Const. Look to that, devil! lest that France repent, And, by disjoining hands, hell lose a soul. Aust. King Philip, listen to the cardinal. Bast. And hang a calf's-skin on his recreant limbs. Aust. Well, ruffian, I must pocket up these wrongs, Because them Bast. Your breeches best may carry 15 K. John. Philip, what say'st thou to the cardinal? Const. What should he say, but as the cardinal? Lew. Bethink you, father; for the difference Is, purchase of a heavy curse from Rome, Or the light loss of England for a friend: Forgo the easier. Blanch. That's the curse of Rome. Const. O Lewis, stand fast; the devil tempts thee here, In likeness of a new untrimmed 16 bride. 15 This may be a proverbial sarcasm; but the allusion is now We have something similar in the old play of King Leir, lost. 1605: 'Mum. We'll have a pair of slops for the nonce Will hold all your mocks.' 16 Trim is dress. Comptus virgineus is explained by the dictionaries, 'The attyre of maydens, or maidenly trimming.' An untrimmed bride may therefore mean a bride undressed or disencumbered of the forbidding forms of dress. It is however probable that this term may have been used for a virgin bride, as the following passage in The Loyal Subject of Beaumont and Fletcher will show. Theodore, in describing the ravages of the Tartars, says to Boroskie: 'They would not only have abused your buildings, Your goodly buildings, sir, and have drunk your butteries, Purloin'd your lordship's plate, the duke bestowed on you, For turning handsomely o'th' toe, and trimm'd your virgins, Trimm'd'em of a new cut, an't like your worship, 'Tis ten to one, your wife too.' The same use of the word is made in The False One, Act ii. Sc. 3. In Titus Andronicus, Act i. Sc. 1; and in the fourth act of Chapman's May Day; to a note on which, in the fourth volume of the Ancient Drama, I owe the suggestion. Blanch. The Lady Constance speaks not from her faith, But from her need. Const. O, if thou grant my need, Which only lives but by the death of faith, That need must needs infer this principle,That faith would live again by death of need; O, then, tread down my need, and faith mounts up; Keep my need up, and faith is trodden down. K. John. The king is mov'd, and answers not to this. Const. O, be remov'd from him, and answer well. Aust. Do so, King Philip; hang no more in doubt. Bast. Hang nothing but a calf's-skin, most sweet lout. K. Phi. I am perplex'd, and know not what to say. Pand. What canst thou say, but will perplex thee more, If thou stand excommunicate, and curs'd? K. Phi. Good reverend father, make my person yours, And tell me, how you would bestow yourself. And shall these hands, so lately purg'd of blood, So newly join'd in love, so strong in both 17, As now again to snatch our palm from palm: My reverend father, let it not be so: Pand. All form is formless, order orderless, Save what is opposite to England's love. Therefore, to arms! be champion of our church! Or let the church, our mother, breathe her curse, A mother's curse, on her revolting son. France, thou may'st hold a serpent by the tongue, Than keep in peace that hand which thou dost hold. K. Phi. I may disjoin my hand, but not my faith. Pand. So mak'st thou faith an enemy to faith; And, like a civil war, sett'st oath to oath, Thy tongue against thy tongue. O, let thy vow First made to heaven, first be to heaven perform'd; That is to be the champion of our church! What since thou swor'st, is sworn against thyself, And may not be performed by thyself: 17 i. e. so strong both in hatred and love; in deeds of amity or deeds of blood. 18 A regreet is an exchange of salutation. 19 A cased lion is a lion irritated by confinement. So in King Henry VI. Part III. Act i. Sc. 3: So looks the pent up lion o'er the wretch For that, which thou hast sworn to do amiss, And being not done, where doing tends to ill, And falsehood falsehood cures; as fire cools fire, By what thou swear'st, against the thing thou swear'st; And better conquest never canst thou make, 20 Where doing tends to ill,' where an intended act is criminal, the truth is most done by not doing the act. The criminal act therefore, which thou hast sworn to do, is not amiss, will not be imputed to you as a crime, if it be done truly, in the sense I have now affixed to truth; that is, if you do not do it. 21 By what thou swear'st, &c. In swearing by religion against religion, thou hast sworn by what thou swearest; i. e. in that which thou hast sworn, against the thing thou swearest by; i.e. religion.' Bast. Will't not be? Will not a calf-skin stop that mouth of thine? Lew. Father, to arms! Blanch. Upon thy wedding day? Against the blood that thou hast married? What, shall our feast be kept with slaughter'd men? Shall braying trumpets, and loud churlish drums,Clamours of hell,-be measures to our pomp? O husband, hear me!-ah, alack! how new Is husband in my mouth? even for that name, Which till this time my tongue did ne'er Upon my knee I beg, go not to arms Against mine uncle. Const. O, upon my knee, pronounce, Made hard with kneeling, I do pray to thee, Blanch. Now shall I see thy love; What motive may Be stronger with thee than the name of wife? Const. That which upholdeth him that thee up holds, His honour: O, thine honour, Lewis, thine honour! Lew. I muse, your majesty doth seem so cold, When such profound respects do pull you on. Pand. I will denounce a curse upon his head. K. Phi. Thou shalt not need :-England, I'll fall from thee. Const. O fair return of banish'd majesty! Eli. O foul revolt of French inconstancy! K. John. France, thou shalt rue this hour within this hour. Bast. Old time the clock-setter, that bald sexton time, Is it as he will? well then, France shall rue. Blanch. The sun's o'ercast with blood: Fair day, adieu! |