And for amends to his pofterity, At our importance hither is he come, To spread his colours, boy, in thy behalf; Of thy unnatural uncle, English John. Embrace him, love him, give him welcome hither. Conft. O, take his mother's thanks, a widow's thanks, Till your strong hand fhall help to give him ftrength, To make a more requital to your love. Auft. The peace of heav'n is theirs, who lift their fwords In fuch a juft and charitable war. made pfoner by the Duke of Auftria, but was released for an exorbitant ransome, and was afterwards killed with a crofs-bow, before the caftle of Chalons. At my importance.] At my importunity. 9 That pale, that white fac'd hore.] England is fuppofed to be called Albion from the white rocks facing France. Ee K. Philip. K. Philp. Well then, to work; our engines fhaN be bent Against the brows of this refifting town; Conft. Stay for an anfwer to your Embassie, * Enter Chatillon. K. Philip. A wonder, lady!-Lo, upon thy with Our meffenger Chatillon is arrived. -What England fays, fay briefly, gentle lord, Chatillon, fpeak. Chat. Then turn your forces from this paultry fiege, And stir them up against a mightier task. England, impatient of your just demands, Hath put himself in arms; the adverse winds, His marches are 'expedient to this town, * A wonder, lady.] The wonder is only that Chatillon happened to arrive at the moment when Conftance mentioned him, which the French king, according to a fuperftition which pre vails more or lefs in every mind agitated by great affairs, turns into a miraculous interpofition, or omen of good. Expedient.] Immediate, expeditious. And And all th' unfettled humours of the land; With ladies' faces, and fierce dragons' fpleens, In brief, a braver choice of dauntless fpirits, To do offence and 3 fcathe in chriftendom. K. Philip. How much unlook'd for is this expe dition! Auft. By how much unexpected, by fo much For courage mounteth with occafion : SCENE II. Enter King of England, Faulconbridge, Elinor, Blanch, Pembroke, and others. K. John. Peace be to France, if France in peace permit Our juft and lineal entrance to our own; If not, bleed France, and peace afcend to heav'n. 2 Bearing their birth-rights, &c.] So in Henry VIII. Many broke their backs With bearing manors on them. Ee 2 That That thou hast under-wrought its lawful King; To draw my answer to thy articles ? K. Philip. From that fupernal judge, that stirs good thoughts In any breast of strong authority, To look into the blots and ftains of right. K. John. Alack, thou doft ufurp authority. To look into the blots and fains of right.] Mr. Theobald reads, with the first folin, blots, which being fo early authorifed, and fo much better understood, needed not to have been changed by Dr. Warburton to bolts, tho' bolts might be used in that time for Spots: fo Shakespeare calls Banquo fpotted with blood, the bloodbolter'd Banquo. The verb to blot is ufed figuratively for to dif grace, a few lines lower. And, perhaps, after all, boks was only a typographical mistake. Conft. Conft. My bed was ever to thy fon as true, Than thou and John, in manners being as like It cannot be, an if thou wert his mother. Eli. There's a good mother, boy, that blots thy father. Conft. There's a good grandam, boy, that would 'blot thee. Auft. Peace. Faulc. Here the crier. Auft. What the devil art thou? Faulc. One that will play the devil, Sir, with you, Blanch. O, well did he become that Lion's robe, 5 It lies as lightly on the back of him, As great Alcides' Shoes upon an Afs.] But why his Shoes, in the Name of Propriety? For let Hercules and his Shoes have been really as big as they were ever fuppofed to be, yet they (I mean the Shoes) would not have been an Overload for an Afs. I am perfuaded, I have retrieved the true Reading; and let us obferve the Juftnefs of the Comparison now. Faulconbridge in his Refentment would say this to Auf tria, "That Lion's Skin, which |