PAND. I will denounce a curfe upon his head. CONST. O fair return of banish'd majesty! BAST. Old time the clock-fetter, that bald fex- Is it as he will? well then, France fhall rue. BLANCH. The fun's o'ercaft with blood: Fair Which is the fide that I must go withal? LEW. Lady, with me; with me thy fortune lies. BLANCH. There where my fortune lives, there my life dies. K. JOHN.Coufin, go draw our puiffance together.[Exit Baftard. France, I am burn'd up with inflaming wrath; A rage, whose heat hath this condition, Than nothing can allay, nothing but blood, The blood, and deareft-valu'd blood, of France. 5 They whirl afunder, and difmember me.] Alluding to a wellknown Roman punishment: Metium in diverfa quadrigæ "Diftulerant." Æneid. VIII. 642. STEEVENS. K. PHI. Thy rage shall burn thee up, and thou fhalt turn To afhes, ere our blood fhall quench that fire: K. JOHN. No more than he that threats.-To arms SCENE II. The fame. Plains near Angiers. Alarums, Excursions. [Exeunt. Enter the Baftard, with AUSTRIA's head. BAST. Now, by my life, this day grows wondrous hot; Some airy devil hovers in the sky, Some airy devil-] Shakspeare here probably alludes to the diftinctions and divifions of fome of the demonologifts, fo much regarded in his time. They diftributed the devils into different tribes and claffes, each of which had its peculiar qualities, attributes, &c. Thefe are defcribed at length in Burton's Anatomie of Melancholy, Part I. fect. ii. p. 45, 1632: "Of thefe fublunary devils-Pfellus makes fix kinds; fiery, aeriall, terreftriall, watery, and fubterranean devils, befides thofe faieries, fatyres, nymphes," &c. Fiery fpirits or divells are fuch as commonly worke by blaz ing ftarres, fire-drakes, and counterfeit funnes and moones, and fit on fhips' mafts," &c. &c. "Aeriall spirits or divells are fuch as keep quarter most part in the aire, caufe many tempefts, thunder and lightnings, teare oakes, fire fteeples, houfes, ftrike men and beafts, make it raine ftones," &c. PERCY. - the There is a minute defcription of different devils or fpirits, and their different functions, in Pierce Pennileffe his Supplication, 1592: With refpect to the paffage in queftion, take the following: fpirits of the aire will mixe themfelves with thunder and lightning, and fo infect the clyme where they raife any tempeft, that fodainely great mortalitie fhall enfue to the inhabitants. The fpirits of fire have their mansions under the regions of the moone." HENDERSON. And pours down mischief. Auftria's head lie there; While Philip breathes." Enter King JOHN, ARTHUR, and HUBERT. 8 K. JOHN. Hubert, keep this boy :-Philip, make up: My mother is affailed in our tent,' And ta'en, I fear. BAST. My lord, I refcu'd her; Her highness is in fafety, fear you not: But on, my liege; for very little pains Will bring this labour to an happy end. [Exeunt. 6 Here Mr. Pope, without authority, adds from the old play already mentioned": "Thus hath king Richard's fon perform'd his vow, "Unto his father's ever-living foul." STEEVENS. Hubert, keep this boy] Thus the old copies. Mr. Tyrwhitt would read: Hubert, keep thou this boy :-. STEEVENS. Philip,] Here the King, who had knighted him by the name of Sir Richard, calls him by his former name. STEEVENS. 9 My mother is affailed in our tent,] The author has not attended clofely to the hiftory. The Queen-mother, whom King John had made Regent in Anjou, was in poffeffion of the town of Mirabeau in that province. On the approach of the French army with Arthur at their head, the fent letters to King John to come to her relief; which he did immediately. As he advanced to the town, he encountered the army that lay before it, routed them, and took Arthur prifoner. The Queen in the mean while remained in perfect fecurity in the caftle of Mirabeau. Such is the beft authenticated account. ever fay that Arthur took Elinor prifoner. play has followed them. and rescued by her fon. Other hiftorians howThe author of the old In that piece Elinor is taken by Arthur, MALONE. Alarums; Excursions; Retreat. Enter King JOHN, ELINOR, ARTHUR, the Bastard, HUBERT, and Lords. K. JOHN. So fhall it be; your grace shall stay be hind, [To ELINOR. So ftrongly guarded.-Coufin, look not fad: [To ARTHUR. Thy grandam loves thee; and thy uncle will ARTH. O, this will make my mother die with grief. K. JOHN. Coufin, [To the Baftard.] away for England; hafte before: 2 And, ere our coming, fee thou shake the bags 3 Set thou at liberty:] The word thou (which is wanting in the old copy) was judiciously added, for the fake of metre, by Sir T. Hanmer. STEEVENS. the fat ribs of peace Muft by the hungry now be fed upon:] This word now feems a very idle term here, and conveys no fatisfactory idea. An antithefis, and oppofition of terms, fo perpetual with our author, requires : Muft by the hungry war be fed upon. War, demanding a large expence, is very poetically said to be hungry, and to prey on the wealth and fat of peace. WARBURTON. This emendation is better than the former word, but yet not neceffary. Sir T. Hanmer reads-hungry maw, with lefs deviation from the common reading, but with not fo much force or elegance as war. JOHNSON. BAST. Bell, book, and candle' fhall not drive When gold and filver becks me to come on. Either emendation may be unneceffary. Perhaps, the hungry now is this hungry inftant. Shakspeare ufes the word now as a fubftantive, in Measure for Measure: till this very now, "When men were fond, I fmil'd and wonder'd how." STERVENS. The meaning, I think, is, "—the fat ribs of peace muft now be fed upon by the hungry troops,"-to whom fome share of this ecclefiaftical spoil would naturally fall. The expreffion, like many other of our author's, is taken from the facred writings: "And there he maketh the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation." 107th Pfalm.-Again: "He hath filled the bungry with good things," &c. St. Luke, i. 53. This interpretation is fupported by the paffage in the old play. which is here imitated: ་་ Philip, I make thee chief in this affair; "Ranfack their abbeys, cloyfters, priories, "Convert their coin unto my foldiers' use." When I read this paffage in the old play, the firft idea that fuggested itself was, that a word had dropped out at the prefs, in the line before us, and that our author wrote: Muft by the hungry foldiers now be fed on. But the interpretation above given renders any alteration unneceffary. MALONE. Bell, book, and candle-] In an account of the Romish curse given by Dr. Grey, it appears that three candles were extinguished, one by one, in different parts of the execration. JOHNSON. I meet with the fame expreffion in Ram-Alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611: " "I'll have a prieft fhall mumble up a marriage. In Archbishop Winchelfea's fentences of excommunication, anno 1298, (fee Johnfon's Ecclefiaftical Laws, Vol. II.) it is directed that the fentence against infringers of certain articles fhould be throughout explained in order in English, with bells tolling. and candles lighted, that it may cause the greater dread; for laymen have greater regard to this folemnity, than to the effect of fuch fentences.' See Dodfley's Old Plays, Vol. XII. p. 397, edit. 1789. REED, |