ELI. Come to thy grandam, child. CONST. Do, child, go to it' grandam, child; Give grandam kingdom, and it' grandam will Give it a plum, a cherry, and a fig: There's a good grandam. ARTH. Good my mother, peace! I would, that I were low laid in my grave; I am not worth this coil, that's made for me. ELI. His mother fhames him fo, poor boy, he weeps. CONST. Now fhame upon you, whe'r fhe does, or no! 3 His grandam's wrongs, and not his mother's fhames, Draw thofe heaven-moving pearls from his poor eyes, Which heaven fhall take in nature of a fee; Ay, with these crystal beads heaven shall be brib'd To do him juftice, and revenge on you. ELI. Thou monftrous flanderer of heaven and earth! CONST. Thou monstrous injurer of heaven and earth! Call not me flanderer; thou, and thine, ufurp Of this oppreffed boy: This is thy eldest son's fon,* 3 Now Shame upon you, whe'r fhe does, or no!] Whe'r for whether, So, in an Epigram, by Ben Jonfon: "Who fhall doubt, Donne, whe'r I a poet be, Again, in Gower's De Confeffione Amantis, 1532; "That maugre where the wolde or not,—, MALONE, Read: whe'r he does, or no!-i. e. whether he weeps, or not, Conftance, fo far from admitting, exprefsly denies that he fhames him. RITSON. 4 Of this oppreffed boy: This is thy eldeft fon's fon,] Mr. Ritson would omit the redundant words-This is, and read: Of this oppreffed boy: thy eldeft fan's fon. STEEVENS. Infortunate in nothing but in thee; CONST. I have but this to fay, That he's not only plagued for her fin, 4 I have but this to fay, That he's not only plagued for her fin, But God hath made her fin and her the plague, &c.] This paffage appears to me very obfcure. The chief difficulty arifes from this, that Conftance having told Elinor of her fin-conceiving womb, purfues the thought, and ufes fin through the next lines in an ambiguous fenfe, fometimes for crime, and fometimes for offspring. He's not only plagued for her fin, &c. He is not only made miferable by vengeance for her fin or crime; but her fin, her offspring, and the, are made the inftruments of that vengeance, on this defcendant; who, though of the fecond generation, is plagued for her and with her; to whom he is not only the cause but the inftrument of evil. The next claufe is more perplexed. All the editions read: -plagu'd for her, And with her plague her fin; his injury Her injury, the beadle to her fin, All punish'd in the perfon of this child. I point thus: -plagu'd for her And with her.-Plague her fon! his injury That is; inftead of inflicting vengeance on this innocent and remote defcendant, punish her fon, her immediate offspring: then the affliction will fall where it is deferved; his injury will be her injury, and the mifery of her fin; her fon will be a beadle, or chastifer, to her crimes, which are now all punish'd in the perfon of this child. JOHNSON. We Mr. Roderick reads: -plagu'd for her, And with her plagu’d; her fin, his injury.———— But God hath made her fin and her the plague On this removed iffue, plagu'd for her, And, with her fin, her plague, his injury Her injury, the beadle to her fin. i. e. God hath made her and her fin together, the plague of her moft remote defcendants, who are plagued for her; the fame power hath likewife made her fin her own plague, and the injury he has done to bim her own injury, as a beadle to lash that fin. i. e. Providence has fo ordered it, that the who is made the inftrument of punishment to another, has, in the end, converted that other into an instrument of punishment for herfelf. STEEVENS. Conftance obferves that he (ifte, pointing to King John, "whom from the flow of gall fhe names not,") is not only plagued [with the prefent war] for his mother's fin, but God hath made her fin and her the plague alfo on this removed iffue, [Arthur,] plagued on her account, and by the means of her finful offspring, whofe injury [the ufurpation of Arthur's rights] may be confidered as her injury, or the injury of her fin-conceiving womb; and John's injury may alfo be confidered as the beadle or officer of correction employed by her crimes to inflict all these punishments on the perfon of this child. TOLLET. Plagued in these plays generally means punished. So, in King Richard III: "And God, not we, hath plagu'd thy bloody deed." So, Holinfhed: 66 -they for very remorfe and dread of the divine plague, will