And, with her sin, her plague, his injury i. e. God hath made her, and her sin together, the plague of her most remote descendants, who are plagued for her; the same power hath likewise made her sin her own plague, and the injury she has done to him her own injury, as a beadle to lash that sin, i. e. Providence has so ordered it, that she who is made the instrument of punishment to another, has, in the end, converted that other into an instrument of punishment for herself. STEEVENS. Constance observes, that he (iste, pointing to King John, "whom from the flow of gall she names not ") is not only plagued [with the present war] for his mother's sin, but God hath made her sin and her the plague also on this removed issue, Arthur, plagued on her account, and by the means of her sinful offspring, whose injury [the usurpation of Arthur's rights] may be considered as-her injury, or the injury of her sin-conceiving womb; and John's injury may also be considered as the beadle or officer of correction employed by her crimes to inflict all these punishments on the person of this child. TOLLET. If part of this obscure sentence were included in a parenthesis, the sense would, perhaps, be somewhat clearer : But God hath made her sin and her (the plague And with her) plague her son; his injury, &c. Instead of " the beadle to her sin"-I would readthe beadle to her sins." Removed, I believe, here signifies remote. So, in The Midsummer Night's Dream: "From Athens is her house remov'd seven MALONE. leagues." Much as the text of this note has been belaboured, the original reading needs no alteration. I have but this to say, That he's not only plagued for her sin, But God hath made her sin and her the plague On this removd issue, plagu'd for her, And with her plague, her sin; his injury, All punish'd in the person of this child. The key to these words is contained in the last speech of Constance, where she alludes to the denunciation in the second commandment, of " visiting the iniquties of the parents upon the children unto the THIRD and FOURTH generation," &c.— "Thou monstrous injurer of heaven and earth! "This is the eldest son's son, "Thy sins are visited in this poor child; "Removed from thy sin-conceiving womb." Young Arthur is here represented as not only suffering from the guilt of his grandmother; but, also, by her, in person, she being made the very instrument of of his sufferings. As he was not her immediate, but REMOVED issue-the second generation from her sin-conceiving womb-it might have been expected, that the evils to which, upon her account, he was obnoxious, would have incidentally befallen him; instead of his being punished for them all, by her immediate infliction.-He is not only plagued on account of her sin, according to the threatening of the commandment; but, she is preserved alive to her second generation, to be the instrument of inflicting on her grandchild the penalty annexed to her sin; so that he is plagued on her account, and with her plague, which is, her sin, that is [taking, by a common figure, the cause for the consequence] the penalty intailed upon it. His injury, or the evil he suffers, her sin brings upon him, and HER injury, or, the evil she inflicts, he suffers from her, as the beadle to her sin, or executioner of the punishment annexed to it. HENLEY. 201. It ill beseems this presence to cry aim To these ill-tuned repetitions.] Dr. Warburton has well observed on one of the former plays, that to cry aim is to encourage. I once thought it was bor rowed from archery; and that aim! having been the word of command, as we now say present! to cry aim had been to incite notice, or raise attention. But I rather think, that the old word of applause was J'aime, I Love it, and that to applaud was to cry J'aime, which the English, not easily pronouncing Je, sunk into aime or aim. Our exclamations of applause are still borrowed, as bravo and encore. JOHNSON. Dr. Dr. Johnson's first thought, I believe, is best. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Love's Cure, or The Martial Maid: -Can I cry aim "To this against myself?" So, in our author's Merry Wives of Windsor, act ii. scene v. where Ford says: "and to these violent proceedings all my neighbours shall cry aim.” STEEVENS. 212. For our advantage;―Therefore hear us first.—] If we read for your advantage, it would be a more specious reason for interrupting Philip. TYRWHITT, 221. Confronts your city's eyes,-] The old copy reads:-Comforts, &c. Mr. Rowe made this necessary change. STEEVENS. 230. -a countercheck-] This, I believe, is one of the ancient terms used in the game of chess. So, in Mucedorus: "Post hence thyself, thou counterchecking trull.” STEEVENS. 264. 'Tis not the roundure, &c.] Roundure means the same as the French rondeur, i. e. the circle. So, in All's lost by Lust, a tragedy by Rowley, 1633: 66 -will she meet our arms "With an alternate roundure ?" Again, in Shakspere's 21st sonnet : all things rare, "That heaven's air in this huge rondure hems." STEEVENS. ཁྭ 298. I'd set an ox-head to your lion's hide,] So, in the old spurious play of K. John, "But let the frolick Frenchman take no scorn, "If Philip front him with an English horn." STEEVENS. 307. You men of Angiers, &c.] This speech is very poetical and smooth, and except the conceit of the widow's husband embracing the earth, is just and beautiful. JOHNSON. 319. Rejoice, you men of Angiers, &c.] The English herald falls somewhat below his antagonist. Silver armour gilt with blood is a poor image. Yet our author has it again in Macbeth: -Here lay Duncan, "His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood." 328. And, like a jolly troop of huntsmen, JOHNSON. -] It was, I think, one of the savage practices of the chase, for all to stain their hands in the blood of the deer, as a trophy. JOHNSON. 332. Heralds, from off, &c.] These three speeches seem to have been laboured. The citizen's is the best; yet both alike we like is a poor gingle. JOHNSON. 342. -run on ?] The old copy has-rome on. The alteration was made by the editor of the second folio. MALONE. 361. mouthing the flesh of men,] The old copy reads-mousing. STEEVENS. |