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Richard, that robb'd the lion of his heart,
And fought the holy wars in Palestine,

By this brave duke came early to his grave;
And, for amends to his pofterity,

3 At our importance hither is he come,
To fpread his colours, boy, in thy behalf;
And to rebuke the ufurpation

Of thy unnatural uncle, English John:

Embrace him, love him, give him welcome hither.
Arthur. God fhall forgive you Coeur-de-lion's death,
The rather, that you give his offspring life,
Shadowing their right under your wings of war:
I give you welcome with a powerlefs hand,
But with a heart full of unftained love:
Welcome before the gates of Angiers, duke.
Lewis. Anoble boy! Who would not do thee right?
Auft. Upon thy cheek lay I this zealous kifs,
As feal to this indenture of my love;
That to my home I will no more return,
'Till Angiers, and the right thou haft in France,
Together with 4 that pale, that white-fac'd fhore,
Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring tides,
And coops from other lands her iflanders,

'Richard, that robb'd &c.] So, Raftal in his Chronicle: "It is fayd that a lyon was put to kynge Richard, beynge in prifon, to have devoured him, and when the lyon was gapynge he put his arme in his mouth, and pulled the yon by the harte fo hard that he flewe the lyon, and therefore fome fay he is called Rycharde Cure de Lyon; but fome fay he is called Cure de Lyon, because of his boldness and hardy ftomake." GRAY,

I have an old black lettered hiftory of lord Fauconbridge, whence Shakespeare might pick up this circumftance. FARMER.

2

By this brave duke came early to his grave:] The old play led Shakespeare into this error of afcribing to the duke of Auftria the death of Richard, who loft his life at the fiege of Chaluz, long after he had been ranfom'd out of Auftria's power. STEEVENS.

3 At our importance] At our importunity. JOHNSON. -that pale, that white-fac'd shore,] England is fuppofed to be called Albion from the white rocks facing France. JOHNSON.

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Even 'till that England, hedg'd in with the main,
That water-walled bulwark, ftill fecure
And confident from foreign purposes,
Even 'till that utmoft corner of the weft,
Salute thee for her king: 'till then, fair boy,
Will I not think of home, but follow arms.

Conft. O, take his mother's thanks, a widow's thanks, 'Till your ftrong hand fhall help to give him ftrength, To make a more requital to your love.

Auft. The peace of heaven is theirs, that lift their fwords

In fuch a juft and charitable war.

K. Philip. Well then, to work; our cannon fhall be bent

Against the brows of this refifting town.-
Call for our chiefeft men of difcipline,
To cull the plots of best advantages:-
We'll lay before this town our royal bones,
Wade to the market-place in Frenchmen's blood,
But we will make it fubject to this boy.

Conft. Stay for an answer to your embaffy,
Left unadvis'd you ftain your fwords with blood:
My lord Chatillon may from England bring
That right in peace, which here we urge in war;
And then we fhall repent each drop of blood,
That hot rafh hafte fo indirectly fhed.

6

Enter Chatillon.

K. Philip. A wonder, lady!—lo, upon thy wish, Our meffenger Chatillon is arriv'd.

To make a more requital, &c.] I believe it has been already obferved, that more fignified in our author's time, greater. STEEVENS.

A wonder, lady!] The wonder is only that Chatillon happened to arrive at the moment when Conftance mentioned him; which the French king, according to a fuperftition which prevails more or less in every mind agitated by great affairs, turns into a miraculous interpofition, or omen of good. JOHNSON,

What

What England fays, fay briefly, gentle lord,
We coldly paufe for thee; Chatillon, speak.
Chat. Then turn your forces from this paltry fiege,
And stir them up against a mightier task.
England, impatient of your juft demands,
Hath put himself in arms; the adverfe winds,
Whofe leifure I have staid, have given him time
To land his legions all as foon as I :

8

His marches are expedient to this town,
His forces ftrong, his foldiers confident.
With him along is come the mother-queen,
An Até, ftirring him to blood and ftrife
With her, her niece, the lady Blanch of Spain;
With them a bastard of the king deceas'd:
And all the unfettled humours of the land,-
Rafh, inconfiderate, fiery voluntaries,

With ladies' faces, and fierce dragons' fpleens,-
Have fold their fortunes at their native homes,
? Bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs,
To make a hazard of new fortunes here.

