K. John. Withhold thy fpeed, dreadful occafion! O, make a league with me, 'till I have pleas'dMy difcontented peers!-What! mother dead? How wildly then walks my eftate in France?— Under whofe conduct came thofe powers of France, That, thou for truth giv'ft out, are landed here? Mef. Under the Dauphin.

Enter Faulconbridge and Peter of Pomfret.

K. John. Thou haft made me giddy With thefe ill tidings.-Now, what fays the world To your proceedings? do not seek to stuff My head with more ill news, for it is full.

Faulc. But, if you be afeard to hear the worst,
Then let the worft, unheard, fall on your head.
K. John. Bear with me, coufin; for I was amaz'd
Under the tide but now I breathe again

Aloft the flood; and can give audience
To any tongue, fpeak it of what it will.

Faulc. How I have fped among the clergymen,
The fums I have collected fhall exprefs.
But, as I travell'd hither through the land,
I find the people ftrangely fantafy'd;
Poffefs'd with rumours, full of idle dreams;
Not knowing what they fear, but full of fear:
And here's a prophet, that I brought with me
From forth the streets of Pomfret, whom I found
With many hundreds treading on his heels;
To whom he fung, in rude harsh-founding rhimes,
That, ere the next Afcenfion-day at noon,
Your highness fhould deliver up your crown.
K. John. Thou idle dreamer, wherefore did'ft thou
fay fo?

Peter. Fore-knowing that the truth will fall out fo. K. John. Hubert, away with him; imprison him; And on that day at noon, whereon, he fays, I fhall yield up my crown, let him be hang'd:.

De

Deliver him to fafety, and return,

For I must use thee.O my gentle coufin,

[Exit Hubert, with Peter..

Hear'ft thou the news abroad, who are arriv'd?

Faulc. The French, my lord; men's mouths are full of it:

Befides, I met lord Bigot, and lord Salisbury,
(With eyes as red as new-enkindled fire)
And others more, going to feek the grave
Of Arthur, who, they fay, is kill'd to-night
On your fuggeftion.

K. John. Gentle kinfman, go,

And thruft thyself into their companies:
I have a way to win their loves again;
Bring them before me.

Faulc. I will feek them out.

K. John. Nay, but make hafte; the better foot before.

O, let me have no fubject enemies,

When adverie foreigners affright my towns
With dreadful pomp of ftout invafion!-
Be Mercury, fet feathers to thy heels;

And fly, like thought, from them to me again.
Faule. The fpirit of the time fhall teach me speed.

[Exit.
K. John. Spoke like a fprightful noble gentleman.
Go after him; for he, perhaps, shall need
Some meffenger betwixt me and the peers;
And be thou he.

Mef. With all my heart, my liege.

K. John. My mother dead!

Re-enter Hubert.

[Exit.

Hub. My lord, they fay, five moons were feen

to-night:

Four

Deliver him to fafety,] That is, Give him into fafe cuftody. JOHNSON.

3

-five moons were feen to-night, &c.] This incident is

men

Four fixed; and the fifth did whirl about
The other four, in wond'rous motion.
K. John. Five moons?

Hub. Old men, and beldams, in the streets
Do prophefy upon it dangeroufly:

Young Arthur's death is common in their mouths:
And when they talk of him, they fhake their heads,
And whifper one another in the ear;

And he, that speaks, doth gripe the hearer's wrist;
Whilft he, that hears, makes fearful action
With wrinkled brows, with nods, with rolling eyes.
I saw a fmith ftand" with his hammer, thus,
The whilft his iron did on the anvil cool,
With open mouth fwallowing a taylor's news;
Who, with his fhears and measure in his hand,
Standing on flippers (which his nimble hafte +
Had falfely thrust upon contrary feet)

Told

mentioned by few of our hiftorians: I have met with it no where, but in Matthew of Weftminfier and Polydore Virgil, with a small alteration. These kind of appearances were more common about that time, than either before or fince. GRAY.

This incident is likewife mentioned in the fpurious copy of the play. STEEVENS.

Nippers (which his nimble hafte

Had falfely thruft upon contrary feet)]

I know not how the commentators understand this important paffage, which in Dr. Warburton's edition is marked as eminently beautiful, and, on the whole, not without juftice. But Shakefpeare feems to have confounded the man's fhoes with his gloves. He that is frighted or hurried may put his hand into the wrong glove, but either fhoe will equally admit either foot. The author feems to be disturbed by the diforder which he describes.

JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnson forgets that ancient flippers might poffibly be very different from modern ones. Scott in his Difcoverie of Witchcraft tells us : "He that receiveth a mifchance, will confider, whether he put not on his fhirt the wrong fide outwards, or his left hoe on his right foot." One of the jeffs of Scogan by Andrew Borde, is. how he defrauded two fhoemakers, one of a right foot boot, and the other of a left foot one. And Davies in one of his epigrams, compares a man to a foft-knit hofe that ferves each leg."

66

FARMER.

In

Told of a many thousand warlike French,
That were embatteled and rank'd in Kent:
Another lean unwafh'd artificer

Cuts off his tale, and talks of Arthur's death.
K. John. Why feek'ft thou to poffefs me with thefe
fears ?...

Why urgeft thou fo oft young Arthur's death?
Thy hand hath murder'd him: I had a mighty cause
To wish him dead, but thou hadft none to kill him.
Hub. Had none, my lord! why, did not you pro- .
voke me?

K. John. It is the curfe of kings, to be attended

66

In the Fleire, 1615, is the following paffage: "This fellow is like your upright shoe, he will ferve either foot." From this we may infer that fome fhoes could only be worn on that foot for which they were made. And Barrett in his Alvearie, 1580, as an inftance of the word wrong, fays: -to put on his booes wrong." Again, in A merye Jeft of a Man that was called Howle glas, bl. 1. no date: "Howleglas had cut all the lether for the lefte foote. Then when his mafter fawe all his lether cut for the lefte foote, then asked he Howleglas if there belonged not to the lefte foote a right foote. Then fayd Howleglas to his maister, If that he had tolde that to me before, I would have cut them, but an it please you I shall cut as mani right hoone unto them." STEEVENS.

See Martin's Defcription of the Western Islands of Scotland, 1703, P. 207: "The generality now only wear fhoes having one thin fole only, and shaped after the right and left foot, fo that what is for one foot will not ferve the other." The meaning feems to be, that the extremities of the fhoes were not round or fquare, but were cut in an oblique angle, or aflant from the great toe to the little one. See likewife, the Philofophical Tranfactions abridged, vol. III. p. 432, and vol. VII. p. 23, where are exhibited fhoes and fandals fhaped to the feet, fpreading more to the outside than the infide. TOLLET.

5 It is the curfe of kings, &c.] This plainly hints at Davifon's cafe, in the affair of Mary queen of Scots, and fo must have been inferted long after the first reprefentation. WARBURTON.

That the allufion mentioned by Dr. Warburton, was intended by Shakespeare, is highly probable.-But why need we suppose this paffage added after the piece was finished? The queen of Scots was beheaded in 1587, fome years, according to the best account, before our author had produced any play on the stage.

MALONE.

By

By flaves, that take their humours for a warrant
To break within the bloody house of life:
And, on the winking of authority,

To understand a law; to know the meaning
Of dangerous majefty, when, perchance, it frowns
More upon humour than advis'd refpect.

Hub. Here is your hand and seal for what I did.

K. John. Oh, when the laft account 'twixt heaven' and earth

Is to be made, then fhall this hand and feal

Witness against us to damnation!

How oft the fight of means to do ill deeds,
Makes deeds ill done? Hadeft not thou been by,
A fellow by the hand of nature mark'd,
Quoted, and fign'd, to do a deed of shame,
This murder had not come into my mind:
But, taking note of thy abhorr'd aspect,
Finding thee fit for bloody villainy,
Apt, liable, to be employ'd in danger,
I faintly broke with thee of Arthur's death;
And thou, to be endeared to a king,

Mad'ft it no confcience to deftroy a prince.
Hub. My lord,-

K. John. Hadft thou but shook thy head, or made

a pause,

When

6

Quoted,-] i. e. obferved, diftinguifh'd. So, in Hamlet:
"I am forry, that with better heed and judgment
"I had not quoted him." STEEVEns.

Hadft thou but hook thy head, &c.] There are many touches of nature in this conference of John with Hubert. A man engaged in wickedness would keep the profit to himself, and transfer the guilt to his accomplice. These reproaches vented against Hubert are not the words of art or policy, but the eruptions of a mind fwelling with consciousness of a crime, and defirous of discharging its mifery on another.

This account of the timidity of guilt is drawn ab ipfis receffibus mentis, from the intimate knowledge of mankind, particularly that line in which he says, that to have bid him tell his tale in exprefs words, would have ftruck him dumb; nothing is more certain, VOL. V. than

H