170

An echo with the clamour of thy drum,
And even at hand a drum is ready braced
That shall reverberate all as loud as thine;
Sound but another, and another shall
As loud as thine rattle the welkin's ear
And mock the deep-mouth'd thunder: for at hand,
Not trusting to this halting legate here,

Whom he hath used rather for sport than need, 175

Is warlike John; and in his forehead sits

A bare-ribb'd death, whose office is this day
To feast upon whole thousands of the French.

Lew. Strike up your drums, to find this danger out.

Bast. And thou shalt find it, Dauphin, do not doubt. 180

SCENE III.-The field of battle.

[Exeunt.

Alarums. Enter KING JOHN and HUBERT.

K. John. How goes the day with us? O, tell me, Hubert.
Hub. Badly, I fear. How fares your majesty?

K. John. This fever, that hath troubled me so long,
Lies heavy on me; O, my heart is sick!

Enter a Messenger.

Mess. My lord, your valiant kinsman, Faulconbridge,
Desires your majesty to leave the field

And send him word by me which way you go.

170. all as] Pope; all, as Ff.

169. ready braced] ready tightened up for playing. The leathern sliding loops which are used for tightening the membranes of military or sidedrums are called "braces."

173. deep-mouth'd] deep-voiced.

5

"Be

Compare 1 Henry VI. II. iv. 12:
tween two dogs which hath the
deeper mouth."

177. A bare-ribb'd death] Compare this image with that used by the Bastard in II. i. 352.

K. John. Tell him, toward Swinstead, to the abbey there.

Mess. Be of good comfort; for the great supply

That was expected by the Dauphin here, Are wrack'd three nights ago on Goodwin Sands. This news was brought to Richard but even now: The French fight coldly, and retire themselves. K. John. Ay me! this tyrant fever burns me up, And will not let me welcome this good news. Set on toward Swinstead: to my litter straight; Weakness possesseth me, and I am faint.

SCENE IV.-Another part of the field.

ΙΟ

15

[Exeunt.

Enter SALISBURY, PEMBROKE, and BIGOT.

Sal. I did not think the king so stored with friends.
Pem. Up once again; put spirit in the French:

If they miscarry, we miscarry too.

Sal. That misbegotten devil, Faulconbridge,

In spite of spite, alone upholds the day.

Pem. They say King John sore sick hath left the field.

14. Ay me] Aye me Ff; Ah me Pope.

Scene IV.

5

2, 3. French: . . . miscarry,] Rowe; French, . . . miscarry, Ff 3, 4; French, miscarry; Ff 1, 2.

...

11. Are] Capell printed Was and Lettsom supposes a lost line; but

46

supply" here is treated as plural, as again in v. v. 12 infra.

Scene IV.

5. In spite of spite] against all odds. Compare 3 Henry VI. II. iii. 5: "And spite of spite needs must I rest awhile."

Enter MELUN, wounded.

Mel. Lead me to the revolts of England here.
Sal. When we were happy we had other names.
Pem. It is the Count Melun.

Sal.

Wounded to death.

Mel. Fly, noble English, you are bought and sold;
Unthread the rude eye of rebellion

And welcome home again discarded faith.
Seek out King John and fall before his feet;
For if the French be lords of this loud day,
He means to recompense the pains you take
By cutting off your heads: thus hath he sworn
And I with him, and many moe with me,
Upon the altar at Saint Edmundsbury;
Even on that altar where we swore to you
Dear amity and everlasting love.

Sal. May this be possible? may this be true?
Mel. Have I not hideous death within my view,

Retaining but a quantity of life,

7. revolts] the revolted nobles, as in v. ii. 151 supra.

...

II. Unthread rebellion] Mr. Wright has conclusively proved in the Clarendon Press edition that the long series of emendations succeeding Theobald's rejection of the Folios' reading as too homely are quite unnecessary. Compare Richard II. v. v. 17:

"It is as hard to come as for a camel

To thread the postern of a small needle's eye"; and Coriolanus, III. i. 124: "They would not thread the gates.'

