It cannot be; thou dost but say, 'tis so:
I trust, I may not trust thee; for thy word
Is but the vain breath of a common man :
Believe me, I do not believe thee, man;
I have a king's oath to the contrary.
Thou shalt be punish'd for thus frighting me,
For I am sick, and capable of fears;

Oppress'd with wrongs, and therefore full of fears;
A widow, husbandless, subject to fears;

I

A woman, naturally born to fears;

And though thou now confess, thou didst but jest,
With my vext spirits I cannot take a truce,
But they will quake and tremble all this day.
What dost thou mean by shaking of thy head?
Why dost thou look so sadly on my son?
What means that hand upon that breast of thine ?
Why holds thine eye that lamentable rheum,
Like a proud river peering o'er his bounds?
Be these sad signs confirmers of thy words?
Then speak again; not all thy former tale,
But this one word, whether thy tale be true.

Sal. As true, as, I believe, you think them false,
That give you cause to prove my saying true.

Const. O, if thou teach me to believe this sorrow,
Teach thou this sorrow how to make me die ;
And let belief and life encounter so,

As doth the fury of two desperate men,

Which, in the very meeting, fall and die.

Lewis marry Blanch! Oh, boy, then where art thou?
France friend with England! what becomes of me?-
Fellow, be gone; I cannot brook thy sight;
This news hath made thee a most ugly man.

Sal. What other harm have I, good lady, done,

But spoke the harm that is by others done?

Const. Which harm within itself so heinous is,

As it makes harmful all that speak of it.

Arth. I do beseech you, madam, be content.

Const. If thou, that bid'st me be content, wert grim,

Ugly, and sland'rous to thy mother's womb,
Full of unpleasing blots, and sightless2 stains,

[1] This was not the fact. Constance was at this time married to a third husband, Guido, brother to the Viscount of Touars.

MAL.

[2] The poet uses sightless for that which we now express by nusightly, Jisagreeable to the eyes. JOHNS.

Lame, foolish, crooked, swart, prodigious, 3
Patch'd with foul moles, and eye-offending marks,
I would not care, I then would be content;
For then I should not love thee; no, nor thou
Become thy great birth, nor deserve a crown.
But thou art fair; and at thy birth, dear boy!
Nature and fortune join'd to make thee great :
Of nature's gifts thou may'st with lilies boast,
And with the half-blown rose: but fortune, O!
She is corrupted, chang'd, and won from thee;
She adulterates hourly with thine uncle John ;
And with her golden hand hath pluck'd on France
To tread down fair respect of sovereignty,
And made his majesty the bawd to theirs.
France is a bawd to fortune, and king John ;
That strumpet fortune, that usurping John :-
Tell me, thou fellow, is not France fors worn?
Envenom him with words; or get thee gone,
And leave those woes alone, which I alone
Am bound to under-bear.

Sal. Pardon me, madam,

I may not go without you to the kings.

Const. Thou may'st, thou shalt, I will not go with thee: I will instruct my sorrows to be proud;

For grief is proud, and makes his owner stout.4

To me, and to the state of my great grief,
Let kings assemble; for my grief's so great,
That no supporter but the huge firm earth
Can hold it up here I and sorrow sit;

Here is my throne, bid kings come bow to it.

[She throws herself on the ground. Enter King JOHN, King PHILIP, LEWIS, BLANCH, ELINOR, Bastard, AUSTRIA, and Attendants.

K. Phil. 'Tis true, fair daughter; and this blessed day, Ever in France shall be kept festival :

[3] i.. portentous, so deformed as to be taken for a foretoken of evil. JOH. [4] In Much Ado about Nothing, the father of Hero, depressed by her disgrace, declares himself so subdued by grief, that a thread may 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 w ak and flexible. but when no succour remains, is fearless and stubborn; angry alike at those that injure, and at 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. JOHNS.

To solemnize this day, the glorious sun
Stays in his course, and plays the alchemist;
Turning, with splendor of his precious eye,
The meagre cloddy earth to glittering gold:
The yearly course, that brings this day about,
Shall never see it but a holyday.

Const. A wicked day, and not a holyday!

[Rising.

-What hath this day deserv'd? what hath it done;

That it in golden letters should be set,
Among the high tides, in the kalendar?

Nay, rather, turn this day out of the week ;6
This day of shame, oppression, perjury:
Or, if it must stand still, let wives with child
Pray, that their burdens may not fall this day,
Lest that their hopes prodigiously be cross'd :7
But on this day, let seamen fear no wreck;
No bargains break, that are not this day made :
This day, all things begun come to ill end ;
Yea, faith itself to hollow falsehood change!

K. Phil. By heaven, lady, you shall have no cause
To curse the fair proceedings of this day:
Have I not pawn'd to you my majesty?

Const. You have beguil'd me with a counterfeit,
Resembling majesty; which, being touch'd, and tried,9
Proves valueless: You are forsworn, forsworn ;
You came in arms to spill mine enemies' blood,
But now in arms you strengthen it with yours:
The grappling vigour and rough frown of war,
Is cold in amity and painted peace,

And our oppression hath made up this league :-
Arm, arm, you heavens, against these perjur'd kings!
A widow cries; be husband to me, heavens!

Let not the hours of this ungodly day

[5] From this passage Rowe seems to have borrowed the first lines of his Fair Penitent. JOHNS.