In brief, a braver choice of dauntless spirits,
Than now the English bottoms have waft o'er,
Did never float upon the fwelling tide,

To do offence and 'fcath in Chriftendom.

The interruption of their churlish drums [Drums beat,
Cuts off more circumftance: they are at hand,
To parly, or to fight; therefore, prepare.

7-expedient-] Immediate, expeditious. JOHNSON. An Até, firring him &c.] Até was the Goddess of Revenge. The player-editors read-an Ace. STEEVENS.

9 Bearing their birth-rights, &c.] So, Hen. VIII:

1

"Many broke their backs with bearing manors on them." JOHNSON.

1 —feath—] Deftruction, harm. JOHNSON. So, in How to chufe a good Wife from a Bad, 1630: "For thefe accounts, faith it will feath thee fomewhat."

Again:

"And it fhall feath him fomewhat of my purse."

STEEVENS.

K. Philip.

K. Philip. How much unlook'd for is this expedition!

Auft. By how much unexpected, by fo much
We must awake endeavour for defence;
For courage mounteth with occafion :

Let them be welcome then, we are prepar'd.

Enter King John, Faulconbridge, Elinor, Blanch, Pembroke, and others.

K. John. Peace be to France; if France in peace permit

Our juft and lineal entrance to our own!

If not; bleed France, and peace afcend to heaven!
Whiles we, God's wrathful agent, do correct
Their proud contempt that beat his peace to heaven.
K. Philip, Peace be to England; if that war return
From France to England, there to live in peace!
England we love; and, for that England's fake,
With burthen of our armour here we fweat:
This toil of ours fhould be a work of thine;
But thou from loving England art fo far,

2

That thou haft under-wrought its lawful king,
Cut off the fequence of pofterity,

Out-faced infant state, and done a rape

Upon the maiden virtue of the crown.

Look here upon thy brother Geffrey's face ;-
These eyes, these brows, were moulded out of his :
This little abftract doth contain that large,
Which dy'd in Geffrey; and the hand of time
Shall draw this brief into as huge a volume.
That Geffrey was thy elder brother born,
And this his fon; England was Geffrey's right,
And this is Geffrey's: In the name of God,
How comes it then, that thou art call'd a king,
When living blood doth in these temples beat,

2

-under-wrought-] i. e. underworked, undermined.

STEEVENS.

Which owe the crown that thou o'er-maftereft? K. John. From whom haft thou this great commiffion, France,

To draw my answer from thy articles?

K. Phil. From that fupernal judge, that firs good thoughts

In any breaft of strong authority,

To look into the blots and ftains of right.
That judge hath made me guardian to this boy;
Under whose warrant, I impeach thy wrong;
And, by whofe help, I mean to chaftife it.

K. John. Alack, thou doft ufurp authority.
K. Philip. Excufe it; 'tis to beat ufurping down.
Eli. Who is it, thou doft call ufurper, France?
Conft. Let me make anfwer;-thy ufurping fon.
Eli. Out, infolent! thy baftard fhall be king;
That thou may'ft be a queen, and check the world!
Conft. My bed was ever to thy fon as true,

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As thine was to thy hufband: and this boy

Liker in feature to his father Geffrey,

Than thou and John in manners; being as like,
As rain to water, or devil to his dam.
My boy a bastard! By my foul, I think,
His father never was fo true begot;
It cannot be, an if thou wert his mother.

3 To look into the blots and flains of right.] Mr. Theobald reads, with the first folio, blots, which being fo early authorized, and fo much better understood, needed not to have been changed by Dr. Warburton to bolts, though bolts might be used in that time for Spots: fo Shakespeare calls Banquo "Spotted with blood, the blood-bolter'd Banquo." The verb to blot is ufed figuratively for to difgrace a few lines lower. And perhaps, after all, bolts was only a typographical mistake. JOHNSON.

Blot is certainly right. The illegitimate branch of a family always carried the arms of it with what in ancient heraldry was called a blot or difference. So, in Drayton's Epiftle from 2. fabel to K. Richard II:

"No baftard's mark doth blot his conq'ring shield," Blots and ftains occur again together in the firit scene of the third act, STEEVENS.

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