But, ah, I will not :-Yet I love thee well; K. John. Do not I know, thou would'st? And, wherefoe'er this foot of mine doth tread, Hub. And I'll keep him so, That he fhall not offend K. John. Death. Hub. My lord? K. John. A grave. your majefty. Hub. He fhall not live. K. John. Enough. I could be merry now: Hubert, I love thee; Remember. : Madam, fare you well: K. John. For England, coufin, go: [Exeunt. ? This is one of the scenes to which may be promised a lasting commendation. Art could add little to its perfection, and time itfelf can take nothing from its beauties. STEEVENS, SCENE SCENE IV. The French court. Enter King Philip, Lewis, Pandulph, and attendants. K. Phil. So, by a roaring tempeft on the flood, A whole armado of collected fail2 I Is fcatter'd, and disjoin'd from fellowship. Pand. Courage and comfort! all fhail yet go well. K. Phil. What can go well, when we have run fo ill? Are we not beaten? Is not Angiers loft? Lewis. What he hath won, that hath he fortify'd: A whole armado &c.] This fimilitude, as little as it makes for the purpose in hand, was, I do not queftion, a very taking one when the play was first represented; which was a winter or two at moft after the Spanish invafion in 1588. It was in reference likewife to that glorious period that Shakespeare concludes his play in that triumphant manner: "Thus England never did, nor never shall, But the whole play abounds with touches relative to the then pofture of affairs. WARBURTON. This play, fo far as I can discover, was not played till a long time after the defeat of the armado. The old play, I think, wants this fimile. The commentator fhould not have affirmed what he can only guess. JOHNSON. Armado is a Spanish word fignifying a fleet of war. The armado in 1588 was called fo by way of diftinction. STEEVENS. 2 of collected fail] Thus the modern editors. The old copy reads-convicted. STEEVENS. 3 in fo fierce a caufe,] We fhould read course, i. e. march. The Oxford editor condefcends to this emendation. WARBURTON. A fierce caufe is a caufe conducted with precipitation. "Fierce wretchednefs," in Timon, is, hafty, fudden mifery. STEEVENS. Doth Doth want example; Who hath read, or heard, K. Phil. Well could I bear that England had this praise, So we could find some pattern of our fhame. Enter Conftance. Look, who comes here! a grave unto a foul; Conft. Lo, now! now fee the iffue of your peace! K. Phil. Patience, good lady! comfort, gentle Con ftance ! Conft. No, I defy 5 all counfel, all redress, a grave unto a foul, Holding the eternal fpirit, against her will, In the vile prifon of afflicted breath :] I think we should read earth. The paffage feems to have been copied from fir Thomas More: "If the body be to the foule a prifon, how ftrait a prifon maketh he the body, that stuffeth it with riff-raff, that the foule can have no room to stirre itself— but is, as it were, enclosed not in a prison, but in a grave." FARMER. Perhaps the old reading is juftifiable. So, in Measure for Meafure: "To be imprifon'd in the viewlefs winds." STE VENS. 5 No, I defy &c.] To defy anciently fignified to refuse. ̧ So, in Romeo and Juliet: 66 "I do defy thy commiferation." STEEVENS. Come, Come, grin on me; and I will think thou fmil'ft, K. Phil. Oh fair affliction, peace. Conft. No, no, I will not, having breath to cry:Oh, that my tongue were in the thunder's mouth! Then with a paffion would I shake the world; And rouze from fleep that fell anatomy, Which cannot hear a lady's feeble voice, Which fcorns a 7 modern invocation. Pand. Lady, you utter madness, and not forrow. Conft. Thou art unholy to belie me so; I am not mad: this hair I tear, is mine; My name is Conftance; I was Geffrey's wife; Young Arthur is my fon, and he is loft: I am not mad;—I would to heaven, I were ! For then, 'tis like I should forget myself: Oh, if I could, what grief fhould I forget!— Preach fome philofophy to make me mad, And thou shalt be canoniz'd, cardinal; For, being not mad, but fenfible of grief, My reasonable part produces reason And bufs thee as thy wife!] Thus the old copy. The word bufs, however, being now only ufed in vulgar language, our modern editors have exchanged it for kifs. The former is used by Drayton in the 3d canto of his Barons' Wars, where queen Isabel lays: "And we by figns fent many a fecret buss." Again, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, b. iii. c. 10:. "But every fatyre first did give a busse "To Hellenore; fo buffes did abound." Again, Stanyhurst the tranflator of Virgil, 1582, renders ofcula libavit natæ 66 "Buft his prittye parrat prating &c." STEEVENS. 7 -modern invocation.] It is hard to fay what Shakespeare means by modern: it is not opposed to ancient. In All's Well that ends Well, fpeaking of a girl in contempt, he uses this word: "her modern grace." It apparently means fomething flight and inconfiderable. JOHNSON. Modern, I believe, is trite, common. So, in As "Full of wife faws and modern inftances." s you like It: STEEVENS. How How I may be deliver'd of these woes, 8 K. Phil. Bind up thofe treffes: Oh, what love I note In the fair multitude of those her hairs! Where but by chance a filver drop hath fallen, Like true, infeparable, faithful loves, Conft. To England, if you will. K. Phil. Bind up your hairs. Conft. Yes, that I will; And wherefore will I do it? I tore them from their bonds; and cry'd aloud, Oh that thefe hands could fo redeem my fon, As they have given thefe hairs their liberty! And will again commit them to their bonds, And, father cardinal, I have heard you say, That we fhall fee and know our friends in heaven: If that be true, I fhall fee my boy again; For, fince the birth of Cain, the first male-child, Bind up thofe treffes:] It was neceffary that Constance fhould be interrupted, because a paffion fo violent cannot be borne long. I wifh the following fpeeches had been equally happy; but they only ferve to fhew, how difficult it is to maintain the pathetic long. JOHNSON. 9quiry friends] The old copy reads, wiry fiends. Wiery is an adjective used by Heywood in his Silver Age, 1613: 66 My vaffal furies, with their wiery strings, "Shall lafh thee hence." STEEVENS. Το |