"Heaven! lay not my transgression to my charge, That art the issue of my dear offence," etc. "We have restored the reading of the old copy, which appears to us more in Shakespeare's manner than the customary text

Heaven lay not my transgression to my charge. Thou art the issue of my dear offence, etc. Lady Faulconbridge is not invoking Heaven to pardon her transgression; but she says to her son, For Heaven's sake, lay not (thou) the transgression to my charge that art the issue of it. The reply of Faulconbridge inmediately deprecates any intention of upbraiding his mother."-KNIGHT.

"He, that perforce robs lions of their hearts," etc. There is an old metrical romance of "Richard Coeurde-lion," wherein this celebrated monarch is related to have acquired this distinguishing appellation by having plucked out a lion's heart, to whose fury he was exposed by the Duke of Austria, for having slain his son with a blow of the fist. The story is also related by several

of the ancient chroniclers.

66

ACT II.-SCENE I.

By this brave duke came early to his grave," etc. In the old "King John," the king of France tells Arthur

Brave Austria, cause of Cordelion's death,

Is also come to aid thee in thy wars.

This (as Stevens observes) is an historical error; Richard I. having lost his life at the siege of Chaluz, long after he had been ransomed out of Austria's power. Leopold, duke of Austria, who threw Richard I. into prison, was killed by a fall from his horse, in 1195, four years before John ascended the throne.

"At our IMPORTANCE"-i. e. At our importunity. Shakespeare many times uses important for importu

nate.

"To cull the plots of best advantages."

That is, To mark such stations as might most overawe the town.

"His marches are EXPEDIENT"-i. e. Expeditious. "UNDER-WROUGHT his lawful king"-i. e. Undermined: the opposite to over-reached.

- draw this BRIEF"-" Brief" meant, in the time of Shakespeare, an abstract, or a short statement, generally-a sense now retained only in legal usage, for the abstract of arguments and authorities used by counsel.

"And this is Geffrey's, in the name of God." "We have restored the punctuation of the original. Perhaps we should read, according to Monck Mason, And his is Geffrey's.' In either case, appears to us that King Philip makes a solemn asseveration that this (Arthur) is Geffrey's son and successor, or that Geffrey's right' is his (Arthur's)-in the name of God; asserting the principle of legitimacy, by divine ordinance. As the sentence is commonly given

In the name of God,

How comes it then, etc.

Philip is only employing an unmeaning oath."-KNIGHT. "FROM thy articles"-It has been suggested that we ought to read

To draw my answer to thy articles ;but the old wording is very intelligible; the answer of John was to be drawn from the articles of the king of France, just before propounded.

- great Alcides' SHOES upon an ass"-The ass was to wear the shoes, and not to bear them upon his back, as Theobald supposed, and therefore would read shows. The "shoes of Hercules" were often alluded to in the old comedies, in this manner; as, "Hercules' shoe on a pigmy"-Hercules' shoes on a child's feet.

"—his injury

Her injury the beadle to her sin," etc. "The key to this obscure passage is contained in the last speech of Constance, where she alludes to the denunciation of the second commandment, of visiting the iniquities of the parents upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.' Young Arthur is here represented as not only suffering from the guilt of his grandmother, but also by her in person-she being made the very instrument of his sufferings. So that he is plagued her on account, and with her plague, which is her sini. e. (taking, by a common figure, the cause for the consequence,) the penalty entailed upon it. His injury, or the evil he suffers, her sins bring upon him; and her injury, or the evil she inflicts, he suffers from her, as the beadle to her sin, or executioner of the punishment annexed to it."-HENLEY.

"To pay that duty, which you truly owe,
To him that owes it," etc.

This passage affords an instance of the use of the verb "owe" in its two senses; to "owe," as we now ordinarily employ it, and to own, which it formerly signified, and of which sense examples in Shakespeare and his contemporaries are endless.

"'Tis not the ROUNDER of your old-fac'd wall," etc.

