!

BAST.
Go, bear him in thine arms.
I am amaz'd,' methinks; and lofe my way
Among the thorns and dangers of this world.-
How eafy doft thou take all England up!
From forth this morfel of dead royalty,

3

The life, the right, and truth of all this realm
Is fled to heaven; and England now is left
To tug, and scamble, and to part by the teeth
The unowed intereft of proud-fwelling state.
Now, for the bare-pick'd bone of majesty,
Doth dogged war briftle his angry creft,
And fnarleth in the gentle eyes of peace:
Now powers from home, and difcontents at home,
Meet in one line; and vaft confufion waits
(As doth a raven on a fick-fallen beast,)
The imminent decay of wrefted pomp.+
Now happy he, whofe cloak and cincture' can
Hold out this tempeft. Bear away that child,
And follow me with fpeed; I'll to the king:
A thousand bufineffes are brief, in hand,
And heaven itself doth frown upon the land. [Exeunt.

9 I am amaz'd,] i. e. confounded. So, King John, p. 133, fays:
I was amaz'd

"Under the tide." STEEVENS.

2 To tug, and fcamble,] So, in K. Henry V. fc. i:

"But that the fcambling and unquiet time."

Scamble and feramble have the fame meaning. See note on the paffage quoted. STEEVENS.

3 The unowed interest-] i. e. the intereft which has no proper owner to claim it. STEEVENS.

That is, the intereft which is not at this moment legally possessed by any one, however rightfully entitled to it. On the death of Arthur, the right to the English crown devolved to his fifter, Eleanor.

MALONE.

4 The imminent decay of wrefted pomp.] Wrefted pomp is greatness obtained by violence. JOHNSON.

Rather, greatnefs wrefted from its poffeffor. MALONE.

5- and cincture-] The old copy reads-center, probably for ceinture, Fr. STEEVENS.

The emendation was made by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

bc. X.
k-497.

ACT V.
ст

SCENE I.

The fame. A Room in the Palace.

Enter King JoHN, PANDULPH with the Crown, and

Attendants.

K. JOHN. Thus have I yielded up into your hand The circle of my glory.

PAND.

Take again

[Giving JOHN the Crown.

From this my hand, as holding of the pope
Your fovereign greatness and authority.

K. JOHN. Now keep your holy word: go meet

the French;

And from his holiness use all your power
To stop their marches, 'fore we are inflam'd."
Our difcontented counties' do revolt;
Our people quarrel with obedience;
Swearing allegiance, and the love of foul,
To ftranger blood, to foreign royalty.
This inundation of mistemper'd humour
Refts by you only to be qualified.

Then paufe not; for the prefent time's fo fick,

ufe all your power

Toftop their marches, 'fore we are inflam'd.] This cannot be right, for the nation was already as much inflamed as it could be, and fo the King himself declares. We fhould read for instead of 'fore, and then the paffage will run thus:

7

ufe all your power

Toftop their marches, for we are inflam'd;

Our difcontented counties do revolt, &c. M. MASON.

counties-] Perhaps counties, in the prefent inftance, do not mean the divifions of a kingdom, but lords, nobility, as in Romeo and Juliet, Much ado, &c. STEEVENS.

That prefent medicine must be minifter'd,
Or overthrow incurable enfues.

PAND. It was my breath that blew this tempeft up,
Upon your stubborn ufage of the pope:
But, fince you are a gentle convertite,"

My tongue fhall hush again this storm of war,
And make fair weather in your blustering land.

- a gentle convertite,] A convertite is a convert.

Marlow's Jew of Malta, 1633:

So, in

"Gov. Why, Barabas, wilt thou be christened? "Bar. No, governour; I'll be no convertite." STEEVENS. The fame expreffion occurs in As you Like it, where Jaques, fpeaking of the young Duke, fays:

"There is much matter in these convertites." In both thefe places, the word convertite means a repenting finner; not, as Steevens fays, a convert, by which, in the language of the prefent time, is meant a person who changes from one religion to another; in which fenfe the word could neither apply to K. John, or to Duke Frederick: In the fense I have given it, it will apply to both. M. MASON.

