Id. c. 2. l. 7. From over-credulous haste:] From over-hasty credulity.

Id. 1.31.

convinces-] i. e. overpowers, sub

dues. Id. l. 44. The mere despair of surgery, he.cures ;] Dr. Percy, in his notes on The Northumberland Houshold Book, says, "that our ancient kings, even in those dark times of superstition, do not seem to have affected the 'cure of the king's evil. This miraculous gift was left to be claimed by the Stuarts: our ancient Plantagenets werehumbly content to cure the cramp." In this assertion, however, the learned editor of the above curious volume has been betrayed into a mistake, by relying too implicitly on the authority of Mr. Anstis. The power of curing the king's evil was claimed by many of the Plantagenets.

Id. 1. 45. --a golden stamp, &c.] This was the coin called an angel, of the value of ten shillings.

Id. 1. 54. My countryman; but yet I know him not.] Malcolm discovers Rosse to be his countryman, while he is yet at some distance from him, by his dress. This circumstance loses its propriety on our stage, as all the characters are uniformly represented in English habits.

STEEVENS.

P. 395, c. 1, l. 24. should not latch them.] To latch any thing, is to lay hold of it. Id. 1. 26. -fee-grief, A peculiar sorrow; a grief that hath a single owner. The expression is, at least to our ears, very harsh. It must be allowed that, in both the foregoing instances, the attorney has been guilty of a flat trespass on the poet.

Id. l. 41. Were, on the quarry of these murder'd deer.] Quarry is a term used both in hunting and falconry. In both sports it means the game after it is killed.

Id. 1. 59. At one fell swoop?] Swoop is the descent of a bird of prey on his quarry. Id. I. 76. Cut short all intermission;] i. e. all pause, all intervening time.

Id. I. 78.

- if he 'scape,

Heaven forgive him too!] That is, if he escape my vengeance, let him escape that of Heaven also

ACT V. SCENE 1.

Id. c. 2, 1. 14. Since his majesty went into the field,] This is one of Shakspeare's oversights. He forgot that he had shut up Macbeth in Dunsinane, and surrounded him with besiegers. Id. l. 37. 66 are shut." MALONE. Id. l. 48. Hell is murky!] Murky is dark. Lady Macbeth is acting over, in a dream, the business of the murder of Duncan, and encouraging her husband as when awake. She, therefore, would not have even hinted the terrors of hell to one whose conscience she saw was too much alarmed already for her purpose. She certainly imagines herself here talking to Macbeth, who (she supposes) had just said, Hell is murky, (i. e. hell is a dismal place to go to in consequence of such a deed), and repeats his words in contempt of his cowardice.

Id. l. 65. “All mortal consequences have pronounced," &.-MALONE. Id. 1. 67. "upon thee.”—MALONE. Id. l. 70. Shall never sagg with doubt,] To sag, or swag, is to sink down by its own weight, or by an overload.

Id. 1. 72. loon] At present this word is only used in Scotland, and signifies a base fellow. Id. c. 2, l. 9. I have liv'd long enough: my way of life, &c.] As there is no relation between the way of life, and fallen into the sear, I am inclined to think that the W is only an M inverted, and that it was originally written: my May of life.

I am now passed from the spring to the autumn of my days: but I am without those comforts that should succeed the sprightliness of bloom, and support me in this melancholy season.

The author has May in the same sense elsewhere. JOHNSON.

This opinion, however, has been ably controverted by some of the commentators. Jd. l. 10. the sear,] Sear is dry. Id. l. 26. skirr the country round;] To skirr, signifies to scour, to ride hastily. Id. 1. 46.

cast

The water of my land,] To cast the water was the phrase in use for finding out disorders by the inspection of urine.