We agree with Knight in retaining the genuine English of the original. The modern editions have turned the word into the French roundure.

SCENE II.

"Heralds, from off our towers we might behold," etc. In the old copies, this speech has the prefix of Hubert. Possibly the actor of the part of Hubert also personated the citizen, in order that the speeches might be well delivered, and this may have led to the insertion of his name in the manuscript. On this ground, nearly all the editors, including Collier, assign these speeches to a citizen, which is supported by a similar assignment in the old "King John." On the other hand, Mr. Knight adheres to the old assignment of speaker, and thus explains his reason:—

"Without any assigned reason the name of the speaker has been altered, by the modern editors, to Citizen. The folio distinctly gives this, and all the subsequent speeches of the same person, to the end of the act, to Hubert. The proposition to the kings to reconcile their differences by the marriage of Lewis and Blanch would appear necessarily to come from some person in authority; and it would seem to have been Shakespeare's intention to make that person Hubert de Burgh, who occupies so conspicuous a place in the remainder of the play. In the third act John says to Hubertthy voluntary oath

Lives in this bosom.

It might be his voluntary oath' as a citizen of Angiers, to John, which called for this expression. We, therefore, retain the name as in the original."

"AUSTRIA, and forces"-The simple direction in the old folios is worth preserving:-"Enter the two Kings with their powers, at several doors."

"MOUSING the flesh of men"-"Mousing,' like many other ancient and now uncouth expressions, was expelled from our author's text by Pope; and mouthing, which he substituted, has been adopted in subsequent editions, without any sufficient reason. Mousing' is mammocking, and devouring eagerly, as a cat devours a

mouse. So, in a MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM:-" Well moused, Lion." Again, in the Wonderful Year,' by Thomas Decker, (1603)-Whilst Troy was swilling sack and sugar, and mousing fat venison, the mad Greekes made bonfires of their houses.'"-MALONE.

"You EQUAL POTENTS"-" Potents" may (as Stevens says) be put for potentates; but by "equal potents" the Bastard seems rather to mean, that the victory being undecided, the two kings are equi-potent.

"Kings of our fear"- The change of this passage is among the most remarkable examples of the unsatisfactory nature of conjectural emendation. Warburton and Johnson, disregarding the original, say, Kings are our fears.' Malone adopts Tyrwhitt's conjecture-' King'd of our fears-and so the passage runs in most modern editions. If the safe rule of endeavouring to understand the existing text, in preference to guessing what the author ought to have written, had been adopted in this and other cases, we should have been spared volumes of commentary. The two kings peremptorily demand the citizens of Angiers to acknowledge the respective rights of each-England for himself, France for Arthur. The citizens, by the mouth of Hubert, answer

A greater power than we denies all this.

Their quarrel is undecided-the arbitrament of Heaven is wanting:

And, till it be undoubted, we do lock

Our former scruple in our strong-barr'd gates,
Kings, of our fear-

on account of our fear, or through our fear, or by our fear, we hold our former scruple, kings

The present edition, also, adheres to the old reading, but without adopting Knight's interpretation or punctu ation. I understand "Kings of our fear" (as the words are printed in the folio) to be meant as an address to the two sovereigns:-"We say to you, sovereigns whom we fear, that we must bar our gates against both, until that fear is dissipated by the victory or withdrawal of one of you." If this is not satisfactory, "King'd of our fear" must be adopted, which is supported by the use of a similar figure in LEAR:-"her passion sought to be king o'er her." King'd, too, is used for a verb, in HENRY V. Then the sense would be, "our fear kings us," till we know whom we may safely acknowl edge.

"these SCROYLES of Angiers"-i. e. Scabs of Angiers (from the French escroulles.) Ben Jonson uses it twice in the same sense.

