Out of his rags! Here's a large mouth, indeed,
That fpits forth death, and mountains, rocks, and feas;
Talks as familiarly of roaring lions,

As maids of thirteen do of puppy-dogs!

What cannoneer begot this lufty blood?

He fpeaks plain cannon, fire, and fmoak, and bounce;
He gives the baftinado with his tongue;
Our ears are cudgel'd; not a word of his,
But buffets better than a fift of France:
Zounds! I was never fo bethumpt with words,
Since I first call'd my brother's father, dad,

well with the fpirit of the fpeech. Stay and flaw, in a careless hand, are not easily distinguished; 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. l. "Why here's a gallant, here's a king indeed!

"He fpeaks all Mars: tut, let me follow fuch
"A lad as this:-This is pure fire:

"Ev'ry look he cafts, flafbeth like lightning;
"There's mettle in this boy.

"He brings a breath that fets our fails on fire:

"Why now I fee we shall have cuffs indeed.

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 steady posture. Shakespeare's meaning may therefore be :-" Here's a steady, refolute fellow, who fhakes &c." Aftay, 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 courfe 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 Odyssey:

"Our fhip lay anchor'd clofe, nor needed we

"Feare harm on any stays."

A marginal note adds: "For being caft on the faies, 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 so surely tie Thy now unfur'd affurance to the crown, That yon green boy fhall have no fun to ripe The bloom that promifeth a mighty fruit. I fee a yielding in the looks of France;

Mark, how they whisper : urge them, while their fouls
Are capable of this ambition;

Left zeal, now melted3, by the windy breath
Of foft petitions, pity, and remorse,
Cool and congeal again to what it was.

Cit. Why answer not the double majefties
This friendly treaty of our threaten'd town?

K. Phil. Speak England firft, that hath been forward firft

To speak unto this city: What fay 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

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 zeal to metal in a state of fus fion, and not to diffolving ice. STEEVENS.

+ In old editions:

For Angiers and fair Touraine, Maine, Poitiers,
And all that we upon this fide the fea,

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
(Except this city now by us befieg'd)
Find liable to our crown and dignity,
Shall gild her bridal bed; and make her rich
In titles, honours, and promotions,
As the 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.

eye I find

Lewis. I do, my lord; and in her
A wonder, or a wondrous miracle,
The fhadow of myself form'd in her
eye;
Which, being but the fhadow of your fon,

Becomes a fun, and makes your fon a fhadow:
I do proteft, I never lov'd myself,

'Till now infixed I beheld myself,

Drawn in the flattering table of her eye.

[Whispers with Blanch. Faulc. 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 efpy Himself 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; If he see ought in you, that makes him like, That any thing he fees, which moves his liking, I can with ease translate it to my will; Or, if you will, (to speak more properly) I will enforce it easily to my love. Further I will not flatter you, my lord, That all I fee in you is worthy love, Than this, that nothing do I fee in you,

Mr. Theobald found, or might have found, the reading which he would introduce as an emendation of his own, in the old quarto.

STEEVENS.

(Though

(Though churlish thoughts themselves 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 wisdom 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 5, Touraine,
Maine,

Poitiers, and Anjou, thefe five provinces,
With her to thee; and this addition more,
Full thirty thousand marks of English coin.
Philip of France, if thou be pleas'd withal,
Command thy fon and daughter to join hands.
K. Phil. It likes us well;-Young princes, clofe
your hands.

Auft. And your lips too; for, I am well affur'd, That I did fo, when I was firft aflur'd.

K. Phil. Now, citizens of Angiers, ope your gates, Let in that amity which you have made; For at faint Mary's chapel, presently, 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 country now called the Vexin, in Latin, Pagus Velocaffinus. That part of it called the Norman Vexin, was in difpute between Philip and John. STEEVENS.

-I am well affur'd,

That I did fo when I was firft affur'd.]

Affur'd is here ufed both in its common fenfe, and in an uncommon one, where it fignifies affianced, contracted. So, in the Comedy of Errors:

"Called me Dromio, fwore 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 highnefs'

tent.

K.Phil. And, by my faith, this league, that we have made,

Will give her fadnefs very little cure.—
Brother of England, how may we content
This widow lady? In her right we came;
Which we, God knows, have turn'd another way,
To our own vantage.

K. John. We will heal up all:

For we'll create young Arthur duke of Bretagne,
And earl of Richmond; and this rich fair town
We make him lord of.-Call the lady Conftance;
Some fpeedy meffenger bid her repair
To our folemnity :-I truft we fhall,
If not fill up the measure of her will,
Yet in fome meafure fatisfy her fo,
That we shall stop her exclamation.
Go we, as well as hafte will fuffer us,
To this unlook'd for unprepared pomp.

[Exeunt all but Faulconbridge.
Faulc. Mad world! mad kings! mad compofition!
John, to stop Arthur's title in the whole,
Hath willingly departed with a part:

And

7-departed 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 serve 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.'