Let it be lawful, that law bar no wrong:
Law cannot give my child his kingdom here;
For he, that holds his kingdom, holds the law:
Therefore, fince law itself is perfect wrong,
How can the law forbid my tongue to curfe?

PAND. Philip of France, on peril of a curse,
Let go the hand of that archheretick;
And raise the power of France upon his head,
Unless he do fubmit himself to Rome.

ELI. Look'st thou pale, France? do not let go thy hand.

CONST. Look to that, devil! left that France repent,

And, by disjoining hands, hell lose a foul.

AUST. King Philip, liften to the cardinal.
BAST. And hang a calf's-fkin on his recreant
limbs.

Ausr. Well, ruffian, I muft pocket up these
wrongs,

Becaufe

BAST.

Your breeches best may carry them. K. JOHN. Philip, what fay'ft thou to the cardi

nal?

CONST. What fhould he fay, but as the cardinal?

LEW. Bethink you, father; for the difference Is, purchase of a heavy curfe from Rome,' Or the light lofs of England for a friend: Forgo the easier.

BLANCH.

That's the curfe of Rome.

3 Is, purchase of a heavy curfe from Rome,] It is a political maxim, that kingdoms are never married. Lewis, upon the wedding, is for making war upon his new relations. JOHNSON.

CONST. O Lewis, ftand faft; the devil tempts

thee here,

In likeness of a new untrimmed bride.*

the devil tempts thee here,

In likeness of a new untrimmed bride.] Though all the copies concur in this reading, yet as untrimmed cannot bear any fignification to fquare with the fenfe required, I cannot help thinking it a corrupted reading. I have ventured to throw out the negative, and read:

In likeness of a new and trimmed bride.

i. e. of a new bride, and one decked and adorned as well by art as nature. THEOBALD.

Mr. Theobald fays, "that as untrimmed cannot bear any fignification to fquare with the fenfe required," it must be corrupt; therefore he will cashier it, and read-and trimmed; in which he is followed by the Oxford editor; but they are both too hafty. It fquares very well with the fenfe, and fignifies unfteady. The term is taken from navigation. We fay too, in a fimilar way of speaking, not well manned. WARBURTON.

I think Mr. Theobald's correction more plaufible than Dr. Warburton's explanation. A commentator fhould be grave, and therefore I can read these notes with proper feverity of attention; but the idea of trimming a lady to keep her fteady, would be too rifible for any common power of face. JOHNSON.

Trim is drefs. An untrimmed bride is a bride undreft. Could the tempter of mankind affume a femblance in which he was more likely to be fuccefsful? The devil (fays Conftance) raises to your imagination your bride difencumbered of the forbidding forms of drefs, and the memory of my wrongs is loft in the anticipation of future enjoyment.

Ben Jonfon, in his New Inn, fays; "Bur. Here's a lady gay,

"Tip. A well-trimm'd lady!"

Again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

"And I was trimm'd in madam Julia's gown."

Again, in King Henry VI, P, III. A& II :

"Trimm'd like a younker prancing to his love." Again, in Reginald Scott's Difcovery of Witchcraft, 1584:

66

a good hufwife, and alfo well trimmed up in apparel." Mr. Collins inclines to a colder interpretation, and is willing to fuppofe that by an untrimmed bride is meant a bride unadorned with the ufual pomp and formality of a nuptial habit. The propriety of

BLANCH. The lady Constance speaks not from her faith,

But from her need.

this epithet he infers from the hafte in which the match was made, and further juftifies it from King John's preceding words:

"Go we, as well as hafte will fuffer us,

"To this unlook'd for, unprepared pomp."

Mr. Tollet is of the fame opinion, and offers two inftances in which untrimmed indicates a defhabille or a frúgal vefture. In Minfheu's Dictionary, it fignifies one not finely dressed or attired. Again, in Vives's Inftruction of a Chriftian Woman, 1592, p. 98 and 99: "Let her [the miftrefs of the houfe] bee content with a maide not faire and wanton, that can fing a ballad with a clere voice, but fad, pale, and untrimmed." STEEVENS.

I incline to think that the tranfcriber's ear deceived him, and that we should read, as Mr. Theobald has propofed,—

—a new and trimmed bride.

