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Blanch.

Upon thy wedding day? Against the blood that thou hast married? What, shall our feast be kept with slaughter'd men? Shall braying trumpets, and loud churlish drums,— Clamours of hell,-be measures to our pomp? O husband, hear me !-ah, alack! how new Is husband in my mouth? even for that name, Which till this time my tongue did ne'er pronounce. Upon my knee I beg, go not to arms

Against mine uncle.

Const.

O, upon my knee,

Made hard with kneeling, I do pray to thee,
Thou virtuous Dauphin, alter not the doom
Fore-thought by heaven.

Blanch. Now shall I see thy love; What motive

may

Be stronger with thee than the name of wife? Const. That which upholdeth him that thee up

holds,

His honour: 0, thine honour, Lewis, thine honour!
Lew. I muse, your majesty doth seem so cold,
When such profound respects do pull you on.
Pan. I will denounce a curse upon his head.
K. Phi. Thou shalt not need:-England, I'll fall
from thee.

Const. O fair return of banish'd majesty!
Eli. O foul revolt of French inconstancy!
K. John. France, thou shalt rue this hour within
this hour.

Bast. Old time the clock-setter, that bald sexton time,

Is it as he will? well then, France shall rue. Blanch. The sun's o'ercast with blood: Fair day, adieu!

Which is the side that I must go withal?
I am with both: each army hath a hand;
And, in their rage, I having hold of both,
They whirl asunder, and dismember me.
Husband, I cannot pray that thou may'st win;
Uncle, I needs must pray that thou may'st lose;

Father, I may not wish the fortune thine;
Grandam, I will not wish thy wishes thrive:
Whoever wins, on that side shall I lose;
Assured loss, before the match be play'd.

Lew. Lady, with me; with me thy fortune lies. Blanch. There where my fortune lives, there my life dies.

K. John. Cousin, go draw our puissance together,[Exit Bastard. France, I am burn'd up with inflaming wrath ; A rage, whose heat hath this condition,

That nothing can allay, nothing but blood,
The blood, and dearest valu'd blood, of France.
K. Phi. Thy rage shall burn thee up, and thou
shalt turn

To ashes, ere our blood shall quench that fire:
Look to thyself, thou art in jeopardy.

K. John. No more than he that threats.-To arms, [Exeunt.

let's hie!

SCENE II. The same. Plains near Angiers.

Alarums; Excursions. Enter the Bastard, with AUSTRIA'S Head.

Bast. Now, by my life, this day grows wondrous hot;

Some airy devil hovers in the sky,

And pours down mischief. Austria's head lie there: While Philip breathes.

Enter KING JOHN, ARTHUR, and HUBERT.

K. John. Hubert, keep this boy :-Philip2, make up:

1 There is a minute description of numerous devils or spirits, and their different functions, in Nash's Pierce Pennilesse his Supplication, 1592, where we find the following passage:-"The spirits of the aire will mixe themselves with thunder and lightning, and so infect the clyme where they raise any tempest, that sodainely great mortalitie shall ensue to the inhabitants. The spirits of fire have their mansions under the regions of the

moone.'

2 Here the king, who had knighted him by the name of Sir Richard, calls him by his former name. Shakspeare has followed

My mother is assailed in our tent,
And ta'en, I fear.

Bast.

My lord, I rescu'd her; Her highness is in safety, fear you not:

But on, my liege: for very little pains

Will bring this labour to an happy end. [Exeunt.

SCENE III. The same.

Alarums; Excursions; Retreat. Enter KING JOHN, ELINOR, ARTHUR, the Bastard, HUBERT, and LORDS.

K. John. So shall it be; your grace shall stay

behind,

[To ELINOR.

So strongly guarded.—Cousin, look not sad:

[To ARTHUR.

Thy grandam loves thee, and thy uncle will
As dear be to thee as thy father was.
Arth. O, this will make my mother die with grief.
K. John. Cousin [To the Bastard], away for
England! haste before:

And, ere our coming, see thou shake the bags
Of hoarding abbots: angels imprisoned
Set thou at liberty: the fat ribs of peace
Must by the hungry now be fed upon:

Use our commission in his utmost force.

