Look here upon thy brother Geffrey's face ;These eyes, these brows, were moulded out of his: This little abftract doth contain that large,

8

Which died in Geffrey; and the hand of time
Shall draw this brief into as huge a volume.
That Geffrey was thy elder brother born,
And this his fon; England was Geffrey's right,
And this is Geffrey's: In the name of God,
How comes it then, that thou art call'd a king,
When living blood doth in these temples beat,
Which owe the crown that thou o'ermasterest?
K. JOHN. From whom haft thou this great com-
miffion, France,

To draw my answer from thy articles?

K. PHI. From that fupernal judge, that ftirs good thoughts

In any breast of strong authority,

To look into the blots and stains of right."

this brief-] A brief is a fhort writing, abstract, or defcription. So, in A Midfummer Night's Dream:

9

"Here is a brief how many fports are ripe."

England was Geffrey's right,

STEEVENS.

And this is Geffrey's:] I have no doubt but we should read"and his is Geffrey's." The meaning is, " England was Geffrey's right, and whatever was Geffrey's, is now his," pointing to Arthur. M. MASON.

2 To look into the blots and ftains of right.] Mr. Theobald reads, with the firft folio, blots, which being fo early authorized, and fo much better understood, needed not to have been changed by Dr. Warburton to bolts, though bolts might be used in that time for Spots: fo Shakspeare calls Banquo "Spotted with blood, the blood-bolter'd Banquo." The verb to blot is ufed figuratively for to difgrace, a few lines lower. And perhaps, after all, bolts was only a typographical mistake. JOHNSON. Blots is certainly right.

The illegitimate branch of a family always carried the arms of it with what in ancient heraldry was

That judge hath made me guardian to this boy: Under whofe warrant, I impeach thy wrong; And, by whofe help, I mean to chástise it.

K. JOHN. Alack, thou doft ufurp authority.
K. PHI. Excufe; it is to beat ufurping down.
ELI. Who is it, thou doft call usurper, France?
CONST. Let me make anfwer;-thy ufurping fon.
ELI. Out, infolent! thy bastard shall be king;
That thou may'ft be a queen, and check the world!'
CONST. My bed was ever to thy fon as true,
As thine was to thy husband: and this boy
Liker in feature to his father Geffrey,
Than thou and John in manners; being as like,
As rain to water, or devil to his dam.

My boy a bastard! By my foul, I think,
His father never was fo true begot;

It cannot be, an if thou wert his mother."

called a blot or difference. So, in Drayton's Epiftle from Queen Ifabel to K. Richard II:

"No baftard's mark doth blot his conquering fhield." Blots and ftains occur again together in the first scene of the third act. STEEVENS.

Blot had certainly the heraldical fenfe mentioned by Mr. Steevens. But it here, I think, means only blemishes. So again, in Act III. MALONE.

3 That thou may't be a queen, and check the world!] "Surely (fays Holinfhed) Queen Eleanor, the kyngs mother, was fore against her nephew Arthur, rather moved thereto by envye conceyved against his mother, than upon any juft occafion, given in the behalfe of the childe; for that the faw, if he were king, how his mother Conftance would looke to beare the most rule within the realme of Englande, till her fonne fhould come to a lawfull age to govern of himfelfe. So hard a thing it is, to bring women to agree in one minde, their natures commonly being fo contrary." MALONE.

—an if thou wert his mother.] Conftance alludes to Elinor's infidelity to her husband Lewis the Seventh, when they were in the

ELI. There's a good mother, boy, that blots thy father.

CONST. There's a good grandam, boy, that would blot thee.

AUST. Peace!

BAST.

AUST.

Hear the crier."

What the devil art thou?

BAST. One that will play the devil, fir, with you, An 'a may catch your hide and you alone." You are the hare of whom the proverb goes, Whofe valour plucks dead lions by the beard; I'll smoke your fkin-coat, an I catch you right; Sirrah, look to't; i'faith, I will, i'faith.

Holy Land; on account of which he was divorced from her. She afterwards (1151) married our King Henry II. MALONE.

5 Hear the crier.] Alluding to the ufual proclamation for filence, made by criers in courts of justice, beginning Oyez, corruptly pronounced O-Yes. Auftria has juft faid Peace! MALONE.

6 One that will play the devil, fir, with you,

An'a

may catch your hide and you alone.] The ground of the quarrel of the Baftard to Auftria is no where specified in the present play. But the ftory is, that Auftria, who killed King Richard Caur-de-lion, wore as the fpoil of that prince, a lion's hide, which had belonged to him. This circumstance renders the anger of the Bastard very natural, and ought not to have been omitted. POPE. See p. 27, n. 9, and p. 28, n. 2. MALONE.

