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I'd set an ox-head to your lion's hide1,
And make a monster of you.

AUST.

Peace ; no more. BAST. O, tremble; for you hear the lion roar. K. JOHN. Up higher to the plain; where we'll set forth,

In best appointment, all our regiments.

BAST. Speed then, to take advantage of the

field.

K. PHI. It shall be so ;-[To LEWIS.] and at the other hill "

Command the rest to stand.-God, and our right! [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

The Same.

Alarums and Excursions; then a Retreat. Enter a French Herald, with trumpets, to the gates. F. HER. You men of Angiers, open wide your gates2

And let young Arthur, duke of Bretagne, in;
Who, by the hand of France, this day hath made
Much work for tears in many an English mother,
Whose sons lie scatter'd on the bleeding ground:
Many a widow's husband groveling lies,
Coldly embracing the discolour'd earth;
And victory, with little loss, doth play
Upon the dancing banners of the French;

I'd set an ox-head to your lion's hide,] So, in the old spurious play of King John:

"But let the frolick Frenchman take no scorn,

"If Philip front him with an English horn." STEEvens. 2 You men of Angiers, &c.] This speech is very poetical and smooth, and, except the conceit of the widow's husband embracing the earth, is just and beautiful. JOHNSON,

Who are at hand, triumphantly display'd,
To enter conquerors, and to proclaim
Arthur of Bretagne, England's king, and yours.

Enter an English Herald, with trumpets.

E. HER. Rejoice, you men of Angiers, ring your bells &;

King John, your king and England's, doth ap

proach,

Commander of this hot malicious day!

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Their armours, that march'd hence so silver-bright,
Hither return all gilt with Frenchmen's blood *;
There stuck no plume in any English crest,
That is removed by a staff of France;

Our colours do return in those same hands

That did display them when we first march'd forth;
And, like a jolly troop of huntsmen, come
Our lusty English, all with purpled hands,
Died in the dying slaughter of their foes:
Open your gates, and give the victors way.

3 Rejoice, you men of Angiers, &c.] The English Herald falls somewhat below his antagonist. Silver armour gilt with blood is a poor image. Yet our author has it again in Macbeth:

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Here lay Duncan,

"His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood." JOHNson. 4 — all GILT with Frenchman's BLOOD;] This phrase, which has already been exemplified in Macbeth, vol. xi. p. 109, n. 5, occurs also in Chapman's version of the sixteenth Iliad:

"The curets from great Hector's breast, all gilded with his

gore."

Again, in the same translator's version of the 19th Odyssey : "And shew'd his point gilt with the gushing gore." STEEVENS.

5 And, like a jolly troop of huntsmen, &c.] It was, I think, one of the savage practices of the chase, for all to stain their hands in the blood of the deer as a trophy. JOHNSON. Shakspeare alludes to the same practice in Julius Cæsar: Here thy hunters stand,

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Sign'd in thy spoil, and crimson'd in thy lethe."

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STEEVENS.

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CIT. Heralds, from off our towers we might

behold,

From first to last, the onset and retire
Of both your armies; whose equality
By our best eyes cannot be censured?:

Blood hath bought blood, and blows have answer'd blows;

Strength match'd with strength, and power confronted power:

Both are alike; and both alike we like.

One must prove greatest: while they weigh so even,

We hold our town for neither; yet for both.

Enter, at one side, King JOHN, with his power; ELINOR, BLANCH, and the Bastard; at the other, King PHILIP, Lewis, Austria, and forces.

K. JOHN. France, hast thou yet more blood to cast away?

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Say, shall the current of our right roam on R ?

6 Heralds, from off, &c.] These three speeches seem to have been laboured. The Citizen's is the best; yet both alike we like is a poor gingle. JOHNSON.

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cannot be CENSURED:] i. e. cannot be estimated. See vol. iv. p. 19, n. 7. Our author ought rather to have writtenwhose superiority, or whose inequality, cannot be censured.

