And fought the holy wars in Palestine,
By this brave duke came early to his grave:5
And, for amends to his pofterity,

At our importance hither is he come,
To fpread his colours, boy, in thy behalf;
And to rebuke the ufurpation

Of thy unnatural uncle, English John:
Embrace him, love him, give him welcome hither.

Arth. God fhall forgive you Coeur-de-lion's death,
The rather, that you give his offspring life,
Shadowing their right under your wings of war:
I give you welcome with a powerlefs hand,
But with a heart full of unftained love:
Welcome before the gates of Angiers, duke.

Lew. A noble boy! Who would not do thee right?

Auft. Hugh de Nevill as a reward for his bravery, obtained from King Richard I. the manors of Medburn and Blafton in Leicestershire; which are to this day enjoyed by his family. NICHOLS.

5 The old play led Shakspeare into this error of afcribing to the Duke of Auftria the death of Richard, who left his life at the fiege of Chaluz, long after he had been ranfomed out of Auftria's power. STEEVENS,

The producing Auftria on the fcene is alfo contrary to the truth of hiftory, into which anachronifm our author was led by the old play. Leo. pold Duke of Auftria, by whom Richard I. had been thrown in prifon in 1193, died in confequence of a fall from his horfe in 1195, fome years before the commencement of the prefent play.

The original cause of the enmity between Richard the First, and the Duke of Auftria, was, according to Fabian, that Richard "tooke from a knighte of the Duke of Offricke the faid Duke's banner, and in defpite of the faid duke, trade it under foote, and did unto it all the fpite he might." Harding fays, in his Chronicle, that the cause of quarrel was Richard's taking down the Duke of Austria's arms and banner, which he had fet up above those of the King of France and the King of Jerufalem. The affront was given, when they lay before Acre in Paleftine. This circumftance is alluded to in the old King John, where the Bastard, after killing Auftria, fays,

"And as my father triumph'd in thy fpoils,

And trod thine enfigns underneath his feet," &c.

Other historians fay, that the Duke fufpected Richard to have been concerned in the affaffination of his kinsman, the Marquis of Montferrat, who was stabbed in Tyre, foon after he had been elected King of Jerufa lem; but this was a calumny, propagated by Richard's enemies for poli. tical purposes. MALONE.

At our importunity. JOHNSON.

Auft. Upon thy cheek lay I this zealous kifs,
As feal to this indenture of my love;
That to my home I will no more return,
Till Angiers, and the right thou haft in France,
Together with that pale, that white-fac'd fhore,
Whofe foot fpurns back the ocean's roaring tides,
And coops from other lands her iflanders,
Even till that England, hedg'd in with the main,
That water-walled bulwark, ftill fecure
And confident from foreign purposes,
Even till that utmost corner of the west,
Salute thee for her king: till then, fair boy,
Will I not think of home, but follow arms.

Conft. O, take his mother's thanks, a widow's thanks,
Till your ftrong hand fhall help to give him ftrength,
To make a more requital to your love.8

Auft. The peace of heaven is theirs, that lift their swords In such a juft and charitable war.

K. Phi. Well then, to work; our cannon shall be bent
Against the brows of this refifting town.
Call for our chiefeft men of difcipline,
To cull the plots of beft advantages: -9
We'll lay before this town our royal bones,
Wade to the marketplace in Frenchmen's blood,
But we will make it subject to this boy.

Conft. Stay for an answer to your embaffy,
Left unadvis'd you ftain your fwords with blood:
My lord Chatillon may from England bring
That right in peace, which here we urge in war;
And then we fhall repent each drop of blood,
That hot rash hafte fo indirectly shed.

Enter

7 England is supposed to be called Albion from the white rocks facing France. JOHNSON.

8 I believe it has been already obferved, that more fignified in our author's time, greater. STEEVENS.

i. c. to mark fuch-Яations as might most over-awe the town.

HINLEY.

K. Phi. A wonder, lady! 2-lo, upon thy wish,'
Our meffenger Chatillon is arriv'd.

What England fays, fay briefly, gentle lord,
We coldly paufe for thee; Chatillon, fpeak.

Chat. Then turn your forces from this paltry fiege,
And ftir them up against a mightier task.
England, impatient of your jult demands,
Hath put himself in arms; the adverfe winds,
Whofe leifure I have staid, have given him time
To land his legions all as foon as I:
His marches are expedient to this town,
His forces ftrong, his foldiers confident.
With him along is come the mother-queen,
An Até, ftirring him to blood and ftrife;
With her her niece, the lady Blanch of Spain;
With them a bastard of the king deceas'd:
And all the unfettled humours of the land,-
Rafh, inconfiderate, firy voluntaries,
With ladies' faces, and fierce dragons' fpleens,-
Have fold their fortunes at their native homes,
Bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs,
To make a hazard of new fortunes here.

In brief, a braver choice of dauntless spirits,
Than now the English bottoms have waft o'er,5

Did

2 The wonder is only that Chatillon happened to arrive at the moment when Conftance mentioned him; which the French king, according to a fuperftition which prevails more or lefs in every mind agitated by great affairs, turns into a miraculous interpofition, or omen of good.

3 Immediate, expeditious. JOHNSON.

JOHNSON.

4 Até was the Goddefs of Revenge. The play-editors read-an Ace. This image might have been borrowed from the celebrated libel, called Leicester's Commonwealth, originally published about the year 1584: -She standeth like a fiend or fury, at the elbow of her Amadis, to firre him forward when occafion fhall ferve." STEEVENS.

5 Waft for wafted.

So again in this play:

"The iron of itself, though beat red hot.

i. e. heated. STEEVENS.

7

Did never float upon the fwelling tide,
To do offence and scath 6 in Christendom.
The interruption of their churlish drums
Cuts off more circumftance: they are at hand,
To parley, or to fight; therefore, prepare.

[Drums beat.

K. Phi. How much unlook'd for is this expedition!
Auft. By how much unexpected, by fo much
We muft awake endeavour for defence;
For courage mounteth with occafion :
Let them be welcome then, we are prepar❜d.

Enter King JOHN, ELINOR, BLANCH, the Baftard, PEM-
BROKE, and Forces.

K. John. Peace be to France; if France in peace permit Our juft and lineal entrance to our own!

If not; bleed France, and peace ascend to heaven!
Whiles we, God's wrathful agent, do correct

Their pround contempt that beat his peace to heaven.
K. Phi. Peace be to England; if that war return
From France to England, there to live in peace!
England we love; and, for that England's fake,
With burden of our armour here we sweat :
This toil of ours should be a work of thine ;
But thou from loving England art fo far,
That thou haft underwrought his lawful king,
Cut off the fequence of pofterity,

Outfaced infant ftate, and done a rape

Upon the maiden virtue of the crown.

Look here upon thy brother Geffrey's face ;

These eyes, these brows, were moulded out of his :
This little abstract doth contain that large,
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,

6 —fratb-] Destruction, harm. JOHNSON.

7 i. e. underworked, undermined. STEEVENS.

5 A brief is a fhort writing, abstract, or description. STELVENS,

And

B

And this is Geffrey's: 9 In the name of God,
How comes it then, that thou art call'd a king,
When living blood doth in these temples beat,

own? Which owe the crown that thou o'ermaftereft?

um p.31.

K. John. From whom haft thou this great commiffion,
France,

.8. To draw my answer from thy articles?

K. Phi. From that fupernal judge, that stirs good thoughts In any breast of strong authority,

To look into the blots and ftains of right.2

That judge hath made me guardian to this boy :
Under whofe warrant, I impeach thy wrong;
And, by whofe help, I mean to chastise it.
K. John. Alack, thou doft ufurp authority.
K. Phi. Excufe; it is to beat ufurping down.
Eli. Who is it, thou doft call ufurper, France?
Conft. Let me make anfwer;-thy ufurping fon.
Eli. Out, infolent! thy baftard fhall be king;
That thou may'ft be a queen, and check the world! 3

Conft.

9. 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 bis," pointing to Arthur. M. MASON.

2 Mr. Theobald reads, with the first folio, blots, which being fo early authorized, and so much better underfood, 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-balter'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 called a blot or difference. STEEVENS.

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

MALONE.

3Surely (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 just occafion, given in the behalfe of the childe; for that the faw, if he were king, bow bis mother Conftance woulde looke to beare the moft rule within the realme of Englande, till her fonne fhould come to a lawfull age to govern of himselfe. So hard a thing it is, to bring women to agree in one minde, their natures commonly being fo contrary." MALONE.