And, ere our coming, see thou shake the bags
Of hoarding abbots: angels1 imprisoned
Set thou at liberty: the fat ribs of

peace Must by the hungry now be fed upon: Use our commission in his utmost force.

Bast. Bell, book, and candle shall not drive me back;

When gold and silver becks me to come on.
I leave your highness :-Grandam, I will pray
(If ever I remember to be holy)

For your fair safety: so I kiss your hand.
Eli. Farewell, my gentle cousin.

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
There is a soul counts thee her creditor,
And with advantage means to pay thy love:
And, my good friend, thy voluntary oath
Lives in this bosom, dearly cherished.
Give me thy hand. I had a thing to say,-
But I will fit it with some better time.
By heaven, Hubert, I am almost asham'd
To say what good respect I have of thee.
Hub. I am much bounden to your majesty.
K. John. Good friend, thou hast no cause to say
so yet:

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.
I had a thing to say,-But let it go:
The sun is in the heaven, and the proud day,
Attended with the pleasures of the world,
Is all too wanton, and too full of gawds3,
To give me audience:—If the midnight bell
Did, with his iron tongue and brazen mouth,
Sound one unto the drowsy race of night;
If this same were a churchyard where we stand,
And thou possessed with a thousand wrongs;
Or if that surly spirit, melancholy,

Had bak'd thy blood, and made it heavy, thick
(Which, else, runs tickling up and down the veins,
Making that idiot, laughter, keep men's eyes,
And strain their cheeks to idle merriment,
A passion hateful to my purposes);

Or if that thou could'st see me without eyes,
Hear me without thine ears, and make reply
Without a tongue, using conceit alone,
Without eyes, ears, and harmful sound of words;
Then, in despite of brooded watchful day,
I would into thy bosom pour my thoughts:

3 Showy ornaments.

The old copy reads into, the emendation is Theobald's. 5 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 toFind 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.

But ah, I will not:-Yet I love thee well; And, by my troth, I think, thou lov'st me well.

Hub. So well, that what you bid me undertake, Though that my death were adjunct to my act, By heaven, I'd do't.

K. John.
Do not I know, thou would'st?
Good Hubert, Hubert, Hubert, throw thine eye
On yon young boy: I'll tell thee what, my friend,
He is a very serpent in my way;

And, wheresoe'er this foot of mine doth tread,
He lies before me: Dost thou understand me?
Thou art his keeper.

I could be merry now: Hubert, I love thee;
Well, I'll not say what I intend for thee;
Remember.Madam, fare you well:
I'll send those powers o'er to your majesty.
Eli. My blessing go with thee!

K. John.

For England, cousin: Hubert shall be your man, attend on you With all true duty.-On toward Calais, ho?!

[Exeunt,

7 King John, after he had taken Arthur prisoner, sent him to the town of Falaise, in Normandy, under the care of Hubert, his chamberlain, from whence he was afterwards removed to Rouen, and delivered to the custody of Robert de Veypont. Here he was secretly put to death. 'This is one of those scenes (says Steevens) to which may be promised a lasting commendation. Art could add little to its perfection; no change in dramatic taste can injure it; and time itself can substract nothing from its beauties.'

SCENE IV. The same. The French King's Tent.

Enter KING PHILIP, LEWIS, PANDULPH, and Attendants.

K. Phi. So, by a roaring tempest on the flood, A whole armado 1 of convicted 2 sail

Is scatter'd and disjoin'd from fellowship.

Pand. Courage and comfort! all shall yet go well. K. Phi. What can go well, when we have run so ill? Are we not beaten? Is not Angiers lost? Arthur ta'en prisoner? divers dear friends slain? And bloody England into England gone, O'erbearing interruption, spite of France?

Lew. What he hath won, that hath he fortified : So hot a speed with such advice dispos'd, Such temperate order in so fierce a cause 3, Doth want example; Who hath read, or heard, kindred action like to this?

Of

any

K. Phi. Well could I bear that England had this praise,

So we could find some pattern of our shame.

Enter CONSTANCE.

Look, who comes here! a grave unto a soul;
Holding the eternal spirit, against her will,
In the vile prison of afflicted breath* :-

I pr'ythee, lady, go away with me.

1 Armado is a fleet of war; the word is adopted from the Spanish, and the recent defeat of the Spanish armado had made it familiar.

2 Convicted is vanquished, overcome. To convince and convict were synonymous. See Macbeth, Act i, Sc. 7, and Act iii,

Sc. 4.

3 A fierce cause is a cause conducted with precipitation. Fierce wretchedness in Timon of Athens is hasty, sudden misery.

46 the vile prison of afflicted breath' is the body; the same vile prison in which the breath is confined.

VOL. IV.

LL

Const. Lo, now! now see the issue of your peace!
K. Phi. Patience, good lady! comfort, gentle
Constance!

Const. No, I defy 5 all counsel, all redress,
But that which ends all counsel, true redress,
Death, death:-O amiable lovely death!
Thou odoriferous stench! sound rottenness!
Arise forth from the couch of lasting night,
Thou hate and terror to prosperity,
And I will kiss thy détestable bones;
And put my eyeballs in thy vaulty brows;
And ring these fingers with thy household worms;
And stop
this of breath with fulsome dust,
gap

6

And be a carrion monster like thyself:

Come, grin on me; and I will think thou smil'st,
And buss thee as thy wife! Misery's love,
O, come to me!

K. Phi.

O fair affliction, peace. Const. No, no, I will not, having breath to cry:~ O, that my tongue were in the thunder's mouth! Then with a passion would I shake the world; And rouse from sleep that fell anatomy, Which cannot hear a lady's feeble voice, Which scorns a modern invocation.

Pand. Lady, you utter madness, and not sorrow.
Const. Thou art not holy to belie me so;
I am not mad: this hair I tear is mine;
My name is Constance: I was Geffrey's wife;
Young Arthur is my son, and he is lost:
I am not mad:-I would to heaven, I were!
For then, 'tis like I should forget myself:
O, if I could, what grief should I forget!—
Preach some philosophy to make me mad,

5 To defy formerly signified to refuse, to reject.
'I do defy thy commiseration.'-Romeo and Juliet.
6 i. e. this mouth.
7 i. e. common.