"Do like the MUTINES of Jerusalem," etc. That is, the mutineers of Jerusalem. In that case, seditious parties of Jerusalem combined their forces against the Roman besiegers: here, the besiegers were to unite against the inhabitants of the town. This incident of the siege of Jerusalem is related in Joseph Ben Gorion's "Historie of the Latter Tymes of the Jewes Common-Weale," translated by Peter Morwyng, originally published in 1558. Henslowe, in his "Diary," mentions a play of "Titus and Vespasian," under date of April, 1591, in which the combination of "the mutines of Jerusalem" against the Roman besiegers might form an incident. There is nothing of the allusion in the old "King John."

'Plutarch,' Pyrrhus, thinking to fear' Fabricius, suddenly produces an elephant. Shakespeare has several examples. Antony says

Thou canst not fear us, Pompey, with thy sails. Angelo, in MEASURE FOR MEASURE, Wouldmake a scare-crow of the law,

Setting it up to fear the birds of prey.

meaning in SHAKESPEARE; and in the TAMING OF THE But this active sense of the verb fear is not its exclusive

SHREW, he exhibits its common use as well in the neuter as in the active acceptation:

Pet. Now, for my life, Hortensio fears his widow.
Wid. Then never trust me if I be afeard.

Pet. You are very sensible, and yet you miss my sense:
I meant Hortensio is afcard of you."
KNIGHT.

Or teach thy hasty spleen to do me shame, etc. With Johnson, we unwillingly suspect that the Poet had in his mind a play on words, in the double sense of match for nuptials, and the match of a gun."

"Here's a STAY"-As the citizens have just before asked the kings to "stay,"

Hear us, great kings: vouchsafe a while to stay,

the Bastard ridicules their proposed "stay" being accompanied by so many bold and big words. The editors, however, generally have not so understood it. Johnson proposed to read, "Here's a flaw." Stevens explains it thus:-"A stay here seems to mean a sup porter of a cause. 'Here's an extraordinary partisan or maintainer that shakes,' etc. Baret translates columen vel firmamentum reipublicæ by the stay, the chiefe mainteyner and succour of,' etc. Becket proposed to read, Here's a say,' (i. e. a speech;) and this would agree with the subsequent part of Faulconbridge's speech."

"Then do I give VOLQUESSEN"-"This (says Stevens) is the ancient name for the country now called the Vexin; in Latin, Pagus Velocassinus. That part of it called the Norman Vexin was in dispute between Philip and John." In the old King John," Philip demands these provinces as the dower of Blanch:

Then, I demand Volquesson, Torain, Main,
Poiters, and Anjou, these five provinces,

Which thou, as king of England, hold'st in France. John agrees to cede them, but not until he has consulted his mother.

"— at your highness' tent"-In the old "King John," Constance is present at the discussion and contract, and inveighs bitterly against it after the rest of the characters, excepting Arthur, have withdrawn.

“ — ROUNDED in the ear"-i. e Whispered in the ear. The more usual, as well as more proper, old spelling, is rown-from the Saxon runian, (to whisper.)

-tickling COMMODITY"-i. e. Personal interest, or expediency-a sense once common, though long obso

lete.

"the BIAS of the world"-The allusion is to the "bias" in a bowl. The world is of itself well-balancedfit to run even; but the bias interest, the sway of motion

Makes it take head from all indifferency.

In "Cupid's Whirligig" (1607) we have-" O, the world is like a bias bowl, and it runs all on the rich men's sides."

"-PEISED well”—i. e. Poised, or balanced well.

ACT III.-SCENE I.

"A wilow, husbandless”—This was not the fact. “Constance (says Malone) was at this time married to a third husband, Gaido, brother to the viscount of Tonars. She had been divorced from her second husband, Ranulph, earl of Chester." In the old "King John," Constance speaks of herself as a widow:

If any power will hear a widow's plaint, etc.

“And though thou now confess thou didst but jest, With my vex'd spirits I cannot take a truce," etc. The sense is, obviously, that in spite of the confession that the bad news just communicated was but in jest, yet she cannot gain any interval of repose for her disturbed mind. The ordinary punctuation gives a different and erroneous sense:

And though thou now confess, thou didst but jest With my vex'd spirits, I cannot take a truce, etc. "-SWART"-i. e. Brown, inclining to black. In HENRY VI. (Part I. act i. scene 2,) we meet with the word again:

And whereas I was black and swart before.

