K. John. Is this Afcenfion-day? Did not the prophet Say, that, before Afcenfion-day at noon, My crown I fhould give off? Even fo I have: I did fuppofe, it fhould be on constraint; But, heaven be thank'd, it is but voluntary.

Enter Faulconbridge.

Faulc. All Kent hath yielded; nothing there holds out,

But Dover caftle: London hath receiv'd,
Like a kind hoft, the Dauphin and his powers:
Your nobles will not hear you, but are gone
To offer fervice to your enemy;

And wild amazement hurries up and down
The little number of your doubtful friends.

K. John. Would not my lords return to me again, After they heard young Arthur was alive?

Faulc. They found him dead, and caft into the ftreets;

An empty casket, where the jewel of life,
By fome damn'd hand was robb'd and ta'en away.
K. John. That villain Hubert told me, he did live.
Faulc. So, on my foul, he did, for aught he knew.
But wherefore do you droop? why look you fad?
Be great in act, as you have been in thought;
Let not the world fee fear, and sad distrust,
Govern the motion of a kingly eye:

Be stirring as the time; be fire with fire;
Threaten the threatner, and out-face the brow
Of bragging horror: fo fhall inferior eyes,
That borrow their behaviours from the great,
Grow great by your example, and put on
The dauntlefs fpirit of refolution.
Away; and glifter like the god of war,
When he intendeth to become the field:
Shew boldness, and afpiring confidence.
What, fhall they feek the lion in his den?

And fright him there; and make him tremble there?

Oh,

Oh, let it not be faid!-Forage, and run 5
To meet difpleasure farther from the doors;
And grapple with him, ere he come fo nigh.
K. John. The legate of the pope hath been with me,
And I have made a happy peace with him;
And he hath promis'd to difmifs the powers
Led by the Dauphin.

Faule. Oh inglorious league!

Shall we, upon the footing of our land,
Send fair-play orders, and make compromise,
Infinuation, parley, and base truce,

To arms invafive? fhall a beardless boy,
A cocker'd filken wanton brave our fields,
And flesh his fpirit in a warlike foil,

Mocking the air with colours idly fpread 6,
And find no check? Let us, my liege, to arms:
Perchance, the cardinal cannot make your peace;
Or if he do, let it at least be faid,

They faw we had a purpose of defence.

K. John. Have thou the ordering of this prefent

time.

Faule. Away then, with good courage; yet, I know7, Our party may well meet a prouder foe. [Exeunt.

-Forage, and run] To forage is here used in its original fenfe, for to range abroad. JOHNSON.

6

Mocking the air with colours] He has the fame image in Macbeth:

"Where the Norwegian banners flout the sky,
"And fan our people cold." JOHNSON.
Away then, with good courage; yet I know,
Our party may well meet a prouder foe.]

Let us then away with courage; yet I fo well know the faintnefs of our party, that I think it may easily happen that they hall encounter enemies who have more fpirit than themselves. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnfon is, I believe, mistaken. Faulconbridge means; for all their boafting I know very well that our party is able to cope with one yet prouder and more confident of its strength than theirs. Faulconbridge would otherwise dispirit the king, whom he means to animate. STEEVENS,

SCENE

SCENE II.

The Dauphin's camp at St. Edmund's-bury.

Enter, in arms, Lewis, Salisbury, Melun, Pembrokes
Bigot, and Soldiers.

Lewis. My lord Melun, let this be copied out,
And keep it fafe for our remembrance :
Return the precedent to these lords again;
That, having our fair order written down,
Both they, and we, perufing o'er these notes,
May know wherefore we took the facrament,
And keep our faiths firm and inviolable.

Sal. Upon our fides it never fhall be broken.
And, noble Dauphin, albeit we swear
A voluntary zeal, and an unurg'd faith,
To your proceedings; yet, believe me, prince,
I am not glad that fuch a fore of time
Should seek a plaister by contemn'd revolt,
And heal the inveterate canker of one wound,
By making many: Oh, it grieves my foul,
That I muft draw this metal from my fide
To be a widow-maker; oh, and there,

at St. Edmund's-bury.] I have ventured to fix the place of the scene here, which is fpecified by none of the editors, on the following authorities. In the preceding act, where Salisbury has fixed to go over to the Dauphin; he fays:

Lords, I will meet him at St. Edmund's-bury.