The following paffage in King Henry IV. P. I. appears to me strongly to fupport his conjecture:

"When I was dry with rage, and extreme toil,

"Came there a certain lord, neat, trimly drefs'd,
"Fresh as a bridegroom-

Again, more appofitely, in Romeo and Juliet:

"Go, waken Juliet; go, and trim her up;
"Make hafte; the bridegroom he is come already."

Again, in Cymbeline :

and forget

"Your labourfome and dainty trims, wherein
"You made great Juno angry."

Again, in our author's Venus and Adonis :

"The flowers are sweet, their colours fresh and trim-." The freshnefs which our author has connected with the word trim, in the first and laft of thefe paffages, and the labourfome and dainty trims that made great Juno angry," which furely a bride may be fuppofed moft likely to indulge in, (however scantily Blanch's toilet may have been furnished in a camp,) prove, either that this emendation is right, or that Mr. Collins's interpretation of the word untrimmed is the true one. Minfhieu's definition of untrimmed, "qui n'eft point orné,-inornatus, incultus," as well as his explanation of the verb " to trim," which, according to him, means the fame as "to prank up," may alfo be adduced to the fame point. See his DICT. 1617. Mr. M. Mafon juftly observes, that "to trim means to drefs out, but not to clothe; and confequently, though it might mean unadorned, it cannot mean unclad, or naked."

MALONE.

CONST.

O, if thou grant my need, Which only lives but by the death of faith, That need muft needs infer this principle,That faith would live again by death of need; O, then, tread down my need, and faith mounts up;

Keep my need up, and faith is trodden down.

K. JOHN. The king is mov'd, and answers not to this.

CONST. O, be remov'd from him, and answer well.

AUST. Do fo, king Philip; hang no more in doubt.

BAST. Hang nothing but a calf's-skin, most sweet lout.

K. PHI. I am perplex'd, and know not what to fay.

PAND. What can'ft thou fay, but will perplex thee more,

If thou ftand excommunicate, and curs'd?

K. PHI. Good reverend father, make my person

yours,

And tell me, how you would bestow yourself.
This royal hand and mine are newly knit;
And the conjunction of our inward fouls
Married in league, coupled and link'd together
With all religious ftrength of facred vows;
The latest breath, that gave the found of words,
Was deep-fworn faith, peace, amity, true love,
Between our kingdoms, and our royal felves;
And even before this truce, but new before,-
No longer than we well could wash our hands,
To clap this royal bargain up of peace,-
Heaven knows, they were befmear'd and over-

ftain'd

With flaughter's pencil; where revenge did paint
The fearful difference of incenfed kings:
And shall these hands, fo lately purg'd of blood,
So newly join'd in love, fo ftrong in both,'
Unyoke this feizure, and this kind regreet?"
Play faft and loose with faith? fo jeft with heaven,
Make fuch unconftant children of ourselves,
As now again to fnatch our palm from palm;
Unfwear faith fworn; and on the marriage bed
Of smiling peace to march a bloody host,
And make a riot on the gentle brow
Of true fincerity? O holy fir,

My reverend father, let it not be fo:
Out of your grace, devife, ordain, impose
Some gentle order; and then we fhall be blefs'd
To do your pleasure, and continue friends.

PAND. All form is formlefs, order orderless, Save what is oppofite to England's love. Therefore, to arms! be champion of our church! Or let the church, our mother, breathe her curse, A mother's curfe, on her revolting fon.

France, thou may'ft hold a ferpent by the tongue, A cafed lion' by the mortal paw,

5-fo ftrong in both,] I believe the meaning is, love fo ftrong in both parties. JOHNSON.

6

Rather, in hatred and in love; in deeds of amity or blood. HENLEY. this kind regreet?] A regreet is an exchange of falutation. So, in Heywood's Iron Age, 1632:

"So bear our kind regreets to Hecuba." STEEVENS.

7 A cafed lion-] The modern editors read-a chafed lion. I fee little reason for change. A cafed lion is a lion irritated by confinement. So, in King Henry VI. P. III. A&t I. fc. iii: "So looks the pent-up lion o'er the wretch

"That trembles under his devouring paws;" &c. STEEVENS.

Again, in Rowley's When you fee me you know me, 1621: "The lyon in his cage is not fo fterne

"As royal Henry in his wrathful spleene.”