In the COMEDY OF ERRORS, we have "Swart like my shoe, but her face nothing so clean kept."

"For grief is proud, and makes his owner STOOP." "What is called an emendation,' by Hanmer, still holds its place in all the editions but Malone's: it isFor grief is proud and makes his owner stout.

The meaning of the passage appears to us briefly thus: Constance refuses to go with Salisbury to the kingsshe will instruct her sorrows to be proud; for grief is proud in spirit, even while it bows down the body of its owner. The commentators substituted the ridiculous word stout, because they received stoop' in the sense of submission. Constance continues the fine image throughout her speech:

To me, and to the state of my great grief,
Let kings assemble;-

here grief is proud.'

Here I and sorrows sit;

here grief makes his owner stoop,' and leaves the physical power 'no supporter but the huge firm earth.' A valued friend, for whose opinion we have the highest regard, has no doubt that stoop' is the word, but that the meaning is, makes its owner stoop to it-to'grief.' He thinks that the and joins and assimilates the two clanses of the sentence, instead of contrasting aud separating them."-KNIGHT.

"Grief (which the Poet personifies) is proud even while he compels his owner to stoop, as Constance did to the earth, to receive the homage of monarchs."-COL

LIER.

"To me, and to the state of my great grief,
Let kings assemble,” etc.

"In MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, the father of Hero, depressed by her disgrace, declares himself so subdued by grief, that a thread might lead him. How is it that grief in Leonato and Lady Constance produces effects directly opposite, and yet both agreeable to nature? Sorrow softens the mind while it is yet warmed by hope, but hardens it when it is congealed by despair. Distress, while there remains any prospect of relief, is weak and flexible; but when no succour remains, is

fearless and stubborn: angry alike at those that injure. and those that do not help-careless to please where nothing can be gained, and fearless to offend when there is nothing further to be dreaded. Such was this writer's knowledge of the passions."-JOHNSON.

"the HIGH TIDES"-i. e. Solemn seasons; times to be observed above others. We now say, high days, and holy days.

"BUT on this day"--i. e. Except on this day.

"O, Lymoges! O, Austria"-" Shakespeare, in the person of Austria, has conjoined the two well-known enemies of Richard Coeur-de-lion. Leopold, duke of Austria, threw him into prison in a former expedition, (in 1193;) but the castle of Chaluz, before which he fell, (in 1199,) belonged to Vidomar, viscount of Limoges. The archer who pierced his shoulder with an arrow (of which wound he died) was Bertrand de Gourdon. Austria, in the old play, is called Lymoges, the Anstrich duke. Hollingshed says, "The same year Philip, bastard sonne to King Richard, to whom his father had given the castell and honour of Coniacke, killed the viscount of Lymoges in revenge of his father's death,' etc."-BLAKE.

"This, in our 'foresaid holy father's name,
Pope Innocent, I do demand of thee."

In the old "King John," this speech thus stands in prose, which Shakespeare has done little more than convert into not very unprosaic verse:

"I, Pandulph, Cardinal of Milan, and Legate from the see of Roine, demand of thee, in the name of our holy father the Pope, Innocent, why thou dost (contrary to the laws of our holy mother the Church, and our holy father, the Pope) disturb the quiet of the Church, and disannul the election of Stephen Langton, whom his holiness hath elected Archbishop of Canterbury this, in his holyness name, I demand of thee." "What EARTHLY name to interrogatories

?

Can task the free breath of a sacred king?" Earthy, the old reading, defended and retained by some editors, is a common misprint, in old books, for earthly." The sense is, What name, as the authority of interrogating a sovereign, can compel him to answer?

