To cudgel you, and make you take the hatch; To crouch in litter of your stable planks ; To lie, like pawns, lock'd up in chests and trunks; To souse annoyance that comes near his nest.- Of LEW. There end thy brave, and turn thy face in peace; We hold our time too precious to be spent With such a brabbler. PAND. BAST. No, I will speak. LEW. Give me leave to speak. : We will attend to neither :- An echo with the clamour of thy drum, As loud as thine, rattle the welkin's ear, And mock the deep-mouth'd thunder: for at hand Is warlike John; and in his forehead sits A bare-ribb'd death, whose office is this day To feast upon whole thousands of the French. "Brave-bravado. LEW. Strike up our drums, to find this danger out. SCENE III.—The same. A Field of Battle. Alarums. Enter KING JOHN and HUBERT. K. JOHN. How goes the day with us? O, tell me, Hubert. K. JOHN. This fever, that hath troubled me so long, Lies heavy on me; O, my heart is sick! Enter a Messenger. MESS. My lord, your valiant kinsman, Faulconbridge, And send him word by me which way you go. That was expected by the dauphin here, Are wrack'd three nights ago on Goodwin sands. SCENE IV.-The same. [Exeunt. [Exeunt. Another part of the same. Enter SALISBUky, Pembroke, BIGOT, and others. SAL. I did not think the king so stor'd with friends. SAL. That misbegotten devil, Faulconbridge, PEM. They say, king John, sore sick, hath left the field. Enter MELUN, wounded, and led by Soldiers. MEL. Lead me to the revolts of England here. SAL. When we were happy we had other names. PEM. It is the count Melun. MEL. Fly, noble English, you are bought and sold; • Unthread the rude eye. Theobald corrupted this passage into "untread the rude way." Malone, who agrees in the restoration of the passage, says Shakspere "was evidently thinking of the eye of And welcome home again discarded faith. SAL. May this be possible? may this be true? Retaining but a quantity of life Which bleeds away, even as a form of wax Since I must lose the use of all deceit? Why should I then be false; since it is true That I must die here, and live hence by truth? I say again, if Lewis do win the day, He is forsworn if e'er those eyes of yours Behold another day break in the east: But even this night,-whose black contagious breath Of the old, feeble, and day-wearied sun, Even this ill night, your breathing shall expire; In lieu whereof, I pray you, bear me hence Where I may think the remnant of my thoughts In peace, and part this body and my soul With contemplation and devout desires. SAL. Wo do believe thee,-And beshrew my soul a needle," and he calls this, therefore, an humble metaphor. Nothing, it appears to us, is humble in poetry that conveys an image forcibly and distinctly; and "the eye of a needle" by the application of the poet may become dignified. But the word thread, perhaps metaphorically, is used to convey the meaning of passing through anything intricate, narrow, difficult. "One gains the thickets and one thrids the brake," in Dryden, have each the same meaning. The "rude eye" in the line before us is the rough and dangerous passage of "rebellion." But I do love the favour and the form Of this most fair occasion, by the which Leaving our rankness and irregular course, Stoop low within those bounds we have o'erlook'd, Even to our ocean, to our great king John. My arm shall give thee help to bear thee hence; For I do see the cruel pangs of death Right in thine eye.-Away, my friends! New flight; [Exeunt, leading off MELUN. LEW. The sun of heaven, methought, was loth to set, When with a volley of our needless shot, After such bloody toil, we bid good night; And wound our tottering colours clearly up, Last in the field, and almost lords of it! Enter a Messenger. Here:-What news? MESS. Where is my prince, the dauphin? LEW. MESS. The count Melun is slain; the English lords, By his persuasion, are again fallen off: And your supply, which you have wish'd so long, LEW. Ah, foul shrewd news!-Beshrew thy very heart! As this hath made me.-Who was he that said, King John did fly, an hour or two before The stumbling night did part our weary powers? MESS. Whoever spoke it, it is true, my lord. LEW. Well; keep good quarter and good care to-night; To try the fair adventure of to-morrow. • The original has measure, and omits the article before English. [Exeunt. Tottering. Steevens reads tatter'd-Malone tattering. The original tottering was the same as tattering, of which Capell gives an example in his 'School of Shakspeare,' p. 54. SCENE VI.-An open Place in the Neighbourhood of Swinstead Abbey. Enter the Bastard and HUBERT meeting. HUB. Who's there? speak, ho! speak quickly, or I shoot. BAST. A friend.—What art thou? HUB. Thou hast a perfect thought: I will, upon all hazards, well believe Thou art my friend, that know'st my tongue so well: BAST. Who thou wilt: an if thou please, Thou mayst befriend me so much as to think I come one way of the Plantagenets. HUB. Unkind remembrance! thou, and endless night, Should 'scape the true acquaintance of mine ear. To find you out. BAST. HUB. The king, I fear, is poison'd by a monk: I left him almost speechless, and broke out Whose bowels suddenly burst out: the king • Endless night. So the original; eyeless was preferred by Theobald. |