K. John. Coufin, go draw our puiffance together.[Exit Faulconbridge. France, I am burn'd up with inflaming wrath; A rage, whofe heat hath this condition, That nothing can allay, nothing but blood, The blood, and deareft-valu'd blood, of France. K. Phil. Thy rage fhall burn thee up, and thou fhalt turn To afhes, ere our blood fhall quench that fire: K. John. No more than he that threats.-To arms, let's hie! SCENE II. A field of battle. [Exeunt. Alarums, excurfions: enter Faulconbridge, with Auftria's head. Faule. Now, by my life, this day grows wondrous hot; Some airy devil hovers in the fky, 1 Some airy devil And -] We must read: Some fiery devil, if we will have the caufe equal to the effect. WARBURTON. There is no end of fuch alterations; every page of a vehement and negligent writer will afford opportunities for changes of terms, if mere propriety will justify them. Not that of this change the propriety is out of controverfy. Dr. Warburton will have the devil fiery, becaufe he makes the day hot; the author makes him airy, because he hovers in the fky, and the heat and mischief are natural confequences of his malignity. JOHNSON. Shakespeare here probably alludes to the distinctions and divifions of fome of the demonologists, fo much read and regarded in his time. They diftributed the devils into different tribes and clafles, each of which had its peculiar properties, attributes, &c. Thefe are defcribed at length in Burton's Anatomie of Melancholy, part. I. fect. ii. p. 45. 1632: "Of thefe fublunary devils-Pfellus makes fix kinds; fiery, aeriall, And pours down mifchief. Auftria's head lie there; While Philip breathes 2. Enter King John, Arthur, and Hubert. K. John. Hubert, keep this boy :-Philip', make up; My mother is affailed in our tent, And ta'en, I fear. Faule. My lord, I refcu'd her; Her highness is in fafety, fear you not: [Exeunt. SCENE III. Alarums, excurfions, retreat. Re-enter King John, Elinor, Arthur, Faulconbridge, Hubert, and Lords. aeriall, terrestriall, watery, and fubterranean devils, besides thofe faieries, fatyres, nymphes, &c.” "Fiery ipirits or divells are fuch as commonly worke by blazing ftarres, fire-drakes, and counterfeit funnes and moones, and fit on fhip's mafts, &c. &c." "Aeriall fpirits or divells are fuch as keep quarter most part in the aire, caufe many tempetts, thunder and lightnings, teare oakes, fire steeples, houfes, ftrike men and beasts, make it raine ftones, &c." PERCY. 2 Here Mr. Pope, without authority, adds from the old play already mentioned: 3 "Thus hath king Richard's fon perform'd his vow, "Unto his father's ever-living foul." STEEVENS. -Philip,] Here the king, who had knighted him by the name of Sir Richard, calls him by his former name. Tyrwhitt would read : Hubert, keep [thou] this boy, &c. STEEVENS. Mr. So ftrongly guarded.-Coufin, look not fad : [To Arthur. Thy grandam loves thee; and thy uncle will Arth. O, this will make my mother die with grief. Muft by the hungry now be fed upon: Ufe our commiffion in his utmoft force. Faule. Bell book and candle fhall not drive mę back, When gold and filver becks me to come on. 4 the fat ribs of peace Muft by the hungry now, be fed upon :] This word now feems a very idle term here, and conveys no fatiffactory idea. An antithefis, and oppofition of terms, fo perpetual with our author, requires: Muft by the bungry war be fed upon. War, demanding a large expence, is very poetically faid to be hungry, and to prey on the wealth and fat of peace. WARBURTON, This emendation is better than the former, but yet not neceffary. Sir T. Hanmer reads, hungry maw, with lefs deviation from the common reading, but with not fo much force or elegance as var. JOHNSON. Either emendation is unneceffary. The hungry now is this hungry infant. Shakespeare perhaps ufes the word now as a sub, ftantive, in Mcafure for Meafure: till this very now, "When men were fond, I fmil'd and wonder'd how." STEEVENS. 5 Bell book and candle, &c.] In an account of the Romish curse given by Dr. Gray, it appears that three candles were extinguished, one by one, in different parts of the execration. JOHNSON. I meet with the fame expreflion in Ram-alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611: "I'll have a priest shall mumble up a marriage (If ever I remember to be holy) For your fair fafety; fo I kifs your hand. K. John. Coz, farewel. [Exit Faulc. Eli. Come hither, little kinfman; hark, a word. [Taking him to one fide of the flage. K. John. Come hither, Hubert. O my gentle Hu bert, We owe thee much; within this wall of flesh Hub. I am much bounden to your majefty. But thou shalt have; and creep time ne'er fo flow, 6 If -full of gawds,] Gards are any fhowy ornaments. So, in the Dumb Knight, 1633: "To caper in his grave, and with vain gards Trick up his coffin." STEEVENS. 7 Sound on unto the drowy race of night;] We fhould read: Sound one-→→→ WARBURTON. I fhould fuppofe found on (which is the reading of the old copy) to be the true one. The meaning feems to be this; if the midnight bell, by repeated firokes, was to baften away the race of beings who are F4 bufy If this fame were a church-yard where we ftand, Had bak'd thy blood, and made it heavy, thick; Or if that thou could'ft fee me without eyes, bufy at that hour, or quicken night itself in its progress, the morning bell (that is, the bell that ftrikes one) could not, with strict propriety, be made the agent; for the bell has ceafed to be in the fervice of night, when it proclaims the arrival of day. Sound on has a peculiar propriety, becaufe by the repetition of the strokes at twelve, it gives a much more forcible warning than when it only ftrikes one. Such was once my opinion concerning the old reading; but on re-confidcration, its propriety cannot appear more doubtful to any one than to myself. It is too late to talk of haftening the night when the arrival of the morning is announced; and I am afraid that the repeated ftrokes have lefs of folemnity than the fingle notice, as they take from the horror and awful filence here defcribed as fo propitious to the dreadful purpofes of the king. Though the hour of one be not the natural midnight, it is yet the most folemn moment of the poetical one; and Shakespeare himself has chofen to introduce his Ghoft in Hamlet: "The bell then beating one." Mr. Malone observes, "that one and on, are perpetually confounded in the old copies of our author." STEEVENS. 8 Mr. -broad-cy'd] The old copy reads-brooded. Pope made the alteration, which, however elegant, may be unneceffary. All animals while brooded, i. e. with a brood of young ones under their protection, are remarkably vigilant. The King fays of Hamlet: 66 fomething's in his foul "O'er which his melancholy fits at brood." STEEVENŞ. But, |