Tho. de Otterbourne Chronica Regum Anglia, a Hearne, P. 73. Joannis Roffi Hift. Regum Anglia, Oxonia 1745, p. 195. Vifcera Carleolum, Fons corpus fervat Ebraudi, Et cor Rothomagus, magne Ricarde tuum. Sc. 2. p. 403. - And the band of time Shall draw this brief into as large a volume.] "Into as huge a volume." Folio 1632. Act 2. fc. 2. p. 404. Faulc. You are the hare, of whom the proverb goes, 1 Whofe valour plucks dead lions by the beard.] (b) This proverb is an allufion to the ill usage which the body of Hector met with, from the Greeks, after he was flain by Achilles. Id. ib. p. 405. Conftance to Queen Elinor. Conft. Thy fins are vifited in this poor child; The canon of the law is laid on him, Being but the fecond generation Remov'd from thy fin-conceiving womb.] An allufion to the fecond commandment, of God's vifiting the fins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate him. Id. ib. p. 407. K. John. Behold the French, amaz'd, vouchSafe a parle, (b), Mortuo leoni et lepores infultant. Extat epigramma Græcum cujus argumentum fumptum eft ex Homeri, Iliad 10. ubi He&torem ab Achille jam interfectum circumfiftunt Græci mortuo infultantes &c. Erafmi Adag, Chil, 4. Cent. 7. Prov. 72. And And now instead of bullets wrapp'd in fire, To make a fbaking-fever in your walls, They foot but calm words, folded up in smoke.] Here is an anachronism of about a hundred and fifty years, gunpowder not being found out till the latter end of the thirteenth century, if fo foon. The first cannons in France, according to Larrey, were made ufe of by the English army, at the battle of Cressy, in the year 1346: And Mezeray adds, that King Edward ftruck terror into the French army by five or fix cannon, it being the first time they had feen fuch thundering machines. In the year 1535, John Owen began to "make brafs ordnance, as cannons, culverins, " and fuch like. He was the first Englishman, "that ever made that kind of artillery in Eng"land." Stow's Chronicle, p. 571. Act 2. fc. 3. p. 408. K. Phil. 'Tis not the rounder of your old fac'd walls Can bide you from our messengers of war.] Roundel, (fee Skinner) exponitur globus rotundus, qui columnæ imponitur, epiftylium parum deflexo fenfù a Fr. G. Rondelle Bractea, feu lamina rotunda. Id. ib. p. 408. Faulc. Saint George that fwing'd the dragon, and e'er fince Sits on his horfeback, at mine hoftefs' door, The The legend of Saint George. "When Robert Duke of Normandy, fon to "William the Conqueror, was profecuting his "victory against the Turks, and laying flege "to the famous city of Antioch, which was like "to be reliev'd by a mighty army of Saracens, "Saint George appeared with an innumerable army coming down the hill all in white, "with a red crofs in his banner, to reinforce "the Chriftians; which occafioned the Infidel "army to fly, and the Chriftians to poffefs "themselves of the town. This stoty made "Saint George extraordinary famous in those “times, and to be esteem'd a' patron not only "of the English, but of Christianity itself.” See Wheatley on the Calendar, April z3d. K. John. Then I do give Volqueffen, Touraine, Poitiers, and Anjou, thefe five provinces The county of Volqueffen, the French king claim'd as his own, being granted by the Earl of Anjou, the father of King Henry the Second, unto Lewis le Grofs, for his affiftance against King Stephen. Holinfbed's Chronicle, King John, P. 260. Mr. Echard obferves, (Hiftory of England, Vol. 1. p. 232) "That upon the treaty be"tween the two Kings of England and France, "Lewis, "Lewis, the fon of the French king, was to marry Blanche, King John's niece, daughter to Alphonfo King of Caftile; and that King John was to give for her dowry, the city, and county of Eurux, with feveral strong places in Normandy; befides thirty thoufand "marks in filver." A& 3. fc. 2. p. 422. Conft. Arm, arm ye heavens against these perjur'd kings, A widow crys, be busband to me heaven.] An allufion to Pfalm lxviii. 5. "He is father "of the fatherlefs, and defendeth the caufe "of the widows." Id. ib. Conftance to the Duke of Austria. Thou wear a lion's hide! doff it for fhame, And bang a calve's fkin on those recreant limbs.] An allufion to Anianus's fable, of the afs in the lyon's fkin. L'Eftrange's Fables, part 1. fab. 224. Recreant, or recreaunt, is a word often ufed by our ancient English poets, and from them by the generality of romance writers, and fignifies one, who has betray'd his trust, or an infidel, a faint hearted, or cowardly perfon. See in proof, Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rofe, 4090, e. and Parfon's Tale, p. 204. Urry's edition. And Gawin Douglass's Virgil, fyxte boke of Eneados, 36, &c. Skelton, fpeaking of the Duke of Albany's cowardice, (Works, p. 80) fays: "Both Kyng Fraunces and the "That knowen ye shall be "For "For the moft recray'd' "Cowardes afray'd, "And falfeft forfworne "That ever were borne." A& 3. fc. 3. P. 424. K. John. Tell him thy tale, and from the mouth of England Add thus much more, that no Italian priest Shall tithe or toll in our dominions.] How great the Pope's exactions were in this kingdom, appears from the 25th of Henry the Eighth, cap. 21. intitled, The At concerning Peter-Pence, and Difpenfations. Id. ib. p. 426. Conftance. Lewis, ftand faft, the devil tempts Thee here, in the likeness of a new-trimm❜d bride.] Shakespeare probably alludes to the old legend of the devil's tempting Saint Dunftan; of whom the Monkish writers obferve, that he was tempted by the devil to lewdness, in the shape of a fine lady. Id. ib. p. 429. Blanch. Shall braying trumpets, and loud churlifh drums, Clamours of Hell, be measures to our pomp? O busband hear me-] An allufion probably to Boccalini, who makes Apollo fend the inventor of the drum to the devil. Advertisements from Parnafjus, cent. 1. adver. 16. p. 27. Sc. 5. p. 432. Faulc. Bell, book, and candle fhall not drive me back, When gold and filver beck me to come on.] Chaucer |