Within me is a hell; and there the poison Enter the Bastard. BAST. O, I am scalded with my violent motion, And spleen of speed to fee your majesty. K. JOHN. O coufin, thou art come to fet mine eye: The tackle of my heart is crack'd and burn'd; BAST. The Dauphin is preparing hitherward; Where, heaven he knows, how we fhall answer him: For, in a night, the best part of my power, 4 And all the fhrouds,] Shakspeare here ufes the word Shrouds in its true fenfe. The frouds are the great ropes, which come from each fide of the maft. In modern poetry the word frequently fignifies the fails of a fhip. MALONE. This latter ufage of the word-shrouds, has hitherto escaped my notice. STEEVENS. 5 And module of confounded royalty.] Module and model, it has been already obferved, were in our author's time only different modes of fpelling the fame word. Model fignified not an archetype after which fomething was to be formed, but the thing formed after an archetype; and hence it is ufed by Shakspeare and his contemporaries for a reprefentation. So, in The London Prodigal, 1605: "Dear copy of my husband! O let me kifs thee! "How like him is this model?" See Vol. VI. p. 321, n. 5. MALONE. [Kiffing a picture. As I upon advantage did remove, Devoured by the unexpected flood." [The King dies. ear. My liege! my lord!-But now a king,-now thus. P. HEN. Even fo muft I run on, and even so stop. What furety of the world, what hope, what stay, When this was now a king, and now is clay! BAST. Art thou gone fo? I do but stay behind, To do the office for thee of revenge; And then my foul fhall wait on thee to heaven, Now, now, you stars, that move in your right spheres, Where be your powers? Show now your mended faiths; And instantly return with me again, To push deftruction, and perpetual shame, SAL. It feems, you know not then so much as we: BAST. He will the rather do it, when he fees Ourselves well finewed to our defence. 6 Were in the washes, all unwarily, &c.] This untoward accident really happened to King John himself. As he passed from Lynn to Lincolnshire, he loft by an inundation all his treasure, carriages, baggage, and regalia. MALONE. SAL. Nay, it is in a manner done already; With whom yourself, myself, and other lords, BAST. Let it be fo:-And you, my noble prince, With other princes that may best be fpar'd, Shall wait upon your father's funeral. P. HEN. At Worcester muft his body be interr'd; For fo he will'd it. BAST. Thither fhall it then. SAL. And the like tender of our love we make, To reft without a fpot for evermore. P. HEN. I have a kind foul, that would give you' thanks, And knows not how to do it, but with tears. BAST. O, let us pay the time but needful woe," Since it hath been beforehand with our griefs. 7 that would give you-] You, which is not in the old copy, was added for the fake of the metre, by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. 8 let us pay the time but needful woe, Since it hath been beforehand with our griefs.] Let us now indulge in forrow, fince there is abundant caufe for it. England has been long in a fcene of confufion, and its calamities have anticipated our tears. By thofe which we now shed, we only pay her what is her due. MALONE. I believe the plain meaning of the paffage is this:-As previously we have found fufficient caufe for lamentation, let us not waste the This England never did, (nor never shall,) And we shall shock them: Nought shall make us rue, If England to itself do reft but true.' [Exeunt. 9 If England to itself do reft but true.] This fentiment feems borrowed from the conclufion of the old play : "If England's peers and people join in one, "Nor pope, nor France, nor Spain, can do them wrong." Again, in K. Henry VI. Part III : 66 of itself England is fafe, if true within itself." STEEVENS. Shakspeare's conclufion feems rather to have been borrowed from thefe two lines of the old play: "Let England live but true within itself, "And all the world can never wrong her ftate." MALONE. *Brother, brother, we may be both in the wrong;" this fentiment might originate from A Difcourfe of Rebellion, drawne forth for to warne the wanton Wittes how to kepe their Heads on their Shoulders, by T. Churchyard, 12mo. 1570: "O Britayne bloud, marke this at my defire- STEEVENS. The tragedy of King John, though not written with the utmost power of Shakspeare, is varied with a very pleafing interchange of incidents and characters. The lady's grief is very affecting; and the character of the Bastard contains that mixture of greatnefs and levity which this author delighted to exhibit. JOHNSON. |