3

An Até, firring him to blood and frife; 2
With her her niece, the lady Blanch of Spain;
With them a baftard 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, 4
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,*
Did never float upon the fwelling tide,

To do offence and scath® in Christendom.

An Até, flirring him, &c.] Até was the Goddefs of Revenge. The player-editors read-an Ace. STLEVENS.

Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

This image might have been borrowed from the celebrated libel, called Leicefler's Commonwealth, originally published about the year 1584: ་་ She ftandeth like a fiend or fury, at the elbow of her Amadis, to flirre him forward when occafion shall serve. STEEVENS. 3 With them a baftard of the king deceas'd:] The old copy, erroneously, reads king's. STEEVENS.

This line, except the word with, is borrowed from the old play of King John, already mentioned. Our author fhould have writtenking, and fo the modern editors read. But there is certainly no corruption, for we have the fame phrafeology elsewhere. MALONE.

It may as juftly be faid, that the fame error has been elsewhere repeated by the fame illiterate compofitors: STEVENS.

4 Bearing their birthrights, &c.] So, in King Henry VIII:

O, many

"Have broke their backs with laying manors on them." JOHNSON. Than now the English bottoms have waft o'er,] Waft for wafted So again in this play:

"The iron of itself, though heat red hot

i. e. heated. STEEVENS.

G

-fcath] Deftruction, harm. JOHNSON.

So, in How to chufe a good Wife from a Bad, 1602:

"For these accounts, 'faith it fhall feath thee fomething."

Again:

"And it fhall feath him fomewhat of my purse.

STEEVENS.

The interruption of their churlifh drums

[ Drums beat. Cuts off more circumflance: they are at hand, To parley, or to fight; therefore, prepare.

K. PHI. How much unlook'd for is this expedition!

AUST. 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 Bastard, PEMBROKE, 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 afcend to heaven!
Whiles we, God's wrathful agent, do correct
Their proud contempt that beat his peace to hea-

ven.

K. PHI. Peace be to England; if that war re

turn

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 fweat:
This toil of ours fhould 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.

2

underwrought] i. e. underworked, undermined.

STEEVENS

Look here upon thy brother Geffrey's face;-
These eyes, thefe brows, were moulded out of his:
This little abftract 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,
And this is Geffrey's: In the name of God,
How comes it then, that thou art call'd a king,
When living blood doth in thefe temples beat,
Which owe the crown that thou o'ermaftereft?
K. JOHN. From whom haft thou this great com-
miffion, France,

9

To draw my answer from thy articles?

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

In any breaft of ftrong authority,

To look into the blots and ftains of right.*

8

this brief-] A brief is a fhort writing, abftra&, or defcription. So, in ▲ Midsummer Night's Dream:

9

Here is a brief how many fports are ripe."

England was Geffrey's right,

STEEVENS.

And this is Geffrey's: 1 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 his," pointing to Arthur. M. MASON.

To look into the blots and ftains of right.] Mr. Theobald reads, with the firft folio, blots, which being fo early authorized, and fo much better understood, 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 "potted 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, 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

That judge hath made me guardian to this boy:
Under whose warrant, I impeach thy wrong;
And, by whofe help, I mean to cháftife 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?
CONST. Let me make answer;-thy ufurping fon.
ELI. Out, infolent! thy baftard fhall be king;
That thou may'ft be a queen, and check the world! 3
CONST. 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 bastard! By my foul, I think,
His father never was fo true begot;

It cannot be, an if thou wert his mother. 4

called a blot or difference. So, in Drayton's Epifile from Queer Ifabel to K. Richard 11:

"No baftard's mark doth blot his conquering fhield." Blots and fains occur again together in the first scene of the third STEEVENS..

act.

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

MALONE.

"Surely

3 That thou may't be a queen, and check the world!] (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, how his mother Conftance would looke to beare the most rule within the realme of Englande, till her fonne should 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.

4 an if thou wert his mother.] Conftance alludes to Elinor's infidelity to her husband Lewis the Seventh, when they were in the

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

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

AUST. Peace!

BAST.

AUST.

Hear the crier. 5

6

What the devil art thou?
BAST. One that will play the devil, fir, 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 fmoke your ikin-coat, an I catch you right;
Sirrah, look to't; i'faith, I will, î'faith.

Holy Land; on account of which he was divorced from her. She afterwards (1151) married our King Henry II. MALONE.

5 Hear the crier.] Alluding to the ufual proclamation for filence, made by criers in courts of juftice, beginning Oyez, corruptly pra nounced 0- Yes. Auftria has just said Peace!

6 One that will play the devil, fir, with you,

MALONE.

An 'a may catch your hide and you alone. The ground of the quarrel of the Baftard to Austria is no where fpecified in the present play. But the story is, that Auftria, who killed King Richard Ceur-de-lion, wore as the spoil of that prince, à lion's hide, which had belonged to him. This circumftance renders the anger of the Baltard very natural, and ought not to have been omitted.

See p. 317, n. 9, and p. 318, n. 2. MALONE.

POPE.

The omiffion of this incident was natural. Shakspeare having familiarized the story to his own imagination, forgot that it was obfcure to his audience; or what is equally probable, the ftory was then fo popular that a hint was fufficient at that time to bring it to mind; and thefe plays were written with very little care for the approbation of pofterity. JOHNSON.

7 You are the hare-So, in The Spanish Tragedy:
"He hunted well that was a lion's death;
"Not he that in a garment wore his fkin:

"So hares may pull dead lions by the beard. "

See p. 296, n. 4. STEEVENS.

The proverb alluded to is, Mortuo leoni & lepores infultant." Erafmi ADAG. MALONE.