SCENE II.

The court of England.

Enter King John, Pembroke, Salisbury, and other lords.

K. John. Here once again we fit, once again crown'd, And look'd upon, I hope, with chearful eyes.

Pemb. This once again, but that your highnefs pleas'd,

Was once fuperfluous: you were crown'd before,
And that high royalty was ne'er pluck'd off;
The faiths of men ne'er ftained with revolt;
Fresh expectation troubled not the land,
With any long'd-for change, or better state.

Sal. Therefore, to be poffefs'd with double pomp,
To guard a title that was rich before,
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To fmooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light

To feek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wafteful, and ridiculous excefs.

Pemb. But that your royal pleafure must be done, This act is as an ancient tale new told;

And, in the laft repeating, troublesome,

Being urged at a time unfeasonable.

Sal. In this, the antique and well-noted face Of plain old form is much disfigured:

And, like a fhifted wind unto a fail,

It makes the courfe of thoughts to fetch about;
Startles and frights confideration;

7 This once again,

was once fuperfluous:] This one time more

was one time more than enough. JOHNSON.

It should be remembered that king John was at present crowned

for the fourth time. STEEVENS.

To guard a title that was rich before,] To guard, is to fringe.

JOHNSON.

Makes

Makes found opinion fick, and truth fufpected,
For putting on fo new a fashion'd robe.

Pemb. When workmen ftrive to do better than well,
They do confound their skill in covetoufnefs:
And, oftentimes, excufing of a fault

Doth make the fault the worse by the excufe;
As patches, fet upon a little breach,

2

Difcredit more in hiding of the fault,

Than did the fault before it was fo patch'd.

Sal. To this effect, before you were new-crown'd, We breath'd our counfel: but it pleas'd your highness To over-bear it; and we are all well pleas'd; Since all and every part of what we would,

Must make a stand at what your highness will.

3

K. John. Some reafons of this double coronation I have poffefs'd you with, and think them ftrong; And more, more ftrong (when leffer is my fear)+

They do confound their skill in covetoufnefs:] i. e. Not by their avarice, but in an eager emulation, an intenfe defire of excelling; as in Henry V:

2

"But if it be a fin to covet honour,

"I am the moft offending foul alive." THEOBALD.
in hiding of the fault,

Than did the fault

-]

We fhould read flaw in both places.
The old reading is the true one.

WARBURTON.
Fault means blemish.

3 Some reafons of this double coronation

I have poffeft you with, and think them frong;
And more, more ftrong (the leffer is my fear)

I fhall endue you with:

-]

STEEVENS,

I have told you fome reasons, in my opinion firong, and shall tell more yet ftronger; for the ftronger my reafons are, the lefs is my fear of your difapprobation. This feems to be the meaning. JOHNSON, 4 And more, more ftrong, (the leffer is my fear)

Ifhall endue you with:

The first folio reads:

(then leffer is my fear)

The present text is given according to Theobald, whose reading I cannot understand, though the true one is obvious enough:

(when leffer is my fear) TYRWHITT.

I have done this reading the justice to place it in the text.

STEEVENS.

I fhall

1 fhall endue you with: Mean time, but afk
What you would have reform'd, that is not well;
And well fhall you perceive, how willingly
I will both hear and grant you your requests.
Pemb., Then I, (as one that am the tongue of thefe,
To found the purposes of all their hearts)
Both for myself and them (but, chief of all,
Your fafety, for the which myfelf and them
Bend their beft ftudies) heartily request

The enfranchisement of Arthur; whofe reftraint
Doth move the murmuring lips of discontent
To break into this dangerous argument,-
If, what in reft you have, in right you hold,
Why then your fears (which, as they fay, attend
The fteps of wrong) fhould move you to mew up
Your tender kinfman, and to choak his days
With barbarous ignorance, and deny his youth
The rich advantage of good exercise":
That the time's enemies may not have this
To grace occafions, let it be our fuit,
That you have bid us afk his liberty;
Which for our goods we do no further afk,
Than whereupon our weal, on you depending,
Counts it your weal, he have his liberty.

