Resolveth3 from his figure 'gainst the fire? But even this night,—whose black contagious breath Even with a treacherous fine of all your lives, Sal. We do believe thee,-And beshrew my soul But I do love the favour and the form Of this most fair occasion, by the which We will untread the steps of damned flight ; Leaving our rankness and irregular course, 3 i. e. dissolveth. So in Hamlet: Thaw and resolve itself into a dew.' Again in Baret's Alvearie, 1575, T. 120, 'to thaw or resolve that which is frosen.' 4 Rankness, as applied to a river, here signifies exuberant, ready to overflow; as applied to the actions of the speaker and his party it signifies wanton wildness. Petulantia. Rain added to a river that is rank Perforce will force it overflow the bank." Stoop low within those bounds we have o'erlook'd, Even to our ocean, to our great King John.- [Exeunt, leading off MELUN. SCENE V. The same. The French Camp. Enter LEWIS and his Train. Lew. The sun of heaven, methought, was loath to set; But stay'd, and made the western welkin blush, When the English measur'd backward their own ground, In faint retire: O, bravely came we off, Enter a Messenger. Mess. Where is my prince, the Dauphin? Lew. Here:-What news? Mess. The Count Melun is slain; the English lords, By his persuasion, are again fallen off: And your supply, which you have wish'd so long, Are cast away, and sunk, on Goodwin Sands. 5 Immediate. 6 Innovation. was to waver, 1 Tott'ring colours is the reading of the old copy, which was unnecessarily altered to tatter'd by Johnson, who followed by the subsequent editors. To totter, in old language, to shake with a tremulous motion, as colours would do in the wind. It is obvious that tatter'd cannot be the right word, for how could their tatter'd colours be clearly wound up? to tottre (says Baret), nutare, vaccilare, see shake and wagge.' The colours were waving in the wind during the battle, and were wound up at the close of it. Lew. Ah, foul shrewd news!-Beshrew thy very heart! I did not think to be so sad to-night, As this hath made me.-Who was he, that said, The day shall not be up so soon as I, SCENE VI. [Exeunt. An open Place in the neighbourhood of SwinsteadAbbey. Enter the Bastard and HUBERT, meeting. Hub. Who's there? speak, ho! speak quickly, or I shoot. Bast. A friend :-What art thou? Hub. Of the part of England. Bast. Whither dost thou go? Hub. What's that to thee? Why may not I demand Of thine affairs, as well as thou of mine? Bast. Hubert, I think. Hub. Thou hast a perfect1 thought: I will, upon all hazards, well believe, Thou art my friend, that know'st my tongue so well: Who art thou? Bast. Who thou wilt: an if thou please, Thou may'st befriend me so much, as to think I come one way of the Plantagenets. 2 i. e. keep in your allotted posts or stations. 1 i. e. a well informed one. So in Cymbeline. I am perfect That the Pannonians, &c.' Hub. Unkind remembrance! thou, and eyeless night, Have done me shame :-Brave soldier, pardon me, That any accent, breaking from thy tongue, Should 'scape the true acquaintance of mine ear. Bast. Come, come; sans compliment, what news abroad? Hub. Why, here walk I, in the black brow of night, To find you out. Bast. Brief, then; and what's the news? Hub. O, my sweet sir, news fitting to the night, Black, fearful, comfortless, and horrible. Bast. Show me the very wound of this ill news; I am no woman, I'll not swoon at it. Hub. The king, I fear, is poison'd by a monk3: I left him almost speechless, and broke out To acquaint you with this evil; that you might The better arm you to the sudden time, Than if you had at leisure known of this. Bast. How did he take it? who did taste to him? Hub. A monk, I tell you; a resolved villain, Whose bowels suddenly burst out: the king Yet speaks, and, peradventure, may recover. Bast. Who didst thou leave to tend his majesty? 2 The old copy reads endless night.' The emendation was made by Theobald. The epithet is found in Jarvis Markham's English Arcadia, 1607 :— "O eyeless night, the portraiture of death.' In Shakspeare's Rape of Lucrece, we have of Poor grooms are sightless night; kings glorious day.' 3 Not one of the historians who wrote within sixty years the event mentions this improbable story. The tale is, that a monk, to revenge himself on the king for a saying at which he took offence, poisoned a cup of ale, and having brought it to his majesty, drank some of it himself, to induce the king to taste it, and soon afterwards expired. Thomas Wykes is the first who mentions it in his Chronicle as a report. According to the best accounts John died at Newark, of a fever. 4 i. e. less speedily, after some delay. Hub. Why, know back, you not? the lords are all come And brought prince Henry in their company; Bast. Withhold thine indignation, mighty heaven, [Exeunt. SCENE VII. The Orchard of Swinstead-Abbey. Enter PRINCE HENRY1, SALISBURY, and P. Hen. It is too late; the life of all his blood Enter PEMBROKE. Pem. His highness yet doth speak and holds belief, That, being brought into the open air, It would allay the burning quality Of that fell poison which assaileth him. P. Hen. Let him be brought into the orchard here.Doth he still rage? Pem. [Exit BIGOT. He is more patient Than when left him; even now he sung. you P. Hen. O vanity of sickness! fierce extremes, 1 Prince Henry was only nine years old when his father died. |