44

"A CHAF'D lion by the mortal paw," etc. The original has "cased lion," which is retained in several modern editions, and interpreted to mean "a lion in a case, or cage-i. e. a caged lion." But cased, in that age, had quite another meaning, now obsolete: it meant flayed, stripped of the skin; and so Shakespeare himself uses it. Z. Jackson, the ingenious typographical critic, suggested chased lion, which may perhaps be the word. But chaf'd lion is as likely to have been thus misprinted, and suits the context better, as an image familiar to Shakespeare. Thus, in HENRY VIII.:

so looks the chafed lion Upon the huntsman, etc.

"The truth is then most done not doing it." The meaning of this and the three preceding lines is obscure, and Johnson's emendation

Is't not amiss when it is truly done? would clear the text with little violence. Collier retains the old text, taking the sense of "Is not amiss when it is truly done" to be, "what you have sworn to do amiss, is not amiss when it is done truly, as it ought to be; that is, not done at all.”

"the truth, thou art unsure

To swear, swears only not to be forsworn," etc. "The entire speech of Pandulph is full of verbal subtleties, which render the intricate reasoning more intricate. The Poet unquestionably meant to produce this effect. We have restored the reading of one of the most difficult passages:

the truth thou art unsure

To swear, swears only not to be forsworn.

All the modern editions read swear. The meaning seems to be this:-The truth, (that is, the troth,) for which you have made an oath the surety, against thy former oath to heaven-this troth, which it was unsure to swear-which you violate your surety in swearinghas only been sworn (swears only) not to be forsworn; but it is sworn against a former oath, which is more binding, because it was an oath to religion-to the principle upon which all oaths are made."-KNIGHT.

"Clamours of hell, be MEASURES"-i. e. Solemn dances.

"O! thine honour, Lewis, thine honour"-Most readers, I think, will agree in the impression that this is a solemn and respectful appeal to the Dauphin's sense of honour. But Mrs. Siddons gave it another effect, and her analysis of this part was as profound and critical as her personation of it was admirable. Mr. Campbell ("Life of Siddons") says, "When she patted Lewis on the breast with the word, Thine honour?-Oh, thine honour,'-there was a sublimity in the laugh of her sarcasm."

SCENE II.

Austria's head, lie there,

While Philip breathes."

The old "King John" (1591) partakes more of the barbarism of the stage when it was written, and Philip spurus and tramples on Austria's head:

Lie there, a prey to every ravening fowl,
And as my father triumph'd in thy spoils,
And trod thine ensigns underneath his feet,
So do I tread upon thy cursed self.

SCENE III.

"Bell, book, and candle shall not drive me back," etc. By the old ecclesiastical law, it was decreed that sentence of excommunication was to be "explained in order in English, with bells tolling and candles lighted, that it may cause the greater dread; for laymen have greater regard to this solemnity, than to the effect of

such sentences."

"Sound ON into the drowsy RACE of night," etc.

"We prefer the old reading, on all accounts. Many commentators would read one instead of on,' which is contradicted by the midnight bell,' in a preceding line. There is more plausibility for reading ear instead of race,' recollecting that of old ear was spelled eare, and the words might be mistaken by the printer; but still race,' in the sense of course, or passage, conveys a finer meaning. The midnight beil, with its twelve times repeated strokes, may be poetically said to 'sound on into the drowsy race of night;' one sound produced by the 'iron tongue' driving the other on,' or forward, until the whole number was complete, and the prolonged vibration of the last blow on the bell only left to fill the empty space of darkness."-Collier.

"-in despite of BROODED watchful day”—I have doubted whether Pope is not right in his elegant and poetical conjectural reading of "broad-eyed watchful day." This compound epithet was first used by Shakespeare's contemporary, Chapman, in his translation of Homer; and is a word in Shakespeare's own taste of language. But I yield to the authority of nearly all the critics, in retaining the old reading "brooded," as used for brooding, and explained by Stevens, Malone and others, as an allusion to the vigilance of animals while brooding, or with a brood of young ones under their protection. The king says of Hamlet:

there's something in his soul O'er which his melancholy sits on brood. Milton also, in "L'Allegro," desires Melancholy to—

ind out some uncouth cell

Where brooding darkness spreads his jealous wings. Brooded may be used for "brooding," as delighted for delighting, and discontented for discontenting, in other places of these plays. To sit on brood, or abrood, is the old term applied to birds during the period of incuba

tion.