The following Songs are found in Sir William D'Avenant's alteration of this play, printed in 1674 The first and second of them were, I believe, written by him, being introduced at the end of the second Act, in a scene of which he undoubtedly was the author. Of the other song, which is sung in the third Act, the first words (Come away) are in the original copy of Macbeth, and the whole is found at length in Middleton's play, entitled The Witch, which has been lately printed from a manuscript in the collection of Major Pearson. Whether this song was written by Shakspeare, and omitted, like many others, in the printed copy, cannot now be ascertained. MALONE.

Let's have a dance upon the heath;
We gain more life by Duncan's death.
Sometimes like brinded cats we shew,
Having no music but our mew.
Sometimes we dance in some old mill,
Upon the hopper, stones, and wheel,
To some old saw, or bardish rhyme,
Where still the mill-clack does keep time:
Sometimes about an hollow tree,
Around, around, around dance we :
Thither the chirping cricket comes,
And beetle, singing drowsy hums:
Sometimes we dance o'er fens and furze,
To howls of wolves, and barks of curs :
And when with none of those we meet,
We dance to the echoes of our feet.

At the night-raven's dismal voice,
Whilst others tremble, we rejoice;
And nimbly, nimbly dance we stil,

To the echoes from an hollow hill. [Exeunt
ACT III.

SCENE V. HECATE and the three WITCHES.
MUSIC AND SONG.

[Within.] Hecate, Hecate, Hecate! 0 come

away! Hec. Hark, I am call'd, my little spirit, see, Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me. [Within.] Come away, Hecate, Hecate! 0 come away! Hec. I come, I come, with all the speed I may, With all the speed I may. Where's Stadling? 2. Here; [within.] Hec. Where's Puckle? 3. Here; [within.]

And Hopper too, and Helway too?
We want but you, we want but you:
Come away, make up the count.

Hec. I will but 'noint, and then I mount:
I will but noint, &c.

[Within.] Here comes down one to fetch his dues,
[Amachine with Malkin in it, descends.

A kiss, a coll, a sip of blood;
And why thou stay'st so long, I muse,
Since the air's so sweet and good.

Hec. O, art thou come? What news? [Within.] All goes fair for our delight: Either come, or else refuse.

Hec. Now I'm furnish'd for the flight;
[Hecate places herself in the machine.
Now I go, and now I fly,
Malkin, my sweet spirit, and I
O, what a dainty pleasure's this,
To sail i'the air,

While the moon shines fair;

To sing, to toy, to dance, and kiss Over woods, high rocks, and mountains Over hills and misty fountains; Over steeples, towers, and turrets We fly by night 'mongst troops of spirits. No ring of bells to our ears sounds, No howls of wolves, nor yelps of hounds; No, not the noise of waters breach, Nor cannons' throat our height can reach. [Hecate ascends. 1 Witch. Come, let's make haste; she'll soon be back again.

2 Witch. But whilst she moves through the foggy air,

Let's to the cave, and our dire charms prepare

Exeunt.

The troublesome Reign of King John was written in two parts, by W. Shakspeare and W. Rowley, and printed 1611. But the present play is entirely different, and infinitely superior to it. POPE.

The edition of 1611 has no mention of Rowley, nor in the account of Rowley's works is any mention made of his conjunction with Shakspeare in any play. King John was reprinted in two parts, in 1622. The first edition that I have found of this play, in its present form, is that of 1623, in folio. The edition of 1591 I have not seen. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnson mistakes, when he says there is no mention, in Rowley's works, of any conjunction with Shakspeare. The Birth of Merlin is ascribed to them jointly, though I cannot believe Shakspeare had any thing to do with it. Mr. Capell is equally mistaken, when he says (Pref. p. 15.) that Rowley is called his partner in the title-page of The Merry Devil of Edmonton.

There must have been some tradition, however erroneous, upon which Mr. Pope's account was founded. I make no doubt that Rowley wrote the first King John; and when Shakspeare's play was called for, and could not be procured from the players, a piratical bookseller reprinted the old one, with W. Sh. in the title-page. FARMER.

