BAST. So, on my foul, he did, for aught he

knew.

But wherefore do you droop? why look you fad?
Be great in act, as you have been in thought;
Let not the world fee fear, and fad distrust,
Govern the motion of a kingly eye;

Be ftirring as the time; be fire with fire;
Threaten the threat'ner, and outface the brow
Of bragging horror: fo fhall inferior eyes,
That borrow their behaviours from the great,
Grow great by your example, and put on
The dauntless fpirit of refolution.'
Away; and glifter like the god of war,
When he intendeth to become the field:
Show boldness, and afpiring confidence.
What, fhall they feek the lion in his den?
And fright him there; and make him tremble there?
O, let it not be faid!-Forage, and run
To meet displeasure further from the doors;
And grapple with him, ere he come so nigh.

K. JOHN. The legate of the pope hath been with

me,

And I have made a happy peace with him;
And he hath promis'd to difmifs the powers
Led by the Dauphin.

BAST.

O inglorious league!

Shall we, upon the footing of our land,
Send fair-play orders, and make compromise,
Infinuation, parley, and bafe truce,

To arms invafive? fhall a beardless boy,

2

and put on

The dauntless fpirit of refolution.] So, in Macbeth:
"Let's briefly put on manly readiness,

"And meet i'the hall together." MALONE.

Forage, and run-] To forage is here used in its original

fenfe, for to range abroad. OHNSON.

A cocker'd filken wanton brave our fields,
And flesh his fpirit in a warlike foil,
Mocking the air with colours idly fpread,'
And find no check? Let us, my liege, to arms:
Perchance, the cardinal cannot make your peace;
Or if he do, let it at least be faid,

They faw we had a purpose of defence.

K. JOHN. Have thou the ordering of this prefent time.

BAST. Away then, with good courage; yet, I know,

Our party may well meet a prouder foe.* [Exeunt.

3 Mocking the air with colours idly spread,] He has the fame image in Macbeth:

"Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky,

"And fan our people cold." JoHNSON.

From these two paffages Mr. Gray feems to have formed the firft ftanza of his celebrated Ode:

"Ruin feize thee, ruthless king!
"Confufion on thy banners wait!

"Though fann'd by conqueft's crimson wing

They mock the air with idle ftate," MALONE.

4 Away then, with good courage; yet, I know,

Our party may well meet a prouder foe.] Let us then away with courage; yet I fo well know the faintnefs of our party, that I think it may eafily happen that they shall encounter enemies who have more Spirit than themselves. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnfon is, I believe, miftaken. Faulconbridge meansfor all their boafting, I know very well that our party is able to cope with one yet prouder and more confident of its ftrength than theirs. Faulconbridge would otherwise dispirit the King, whom he means to animate. STEEVENS.

SCENE II.

A Plain, near St. Edmund's-Bury.+

Enter, in arms, LEWIS, SALISBURY, MELUN, PEMBROKE, BIGOT, and Soldiers.

LEW. My lord Melun, let this be copied out, And keep it safe for our remembrance: Return the precedent' to thefe lords again; That, having our fair order written down, Both they, and we, perusing o'er these notes, May know wherefore we took the facrament, And keep our faiths firm and inviolable.

SAL. Upon our fides it never fhall be broken.
And, noble Dauphin, albeit we swear
A voluntary zeal, and unurg'd faith,

To your proceedings; yet, believe me, prince,
I am not glad that fuch a fore of time

4-near St. Edmund's-Bury.] I have ventured to fix the place of the scene here, which is fpecified by none of the editors, on the following authorities. In the preceding act, where Salisbury has fixed to go over to the Dauphin; he fays:

66

Lords, I will meet him at St. Edmund's-Bury,"

And Count Melun, in this laft act says:

and many more with me,

Upon the altar at St. Edmund's-Bury;
"Even on that altar, where we swore to you
"Dear amity, and everlasting love."

And it appears likewife from The Troublefome Reign of King John, in two parts, (the first rough model of this play,) that the interchange of vows betwixt the Dauphin and the English barons, was at St. Edmund's-Bury. THEOBALD.

