Out of his rags! Here's a large mouth, indeed, As maids of thirteen do of puppy-dogs! What cannoneer begot this lufty blood? He speaks plain cannon, fire, and fmoak, and bounce; well with the fpirit of the fpeech. Stay and faw, in a careless hand, are not easily diftinguished; and if the writing was obfcure, flaw being a word lefs ufual, was eafily miffed. JOHNSON. Shakespeare feems to have taken the hint of this fpeech from the following in the Famous Hiftory of Tho. Stukely, 1606. bl. 1. "Why here's a gallant, here's a king indeed! "He speaks all Mars:tut, let me follow fuck "Ev'ry look he cafts, fafbeth like lightning; "He brings a breath that fets our fails on fire: Perhaps the force of the word ftay is not exactly known. I meet with it in Damon and Pythias, 1582: "Not to prolong my lyfe thereby, for which I reckon not this, "But to fet my things in a flay." Perhaps by a fay, in this inftance, is meant a feady pofture. Shakespeare's meaning may therefore be :-"Here's a feady, refolute fellow, who fhakes &c." Afay, however, feems to have been meant for fomething active, in the following paffage in the 6th canto of Drayton's Barons Wars: "Oh could ambition apprehend a stay, "The giddy course it wandreth in, to guide." Again, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, b. ii. c. 10: "Till riper years he raught, and stronger ftay." Perhaps the metaphor is from navigation. Thus, in Chapman's verfion of the tenth book of Homer's Odyfey: "Our fhip lay anchor'd clofe, nor needed we "Feare harm on any fays." A marginal note adds: "For being caft on the ftaies, as ships are by weather." STEEVENS, Eli. Son, lift to this conjunction, make this match; Give with our niece a dowry large enough: For by this knot thou fhalt fo furely tie Thy now unfur'd affurance to the crown, That yon green boy fhall have no fun to ripe The bloom that promiseth a mighty fruit. I fee a yielding in the looks of France; Mark, how they whifper : urge them, while their fouls Left zeal, now melted, by the windy breath Cit. Why answer not the double majesties To speak unto this city: What say you? K. John. If that the Dauphin there, thy princely fon, Can in this book of beauty read, I love, Her dowry fhall weigh equal with a queen: For Anjou, and fair Touraine, Maine, Poitiers 4, And 3 Left zeal, now melted,] We have here a very unusual, and, I think, not very juft image of zeal, which, in its highest degree, is reprefented by others as a flame, but by Shakespeare, as a froft. To reprefs zeal, in the language of others, is to cool, in Shakespeare's to melt it; when it exerts its utmost power it is com monly faid to flame, but by Shakespeare to be congealed. JOHNSON. Sure the poet means to compare zcal to metal in a state of fus fion, and not to diffolving ice. STEEVENS. 4 In old editions: For Angiers and fair Touraine, Maine, Poitiers, Except this city now by us befieg'd, Find liable &c.] What was the city befieged, but Angiers? King John agrees to give up all he held in France, except the city of Angiers, which he now befieged and laid claim to. But could he give up all except Angiers, and give up that too? Anjou was one of the provinces which the English held in France. THEOBAld. Mr. And all that we upon this fide the fea As fhe in beauty, education, blood, Holds hand with any princefs of the world. K. Phil. What fay'ft thou, boy? look in the lady's face. Lewis. I do, my lord; and in her eye I find The fhadow of myself form'd in her eye; 'Till now infixed I beheld myfelf, Drawn in the flattering table of her eye. [Whispers with Blanch. Faule. Drawn in the flattering table of her eye!Hang'd in the frowning wrinkle of her brow! And quarter'd in her heart!-he doth espy Himfelf love's traitor: This is pity now, That hang'd, and drawn, and quarter'd, there fhould be, In fuch a love, fo vile a lout as he. Blanch. My uncle's will, in this refpect, is mine: Or, if you will, (to fpeak more properly) Than this, that nothing do I fee in you, Mr. Theobald found, or might have found, the reading which he would in troduce as an emendation of his own, in the old quarto. STEEVENS. (Though (Though churlish thoughts themfelves fhould be your judge) That I can find fhould merit any hate. K. John. What say these young ones? What fay you, my niece? Blanch. That fhe is bound in honour ftill to do What you in wifdom ftill vouchsafe to fay. K. John. Speak then, prince Dauphin; can you love this lady? Lewis. Nay, afk me if I can refrain from love; For I do love her moft unfeignedly. K. John. Then do I give Volqueffen, Touraine, Poitiers, and Anjou, thefe five provinces, Auft. And your lips too; for, I am well affur'd, That I did fo, when I was first afsur'd. K. Phil. Now, citizens of Angiers, ope your gates, Let in that amity which you have made; For at faint Mary's chapel, prefently, The rites of marriage fhall be folemniz'd.Is not the lady Conftance in this troop?— I know, fhe is not; for this match, made up, 5 -Volqueffen, -] This is the ancient name for the coun try now called the Vexin, in Latin, Pagus Velocaffinus. That part of it called the Norman Fexin, was in difpute between Philip and John. STEEVENS. 6 -I am well affur'd, That I did fo when I was firft affur'd.] Aur'd is here ufed both in its common fenfe, and in an uncommon one, where it fignifies afianced, contracted. So, in the Comedy of Errors: Called me Dromio, swore I was affur'd to her.” STEEVENS. Her Her prefence would have interrupted much :Where is the and her fon; tell me, who knows? Lewis. She is fad and paffionate at your highness' tent. K.Phil. And, by my faith, this league, that we have made, Will give her fadnefs very little cure.- K. John. We will heal up all : For we'll create young Arthur duke of Bretagne, [Exeunt all but Faulconbridge. And 7departed with a part:] To part and to depart were formerly fynonymous. So, in Ben Jonfon's Every Man out of his Humour : "Faith, fir, I can hardly depart with ready money." Again, in The Sad Shepherd: "I have departed it 'mong my poor neighbours." Again, in Every Woman in her Humour, 1609: "She'll ferve under him 'till death us depart." Again, in A merry Jeft of a Man called Howleglas, bl. 1. no date: "The neighbours went between them, and departed them." Again, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, b. vi. c. 2: "To weet the caufe of fo uncomely fray, And to depart them, if fo be he may." |