If he be not complete, it is because he is not yet married to this princess; and she wants nothing, if it be not, indeed, a want that she has not yet him for her husband. Man and wife is

one flesh.

399. "

This match."

The conceit which Doctor Johnson deprecates here undoubtedly exists.

401. "Lest zeal, now melted, by the windy

breath

Of soft petitions, pity and remorse,

"Cool and congeal again to what it was.” Doctor Johnson's objection to this passage is surely unanswerable: but Shakspeare, as every one must have observed, is not always very solicitous about the integrity of his metaphors. Philip's original inclination to the war, for that is his zeal-Philip, or France

Whose armour conscience buckled on, "Whom zeal and charity brought to the field, "As God's own soldier-"

is now counteracted or subdued by motives of personal interest; and this change or relinquishment of purpose our poet would freely call a melting or dissolution of it; but having got hold of that unlucky idea, he was unwilling, as upon many other occasions, to dismiss it until it involved him in perplexity; and, as he had already melted zeal, he now not only boldly undertakes to freeze it again, but violates the very nature of pity and remorse, by making them his instruments. Mr. Malone, I think, has mistaken the sense of the passage:-Make this match, says Eleanor; it is for your advantage:

"I see a yielding in the looks of France."

The parties are inclined to it.

"Mark how they whisper; urge them while their souls

"Are capable of this ambition."

Lest, by the tender supplications of Constance and her child, and the renovated impulse of pity and remorse, the king should relapse into his former vowed hostility.

Drawn, in the legal sentence pronounced on traitors, is no more than being dragged by the heels, or on a hurdle, to the place of execution. See Mr. Tollet and Sir W. Blackstone on the word embowelled, Richard III. Act 5, Scene 2. The vulgar notion, however, is, that "drawn" implies exenterated or embowelled; and that this was the poet's meaning, in the present instance, is plain, from the order of the context, hanged and drawn, which otherwise would have been drawn and hanged.

If he see aught in you, that makes him like, "That any thing he sees, which moves his liking, "I can with ease translate it to my will."

In this idle tautology there is manifest corruption. Where is the difference between what makes him like, and what moves his liking? It seems to be an altered passage, with words retained which were meant to be rejected. I would read:

"If he see aught in you that moves his liking, "I can with ease translate it to my will."

407. "Hath willingly departed with a part."

This may mean yielded or parted with a part, or it may signify that John has been willing to go back to England with a part only of his dominions; but I rather think the first of these interpretations is the true one, as in the third part of King Henry VI. Act 2, Scene 2:

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Like life and death's departing."

Rounded in the ear."

This phrase occurs in Camden's Remains :

"Which proud speech, when the unfortunate father heard, he rounded the archbishop in the eare, and said-I repent me, I repent me of nothing more than of untimelie advancements."

Wise Speeches, p. 249. Ed. 1636. Harper.

And in Middleton:

"Then is

your grandsire rounded in the ear.” A Mad World My Masters.

"Who having no external thing to lose "But the word maid, cheats the poor maid of that."

Mr. Malone has laboured, with little success, to reconcile this passage, as it stands, to any tolerable conformity with grammar. Who can have no other antecedent but maids; and so the maid must cheat herself. I would propose, with a slight correction, to read:

"Who, having no external thing to lose

"But the word maid, are cheated e'en of that."

The word, maid, the external thing, is the name or repute of virginity.

408. " Commodity."

Commodity, says Mr. Steevens, is interest; but this, I suspect, is not a very accurate definition: perhaps expediency, or existing circumstances, accommodation, would best explain it; and I find the word so used in a translation of Tacitus, 1622, by Greenwey :-" That happened of late under Artabanus, who, for his owne commoditie, made the people subject to the chiefe gentlemen."-And again, "No man laboured to attaine to any knowledge unlesse he had seene some commoditie in it."

"Made to run even, upon even ground."

The allusion is to the game of bowls; and the inference, that the business of mankind would advance fairly and directly to its object, were it not insidiously drawn aside by the influence of secret corruption.

Take head from all indifferency,

"From all direction, purpose, course, intent.' Proceed violently, unmindful of fairness and impartiality, or the just rules and intention of the game.

409. "Determin'd aid."

The aid which Lewis had at first determined to give to the claims of Arthur. This seems so clear, that I should never have thought of explaining it, if Mr. Steevens had not produced, from Mr. M. Mason, a note in which the passage is called non

sense.

Q 3

410. "

ACT III. SCENE I.

-Capable of fears."

Capable, says Mr. Malone, here signifies having strong sensibility; and he quotes, from Ham

let:

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-His form and cause conjoin'd,

Preaching to stones, would make them capable."

But "capable," in the cited instance, only means, "susceptible," capable of feeling; and in the case before us, it implies, I believe, no more than being liable to, and liable in consequence of, sickness; as, being "oppressed with wrongs," she is therefore "full of fears;" by being "husbandless," "subject to fears;" and by being "a woman,' naturally born to fears."

99 66

412. "

Prodigious."

Thus in King Richard III.

"If ever he have child, abortive be it, "Prodigious, and untimely brought to light," &c. 419. "You have beguil'd me with a counterfeit." Here is a tirfling allusion to the coin called a royal.

420. "You came in arms to spill mine enemies' blood,

"But now in arms," &c.

Dr Johnson's anxiety has again too sure a foundation; the double meaning of "arms," as referring to both war and embraces is but too evident.

"Our oppression hath made up this league.”