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,
A cased lion' by the mortal paw,

A fasting tiger safer by the tooth,

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, set'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:
For that, which thou hast sworn to do amiss,
Is not amiss when it is truly done;

And being not done, where doing tends to ill,
The truth is then most done not doing it.
The better act of purposes mistook
Is to mistake again: though indirect,
Yet indirection thereby grows direct,

And falsehood falsehood cures; as fire cools fire
Within the scorched veins of one new burn'd.

It is religion that doth make vows kept,

But thou hast sworn against religion,

By what thou swear'st, against the thing thou swear'st,

5 A CASED lion] So the old copies, taking “cased" in the sense of caged, for which it was perhaps a misprint, the g having been read for a long s by the compositor. Some editors would read chafed, but this supposes a double error in the word.

6 The truth is then most done not doing it :] The meaning of this and of the three preceding lines is a little obscure, and Dr. Johnson's emendation,

"Is't not amiss when it is truly done?"

would clear the text with little violence. Perhaps, however, no alteration is necessary, taking the sense of "Is not amiss when it is truly done" to be "what you have sworn to do amiss, is not amiss when it is done truly, as it ought to be, that is, not done at all." This was Ritson's notion of the passage. We preserve the original reading.

And mak'st an oath the surety for thy truth
Against an oath the truth, thou art unsure
To swear, swears only not to be forsworn';
Else, what a mockery should it be to swear?
But thou dost swear only to be forsworn;
And most forsworn, to keep what thou dost swear.
Therefore, thy later vows, against thy first,
Is in thyself rebellion to thyself;

And better conquest never canst thou make,
Than arm thy constant and thy nobler parts
Against these giddy loose suggestions:
Upon which better part our prayers come in,
If thou vouchsafe them; but, if not, then know,
The peril of our curses light on thee,

So heavy, as thou shalt not shake them off,
But in despair die under their black weight.
Aust. Rebellion, flat rebellion!

Bast.

Will't not be?

Will not a calf's-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 pronounce, Upon my knee I beg, go not to arms

Against mine uncle.

Const.

O! upon my knee,

Made hard with kneeling, I do pray to thee,

To swear, SWEARS only not to be forsworn ;] i. e. "the truth, which you are unsure to swear, swears only that it will not be forsworn." This is the authentic reading, making "truth" the nominative to "swears," which Malone and some other modern editors print swear, leaving it without any word to govern it. The whole passage is difficult.

VOL. IV.

E

Thou virtuous Dauphin, alter not the doom
Fore-thought by heaven.

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 upholds, 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 !

Which is the side that I must go withal?
I am with both: each army hath a hand,
And in their rage, I having hold of both,
They whirl asunder, and dismember me.
Husband, I cannot pray that thou may'st win;
Uncle, I needs must pray that thou may'st lose;
Father, I may not wish the fortune thine;
Grandam, I will not wish thy wishes thrive:
Whoever wins, on that side shall I lose;

Assured loss, before the match be play'd.

Lew. Lady, with me; with me thy fortune lies. Blanch. There where my fortune lives, there my life

dies.

K. John. Cousin, go draw our puissance together.[Exit Bastard.

France, I am burn'd up with inflaming wrath;

A rage, whose heat hath this condition,

That nothing can allay, nothing but blood,

The blood, and dearest-valu'd blood of France.

K. Phi. Thy rage shall burn thee up, and thou shalt

turn

To ashes, ere our blood shall quench that fire.

Look to thyself: thou art in jeopardy.

K. John. No more than he that threats.-To arms

let's hie!

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

The Same. Plains near Angiers.

Alarums, Excursions. Enter the Bastard with
AUSTRIA'S Head.

Bast. Now, by my life, this day grows wondrous

hot;

Some airy devil hovers in the sky,

And pours down mischief. Austria's head, lie there, While Philip breathes.

Enter King JOHN, ARTHUR, and HUBERT.

K. John. Hubert, keep this boy.-Philip, make up: My mother is assailed in our tent,

And ta'en, I fear.

Bast.

My lord, I rescued her;
Her highness is in safety, fear you not:
But on, my liege; for very little pains
Will bring this labour to an happy end.

Austria's head, lie there,

[Exeunt.

While Philip breathes.] The old "King John," 1591, partakes more of the barbarism of the stage when it was written, and Philip spurns and tramples on Austria's head :—

"Lie there, a prey to every ravening fowl,
And as my father triumph'd in thy spoils,
And trod thine ensigns underneath his feet,
So do I tread upon thy cursed self."

SCENE III.

The Same.

Enter King JOHN,

Alarums; Excursions; Retreat.

ELINOR, ARTHUR, the Bastard, HUBERT, and Lords.

K. John. So shall it be; your grace shall stay behind,

[TO ELINOR.

So strongly guarded.-Cousin, look not sad:

[To ARTHUR.

Thy grandam loves thee, and thy uncle will
As dear be to thee as thy father was.

Arth. O! this will make my mother die with grief. K. John. Cousin, [To the Bastard.] away for England: haste before;

And ere our coming, see thou shake the bags
Of hoarding abbots; imprisoned angels
Set at liberty: the fat ribs of peace
Must by the hungry now be fed upon :

Use our commission in his utmost force.

Bast. Bell, book, and candle shall not drive me back, When gold and silver becks me to come on.

I leave your highness:-Grandam, I will pray (If ever I remember to be holy,)

For your fair safety: so I kiss your hand.

Eli. Farewell, gentle cousin.

K. John.

Coz, farewell.

[Exit Bastard.

[She takes ARTHUR aside.

Eli. Come hither, little kinsman; hark, a word.

Set at liberty] The old copies are uniform in this reading, which Malone thus changes:

but the transposition is not required and is unauthorised, and the pronoun is needless for the sense, as well as too much for the metre.