Met in one line; and vast confusion waits ACT V. [Exeunt. SCENE I.-The same. A Room in the Palace. Enter King JOHN, PANDULPH with the crown, and Attendants. K. John. Thus have I yielded up into your hand The circle of my glory. Pand. Take again [Giving JOHN the crown. From this my hand, as holding of the pope, Your sovereign greatness and authority. K. John. Now keep your holy word: go meet the French; And from his holiness use all your power To stop their marches, 'fore we are inflam’d. Our people quarrel with obedience; Then pause not; for the present time's so sick, That present medicine must be minister'd, Or overthrow incurable ensues. Pand. It was my breath that blew this tempest up, Upon your stubborn usage of the pope : But, since you are a gentle convertite,k i wrested pomp.] i. e. Greatness obtained by violence. k convertite,] i. e. A convert, one who has changed his notions. My tongue shall hush again this storm of war, Go I to make the French lay down their arms. [Exit. K. John. Is this Ascension-day? Did not the prophet Say, that, before Ascension-day, at noon, My crown I shall give off? Even so I have: I did suppose, it should be on constraint; But heaven be thank'd, it is but voluntary. Enter the Bastard. Bast. All Kent hath yielded; nothing there holds out, But Dover castle: London hath receiv'd, Like a kind host, the Dauphin and his powers: Your nobles will not hear you, but are gone To offer service to your enemy: And wild amazement hurries up and down K. John. Would not my lords return to me again, Bast. They found him dead, and cast into the streets; An empty casket, where the jewel of life By some damn'd hand was robb'd and ta'en away. Be stirring as the time; be fire with fire; And fright him there? and make him tremble there? To meet displeasure further from the doors; K. John. The legate of the pope hath been with me, And he hath promis'd to dismiss the powers Led by the Dauphin. Bast. O inglorious league! Shall we upon the footing of our land, Send fair-play orders, and make compromise, To arms invasive? shall a beardless boy, They saw we had a purpose of defence. K. John. Have thou the ordering of this present time. Bast. Away then, with good courage; yet, I know, Our party may well meet a prouder foe. SCENE II. A Plain, near St. Edmund's-Bury. [Exeunt. Enter, in arms, LEWIS, SALISBURY, MELUN, PEMBROKE, BIGOT, and Soldiers. Lew. My lord Melun, let this be copied out, And keep it safe for our remembrance: 1 נח n -forage,]-is here used in its ancient sense of range abroad. the precedent, &c.] i. e. The rough draught of the original treaty between the Dauphin and the English lords.-STEEVENS. Sal. Upon our sides it never shall be broken. To your proceedings; yet, believe me, prince, Should seek a plaster by contemn'd revolt, Her enemies' ranks, (I must withdraw and weep To grace the gentry of a land remote, And follow unacquainted colours here? What, here?-O nation, that thou could'st remove! Where these two Christian armies might combine And not to spend it so unneighbourly! Lew. A noble temper dost thou show in this; stranger] This word is here used as an adjective. the spot of this enforced cause,] Spot probably means, stain or disgrace. -M. MASON. r clippeth-] i. e. Embraceth. to spend- Shakspeare here uses a phraseology which he had used before in the Merry Wives of Windsor "And fairy-like to-pinch the unclean knight." To, in composition with verbs, is common enough in ancient language.— STEEVENS. And great affections, wrestling in thy bosom, O, what a noble combat hast thou fought, But this effusion of such manly drops, As Lewis himself:-so, nobles, shall you all Enter PANDULPH, attended. And, even there, methinks, an angel spake : Pand. Hail, noble prince of France! That so stood out against the holy church, Therefore thy theat'ning colours now wind up, Between compulsion, and a brave respect!] This compulsion was the necessity of a reformation in the state; which, according to Salisbury's opinion (who, in his speech preceding, calls it an enforced cause), could only be procured by foreign arms and the brave respect was the love of his country.-WARBURTON. |