K. JOHN. Thou idle dreamer, wherefore didft thou fo?

PETER. Foreknowing that the truth will fall out fo. K. JOHN. Hubert, away with him; imprison him; And on that day at noon, whereon, he says, I fhall yield up my crown, let him be hang'd: Deliver him to fafety, and return,

For I must use thee.-O my gentle coufin,

[Exit HUBERT, with Peter. Hear'st thou the news abroad, who are arriv'd? BAST. The French, my lord; men's mouths are full of it:

Befides, I met lord Bigot, and lord Salisbury,
(With eyes as red as new-enkindled fire,)
And others more, going to seek the grave
Of Arthur, who, they fay, is kill'd to-night
On your fuggestion.

K. JOHN.

Gentle kinfman, go,

And thrust thyself into their companies:
I have a way to win their loves again;
Bring them before me.

BAST.

I will seek them out.

K. JOHN. Nay, but make hafte; the better foot

before.

O, let me have no fubject enemies,

When adverse foreigners affright my towns
With dreadful pomp of ftout invafion!-
Be Mercury, fet feathers to thy heels;
And fly, like thought, from them to me again.
BAST. The spirit of the time fhall teach me speed.

[Exit.

7 Deliver him to fafety,] That is, Give him into fafe cuftody.

JOHNSON.

8

who, they fay,] Old copy-whom. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

K. JOHN. Spoke like a fpriteful noble gentle

man.

Go after him; for he, perhaps, shall need
Some meffenger betwixt me and the peers;
And be thou he.

MESS.

With all my heart, my liege.

K. JOHN. My mother dead!

Re-enter HUBERT.

[Exit.

HUB. My lord, they fay, five moons were seen

to-night:"

Four fixed; and the fifth did whirl about

The other four, in wond'rous motion.

K. JOHN. Five moons?

HUB.

in the streets

Old men, and beldams,

Do prophecy upon it dangerously:

Young Arthur's death is common in their mouths:
And when they talk of him, they shake their heads,
And whisper one another in the ear;

And he, that speaks, doth gripe the hearer's wrift;
Whilft he, that hears, makes fearful action,

With wrinkled brows, with nods, with rolling eyes.
I faw a smith ftand with his hammer, thus,
The whilft his iron did on the anvil cool,
With open mouth fwallowing a tailor's news;
Who, with his fhears and measure in his hand,

-five moons were feen to-night: &c.] This incident is mentioned by few of our hiftorians: I have met with it no where but in Matthew of Westminster and Polydore Virgil, with a small alteration. Thefe kind of appearances were more common about that time than either before or fince. GREY.

This incident is likewife mentioned in the old King John.

STEEVENS,

し

Standing on flippers, (which his nimble hafte
Had falfely thrust upon contráry feet,)9

9 -flippers, (which his nimble hafte

Had falfely thrust upon contráry feet,)] I know not how the commentators understand this important paffage, which in Dr. Warburton's edition is marked as eminently beautiful, and, on the whole, not without juftice. But Shakspeare feems to have confounded the man's fhoes with his gloves. He that is frighted or hurried may put his hand into the wrong glove, but either shoe will equally admit either foot. The author feems to be difturbed by the diforder which he defcribes. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnson forgets that ancient flippers might poffibly be very different from modern ones. Scott in his Difcoverie of Witchcraft tells us: "He that receiveth a mifchance, will confider, whether he put not on his fhirt the wrong fide outwards, or his left hoe on his right foot." One of the jets of Scogan, by Andrew Borde is how he defrauded two fhoemakers, one of a right foot boot, and the other of a left foot one. And Davies in one of his epigrams, compares a man to" a foft-knit hofe that ferves each leg."

FARMER.

This fel

In The Fleire, 1615, is the following paffage: low is like your upright foe, he will ferve either foot." From this we may infer that fome fhoes could only be worn on the foot for which they were made. And Barrett in his Alvearie, 1580, as an inftance of the word wrong, fays: to put on his booes wrong." Again, in A merye Feft of a man that was called Howleglas, bl. 1. no date: "Howleglas had cut all the lether for the lefte foote. Then when his mafter fawe all his lether cut for the lefte foote, then afked he Howleglas if there belonged not to the lefte fcote a right foote. Then fayd Howleglas to his maister, If that he had tolde that to me before, I would have cut them; but an it please you I fhall cut as mani right hoone unto them." Again, in Frobisher's fecond Voyage for the discoverie of Cataia, 4to. bl. 1. 1578: They alfo beheld (to their great maruaile) a dublet of canuas made after the Englishe fashion, a fhirt, a girdle, three fhoes for contrarie feet," &c. p. 21. STEEVENS.

