portioned to the degrees of their guilt. The author of it observes how difficult it would be, on this account, to distinguish between Belzebub and Judas Iscariot. STEEVENS. Line 622. The unowed interestno proper owner to claim it. -] i. e. the interest which has STEEVENS. Line 629. The imminent decay of wrested pomp.] Wrested pomp is greatness obtained by violence. JOHNSON. ACT V. SCENE I -a gentle convertite,] i. e. convert. Line 21. - 66. -Forage and run— -] To forage is here used in its original sense, for to range abroad, JOHNSON. Line 88. Away then, with good courage; yet, I know, Our party may well meet a prouder foe.] Faulconbridge means, for all their boasting I know very well that our party is able to cope with one yet prouder and more confident of its strength than theirs. STEEVENS. ACT V. SCENE II. Line 93. the precedent, &c.] i. e. the original treaty between the dauphin and the English lords. STEEVENS. Line 124. clippeth thee about,] To clip is to embrace. -134. 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. Yet the Oxford editor, for compulsion, reads compassion. WARBURTON. Line 154. -an angel spake :] Sir T. Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton, read here, an angel speeds. I think unnecessarily. The dauphin does not yet hear the legate indeed, nor pretend to hear him; but seeing him advance, and concluding that he comes to animate and authorize him with the power of the church, he cries out, at the sight of this holy man, I am encouraged as by the voice of an angel. JOHNSON. Line 197. -as I have bank'd their towns ?] Bank'd their towns means, thrown up fortifications, or rather entrenchments, before their towns. STEEVENS. Line 231. -take the hatch;] To take the hatch, is to leap the hatch. To take a hedge or a ditch is the hunter's phrase. STEEVENS. Their neelds to lances,] i. e. needles. ACT V. SCENE IV. Line 341. -rated treachery,] It were easy to change rated to hated for an easier meaning, but rated suits better with fine. The dauphin has rated your treachery, and set upon it a fine which your lives must pay. JOHNSON. Line 364. Right in thine eye.] This is the old reading. Right signifies immediate. STEEVENS. Line 366. happy newness, &c.] Happy innovation, that purposed the restoration of the ancient rightful government. Line 250. JOHNSON. ACT V. SCENE VI. Line 410. -thou, and eyeless night;] Thus Pindar calls the moon, the eye of night. WARBURTON. ACT V. SCENE VII. Line 449. Is touch'd corruptibly ;] i.e. corruptively. MALONE. -470. -in their throng and press to that last hold,] In their tumult and hurry of resorting to the last tenable part. JOHNS. Line 511. And all the shrouds,] Shakspeare here uses the word shrouds in its true sense. The shrouds are the great ropes, which come from each side of the mast. In modern poetry the word frequently signifies the sails of a ship. MALONE. Line 521. Were in the washes, all unwarily, &c.] This untoward accident really happened to king John himself. As he passed from Lynn to Lincolnshire, he lost by an inundation all his treasure, carriages, baggage, and regalia. MALONE. END OF THE ANNOTATIONS ON KING JOHN. -73. ANNOTATIONS scepter. Line 182. lay or refusal. Line 185. ON THE LIFE AND DEATH OF KING RICHARD II. LINE 3. synonymous. -thy oath and band,] Band and bond were formerly MALONE. Line 52. right-drawn-] Drawn in a right or just cause. JOHNSON. -inhabitable,] That is, not habitable, uninhabitable. JOHNSON. 112. —the duke of Gloster's death;] Thomas of Woodstock, the youngest son of Edward III.; who was murdered at Calais, in 1397. MALONE. Line 132. -my scepter's awe—] The reverence due to my JOHNSON. -no boot.] That is, no advantage, no use, in deJOHNSON. ACT I. SCENE I. -my fair name, &c.] That is, my name that lives on my grave in despight of death. This easy passage most of the editors seem to have mistaken. JOHNSON. Line 215. The slavish motive-] Motive, for instrument. Rather that which fear puts in motion. WARBURTON. ACT I. SCENE II. Line 229. the part I had—] That is, my relation of consanguinity to Gloucester. HANMER. Line 286. A caitiff recreant-] Caitiff originally signified a prisoner; next a slave, from the condition of prisoners; then a scoundrel, from the qualities of a slave. Ημισυ τῆς ἀρετῆς αποαΐνυται δόλιον ήμαρ. In this passage it partakes of all these significations. JOHNSON. ACT I. SCENE III. Line 312. Norfolk.] Mr. Edwards, in his MSS. notes, observes, both from Matthew Paris and Holinshed, that the duke of Hereford, appellant, entered the lists first: and this indeed must have been the regular method of the combat; for the natural order of things requires, that the accuser or challenger should be at the place of appointment first. STEEVENS. Line 334. my succeeding issue,] The reading of the first folio is, his succeeding issue; the later editions read my issue. Mowbray's issue was, by this accusation, in danger of an attainder, and therefore he might come, among other reasons, for their sake; but the old reading is more just and grammatical. JOHNSON, Line 418. A gentle and as jocund, as to jest,] Not so neither. We should read, to just; i. e. to tilt or tournay, which was a kind of sport too. WARBURTON. The sense would perhaps have been better if the author had written what his commentator substitutes; but the rhyme, to which sense is too often enslaved, obliged Shakspeare to write jest, and obliges us to read it. JOHNSON. Line 487. A dearer merit, not so deep a maim, Line 445. hath thrown his warder down.] A warder was a truncheon carried by him who presided at these combats. Line 461. To wake our peace- Might —fright fair peace,] To wake peace is to introduce discord. Peace asleep, is peace exerting its natural influence, from which it would be frighted by the clamours of war. STEEVENS. Have I deserved- -] To deserve a merit is a phrase |
