And on our actions fet the name of right, PAND. It may lie gently at the foot of peace, LEW. Your grace fhall pardon me, I will not back; I am too high-born to be propertied, Or useful ferving-man, and inftrument, To any fovereign ftate throughout the world. 8 You taught me how to know the face of right, Acquainted me with intereft to this land,] This was the phrafeology of Shakspeare's time. So again, in King Henry IV. Part II: "He hath more worthy intereft to the state, "Than thou the fhadow of fucceffion." Again, in Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire, Vol. II. p. 927: "in 4. R. 2. he had a release from Rose the daughter' and heir of Sir John de Arden before specified, of all her intereft to the manor of Pedimore." MALONE. His peace with Rome? What is that peace to me? Because that John hath made his peace with Rome? Am I Rome's flave? What penny hath Rome borne, What men provided, what munition fent, Sweat in this business, and maintain this war? PAND. You look but on the outside of this work. -as I have bank'd their towns ?] Bank'd their towns may mean, thrown up entrenchments before them. The old play of K. John, however, leaves this interpretation extremely difputable. It appears from thence that these falutations were given to the Dauphin as he failed along the banks of the river. This, I fuppofe, Shakspeare calls banking the towns. from the hollow holes of Thamefis "Echo apace replied, Vive le roi! "From thence along the wanton rolling glade, We ftill fay to coaft and to flank; and to bank has no lefs of pro priety, though it is not reconciled to us by modern ufage. STEEVENS. 2 No, on my foul,] In the old copy, no, injuriously to the meafure, is repeated. STEEVENS. Before I drew this gallant head of war, Enter the Baftard, attended. BAST. According to the fair play of the world, PAND. The Dauphin is too wilful-oppofite, BAST. By all the blood that ever fury breath'd, drew this gallant head of war,] i. e. affembled it, drew it out into the field. So, in King Henry IV. P. I: "And that his friends by deputation could not "So foon be drawn." STEEVENS. 9 outlook-] i. e. face down, bear down by a show of magnanimity. In a former fcene of this play, we have: 2 outface the brow "Of bragging horror." STEEVENS. and reafon too,] Old copy-to. Corrected by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. 3 This unhair'd faucinefs, and boyish troops,] The printed copies--unheard; but unheard is an epithet of very little force The king doth smile at; and is well prepar'd That hand, which had the ftrength, even at your door, To cudgel you, and make you take the hatch; + or meaning here; befides, let us obferve how it is coupled. Faulconbridge is fneering at the Dauphin's invafion, as an unadvised enterprize, favouring of youth and indifcretion; the refult of childifhnefs, and unthinking rafhnefs; and he seems altogether to dwell on this character of it, by calling his preparation boyish troops, dwarfish war, pigmy arms, &c. which, according to my emendation, fort very well with unhair'd, i. e. unbearded fauciness. THEOBALD. Hair was formerly written hear. Hence the mistake might easily happen. Faulconbridge has already in this act exclaimed, "Shall a beardless boy, "A cocker'd filken wanton, brave our fields?" So, in the fifth act of Macbeth, Lenox tells Cathness that the English army is near, in which he fays, there are many unrough youths, that even now "Proteft their first of manhood.” Again, in King Henry V: To tak So, "For who is he, whofe chin is but enrich'd "With one appearing hair, that will not follow MALONE. -take the hatch;] To take the hatch, is to leap the hatch. cufton concea Con in pla To hug with fwine; to feek sweet safety out Of LEW. There end thy brave, and turn thy face in 7 of your nation's crow,] Mr. Pope, and fome of the subfequent editors, read our nation's crow; not observing, that the Baftard is fpeaking of John's atchievements in France. He likewife reads in the next line-his voice; but this voice, the voice or caw of the French crow, is fufficiently clear. MALONE. -your nation's crow,] i. e. at the crowing of a cock; gallus meaning both a cock and a Frenchman. DOUCE. 8 like an eagle o'er his aiery towers,] An aiery is the neft of an eagle. So, in King Richard III: "Our aiery buildeth in the cedar's top." STEEVENS. 9 Their neelds to lances,] So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream: "Have with our neelds created both one flower." Fairfax has the fame contraction of the word-needle. STEEVENS. In the old copy the word is contractedly written needl's, but it was certainly intended to be pronounced neelds, as it is frequently written in old English books. Many diffyllables are ufed by Shakspeare and other writers as monofyllables, as whether, Spirit, &c. though they generally appear at length in the original editions of thefe plays. MALONE. |