[6] In allusion to Fob iii. 3, 6: "Let the day perish," &c." Let it not be joined to the days of the year,letit not come into the number of the months." In the Fair Penitent, the imprecation of Calista on the night that betray. ed her to Lothario, is chiefly borrowed from this chapter of Job. STEEV. [7] i.e. be disappointed by the production of a prodigy, a monster. STE. [8] That is, except on this day. JOHNS.

In the ancient almanacks, (several of which I have in my possession,) the days supposed to be favourable or unfavourable to bargains, are distinguished among a number of other particulars of the like importance. STEEV

[9] Being touch'd signifies having the touchstone applied to it. The two Jast words, and tried, which create a redundancy of measure, should, as Mr. Ritson observes, be omitted.

.

STEEV.

Wear out the day in peace; but, ere sunset,
Set armed discord 'twixt these perjur'd kings!
Hear me, O, hear me !

Aust. Lady Constance, peace.

-Const. War! war! no peace! peace is to me a war. O Lymoges! O Austria! thou dost shame

That bloody spoil: Thou slave, thou wretch, thou coward;

Thou little valiant, great in villainy!

Thou ever strong upon the stronger side!
Thou fortune's champion, that dost never fight
But when her humourous ladyship is by
To teach thee safety! thou art perjur'd too,
And sooth'st up greatness. What a fool art thou,
A ramping fool; to brag, and stamp, and swear,
Upon my party! Thou cold-blooded slave,
Hast thou not spoke like thunder on my side?
Been sworn my soldier? bidding me depend
Upon thy stars, thy fortune, and thy strength ?
And dost thou now fall over to my foes?
Thou wear a lion's hide! doff it for shame,
And hang a calf's-skin on those recreant limbs.2
Aust. O, that a man should speak those words to me!
Bast. And hang a calf's-skin on those recreant limbs.
Aust. Thou dar❜st not say so, villain, for thy life.
Bast. And hang a calf's-skin on those recreant limbs. 3
K. John. We like not this; thou dost forget thyself.

[1]O Lymoges! O Austria !] The propriety or impropriety of these titles, which every editor has suffered to pass unnoted, deserves a little consideration. Shakspeare has, on this occasion, followed the old play, which at once furnished him with the character of Faulconbridge, and ascribed the death of Richard I. to the duke of Austria. In the person of Austria, he has conjoined the two well-known enemies of 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 (1199) belonged to Vidomar, viscount of Limoges; and the archer who pierced his shoulder with an arrow (of which wound he died) was Bertrand de Gourdon. The editors seem hitherto to have understood Lymoges as being an appendage to the title of Austria, and therefore enquired no further about it. STEEV.

[2] When fools were kept for diversion in great families, they were dis tinguished by a calf's-skin-coat, which had the buttons down the back; and this they wore that they might be known for fools, and escape the resentmen of those whom they provoked with their waggeries. This fact will explain the sarcasm of Constance and Faulconbridge, who mean to call Austria a fool. SIR J HAWKINS.

[3] Here Mr. Pope inserts the following speeches from the old play of King John,printed 1591, before Shakspeare appears to have commenced a writer: "Aust. Methinks, that Richard's pride, and Richard's fall, Should be a precedent to fright you all.

Faulc. What words are these? how do my sinews shake! 4*

VOL. IV.

Enter PANDULPH.

K. Phil. Here comes the holy legate of the pope. Pand. Hail, you anointed deputies of heaven !— To thee, king John, my holy errand is.

I Pandulph, of fair Milan cardinal,

And from pope Innocent the legate here,
Do, in his name, religiously demand,

Why thou against the church, our holy mother,
So wilfully dost spurn; and, force perforce,
Keep Stephen Langton, chosen archbishop
Of Canterbury, from that holy see?
This, in our 'foresaid holy father's name,
Pope Innocent, I do demand of thee.

K. John. What earthly name to interrogatories,

Can task the free breath of a sacred king ?4
Thou canst not, cardinal, devise a name

So slight, unworthy, and ridiculous,

To charge me to an answer, as the pope.

Tell him this tale; and from the mouth of England,
Add thus much more,―That no Italian priest

Shall tithe or toll in our dominions;

But as we under heaven are supreme head,
So, under him, that great supremacy,
Where we do reign, we will alone uphold,
Without the assistance of a mortal hand:
So tell the pope ; all reverence set apart,
To him, and his usurp'd authority.

K. Phil. Brother of England, you blaspheme in this. K.John. Tho' you, and all the kings of Christendom, Are led so grossly by this meddling priest,

Dreading the curse that money may buy out;

And, by the merit of vile gold, dross, dust,

My father's foe clad in my father's spoil! How doth Alecto whisper in my ears. Delay not, Richard, kill the villain straight; Disrobe him of the matchless monument, Thy father's triumph o'er the savages! Now by his soul I swear, my father's soul, Twice will I not review the morning's rise, Till I have torn that trophy from thy back. And split thy heart for wearing it so long." [4] This must bave been, at the time when it was written, in our struggles with popery, a very captivating scene.

STEEV,

So many passages remain in which Shakspeare evidently takes his advan, tage of the facts then recent, and of the passions then in motion, that I can. not but suspect that time has obscured much of his art, and that many allusions yet remain undiscovered, which perhaps may be gradually retrieved by succeeding commentators. JOHNS.