Why stand these royal fronts amazed thus ?
Cry havock', kings ! back to the stained field,
You equal potents, fiery-kindled spirits !
Then let confusion of one part confirin
The other's peace; till then, blows, blood, and death.

K. John. Whose party do the townsmen yet admit?
K. Pbil. Speak, citizens, for England; who's your

king? Cit. The king of England, when we know the king? K. Phil. Know him in us, that here hold up his

right.
K. John. In us, that are our own great deputy,
And bear poffeffion of our person here;
Lord of our presence, Angiers, and of you.

Cit. ? A greater power, than ye, denies all this;
And, till it be undoubted, we do lock
Our former scruple in our strong-barr'd gates.
Kings are our fears until our fears, resolv’d,
Be by some certain king purg'd and depos’d.

Faul.

I Cry havock, kings ! That is, “ command slaughter to “ proceed ;” so in another place. “ He with Atè by his fide, “ Cries, havock !” JOHNSON.

? In former copies :
A greater pow'r, than we, denies all this ;

Kings of our fears ) We should read, than ye. What power was this their fears. It is plain therefore we should read, Kings are our fears,—-i.e, our fears are the kings which at present rule us. WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton saw what was requisite to make this pasiage sense ; and Dr. Johnson, rather too hasily, I think, has received his emendation into the text. He reads,

Kings are our fears,- which he explains to mean, " our fears are the kings which as “ present rule us.”

As the same sense may be obtained by a much slighter alteration, I am more inclined to read,

KING'D of our fears, King'd is used as a participle pafive by Shakespeare more than once, I believe. I remember one instance in Henry the Fifth, Act. ii. Scene 5. The Dauphin says of Lugland,

fire is so idl; king'd. Vol. V.

Faulc. By heaven, these scroyles of Angiers 3 fout

you, kings;
And stand securely on their battlements,
As in a theatre, whence they gape and point
At your industrious scenes and acts of death :
Your royal presences, be ruld by me;
Do like the mutines of Jerusalem,
Be friends a while 4, and both conjointly bend
Your sharpeit deeds of malice on this town.
By east and west let France and England mount
Their battering cannon, charged to the mouths;
Till their soul-fearing clamours have brawld down
The flinty ribs of this contemptuous city.
I'd play incessantly upon these jades;
Even till unfenced desolation
Leave them as naked as the vulgar air.
That done, dislever your united strengths,
And part your mingled colours once again; /
Turn face to face, and bloody point to point.
Then, in a moment, fortune shall cull forth
Out of one side her happy minion;
To whom in favour she shall give the day,
And kiss him with a glorious victory.
How like you this wild counsel, mighty states?
Smacks it not something of the policy ?
K. John. Now, by the sky, that hangs above our

heads,
I like it well. France, shall we knit our powers,
And lay this Angiers even with the ground;
Then, after, fight who shall be king of it?

It is scarce neceffary to add, that, of, here (as in numberless other places) his the signification of, by. Observations and Conjectures, &c. printed at Oxford, 1766. STEVENS. .

3 these feroyles of Angier's ] Escrouelles, Fr. i.e. scabby, Scrophulous fellows.

Ben Jonson uses the word in E-very Man in his Humour, . . “ hang them juroyles !!” STEEVENS. 4 Be friends a zwhile, &c.] This advice is given by the Baftard in the old copy of the play, though comprized in fewer and less Ip is ed lines. STEEVENS.

Faulc.

.

Faulc. An if thou hast the mettle of a king,
Being wrong'd, as we are, by this peevish town,
Turn thou the mouth of thy artillery,
As we will ours, against these saucy walls :
And when that we have dalh'd them to the ground,
Why then defy each other; and, peil-mell,
Make work upon ourselves, for heaven, or hell.

K. Phil. Let it be fo: say, where will you aftult?

K. John. We from the west vill send destruction Into this city's bosom.

Auft. I from the north.'