And count Melun, in this last act, fays:

and many more with me,

Upon the altar at St. Edmund's-bury;

Even on that altar, where we fwore to you

Dear amity, and everlasting love.

And it appears likewife from The Troublesome Reign of King John, in two parts, (the first rough model of this play) that the interchange of vows betwixt the Dauphin and the English barons, was at St. Edmund's-bury. THEOBALD.

9 the precedent, &c.] i. e. the original treaty between the Dauphin and the English lords. STEEVENS.

Where

Where honourable rescue, and defence,
Cries out upon the name of Salisbury:
But fuch is the infection of the time,
That, for the health and phyfic of our right,
We cannot deal but with the very hand
Of ftern injuftice and confufed wrong.-
And is't not pity, oh my grieved friends!
That we, the fons and children of this ifle,
Were born to fee fo fad an hour as this;
Wherein we step after a ftranger march
Upon her gentle bofom, and fill up
Her enemies' ranks, (I muft withdraw and weep
Upon the spot of this enforced cause)
To grace the gentry of a land remote,
And follow unacquainted colours here?

What, here?-O nation, that thou could'ft remove!
That Neptune's arms, who clippeth thee about,
Would bear thee from the knowledge of thyfelf,
'And grapple thee unto a pagan fhore;
Where these two Chriftian armies might combine
The blood of malice in a vein of league,
And not to spend it fo unneighbourly!

Lewis. A noble temper doft thou fhew in this;
And great affections, wrestling in thy bofom,
Do make an earthquake of nobility.
Oh, what a noble combat haft thou fought,
Between compulfion, and a brave respect !
Let me wipe off this honourable dew,

And grapple thee &c.] The old copy reads: And cripple thee, &c. Perhaps our author wrote gripple, a word used by Drayton in his Polyelbion, fong:

That thrufts his gripple hand into her golden maw."

STEEVENS.

2 Between compulfion, and a brave respect!] This compulfion was the neceflity of a reformation in the flate; which, according to Salisbury's opinion (who, in his fpeech preceding, calls it an enforced caufe) could only be procured by foreign arms: and the brave refpect was the love of his country. Yet the Oxford editor, for compulfion, reads compaffion. WARBURTON.

That

That filverly doth progrefs on thy cheeks:
My heart hath melted at a lady's tears,
Being an ordinary inundation;

But this effufion of fuch manly drops,

This fhower, blown up by tempeft of the foul,
Startles mine eyes, and makes me more amaz'd
Than had I seen the vaulty top of heaven
Figur'd quite o'er with burning meteors.
Lift up thy brow, renowned Salisbury,
And with a great heart heave away this storm :
Commend thefe waters to those baby eyes,
That never faw the giant world enrag'd;
Nor met with fortune other than at feafts,
Full warm of blood, of mirth, of goffiping.
Come, come; for thou fhalt thruft thy hand as deep
Into the purfe of rich prosperity,

As Lewis himfelf:-fo, nobles, fhall you all,
That knit your finews to the ftrength of mine.

Enter Pandulph, attended.

And even there, methinks, an angel fpake3:
Look, where the holy legate comes apace,
To give us warrant from the hand of heaven;
And on our actions fet the name of right,
With holy breath.

Pand. Hail, noble prince of France!
The next is this,-king John hath reconcil'd
Himself to Rome; his fpirit is come in,
That fo flood out against the holy church,
The great metropolis and fee of Rome :
Therefore thy threat'ning colours now wind up,,

3 an angel fpake:] Sir T. Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton read here: an angel fpeeds. I think unneceffarily. The Dauphin does not yet hear the legate indeed, nor pretend to hear him; but feeing him advance, and concluding that he comes to animate and authorize him with the power of the church, he cries out, at the fight of this holy man, I am encouraged as by the voice of an angel. JOHNSON.

And