Then let confusion of one part confirm

The other's peace; till then, blows, blood, and

death!

360

K. John. Whose party do the townsmen yet admit?
K. Phi. Speak, citizens, for England; who's your king?
First Cit. The king of England, when we know the king.
K. Phi. Know him in us, that here hold up his right.
K. John. In us, that are our own great deputy,

And bear possession of our person here,

Lord of our presence, Angiers, and of you.

First Cit. A greater power than we denies all this;
And till it be undoubted, we do lock

365

Our former scruple in our strong-barr'd gates; 370
King'd of our fears, until our fears, resolved,

Be by some certain king purged and deposed. Bast. By heaven, these scroyles of Angiers flout you, kings,

And stand securely on their battlements,

375

As in a theatre, whence they gape and point At your industrious scenes and acts of death. 362. who's] Ff 2, 3, 4; whose F 1. 367. Lord of our presence] See 1. i. 137 supra. Vaughan's explanation of the use in Act I. would not hold here. Mr. Wright says "presence" here means "personal dignity"; but it seems difficult to think that John means "I am here master of my personal dignity, of Angiers, and of you." I should imagine "Lord of our presence" to mean "Lord of the title by which I am generally known, i.e. King of England, and also Lord of Angiers and of you."

367. of you] Ff 1, 4; if you Ff 2, 3. feare," and 3 and 4, Kings of our fear"-having our fears for king. Various other readings have been suggested, but none seem worth comparing with Tyrwhitt's suggestion.

371. King'd of our fears] So Rann, after a conjecture of Tyrwhitt's. Folios 1 and 2 read "Kings of our

373. scroyles] scabby fellows, a term of utmost contempt. Compare Cotgrave, "âme escrouellée, an infected traiterous or depraved spirit"; "Les escrouelles, the King's evil." Steevens quotes Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, 1. i.: "hang 'em scroyles."

376. At your . . . death] at the scenes and acts of death which you industriously perform. For the trans

Your royal presences be ruled by me:
Do like the mutines of Jerusalem,

Be friends awhile and both conjointly bend
Your sharpest deeds of malice on this town:

By east and west let France and England mount
Their battering cannon charged to the mouths,
Till their soul-fearing clamours have brawl'd down
The flinty ribs of this contemptuous city:
I'ld play incessantly upon these jades,
Even till unfenced desolation

Leave them as naked as the vulgar air.
That done, dissever your united strengths,
And part your mingled colours once again;
Turn face to face and bloody point to point;
Then, in a moment, Fortune shall cull forth
Out of one side her happy minion,

To whom in favour she shall give the day,
And kiss him with a glorious victory.

379. awhile] a-while Ff 1, 2; a while Ff 3, 4.
ference of adjective, compare line
304 supra. Capell reads "illustri-

ous."

378. mutines] Spedding needlessly conjectures mutiners. Compare Hamlet, v. ii. 6: "Methought I lay worse than the mutines in the bilboes." The reference is to the leaders of the factions in Jerusalem, John of Giscela and Simon bar Gioras, who stopped their internecine strife in order to fight against the Romans (see Josephus, Jewish Wars, bk. v. chs. 2 and 6). Since Josephus was not translated until 1602, Mr. Wright believes Shakespeare's source to have been Peter Morwyng's translation of the spurious narrative of Joseph ben Gorion.

380

385

390

383. soul-fearing] causing the soul to fear. Compare The Merchant of Venice, II. i. 9:

"I tell thee, lady, this aspect of mine

Hath fear'd the valiant." Compare Ralph Roister Doister, Induction (ed. Dent, p. 13, line 85): "We'll fear our children with him; if they be never so unruly do but cry, Ralph comes. and they'll be as quiet as lambs."

392. minion] Cotgrave has " Mignon: a minion, favourite, wanton, dilling, darling." Compare 1 Henry IV. I. i. 83: "Who is sweet Fortunes minion and her pride." Used often as a slighting term in Shakespeare.

How like you this wild counsel, mighty states? 395
Smacks it not something of the policy?

K. John. Now, by the sky that hangs above our heads,
I like it well. France, shall we knit our powers
And lay this Angiers even with the ground;
Then after fight who shall be king of it?

