Bast. Will't not be? Will not a calf-skin stop that mouth of thine? Lew. Father, to arms! Blanch. Upon thy wedding day? Against the blood that thou hast married? What, shall our feast be kept with slaughter'd men? Const. O, upon my knee, pronounce, Made hard with kneeling, I do pray to thee, Blanch. Now shall I see thy love; What motive may Be stronger with thee than the name of wife? Const. That which upholdeth him that thee upholds, His honour: 0, thine honour, Lewis, thine honour! Const. O fair return of banish'd majesty! Bast. Old time the clock-setter, that bald sexton time, Is it as he will? well then, France shall rue. Blanch. The sun's o'ercast with blood: Fair day, adieu ! Which is the side that I must go withal? K. John. Cousin, go draw our puissance together,[Exit Bastard. France, I am burn'd up with inflaming wrath ; A rage, whose heat hath this condition, That nothing can allay, nothing but blood, The blood, and dearest valu'd blood, of France. K. Phi. Thy rage shall burn thee up, and thou shalt turn To ashes, ere our blood shall quench that fire: K. John. No more than he that threats.To arms Bast. Now, by my life, this day grows wondrous hot; Some airy devil1 hovers in the sky, 1 There is a minute description of numerous devils or spirits, and their different functions, in Nash's Pierce Pennilesse his Supplication, 1592, where we find the following passage:-The spirits of the aire will mixe themselves with thunder and lightning, and so infect the clyme where they raise any tempest, that And pours down mischief. Austria's head lie there: While Philip breathes. Enter KING JOHN, ARTHUR, and HUBERT. K.John. Hubert,keep this boy:-Philip2,make up: My mother is assailed in our tent, And ta’en, I fear. Bast. SCENE III. The same. [Exeunt. Alarums; Excursions; Retreat. Enter KING JOHN, ELINOR, ARTHUR, the Bastard, HUBERT, and LORDS. K. John. So shall it be; your grace shall stay behind, [TO ELINOR. So strongly guarded.-Cousin, look not sad: [TO ARTHUR. Thy grandam loves thee, and thy uncle will Arth. O, this will make my mother die with grief. sodainely great mortalitie shall ensue to the inhabitants. The spirits of fire have their mansions under the regions of the moone.' 2 Here the king, who had knighted him by the name of Sir Richard, calls him by his former name. Shakspeare has followed the old plays, and the best authenticated history. The queen mother, whom King John had made regent in Anjou, was in possession of the town of Mirabeau, in that province. On the approach of the French army, with Arthur at their head, she sent letters to King John to come to her relief, which he immediately did. As he advanced to the town he encountered the army that lay before it, routed them, and took Arthur prisoner. The queen in the mean while remained in perfect security in the castle of Mirabeau. And, ere our coming, see thou shake the bags 2 Bast. Bell, book, and candle shall not drive me back; When gold and silver becks me to come on. For your fair safety: so I kiss your hand. K. John. Coz, farewell. [Exit Bastard. Eli. Come hither, little kinsman; hark, a word. [She takes ARTHUR aside. K. John. Come hither, Hubert. O my gentle Hubert, We owe thee much; within this wall of flesh But thou shalt have; and creep time ne'er so slow, 1 Gold coin of that name. 2 It appears from Johnson's Ecclesiastical Laws, that sentence of excommunication was to be explained in order in English, with bells tolling and candles lighted, that it may cause the greater dread; for laymen have greater regard to this solemnity than to the effect of such sentences.' See Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. xii. p. 397, ed. 1780. Yet it shall come, for me to do thee good. Had bak'd thy blood, and made it heavy, thick Or if that thou could'st see me without eyes, 3 Showy ornaments. 4 The old copy reads into, the emendation is Theobald's. • Conception. 6 Pope proposed to read broad-eyed, instead of brooded. The alteration, it must be confessed, is elegant, but unnecessary. The allusion is to the vigilance of animals while brooding, or with a brood of young ones under their protection. The king says of Hamlet: there's something in his soul O'er which his melancholy sits on brood.' Milton also, in L'Allegro, desires Melancholy to Find out some uncouth cell Where brooding darkness spreads his jealous wings.' Brooded may be used for brooding, as delighted for delighting, and discontented for discontenting, in other places of these plays. To sit on brood, or abrood, is the old term applied to birds during the period of incubation. All the metaphorical uses of the verb to brood are common to the Latin incubo. |