The elder play of King John was first published in 1591. Shakspeare has preserved the greatest part of the conduct of it, as well as some of the lines. The number of quotations from Horace, and similar scraps of learning scattered over this motley piece, ascertain it to have been the work of a scholar. It contains likewise a quantity of rhyming Latin, and ballad metre; and in a scene where the Bastard

is represented as plundering a monastery, there are strokes of humour, which seem, from their particular turn, to have been most evidently produced by another hand than that of our author.

Of this historical drama there is a subsequent edition in 1611, printed for John Helme, whose name appears before none of the genuine pieces of Shakspeare. I admitted this play some years ago as our outhor's own, among the twenty which I published from the old editions; but a more careful perusal of it, and a further conviction of his custom of borrowing plots, sentiments, &c. disposes me to recede from that opinion. STEEVENS.

A play entitled The troublesome Raigne of John King of England, in two parts, was printed in 1591, without the writer's name. It was written, I believe, either by Robert Greene, or George Peele; and certainly preceded this of our author. Mr. Pope, who is very inaccurate in matters of this kind, says that the former was printed in 1611, as written by W. Shakspeare and W. Rowley. But this is not true. In the second edition of this old play, in 1611, the letters W. Sh. were put into the title-page, to deceive the purchaser and to lead him to suppose the piece was Shakspeare's play, which, at that time, was not published. Our author's King John was written, I imagine, in 1596. MALONE.

Though this play have the title of The Life and Death of King John, yet the action of it begins at the thirty-fourth year of his life, and takes in only some transactions of his reign to the time of his demise, being an interval of about seventeen years. THEOBALD.

Hall, Holinshed, Stowe, &c. are closely followed, not only in the conduct, but sometimes

in the very expressions, throughout the following historical dramas, viz. Macbeth, this play, Richard II. Henry IV. two parts, Henry V. Henry VI. three parts, Richard III. and Henry VIII.

"A booke called The Historie of Lord Faulconbridge, bastard son to Richard Cordelion," was entered at Stationers' Hall, Nov. 29, 1614; but I have never met with it, and therefore know not whether it was the old black letter history, or a play upon the same subject. For the original King John, see Six old Plays on which Shakspeare founded, &c. published by S. Leacroft, Charing-cross. STEEVENS. The Historie of Lord Faulconbridge, &c. is

a prose narrative in bl. 1. The earliest edition that I have seen of it was printed in 1616. But by an entry on the Stationers' Registers, 99th Nov. 1614, it appears that there had been an old edition of the tract, entitled, The Historie of George W. Faulconbridge, the son of Richard Cordelion, and that the copy had been assigned by (William) Barley to Thomas Beale.

A book entitled Richard Cur de Lion, was entered on the Stationers' Books in 1558.

A play, called The Funeral of Richard Car delion, was written by Robert Wilson, Henry Chettle, Anthony Mundy, and Michael Drayton, and first exhibited in the year 1598. MALONE

KING JOHN.

PRINCE HENRY, his Son; afterwards King Henry III.
ARTHUR, Duke of Bretagne, Son of Geffrey, lute Duke
of Bretagne, the elder Brother of King John.
WILLIAM MARESHALL, Earl of Pembroke.
GEFFREY FITZ-PETER, Earl of Essex, Chief Justici-
ary of England.

WILLIAM LONGSWORD, Earl of Salisbury.
ROBERT BIGOT, Earl of Norfolk.

HUBERT DE BURGH, Chamberlain to the King.
ROBEPT FAULCONBRIDGE, Son of Sir Robert Faul-

conbridge.

ACT I.

SCENE 1.-Northampton. A Room of State in the Palace.

Enter King JOHN, Queen ELINOR, PEMBROKE, ESSEX, SALISBURY, and others, with CHATILLON. King John. Now, say, Chatillon, what would France with us?

In

Chat. Thus, after greeting, speaks the king of France,

my behaviour, to the majesty, The borrow'd majesty of England here.

