Conft. Oh, if thou teach me to believe this forrow, As doth the fury of two defperate men, Lewis marry Blanch! O boy, then where art thou? 2 Arth. I do befeech you, madam, be content. Conft. If thou, that bidft me be content, wert grim, Ugly, and fland'rous to thy mother's womb, Full of unpleafing blots, and fightless stains, Lame, foolish, crooked, fwart, prodigious 3, Patch'd with foul moles, and eye-offending marks, I would not care, I then would be content: 'If thou hadft, &c.] Mafflinger appears to have copied this Faffage in The Unnatural Combat, "If thou hadst been born "Deform'd and crooked in the features of "I had been bleft." STEEVENS. 2-fighilefs-] The poet ufes fightlefs for that which we now exprefs by unfightly, difagreeable to the eyes. JOHNSON. 3-prodigious,]That is, portentous, fo deformed as to be taken for a foretoken of evil. JOHNSON. In this fenfe it is used by Decker in the first part of The Honeft Whore, 1635, yon comet fhews his head again, Again, in The Revenger's Tragedy, 1607, "Over whofe roof hangs this prodigious comet," So in the Midfummer's Night Dream, fc. ult. "Nor mark prodigious, such as arę For For then I fhould not love thee; no, nor thou Sal. Pardon me, madamı, I may not go without you to the kings. Conft. Thou may'ft, thou fhalt, I will not go with thee: I will inftruct my forrows to be proud; For grief is proud, and makes his owner ftout 4, makes its owner tout.] The old editions have, makes its owner ftoop: the emendation is Hanmer's 5 To me, and to the fate of my great grief, Let kings affemble ;- -] In Much Ado about Nothing, the father of Hero, depreffed by her difgrace, declares himself fo fubdued by grief that a thread may lead him. How is it that grief in Leonato and lady Conftance produces effects directly oppofite, and yet both agreeable to nature. Sorrow foftens the mind while it is yet warmed by hope, but hardens it when it is congealed by defpair. Diftrefs, while there remains any profpect of relief, is weak and flexible, but when no fuccour remains, is fearless and ftubborn; angry alike at those that injure, and at thofe that do not help; carelefs to plcafe where nothing can be gained, and fearless to offend when there is nothing further to be dreaded. Such was this writer's knowledge of the paf fions. JOHNSON, Let Let kings affemble; for my grief's fo great, bid kings come bow to it.] I must here account for the liberty I have taken to make a change in the divifion of the 2d and 3d acts. In the old editions, the 2d act was made to end here; though it is evident, lady Conftance here, in her despair, feats herself on the floor: and he must be fuppofed, as I formerly obferved, immediately to rife again, only to go off and end the act decently; or the flat feene muit fhut her in from the fight of the audience, an abfurdity I cannot accufe Shakespeare of. Mr. Gildon and fome other criticks fancied, that a confiderable part of the 2d act was loft; and that the chaẩm began here. I had joined in this fufpicion of a scene or two being lot; and unwittingly drew Mr. Pope into this error. "It jeems to "be fo, fays he, and it were to be wifh'd the reflorer (meaning "me) could fupply it." To deferve this great man's thanks, I'll venture at the task; and hope to convince my readers, that nothing is loft; but that I have fupplied the fufpected chafm, only by rectifying the divifion of the acts. Upon looking a little more narrowly into the conftitution of the play, I am fatisfied that the 3d act ought to begin with that fcene, which has hitherto been accounted the laft of the 2d act; and my reafons for it are these the match being concluded, in the scene before that, betwixt the Dauphin and Blanch, a meffenger is fent for lady Conftance to king Philip's tent, for her to come to Saint Mary's church to the folemnity. The princes all go out, as to the marriage; and the Bastard staying a little behind, to defcant on intereft and commodity, very properly ends the act. The next fcene then, in the French king's tent, brings us Salisbury delivering his meffage to Conflance, who, refafing to go to the folemnity, fets herself down on the floor. The whole train returning from the church to the French king's pavilion, Philip expreffes fuch fatisfaction on occafion of the happy folemnity of that day, that Conftance rifes from the floor, and joins in the fcene by entering her protest against their joy, and curing the bufinefs of the day. Thus, I conceive, the fcenes are fairly continued; and there is no chafm in the a&tion, but a proper interval made both for Salisbury's coming to lady Conflance, and for the folemnization of the marriage. Befides, as Faulconbridge is evidently the poet's favourite character, it was very well judged to close the act with his foliloquy. THEOBALD. This whole note feems judicious enough; but Mr. Theobald forgets that there were, in Shakespeare's time, no moveable fcenes in common playhoufes. JOHNSON. Enter king John, king Philip, Lewis, Blanch, Elinor, Faulconbridge, and Austria. K. Phil. 'Tis true, fair daughter; and this bleffed Ever in France fhall be kept festival : Conft. A wicked day, and not a holy-day ! [Rifing. What hath this day deferv'd? what hath it done, That it in golden letters fhould be set, Among the high tides, in the kalendar? Nay, rather, turn this day out of the week; This day of shame, oppreffion, perjury: Or, if it must stand still, let wives, with child Pray, that their burthens may not fall this day, Left that their hopes prodigiously be croft: But on this day 9, let feamen fear no wreck; No bargains break, that are not this day made: This 7 To folemnize this day, &c.] From this paffage Rowe seems to have borrowed the first lines of his Fair Penitent. JOHNSON. and plays the alchymift;] Milton has borrowed this thought, P. L. B. 3. "when with one virtuous touch "Th'arch-chemic fun," &c. STEEVENS. But on this day, No bargains break, &c.] That is, except on this day. JOHNSON. In the ancient almanacs (one of which I have in my poffeffion, dated 1562) the days fuppofed to be favourable or unfavourable to bargains are diftinguifhed, among a number of other particulars of the like importance. This circumftance is alluded to in Webster's Dutchess of Malfy, 1623, "By the almanac, I think "To choose good days and fhun the critical." This day, all things begun come to ill end; Conft. You have beguil'd me with a counterfeit And our oppreffion hath made up this league Wear out the day in peace; but, ere fun-fet, Auft. Lady Conftance, peace. Conft. War! war! no peace! peace is to me a war. 40 Lymoges! O Auftria! thou doft fhame That bloody fpoil: thou flave, thou wretch, thou coward, So in The Elder Brother of Beaumont and Fletcher, "Which thou art daily poring in, to pick out 46 Thou Days of iniquity to cozen fools in." STEEVENS. You came in arms to Spill my enemies blood, But now in arms, you ftrengthen it with yours.] I am afraid here is a clinch intended; You came in war to deftroy my enemies, but now you strengthen them in embraces. JOHNSON. 3 Set armed difcord, &c.] Shakespeare makes this bitter curfe effectual. JOHNSON. 4 *O Lymoges! O Auftria!-] The propriety or impropriety of thefe titles, which every editor has fuffered to pafs unnoted, deferves a little confideration, Shakespeare has, on this occafion, followed the old play, which at once furnished him with the character of Faulconbridge, and afcribed the death of Richard I. to the duke of Auftria. In the perfon of Auftria, he has conjoined the two well-known enemies of Coeur-de-lion. Leopold, duke of Auftria, threw him into prifon in a former expedition; but the le of Chalus, before which he fell, belonged to Vi domar, |