See Martin's Defcription of the Western Islands of Scotland, 1703, P. 207: "The generality now only wear fhoes having one thin fole only, and shaped after the right and left foot, fo that what is for one foot will not ferve the other." The meaning feems to be, that the extremities of the fhoes were not round or fquare, but were cut in an oblique angle, or aflant from the great toe to the little one. See likewife, The Philofophical Tranfactions abridged,

Told of a many thousand warlike French,
That were embatteled and rank'd in Kent:
Another lean unwash'd artificer

Cuts off his tale, and talks of Arthur's death.

K. JOHN. Why feek'st thou to poffefs me with these fears?

2

Why urgeft thou fo oft young Arthur's death? Thy hand hath murder'd him: I had mighty cause * To wish him dead, but thou hadst none to kill him. HUB. Had none, my lord!' why, did you not pro

voke me?

K. JOHN. It is the curfe of kings,* to be attended By flaves, that take their humours for a warrant To break within the bloody house of life:

Vol. III. p. 432, and Vol. VII. p. 23, where are exhibited shoes and fandals fhaped to the feet, fpreading more to the outside than the infide. TOLLET.

- if in a

So, in Holland's translation of Suetonius, 1606: “ morning his fhoes were put one [r. on] wrong, and namely the left for the right, he held it unlucky." Our author himself alfo furnishes an authority to the fame point. Speed in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, fpeaks of a left fhoe. It fhould be remembered that tailors generally work barefooted: a circumstance which Shakfpeare probably had in his thoughts when he wrote this paffage. I believe the word contrary in his time was frequently accented on the fecond fyllable, and that it was intended to be fo accented here. So Spenfer, in his Faery Queen:

2

"That with the wind contrary courfes few," MALONE.

I had mighty caufe-] The old copy, more redundantly, I had a mighty caufe. STEEVENS.

3 Had none, my lord!] Old copy-No had. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

4 It is the curfe of kings, &c.] This plainly hints at Davifon's cafe, in the affair of Mary Queen of Scots, and fo must have been inferted long after the first representation. WARBURton.

It is extremely probable that our author meant to pay his court to Elizabeth by this covert apology for her conduct to Mary. The Queen of Scots was beheaded in 1587, fome years, I believe, before he had produced any play on the ftage. MALONE.

And, on the winking of authority,

To understand a law; to know the meaning
Of dangerous majesty, when, perchance, it frowns
More upon humour than advis'd refpect.4

HUB. Here is your hand and feal for what I did.

K. JOHN. O, when the last account 'twixt heaven and earth

Is to be made, then fhall this hand and feal
Witness against us to damnation!

How oft the fight of means to do ill deeds,
Makes deeds ill done! Hadeft not thou been by,
A fellow by the hand of nature mark'd,
Quoted, and fign'd, to do a deed of shame,
This murder had not come into my mind:
But, taking note of thy abhorr'd afpéct,
Finding thee fit for bloody villainy,
Apt, liable, to be employ'd in danger,
I faintly broke with thee of Arthur's death;
And thou, to be endeared to a king,

Made it no confcience to deftroy a prince.
HUB. My lord,

K. JOHN. Hadft thou but fhook thy head," or made a pause,

advis'd refpect.] i. e. deliberate confideration, reflection. So, in Hamlet:

There's the refpe&

"That makes calamity of fo long life." STEEVENS.
Quoted,] i. c. obferved, diftinguifh'd. So, in Hamlet:
"I am forry, that with better heed and judgement
"I had not quoted him." STEEVENS.

See Vol. V. p. 277, n. 8. MALONE.

6 Hadft thou but book thy head, &c.] There are many touches of nature in this conference of John with Hubert. A man engaged in wickednefs would keep the profit to himself, and transfer the guilt to his accomplice. Thefe reproaches vented against Hubert are not the words of art or policy, but the eruptions of a mind