That fpits forth death, and mountains, rocks, and feas; Talks as familiarly of roaring lions, He fpeaks plain cannon, fire, and fmoke, and bounce; ELI. Son, lift to this conjunction, make this match; Give with our niece a dowry large enough: I am therefore convinced that the firft line of Faulconbridge's fpeech needs no emendation. STEEVENS. Stay, I apprehend, here fignifies a fupporter of a caufe. Here's an extraordinary partizan, that shakes, &c. So, in the last act of this play: What furety in the world, what hopes, what fay, "When this was now a king, and now is clay?" Again, in K. Henry VI. Part III: "Now thou art gone, we have no staff, no stay." Again, in K. Richard III: 66 "What stay had I, but Edward, and he's gone." Again, in Davies's Scourge of Folly, printed about the year 1611: England's fast friend, and Ireland's conftant ftay." It is obfervable that partizan in like manner, though now generally used to fignify an adherent to a party, originally meant a pike or halberd. Perhaps, however, our author meant by the words, Here's a stay, "Here's a fellow, who whilft he makes a propofition as a ftay or obftacle, to prevent the effufion of blood, thakes," &c. The Citizen has juft faid: "Hear us, great kings, vouchsafe a while to ftay, " And I fhall fhow you peace," &c. It is, I conceive, no objection to this interpretation, that an impediment or obftacle could not fhake death, &c. though the perfon who endeavoured to stay or prevent the attack of the two kings, might. Shakspeare feldom attends to fuch minutia.-But the first explanation appears to me more probable. MALONE. For by this knot thou fhalt so surely tie Mark, how they whisper: urge them, while their fouls Are capable of this ambition; Left zeal, now melted, by the windy breath 3 Left zeal, now melted, &c.] We have here a very unusual, and, I think, not very juft image of zeal, which, in its highest degree, is reprefented by others as a flame, but by Shakspeare, as a froft. To reprefs zeal, in the language of others, is to cool, in Shakspeare's to melt it; when it exerts its utmoft power it is commonly said to flame, but by Shakspeare to be congealed. JOHNSON. Sure the poet means to compare zeal to metal in a state of fufion, and not to diffolving ice. STEEVENS. The allufion, I apprehend, is to diffolving ice; and if this paffage be compared with others in our author's plays, it will not, I think, appear liable to Dr. Johnfon's objection. The fenfe, I conceive, is, Left the now zealous and to you well-affected heart of Philip, which but lately was cold and hard as ice, and has newly been melted and foftened, hould by the foft petitions of Conftance, and pity for Arthur, again become congealed and frozen. I once thought that "the windy breath of foft petitions," &c. fhould be coupled with the preceding words, and related to the propofal made by the citizen of Angiers; but I now believe that they were intended to be connected, in conftruction, with the following line.-In a fubfequent scene we find a fimilar thought couched in nearly the fame expreffions: "This act, fo evilly born, fhall cool the hearts "Of all his people, and freeze up their zeal." Here Shakspeare does not fay that zeal, when " congealed, exerts its utmost power," but, on the contrary, that when it is congealed or frozen, it ceafes to exert itself at all; it is no longer zeal. We again meet with the fame allufion in King Henry VIII: 44 " This makes bold mouths; Tongues fpit their duties out, and cold hearts freeze I CIT. Why answer not the double majesties This friendly treaty of our threaten'd town? K. PHI. Speak England first, that hath been forward firft To speak unto this city: What say you? K. JOHN. If that the Dauphin there, thy princely fon, 4 Can in this book of beauty read, I love, Both zeal and allegiance therefore, we fee, in the language of Shakspeare, are in their highest state of exertion, when melted; and repreffed or diminished, when frozen. The word freeze in the paffages juft quoted, fhews that the allufion is not, as has been fuggefted, to metals, but to ice. The obfcurity of the prefent paffage arifes from our author's use of the word zeal, which is, as it were, perfonified. Zeal, if it be understood strictly, cannot "cool and congeal again to what it was," (for when it cools, it ceafes to be zeal,) though a person who is become warm and zealous in a caufe, may afterwards become cool and indifferent, as he was, before he was warmed.-" To what it was," however, in our author's licentious language, may mean, "to what it was, before it was zeal." MALONE. The windy breath that will cool metals in a ftate of fufion, produces not the effects of froft. I am therefore yet to learn, how "the foft petitions of Conftance, and pity for Arthur," (two gentle agents) were competent to the act of freezing.There is furely fomewhat of impropriety, in employing Favonius to do the work of Boreas. STEEVENS. 4 Can in this book of beauty read,] So, in Pericles, 1609: "Her face, the book of praises," &c. Again, in Macbeth: "Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men 66 May read ftrange matters." MALONE. For Anjou,] In old editions: For Angiers, and fair Touraine, Maine, Poitiers, (Except this city now by us befieg'd,) Find liable, &c. What was the city befieged, but Angiers? King John agrees to give And all that we upon this fide the fea As fhe in beauty, education, blood, Holds hand with any princess of the world. K. PII. What fay'ft thou, boy? look in the lady's face. LEW. I do, my lord; and in her eye I find The fhadow of myfelf form'd in her eye; Till now infixed I beheld myself, Drawn in the flattering table of her eye." [Whispers with BLANCH. BAST. Drawn in the flattering table of her eye!Hang'd in the frowning wrinkle of her brow!And quarter'd in her heart!-he doth efpy Himself love's traitor: This is pity now, up all he held in France, except the city of Angiers, which he now befieged and laid claim to. But could he give up all except Angiers, and give up that too? Anjou was one of the provinces which the English held in France. THEOBALD. Mr. Theobald found, or might have found, the reading which he would introduce as an emendation of his own, in the elder play of King John, 4to. 1591. STEEVENS. See alfo p. 38, n. 2. MALONE. 6 Drawn in the flattering table of her eye.] So, in All's well that ends well: "His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls, "In our heart's table." Table is picture, or, rather, the board or canvas on which any object is painted. Tableau, Fr. STEEVENS. That hang'd, and drawn, and quarter'd, there fhould be, In fuch a love, so vile a lout as he. BLANCH. My uncle's will, in this respect, is mine: If he fee aught in you, that makes him like, That any thing he fees, which moves his liking, I can with eafe tranflate it to my will; Or, if you will, (to fpeak more properly,) I will enforce it eafily to my love. Further I will not flatter you, my lord, That all I fee in you is worthy love, Than this, that nothing do I fee in you, (Though churlish thoughts themselves fhould be your judge,) That I can find fhould merit any hate. K. JOHN. What say these young ones? What fay you, my niece? BLANCH. That she is bound in honour still to do What you in wisdom fhall vouchfafe to say. K. JOHN. Speak then, prince Dauphin; can you love this lady? LEW. Nay, ask me if I can refrain from love; For I do love her most unfeignedly. K. JOHN. Then do I give Volqueffen, Touraine, Poitiers, and Anjou, thefe five provinces, 7 Volqueffen,] This is the ancient name for the country now called the Vexin; in Latin, Pagus Velocaffinus. That part of it called the Norman Vexin, was in difpute between Philip and John. STEEVENS. This and the fubfequent line (except the words, " do I give") are taken from the old play. MALONE. |