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King John.

In

ACT I. SCENE I.

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

my behaviour, to the majesty,

The borrow'd majesty of England here.

In my behaviour,] The word behaviour seems here to have a signification that I have never found in any other author. The King of France, says the envoy, thus speaks in my behaviour to the majesty of England; that is, the king of France speaks in the character which I here assume. I once thought that these two lines, in my behaviour, &c. had been uttered by the ambassador as part of his master's message, and that behaviour had meant the conduct of the king of France towards the king of England; but the ambassador's speech, as continued after the interruption, will not admit this meaning. JOHN.

'In my behaviour.' 'Behaviour' is scarcely right. Shakspeare has here, I think, coined a word,-behoviour. Behove, in old language is Duty. As, it behoves me to do it, i. e. it is my duty. The Ambassador means to say-what the King of France declares, it is my duty to deliver. He seems to intend a kind of apology for the words borrowed Majesty, and which we are to suppose were Philip's. There is here that ellipsis which is frequent with Shakspeare, and which I have noticed elsewhere. B.

K. John. Depart in peace:

Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France;

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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.-

Be thou as lightning] The simile does not suit well: the lightning indeed appears before the thunder is heard, but the lightning is destructive, and the thunder innocent. JouN.

The allusion may notwithstanding be very proper, so far as Shakspeare has applied it, i. c. merely to the swiftness of the lightning, and its preceding and foretelling the thunder. But there is some reason to believe that thunder was not thought to be innocent in our author's time, as we elsewhere learn from himself. See King Lear, act iii. sc. 2. Antony and Cleopatra, act ii. sc. 5. Julius Cæsar, act i. sc. 3. and still more decisively in Measure for Measure, act ii. sc. 2. This old superstition is still prevalent in many parts of the country. REMARKS.

-sullen presage--] By the epithet sullen, which cannot be applied to a trumpet, it is plain that our author's imagination had now suggested a new idea. It is as if he had said, be a trumpet to alarm with our invasion, be a bird of ill omen to croak out the prognostic of your own ruin. JOHN.

I do not see why the epithet sullen may not be applied to a trumpet, with as much propriety as to a bell. In our author's Henry IV. P. II. we find

"Sounds ever after as a sullen bell." MAL.

Be thou as lightning.' It should be observed in consequence of Johnson's objection to the simile here used, that though the lightning actually precedes the thunder, the latter so immediately follows it that the point of time between them is to many scarcely perceptible. But this their action I only mention in regard of the common observer, for if 1 mistake not, it is the opinion of the Physiologist that the report and flash of thunder are nearly simultaneous; and that the flash is seen before the report is heard, by reason that the motion of light is quicker than that of a sound.

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With respect to the text, sullen' should in all probability be sudden, as applicable to lightning. The poet, it would seem, is still speaking in metaphor.-He makes the King say to Chatillon: "Be thou as lightning, for ere thou canst report [make known my intentions] the thunder of my cannon shall be heard." He then goes on, "So hence! Be thou the Meteor to foretoken, to foreshow the coming destruction: I shall follow with my thunder." The difficulty of the passage arises in great measure from the blending of the literal with the figurative expression. For ere thou canst report I will be there,' is not uttered in relation to thunder, but simply of this represen tation of the matter to the King of France. Shakspeare likewise

employs the lightning not only as precursor but destroyer; for when he speaks of it in its latter quality, and by the name of thunder, it is not in allusion to the rattling noise which is made by that thunder, and which is no doubt unhurtful, but to the thunderbolt, which is really lightning, and consequently able to injure or destroy. B.

Eli. He hath a trick of Coeur-de-lion's face.

He hath a trick of Caur-de-lion's face.] The trick, or tricking, is the same as the tracing of a drawing, meaning that peculiarity of face which may be sufficiently shewn by the slightest outline. This expression is used by Heywood and Rowley in their comedy called Fortune by Land and Sea:- "Her face, the trick of her eye, her lecr." The following passages may more evidently prove the expression to be borrowed from delineation. Ben Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour :

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-You can blazon the rest, Signior."

“O ay, I have it in writing here o'purpose; it cost me two shillings the tricking." So again, in Cynthia's Revels:

them."

-the parish-buckets with his name at length trick'd upon STEEV.

A trick of Coeur-de-lion's face.' Trick' is trait, a distinguishing mark. B.

Eli.

Whether hadst thou rather, be a Faulcon

bridge,

And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land;

Or the reputed son of Coeur-de-lion,

Lord of thy presence, and no land beside?

Lord of thy presence, and no land beside ?] Lord of thy presence can signify only, master of thyself; and it is a strange expression to signify even that. However that he might be, without parting with his land. We should read: Lord of the presence, i. e. prince of the blood. WARB.

Lord of thy presence may signify something more distinct than master of thyself: it means master of that dignity and grandeur of appearance that may sufficiently distinguish thee from the vulgar, without the help of fortune.

Lord of his presence apparently signifies, great in his own person, and is used in this sense by king John in one of the following

scenes. JOHN.

Lord of thy presence'-Johnson's explication of the passage renders it feeble. Warburton has given the sense intended to be conveyed by the Poet,-only that Lord of the presence can never mean Prince of the blood: it can signify nothing more than the state of him who is in the view of his superior,—and

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