With unhack'd swords, and helmets all unbruis'd, "T is not the rounder of your old-fac'd walls CIT. In brief, we are the king of England's subjects; Have we ramm'd up our gates against the world. Twice fifteen thousand hearts of England's breed,- K. JOHN. To verify our title with their lives. K. PHI. As many, and as well-born bloods as those,— K. PHI. Stand in his face, to contradict his claim. We, for the worthiest, hold the right from both. Before the dew of evening fall, shall fleet, K. PHI. Amen, Amen!-Mount, chevaliers! to arms! Teach us some fence!-Sirrah, were I at home, And make a monster of you. * Rounder. This is the English of the original. Some modern editions have turned the word into roundure, which is neither French nor English. Sits on his horseback. Shakspere might have found an example for the expression in North's 'Plutarch,'-one of his favourite books: "He commanded his captains to set out their bands to the field, and he himself took his horseback." BAST. O, tremble; for you hear the lion roar. K. JOHN. Up higher to the plain; where we 'll set forth, In best appointment, all our regiments. BAST. Speed then, to take advantage of the field. K. PHI. It shall be so;-[to LEWIS] and at the other hill [Exeunt. SCENE II.-The same. Alarums and Excursions; then a Retreat. Enter a French Herald, with Trumpets, to the Gates. F. HER. You men of Angiers, open wide your gates, And let young Arthur, duke of Bretagne, in; Arthur of Bretagne, England's king, and yours! Enter an English Herald with Trumpets. Their armours, that march'd hence so silver-bright, That is removed by a staff of France; Our colours do return in those same hands That did display them when we first march'd forth; HUBERT. Heralds, from off our towers we might behold, From first to last, the onset and retire Hubert. Without any assigned reason the name of this speaker has been altered by the modern editors to Citizen. The folio distinctly gives this, and all the subsequent speeches of the same person, to the end of the act, to Hubert. Of both your armies; whose equality By our best eyes cannot be censured : Blood hath bought blood, and blows have answer'd blows; Strength match'd with strength, and power confronted power: Both are alike; and both alike we like. One must prove greatest: while they weigh so even, We hold our town for neither; yet for both. Enter, at one side, KING JOHN, with his Power, ELINOR, BLANCH, and the Bastard; at the other, KING PHILIP, LEWIS, AUSTRIA, and Forces. K. JOHN. France, hast thou yet more blood to cast away? Say, shall the current of our right roam on3, With course disturb'd even thy confining shores, A peaceful progress to the ocean? K. PHI. England, thou hast not sav'd one drop of blood, Rather, lost more: And by this hand I swear, That sways the earth this climate overlooks, We'll put thee down, 'gainst whom these arms we bear, Gracing the scroll, that tells of this war's loss, With slaughter coupled to the name of kings. Then let confusion of one part confirm The other's peace; till then, blows, blood, and death! • Roam on. The editor of the second folio substituted run, which reading has been continued. Neither the poetry nor the sense appear to have gained by the fancied improvement. Mousing. This figurative and characteristic expression in the original was rendered by Pope into the prosaic mouthing, which has ever since usurped its place. We restore the reading. K. PHI. Know him in us, that here hold up K. JOHN. In us, that are our own great deputy, Our former scruple in our strong-barr'd gates, BAST. By heaven, these scroyles of Angiers flout you, kings; As in a theatre, whence they gape and point Leave them as naked as the vulgar air. To whom in favour she shall give the day, Kings, of our fear. Warburton and Johnson, disregarding the original, say, "Kings are our fears." Malone adopts Tyrwhitt's conjecture-" King'd of our fears;"-and so the passage runs in the variorum editions. We retain the original. The two kings peremptorily demand the citizens of Angiers to acknowledge the respective rights of each,-England for himself, France for Arthur. The citizens reply, on account of our fear, or through our fear, or by our fear, we hold our former scruple, kings, . "until our fears, resolv'd, Be by some certain king purg'd and depos'd." b Scroyles; from Les Escrouelles, the king's evil. Soul-fearing. To fear is often used by the old writers in the sense of to make afraid. Shakspere has several examples: Antony says, "Thou canst not fear us, Pompey with thy sails." But this active sense of the verb fear is not its exclusive meaning in Shakspere; and in ‘The Taming of the Shrew' he exhibits its common use as well in the neuter as in the active acceptation: "Pet. Now, for my life, Hortensio fears his widow. "Wid. Then never trust me if I be afeard. "Pet. You are very sensible, and yet you miss my sense: I meant Hortensio is afeard of you." And kiss him with a glorious victory. How like you this wild counsel, mighty states? K. JOHN. Now, by the sky that hangs above our heads, As we will ours, against these saucy walls : Make work upon ourselves, for heaven, or hell. AUST. I from the north. K. PHI. Our thunder from the south, Shall rain their drift of bullets on this town. BAST. O prudent discipline! From north to south; Austria and France shoot in each other's mouth : I'll stir them to it :-Come, away, away! Win HUBERT. Hear us, great kings: vouchsafe a while to stay, K. JOHN. Speak on, with favour; we are bent to hear. Is the young Dauphin every way complete; If not complete of a, say, he is not she; Complete of. So the original. Hanmer changed this reading to, "If not complete, O say, he is not she," which is to substitute the language of the eighteenth century for that of the sixteenth. [Aside. |