1

CONST. O Lewis, ftand faft; the devil tempts thee here,

In likeness of a new untrimmed bride.*

the devil tempts thee here,

In likeness of a new untrimmed bride.] Though all the copies concur in this reading, yet as untrimmed cannot bear any fignification to fquare with the fenfe required, I cannot help thinking it a corrupted reading. I have ventured to throw out the negative, and read:

In likeness of a new and trimmed bride.

i. e. of a new bride, and one decked and adorned as well by art as nature. THEOBALD.

Mr. Theobald fays, "that as untrimmed cannot bear any fignification to fquare with the fenfe required," it must be corrupt; therefore he will cashier it, and read—and trimmed; in which he is followed by the Oxford editor; but they are both too hafty. It fquares very well with the fenfe, and fignifies unfteady. The term is taken from navigation. We fay too, in a fimilar way of speaking, not well manned. WARBURTON.

I think Mr. Theobald's correction more plaufible than Dr. Warburton's explanation. A commentator fhould be grave, and therefore I can read these notes with proper feverity of attention; but the idas

BLANCH. The lady Conftance fpeaks not from her faith,

But from her need.

this epithet he infers from the hafte in which the match was made, and further juftifies it from King John's preceding words:

"Go we, as well as bafte will fuffer us,

"To this unlook'd for, unprepared pomp."

Mr. Tollet is of the fame opinion, and offers two inftances in which untrimmed indicates a defhabille or a frugal vefture. In Minfheu's Dictionary, it fignifies one not finely dressed or attired. Again, in Vives's Inftruction of a Chriftian Woman, 1592, p. 98 and 99: "Let her [the mistress of the houfe] bee content with a maide not faire and wanton, that can fing a ballad with a clere voice, but fad, pale, and untrimmed." STEEVENS.

I incline to think that the transcriber's ear deceived him, and that we should read, as Mr. Theobald has propofed,

a new and trimmed bride.

The following passage in King Henry IV. P. I. appears to me ftrongly to fupport his conjecture:

"When I was dry with rage, and extreme toil,—

"Came there a certain lord, neat, trimly dress'd,
"Fresh as a bridegroom

Again, more appofitely, in Romeo and Juliet:

Go, waken Juliet; go, and trim her
"Make hafte; the bridegroom he is come already."

Again, in Cymbeline :

and forget

"Your labourfome and dainty trims, wherein
"You made great Juno angry."

Again, in our author's Venus and Adonis:

"The flowers are fweet, their colours fresh and trim-." The freshness which our author has connected with the word trim, in the first and last of these paffages, and the "labourfome and dainty trims that made great Juno angry," which furely a bride may be fuppofed most likely to indulge in, (however scantily Blanch's toilet may have been furnished in a camp,) prove, either that this emendation is right, or that Mr. Collins's interpretation of the word untrimmed is the true one. Minfhieu's definition of untrimmed, "qui n'eft point orné,—inornatus, incultus," as well as his explanation of the verb "to trim," which, according to him, means the fame as "to prank up," may alfo be adduced to the fame point. See his DICT. 1617. Mr. M. Mafon juftly obferves, that "to trim means to dress out, but not to clothe; and confequently, though it might mean unadorned, it cannot mean unclad, or naked.”

MALONE,

CONST.

O, if thou grant my need, Which only lives but by the death of faith, That need muft needs infer this principle, That faith would live again by death of need; O, then, tread down my need, and faith mounts up;

Keep my need up, and faith is trodden down.

K. JOHN. The king is mov'd, and answers not to

this.

CONST. O, be remov'd from him, and answer well.

AUST. Do fo, king Philip; hang no more in doubt.

BAST. Hang nothing but a calf's-fkin, moft fweet lout.

K. PHI. I am perplex'd, and know not what to

fay.

PAND. What can't thou fay, but will perplex thee more,

If thou ftand excommunicate, and curs'd?