14, 15. For if the French, etc.] "He" comes in too abruptly, but

ΙΟ

15

20

its correctness is proved by the next lines. We must therefore suspect line 14. Mr. Wright suggests that "French" is singular, as in Henry V. IV. iv. 80: "The French might have a good prey of us if he knew it." This necessitates reading "lord” for "lords," and, unless we accept the conjecture made independently by Sidney Walker and Keightley that a line has been lost between 14 and 15, it seems the only way out of the difficulty.

17. moe] Anglo-Saxon má. This form often occurs in place of "more." 23. quantity] small portion. So Taming of the Shrew, Iv. iii. 112: "Thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant."

Which bleeds away, even as a form of wax

Resolveth from his figure 'gainst the fire?

25

What in the world should make me now deceive,

Since I must lose the use of all deceit ?

Why should I then be false, since it is true

That I must die here and live hence by truth?

I say again, if Lewis do win the day,

30

He is forsworn if e'er those eyes of yours

Behold another day break in the east:

But even this night, whose black contagious breath
Already smokes about the burning crest

Of the old, feeble and day-wearied sun,

35

Even this ill night, your breathing shall expire,
Paying the fine of rated treachery

Even with a treacherous fine of all your lives,
If Lewis by your assistance win the day.
Commend me to one Hubert with your king:
The love of him, and this respect besides,
For that my grandsire was an Englishman,
Awakes my conscience to confess all this.
In lieu whereof, I pray you, bear me hence
From forth the noise and rumour of the field,

40

45

30. do] omitted by Pope. 31. forsworn] I omit the comma of the Folios. 42. (For ... Englishman.)] Ff.

24, 25. even as a form of wax, etc.] It seems to have been a common practice to place waxen images of enemies before a fire in the belief that as the wax melted the person represented wasted away. Hence the simile, although not directly referring to the above practice, would be more familiar to an Elizabethan audience than to us.

34. crest] The anonymous suggestion of “cresset" is most tempting.

37. rated] properly appreciated or recompensed.

37, 38. fine. fine] A play upon the meanings of "penalty and "end." Compare Hamlet, v. i. 115: "Is this the fine of his fines?"

41. respect] consideration. Com

25. Resolveth] almost=dissolveth. pare III. i. 318 supra.

Where I may think the remnant of my thoughts
In peace, and part this body and my soul
With contemplation and devout desires.

Sal. We do believe thee; and beshrew my soul
But I do love the favour and the form
Of this most fair occasion, by the which
We will untread the steps of damned flight,
And like a bated and retired flood,

Leaving our rankness and irregular course,

50

Stoop low within those bounds we have o'erlook'd, 55
And calmly run on in obedience

Even to our ocean, to our great King John.

My arm shall give thee help to bear thee hence;

For I do see the cruel pangs of death

Right in thine eye.

flight;

And happy newness,

53. retired] retiring Hanmer.

Away, my friends! New

that intends old right.

49. beshrew] "a mild form of imprecation (Dyce-Littledale). So Twelfth Night, IV. i. 62: "Beshrew his soul for me"; and see v. v. 14 infra.

54. rankness] Capell conjectures "bankless ; but "rankness in the sense of immoderate growth or pressing beyond bounds is supported by many passages in the other plays, and this special use is found in Venus and Adonis, 71: "Rain added to a river that is rank." Compare also E.E. Psalter (1300): "He turned into blood the stremes ranke."

55. we have o'erlook'd] Compare Hamlet, IV. V. 99: "The ocean, overpeering of his list."

60. Right in thine eye] Vaughan, withdrawing his conjecture of "Brighten thine eye," would retain

60

[Exeunt, leading off Melun. 59. pangs] fangs Heath.

the reading of the Folios, and so
would Schmidt. Still it has perhaps
a sufficiently suspicious look to justify
the various emendations and sug-
gestions-" Right in thine eyes,"
Pope; "Pight in thine eyes," Han-
mer; 66
Pight in thine eye," Warbur-
ton; "Fight in thine eye," Capell;
'Bright in thine eye," Collier, ed. 2
(Collier MS.); “Fright in thine eye,"
Anon. (ap. Collier conj.); "Riot in
thine eye," Brae (conj.); "Writhing
thine eye," Elze (conj. Athen. 1867);
"Light on thine eye," Moberly(conj.).

60. New flight] Pope, in defiance of the final couplet, read " And fly!" and omitted the next line.

61. And happy newness ... right] happy be the new course which we take to establish the right we had forsaken.