All things, that you should use to do me wrong, Deny their office: only you do lack

That mercy, which fierce fire, and iron, extends, Creatures of note for mercy-lacking uses.

2

HUB. Well, fee to live; I will not touch thine

eyes

For all the treasure that thine uncle owes:
Yet am I fworn, and I did purpose, boy,
With this fame very iron to burn them out.

ARTH. O, now you look like Hubert! all this while You were disguised.

HUB.
Peace: no more. Adieu;
Your uncle muft not know but you are dead:
I'll fill these dogged fpies with falfe reports.
And, pretty child, fleep doubtlefs, and secure,
That Hubert, for the wealth of all the world,
Will not offend thee.

ARTH.

O heaven!-I thank you, Hubert.

HUB. Silence; no more: Go closely in with me;' Much danger do I undergo for thee. [Exeunt.

2fee to live;] The meaning is not, I believe,-keep your eye-fight, that you may live (for he might have lived though. blind). The words, agreeably to a common idiom of our language, mean, I conceive, no more than live. MALONE.

See to live means only-Continue to enjoy the means of life.

STEEVENS.

On further confideration of these words, I believe the author meant, " Well, live, and live with the means of seeing; that is, with your eyes uninjured." MALONE.

3-Go closely in with me;] i. e. fecretly, privately. So, in Albumazar, 1610. Act III. fc. i:

"I'll entertain him here, mean while, fteal you

Clofely into the room," &c.

Again, in The Atheist's Tragedy, 1612, A& IV. fc. i:

"Enter Frifco clafely."

Again, in Sir Henry Wotton's Parallel:

"That when he was free from reftraint, he fhould closely take an out lodging at Greenwich." REED.

The fame.

SCENE

II.

A Room of ftate in the Palace.

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

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.

5 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 way. MALONE.

his

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

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

JOHNSON.

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 course of thoughts to fetch about;
Startles and frights confideration;

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

PEMB. When workmen ftrive to do better than

well,

They do confound their skill in covetoufnefs:
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 drowfy man."

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 most 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 stand at what your highness will.

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

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

9 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 withes, &c. MALONE.

3 Some reafons of this double coronation

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

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

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

I have told you fome reafons, in my opinion ftrong, and shall tell more yet ftronger; for the ftronger 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 thefe,

5

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 studies,) heartily request
The enfranchisement of Arthur; whose 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 steps 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 feizure or violence, &c.
So again, in this play:

The imminent decay of wrefted pomp."

Wreft is a fubftantive used by Spenfer, and by our author in Troilus and Creffida. 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 exercise, the full sense 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 grasp. RITSON.

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

The conftruction 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——

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

STEEVENS.