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To me, and to the ftate of my great grief,
Let kings affemble; 5 for my grief's fo great,.

Our author has rendered this paffage obfcure, by indulging himself in one of those conceits in which he too much delights, and by bounding rapidly, with his ufual licence, from one idea to another. This obfcurity induced Sir T. Hanmer for toop to subftitute out; a reading that appears to me to have been too haftily adopted in the fubfequent editions.

The confufion aifes from the poet's having perfonified grief in the first part of the paffage, and fuppofing the afflided perfon to be bowed to the earth by that pride or haughtinefs which Grief is faid to poffefs; and by making the afflicted perfon, in the latter part of the paffage, aduated by this very pride, and exacting the fame kind of obesfance from others, that Grief has exacted from her." I will not go (fays Conftance) to these kings; I will teach my forrows to be proud; for Grief is proud, and makes the afAicted toop; therefore here I throw myself, and let them come to me." Here, had the ftopped, and thrown herself on the ground, and had nothing more been added, however we might have difapproved of the conceit, we fhould have had no temptation to disturb the text. But the idea of throwing herself on the ground fuggefts a new image; and because her stately grief is fo great that nothing but the huge earth can fupport it, fhe confiders the ground as her throne; and having thus invefted herself with regal dignity, fhe as queen in mifery, as poffeffing (like Imogen) "the fupreme crown of grief," calls on the princes of the world to bow down before her, as he has herself been bowed down by affliction,

Such, I think, was the process that paffed in the poet's mind; which appears to me fo clearly to explain the text, that I fee uo reafon for departing from it.. MALONE.

5 To me, and to the fate of my great grief,

1

Let kings affemble; In Much ado about Nothing, the father of Hero, depreffed by her difgrace, declares himself fo fubdued by grief that a thread may lead him. How is it that grief in Leonato and Lady Conftance produces effects direaly oppolite, and yet both agreeable to nature? Sorrow foftens the mind while it is yet warmed by hope, but hardens it when it is congealed by despair. Diftrefs, while there remains any profpe& of relief, is weak and Hexible, but when no fuccour remains, is fearless and stubborn; angry alike at thofe that injure, and at thofe that do not help; careless to please where nothing can be gained, and fearless to offend when there is nothing further to be dreaded. Such was this writer's knowledge of the paffions. JOHNSON.

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That no fupporter but the huge firm earth.
Can hold it up: here I and forrow fit;
Here is my throne, bid kings come bow to it."
[ She throws herfelf on the ground.

here I and forrow fit;] The old copy has-forrows.

STEEVENS.

A flight corruption has here deftroyed a beautiful image. There is no poetical reader that will not join with me in readinghere I and Sorrow fit." M. MASON.

Perhaps we should read- Here I and forrow fit. Our author might have intended to perfonify forrow, as Marlowe had done before him, in his King Edward II:

"While I am lodg'd within this cave of care,
"Where Sorrow at my elbow ftill attends."

The transcriber's ear might eafily have deceived him, the twe readings, when spoken, founding exa&ly alike. So, we find in the quarto copy of K. Henry IV. P. I:

"The mailed Mars fhall on his altars fit,”

inftead of-fhall on his altar fit. Again, in the quarto copy of the fame play we have-monftrous fcantle, inftead of-monftrous cantle. In this conje&ure I had once great confidence; but, a precedings

line

"I will inftru& my forrows to be proud,"

now appears to me to render it fomewhat difputable.

Perhaps our author here remembered the description of Elizabeth, the widow of King Edward IV. given in an old book, that, I believe, he had read: "The Queen fat alone below on the rushes, al defolate and dismaide; whom the Archbishop comforted in the beft manner that he coulde." Continuation of Harding's Chronicle, 1543. So alfo, in a book already quoted, that Shakspeare appears to have read, A compendious and most marvelous hiftory of the latter times of the fewes Commonweale: "All thofe things when I Jofeph heard tydings of, I tare my head with my hand, and caft afhes upon my beard, fitting in great forrow upon the ground." MALONE. bid kings come bow to it.] I muft here account for the liberty I have taken to make a change in the divifion of the second and third acts. In the old editions, the fecond act was made to end here; though it is evident Lady Conftance here, in her despair, feats herself on the floor: and the must be fuppofed, as I formerly obferved, immediately to rife again, only to go off and end the a& decently; or the flat fcene must shut her in from the light of the audience, an abfurdity I cannot wish to accufe Shakspeare of. Mr. Gildon and fome other criticks fancied, that a confiderable part of the fecond act was loft; and that the chafm began here. 1 had joined

7--

Enter King JOHN, King PHILIP, LEWIS, BLANCH, ELINOR, Baftard, AUSTRIA, and Attendants.