5 the precedent, &c.] i. e. the rough draft of the original treaty between the Dauphin and the English lords. Thus (adds Mr. M. Mafon) in K. Richard III. the fcrivener employed to engrofs the indictment of Lord Haftings, fays, "that it took him eleven hours to write it, and that the precedent was full as long a doing." STEEVENS.

Should seek a plafter by contemn'd revolt,
And heal the inveterate canker of one wound,
By making many: O, it grieves my foul,
That I muft draw this metal from my
fide
To be a widow-maker; O, and there,
Where honourable refcue, and defence,
Cries out upon the name of Salisbury:
But fuch is the infection of the time,
That, for the health and phyfick of our right,
We cannot deal but with the very hand
Of stern injustice and confufed wrong.-
And is't not pity, O my grieved friends!
That we, the fons and children of this ifle,
Were born to fee fo fad an hour as this;
Wherein we step after a stranger march"
Upon her gentle bosom, and fill up
Her enemies' ranks, (I muft withdraw and weep
Upon the spot of this enforced caufe,)"
Το grace the gentry of a land remote,
And follow unacquainted colours here?

What, here?-O nation, that thou could'ft remove!
That Neptune's arms, who clippeth thee about,8
Would bear thee from the knowledge of thyfelf,
And grapple thee' unto a pagan fhore;'

6

- after a ftranger march-1 Our author often uses franger as an adjective. See the laft fcene. MALONE.

7

the fpot of this enforced caufe,] Spot probably means, flain or difgrace. M. MASON.

So, in a former paffage:

"To look into the Spots and ftains of right."

MALONE,

• —— clippeth thee about,] i. e. embraceth. So, in Coriolanus : "Enter the city; clip your wives." STEEVENS.

9 And grapple thee-] The old copy reads--And cripple thee, &c. Perhaps our author wrote gripple, a word ufed by Drayton in his Polyolbion, song 1:

"That thrusts his gripple hand into her golden maw."

Where these two Chriftian armies might combine
The blood of malice in a vein of league,
And not to-spend it fo unneighbourly!3

LEW. A noble temper doft thou fhow in this;
And great affections, wrestling in thy bosom,
Do make an earthquake of nobility.

O, what a noble combat haft thou fought,*
Between compulfion, and a brave refpect!'
Let me wipe off this honourable dew,
That filverly doth progrefs on thy cheeks:

Our author, however, in Macbeth has the verb grapple: Grapples thee to the heart and love of us. The emendation (as Mr. Malone obferves) was made by Mr. Pope. STEEVENS.

2

unto a pagan fore;] Our author feems to have been thinking on the wars carried on by Chriftian princes in the holy land against the Saracens; where the united armies of France and England might have laid their mutual animofities afide, and fought in the caufe of Chrift, instead of fighting against brethren and countrymen, as Salisbury and the other English noblemen who had joined the Dauphin, were about to do. MALONE.

3 And not to-fpend it fo unneighbourly!] This is one of many paffages, in which Shakspeare concludes a fentence without attending to the manner in which the former part of it is conftructed. MALONE.

Shak fpeare only employs in the prefent inftance a phrafeology which he had ufed before in The Merry Wives of Windfor:

"And, fairy-like, to-pinch the unclean-knight." To, in compofition with verbs, is common enough in ancient language. See Mr. Tyrwhitt's obfervations on this laft paffage, and my inftances in fupport of his pofition, Vol. III. p. 461. n. 5. STEEVENS.

-haft thou fought,] Thou, which appears to have been accidentally omitted by the tranfcriber or compofitor, was inferted by the editor of the fourth folio. MALONE.

5 Between compulfion, and a brave refpe&!] This compulfion was the neceffity of a reformation in the state; which, according to Salisbury's opinion (who, in his fpeech preceding, calls it an enforced caufe,) could only be procured by foreign arms: and the brave refpect was the love of his country. WARBURTON.