Pand. What can'ft thou fay, but will perplex thee more, If thou ftand excommunicate, and curft? K. Phil. Good reverend father, make my perfon yours, And tell me, how you would beftow yourself. Heaven knows, they were befmear'd and over-ftain'd My reverend father, let it not be fo: Out of your grace, devife, ordain, impose Some gentle order; and then we fhall be bleft -fo ftrong in both,] I believe the meaning is, love fo firong in both parties. JOHNSON. 6 -this kind regreet?] A regreet is an exchange of faluta tion. So, in Heywood's Iron Age, 1632: "So bear our kind regreets to Hecuba." STEEVENS. Pand. Pand. All form is formlefs, order orderlefs, Save what is oppofite to England's love. Therefore, to arms! be champion of our church! Or let the church, our mother, breathe her curse, A mother's curfe, on her revolting fon. France, thou may'ft hold a ferpent by the tongue, A cafed lion by the mortal paw, A fafting tyger fafer by the tooth, Than keep in peace that hand which thou dost hold. A cafed lion -] All the modern editors read, a chafed lion. I fee little reafon for change. A cafed lion, is a lion irritated by confinement. So, in K. Henry VI. P. III. act I. fc. iii: "So looks the pent-up lion o'er the wretch "That trembles under his devouring paws &c." The author might, however, have written, a chafed lion. STEEVENS. Cafed, I believe, is the true reading. So, in Rowley's When you fee Me you know Me, 1632: "The lyon in his cage is not fo ferne "As royal Henry in his wrathful fpleene." MALONE, Is not amifs, when it is truly done:] This is the conclufion de travers. We fhould read: Is yet amifs, The Oxford editor, according to his ufual custom, will improve it further, and reads, moft amifs. WARBURTON. I rather read: Is't not amifs, when it is truly done? as the alteration is lefs, and the fenfe which Dr. Warburton first difcovered, is preferved. JoHNSON. Is, to mistake again; though indirect, And falfhood falfhood cures; as fire cools fire, By • But thou haft fworn againft religion : &c.] In this long speech, the legate is made to fhew his fkill in cafuiftry; and the strange heap of quibble and nonfenfe of which it confifts, was intended to ridicule that of the schools. For when he affumes the politician, at the conclufion of the third act, the author makes him talk at another rate. I mean in that beautiful paffage where he speaks of the mischiefs following the king's lofs of his fubjects hearts. This conduct is remarkable, and was intended, I fuppofe, to fhew us how much better politicians the Roman courtiers are, than divines. WARBURTON. I am not able to difcover here any thing inconfequent or ridiculoufly fubtle. The propofitions, that the voice of the church is the voice of heaven, and that the pope utters the voice of the church, neither of which Pandulph's auditors would deny, being once granted, the argument here ufed is irrefiftible; nor is it easy, notwithstanding the gingle, to enforce it with greater brevity or propriety: But thou haft fworn against religion: By what thou fear'ft, against the thing thou fwear'ft: To fwear, fwear only not to be forfvorn. By what. Sir T. Hanmer reads, by that. I think it should be rather by which. That is, thou fear'ft against the thing, by which thou fwear'ft; that is, againft religion. The most formidable difficulty is in these lines: To fear, &c. This fir T. Hanmer reforms thus: And mak'ft an oath the furety for thy truth, Dr. Warburton writes it thus: Against an oath the truth thou art unfure which leaves the paffage to me as obfcure as before. 1 I know not whether there is any corruption beyond the omiffion of a point. The fente, after I had confidered it, appeared to me VOL. V. F only By which thou fwear'ft against the thing thou fwear'ft; And better conqueft never canft thou make, So heavy, as thou shalt not shake them off, Faule. Will't not be? Will not a calf's-fkin ftop that mouth of thine? Blanch. Upon thy wedding day? Against the blood that thou haft married? What, fhall our feast be kept with flaughter'd men? only this: In fivearing by religion against religion, to which thou baft already fworn, thou makeft an oath the fecurity for thy faith against an oath already taken. I will give, fays he, a rule for conscience in these cafes. Thou mayst be in doubt about the matter of an oath; when thou fweareft thou mayft not be always fure to fwear rightly, but let this be thy fettled principle, favcar only not to be forfworn; let not the latter oaths be at variance with the former. Truth, through this whole fpeech, means rectitude of conduct. JOHNSON. Upon Upon my knee I beg, go not to arms Conft. Oh, upon my knee, Made hard with kneeling, I do pray to thee, Blanch. Now fhall I fee thy love; What motive may Be ftronger with thee than the name of wife? Conft. That which upholdeth him that thee up holds, His honour: Oh, thine honour, Lewis, thine honour! Conft. O fair return of banish'd majesty ! Eli. O foul revolt of French inconftancy! K. John. France, thou fhalt rue this hour within this hour. Faulc. Old time the clock-fetter, that bald fexton time, Is it as he will? well then, France shall rue. Blanch. The fun's o'ercaft with blood: Fair day, adieu ! Which is the fide that I muft go withal? Lewis. Lady, with me; with me thy fortune lies. Blanch. There where my fortune lives, there my life dies. |