After young Arthur, claim this land for mine; Am I Rome's slave? What penny hath Rome borne, What men provided, what munition sent, To underprop this action? is't not I, 8 That undergo this charge? who else but I, Till my attempt so much be glorified 8 ➡as I have BANK'D THEIR TOWNS ?] "Bank'd their towns" may mean, throw up entrenchments before them.' The old play of King John, however, leaves this interpretation extremely disputable. It appears from thence that these salutations were given to the Dauphin as he sailed along the banks of the river. This, I suppose, Shakspeare calls banking the towns. from the hollow holes of Thamesis "Echo apace replied, Vive le roi ! "From thence along the wanton rolling glade, "To Troynovant, your fair metropolis.' We still say to coast and to flank; and to bank has no less of propriety, though it is not reconciled to us by modern usage. STEEVENS. 9 No, on my soul,] In the old copy, no, injuriously to the measure, is repeated. STEEVENS. I DREW this gallant head of war,] i. e. assembled it, drew it out into the field. So, in King Henry IV. Part I. : "And that his friends by deputation could not 66 So soon be drawn." STEEVENS. And cull'd these fiery spirits from the world, [Trumpet sounds. What lusty trumpet thus doth summon us? Enter the Bastard, attended. BAST. According to the fair play of the world, Let me have audience; I am sent to speak :-My holy lord of Milan, from the king I come, to learn how you have dealt for him; PAND. The Dauphin is too wilful-opposite, BAST. By all the blood that ever fury breath'd, The youth says well :-Now hear our English king; For thus his royalty doth speak in me. He is prepar'd; and reason too, he should: This harness'd masque, and unadvised revel, 2 outlook- i. e. face down, bear down by a show of magnanimity. In a former scene of this play, p. 343, we have: 66 outface the brow "Of bragging horror." STEEVvens. Old copy-to. editor of the second folio. MALONE. Corrected by the 4 This UNHAIR'D sauciness, and boyish troops,] The printed copies-unheard; but unheard is an epithet of very little force or meaning here; besides, let us observe how it is coupled. Faulconbridge is sneering at the Dauphin's invasion, as an unadvised enterprise, savouring of youth and indiscretion; the result of childishness, and unthinking rashness; and he seems altogether to dwell on this character of it, by calling his preparation "boyish troops, dwarfish war, pigmy arms," &c. which, according to my emendation, sort very well with unhair'd, i. e. unbearded sauciness. THEOBALD. Hair was formerly written hear. Hence the mistake might The king doth smile at; and is well prepar'd That hand, which had the strength, even at your door, To cudgel you, and make you take the hatch; To lie, like pawns, lock'd up in chests and trunks; easily happen. Faulconbridge has already, in this Act, p. 344, exclaimed: "Shall a beardless boy, "A cocker'd silken wanton, brave our fields ? " So, in the fifth Act of Macbeth, Lenox tells Cathness that the English army is near, in which, he says, there are— 66 many unrough youths, that even now "Protest their first of manhood." Again, in King Henry V. : - "For who is he, whose chin is but enrich'd "With one appearing hair, that will not follow "These cull'd and choice-drawn cavaliers to France?" MALONE. take the hatch;] To take the hatch, is to leap the hatch. To take a hedge or a ditch is the hunter's phrase. Chapman has more than once employed it in his version of Homer. Thus, in the 22d Iliad : 66 Again, ibid: 66 take the town; retire, dear son," &c. and take the town, not tempting the rude field." εἰσερχεο τεῖχος, Τείχεος ἐντὸς ἰών. So, in Massinger's Fatal Dowry, 1632: STEEVENS. "I look about and neigh, take hedge and ditch, MALONE. 6 -in CONCEALED wells;] I believe our author, with his accustomed licence, used concealed for concealing; wells that afforded concealment and protection to those who took refuge there. MALONE. 66 Concealed wells are wells in concealed or obscure situations; viz. in places secured from public notice. STEEVENS. 7 of YOUR nation's crow,] Mr. Pope, and some of the sub Thinking his voice an armed Englishman ;- To souse annoyance that comes near his nest.- LEW. There end thy brave, and turn thy face in peace; We grant, thou canst outscold us: fare thee well; We hold our time too precious to be spent With such a brabbler. PAND. Give me leave to speak. sequent editors, read-our nation's crow; not observing that the Bastard is speaking of John's atchievements in France. He likewise reads, in the next line-his voice; but this voice, the voice or caw of the French crow, is sufficiently clear. MALONE. - your nation's crow," i. e. at the crowing of a cock; gallus meaning both a cock and a Frenchman. 66 8 DOUCE. like an eagle o'er his AIERY towers,] An aiery is the nest of an eagle. So, in King Richard III. : "Our aiery buildeth in the cedar's top." 9 Their NEELDS to lances,] So, in A Midsummer-Night's Dream : STEEVENS. "Have with our neelds created both one flower." Fairfax has the same contraction of the word-needle. STEEVENS. In the old copy the word is contractedly written needl's, but it was certainly intended to be pronounced neelds, as it is frequently written in old English books. Many dissyllables are used by Shakspeare and other writers as monosyllables, as whether, spirit, &c. though they generally appear at length in the original editions of these plays. MALONE. BAST. No, I will speak. Strike up the drums; Plead for our interest, We will attend to neither :and let the tongue of war and our being here. BAST. Indeed, your drums, being beaten, will cry out; And so shall you, being beaten : Do but start And even at hand a drum is ready brac'd, A bare-ribb'd death, whose office is this day out. BAST. And thou shalt find it, Dauphin, do not [Exeunt. doubt. SCENE III. The Same. A Field of Battle. Alarums. Enter King JOHN and HUBERT. K. JOHN. How goes the day with us? O, tell me, Hubert. HUB. Badly, I fear: How fares your majesty? K. JOHN. This fever, that hath troubled me so long, 9 A bare-ribb'd death,] So, in our author's Rape of Lucrece: "Shows me a bare-bon'd death by time outworn." STEEVENS. |