BAST. By heaven, thefe fcroyles of Angiers flout you, kings;

And ftand fecurely on their battlements,
As in a theatre, whence they gape and point
At your industrious fcenes and acts of death.
Your royal presences be rul'd by me;

King'd of our fears;] i. e. our fears being our kings, or rulers. King'd is again ufed in King Richard II:

"Then I am king'd again:"

It is manifest that the paffage in the old copy is corrupt, and that it must have been fo worded, that their fears fhould be styled their kings or mafters, and not they, kings or mafters of their fears; because in the next line mention is made of these fears being depofed. Mr. Tyrwhitt's emendation produces this meaning by a very flight alteration, and is, therefore, I think, entitled to a place

in the text.

The following paffage in our author's Rape of Lucrece, strongly, in my opinion, confirms his conjecture:

"So fhall thefe flaves [Tarquin's unruly passions] be kings, and thou their flave."

Again, in King Lear:

"

-It feems, fhe was a queen

"Over her paffion, who, moft rebel-like,

"Sought to be king o'er her."

This paffage in the folio is given to King Philip, and in a subfequent part of this fcene, all the fpeeches of the citizens are given to Hubert; which I mention, because these, and innumerable other instances, where the fame crror has been committed in that edition, juftify fome licence in transferring fpeeches from one person to another. MALONE.

8 thefe fcroyles of Angiers-] Eferouelles, Fr. i, e. fcabby fcrophulous fellows.

Ben Jonfon uses the word in Every Man in his Humour:

"hang them fcroyles!" STEEVENS.

9 At your induftrious fcenes-] I once wished to read-illuftrious; but now I believe the text to be right. MALONE.

Your induftrious

The old reading is undoubtedly the true one. fcenes and acts of death, is the fame as if the speaker had faid→ laborious induftry of war. So, in Macbeth:

your

66

and put we on

Induftrious foldiership." STEEVENS.

Do like the mutines of Jerufalem,'

2 Do like the mutines of Jerufalem,] The mutines are the mu tireers, the feditious. So again, in Hamlet :

and lay

"Worfe than the mutines in the bilboes."

Our author had probably read the following paffages in A Compendious and most marvellous Hiftory of the latter times of the fewes Common-weale, c. Written in Hebrew, by Jofeph Ben Gorion,tranflated into English, by Peter Morwyn: "The fame yeere the civil warres grew and increased in Jerufalem; for the citizens flew one another without any truce, reft, or quietneffe.-The people were divided into three parties; whereof the firft and beft followed Anani, the high-prieft; another part followed feditious Jehochanan; the third moft cruel Schimeon.-Anani, being a perfect godly man, and seeing the common-weale of Jerufalem governed by the feditious, gave over his third part, that ftacke to him, to Eliafar, his fonne. Eliafar with his companie took the Temple, and the courts about it; appointing of his men, fome to bee fpyes, fome to keepe watche and warde.-But Jehochanan tooke the marketplace and ftreetes, the lower part of the citie. Then Schimeon, the Jerofolimite, tooke the highest part of the towne, wherefore his men annoyed Jehochanan's parte fore with flings and croffebowes. Betweene these three there was also most cruel battailes in Jerufalem for the fpace of four daies.

66 Titus' campe was about fixe furlongs from the towne. The next morrow they of the towne feeing Titus to be encamped upon the mount Olivet, the captaines of the feditious affembled together, and fell at argument, every man with another, intending to turne their cruelty upon the Romaines, confirming and ratifying the fame atonement and purpose, by fwearing one to another; and fo became peace amongst them. Wherefore joyning together, that before were three feverall parts, they fet open the gates, and all the best of them iffued out with an horrible noyfe and fhoute, that they made the Romaines afraide withall, in fuch wife that they fled before the feditious, which fodainly did fet uppon them unawares."

The book from which I have tranfcribed these paffages, was printed in 1602, but there was a former edition, as that before me is faid to be " newly corrected and amended by the tranflatour." From the fpelling and the ftyle, I imagine the firft edition of this book had appeared before 1580. This allufion is not found in the old play.

Since this note was written, I have met with an edition of the book which Shakspeare had here in his thoughts, printed in 1575. MALONE.