SCENE IV.

"CONVICTED sail"-i. e. Overpowered, baffled, destroyed. To convict and to convince were, in our author's time, synonymous. (See Minshew's Dictionary, 1617: To convict, or convince, Lat. convictus; overcome.") So, in MACBETH:

their malady convinces The great assay of art. Pope reads, "collected sail ;" and the change was adopted by subsequent editors. (See also Florio's "Italian Dictionary," 1598: "Convitio; vanquished, convicted, con vinced.")

"a MODERN invocation"-i. e. A common, or ordinary invocation; a sense in which the word often oc The use here resembles that in ROMEO AND JU LIET, (act iii. scene 2:)—

curs.

Which modern lamentation might have mov'd. Knight boldly alters it to "a mother's invocation."

"I will not keep this form upon my head,” etc. Collier observes, that in the modern edition this line is followed by the stage-direction, "Tearing off her headdress;" though nothing of the kind is found in the old copies. Constance perhaps wore no head-dress, but her hair, as we gather from the preceding part of the scene, and when she says, "I will not keep this form upon my head," she begins again to disorder her hair, which she had previously knit up at the words But now, I envy at their liberty," etc."

66- -the sweet WORLD's taste"-The old copy reads word's. The alteration was by Pope. Malone thinks it unnecessary; and that by the "sweet word" life is meant. Pope's emendation is countenanced by Ham let's

How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the use of this world.

"SCAPE of nature"-The old reading is " scope of nature," which Knight retains, as meaning "the or dinary course of nature,"-the commonest thing which is seen. But this sense can hardly be drawn from any known use of the word scope. "Scape," proposed by Pope, is a word of frequent use, in old authors, for any outbreak, or deviation from ordinary rule, whether physical or moral.

"they would be as a CALL"-The caged birds. which lure the wild ones to the net, are termed by fowlers "call-birds." The image in the text is prob ably derived from a term of falconry.

ACT IV.-SCENE I.

"Northampton"-Such has been the usual locality assigned to this scene, but on no authority, though it will answer the purpose as well as any other. "The fact is, (says Malone,) that Arthur was first confined at Falaise, and afterwards at Rouen, where he was put to death." The old stage-direction is merely, "Enter Hubert and Executioners," and all that is clear seems to be that in Shakespeare, as well as in the old "King John," the scene is transferred to England.

- By my CHRISTENDOM"-Arthur asseverates by the baptismal office-by his christening. The word is used, in this sense, in ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL; and it is found in Gower:

A light, as though it were a sonne
From heaven into the place come,
Where that he toke his christendome.

“ — though HEAT red-hot”—“ Heat" is used as a participle, as in our translation of the Bible: "He commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heat.”—(Daniel.)

“ — TARRE him on"—The expressive word to "tarre" also occurs in HAMLET, (act ii. scene 2,) and in TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, (act i. scene 8,) in the same sense, of to provoke, or excite. It would seem to have been coined from the imitative sound made in provoking dogs to fight.

SCENE II.

"GUARD a title"-To" guard," as in MEASURE FOR MEASURE, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, and the MERCHANT OF VENICE, means generally to ornament, as with fringe or lace; and in that sense it is here used.

66

"If what in REST you have, in right you hold," etc. The construction of this passage is, "If you have a good title to what you now have in rest,' (i. e. quiet,) why then is it that your fears should move you," etc. Stevens thinks it should be," what in wrest you hold:"

If what you hold by seizure and violence, is also rightfully held,"- -an address which Salisbury would hardly venture to the king. Knight denies that "rest" here means quiet, and says, "it is employed to mean a fixed position," as a phrase taken from the old games at cards.

