PAND. Before the curing of a strong disease, Even in the instant of repair and health, The fit is strongest; evils, that take leave, On their departure most of all show evil: What have you lost by losing of this day?

LEW. All days of glory, joy, and happiness.
PAND. If you have won it, certainly, you had.
No, no: when fortune means to men most good,
She looks upon them with a threatening eye.
'Tis strange, to think how much king John hath lost
In this which he accounts so clearly won :
Are not you griev'd, that Arthur is his prisoner?
LEW. As heartily, as he is glad he hath him.
PAND. Your mind is all as youthful as your
blood.

Now hear me speak, with a prophetick spirit;
For even the breath of what I mean to speak
Shall blow each dust, each straw, each little rub,
Out of the path which shall directly lead
Thy foot to England's throne; and, therefore, mark.
John hath seiz'd Arthur; and it cannot be,
That, whiles warm life plays in that infant's veins,
The misplac'd John should entertain an hour,
One minute, nay, one quiet breath of rest :

The sweet word is life; which, says the speaker, is no longer sweet, yielding now nothing but shame and bitterness. Mr. Pope, with some plausibility, but certainly without necessity, reads-the sweet world's taste. MALONE.

I prefer Mr. Pope's reading, which is sufficiently justified by the following passage in Hamlet :

"How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable
"Seem to me all the uses of this world!"

Our present rage for restoration from ancient copies may induce some of our readers to exclaim, with Virgil's Shepherd : " Claudite jam rivos, pueri, sat prata biberunt."

STEEVENS.

A scepter, snatch'd with an unruly hand,
Must be as boisterously maintain'd as gain'd:
And he, that stands upon a slippery place,
Makes nice of no vile hold to stay him up:
That John may stand, then Arthur needs must fall;
So be it, for it cannot be but so.

LEW. But what shall I gain by young Arthur's
fall?

PAND. You, in the right of lady Blanch your wife,

May then make all the claim that Arthur did.
LEW. And lose it, life and all, as Arthur did.
PAND. How green are you, and fresh in this old
world!

John lays you plots; the times conspire with you:
For he, that steeps his safety in true blood,'
Shall find but bloody safety, and untrue.
This act, so evilly born, shall cool the hearts
Of all his people, and freeze up their zeal;
That none so small advantage shall step forth,
To check his reign, but they will cherish it:

* How green &c.] Hall, in his Chronicle of Richard III. says, " - what neede in that grene worlde the protector had," &c. HENDERSON.

John lays you plots ;) That is, lays plots, which must be serviceable to you. Perhaps our author wrote your plots. John is doing your business. MALONE.

The old reading is undoubtedly the true one. A similar phrase occurs in The First Part of King Henry VI:

"He writes me here,-that," &c.

Again, in the Second Part of the same play: "He would have carried you a fore-hand shaft," &c. STEEVENS.

"true blood,] The blood of him that has the just claim. JOHNSON.

The expression seems to mean no more than innocent blood in general. RITSON.

No natural exhalation in the sky,
No scape of nature, no distemper'd day,
No common wind, no customed event,
But they will pluck away his natural cause,
And call them meteors, prodigies, and signs,
Abortives, présages, and tongues of heaven,
Plainly denouncing vengeance upon John.

LEW. May be, he will not touch young Arthur's life,

But hold himself safe in his prisonment.

PAND. O, sir, when he shall hear of your ap

proach,

If that young Arthur be not gone already,
Even at that news he dies: and then the hearts
Of all his people shall revolt from him,
And kiss the lips of unacquainted change;
And pick strong matter of revolt, and wrath,
Out of the bloody fingers' ends of John.
Methinks, I see this hurly all on foot;
And, O, what better matter breeds for you,
Than I have nam'd! -The bastard Faulconbridge
Is now in England, ransacking the church,
Offending charity: If but a dozen French

• No scape of nature,] The old copy reads-No scope, &c.

STEEVENS.

It was corrected by Mr. Pope. The word abortives, in the latter part of this speech, referring apparently to these scapes of nature, confirms the emendation that has been made.

MALONE.

The author very finely calls a monstrous birth, an escape of nature, as if it were produced while she was busy elsewhere, or intent upon some other thing. WARBURTON.

9 And, O, what better matter breeds for you,

Than I have nam'd!] I believe we should read-lo! instead of O. M. MASON.