And will not let me welcome this good news.-
Set on toward Swinftead: to my litter ftraight;
Weakness poffeffeth me, and I am faint. [Excunt.

The fame. Another part of the fame.

Enter SALISBURY, PEMBROKE, BIGOT, and Others.

SAL. I did not think the king fo ftor'd with friends.

PEMB. Up once again; put spirit in the French; If they mifcarry, we mifcarry too.

SAL. That mifbegotten devil, Faulconbridge, In fpite of fpite, alone upholds the day.

PEMB. They fay, king John, fore sick, hath left the field.

Enter MELUN wounded, and led by Soldiers.

MEL. Lead me to the revolts of England here.
SAL. When we were happy, we had other names.
PEMB. It is the count Melun.

SAL.

Wounded to death. MEL. Fly, noble English, you are bought and

fold; 4

Unthread the rude eye of rebellion, 5

4

bought and fold;] The fame proverbial phrafe, intimating treachery, is used in K. Richard III. Aå V. fc. iii. in K. Henry VI. P. I. A& IV. fc. iv. and in The Comedy of Errors, A& III. sc. i.

STEEVENS,

* Untbread the rude eye of rebellion,] Though all the copies concur in this reading, how poor is the metaphor of unthreading

And welcome home again difcarded faith.
Seek out king John, and fail before his feet;
For, if the French be lords of this loud day,

6

He means to recompenfe the pains you take,
By cutting off your heads: Thus hath he fworn,
And I with him, and many more with me,
Upon the altar at Saint Edmund's-Bury;
Even on that altar, where we fwore to you
Dear amity and everlasting love.

SAL. May this be poffible! may this be true! MEL. Have I not hideous death within my view, Retaining but a quantity of life;

Which bleeds away, even as a form of wax
Refolveth from his figure 'gainft the fire?'

the eye of a needle? And befides, as there is no mention made of a needle, how remote and obfcure is the allufion without it? The text, as I have restored it, is eafy and natural; and it is the mode of expreffion, which our author is every where fond of, to tread and untread, the way, path, feps, &c. THEOBALD.

The metaphor is certainly harfh, but I do not think the paffage corrupted. JOHNSON.

Mr. Theobald reads -untread; but Shakspeare in King Lear ules the expreffion, threading dark ey'd night; and Coriolanus fays:

"Even when the navel of the ftate was touch'd,
"They would not thread the gates."

This quotation in fuppart of the old reading, has alfo been adduced by Mr. M. Mafon. STEEVINS.

Our author is not always careful that the epithet which he applies to a figurative term fhould anfwer on both fides. Rude is applicable to rebellion, but not to eye. He means in fact, of rude rebellion. MALONE.

6 He means--- The Frenchman, i. e. Lewis, means, Melun's next fpeech: "If Lewis do win the day—.”

7 --even as a form of wax

&c.

the eye

See

MALONE.

Refolveth, &c.] This is faid in allufion to the images made by witches. Holinthed obferves that it was alledged against dame Eleanor Cobham and her confederates, "that they had devifed an image of wax, reprefenting the king, which by their forcerie

What in the world fhould make me now deceive,
Since I muft lose the use of all deceit ?

Why should I then be false; fince it is true

That I muft die here, and live hence by truth?
I fay again, if Lewis do win the day,

He is forfworn, if e'er those eyes of yours
Behold another day break in the east:

But even this night,-whofe black contagious
breath

Already fmokes about the burning creft
Of the old, feeble, and day-wearied fun,-
Even this ill night, your breathing fhall expire;
Paying the fine of rated treachery,'

8

Even with a treacherous fine of all your lives,
If Lewis by your affiftance win the day.
Commend me to one Hubert, with your king;
The love of him,—and this respect befides,
For that my grandfire was an Englishman,9-
Awakes my confcience to confefs all this,
In lieu whereof, I pray you, bear me hence
From forth the noife and rumour of the field;
Where I may think the remnant of my thoughts
In peace, and part this body and my foul
With contemplation and devout defires.

by little and little confumed, intending thereby in conclufiơn tổ wafte and deftroy the king's person.'

Refolve and diffolve, had anciently the fame meaning. So, in Hamlet:

8

"O, that this too too folid flesh would melt,

"Thaw, and refolve itself into a dew!" STEEVENS.

-rated treachery,] It were eafy to change rated to hated for an eafier meaning, but rated fuits better with fine. The Dauphin has rated your treachery, and set upon it a fine which your lives muft pay. JOHNSON.

9 For that my grandfire was an Englishman,] This line is taken from the old play, printed in quarto, in 1591. MALONE.

1

SAL. We do believe thee,-And befhrew my foul

But I do love the favour and the form

Of this most fair occafion, by the which
We will untread the fteps of damned flight;
And, like a bated and retired flood,
Leaving our ranknefs and irregular course,*
Stoop low within those bounds we have o'erlook'd,
And calmly run on in obedience,

Even to our ocean, to our great king John.

My arm fhall give thee help to bear thee hence; For I do fee the cruel pangs of death

Right in thine eye,3-Away, my friends! New

flight;

And happy newness, that intends old right.

2

[Exeunt, leading off MELUN.

Leaving our rankness and irregular course,] Rank, as applied to water, here fignifies exuberant, ready to overflow: as applied to the actions of the fpeaker and his party, it fignifies inordinate. So, in our author's Venus and Adonis :

3

"Rain added to a river that is rank,

Perforce will force it overflow the bank."

MALONE.

Right in thine eye.] This is the old reading. Right fignifies immediate. It is now obfolete. Some commentators would readpight, i. c. pitched as a tent is; others, fight in thine eye.

STEEVENS.

4-happy newne fs, &c.] Happy innovation, that purposed the reftoration of the ancient rightful government. JOHNSON.

SCENE V.

The fame. The French Camp.

Enter LEWIS, and his Train.

LEW. The fun of heaven, methought, was loth to fet;

But flay'd, and made the western welkin blush, When the English measur'd backward their own

ground,

5

In faint retire: O, bravely came we off,
When with a volley of our needlefs fhot,
After fuch bloody toil, we bid good night;
And wound our tatter'd colours clearly up,
Laft in the field, and almoft lords of it!-

6

5 When the English meafur'd-] Old copy-When English meafure, &c. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

6

--tatler'd-] For tatter'd, the folio reads, tottering,

JOHNSON,

It is remarkable through fuch old copies of our author as I have hitherto feen, that wherever the modern editors read tatter'd, the old editions give us totter'd in its room. Perhaps the prefent broad pronunciation, almoft particular to the Scots, was at that time common to both nations.

So, in Marlowe's K. Edward 11. 1598:

Again :

"This tottered enfign of my ancestors."

"As doth this water from my totter'd robes."

'Again, in The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington, 1601 :

I will not bid my enfign-bearer wave

"My totter'd colours in this worthlefs air."

STEEVENS.

Tattering, which in the fpelling of our author's time was tottering, is ufed for tatter'd The active and paffive participles are employed by him very indifcriminately. MALONE. |

I read tatter'd, an epithet which occurs again in King Lear and Romeo and Juliet. Of lattering (which would obviously mean tearing to tatters), our author's works afford no parallel. STEEVENS.

1