The omiffion of this incident was natural. Shakspeare having familiarized the ftory to his own imagination, forgot that it was obfcure to his audience; or what is equally probable, the ftory was then fo popular that a hint was fufficient at that time to bring it to mind; and thefe plays were written with very little care for the approbation of pofterity. JOHNSON.

7 You are the hare-] So, in The Spanish Tragedy:

"He hunted well that was a lion's death;

"Not he that in a garment wore his skin:

"So hares may pull dead lions by the beard."

See p. 6, n. 4: STEEVENS.

The proverb alluded to is, " Mortuo leoni et lepores infultant." Erafmi ADAG. MALONE.

BLANCH. O, well did he become that lion's robe, That did difrobe the lion of that robe!

8

BAST. It lies as fightly on the back of him, As great Alcides' fhoes upon an ass : — But, afs, I'll take that burden from your back; Or lay on that, fhall make your fhoulders crack. AUST. What cracker is this fame, that deafs our

ears

With this abundance of fuperfluous breath?

It lies as fightly on the back of him,

As great Alcides' fhoes upon an afs:] But why his hoes in the name of propriety? For let Hercules and his hoes have been really as big as they were ever supposed to be, yet they (I mean the shoes) would not have been an overload for an afs. I am perfuaded, I have retrieved the true reading; and let us obferve the justness of the comparison now. Faulconbridge in his refentment would fay this to Auftria: "That lion's fkin, which my great father King Richard once wore, looks as uncouthly on thy back, as that other noble hide, which was borne by Hercules, would look on the back of an afs." A double allufion was intended; firft, to the fable of the afs in the lion's fkin; then Richard I. is finely fet in competition with Alcides, as Auftria is fatirically coupled with the afs. THEOBALD.

The hoes of Hercules are more than once introduced in the old comedies on much the fame occafions. So, in The Ifle of Gulls, by J. Day, 1606:

66

-are as fit, as Hercules's foe for the foot of a pigmy." Again, in Greene's Epiftle Dedicatory to Perimedes the Blacksmith, 1588: " and fo, left I should fhape Hercules' fhoe for a child's foot, I commend your worship to the Almighty." Again, in Greene's Penelope's Web, 1601: "I will not make a long harveft for a fmall crop, nor go about to pull a Hercules' hoe on Achilles' foot." Again, ibid: "Hercules' hoe will never ferve a child's foot." Again, in Stephen Goffon's School of Abuse, 1579: "—to draw the lyon's fkin upon Æfop's affe, or Hercules' fhoes on a childes feete." Again, in the second of William Rankins's Seven Satyres, &c. 1598:

"Yet in Alcides' bufkins will he ftalke." STEEVENS.

upon an afs:] i. e. upon the hoofs of an afs. Mr. Theobald thought the hoes must be placed on the back of the afs; and, therefore, to avoid this incongruity, reads-Alcides' bows. MALONE.

K. PHI. Lewis, determine what we shall do

ftraight.

LEW. Women and fools, break off your conference.

King John, this is the very fum of all,

England, and Ireland, Anjou,' Touraine, Maine, In right of Arthur do I claim of thee:

Wilt thou refign them, and lay down thy arms?
K. JOHN. My life as foon:-I do defy thee,
France.

Arthur of Bretagne, yield thee to my hand;
And, out of my dear love, I'll give thee more
Than e'er the coward hand of France can win:
Submit thee, boy.

9 K. Phi. Lewis, determine, &c.] Thus Mr. Malone, and perhaps rightly; for the next fpeech is given in the old copy (as it ftands in the prefent text) to Lewis the dauphin, who was afterwards Lewis VIII. The fpeech itfelf, however, feems fufficiently appropriated to the King; and nothing can be inferred from the folio with any certainty, but that the editors of it were careless and ignorant. STEEVENS.

In the old copy this line ftands thus:

King Lewis, determine what we shall do ftraight.

To the first three fpeeches fpoken in this fcene by King Philip, the word King only is prefixed. I have therefore given this line to him. The tranfcriber or compofitor having, I imagine, forgotten to diftinguish the word King by Italicks, and to put a full point after it, thefe words have been printed as part of Austria's fpeech: King Lewis," &c. but fuch an arrangement must be erroneous, for Lewis was not king. Some of our author's editors have left Auftria in poffeffion of the line, and corrected the error by reading here, “ King Philip, determine," &c. and giving the next fpeech to him, instead of Lewis.

I once thought that the line before us might ftand as part of Auftria's fpeech, and that he might have addreffed Philip and the Dauphin by the words, King,-Lewis, &c. but the addreffing Philip by the title of King, without any addition, seems too familiar, and I therefore think it more probable that the error happened in the way above ftated. MALONE.

2 Anjou,] Old copy-Angiers. Corrected by Mr. Theobald.

MALONE.