"good exercise"-" In the middle ages, the whole education of princes and noble youths consisted in martial exercises, etc. These could not be easily had in a prison, where mental improvements might have been afforded as well as any where else; but this sort of education never entered into the thoughts of our active, warlike, but illiterate nobility."-PERCY.

"How I have sped among the clergymen," etc. This is the brief compression of what formed a bust'ing, and probably, in its day, a very popular scene in the old plays, in which Philip, in plundering the convents, finds a young man concealed in the chest where was kept the treasury of the brotherhood, "in silver and in gold," according to the hard-money usages of the times. This incident Tho. Campbell regrets that Shakespeare did not retain, as affording a scene which in his hands would give the comic relief he thinks the tragedy needs. As a question of dramatic skill, surely the Bastard's buoyant spirits and unflagging variety give all the relief which the mind requires; while, taking it in a higher point of view, Knight well rejoins:-"When did ever Shakespeare lend his authority to fix a stigma upon large classes of mankind, in deference to popular prejudice? One of the most remarkable characteristics of Shakespeare's John, as opposed to the grossness of Bale, and the ribaldry of his immediate predecessor, is the utter absence of all invective or sarcasm against the Romish church, apart from the attempt of the pope to extort a base submission from the English king. Here, indeed, we have his nationality in full power;-but how different is that from fostering hatreds between two classes of one people."

"-here's a prophet"-" This man (says Douce) was a hermit in great repute with the common people. Notwithstanding the event fell out as he had prophesied, the poor fellow was dragged at horses' tails through the streets of Warham, and, together with his son, who was as innocent as his father, hanged afterwards upon a gibbet." (See Hollingshed's "Chronicle," under the year 1213.) In the old King John," there is a scene between the prophet and the people, and another just before, of the Bastard ransacking and plundering the abbeys, both of them poor and coarse, and with good taste condensed into this short scene, so far as was needed for the story.

"On your SUGGESTION"-" Suggestion" is used, as it was frequently of old, in a stronger sense than now, for temptation, art, influence.

"five moons were seen to-night"-In the old "King John," the five moons were in some way made visible to the audience: the stage-direction is, "There the five moons appear."

"Standing on slippers, (which his nimble haste

Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet,") etc. The commentators of the last century were puzzled with this, and their notes afford an amusing proof how easily changes of custom make language obscure, which in its day needed no explanation. The fashion of Shakespeare's time is now well understood through a similar fashion in our own; but half a century ago this passage was almost unintelligible. Johnson says, Shakespeare seems to have confounded the man's shoes with his gloves. He that is frighted or hurried may put his hand into the wrong glove, but either shoe will equally admit either foot. The author seems to be disturbed by the disorder which he describes."

..

"Makes ill deeds done"-The original is "makes deeds ill done;" but this might apply to good deeds unskilfully performed-so that there seems to have been an accidental transposition, which this edition follows those of Knight in correcting.

"Hadst thou but shook thy head, or made a pause," etc.

"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 swelling with consciousness of a crime. and desirous of discharging its misery on another. The account of the timidity of guilt is drawn, ab ipsis recessibus mentis, from the intimate knowledge of mankind: particularly that line in which John says, that to have bid him tell his tale in express words' would have struck him dumb.' Nothing is more certain than that bad men use all the arts of fallacy upon themselves. palliate their actions to their own minds by gentle terms, and hide themselves from their own detection in ambiguities and subterfuges."-JOHNSON.

"The dreadful motion of a murderous thought,” etc.

"Nothing can be falser than what Hubert here says in his own vindication; for we find, from a preceding scene, that the motion of a murderous thought' had entered into him, and that very deeply; and it was with difficulty that the tears, the entreaties, and the innocence of Arthur, had diverted and suppressed it.”— WARBURTON.

"The critic here is correct as to the fact; but the Poet was dramatically justified in representing Hubert, since he had not acted on his murderous thought,' as anxious to claim the merit of having never entertained it. This is one of Shakespeare's touches of reality."