K. PHI. Good reverend father, make my perfon

yours,

And tell me, how you would bestow yourself.
This royal hand and mine are newly knit;
And the conjunction of our inward fouls
Married in league, coupled and link'd together
With all religious ftrength of facred vows;
The latest breath, that gave the found of words,
Was deep-fworn faith, peace, amity, true love,
Between our kingdoms, and our royal felves;
And even before this truce, but new before,—
No longer than we well could wash our hands,
To clap this royal bargain up of peace,-

Heaven knows, they were befmear'd and over

ftain'd

With flaughter's pencil; where revenge did paint
The fearful difference of incensed kings:

And shall these hands, fo lately purg'd of blood,
So newly join'd in love, fo ftrong in both,'
Unyoke this feizure, and this kind regreet?"
Play faft and loose with faith? fo jeft with heaven,
Make fuch unconftant children of ourselves,
As now again to fnatch our palm from palm;
Unfwear faith fworn; and on the marriage bed
Of fmiling peace to march a bloody hoft,
And make a riot on the gentle brow
Of true fincerity? O holy fir,

My reverend father, let it not be so:
Out of your grace, devife, ordain, impose
Some gentle order; and then we fhall be blefs'd
To do your pleasure, and continue friends.

PAND. All form is formless, order orderlefs, Save what is oppofite to England's love. Therefore, to arms! be champion of our church! Or let the church, our mother, breathe her curse, A mother's curfe, on her revolting fon.

France, thou may'ft hold a ferpent by the tongue, A cafed lion by the mortal paw,

5 -Softrong in both,] I believe the meaning is, love so strong in both parties. JOHNSON.

6

Rather, in hatred and in love; in deeds of amity or blood. HENLEY. this kind regreet?] A regreet is an exchange of falutation. So, in Heywood's Iron Age, 1632:

"So bear our kind regrets to Hecuba." STEEVENS.

A cafed lion-] The modern editors read-a chafed lion. I fee little reason for change. A cafed lion is a lion irritated by confinement. So, in King Henry VI. P. III. A&t I. fc. iii : "So looks the pent-up lion o'er the wretch

"That trembles under his devouring paws;" &c.

STEEVENS.

Again, in Rowley's When you fee me you know me, 1621: "The lyon in his cage is not fo fterne

"As royal Henry in his wrathful fpleene."

A fafting tiger fafer by the tooth,

Than keep in peace that hand which thou doft hold. K. PHI. I may disjoin my hand, but not my

faith.

PAND. So mak'st thou faith an enemy to faith; And, like a civil war, fet'ft oath to oath, Thy tongue against thy tongue. O, let thy vow First made to heaven, first be to heaven perform'd; That is, to be the champion of our church! What fince thou fwor'ft, is fworn against thyself, And may not be performed by thyself: For that, which thou haft fworn to do amifs, Is not amifs, when it is truly done;'

Our author was probably thinking on the lions, which in his time, as at prefent, were kept in the Tower, in dens fo fmall as fully to juftify the epithet he has ufed. MALONE.

8 Is not amifs, when it is truly done;] This is a conclufion de travers. We should read:

Is yet amifs,

The Oxford editor, according to his usual custom, will improve it further, and reads-moft amifs. WARBURTON.

I rather read:

Is't not amifs, when it is truly done?

as the alteration is lefs, and the fenfe which Dr. Warburton firft difcovered is preferved. JOHNSON.

The old copies read:

Is not amifs, when it is truly done,

Pandulph, having conjured the King to perform his first vow to heaven, to be champion of the church,-tells him, that what he has fince fworn is fworn against himself, and therefore may not be performed by him: for that, fays he, which you have fworn to do amifs, is not amifs, (i. e, becomes right) when it is done truly (that is, as he explains it, not done at all;) and being not done, where it would be a fin to do it, the truth is most done when you do it not. So, in Love's Labour's Loft:

"It is religion to be thus forfworn." RITSON.