Enter King John, Pembroke, Salisbury, and other lords. K. John. Here once again we fit, once again crown'd, Was once fuperfluous: you were crown'd before, Sal. Therefore, to be poffefs'd with double pomp, To feek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, Pemb, But that your royal pleasure must be done, This act is as an ancient tale new told; And, in the laft repeating, troublesome, Being urged at a time unseasonable, Sal. In this, the antique and well-noted face Of plain old form is much disfigured: And, like a fhifted wind unto a fail, It makes the courfe of thoughts to fetch about; 7 This once again, ·was once fuperfluous:] This one time more was one time more than enough. JOHNSON. It should be remembered that king John was at present crowned for the fourth time. STEEVENS. To guard a title that was rich before,] To guard, is to fringe. JOHNSON. Makes Makes found opinion fick, and truth fufpected, I Pemb. When workmen strive to do better than well, Doth make the fault the worse by the excufe; 2 Difcredit more in hiding of the fault, Than did the fault before it was fo patch'd. Sal. To this effect, before you were new-crown'd, We breath'd our counfel: but it pleas'd your highnefs To over-bear it; and we are all well pleas'd; Since all and every part of what we would, Must make a stand at what your highness will. 3 K. John. Some reasons of this double coronation I have poffefs'd you with, and think them strong; And more, more ftrong (when leffer is my fear) 4 I They do confound their skill in covetoufnefs:] i. e. Not by their avarice, but in an eager emulation, an intense desire of excelling; as in Henry V: 2 "But if it be a fin to covet honour, "I am the most offending foul alive." THEOBALD. Than did the fault] We fhould read flaw in both places. WARBURTON, The old reading is the true one. Fault means blemish. STEEVENS, 3 Some reasons of this double coronation I have poffeft you with, and think them ftrong; you with: -] I have told you fome reasons, in my opinion firong, and shall tell more yet ftronger; for the stronger my reasons are, the less is my fear of your difapprobation. This feems to be the meaning. JOHNSON. 4 And more, more firong, (the lesser is my fear) I fhall endue you with: The first folio reads: -(then leffer is my fear) -] The present text is given according to Theobald, whose reading I cannot understand, though the true one is obvious enough: (when leffer is my fear) TYRWHITT. I have done this reading the juftice to place it in the text. STEEVENS. I fhall I fhall endue you with: Mean time, but afk The enfranchisement of Arthur; whofe reftraint K. John. Let it be fo; I do commit his youth Enter Hubert. To your direction.-Hubert, what news with you? Pemb. This is the man should do the bloody deed; To found the purpofes] To declare, to publish the defires of all thofe. JOHNSON. 6 -good exercife :] In the middle ages the whole education of princes and noble youths confifted in martial exercifes, &c. Thefe could not be easily had in a prifon, where mental improvements might have been afforded as well as any where else; but this fort of education never entered into the thoughts of our active, warlike, but illiterate nobility. PERCY, He He fhew'd his warrant to a friend of mine: What we fo fear'd he had a charge to do. Sal. The colour of the king doth come and go, Pemb. And, when it breaks, I fear, will iffue thence The foul corruption of a fweet child's death. K. John. We cannot hold mortality's ftrong hand:Good lords, although my will to give is living, The fuit which you demand is gone and dead; He tells us, Arthur is deceas'd to-night, Sal. Indeed, we fear'd, his fickness was paft cure. Pemb. Indeed, we heard how near his death he was, Before the child himself felt he was fick : This must be anfwer'd, either here, or hence. K. John. Why do you bend fuch folemn brows on me? Think you, I bear the fhears of destiny? 7 Between his purpose and his confcience,] Between his confciousnefs of guilt, and his defign to conceal it by fair profeffions. JOHNSON. 8 Like heralds 'twixt two dreadful battles fet:] But heralds are not planted, I prefume, in the midft betwixt two lines of battle; though they, and trumpets, are often fent over from party to party, to propofe terms, demand a parley, &c. I have therefore ventured to read, fent. THEOBALD. This Dr. Warburton has followed without much advantage; Set is not fixed, but only placed; heralds must be set between battles in order to be fent between them. JOHNSON. 9 And, when it breaks, ]This is but an indelicate metaphor, taken from an impoftumated tumour. JOHNSON, So So thrive it in your game! and so farewel. That blood, which ow'd the breadth of all this ifle, Enter a Messenger. A fearful eye thou haft; Where is that blood, So foul a fky clears not without a ftorm: Pour down thy weather :-How goes all in France ? Mef. From France to England '.-Never fuch a power For any foreign preparation, Was levy'd in the body of a land! The copy of your speed is learn'd by them; K. John. O, where hath our intelligence been drunk? Mef. My liege, her ear Is ftopt with duft; the first of April, dy'd Three days before: but this from rumour's tongue ■ From France to England. -] The king afks bow all goes in France, the meffenger catches the word goes, and answers, that whatever is in France goes now into England. JOHNSON. K. John. |