K. Phil. Our thunder from the south
Shall rain their drift of bullets on this town.

Faulo. O prudent discipline! from north to south;
Austria and France shoot in each other's mouth. [Afide.
I'll stir them co it: come, away, away!
Cit. Hear us, great kings : vouchsafe a 'while to

stay, And I will shew you peace, and fair-fac'd league; , Win you this city without stroke, or wound; Rescue those breathing lives to die in beds, That here come sacrifices for the field : Persever not, but hear me, mighty kings. K. John. Speak on, with favour; we are bent to

hear. Cit.. That daughter there of Spain, the lady Blanch, Is near to England; look upon the years Of Lewis the Dauphin, and that lovely maid. If lusty love should go in quest of beauty, Where should he find it fairer than in Blanch? If s zealous love should go in search of virt1!c, Where should he find it purer than in Blanch? If love, ambitious, sought a match of birth, Whofe veins bound richer blood than lady Blanch? Such as she is, in beauty, virtue, birth, Is the young Dauphin every way complete :

Zealous seems here to fignify pious, or influenced by motives of religion. JOHNSON.

If not complete 6, ch say, he is not she;
And she again wants nothing (to name want)
If want it be not, that she is not he.
He is the half part of a bleffed man?,
Left to be finished by such a she:
And she a fair divided excellence,
Whose fulness of perfection lies in him.
Oh! two such filver currents, when they join,
Do glorify the banks that bound them in:
And two such shores, to two such streams made one,
Two such controlling bounds shall you be, kings,
To these two princes, if you marry them.
This union shall do more than baitery can,
To our fast-closed gates ; for at this match 3;
With swifter spleen than powder can enforce,
The mouth of passage shall we fiing wide ope,
And give you entrance: but, without this match,
The fea enraged is not half so deaf,
Lions fo confident, mountains and rocks
So free from motion; no, not death himself
In mortal fury half fo peremptory,
As we to keep this city.

Fauic. Here's a stay 9,
That shakes the rotten carcass of old death
Out of his rags! Here's a large mouth, indeed,

That

a death indeed, that

JOHNSON.

• If not complete of, Jay, &c.] Sir T. HANMER reads, O! say. ? He is the half part of a blessed man,'

Left to be finished by such as the:] Dr. Thirlby prcscrib'd that reading, which I have here restored to the text. THEOBALD.

8 at this match,

With fwifter spleen, &c.] Our author uses fpleen for any violent hurry, or tumultuous speed. So in Alidsummer Night's Dream he applies /pleen to the lightning. I am loath to think that Shakespeare meant to play with the double of match for muptial, and the match of a gun. JOHNSON.

9 Here's a stay,
That shokes the rotten carcass of old death

Out of his rags!] I cannot but think that every reader withes for fine oiher word in the place of jay, which though

nits forth ly of roarf puppy blood ? and bounce

That spits forth death, and mountains, rocks and seas;
Talks as familiarly of roaring lions,
As maids of thirteen do of puppy-dogs!
What cannoneer begot this lusty blood ?
He speaks plain cannon-fire, and smoak, and bounce;
He gives the bastinado with his tongue :
Our ears are cudgeld; not a word of his,
But buffets better than a fist of France :
Zounds! I was never so bethumpt with words,
Since I first call'd my brother's father, dad.

Eli. Son, list to this conjunction, make this match ;
Give with our niece a dowry large enough :
For by this knot thou shalt so surely tie
Thy now unsur'd assurance to the crown,
That yon green boy shall have no sun to ripe
The bloom, that promiseth a mighty fruit.
I see a yielding in the looks of France ;
Mark, how they whisper: urge them, while their souls
Are capable of this ambition;
Left zeal, now melted', by the windy breath
Of soft petitions, pity, and remorse,
Cool and congeal again to what it was.

Cit. Why answer not the double majesties This friendly treaty of our threaten'd town?

it may fignify an hindrance, or man that hinders, is yet very improper to introduce the next line. I read,

Here's a flaw,

That makes the rotten carcass of old death. That is, here is a gust of bravery, a blast of menace. This suits well with the spirit of the specch. Stay and flaw, in a careless hand, are not easily dillinguined; and if the writing was ob{cure, flaw being a word leis usual was easily missed. Johnson.

Lejt zeal, now melted, - Vię have here a very unusual, and, I think, not very just image of zeal, which, in its highest degree, is represented by others as a flame, but by Shakespeare as a frost. To repress zeal, in the language of others, is to cool, in Shakerpeare's to melt it; when it exerts its utmost power it is commonly said to fame, but by Shakespeare to be congealed.

JOHNSON.