And, in the laft repeating, troublefome,
Being urged at a time unfeafonable.

Sal. In this, the antique and well-noted face
Of plain old form is much disfigured:

And, like a fhifted wind unto a fail,

It makes the courfe of thoughts to fetch about;
Startles and frights confideration;

Makes found opinion fick, and truth fufpected,
For putting on fo new a fafhion'd robe.

Pemb. When workmen strive to do better than well,

They do confound their skill in covetousness: 5

And, oftentimes, excufing of a fault,

Doth make the fault the worfe by the excufe;
As patches, fet upon a little breach,

Difcredit more in hiding of the fault,

6

Than did the fault before it was fo patch'd.

Sal. To this effect, before you were new-crown'd,
We breath'd our counfel: but it pleas'd your highnefs
To overbear it; and we are all well pleas'd;
Since all and every part of what we would,7
Doth make a ftand at what your highness will.

K. John. Some reafons of this double coronation
I have poffefs'd you with, and think them ftrong;
And more, more strong, (when leffer is my fear,)
1 fhall indue you with: 8 Mean time, but ask

What

he would not fo foon 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 fame tendency.

STEEVENS.

5. e. not by their avarice, but in an eager emulation, an intense defire of excelling. THEOBALD.

6 Fault means blemish. STEEVENS.

7 Since the whole and each particular part of our wishes, &c.

MALONE. 9 Mr. Theo bald reads-(the loffer is my fear) which, in the following note, Dr. Johnfon has attempted to explain. STEEVENS.

I have told you fome reafons, in my opinion firong, and shall tell more yet stronger; for the stronger my reafons are, the lefs is my fear of your dif approbation. This feems to be the meaning. JoHNSON.

The firft folio reads:

(then leffer is my fear)

The

What you would have reform'd, that is not well;
And well fhall you perceive, how willingly
I will both hear and grant you your requests.
Pemb. Then I, (as one that am the tongue of thefe,
To found the purposes of all their hearts,)
Both for myfelf and them, (but, chief of all,
Your fafety, for the which myself and them
Bend their beft ftudies,) heartily request
The enfranchisement of Arthur; whofe restraint
Doth move the murmuring lips of difcontent
To break into this dangerous argument,-
If, what in reft2 you have, in right you hold,
Why then your fears, (which, as they fay, attend
The steps of wrong,) fhould move you to mew up
Your tender kinfman, and to choke his days
With barbarous ignorance, and deny his youth
The rich advantage of good exercife,3

E 5

The true reading is obvious enough:

(when leffer is my fear). TYRWHITT.

I have done this emendation the juftice to place it in the text.

That

STEEVENS.

9 To declare, to publish the defires of all thofe. JOHNSON. 2 Perhaps we should read:

If, what in wreft you have, in right you kold,

i. e. if what you poffefs by an act of feizure or violence, &c. So again, in this play:

"The imminent decay of wrefed pomp."

Wreft is a fubftantive ufed by Spenfer, and by our author in Troilus and Creffida. STEEVENS.

The emendation propofed by Mr. Steevens is its own voucher. If then and should change places, and a mark of interrogation be placed after exercife, the full fenfe of the paffage will be reftored. HENLEY.

Mr. Steevens's reading of treft is better than his explanation. If adopted, the meaning must be—If what you possess, or have in your band, er grafp. RITSON.

It is evident that the words fhould and then, have changed their places.

M. MASON. The conftruction is-If you have a good title to what you now quietly poffefs, why then fhould your fears move you, &c. MALONE.

3 In the middle ages the whole education of princes and noble youths confifted in martial exercifes, &c. Thefe could not be easily had in a prifon, where mental improvements might have been afforded as well as any where else; but this fort of education never entered into the thoughts of our active, warlike, but illiterate nobility. PERCY.

That the time's enemies may not have this
To grace occafions, let it be our suit,
That you have bid us atk his liberty;
Which for our goods we do no further ask,
Than whereupon our weal, on you depending,
Counts it your weal, he have his liberty.
K. John. Let it be fo; I do commit his youth
Enter HUBERT.

To your direction.-Hubert, what news with you?
Pemb. This is the man should do the bloody deed;
He fhow'd his warrant to a friend of mine:
The image of a wicked heinous fault

Lives in his eye; that close aspéct of his
Does fhow the mood of a much-troubled breast;
And I do fearfully believe, 'tis done,

What we fo fear'd he had a charge to do.