So, in King Henry VI. Part I. :

"If you do censure me by what you were,
“Not what you are.” STEEVENS.

MALONE.

8 Say, shall the current of our right ROAM on ?] The editor of the second folio substituted run, which has been adopted in the subsequent editions. I do not perceive any need of change. In The Tempest we have-" the wandering brooks." MALONE.

I prefer the reading of the second folio. So in King Henry V.: "As many streams run into one self sea."

The King would rather describe his right as running on in a direct than in an irregular course, such as would be implied by the word roam. STEEVENS.

Whose passage, vex'd with thy impediment, Shall leave his native channel, and o'er-swell With course disturb'd even thy confining shores ; Unless thou let his silver water keep

A peaceful progress to the ocean.

K. PHI. England, thou hast not sav'd one drop of blood,

In this hot trial, more than we of France;
Rather, lost more: And by this hand I swear,
That sways the earth this climate overlooks,-
Before we will lay down our just-borne arms,
We'll put thee down, 'gainst whom these arms we
bear,

Or add a royal number to the dead:

Gracing the scroll, that tells of this war's loss,
With slaughter coupled to the name of kings.
BAST. Ha, majesty! how high thy glory towers,
When the rich blood of kings is set on fire!
O, now doth death line his dead chaps with steel;
The swords of soldiers are his teeth, his fangs;
And now he feasts, mousing the flesh of men 9,

9 -MOUSING the flesh of men,] Mousing, like many ancient and now uncouth expressions, was expelled from our author's text by Mr. Pope; and mouthing, which he substituted in its room, has been adopted in the subsequent editions, without any sufficient reason in my apprehension. Mousing is, I suppose, mamocking, 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.

I retain Mr. Pope's emendation, which is supported by the following passage in Hamlet: "-first mouthed to be last swallowed." Shakspeare designed no ridicule in this speech; and therefore did not write, (as when he was writing the burlesque interlude of Pyramus and Thisbe,)—mousing. STEEvens.

Shakspeare is perpetually in the habit of using familiar terms and images in his most serious scenes. To instance only what occurs in this very play :

In undetermin'd differences of kings.-
Why stand these royal fronts amazed thus ?
Cry, havock, kings! back to the stained field,
You equal potents 2, firy-kindled spirits!

Then let confusion of one part confirm

The other's peace; till then, blows, blood, and death!

K. JOHN. Whose party do the townsmen yet

admit ?

K. PHI. Speak, citizens, for England; who's your

king?

1 CIT. The king of England, when we know the

king.

K. PHI. Know him in us, that here hold

right.

up his K. JOHN. In us, that are our own great deputy, And bear possession of our person here:

Lord of our presence, Angiers, and of you.

1 CIT. A greater power than we, denies all this; And, till it be undoubted, we do lock

Our former scruple in our strong-barr'd gates:
King'd of our fears; until our fears, resolv'd,

"Now for the bare-pick'd bone of majesty,

"Doth dogged war bristle his angry crest," &c.

Act IV. Scene last, ad finem.

Again, Act V. Sc. II.:

"Have I not here the best cards for the

Again, Act V. Sc. IV. :

game."

"Unthread the rude eye of rebellion!" MALONE.

1 Cry, havock, kings!] That is, command slaughter to proceed. So, in Julius Cæsar:

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Cry, havock, and let slip the dogs of war." JOHNSON. 2 You equal POTENTS,] Potents, for potentates. So, in Ane verie excellent and delectabill Treatise intitulit Philotus, &c. 1603 : "Ane of the potentes of the town,

3 A greater power than wɛ, denies all this ;KING'D of our fears;] The old copy reads

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Kings of our feare-" &c. STEevens.

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"A greater power than we," may mean, the Lord of hosts, who has not yet decided the superiority of either army; and till it be undoubted the people of Angiers will not open their gates.'

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