Bast. An if thou hast the mettle of a king,

400

Being wrong'd as we are by this peevish town,
Turn thou the mouth of thy artillery,

As we will ours, against these saucy walls;

404

And when that we have dash'd them to the ground,
Why then defy each other, and pell-mell

Make work upon ourselves, for heaven or hell. K. Phi. Let it be so. Say, where will you assault? K. John. We from the west will send destruction

Into this city's bosom.

Aust. I from the north.

K. Phi.

410

Our thunder from the south

Shall rain their drift of bullets on this town.

(Capell conj.).

66

Elizabethan plays the word denotes crafty dealings. Compare Middleton's Roaring Girl, ii. 2: By opposite policies, courses indirect"; ibid. iv. I: "I'll make her policy the art to trap her "; and Webster's Vittoria Corombona (ed. Dyce, p. 11, col. 2) :"So who knows policy and her true aspect,

Shall find her ways winding and indirect."

406. pell-mell] Cotgrave has " Peslemesle: pell-mell, confusedly, hand over head, all on a heap, one with another."

412. drift] the shower of bullets compared to snow driven by the wind.

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!

415

First Cit. Hear us, great kings: vouchsafe awhile to stay,
And I shall show you peace and fair-faced league;
Win you this city without stroke or wound;
Rescue those breathing lives to die in beds,
That here come sacrifices for the field:
Persever not, but hear me, mighty kings.

420

425

K. John. Speak on with favour; we are bent to hear.
First Cit. That daughter there of Spain, the Lady Blanch,
Is niece to England: look upon the years
Of Lewis the Dauphin and that lovely maid :
If lusty love should go in quest of beauty,
Where should he find it fairer than in Blanch?
If zealous love should go in search of virtue,
Where should he find it purer than in Blanch ?
If love ambitious sought a match of birth,
Whose veins bound richer blood than Lady Blanch?
Such as she is, in beauty, virtue, birth,

Is the young Dauphin every way complete:
If not complete of, say he is not she;

421. Persever] Ff 1, 2; Persevere Ff 3, 4. we] Speak on with favour, we Ff; Speak on; niece] So Singer, ed. 2 (Collier MS.); neere should] omitted in Ff 2, 3, 4.

418, 419. Win you Rescue] I shall win you I shall rescue. 422. Speak on .. to hear] we grant you leave to speak on; we are listening.

424. niece] The reading of the Folios is an obvious misprint. Compare Troublesome Raigne:

"The beauteous daughter of the King of Spaine,

430

422. Speak on with favour; with favour we Rowe. Ff 1, 2; neer Ff 3, 4.

424. 428.

Neece to K. Iohn, the lovely
Ladie Blanch.'

434. complete of] There seems to
be no other instance of the use of this
phrase, and several emendations have
been suggested. Hanmer, "If not
complete, oh say, he is not she "
Kinnear for "of" reads "so."
"So,'
with the long s, may have been
printed "os" and read as
"of."

And she again wants nothing, to name want,
If want it be not that she is not he:
He is the half part of a blessed man,
Left to be finished by such as she;
And she a fair divided excellence,

435

Whose fulness of perfection lies in him.

440

O, two such silver currents, when they join,

Do glorify the banks that bound them in;

And two such shores to two such streams made one
Two such controlling bounds shall you be, kings,
To these two princes, if you marry them.
This union shall do more than battery can

445

Bast.

To our fast-closed gates; for at this match,
With swifter spleen than powder can enforce,

The mouth of passage shall we fling wide ope,
And give you entrance: but without this match, 450
The sea enraged is not half so deaf,

Lions more confident, mountains and rocks

More free from motion, no, not Death himself

In mortal fury half so peremptory,

As we to keep this city.

438. such as she] Theobald reads, after a conjecture of Thurlby's, "such a she," a very probable reading.

447. match] A play upon the double meaning, the match between the Dauphin and Blanch, and the match to fire the mine. In the next line Pope reads "speed" for "spleen," while Becket conjectures "Swifter than powder can in spleen enforce." We must either take " spleen to mean "haste (see v. vii. 50 infra) or suspect the text, for it cannot here