And fright him there? and make him tremble there?
O, let it not be said: forage, and run

To meet displeasure farther from the doors,

And grapple with him ere he come so nigh.

K. John. The legate of the pope hath been with me,
And I have made a happy peace with him;
And he hath promised to dismiss the powers
Led by the Dauphin.

Bast.

O inglorious league!
Shall we, upon the footing of our land,
Send fair-play orders and make compromise,
Insinuation, parley and base truce

To arms invasive? shall a beardless boy,

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65

A cocker'd silken wanton, brave our fields,

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And flesh his spirit in a warlike soil,
Mocking the air with colours idly spread,
And find no check? Let us, my liege, to arms:
Perchance the cardinal cannot make your peace;

67. compromise] comprimise Ff. Ff 3, 4.

59. forage] range abroad, or, perhaps, seize supplies by force. Compare Edward III. Iv. iii. 81: "And forage their country as they have done ours." Shakespeare uses the word several times. Compare Henry V. I. ii. 110:"Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp Forage in blood." Cotgrave has " Fourrager: .. to forrage,... to ransack, ravage, boot hale it."

66-69. Shall we invasive?] shall we, with our feet upon our own soil, make overtures of peace to invading forces?

66

72. idly] idlely Ff 1, 2; idely

70. cocker'd... wanton] Very common in Elizabethan English. Cotgrave throws light on this expression -"To cocker: mignarder"; 'Mignarder to lull, feddle, dandle, cherish, wantonnize, make much or make a wanton of." Compare Gosson's Schoole of Abuse (Arber): "They are cockered continually in those islandes, where they see nothing but Foxes, and Hares, wil never be persuaded that there are huger beastes."

71. flesh] to make an animal savage by foretaste of flesh. Compare Hakluyt (1577), ed. Maclehose, x. 498: "The tigers being fleshed on those dead carkeisse,"

Or if he do, let it at least be said

They saw we had a purpose of defence.
K. John. Have thou the ordering of this present time.
Bast. Away, then, with good courage! yet, I know,

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Our party may well meet a prouder foe. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.-The Dauphin's camp at St. Edmundsbury. Enter, in arms, LEWIS, SALISBURY, MELUN, PEMBROKE, BIGOT, and Soldiers.

Lew. My Lord Melun, let this be copied out,

And keep it safe for our remembrance:
Return the precedent to these lords again;
That, having our fair order written down,
Both they and we, perusing o'er these notes,
May know wherefore we took the sacrament
And keep our faiths firm and inviolable.
Sal. Upon our sides it never shall be broken.
And, noble Dauphin, albeit we swear

A voluntary zeal and an unurged faith
To your proceedings; yet believe me, prince,
I am not glad that such a sore of time

5

ΙΟ

prouder I am confident that our party could beat a stronger foe.”

3. precedent] Johnson; president Ff. 78, 79. Away, then, foe] We can hardly agree with Johnson that the Bastard is here showing the white feather by meaning "Yet I so well know the faintness of our party, that I think it may easily happen that they shall encounter enemies who have more spirit than themselves." Quite the contrary meaning is more in keeping with the Bastard's character and with the continual appeal to English patriotism in the play-" Even now

Scene II.

1. this] the compact with the English lords. As an actual document it is evidently the same as the "precedent," the original draft which was to be returned to the Englishmen, while "it" in line 2 must have meant the copy that Philip ordered to be made,

Should seek a plaster by contemn'd revolt,
And heal the inveterate canker of one wound
By making many. O, it grieves my soul,
That I must draw this metal from my side
To be a widow-maker! O, and there

Where honourable rescue and defence
Cries out upon the name of Salisbury!
But such is the infection of the time,

That, for the health and physic of our right,
We cannot deal but with the very hand
Of stern injustice and confused wrong.
And is 't not pity, O my grieved friends,
That we, the sons and children of this isle,
Were born to see so sad an hour as this;
Wherein we step after a stranger, march
Upon her gentle bosom, and fill up

Her enemies' ranks,-I must withdraw and weep
Upon the spot of this enforced cause,-

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20

25

30

To grace the gentry of a land remote,

27. stranger, march] Ff; stranger

16. metal] Rowe (ed. 2); mettle Ff. march Theobald; stranger's march Long MS.; stranger monarch Herr conj.

"And cried, in fainting, upon Rosalind." I incline to the second interpretation, because it has more connection with what goes before. "It grieves my soul to draw my sword in order to become a widow maker, and that among those whom I ought to rescue and protect.'

27. stranger, march] Theobald and some others would omit the comma after "stranger," thus making it an adjective = foreign, and qualifying "march" = martial music.

30. spot] stain, dishonour. I must withdraw and weep over this dishonour into which I am forced.

And follow unacquainted colours here?

What, here? O nation, that thou couldst remove!

That Neptune's arms, who clippeth thee about,

Would bear thee from the knowledge of thyself, 35.

And grapple thee unto a pagan shore;

Where these two Christian armies might combine
The blood of malice in a vein of league,
And not to spend it so unneighbourly!
Lew. A noble temper dost thou show in this;
And great affections wrestling in thy bosom
Doth make an earthquake of nobility.
O, what a noble combat hast thou fought
Between compulsion and a brave respect!
Let me wipe off this honourable dew,
That silverly doth progress on thy cheeks:
My heart hath melted at a lady's tears,
Being an ordinary inundation;

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45

But this effusion of such manly drops,

This shower, blown up by tempest of the soul,
Startles mine eyes, and makes me more amazed
Than had I seen the vaulty top of heaven
Figured quite o'er with burning meteors.

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36. grapple] Pope; cripple Ff; gripple Steevens conj.; couple Gould conj. 43. thou] omitted in Ff 1, 2, 3.

Lift up thy brow, renowned Salisbury,

And with a great heart heave away this storm: 55
Commend these waters to those baby eyes

That never saw the giant world enraged;
Nor met with fortune other than at feasts,

Full of warm blood, of mirth, of gossiping.

Come, come; for thou shalt thrust thy hand as deep 60
Into the purse of rich prosperity

As Lewis himself: so, nobles, shall you all,

That knit your sinews to the strength of mine.
And even there, methinks, an angel spake:

Enter PANDulph.

Look, where the holy legate comes apace,

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To give us warrant from the hand of heaven,
And on our actions set the name of right
With holy breath.

Pand.

Hail, noble prince of France!

The next is this, King John hath reconciled
Himself to Rome; his spirit is come in,

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56. waters] F 1; warres F 2; warrs F 3; wars F 4. 59. Full of warm] Cambridge ed. (Heath conj.); Full warm of Ff.