Their armours, that march'd hence fo filver-bright,
Hither return all gilt with Frenchmen's blood;
There stuck no plume in any English creft,
That is removed by a ftaff of France;

8

Our colours do return in those fame hands
That did difplay them when we first march'd forth;
And, like a jolly troop of huntsmen, come
Our lufty English, all with purpled hands,
Died in the dying flaughter of their foes:
Open your gates, and give the victors way.
CIT. Heralds, from off our towers we might
behold,

From first to last, the onset and retire
Of both your armies; whofe equality
By our beft eyes cannot be cenfured: 2

Blood hath bought blood, and blows have answer'd blows;

Strength match'd with ftrength, and power confronted power:

Both are alike; and both alike we like.

One must prove greatest: while they weigh fo even, We hold our town for neither; yet for both.

8 And, like a jolly troop of huntfmen, &c.] It was, I think, one the favage practices of the chafe, for all to ftain their hands in the blood of the deer, as a trophy. JOHNSON.

Shakspeare alludes to the fame practife in Julius Cæfar:

Here thy hunters stand,

Sign'd in thy fpoil, and crimfon'd in thy lethe."

STEEVENS.

9 Heralds, from off, &c.] Thefe three fpeeches feem to have been laboured. The citizen's is the beft; yet both alike we like is a poor gingle. JOHNSON.

- cannot be cenfured:] i. e. cannot be estimated. Our author ought rather to have written-whofe fuperiority, or whofe inequality, cannot be cenfured. MALONE.

So, in King Henry VI. Part I:

"If you do cenfure me by what you were,
"Not what you are." STEEVENS.

Enter, at one fide, King JOHN, with his power; ELINOR, BLANCH, and the Baftard; at the other, King PHILIP, LEWIS, AUSTRIA, and Forces.

K. JOHN. France, haft thou yet more blood to caft away?

Say, fhall the current of our right run on?' Whofe paffage, vex'd with thy impediment, Shall leave his native channel, and o'erfwell With course disturb'd even thy confining fhores; Unless thou let his filver water keep

A peaceful progrefs to the ocean.

K. PHI. England, thou haft not fav'd one drop
of blood,

In this hot trial, more than we of France;
Rather, loft more: And by this hand I fwear,
That fways the earth this climate overlooks,—
Before we will lay down our juft-borne arms,
We'll put thee down, 'gainst whom these arms we
bear,

Or add a royal number to the dead;

Gracing the fcroll, that tells of this war's lofs,
With flaughter coupled to the name of kings.

BAST. Ha, majefty! how high thy glory towers, When the rich blood of kings is fet on fire!

3 Say, fhall the current of our right run on?] The old copySTEEVENS.

roam on.

The editor of the fecond folio substituted run, which has been adopted in the fubfequent editions. I do not perceive any need of change. In The Tempeft we have-" the wandering brooks."

MALONE.

I prefer the reading of the fecond folio. So, in K. Henry V: "As many ftreams run into one self sea."

The King would rather defcribe his right as running on in a direct than in an irregular courfe, fuch as would be implied by the word roam. STEEVENS.

O, now doth death line his dead chaps with fteel;
The fwords of foldiers are his teeth, his fangs ;
And now he feafts, mouthing the flesh of men,
In undetermin'd differences of kings.-
Why ftand these royal fronts amazed thus?
Cry, havock, kings!' back to the stained field,
You equal potents," firy-kindled spirits!
Then let confufion of one part confirm

The other's peace; till then, blows, blood, and death!

K. JOHN. Whose party do the townsmen yet ad

mit?

K. PHI. Speak, citizens, for England; who's your king?

1 CIT. The king of England, when we know the king.

-mouthing the flesh of men,] The old copy reads-moufing.

STEEVENS.

Moufing, like many other ancient and now uncouth expreffions, was expelled from our author's text by Mr. Pope; and mouthing, which he fubftituted in its room, has been adopted in the fubfequent editions, without any fufficient reafon, in my apprehenfion. Moufing is, I fuppofe, mamocking, and devouring eagerly, as a cat devours a moufe. So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream: “Well mous'd, Lion!" Again, in The Wonderful Year, by Thomas Decker, 1603: "Whilst Troy was fwilling fack and fugar, and moufing fat venifon, the mad Greekes made bonfires of their houses."

