Been fworn my foldier? bidding me depend 5 daff it for shame,] To doff is to do off, to put off. So, in Fuimus Troes, 1633: "Sorrow must doff her fable weeds." STEEVENS. • And hang a calf's-fkin on those recreant limbs.] When fools were kept for diverfion in great families, they were distinguished by a calf's-fkin coat, which had the buttons down the back; and this they wore that they might be known for fools, and escape the refentment of thofe whom they provoked with their waggeries. In a little penny book, intitled The Birth, Life, and Death of John Franks, with the Pranks he played though a meer Foal, mention is made in feveral places of a calf's-fkin. In chap. x. of this book, Jack is faid to have made his appearance at his lord's table, having then a new calf-fkin, red and white fpotted. This fact will explain the farcafm of Conftance and Faulconbridge, who mean to call Auftria a fool. SIR J. HAWKINS. I may add, that the cuftom is ftill preferved in Ireland; and the fool in any of the legends which the mummers act at Christmas, always appears in a calf's or cow's fkin. In the prologue to Wily Beguiled, are the two following paffages: "I'll make him do penance upon the stage in a calf's-skin.” Again: "His calf's-fkin jests from hence are clean exil❜d.” Again, in the play : "I'll come wrapp'd in a calf's-skin, and cry bo, bo.”— Again: I'll wrap me in a roufing calf-fkin fuit, and come like fome Hobgoblin.""I mean my Christmas calf's-fkin suit.” STEEVENS. It does not appear that Conftance means to call Auftria a fool, as Sir John Hawkins would have it; but the certainly means to call him coward, and to tell him that a calf's-fkin would fuit his recreant limbs better than a lion's. They ftill fay of a daftardly perfon that he is a calf-hearted fellow; and a run-away fchool boy is ufually called a great calf. RITSON. The speaker in the play [Wily Beguiled] is Robin Goodfellow. Perhaps, as has been fuggefted, Conftance, by cloathing Auftria in a calf's-fkin, means only to infinuate that he is a coward. word recreant seems to favour fuch a fuppofition. MALONE. The AUST. O, that a man should speak those words to me! BAST. And hang a calf's-fkin on those recreant limbs. AUST. Thou dar'ft not fay fo, villain, for thy life. BAST. And hang a calf's-fkin on those recreant limbs. K. JOHN. We like not this; thou doft forget thyfelf. 7 Here Mr. Pope inferts the following fpeeches from the old play of King John, printed in 1591, before Shakspeare appears to have commenced a writer: Auft. Methinks, that Richard's pride, and Richard's fall, "Should be a precedent to fright you all. "Faule. What words are these? how do my finews shake! My father's foe clad in my father's spoil! "How doth Alecto whisper in my ears, Delay not, Richard, kill the villain ftraight; Thy father's triumph o'er the favages!— "Now by his foul I fwear, my father's foul, "Twice will I not review the morning's rife, "Till I have torn that trophy from thy back, "And split thy heart for wearing it fo long." STEEVENS. I cannot by any means approve of the infertion of these lines from the other play. If they were neceffary to explain the ground of the Baftard's quarrel to Auftria, as Mr. Pope fuppofes, they fhould rather be inserted in the first scene of the second act, at the time of the firft altercation between the Bastard and Auftria. But indeed the ground of their quarrel feems to be as clearly expressed in the first scene as in thefe lines; fo that they are unnecessary in either place; and therefore, I think, fhould be thrown out of the text, as well as the three other lines, which have been inferted with as little reason in Act III. fc. ii: Thus hath king Richard's, &c. TYRWHITT. Enter PANDULPH. K. PHI. Here comes the holy legate of the pope. PAND. Hail, you anointed deputies of heaven!To thee, king John, my holy errand is. I Pandulph, of fair Milan cardinal, Why thou against the church, our holy mother, K. JOHN. What earthly name to interrogatories, Can task the free breath of a facred king? 8 What earthly, &c.] This must have been at the time when it was written, in our ftruggles with popery, a very captivating scene. So many paffages remain in which Shakspeare evidently takes his advantage of the facts then recent, and of the paffions then in motion, that I cannot but fufpect that time has obfcured much of his art, and that many allufions yet remain undiscovered, which perhaps may be gradually retrieved by fucceeding commentators. JOHNSON. The fpeech ftands thus in the old fpurious play: "And what haft thou, or the pope thy mafter to do, to demand of me how I employ mine own? Know, fir prieft, as I honour the church and holy churchmen, fo I fcorne to be fubject to the greatest prelate in the world. Tell thy mafter fo from me; and fay, John of England faid it, that never an Italian priest of them all, fhall either have tythe, toll, or polling penny out of England; but as I am king, fo will I reign next under God, fupreme head both over fpiritual and temporal: and he that contradicts me in this, I'll make him hop headlefs." STEEVENS. What earthly name to interrogatories, Can talk the free breath, &c.] i. e. What earthly name, fubjoined VOL. VIII. G Thou canst not, cardinal, devise a name To charge me to an anfwer, as the pope. Tell him this tale; and from the mouth of England, Add thus much more,―That no Italian priest But as we under heaven are fupreme head, K. PHI. Brother of England, you blafpheme in this. K. JOHN. Though you, and all the kings of Chriftendom, Are led fo grofsly by this meddling priest, Who, in that fale, fells pardon from himself: to interrogatories, can force a king to speak and answer them? The old copy reads-earthy. The emendation was made by Mr. Pope. It has alfo taft inftead of task, which was fubftituted by Mr. Theobald. Breath for fpeech is common with our author. So, in a fubfequent part of this scene: "The latest breath that gave the found of words." Again, in The Merchant of Venice," breathing courtesy," for verbal courtefy. MALONE. The emendation [tak] may be juftified by the following paffage in King Henry IV. P. I: How fhow'd his tasking? feem'd it in contempt?" Again, in King Henry V: "That task our thoughts concerning us and France.” STEEVENS, This juggling witchcraft with revenue cherish; Yet I, alone, alone do me oppose Against the pope, and count his friends my foes. PAND. Then, by the lawful power that I have, Thou fhalt ftand curs'd, and excommunicate: And bleffed fhall he be, that doth revolt From his allegiance to an heretick; And meritorious fhall that hand be call'd, Canonized, and worship'd as a faint, That takes away by any fecret course Thy hateful life." CONST. O, lawful let it be, That I have room with Rome to curfe a while! To my keen curfes; for, without my wrong, curfe. CONST. And for mine too; when law can do no right, That takes arvay by any fecret course, Thy hateful life.] This may allude to the bull published against Queen Elizabeth. Or we may fuppofe, fince we have no proof that this play appeared in its prefent state before the reign of King James, that it was exhibited foon after the popish plot. I have feen a Spanish book in which Garnet, Faux, and their accomplices, are registered as faints. JOHNSON. If any allufion to his own times was intended by the author of the old play, (for this fpeech is formed on one in King John, 1591,) it must have been to the bull of Pope Pius the Fifth, 1569: "Then I Pandulph of Padua, legate from the Apoftolike fea, doe in the name of Saint Peter, and his fucceffor, our holy father Pope Innocent, pronounce thee accurfed, difcharging every of thy fubjects of all dutie and fealtie that they do owe to thee, and pardon and forgiveneffe of finne to thofe or them whatsoever which shall carrie armes against thee or murder thee. This I pronounce, and charge all good men to abhorre thee as an excommunicate perfon." MALONE. |