K. John. O cousin, thou art come to set mine eye: Bast. The Dauphin is preparing hitherward, For in a night the best part of my power, Were in the washes all unwarily Devourèd by the unexpected flood. [King John dies. Sal. You breathe these dead news in as dead an ear. My liege! my lord!-but now a king,-now thus. P. Hen. Even so must I run on, and even so stop. What surety of the world, what hope, what stay, Bast. Art thou gone so? I do but stay behind To push destruction and perpetual shame Sal. It seems you know not, then, so much as we: Bast. He will the rather do it when he sees Sal. Nay, it is in a manner done already; For many carriages he hath dispatch'd To the sea-side, and put his cause and quarrel With whom yourself, myself, and other lords, To cónsummate this business happily. Bast. Let it be so :-and you, my noble prince, With other princes that may best be spar'd, P. Hen. At Worcester must his body be interr'd; For so he will'd it. Bast. Thither shall it, then: And happily may your sweet self put on Sal. And the like tender of our love we make, P. Hen. I have a kind soul that would give you thanks, And knows not how to do it but with tears. Bast. O, let us pay the time but needful woe, [Exeunt. P. 185. (1) "Why, what a madcap hath heaven lent us here!" Mr. W. N. Lettsom informs me that the late Mr. Sydney Walker would read sent us here!"-very unnecessarily, I apprehend. P. 186. "With that half-face would he have all my land." Theobald's correction. -The folio has "With half that face," &c. (which Mr. Collier retains:-see my Remarks on Mr. Collier's and Mr. Knight's eds. of Shakespeare, p. 87, and my Few Notes, &c. p. 83). P. 187. "but arise more great, Arise Sir Richard and Plantagenet." The folio has "but rise more great," &c. P. 189. "Sir Robert could do well: marry, to confess, Could not get me; Sir Robert could not do it," &c. The folio has "Could get me sir Robert could not doe it," &c. The usual modern reading is "Could he get me? Sir Robert," &c. But there is no mark of interrogation in the old copy; and it seems better to insert, with Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector, " not." P. 190. (5) "Thou art the issue of my dear offence," &c. The folio has "That art the," &c. (The words "thou" and "that," - being often written "9" and "y," - were not unfrequently confounded.) P. 191. (5) "But with a heart full of unstainèd love," &c. " Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector reads unstrained love," &c.;-against which plausible alteration Mr. Knight (Spec. of the Stratford Shakspere, p. 2) has adduced from Pericles, act i. sc. 1, "my unspotted fire of love." Compare, too, a passage towards the close of the present play, p. 256, "And the like tender of our love we make, To rest without a spot for evermore." Mason would read "And his is Geffrey's" (i.e. whatever was Geffrey's is now his (Arthur's). P. 195. (8) "Aust. What cracker is this same that deafs our ears With this abundance of superfluous breath? The folio has; K. Phi. Louis, determine what we shall do straight. "Aust. What cracker is this same that deafes our eares King Lewis, determine what we shall doe strait. and the late Mr. Sydney Walker (Shakespeare's Versification, &c. p. 4), after remarking that in our poet "Lewis [Louis] is always a monosyllable," declares that Mr. Knight has here "properly restored" the reading of the folio, -the punctuation altered to "King,-Lewis, determine," &c. But, since Mr. Walker wrote, Mr. Knight has agreed with the more recent editors that the word "King" is the prefix to the third line :-nor are reasons wanting for considering it as such. In the first place, the folio prefixes "King" to the three earliest speeches of Philip in this scene. Secondly, if Austria were here addressing Philip, he would not term him simply "King," but "King Philip," as he afterwards does, p. 213, "King Philip, listen to the cardinal." "Do so, King Philip; hang no more in doubt." Thirdly, if Austria had called on Philip and Louis to determine what was to be done, we can hardly suppose that the Dauphin would take upon himself to speak before his father had uttered a word.--Theobald left Austria in possession of the third line, altering it to "King Philip, determine what we shall do straight;" and prefixed "K. Philip" to the next speech, -the commencement of which, however, is more suited to the young and impetuous Dauphin than to his father. "Of this oppressed boy: this is thy eldest son's son," &c. Ritson and Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector would shorten the line thus, "Of this oppressed boy, thy eld'st son's son," &c. (We at least must not read "oppress'd:" compare, in the next page, "In the relief of this oppressèd child," &c.) P. 197. (11) "All preparation for a bloody siege And merciless proceeding by these French The folio has "Comfort yours Citties eies," &c. (the s appended to the second of these words belonging, it would seem, to the preceding misprinted one). Rowe gave "Confront;" Capell "Confronts:"-" preparation," Mr. Knight observes, "is here the nominative." P. 198. "But if you fondly pass our proffer'd offer," &c. Mr. W. N. Lettsom informs me that the late Mr. Sydney Walker proposed to read " proffer'd love," &c. P. 198. (13) "'Tis not the rondure of your old-fac'd walls," &c. Here the spelling of the folio is "rounder:" but in our author's 21st Sonnet we have "and all things rare That heaven's air in this huge rondure hems." To this and to the subsequent speeches of the same person the folio prefixes "Hubert;"-which Mr. Knight chooses to retain. "Possibly," as Mr. Collier remarks ad l., "the actor of the part of Hubert also personated the Citizen, and this may have led to the insertion of his name in the Ms." That the doubling of parts was formerly not unusual, we have evidence in the early eds. of various old plays. P. 200. (15) "Say, shall the current of our right run on? So the second folio. - The first has " "And calmly run on in obedience, Even to our ocean, to our great King John." P. 201. (") "And till it be undoubted, we do lock Our former scruple in our strong-barr'd gates; |