Sal. The colour of the king doth come and go, Between his purpofe and his confcience,

Like heralds 'twixt two dreadful battles fet: 6

His paffion is fo ripe, it needs must break.

Pemb. And, when it breaks," I fear, will,iffue thence

The foul corruption of a fweet child's death.

K. John.

9 Between his consciousness of guilt, and his design to conceal it by fair profeflions. JOHNSON.

The purpose of the King, which Salisbury alludes to, is that of putting Arthur to death, which he confiders as not yet accomplished, and therefore fuppofes that there might ftill be a conflict in the King's mind,

"Between his purpose and his confcience." So when Salisbury fees the dead body of Arthur, he says,

"It is the fhameful work of Hubert's hand;

"The practise 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 confcience confequent on the execu tion of it. MALONE.

6 But heralds are not planted, I prefume, in the midst betwixt two lines of battle; though they, and trumpets, are often fent over from party to party, to propofe terms, demand a parley, &c. I have therefore ventured to read, fent. THEOBALD.

Set is not fixed, but only placed; heralds must be set between battles, in order to be fent between them. JOHNSON.

7 This is but an indelicate metaphor, taken, from an impofthumated tumour. JOHNSON.

K. John. We cannot hold mortality's ftrong hand:-
Good lords, although my will to give is living,
The fuit 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.
Pemb. Indeed, we heard how near his death he was,
Before the child himself felt he was fick :

This must be anfwer'd, either here, or hence.

K. John. Why do you bend fuch folemn brows on me?
Think you, I bear the fhears of destiny?

Have I commandment on the pulfe of life?
Sal. It is apparent foul-play; and 'tis fhame,
That greatnefs fhould fo grofsly offer it:—
So thrive it in your game! and fo farewell.
Pemb. Stay yet, lord Salisbury; I'll go with thee,
And find the inheritance of this poor child,

His little kingdom of a forced grave.

That blood, which ow'd the breadth of all this ifle, ownd

Three foot of it doth hold; Bad world the while!

This muft not be thus borne: this will break out
To all our forrows, and ere long, I doubt. [Exeunt Lords.
K. John. They burn in indignation; I repent;

There is no fure foundation fet on blood;
No certain life achiev'd by others' death.-

Enter a Meffenger.

A fearful eye thou haft; Where is that blood,
That I have feen inhabit in thofe cheeks?

So foul a fky clears not without a storm:

Pour down thy weather :-How goes all in France?
Me. From France to England,8-Never fuch a power
For any foreign preparation,

Was levied in the body of a land!

The copy of your speed is learn'd by them;

For, when you should be told they do prepare,

E 6

The

The king afks ber all goes in France, the meffenger catches the word goes, and answers, that whatever is in France goes now into England.

JOHNSON.

The tidings come, that they are all arriv'd.

K. John. O, where hath our intelligence been drunk? Where hath it flept? Where is my mother's care

That fuch an army could be drawn in France,

And he not hear of it?

Meff.
My liege, her ear
Is ftopp'd with duft; the first of April, died
Your noble mother: And, as I hear, my lord,
The lady Conftance in a frenzy died

Three days before: but this from rumour's tongue
I idly heard; if true, or falfe, I know not.

K. John. Withhold thy fpeed, dreadful cccafion!
O, make a league with me, till I have pleas'd
My difcontented peers!-- What! mother dead?
How wildly then walks my estate in France! —
Under whofe conduct came thofe powers of France,
That thou for truth giv it out, are landed here?
Me. Under the Dauphin.

K. John.

Enter the Baftard and Peter of Pomfret.

Thou haft made me giddy

With thefe ill tidings.-Now, what fays the world
To your proceedings? do not feek to stuff
My head with more ill news, for it is full.
Baft. But, if you be afeard to hear the worst,
Then let the worst, unheard, fall on

your head.
K. John. Bear with me, coufin; for I was amaz'd 2
Under the tide but now I breathe again
Aloft the flood; and can give audience
To any tongue, fpeak it of what it will.

Baft. How I have fped among the clergymen,
The fums I have collected fhall exprefs.
But, as I travell'd hither through the land,

I find the people strangely fantasied ;

2

Poffefs'd

9 So, in one of the Pafton Letters, Vol. III. p. 99: "The country of Norfolk and Suffolk ftand right wildly." SEEVENS.

i. e. How ill my affairs go in France!-The verb, to walk, is used with great license by old writer. It often means to go; to move.

i. e. ftunned, confounded. STEEVENS.

MALONE.