And she, there dead, that Romeo's faithful wife:
I married them; and their stolen marriage-day
Was Tybalt's doomsday, whose untimely death
Banish'd the new-made bridegroom from this city
For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pin'd.
You-to remove that siege* of grief from her,-
Betroth'd, and would have married her perforce,
To county Paris :-Then comes she to me;
And, with wild looks, bid me devise some means
To rid her from this second marriage,

Or, in my cell there would she kill herself.
Then gave I her, so tutor❜d by my art,
A sleeping potion; which so took effect
As I intended, for it wrought on her

The form of death: meantime I writ to Romeo,
That he should hither come as this dire night,
To help to take her from her borrow'd grave,
Being the time the potion's force should cease.
But he which bore my letter, Friar John,
Was staid by accident; and yesternight
Return'd my letter back: Then all alone,
At the prefixed hour of her waking,
Came I to take her from her kindred's vault ;
Meaning to keep her closely at my cell,
Till I conveniently could send to Romeo :
But when I came (some minute ere the time
Of her awakening), here untimely lay
The noble Paris, and true Romeo, dead.
She wakes; and I entreated her come forth,
And bear this work of heaven with patience:
But then a noise did scare me from the tomb ;
And she too desperate, would not go with me,
But (as it seems) did violence on herself.

* That source of grier.

All this I know; and to the marriage
Her nurse is privy: And, if aught in this
Miscarried by my fault, let my old life
Be sacrificed some hour before his time,
Unto the rigour of severest law.

-000·

KING JOHN.

The play commences with the arrival at the court of England of Chatillon, ambassador from the French king, who demands King John's abdication in favour of Prince Arthur. This is refused, and war is immediately declared between England and France. The two armies meet before the walls of Angiers, where a marriage is arranged between Lewis, the dauphin of France, and Blanch, niece of King John; thus an alliance is cemented between the French King Philip and John. At this juncture Cardinal Pandulph, the Pope's legate, arrives, to urge on King John the appointment of Stephen Langton to the see of Canterbury. This the king declines to accede to, telling Pandulph that No Italian priest

Shall tithe or toll in his dominions.

On which Pandulph declares him excommunicated, and induces the French king to declare war against him. In a battle which ensues, Prince Arthur is taken and sent to England, under the charge of Hubert, who has been ordered by John to kill the prince by burning out his eyes. Hubert, overcome by the prayers of Prince Arthur, will not execute the command given him; but the prince, in making an effort to escape from Northampton Castle, where he is confined, falls from the walls and is killed. The war continuing, the French land in England, and in a battle which ensues, King John, in accordance with a message he receives from Faulconbridge, leaves the field and retires to Swinstead

Abbey, where he dies, poison having been administered to him by a monk, and the play concludes with a defiant appeal on behalf of England from Faulconbridge.

Аст I.

King John's Defiance to the French Ambassador.

Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France;
For, ere thou canst report I will be there,
The thunder of my cannon shall be heard.
So hence! Be thou the trumpet of our wrath,
And sullen
presage of your own decay.

Faulconbridge's Speech on New Titles.

*

Good den, Sir Richard,-God-a-mercy, fellow;
And if his name be George, I'll call him Peter:
For new-made honour doth forget men's names;
'Tis too respective, and too sociable,

For your conversion. Now your traveller,—
He and his tooth-pick at my worship's mess :
And when my knightly stomach is sufficed,
Why then I suck my teeth and catechize
My picked man of countries.‡My dear sir
(Thus, leaning on mine elbow, I begin),
I shall beseech you-That is question now;
And then comes answer like an A B C-book ;
O sir, says answer, at your best command;

At

your employment: at your service, sir: No, sir, says question, I, sweet sir, at yours And so, ere answer knows what question would, (Saving in dialogue of compliment ;

And talking of the Alps and Apennines,

* Good e'en, good evening.

+Advanced position in life.

Picked man of countries; that is, one who has travelled much,

The Pyrenean, and the river Po),

It draws towards supper in conclusion so.
But this is worshipful society,

And fits the mounting spirit like myself.

ACT II.

Description of England.

That pale, that white-faced shore,
Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring tides,
And coops from other lands her islanders,
Even till that England, hedg'd in with the main,
That water-walled bulwark, still secure

And confident from foreign purposes,
Even till that utmost corner of the west
Salute thee for her king.

Description of an English Army.

All the unsettled humours of the land,
Rash, inconsiderate, fiery voluntaries,

With ladies' faces, and fierce dragons' spleens,-
Have sold their fortunes at their native homes,
Bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs,
To make a hazard of new fortunes here.
In brief, a braver choice of dauntless spirits,
Than now the English bottoms have waft o'er,
Did never float upon the swelling tide,
To do offence and scath* in Christendom.
The interruption of their churlish drums
Cuts off more circumstance: they are at hand.

Courage.

By how much unexpected, by so much. We must awake endeavour for defence; For courage mounteth with occasion.

A Boaster.

What cracker is this same, that deafs our ears With this abundance of superfluous breath?

Description of Victory by the French.

You men of Angiers, open wide your gates, And let young Arthur, Duke of Bretagne, in; Who, by the hand of France, this day hath made Much work for tears in many an English mother, Whose sons lie scattered on the bleeding ground: Many a widow's husband grovelling lies, Coldly embracing the discolour'd earth; And victory, with little loss, doth play Upon the dancing banners of the French; Who are at hand, triumphantly display'd, To enter conquerors.

Description of Victory by the English.

Rejoice, you men of Angiers, ring your bells; King John, your king and England's, doth approach, Commander of this hot malicious day!

Their armours, that march'd hence so silver bright,

Hither return all gilt with Frenchman's blood;
There stuck no plume in any English crest,
That is removed by a staff of France;
Our colours do return in those same hands

That did display them when we first march'd forth;
And, like a jolly troop of huntsmen, come