K. PHI. 'Tis true, fair daughter; and this bleffed day,

Ever in France fhall be kept festival:

in this fufpicion of a scene or two being loft; and unwittingly drew Mr. Pope into this error. "It feems to be fo, (fays he,) and it were to be wifh'd the reftorer (meaning me) could fupply it." To deferve this great man's thanks, I will venture at the task; and hope to convince my readers, that nothing is loft; but that I have fupplied the fufpected chasm, only by rectifying the divifion of the acts. Upon looking a little more narrowly into the conftitution of the play, I am satisfied that the third a& ought to begin with that fcene which has hitherto been accounted the laft of the second ad: and my reafons for it are these. The match being concluded, in the scene before that, betwixt the Dauphin and Blanch, a meffenger is fent for Lady Conftance to King Philip's tent, for her to come to Saint Mary's church to the folemnity. The princes all go out, as to the marriage; and the Baftard ftaying a little behind, to defcant on intereft and commodity, very properly ends the a&. The next scene then, in the French king's tent, brings us Salisbury delivering his message to Conftance, who, refufing to go to the folemnity, fets herself down on the floor. The whole train returning from the church to the French king's pavilion, Philip expreffes fuch fatisfaction on occafion of the happy folemnity of that day, that Conftance rifes from the floor, and joins in the fcene by entering her proteft against their joy, and curfing the bufinefs of the day. Thus, I conceive, the fcenes are fairly continued; and there is no chafm in the action, but a proper interval made both for Salisbury's coming to Lady Conftance, and for the folemnization of the marriage. Befides, as Faulconbridge is evidently the poet's favourite character, it was very well judged to close the act with his foliloquy. THEOBALD.

This whole note feems judicious enough; but Mr. Theobald forgets there were, in Shakspeare's time, no moveable fcenes in common playhoufes. JOHNSON.

It appears from many paffages that the ancient theatres had the advantages of machinery as well as the more modern ftages. See a note on the fourth fcene of the fifth act of Cymbeline.

men

How happened it that Shakspeare himself should have tioned the act of fhifting fcenes, if in his time there were no fscenes capable of being shifted? Thus in the chorus to King Henry V: "Unto Southampton do we Jhift our Scene."

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To folemnize this day, the glorious fun.
Stays in his courfe, and plays the alchemist;"
Turning, with splendor of his precious eye,
The meagre cloddy earth to glittering gold:
The yearly courfe, that brings this day about,
Shall never fee it but a holyday."

3

CONST. A wicked day, and not a holyday!-

[Rifing.

This phrafe was hardly more ancient than the cuftom which it defcribes. STEEVENS.

To folemnize this day, &c.] From this paffage Rowe seems to have borrowed the firft lines of his Fair Penitent. JOHNSON. The firft lines of Rowe's tragedy

"Let this aufpicious day be ever facred," &c.

are apparently taken from Dryden's Verfion of the fecond Satire
of Perfius:

"Let this aufpicious morning be expreft," &c. STEEVENS.
and plays the alchemist;] Milton has borrowed this

thought:

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"Th' arch-chemic fun," &c. Paradife Loft, B. III. Steevens. So, in our author's 33d Sonnet:

66

Gilding pale ftreams with heavenly alchymy." MALONE. Shall never fee it but a holyday. ] So, in The Famous Hiftorie of George Lord Fauconbridge, 1616: This joyful day of their arrival [that of Richard I. and his miftrefs, Clarabel,] was by the king and his counfell canonized for a holy-day." MALONE.

3 A wicked day, &c.] There is a paffage in The Honeft Whore, by Decker, 1604, fo much resembling the prefent, that I cannot forbear quoting it:

"Curft be that day for ever, that robb'd her

"Of breath, and me of blifs! henceforth let it ftand
"Within the wizzard's book (the kalendar)
"Mark'd with a marginal finger, to be chofen

By thieves, by villains, and black murderers,

"As the beft day for them to labour in.
"If henceforth this adulterous bawdy world
"Be got with child with treason, facrilege,
"Atheism, rapes, treacherous friendship, perjury,
"Slander (the beggars fin), lies (the fin of fools),
"Or any other damn'd impieties,

On Monday let them be delivered," &c. HENDERSON.

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What hath this day deferv'd? what hath it done;
That it in golden letters fhould be fet,
Among the high tides, in the kalendar?
Nay, rather, turn this day out of the week; 5
This day of flame, oppreffion, perjury:
Or, if it must ftand ftill, let wives with child
Pray, that their burdens may not fall this day,
Left that their hopes prodigioufly be crofs'd:
But on this day, let feamen fear no wreck;
No bargains break, that are not this day made: '
This day, all things begun come to ill end;
Yea, faith itself to hollow falfehood change!

6

4 high tides, i. e. folemn feafons, times to be observed above others. STEEVENS.

5 Nay, rather, turn this day out of the week;] In allufion (as Mr. Upton has obferved) to Job iii. 3: "Let the day perish," &c. and v. 6: "Let it not be joined to the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months." MALONE.

In The Fair Penitent, the imprecation of Califta on the night which betrayed her to Lothario, is chiefly borrowed from this and fubfequent verfes in the fame chapter of Job. STEEVENS.

6 prodigiously be cross'd:] i. e. be disappointed by the production of a prodigy, a monster. So, in A Midsummer Night's

Dream:

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But on this day, &c.] That is, except on this day. JOHNSON. In the ancient almanacks (feveral of which I have in my poffeffion) the days fuppofed to be favourable or unfavourable to bargains, are diftinguished among a number of other particulars of the like importance. This circumftance is alluded to in Webster's Duchefs of Malf, 1623:

By the almanac, I think

"To choose good days and fhun the critical." Again, in The Elder Brother of Beaumont and Fletcher: an almanac

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"Which thou art daily poring in, to pick out
"Days of iniquity to cozen fools in." STEEVENS.

See Macbeth, A& IV. fc. i. MALONE.

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