Thou canft not, cardinal, devise a name
So flight, unworthy, and ridiculous,
To charge me to an anfwer, as the pope.

Tell him this tale; and from the mouth of Eng

land,

Add thus much more,-That no Italian priest
Shall tithe or toll in our dominions;
But as we under heaven are fupreme head,
So, under him, that great fupremacy,
Where we do reign, we will alone uphold,
Without the affiftance of a mortal hand:
So tell the pope; all reverence fet apart,
To him, and his ufurp'd authority.

K. PHI. Brother of England, you blafpheme in

this.

K. JOHN. Though you, and all the kings of Chriftendom,

Are led fo grofsly by this meddling prieft,
Dreading the curfe that money may buy out;
And, by the merit of vile gold, drofs, duft,
Purchafe corrupted pardon of a man,
Who, in that fale, fells pardon from himself:
Though you, and all the rest, so grofsly led,

to interrogatories, can force a king to speak and anfwer them? The old copy reads earthy. The emendation was made by Mr. Pope. It bas alfo taft inftead of task, which was fubftituted by Mr. Theobald. Breath for fpeech is common with our author. So, in a fubfequent part of this fcene:

"The latest breath that gave the found of words." Again, in The Merchant of Venice," breathing courtesy," for verbal courtesy. MALONE.

The emendation [ task] may be justified by the following paffage in King Henry IV. P. I:

How fhow'd his talking? feem'd it in contempt?"

Again, in King Henry V:

“ That task our thoughts concerning us and France."

STREVENS.

This juggling witchcraft with revenue cherish;
Yet 1, alone, alone do me oppose

Against the pope, and count his friends my foes.
PAND. Then, by the lawful power that I have,
Thou shalt ftand curs'd, and excommunicate:
And bleffed fhall he be, that doth revolt
From his allegiance to an heretick;
And meritorious fhall that hand be call'd,
Canonized, and worfhip'd as a faint,
That takes away by any fecret courfe
Thy hateful life. *

CONST.

2

O, lawful let it be,

That I have room with Rome to curse a while!
Good father cardinal, cry thou, amen,

To my keen curfes; for, without my wrong,
There is no tongue hath power to curfe him right.
PAND. There's law and warrant, lady, for my

curfe.

CONST. And for mine too; when law can do no right,

2 That takes away by any fecret course,

Thy hateful life. This may allude to the bull published agaiuft Queen Elizabeth. Or we may fuppofe, fince we have no proof that this play appeared in its prefent ftate before the reign of King James, that it was exhibited soon after the popish plot. I have seen a Spanish book in which Garnet, Faux, and their accomplices, are registered as faints. JOHNSON.

If any allufion to his own times was intended by the author of the old play, (for this fpeech is formed on one in King John, 1591,) it muft have been to the ball of Pope Pius the Fifth, 1569: "Then I Pandulph of Padua, legate from the Apoftolike fea, doe in the name of Saint Peter, and his fucceffor, our holy father Pope Innocent, pronounce thee accurfed, discharging every of thy fubje&s of all dutie and fealtie that they do owe to thee, and pardon and forgiveneffe of finne to those or them whatsoever which fhall carrie armes against thee or murder thee. This I pronounce, and charge all good men to abhorre thee as an excommunicate person.

"

MALONE.

Let it be lawful, that law bar no wrong:
Law cannot give my child his kingdom here;
For he, that holds his kingdom, holds the law:
Therefore, fince law itfelf is perfect wrong,
How can the law forbid my tongue to curfe?
PAND. Philip of France, on peril of a curfe,
Let go the hand of that archheretick;

And raise the power of France upon his head,
Unless he do fubmit himfelf to Rome.

ELI. Look'ft thou pale, France? do not let go thy hand.

CONST. Look to that, devil! left that France re

pent,

And, by disjoining hands, hell lofe a foul.

AUST. King Philip, liften to the cardinal. BAST. And hang a calf's-fkin on his recreant

limbs.

AUST. Well, ruffian, I muft pocket up these wrongs,

Becaufe

BAST.

Your breeches beft may carry them. K. JOHN. Philip, what fay'ft thou to the cardi

nal?

CONST. What fhould he fay, but as the cardinal?

LEW. Bethink you, father; for the difference Is, purchase of a heavy curfe from Rome, 3. Or the light lofs of England for a friend: Forgo the easier.