MALONE.

I retain Mr. Pope's emendation, which is fupported by the following paffage in Hamlet: " first mouth'd to be laft fwallowed." Shakspeare defigned no ridicule in this fpeech; and therefore did not write, (as when he was writing the burlefque interlude of Pyramus and Thisbe,)—moufing. STEEVE NS.

5 Cry, havock, kings!] That is, command flaughter to proceed; fo, in Julius Cæfar:

"Cry, havock, and let flip the dogs of war." JOHNSON. 6 You equal potents,] Potents for potentates. So, in Ane verie excellent and delectabill Treatife intitulit PHILOTUS, &c. 1603: "Ane of the potentes of the town,STEEVENS.

K. PHI. Know him in us, that here hold up his right.

K. JOHN. In us, that are our own great deputy, And bear poffeffion of our perfon here; Lord of our prefence, Angiers, and of you.

I CIT. A greater power than we, denies all this; And, till it be undoubted, we do lock Our former fcruple in our strong-barr'd gates: King'd of our fears; until our fears, refolv'd, Be by fome certain king purg'd and depos'd.

1 A greater power than we, denies all this;King'd of our fears;] The old copy readsKings of our feare- &c. STEEVENS.

A greater power than we, may mean, the Lord of hofts, who has not yet decided the fuperiority of either army; and till it be undoubted, the people of Angiers will not open their gates. Secure and confident as lions, they are not at all afraid, but are kings, i. e. mafters and commanders, of their fears, until their fears or doubts about the rightful King of England are removed.

TOLLET. We should read, than ye. What power was this? their fears. It is plain, therefore we should read:

Kings are our fears ;

i. e. our fears are the kings which at present rufe us.

WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton faw what was requifite to make this paffage fenfe; and Dr. Johnfon rather too haftily, I think, has received his emendation into the text. He reads:

Kings are our fears;

which he explains to mean, "our fears are the kings which at prefent rule us."

As the fame fenfe may be obtained by a much flighter alteration, I am more inclined to read:

King'd of our fears;

King'd is ufed as a participle paffive by Shakspeare more than once, I believe. I remember one inftance in Henry the Fifth, Act II. fc. v. The Dauphin fays of England:

It is fcarce neceffary to add, that, of, here (as in numberless other places,) has the fignification of, by. TYRWHITT.

BAST. By heaven, these scroyles of Angiers' flout you, kings;

And stand securely on their battlements,
As in a theatre, whence they gape and point
At your industrious fcenes and acts of death.
Your royal prefences be rul'd by me;

King'd of our fears;] i. e. our fears being our kings, or rulers. King'd is again ufed in King Richard II:

"Then I am king'd again:"

It is manifeft that the paffage in the old copy is corrupt, and that it must have been fo worded, that their fears should be styled their kings or mafters, and not they, kings or mafters of their fears; because in the next line mention is made of these fears being depofed. Mr. Tyrwhitt's emendation produces this meaning by a very flight alteration, and is, therefore, I think, entitled to a place

in the text.

The following paffage in our author's Rape of Lucrece, ftrongly, in my opinion, confirms his conjecture:

So fhall thefe flaves [Tarquin's unruly passions] be kings, and thou their flave."

Again, in King Lear:

It feems, fhe was a queen

"Over her paffion, who, moft rebel-like,

"Sought to be king o'er her."

This paffage in the folio is given to King Philip, and in a subfequent part of this fcene, all the fpeeches of the citizens are given to Hubert; which I mention, because these, and innumerable other inftances, where the fame error has been committed in that edition, justify fome licence in transferring fpeeches from one person to another. MALONE.

8 — thefe fcroyles of Angiers-] Efcrouelles, Fr. i. e. fcabby fcrophulous fellows.

Ben Jonfon uses the word in Every Man in his Humour:

66

hang them fcroyles!" STEEVENS.

9 At your induftrious fcenes-] I once wished to read-illuftrious; but now I believe the text to be right.

MALONE.

Your induftrious scenes and acts of death, is the fame as if the speaker had faidyour laborious induftry of war.

The old reading is undoubtedly the true one.

and put we on
"Industrious foldiership."

So, in Macbeth:

STEEVENS,