Bast. Bell, book, and candle2 shall not drive me back;

the old plays, and the best authenticated history. The queen mother, whom King John had made regent in Anjou, was in possession of the town of Mirabeau, in that province. On the approach of the French army, with Arthur at their head, she sent letters to King John to come to her relief, which he immediately did. As he advanced to the town he encountered the army that lay before it, routed them, and took Arthur prisoner. The queen in the mean while remained in perfect security in the castle of Mirabeau.

1 Gold coin of that name.

2 It appears from Johnson's Ecclesiastical Laws, that sentence of excommunication was to be 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 solemnity than to the effect of such sentences.' See Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. xii. p. 397, ed. 1780.

When gold and silver becks me to come on.
I leave your highness:-Grandam, I will pray
(If ever I remember to be holy)

For your fair safety: so I kiss your hand.
Eli. Farewell, my gentle cousin.
K. John.

Coz, farewell.

[Exit Bastard.

Eli. Come hither, little kinsman; hark a word. [She takes ARTHUR aside. K. John. Come hither, Hubert. O my gentle

Hubert,

We owe thee much; within this wall of flesh
There is a soul counts thee her creditor,
And with advantage means to pay thy love:
And, my good friend, thy voluntary oath
Lives in this bosom, dearly cherished.
Give me thy hand. I had a thing to say,—
But I will fit it with some better time.
By heaven, Hubert, I am almost asham'd
To say what good respect I have of thee.
Hub. I am much bounden to your majesty.
K. John. Good friend, thou hast no cause to say
so yet:

But thou shalt have; and creep time ne'er so slow,
Yet it shall come, for me to do thee good,

I had a thing to say,-But let it go:

The sun is in the heaven, and the proud day,
Attended with the pleasures of the world,
Is all too wanton, and too full of gawds3,
To give me audience:-If the midnight bell
Did, with his iron tongue and brazen mouth,
Sound one unto the drowsy race of night;
If this same were a churchyard where we stand,
And thou possessed with a thousand wrongs;
Or if that surly spirit, melancholy,

Had bak'd thy blood, and made it heavy, thick

3 Showy ornaments.

The old copy reads into, the emendation is Theobald's.

(Which, else, runs tickling up and down the veins,
Making that idiot, laughter, keep men's eyes,
And strain their cheeks to idle merriment,
A passion hateful to my purposes);

Or if that thou couldst see me without eyes,
Hear me without thine ears, and make reply
Without a tongue, using conceit alone,
Without eyes, ears, and harmful sound of words;
Then, in despite of brooded watchful day,
I would into thy bosom pour my thoughts:
But ah, I will not:-Yet I love thee well;
And, by my troth, I think, thou lov'st me well.
Hub. So well, that what you bid me undertake,
Though that my death were adjunct to my act,
By heaven, I'd do't.

K. John.
Do not I know, thou wouldst ?
Good Hubert, Hubert, Hubert, throw thine eye
On yon young boy: I'll tell thee what, my friend,
He is a very serpent in my way;

And, wheresoe'er this foot of mine doth tread, He lies before me: Dost thou understand me? Thou art his keeper.

Hub.

And I will keep him so,

That he shall not offend your majesty.

K. John. Death.

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• Conception.

Pope proposed to read broad-eyed, instead of brooded. The alteration, it must be confessed, is elegant, but unnecessary. The allusion is to the vigilance of animals while brooding, or with a brood of young ones under their protection. The king says of Hamlet:

--there's something in his soul

O'er which his melancholy sits on brood.' Milton also, in L'Allegro, desires Melancholy toFind out some uncouth cell

Where brooding darkness spreads his jealous wings.'

Brooded may be used for brooding, as delighted for delighting, and discontented for discontenting, in other places of these plays. To sit on brood, or abrood, is the old term applied to birds during the period of incubation All the metaphorical uses of the verb to brood are common to the Latin incubo.

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