BLANCH.

That's the curfe of Rome.

Is, purchase of a heavy curfe from Rome,] It is a political maxim, that kingdoms are never married. Lewis, upon the wedding is for making war upon his new relations. JOHNSON.

CONST. O Lewis, ftand faft; the devil tempts

thee here,

In likeness of a new untrimmed bride. 4

the devil tempts thee here,

In likeness of a new untrimmed bride.] Though all the copies concur in this reading, yet as untrimmed cannot bear any fignifica tion to fquare with the fenfe required, I cannot help thinking it a corrupted reading. I have ventured to throw out the negative, and read:

In likeness of a new and trimmed bride.

i. c. of a new bride, and one decked and adorned as well by art as nature. THEOBALD.

It

Mr. Theobald fays, that as untrimmed cannot bear any fignification to fquare with the fenfe required, it must be corrupt; therefore he will cashier it, and read and trimmed; in which he is followed by the Oxford editor; but they are both too hafty. fquares very well with the fenfe, and fignifies unsteady. The term is taken from navigation. We say too, in a fimilar way of speaking, not well manned. WARBURTON.

I think Mr. Theobald's correction more plaufible than Dr. Warburton's explanation. A commentator fhould be grave, and therefore I can read these notes with proper feverity of attention; but the idea of trimming a lady to keep her fleady, 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 semblance in which he was more likely to be successful? The devil (fays Conftance) raises to your imagination your bride difencumbered of the forbidding forms of drefs, and the memory of my wrongs is loft in the anticipation df future enjoyment.

Ben Joufon, in his New Inn, fays:

"Bur. Here's a lady gay.

Tip. A well-trimm'd lady!

Again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

"And I was trimm'd in madam Julia's gown.

Again, in King Henry VI. P. III. A& II:

"Trimm'd like a younker prancing to his love." Again, in Reginald Scott's Difcovery of Witchcraft, 1584:

"a good huswife, and alfo well trimmed up in apparel. Mr Collins inclines to a colder interpretation, and is willing to fuppofe that by an untrimmed bride is meant a bride unadorned with the ufual pomp and formality of a nuptial habit. The propriety of

BLANCH. The lady Conftance speaks not from her faith,

this epithet he infers from the hafte in which the match was made, and further juftifies it from King John's preceding words:

"Go we, as well as hafte will suffer us,

To this unlook'd for, unprepared pomp.

Mr. Tollet is of the fame opinion, and offers two inftances in which untrimmed indicates a deshabille or a frugal vefture. In Minfheu's Dictionary, it fignifies one not finely dreffed or attired. Again, in Vives's Infruction of a Chriftian Woman, 1592, p. 98 and 99: "Let her [the miftrefs of the house] bee content with a maide not faire and wanton, that can fing a ballad with a clere voice, but fad, pale, and untrimmed." STEEVENS.

I incline to think that the tranfcriber's ear deceived him, and that we should read, as Mr. Theobald has propofed,

a new and trimmed bride.

The following paffage in King Henry IV. P. I. appears to me ftrongly to fupport his conjecture:

When I was dry with rage, and extreme toil,

Came there a certain lord, neat, trimly drefs'd, "Fresh as a bridegroom -

Again, more appofitely, in Romeo and Juliet:

"Go, waken Juliet; go, and trim her up;

"Make hafte; the bridegroom he is come already."

Again, in Cymbeline:

and forget

"Your labourfome and dainty trims, wherein
"You made great Juno angry.

་་

Again, in our author's Venus and Adonis:

"The flowers are fweet, their colours fresh and trim." The freshness which our author has connected with the word trim, in the first and last of these passages, and the “labourfome and dainty trims that made great Juno angry," which furely a bride may be fuppofed moft likely to indulge in, (however scantily Blanch's toilet may have been furnished in a camp,) prove, either that this emendation is right, or that Mr. Collins's interpretation of the word untrimmed is the true one. Minfheu's definition of untrimmed, "qui n'eft point orné-inornatus, incultus, as well as his explanation of the verb "to trim," which, according to him, means the fame as "to prank up, may also be adduced to the fame point. See his DICT. 1617. Mr. M. Mafon juftly observes, that to trim means to dress out, but not to clothe; and confequently, though it might mean unadorned, it cannot mean unclad, or naked.

39

MALONE.