It is unnecessary for us to do more than refer our readers to Holinshed for an account of the long-protracted dispute between the Pope and John, which ended in the mean submission which Shakspere has so strikingly recorded in the first scene of this Act. The chronicler also details the attempt which the Pope made to dissuade the French king from the invasion of England, and the determination of the Dauphin to assert what he called his right to the throne. These narratives are too long, and have too little of dramatic interest, to be here given as illustrations of the poet. We subjoin, however, Holinshed's account, which he gives on the authority of Matthew Paris, of the disclosures of Melun, which determined the revolted lords to return to their obedience to John. But the story is very apocryphal : "About the same time (1216, An. Reg. 18), or rather in the year last past, as some hold, it fortuned that the Viscount of Melune, a Frenchman, fell sick at London, and perceiving that death was at hand, he called unto him certain of the English barons, which remained in the city, upon safeguard thereof, and to them made this protestation: 'I lament (saith he) your destruction and desolation at hand, because you are ignorant of the perils hanging over your heads. For this understand, that Lewis, and with him sixteen earls and barons of France, have secretly sworn (if it shall fortune him to conquer this realm of England, and be crowned king) that he will kill, banish, and confine all those of the English nobility (which now do serve under him, and persecute their own king) as traitors and rebels, and furthermore will dispossess all their lineage of such inheritance as they now hold in England. And because (saith he) you shall not have doubt hereof, I, which lie here at the point of death, do now affirm unto you, and take it on the peril of my soul, that I am one of those sixteen that have sworn to perform this thing. Wherefore I advise you to provide for your own safeties, and your realm's which you now destroy, and keep this thing secret which I have uttered unto you.' After this speech was uttered he straightways died." The "Plain near St. Edmund's-Bury," which is the locality of the second Scene, and of the subsequent battle, is not mentioned in the chronicles, nor is this locality defined in the original edition of this play. The modern edi the circumstance of the Barons and the Dauphin having interchangeably sworn "Upon the altar at St. Edmund's-Bury." tors have introduced it, most probably, from We subjoin an old view of the town : Matthew Paris, and Matthew of Westminster, have minutely described the route taken by the king, previous to his death. "The country being wasted on each hand, the king passeth forward till he came to Wellestreme Sands, where, in passing the Washes, he lost a great part of his army, with horses and carriages." *** "Yet the king himself, and a few others, escaped the violence of the waters, by following a good guide." The Long Wash between Lynn and Boston was formerly a morass, intersected by roads of Roman construction. The memory of the precise spot where John lost his baggage is still preserved in the name of a corner of a bank between Cross Keys Wash and Lynn, called King's Corner. The poet, having another dramatic purpose in view, did not take that version of the king's death which ascribed his last illness to be the result of anguish of mind occasioned by this loss; but he supposes the accident to have befallen the forces under the Bastard. Myself, well mounted, hardly have escaped." The death of John, by poison, administered by a monk, is thus described by Holinshed, upon the authority of Caxton : "There be which have written that after he had lost his army, he came to the abbey of Swineshead, in Lincolnshire, and there understanding the cheapness and plenty of corn, shewed himself greatly displeased therewith; as he that for the hatred which he bare to the English people, that had so traitorously revolted from him unto his adversary Lewis, wished all misery to light upon them, and thereupon said in his anger, that he would cause all kind of grain to be at a far higher price ere many days should pass. Whereupon a monk that heard him speak such words, being moved with zeal for the oppression of his country, gave the king poison in a cup of ale, whereof he first took the assay, to cause the king not to suspect the matter, and so they both died in manner at one time." The following representation of the event is from Fox's 'Acts and Monuments: COSTUME. THE authorities for the COSTUME of the historical play of 'King John' are chiefly the monumental effigies and seals of the principal sovereigns and nobles therein mentioned. Illuminated MSS. of this exact period are unknown to us. All that we have seen of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries appear to be either of an earlier or later date than the reign of John. The nearest to his time, apparently, is one in the Sloane Collection, Brit. Mus., marked 1975: Fortunately, however, there are few personages in the play beneath the rank of those for whose habits we have the most unquestionable models in the authorities above alluded to, and written descriptions or allusions will furnish us with the most essential part of the information required. The enamelled cup said to have been presented by King John to the Corporation of Lynn, and from the figures on which the civil costume of his reign has hitherto been designed, is now, by a critical examination of those very figures, and a comparison of their dress with that depicted in MSS. of at least a century later, proved to be of the time of Edward II. or III. We subjoin a group in which the dress of the burghers and artificers is collected from the authorities nearest to the period. The effigy of King John in Worcester Ca- with green and yellow or gold. The collar and thedral, which, by the examination of the body sleeves of the supertunic have borders of gold of the monarch, was proved to present a fac-studded with jewels. The backs of the gloves simile of the royal robes in which he was in- were also jewelled. terred, affords us a fine specimen of the royal costume of the period. A full robe or supertunic of crimson damask, embroidered with gold, and descending to the mid leg, is girdled round the waist with a golden belt studded with jewels, having a long end pendent in front. An under tunic of cloth of gold descends to the ankles, and a mantle of the same magnificent stuff, lined with green silk, depends from his shoulders; the hose are red, the shoes black, over which are fastened gilt spurs by straps of silk, or cloth, of a light blue colour, striped A kneeling effigy of Philip Augustus, engraved in Montfaucon, shows the similarity of fashion existing at the same time in France and England. The nobles, when unarmed, appear to have been attired in the same manner, viz., in the tunic, supertunic, and mantle, with hose, short boots, or shoes, of materials more or less rich according to the means or fancy of the wearer. Cloth, silk, velvet, and gold and silver tissues, with occasionally furs of considerable value, are mentioned in various documents of the period. A garment called a bliaus (from |