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Blanch. The lady Conftance speaks not from her faith,

But from her need.

Conft. Oh, 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.
Conft. O, be remov'd from him, and answer well.
Auft. Do fo, king Philip; hang no more in doubt.
Faule. Hang nothing but a calve's-skin, most sweet
lout.

K. Phil. I am perplex'd, and know not what to say. Pand. What can't thou fay, but will perplex thee

more,

If thou ftand excommunicate, and curft?

K. Phil. Good reverend father, make my perfon

yours,

And tell me how you would beftow yourself.
This royal hand and mine are newly knit,
And the conjunction of our inward fouls
Marry'd in league, coupled and link'd together

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. WARB. I think Mr. Theobald's correction more plaufible than Dr. Warburton's explanation. A commentator fhould be grave, and therefore I can read thefe notes with proper feverity of attention; but the idea of trimming a lady to keep her feady, 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) raifes to your imagination your bride ftripped of the forbidding forms of drefs, and in the anticipation of future enjoyment, the memory of my wrongs is loft.

Ben Jonfon, in his New Inn, fays,
Bur. Here's a lady gay.
"Tip. A well-trimm'd lady!"
D 3

STEEVENS.

With

With all religious strength 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 laughter'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 4,
Unyoke this feizure, and this kind regreet?
Play faft and loofe 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-bcd
Of fmiling peace to march a bloody host,
And make a riot on the gentle brow
Of true fincerity? O holy Sir,
My reverend father, let it not be fo:
Out of your grace, devife, ordain, impose
Some gentle order; and then we shall be bleft
To do your pleafure, and continue friends.

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

France, thou may'ft hold a ferpent by the tongue,
A cafed lion 5 by the mortal paw,

A fafting tyger fafer by the tooth,

Than keep in peace that hand which thou doft hold.

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

5 A cafed lion] All the modern editors read, a chafed lion. Ife little reafon for change. A cofed lion, is a lion irritated by confinement. The author might, however, have written, a chafed lion. STEEVENS,

K. Philip.

K. Phil. I may disjoin my hand, but not my faith.
Pand. So mak'ft thou faith an enemy to faith;
And, like a civil war, fet'ft oath to oath,
Thy tongue against thy tongue. O, let thy vow
First made to heaven, firit be to heaven perform'd;
That is, to be the champion of our church!
What fince thou fwor'ft, is fworn against thyself,
And may not be performed by thyself.
For that, which thou haft fworn to do amifs,
'Is't not amifs, when it is truly done?
And being not done, where doing tends to ill,
The truth is then most done, not doing it.
The better act of purpofes miftook

Is to mistake again; tho' indirect,
Yet indirection thereby grows direct,

And falfhood falfhood cures; as fire cools fire,
Within the fcorched veins of one new-burn'd.
It is religion, that doth make vows kept;
7 But thou haft fworn against religion:

By what thou fwear'ft, against the thing thou fwear'ft:

And

Is NOT amifs, when it is truly done :] This is the conclufion de travers. We fhould read,

Is YET amifs,

The Oxford editor, according to his ufual cuftom, will improve it further, and reads, moft amifs. WARBURTON.

I rather read,

Is't not amifs, when it is truly done?

as the alteration is lefs, and the fenfe which Dr. Warburton first discovered is preferved. JoHNSON.

But thou hast worn against religion, &c.] In this long speech, the legate is made to fhew his fkill in cafuiftry; and the ftrange heap of quibble and nonfenfe of which it confifts, was intended to ridicule that of the fchools. For when he affumes the politician, at the conclufion of the third act, the author makes him talk at another rate. I mean in that beautiful paffage where he fpeaks of the mifchiefs following the king's lois of his fubjects hearts. This conduct is remarkable, and was intended, I fuppofe, to fhew us how much better politicians the Roman courtiers are, than divines. WARBURTON.

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And mak'st an oath the furety for thy truth,
Against an oath. The truth thou art unfure
To fwear, fwear only not to be forfworn;
Elfe, what a mockery fhould it be to fwear?
But thou doft fwear, only to be forfworn;
And moft forfworn, to keep what thou doft swear.
Therefore, thy latter vows, against thy first,

I am not able to difcover here any thing inconfequent or ridiculoufly fubtle. The propofitions, that the voice of the church is the voice of heaven, and that the pope utters the voice of the church, neither of which Pandulph's auditors would deny, being once granted, the argument here used is irrefiftible ; nor is it eafy, notwithstanding the gingle, to enforce it with greater brevity or propriety:

But thou haft worn against religion:

By what thou wear'f, against the thing thou fwear'ft :
And mak' ft an oath the furety for thy truth,

Against an cath the truth thou art unsure

To fear, fear only not to be forfworn.] By what. Sir T. HANMER reads, by that. I think it should be rather by which. That is, thou fwear' ft against the thing, by which thou fwear'; that is, against religion.

The most formidable difficulty is in thefe lines,

And mak'ft an oath the furety for thy truth,
Against an cath the truth thou art unfure
Tofwear, &c.

This Sir T. HANMER reforms thus,

And mak'ft an oath the furety for thy truth,
Against an cath; this truth thou art unfure
To fwear, &c.

Dr. WARBURTON writes it thus,

Against an oath the truth thou art unfure

which leaves the paffage to me as obfcure as before,

I know not whether there is any corruption beyond the omif fion of a point. The fenfe, after I had confidered it, appeared to me only this: In fwearing by religion against religion, to which thou haf already forn, thou mukeft an oath the fecurity for thy faith again an oath already taken. I will give, fays be, a rule for confcience in these cafes. Thou mayit be in doubt about the matter of an oath; when thou fweareft thou may not be always fure to favear rightly, but let this be thy fettled principle, fwear only not to be forfworn; let not the latter oaths be at variance with the former.

Truth, through this whole fpeech, means rectitude of conduct. JOHNSON.

Is in thyself rebellion to thyself.

And better conquest never canst thou make,
Than arm thy conftant and thy nobler

Against these giddy, loose suggestions.

parts

Upon which better part, our prayers come in,
If thou vouchfafe them. But, if not, then, known,
The peril of our curfes light on thee;

So heavy, as thou shalt not shake them off;
But, in defpair, die under their black weight.
Auft. Rebellion, flat rebellion!

Faulc. Will't not be?

Will not a calve's-skin stop that mouth of thine?
Lewis. Father, to arms!

Blanch. Upon thy wedding-day?

Against the blood that thou haft married?

What, fhall our feast be kept with flaughter'd men?
Shall braying trumpets, and loud churlish drums,
Clamours of hell, be measures to our pomp?
O husband, hear me! (ah! alack, how new
Is husband in my mouth?) even for that name,
Which till this time my tongue did ne'er
Upon my knee I beg, go not to arms
Against mine uncle.

Conft. O, upon my knee,

pronounce,

Made hard with kneeling, I do pray to thee,
Thou virtuous dauphin, alter not the doom
Forethought by heaven.

Blanch. Now fhall I fee thy love.-What motive may Be stronger with thee than the name of wife?

Conft. That which upholdeth him, that thee upholds, His honour. Oh, thine honour, Lewis, thine honour!

Lewis. I mufe, your majefty doth feem fo cold,
When fuch profound refpects do pull you on?
Pand. I will denounce a curfe upon his head.
K. Phil. Thou fhalt not need.-England, I'll fall
from thee.

Conft. O fair return of banish'd majesty!
Eli. O foul revolt of French inconstancy!

K. John.

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