K. John. Let it be fo; I do commit his youth

Enter Hubert.

To your direction.-Hubert, what news with you? Pemb. This is the man fhould do the bloody deed;

To found the purposes-] To declare, to publish the defires of all thofe. JOHNSON.

good exercife :] In the middle ages the whole education of princes and noble youths confifted in martial exercifes, &c. These could not be eafily had in a prifon, where mental improvements might have been afforded as well as any where else; but this fort of education never entered into the thoughts of our active, warlike, but illiterate nobility. PERCY.

He

He fhew'd his warrant to a friend of mine:
The image of a wicked heinous fault
Lives in his eye; that clofe afpect of his
Does fhew the mood of a much-troubled breast;
And I do fearfully believe, 'tis done,

What we fo fear'd he had a charge to do.

Sal. The colour of the king doth come and go,
Between his purpofe and his confcience 7,
Like heralds 'twixt two dreadful battles fet:
His paffion is fo ripe, it needs muft break.

Pemb. And, when it breaks, I fear, will iffue thence The foul corruption of a fweet child's death.

K. John. We cannot hold mortality's ftrong hand:Good lords, although my will to give is living. The fuit which you demand is gone and dead; He tells us, Arthur is deceas'd to-night.

Sal. Indeed, we fear'd, his ficknefs was paft cure. Pemb. Indeed, we heard how near his death he was, Before the child himfelf felt he was fick :

This must be answer'd, either here, or hence.

K. John. Why do you bend fuch folemn brows on me?

Think you, I bear the fhears of destiny?
Have I commandment on the pulfe of life?
Sel. It is apparent foul-play; and 'tis fhame,
That greatnefs fhould fo grofsly offer it :-

Between his purpose and his confcience,] Between his confciousnefs of guilt, and his defign to conceal it by fair profeffions. JOHNSON.

Like heralds 'twixt two dreadful battles fet:] But heralds are not planted, I prefume, in the midst betwixt two lines of battle; though they, and trumpets, are often fent over from party to party, to propofe terms, demand a parley, &c. I have therefore ventured to read, fent. THEOBALD.

This Dr. Warburton has followed without much advantage; set is not fixed, but only placed; heralds must be set between battles in order to be fent between them. JOHNSON.

And, when it breaks, -- -] This is but an indelicate metaphor, taken from an impoftumated tumour. JOHNSON.

So

So thrive it in your game! and fo farewel.
Pemb. Stay yet, lord Salisbury; I'll go with thee,
And find the inheritance of this poor child,
His little kingdom of a forced grave.

That blood, which ow'd the breadth of all this ifle,
Three foot of it doth hold; Bad world the while!
This must not be thus borne: this will break out
To all our forrows, and ere long, I doubt. [Exeunt.
K. John. They burn in indignation; I repent:
There is no fure foundation fet on blood;
No certain life atchiev'd by others' death.

Enter a Messenger.

A fearful eye thou haft; Where is that blood,
That I have feen inhabit in those cheeks?

So foul a fky clears not without a storm:
Pour down thy weather :-How goes all in France?
Mef. From France to England'.-Never fuch a

power

For any foreign preparation,

Was levy'd in the body of a land!

The copy of your speed is learn'd by them;
For, when you fhould be told they do prepare,
The tidings come, that they are all arriv'd.

K. John. O, where hath our intelligence been drunk?
Where hath it flept? Where is my mother's care;
That such an army could be drawn in France,
And the not hear of it?

Mef. My liege, her car

Is ftopt with duft; the first of April, dy'd
Your noble mother: And, as I hear, my lord,
The lady Conftance in a frenzy dy'd

Three days before: but this from rumour's tongue
I idly heard; if true, or falfe, I know not.

From France to England.-] The king afks bow all goes in France, the meffenger catches the word goes, and answers, that whatever is in France goes now into England. JOHNSON.

K. John.