To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, To smooth the ice, or add another hue To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, Pem. But that your royal pleasure must be done, Sal. In this, the antique and well-noted face It makes the course of thoughts to fetch about; Makes sound opinion sick, and truth suspected, Pem. When workmen strive to do better than well, They do confound their skill in covetousness: 3 And, oftentimes, excusing of a fault, Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse; Discredit more in hiding of the fault, 4 1 To guard a title that was rich before,] To guard, is to fringe. Rather, to lace. So, in The Merchant of Venice: 2 66 give him a livery "More guarded than his fellows." Steevens. Johnson. as an ancient tale new told;] Had Shakspeare been a diligent examiner of his own compositions, he would not so soon have repeated an idea which he had first put into the mouth of the Dauphin: "Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale, "Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man." Mr. Malone has a remark to the same tendency. Steevens. 3 They do confound their skill in covetousness:] i.e. not by their avarice, but in an eager emulation, an intense desire of excelling, as in Henry V: "But if it be a sin to covet honour, "I am the most offending soul alive." Theobald. So, in our author's 103d Sonnet: "Were it not sinful then, striving to mend, "To mar the subject that before was well?" Malone. in hiding of the fault,] Fault means blemish. Steevens. Than did the fault before it was so patch'd. Sal. To this effect, before you were new-crown'd, We breath'd our counsel: but it pleas'd your highness To overbear it; and we are all well-pleas'd; Since all and every part of what we would,5 K. John. Some reasons of this double coronation 5 Since all and every part of what we would,] Since the whole and each particular part of our wishes, &c. Malone. Some reasons of this double coronation I have possess'd you with, and think them strong; I shall 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 some reasons, in my opinion strong, and shall tell more, yet stronger; for the stronger my reasons are, the less is my fear of your disapprobation. This seems to be the meaning. Johnson. And more, more strong, (when lesser is my fear,) (then lesser is my fear). The true reading is obvious enough: (when lesser is my fear). Tyrwhitt. I have done this emendation the justice to place it in the text. Steevens. 7 To sound the purposes] To declare, to publish the desires of all those. Johnson. 8 Your tender kinsman, and to choke his days K. John. Let it be so; I do commit his youth To your direction.-Hubert, what news with you? The image of a wicked heinous fault 8 If, what in rest you have, in right you hold, i.e. if what you possess by an act of seizure or violence, &c. "The imminent decay of wrested pomp." Wrest is a substantive used by Spenser, and by our author, in Troilus and Cressida. Steevens. The emendation proposed 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 passage will be restored. Henley. Mr. Steevens's reading of wrest is better than his explanation. If adopted, the meaning must be—If what you possess, or have in your hand, or grasp. Ritson. It is evident that the words should and then have changed their places. M. Mason. The construction is-If you have a good title to what you now quietly possess, why then should your fears move you, &c. Malone. Perhaps this question is elliptically expressed, and meansWhy then is it that your fears should move you, &c. Steevens. 9 good exercise?] In the middle ages, the whole education of princes and noble youths consisted in martial exercises, &c. These could not be easily had in a prison, where mental improvements might have been afforded as well as any where else; but this sort of education never entered into the thoughts of our active, warlike, but illiterate nobility. Percy. Does show the mood of a much-troubled breast; What we so fear'd he had a charge to do. Sal. The colour of the king doth come and go, Pem. And, when it breaks,3 I fear,, will issue thence The foul corruption of a sweet child's death. K. John. We cannot hold mortality's strong hand:Good lords, although my will to give is living, The suit which you demand is gone and dead: He tells us, Arthur is deceas'd to-night. Sal. Indeed, we fear'd, his sickness was past cure. Pem. Indeed, we heard how near his death he was, Before the child himself felt he was sick: This must be answer'd, either here, or hence. 1 Between his purpose and his conscience,] Between his consciousness of guilt, and his design to conceal it by fair professions. Johnson. The purpose of the King, which Salisbury alludes to, is that of putting Arthur to death, which he considers as not yet accomplished, and therefore supposes that there might still be a conflict in the King's mind Between his purpose and his conscience. So, when Salisbury sees the dead body of Arthur, he says"It is the shameful work of Hubert's hand; "The practice and the purpose of the king." M. Mason. Rather, between the criminal act that he planned and commanded to be executed, and the reproaches of his conscience consequent on the execution of it. So, in Coriolanus: "It is a purpos'd thing, and grows by plot." We have nearly the same expressions afterwards: 66 Nay, in the body of this fleshly land, [in John's own person] "Hostility, and civil tumult, reigns "Between my conscience and my cousin's death." Malone. 2 Like heralds 'twixt two dreadful battles set:] But heralds are not planted, I presume, in the midst betwixt two lines of battle; though they, and trumpets, are often sent over from party to party, to propose terms, demand a parley, &c. I have therefore ventured to read-sent. Theobald. Set is not fixed, but only placed; heralds must be set between battles, in order to be sent between them. Johnson. 3 And, when it breaks,] This is but an indelicate metaphor, taken from an imposthumated tumour. Johnson. K. John. Why do you bend such solemn brows on me? Sal. It is apparent foul play; and 'tis shame, Pem. Stay yet, lord Salisbury; I'll go with thee, That blood, which ow'd the breadth of all this isle, [Exeunt Lords. K. John. They burn in indignation; I repent; There is no sure foundation set on blood; No certain life achiev'd by others' death. Enter a Messenger. A fearful eye thou hast; Where is that blood, So foul a sky clears not without a storm: Pour down thy weather:-How goes all in France? Mess. From France to England. Never such a power For any foreign preparation, Was levied in the body of a land! The copy of your speed is learn'd by them; K. John. O, where hath our intelligence been drunk? Where hath it slept?5 Where is my mother's care? That such an army could be drawn in France, And she not hear of it? Mess. My liege, her ear Is stopp'd with dust; the first of April, died Your noble mother: And, as I hear, my lord, 4 From France to England.] The king asks how all goes in France, the Messenger catches the word goes and answers, that whatever is in France goes now into England. Johnson. 5 0, where hath our intelligence been drunk? Where hath it slept?] So, in Macbeth: 66 Was the hope drunk "Wherein you drest yourself? hath it slept since ?" Steevens |