either fhamefully flie," &c. Not being fatisfied with any of the emendations propofed, I have adhered to the original copy. I fufpect that two half lines have been loft after the words-And with her. If the text be right, with, I think, means by, (as in many other paffages,) and Mr. Tollet's interpretation the true one. Removed, I believe, here fignifies remote. So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream: "From Athens is her house remov'd feven leagues." MALONE. Much as the text of this note has been belaboured, the original reading needs no alteration. I have but this to say,— That he's not only plagued for her fin, But God hath made her fin and her the plague On this removed iffue, plagued for her, And with her plague, her fin; his injury, Her injury, the beadle to her fin, All punish'd in the perfon of this child. Her injury, the beadle to her fin; ELI. Thou unadvifed fcold, I can produce CONST. Ay, who doubts that? a will! a wicked A woman's will; a canker'd grandam's will! rate: It ill befeems this prefence, to cry aim The key to these words is contained in the last speech of Conftance, where the alludes to the denunciation in the fecond commandment, of " vifiting the iniquities of the parents upon the children, unto the THIRD and FOURTH generation," &c. Thou monstrous injurer of heaven and earth! This is thy eldest son's fon, * "Thy fins are vifited in this poor child; "Removed from thy fin-conceiving womb." Young Arthur is here reprefented as not only fuffering from the guilt of his grandmother; but, alfo, by her, in perfon, the being made the very inftrument of his fufferings. As he was not her immediate, but REMOVED iue-the fecond generation from her finconceiving womb-it might have been expected, that the evils to which, upon her account, he was obnoxious, would have incidentally befallen him; instead of his being punished for them all, by her immediate infliction.-He is not only plagued on account of her fin, according to the threatening of the commandment; but, fhe is preferved alive to her fecond generation, to be the inftrument of inflicting on her grandchild the penalty annexed to her fin; fo that he is plagued on her account, and with her plague, which is, her fin, that is [taking, by a common figure, the caufe for the confequence] the penalty entailed upon it. His injury, or the evil he Juffers, her fin brings upon him, and HER injury, or, the evil the inflicts, he suffers from her, as the beadle to her fin, os executioner of the punishment annexed to it. HENLEY. To these ill-tuned repetitions.' Some trumpet fummon hither to the walls These men of Angiers; let us hear them speak, Whose title they admit, Arthur's or John's. Trumpets found. Enter Citizens upon the walls. I CIT. Who is it, that hath warn'd us to the walls? K. PHI. 'Tis France, for England. K. JOHN. England, for itfelf: You men of Angiers, and my loving fubjects,K. PHI. You loving men of Angiers, Arthur's fubjects, Our trumpet call'd you to this gentle parle. K. JOHN. For our advantage;-Therefore, hear us firft." 5 It ill befeems this prefence, to cry aim To thefe ill-tuned repetitions.] Dr. Warburton has well obferved on one of the former plays, that to cry aim is to encourage. I once thought it was borrowed from archery; and that aim! having been the word of command, as we now fay prefent! to cry aim had been to incite notice, or raise attention. But I rather think, that the old word of applaufe was J'aime, I love it, and that to applaud was to cry J'aime, which the English, not eafily pronouncing Je, funk into aime, or aim. Our exclamations of applaufe are ftill borrowed, as bravo and encore. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnson's first thought, I believe, is beft. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Love's Cure, or The Martial Maid: Can I cry aim "To this against myself?" Again, in Churchyard's Charge, 1580, p. 8. b: "Yet he that ftands, and giveth aime, "Maie judge what fhott doeth lofe the game; "What shooter beats the marke in vaine, "Who shooteth faire, who shooteth plaine." Again, in our author's Merry Wives of Windfor, Vol. III. p. 409, where Ford fays: and to thefe violent proceedings all my neighbours fhall cry aim." See the note on that paflage. STEEVENS. 6 For our advantage;-Therefore, hear us firft.] If we read |