Within me is a hell; and there the poison
Is, as a fiend, confin'd to tyrannize
On unreprievable condemned blood.

Enter the Bastard.

BAST. O, I am fcalded with my violent motion, And spleen of speed to fee your majesty.

K. JOHN. O coufin, thou art come to fet mine

eye:

The tackle of my heart is crack'd and burn'd;
And all the shrouds, wherewith my life fhould fail,
Are turned to one thread, one little hair:
My heart hath one poor ftring to stay it by,
Which holds but till thy news be uttered;
And then all this thou feeft, is but a clod,
And module of confounded royalty.'

BAST. The Dauphin is preparing hitherward; Where, heaven he knows, how we fhall answer him:

For, in a night, the best part of my power,

4 And all the shrouds,] Shakspeare here ufes the word hrouds in its true fenfe. The brouds are the great ropes, which come from each fide of the maft. In modern poetry the word frequently fignifies the fails of a fhip. MALONE.

This latter ufage of the word-shrouds, has hitherto escaped my notice. STEEVENS.

And module of confounded royalty.] Module and model, it has been already obferved, were in our author's time only different modes of fpelling the fame word. Model fignified not an archetype after which fomething was to be formed, but the thing formed after an archetype; and hence it is ufed by Shakspeare and his contemporaries for a reprefentation. So, in The London Prodigal, 1605:

"Dear copy of my husband! O let me kifs thee!

"How like him is this model?" See Vol. VI. p. 321, n. 5. MALONE.

[Kiffing a picture

As I upon advantage did remove,
Were in the washes, all unwarily,

Devoured by the unexpected flood." [The King dies.

SAL. You breathe these dead news in as dead an

ear.

My liege! my lord!-But now a king,—now thus.

P. HEN. Even fo muft I run on, and even fo ftop. What furety of the world, what hope, what stay, When this was now a king, and now is clay!

BAST. Art thou gone fo? I do but stay behind, To do the office for thee of revenge;

And then my foul fhall wait on thee to heaven,
As it on earth hath been thy fervant ftill.-

Now, now, you stars, that move in your right

spheres,

Where be your powers? Show now your mended faiths;

And inftantly return with me again,

To push deftruction, and perpetual fhame,
Out of the weak door of our fainting land:
Straight let us feek, or straight we shall be fought;
The Dauphin rages at our very heels.

SAL. It seems, you know not then so much as we:
The cardinal Pandulph is within at rest,
Who half an hour fince came from the Dauphin;
And brings from him fuch offers of our peace
As we with honour and refpect may take,
With purpose presently to leave this war.

BAST. He will the rather do it, when he fees Ourfelves well finewed to our defence.

6Were in the washes, all unwarily, &c.] This untoward accident really happened to King John himself. As he passed from Lynn to Lincolnshire, he loft by an inundation all his treasure, carriages, baggage, and regalia. MALONE.

SAL. Nay, it is in a manner done already;
For many carriages he hath despatch'd
To the feafide, and put his caufe and quarrel
To the difpofing of the cardinal:

With whom yourself, myself, and other lords,
you think meet, this afternoon will post

If

To cónfummate this bufinefs happily.

BAST. Let it be fo:-And you, my noble prince,
With other princes that may best be fpar'd,
Shall wait upon your father's funeral.

P. HEN. At Worcester muft his body be interr'd;
For fo he will'd it.

BAST.

Thither fhall it then.
And happily may your fweet felf put on
The lineal ftate and glory of the land!
To whom, with all fubmiffion, on my knee,
I do bequeath my faithful fervices

And true fubjection everlastingly.

SAL. And the like tender of our love we make,
To reft without a spot for evermore.

P. HEN. I have a kind foul, that would give you"
thanks,

And knows not how to do it, but with tears.
BAST. O, let us pay the time but needful woe,"
Since it hath been beforehand with our griefs.-

7

- that would give you-] You, which is not in the old copy, was added for the fake of the metre, by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. 8 let us pay the time but needful voe,

Since it hath been beforehand with our griefs.] Let us now indulge in forrow, fince there is abundant caufe for it. England has been long in a fcene of confufion, and its calamities have anticipated our tears. By thofe which we now shed, we only pay her what is her due. MALONE.

I believe the plain meaning of the paffage is this:-As previously we have found fufficient cause for lamentation, let us not waste the prefent time in fuperfluous forrow. STERVENS.

"

at Worcester mewt his body be interr'd, ]

was

autone coffin containing the Body of King John, discovered in the Cathedral Church of Worcester, July 17.1797. Steevens.

This England never did, (nor never shall,)
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror,
But when it first did help to wound itself.
Now these her princes are come home again,
Come the three corners of the world in arms,
And we shall shock them: Nought fhall make us
rue,

If England to itself do reft but true."

[Exeunt.,

1

9 If England to itself do reft but true.] This fentiment feems borrowed from the conclufion of the old play:

"If England's peers and people join in one,

"Nor pope, nor France, nor Spain, can do them wrong." Again, in K. Henry VI. Part III:

of itself

England is safe, if true within itself." STEEVENS.
Shakspeare's conclufion feems rather to have been borrowed
from thefe two lines of the old play:

"Let England live but true within itself,
"And all the world can never wrong her state."

MALONE.

Brother, brother, we may be both in the wrong;" this fentiment might originate from A Difcourfe of Rebellion, drawne forth for to warne the wanton Wittes how to kepe their Heads on their Shoulders, by T. Churchyard, 12mo, 1570:

A

"O Britayne bloud, marke this at my defire-
"If that you fticke together as you ought

"This lyttle yle may fet the world at nought."

STEEVENS.

The tragedy of King John, though not written with the utmost power of Shakspeare, is varied with a very pleafing interchange of incidents and characters. The lady's grief is very affecting; and the character of the Bastard contains that mixture of greatness and levity which this author delighted to exhibit. JOHNSON. This sentiment i A be traced still higher Andrew Borde in his "fyrst boke of the introduction of. knowledge BL Printed for Copland Seg. a 44," they

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