A convertite (a word often used by our old writers, where we should now ufe convert,) fignified either, one converted to the faith, or one reclaimed from worldly pursuits, and devoted to penitence and religion.

Mr. M. Mafon fays, a convertite cannot mean a convert, because the latter word" in the language of the prefent time means a perfon that changes from one religion to another." But the question is, not what is the language of the prefent time, but what was the language of Shakspeare's age. Marlowe ufes the word convertite exactly in the fenfe now affixed to convert. John, who had in the former part of this play afferted in very ftrong terms the fupremacy of the king of England in all ecclefiaftical matters, and told Pandulph that he had no reverence for "the Pope or his ufurp'd authority," having now made his peace with the holy church," and refigned his crown to the Pope's representative, is confidered by the legate as one newly converted to the true faith, and very properly ftyled by him a convertite. The fame term, in the fecond fenfe above mentioned, is applied to the ufurper, Duke Frederick, in As you Like it, on his having "put on a religious life, and thrown into neglect the pompous court":

66

out of thefe convertites

"There is much matter to be heard and learn'd."

MALONE.

On this Afcenfion-day, remember well,
Upon your oath of fervice to the pope,
Go I to make the French lay down their arms.

[Exit. K. JOHN. Is this Afcenfion-day? Did not the prophet

Say, that, before Afcenfion-day at noon,
My crown I should give off? Even fo I have:
I did suppose, it should be on constraint;
But, heaven be thank'd, it is but voluntary.

Enter the Bastard.

BAST. All Kent hath yielded; nothing there holds

out,

But Dover castle: London hath receiv'd,
Like a kind host, the Dauphin and his powers:
Your nobles will not hear you, but are gone
To offer fervice to your enemy;

And wild amazement hurries up and down
The little number of your doubtful friends.

K. JOHN. Would not my lords return to me again, After they heard young Arthur was alive?

BAST. They found him dead, and caft into the streets;

An empty casket, where the jewel of life 8

By fome damn'd hand was robb'd and ta'en away. K. JOHN. That villain Hubert told me, he did

live.

8 An empty casket, where the jewel of life-] Dryden has tranfferred this image to a fpeech of Antony, in All for Love:

"An empty circle, fince the jewel's gone

STEEVENS.

The fame kind of imagery is employed in K. Richard II:

BAST. So, on my foul, he did, for aught he

knew.

But wherefore do you droop? why look you fad?
Be great in act, as you have been in thought;
Let not the world fee fear, and fad diftruft,
Govern the motion of a kingly eye:

Be ftirring as the time; be fire with fire;
Threaten the threat'ner, and outface the brow
Of bragging horror: fo fhall inferior eyes,
That borrow their behaviours from the great,
Grow great by your example, and put on
The dauntless spirit of refolution."
Away; and glifter like the god of war, x
When he intendeth to become the field:
Show boldness, and afpiring confidence.
What, fhall they feek the lion in his den,
And fright him there and make him tremble there?
O, let it not be faid-Forage, and run 2
To meet displeasure further from the doors;
And grapple with him, ere he come fo nigh.

K. JOHN. The legate of the pope hath been with

me,

And I have made a happy peace with him;
And he hath promis'd to difmifs the powers
Led by the Dauphin.

BAST.

O inglorious league!

Shall we, upon the footing of our land,
Send fair-play orders, and make compromife,
Infinuation, parley, and base truce,

To arms invasive? fhall a beardless boy,

2

and put on

The dauntless fpirit of refolution.] So, in Macbeth:
"Let's briefly put on manly readiness,

"And meet i'the hall together." MALONE.

Forage, and run-] To forage is here used in its original

fenfe, for to range abroad. JOHNSON.

x X — to become the field ] So in Hamlet: such a sight as this

Becomes the field." Stromary.