Eli. A strange beginning;-borrow'd majesty!
K. John. Silence, good mother; hear the embassy.
Chat. Philip of France, in right and true behalf
Of thy deceased brother Geffrey's son,
Arthur Plantagenet, lays most lawful claim
To this fair island, and the territories;

To Ireland, Poictiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine:
Desiring thee to lay aside the sword,
Which sways usurpingly these several titles;
And put the same into young Arthur's hand,
Thy nephew, and right royal sovereign.

K. John. What follows, if we disallow of this? Chat. The proud control of fierce and bloody war, To enforce these rights, so forcibly withheld.

K. John. Here have we war for war, and blood

peace:

Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France;
For ere thou canst report I will be there,
The thunder of my cannon shall be heard:
So, hence! Be thou the trumpet of our wrath,
And sullen presage of your own decay.—

An honourable conduct let him have:
Pembroke, look to't: Farewell, Chatillon.

[Exeunt Chatillon and Pembroke.
Eli. What now, my son? have I not ever said
How that ambitious Constance would not cease,
Till she had kindled France, and all the world,
Upon the right and party of her son?

This might have been prevented, and made whole,
With very easy arguments of love;

Which now the manage of two kingdoms must
With fearful bloody issue arbitrate.

[for us.

your right;

Or else it must go wrong with you, and me:

PHILIP, King of France.
LEWIS, the Dauphin.

ARCHDUKE OF AUSTRIA.

Johnson.

CARDINAL PANDULPH, the Pope's Legate.
MELUN, a French Lord.

CHATILLON, Ambassador from France to King John, ELINOR, the Widow of King Henry II, and Mother of King John.

CONSTANCE, Mother to Arthur.

BLANCH, Daughter to Alphonso, King of Castile, and Niece to King John.

LADY FAULCONBRIDGE, Mother to the Bastard and Robert Faulconbridge.

Lords, Ludies, Citizens of Angiers, Sheriff, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants. and sometimes in France.

So much my conscience whispers in your ear; Which none but heaven, and you, and I, shall hear. Enter the Sheriff of Northamptonshire, who whispers Essex.

Essex. My liege, here is the strangest controversy, Come from the country to be judg'd by you, That e'er I heard: shall I produce the men?

K. John. Let them approach.- [Exit Sheriff. Our abbies, and our priories, shall pay Re-enter Sheriff, with ROBERT FAULCONBRIdge, and PHILIP, his bastard Brother. This expedition's charge.-What men are you? Bast. Your faithful subject I, a gentleman, Born in Northamptonshire; and eldest son, As I suppose, to Robert Faulconbridge; A soldier, by the honour-giving hand Of Coeur-de-lion knighted in the field. K. John. What art thou?

[bridge.

Rob. The son and heir to that same FaulconK. John. Is that the elder, and art thou the heir? You came not of one mother then, it seems.

Bast. Most certain of one mother, mighty king, That is well known; and, as I think, one father: But, for the certain knowledge of that truth, I put you o'er to heaven, and to my mother: Of that I doubt, as all men's children may. Eli. Out on thee, rude man! thou dost shaine

thy mother,

And wound her honour with this diffidence.

Bast. I, madam? no, I have no reason for it; That is my brother's plea, and none of mine; The which if he can prove, 'a pops me out At least from fair five hundred pounds a-year: Heaven guard my mother's honour, and my land! K. John. A good blunt fellow:-Why, being younger born,

Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance?

Bast. I know not why, except to get the land. But once he slander'd me with bastardy: But whe'r I be as true begot, or no, That still I lay upon my mother's head; But that I am as well begot, my liege, (Fair fall the bones that took the pains for me!) Compare our faces, and be judge yourself. If old sir Robert did beget us both, And were our father, and this son like him;O old sir Robert, father, on my knee

I give heaven thanks, I was not like to thee. K. John. Why, what a madcap hath beaven leut us here!

Eli. He hath a trick of Coeur-de-lion's face, The accent of his tongue aflecteth him: