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

To draw my answer to thy articles?

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

In any breast of strong authority,

To look into the blots and ftains of right.
That judge hath made me guardian to this boy :
Under whofe warrant, I impeach thy wrong,
And, by whofe help, I mean to chaftife it.

K. John. Alack, thou doft ufurp authority.
K. Philip. Excufe it; 'tis to beat ufurping down.
Eli. Who is't, that thou doft call ufurper, France?
Conft. Let me make anfwer: thy ufurping fon.
Eli. Out, infolent! thy bastard shall be king;
That thou may'st be a queen, and check the world!
Conft. 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 baftard! By my foul, I think,
His father never was fo true begot;
It cannot be, an if thou wert his mother.

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

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

Auft. Peace!

Faulc. Hear the crier.

To look into the blots and flains of right.] Mr. Theobald reads, with the first folio, blots, which being fo early authorize 1, and fo much better understood, needed not to have been changed by Dr. Warburton to bolts, tho' belts might be used in that time for pots fo Shakespeare 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, belts was only a typographical mistake. JOHNSON.

Auft. What the devil art thou?

Faule. One that will play the devil, Sir, 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 fmoak your skin-coat, an I catch you right; Sirrah, look to't, i'faith, I will, i'faith.

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

Faule. It lies as fightly on the back of him 9,
As great Alcides' fhews 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 farme, that deafs our ears
With this abundance of fuperfluous breath?
King Lewis, determine what we fhall do ftrait.

9 It lies as fightly on the back of him,

K. Phil.

As great Alcides' fhoes upon an afs:] But why his fhoes, in the name of propriety? For let Hercu es and his hoes have been really as big as they were ever fuppofed to be, yet they (I mean the frees) would not have been an overload for an afs. I am perfuaded, I have retrieved the true reading; and let us obferve the juftness of the comparison now. Faulconbridge in his refentment would fay this to Auftria, "That lion's fkin, which my .66 great father king Richard once wore, looks as uncouthly on thy back, as that other noble hide, which was borne by Her"cules, 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.

Mr. Theobald had the art of making the moft of his difcoverics. JOHNSON.

I believe Theobald is right, yet the bees of Hercules are more than once introduced in the old comedies on much fuch another occafion. So in The Ile of Gulls, by J. Day, 1606.

1

"are as fit, as Hercules's foe for the foot of a pigmy." STEEVENS.

King Lewis, Thus the folio. The modern editors read -Philip, which appears to be right. It is however obfervable, that the answer is given in the old copy to Lewis, as if the dauphin, who was afterwards Lewis Vili, was meant to have been

K. Philip. 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 I do 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 Britain 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.

Eli. Come to thy grandam, child.

Conft. 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.
Conft. Now fhame upon you, whether the does, or no!
His grandam's wrongs, and not his mother's fhames,
Draw thofe heaven-moving pearls from his poor eyes,
Which heaven shall take in nature of a fee:
Ay, with these cryftal beads heaven fhall be brib'd
Todo him juftice, and revenge on you.

Eli. Thou monftrous flanderer of heaven and earth! Conft. Thou monftrous injurer of heaven and earth! Call me not flanderer; thou, and thine, ufurp The domination, royalties, and rights

Of this oppreffed boy. This is thy eldest fon's fon,
Infortunate in nothing but in thee;

Thy fins are vifited on this poor child;
The canon of the law is laid on him,

the fpeaker. The foeech itfelf, however, feems 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.

Being but the fecond generation.
Removed from thy fin-conceiving womb.
K. John. Bedlam, have done.

2

Conft. 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
On this removed iffue, plagu'd for her,
And with her.-Plague her fin; his injury,
Her injury, the beadle to her fin,

All punish'd in the person of this child,
And all for her, a plague upon her!

Eli. Thou unadvifed fcold, I can produce

A will, that bars the title of thy fon.

Conft. Ay, who doubts that? a will!a wicked will;

A woman's will; a cankred grandam's will!

K. Phil. Peace, lady; pause, or be more temperate :

2 I have but this to fay,

That he's not only plagued for her fin,

It

But, &c.] This paffage appears to me very obfcure. The chief difficulty arifes from this, that Conftance having told Elinor of her fin-conceiving womb, pursues 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 fhe, 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 caufe but the inftrument of evil.

The next clause is more perplexed. plagu'd for her,

All the editions read,

And with her plague her fin; his injury,
Her injury, the beadle to her fin,

All punifo'd in the perfon of this child.

I point thus:

plagu'd for her

And with her.-Plague her fon! his injury
Her injury, the beadle to her fin.

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

It ill befeems this prefence to cry aim To thefe ill tuned repetitions.

Some trumpet fummon hither to the walls

Thefe men of Angiers; let us hear them speak,
Whole title they admit, Arthur's or John's.

Trumpets found

Enter citizens upon the walls.

1. Cit. Who is it, that hath warn'd us to the walls? K. Phil. 'Tis France, for England.

K. John. England, for itself:

You nen of Angiers, and my loving fubjects

K. Pl. You loving men of Angiers, Arthur's fub

jects,

Our trumpet call'd you to this gentle parle.

K. Joh. For our advantage;

therefore hear us

ry, and the mifery of her fin; her fon will be a beadle, or ci... to her crimes, which are now all punished in the person of this. JOHNSON.

Mr. Brick reads,

plagued for her

"A with her plagu'd; her fin, his injury. STEEVENS. 3 It ill bejeons this prejence to cry aim

To thee ill tuned repetitions.] Dr. Warburton has well obferved on one of the form plays, that to cry aim is to encou rage.. I once thought it was borrowed from archery; and that aim! having been te werd of command, as we now say prefent! to cry aim had been to incite notice, or raife attention. But I rather think, that the old word of applaufe was J'aime, 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 fill borrowed, as bravo and encore.

JOHNSON. Dr. Johnfon's first thought, I believe is beft. So in Beaumont and Fletcher's Love's Cure, or The Martial Maid,

66 Can I cry aim

"To this against myfelf?"

So in our author's Merry Wives, &c. Ford fays, " - and "to these violent proceedings all my neighbours fhall cry aim."

STEEVENS.

* For our advantage; — therefore hear us first.-] If we read "for your advantage" it would be a more fpecious reafon for interrupting Lewis. T. T.

These