Whose sons lie scatter'd on the bleeding ground: E. Her. Rejoice, you men of Angiers, ring your bells; King John, your king and England's, doth approach, Commander of this hot, malicious day! Their armours, that march'd hence so silver-bright, Our colours do return in those same hands Cit. Heralds, from of our towers we might behold, Of both your armies; whose equality By our best eyes cannot be censured :* Blood hath bought blood, and blows have answer'd blows Strength match'd with strength, and power confronted power: Both are alike and both alike we like. One must prove greatest: while they weigh so even, Enter, at one side, King JOHN, with his power; ELINOR, K. John. France, hast thou yet more blood to cast away ? Say, shall the current of our right run on ? [1] This speech is very poetical and smooth, and except the conceit of the widon's husband embracing the earth, is just and beautiful. JOHNSON. [2] It was, I think, one of the savage practices of the chase, for all to stain their hands in the blood of the deer, as a trophy. JOHNSON. [3] The English Herald falls somewhat below his antagonist. Silver armour gilt with blood is a poor image. JOHNSON. [4] i. e. cannot be estimated. MALONE. Whose passage, vex'd with thy impediment, A peaceful progress to the ocean. K. Phil. England, thou hast not sav'd one drop of blood, Gracing the scroll, that tells of this war's loss, Bast. Ha, majesty! how high thy glory towers, The other's peace; till then, blows, blood, and death! 1. Cit. The king of England, when we know the king. 1. Cit. A greater power than we, denies all this And, till it be undoubted, we do lock Our former scruple in our strong-barr'd gates: Be by some certain king purg'd and depos'd. ; Bast. By heaven, these scroyles of Angiers flout you, kings ; [5] That is, command slaughter to proceed. So, in Julius Casar: "Cry, havoc, and let slip the dogs of war." JOHNSON. WARBURTON. [6] i. e. our fears are the kings which at present rule us. And stand securely on their battlements, Be friends a while, and both conjointly bend Even till unfenced desolation Leave them as naked as the vulgar air. To whom, in favour, she shall give the day, How like you this wild counsel, mighty states? K. John. Now, by the sky that hangs above our heads, I like it well;-France, shall we knit our powers, And lay this Angiers even with the ground; Then, after, fight who shall be king of it? Bast. An if thou hast the mettle of a king,- As we will ours, against these saucy walls : Make work upon ourselves, for heaven, or hell. K. Phil. Let it be so :-Say, where will you assault? K. John. We from the west will send destruction Into this city's bosom. Aus. I from the north. K. Phil. Our thunder from the south, Shall rain their drift of bullets on this town. Bast. O prudent discipline! From north to south; Austria and France shoot in each other's mouth : [Aside. I'll stir them to it :-Come, away, away! 1 Cit. Hear us, great kings: vouchsafe a while to stay, And I shall show you peace, and fair-fac'd league ; Persévere not, but hear me, mighty kings. 8 K. John. Speak on, with favour; we are bent to hear. 1 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 lusty love should go in quest of beauty, Where should he find it fairer than in Blanch? If zealous love should go in search of virtue, Where should he find it purer than in Blanch? If love ambitious sought a match of birth, Whose veins bound richer blood than lady Blanch? Such as she is, in beauty, virtue, birth, Is the young Dauphin every way complete : If not complete, O say, he is not she; 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 blessed man, Left to be finished by such a she; And she a fair divided excellence, Whose fulness of perfection lies in him. O, two such silver currents, when they join, Do glorify the banks that bound them in: And two such shores to two such streams made one, Lions more confident, mountains and rocks As we to keep this city. [8] Zealous seems here to signify pious, or influenced by motives of religion. JOHNSON. [9] Stay, I apprehend, here signifies a supporter of a cause. Here's an extraordinary partizan, that shakes, &c. It is observable, that partizan, in like manner, though now generally used to signify an adherent to a party, originally meant a pike or halberd. MALONE. Bast. Here's a stay,9 That shakes the rotten carcase of old death Out of his rags! Here's a large mouth, indeed, That spits forth death, and mountains, rocks, and seas; Talks as familiarly of roaring lions, As maids of thirteen do of puppy-dogs! What cannoneer begot this lusty blood? He speaks plain cannon, fire, and smoke, and bounce; Eli. Son, list to this conjunction, make this match; For by this knot thou shalt so surely tie I see a yielding in the looks of France; Mark, how they whisper: urge them, while their souls Lest zeal, now melted, by the windy breath Cool and congeal again to what it was.' 1 Cit. Why answer not the double majesties This friendly treaty of our threaten'd town? K. Phil. Speak England first, that hath been forward first To speak unto this city: What say you ? K. John. If that the Dauphin there, thy princely son, Can in this book of beauty read, I love, Her dowry shall weigh equal with a queen: For Anjou, and fair Touraine, Maine, Poictiers, And all that we upon this side the sea [1] We have here a very unusual, and, I think, not very just image of real, which, in its highest degree, is represented by others as a fame, but by Shakespeare as a frost. To repress seal, in the language of others, is to cool, in Shakespeare's to melt it; when it exerts its utmost power it is commonly said to flame, but by Shakespeare to be congealed. JOHNSON. The poet means to compare seal to metal in a state of fusion, and not to dissolving ice. STEEVENS. |