1

Be friends a while,' and both conjointly bend
Your sharpeft deeds of malice on this town:
By eaft and weft let France and England mount
Their battering cannon, charged to the mouths;
Till their foul-fearing clamours have brawl'd
down

The flinty ribs of this contemptuous city:
I'd play inceffantly upon thefe jades,
Even till unfenced defolation

Leave them as naked as the vulgar air.
That done, diffever your united ftrengths,
And part your mingled colours once again;
Turn face to face, and bloody point to point:
Then,in a moment, fortune fhall cull forth
Out of one fide her happy minion;

To whom in favour fhe fhall give the day,
And kiss him with a glorious victory.
How like you this wild counfel, mighty ftates?
Smacks it not fomething of the policy?

K. JOHN. Now, by the fky that hangs above our

heads,

I like it well;-France, fhall we knit our powers,
And lay this Angiers even with the ground;
Then, after, fight who fhall be king of it?

BAST. An if thou haft the mettle of a king,-
Being wrong'd, as we are, by this peevish town,-
Turn thou the mouth of thy artillery,

As we will ours, against these faucy walls:
And when that we have dafh'd them to the ground,
Why, then defy each other; and, pell-mell,
Make work upon ourfelves, for heaven, or hell.

3 Be friends a while, &c.] This advice is given by the Baftard in the old copy of the play, though comprized in fewer and lefs fpirited lines. STEEVENS.

4 Till their foul-fearing clamours-] i. e. foul-appalling. See Vol. V. p. 423, n. 9. MALONE.

K. PHI. Let it be fo:-Say, where will you affault?

K. JOHN. We from the weft will send destruction Into this city's bofom.

AUST. I from the north.

K. PHI.

Our thunder from the south, Shall rain their drift of bullets on this town.

BAST. O prudent difcipline! From north to

fouth;

Auftria and France fhoot in each other's mouth:

I'll ftir them to it:-Come, away, away! !

[Afide.

I CIT. Hear us, great kings: vouchfafe a while

to stay,

And I shall show you peace, and fair-faced league;
Win you this city without ftroke, or wound;
Rescue those breathing lives to die in beds,
That here come facrifices for the field:
Perféver not, but hear me, mighty kings.

K. JOHN. Speak on, with favour; we are bent to hear.

I CIT. That daughter there of Spain, the lady
Blanch,'

Is near to England; Look upon the years
Of Lewis the Dauphin, and that lovely maid:
If lufty love fhould go in queft of beauty,
Where fhould he find it fairer than in Blanch?
If zealous love fhould go in fearch of virtue,"
Where should he find it purer than in Blanch?
If love ambitious fought a match of birth,

5

the lady Blanch,] The lady Blanch was daughter to Alphonfo the Ninth, king of Caftile, and was niece to King John by his fifter Elianor. STEEVENS.

6 If zealous love, &c.] Zealous feems here to fignify pious, influenced by motives of religion. JOHNSON.

Whofe veins bound richer blood than lady Blanch?
Such as fhe is, in beauty, virtue, birth,

Is the young Dauphin every way complete:
If not complete, O fay," he is not fhe;
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 bleffed man,
Left to be finished by fuch a fhe;
And the a fair divided excellence,
Whose fulness of perfection lies in him.
O, two fuch filver currents, when they join,
Do glorify the banks that bound them in:

8

And two fuch fhores to two fuch ftreams made

one,

Two fuch controlling bounds fhall you be, kings,
To these two princes, if you marry them.
This union fhall do more than battery can,
To our faft-clofed gates; for, at this match,
With swifter fpleen" than powder can enforce,
The mouth of paffage fhall we fling wide ope,
And give you entrance: but, without this match,
The fea enraged is not half fo deaf,

Lions more confident, mountains and rocks
More free from motion; no, not death himself
In mortal fury half fo peremptory,

As we to keep this city.

7 If not complete, Ofay,] The old copy reads-If not complete of,

Jay, &c. Corrected by Sir T. Hanmer. MALONE.

8 -Such a fhe;] The old copy-as fhe. STEEVENS. Dr. Thirlby prescribed that reading, which I have here restored THEOBALD.

to the text.

9

at this match,

vio

With fwifter fpleen, &c.] Our author ufes Spleen for any lent hurry, or tumultuous fpeed. So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, he applies Spleen to the lightning. I am loath to think that Shakspeare meant to play with the double of match for nuptial, and