double corona-
tion

I have poffefs'd you with, and think them ftrong
And more, more strong, (when leffer is my fear,)
I fhall indue you with: Mean time, but ask
What you would have reform'd, that is not well;
And well shall you perceive, how willingly
I wi': both hear and grant you your requests.

in hiding of the fault,] Fault means blemish. STEEVENS. 2 Since all and every part of what we would,] Since the whole and each particular part of our wishes, &c. MALONE. 3 Some reafons of this double coronation

I have poffefs'd you with, and think them strong ;

And more, more ftrong, (when leffer is my fear,)

I fball indue you with:] Mr. Theobald reads (the leffer is my fear) which, in the following note, Dr. Johnfon has attempted to explain. STEEVENS.

I have told you fome reafons, in my opinion ftrong, and shall tell more yet fronger; for the stronger my reafons are, the less is my fear of your difapprobation. This feems to be the meaning.

And more, more ftrong, (when leffer is my fear,) I fhall indue you with:] The firft folio reads: -(then leffer is my fear)

The true reading is obvious enough:

(when leffer is my fear). TYRWHITT.

JOHNSON.

I have done this emendation the justice to place it in the text.

STEEVENS.

PEMB. Then I, (as one that am the tongue of

these,

To found the purposes of all their hearts,)
Both for myself and them, (but, chief of all,
Your fafety, for the which myself and them
Bend their best ftudies,) heartily request
The enfranchisement of Arthur; whofe restraint
Doth move the murmuring lips of discontent
To break into this dangerous argument,-
If, what in reft you have, in right you hold,
Why then your fears, (which, as they fay, attend
The steps of wrong,) fhould move you to mew up
Your tender kinsman," and to choke his days
With barbarous ignorance, and deny his youth

5 To found the purposes-] To declare, to publish the defires of all thofe. JOHNSON.

6

"If, what in reft you have, in right you hold,

Why then your fears, (which, as they fay, attend

The fteps of wrong,) fhould move you to mew up
Your tender kinfman, &c.] Perhaps we should read:
If, what in wreft you have, in right you hold,-

i. e. if what you poffefs by an act of seizure or violence, &c.
So again, in this play:

"The imminent decay of wrefted pomp."

[ocr errors]

Wreft is a fubftantive used by Spenfer, and by our author in Troilus and Crefida. STEEVENS.

The emendation propofed by Mr. Steevens is its own voucher. If then and should change places, and a mark of interrogation be placed after exercife, the full fenfe of the paffage will be restored. HENLEY.

Mr. Steevens's reading of wreft is better than his explanation. If adopted, the meaning muft be-If what you poffefs, or have in your hand, or grafp. RITSON.

It is evident that the words should and then, have changed their places. M. MASON.

The construction is-If you have a good title to what you now quietly poffefs, why then should your fears move you, &c. MALONE. Perhaps this question is elliptically expreffed, and means—

[ocr errors]

Why then is it that your fears should move you," &c.

STEEVENS.

The rich advantage of good exercise?"
That the time's enemies may not have this
To grace occafions, let it be our fuit,
That you have bid us afk his liberty;
Which for our goods we do no further ask,
Than whereupon our weal, on you depending,
Counts it your weal, he have his liberty.

K. JOHN. Let it be fo; I do commit his youth

Enter HUBERT.

To your direction.-Hubert, what news with you? PEMB. This is the man fhould do the bloody

deed;

He fhow'd his warrant to a friend of mine:

The image of a wicked heinous fault
Lives in his eye; that close aspéct of his
Does fhow the mood of a much-troubled breaft;
And I do fearfully believe, 'tis done,

What we fo fear'd he had a charge to do.

SAL. The colour of the king doth come and go, Between his purpofe and his confcience,

8

— good exercife?] In the middle ages the whole education of princes and noble youths confifted in martial exercises, &c. Thefe could not be eafily had in a prifon, where mental improvements might have been afforded as well as any where else; but this fort of education never entered into the thoughts of our active, warlike, but illiterate nobility. PERCY.

Between his purpofe and his confcience,] Between his confciousnefs of guilt, and his defign to conceal it by fair profeffions.

JOHNSON.

The purpose of the King, which Salisbury alludes to, is that of putting Arthur to death, which he confiders as not yet accomplished, and therefore fuppofes that there might still be a conflict in the King's mind,

"Between his purpofe and his confcience."

VOL. VIIL

K

« PreviousContinue »