Patched with foul moles, and eye-offending marks
I would not care; I then could be content;
For then I fhould not love thee; no, nor thou
Become thy great birth, nor deferve a crown.
But thou art fair, and at thy birth, dear boy!
Nature and Fortune joined to make thee great.
Of Nature's gifts thou may'ft with lilies boaft,
And with the half-blown rofe.

In the fame Scene, when Salisbury tells her that the two kings had fent for her, and that be must not return without her, the answer fhe makes is full of that dignity, which grief, mixed with refentment, is capable of conferring on illuftrious unfortunates; and her whole demeanour upon that occafion is expreffive of a great foul, rendered still braver by miffortunes.

Celance. Thou may'ft, thou shalt; I will not go with thee.
I will inftruct my forrows to be proud;

For grief is proud, and makes his owner ftout.
To me, and to the ftate of my great grief,
Let kings affemble; for my grief's fo great,
That no fupporter, but the huge firm earth,
Can hold it up.-Here I and forrow fit-
Here is my throne; bid kings come bow to it.

[Sits down on the floor.

Doctor Johnfon has given us a very judicious note on this paffage; and as it relates to the paffions, which, as well as morals, are a fubject of this work, I fhall prefent the reader with a tranfcript of it

here.

"In Much Ado About Nothing, the father of Hero, depreffed by her difgrace, declares himself fo fub"dued by grief, that a thread may lead him*. How is it that grief, in Leonato and Lady Conftance, produces effects directly oppofite, and yet both agreeable to Nature? Sorrow foftens the mind, "while it is yet warmed by hope; but hardens it, "when 'tis congealed by defpair. Diftrefs, while "there remains any profpect of relief, is weak and "flexible; but when no fuccour appears, is fearless

Being that I flow in grief,
The inalleft twine may lead me.

4 IV. Scene II.

" and

" and stubborn; angry alike at thofe who injure, "and at those who do not help; carelefs to please, "where nothing can be gained; and fearless to offend, "when there is nothing further to be dreaded. Such was this Author's knowledge of the Paffions."

SCENE II.

What expreffions can be stronger in themselves, or more fhocking to the ears of her oppreffors, than the following fhort exclamation!

Confiance. Arm, arm, ye Heavens, against thefe perjured kings! A widow cries, be husband to me, Heaven!

Here the fpeech fhould have ended; the four remaining lines but weaken and difgrace it,

SCENE III.

When Philip is urged by the Pope's Legate to break the league he had just entered into with John, he offers to compound the treachery by ceafing to be bis friend, but without becoming his enemy.

I may disjoin my hand, but not my faith.

To which Pandulpho makes him this reply:
So mak'ft thou faith an enemy to faith;
And like a civil war fet'ft oath to oath,

Thy tongue against thy tongue. O, let thy vow,
First made to Heaven, firft be to Heaven performed!
That is, to be the champion of the Church.

What fince thou fworeft, is fworn against thyself,

And may not be performed by thyself.

For that which thou haft fworn to do amifs,

Is't not amifs 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 miftook,
Is to mistake again; though indirect,

Yet indirection thereby grows direct,

And falfehood falfehood cures; as fire cools fire,
Within the fcorched veins of one new burned.

It is religion that doth make vows kept,

But thou haft fworn against religion;

By which thou fwear'ft against the thing thou fwear'it;
And mak'st an oath the furety for thy truth,
Agzinft an oath. The truth thou art unfure
To fwear; fwear only not to be forfworn;

N 2

Elfe

Elfe what a mockery should it be to swear?
But thou doft fwear, only to be forsworn,
And most forfworn to keep what thou doft fwear.
Therefore thy latter vow's against thy firft,
Is in thyfelf rebellion to thyself;

And better conqueft never canft thou make,
Than arm thy conftant and thy nobler parts
Against thefe giddy loofe fuggeftions.
Upon which better part our prayers come in,
If thou vouchfafe them. But, if not, then know,
The peril of our curfes light on thee,

So heavy, as thou shalt not shake them off,
But in defpair die under their black weight.

The old Jefuit argues here as ingeniously for the difpenfing power of the Papacy, as Satan does in Milton for his rebellion. The object of both is the faine; namely, the abfolute and exclufive dominion of Heaven.

SCENE VI.

The wild and enthufiaftic manner with which the fondness and defpair of Conftance for her fon, impels her to fpeak of him, has fomething extremely moving in it:

Father cardinal, I have heard you fay,

That we fhall fee and know our friends in Heaven;
If that be, I fhall fee my boy again.

For fince the birth of Cain, the first male child,

To him that did but yesterday fufpire,

There was not fuch a gracious creature born.

But now will canker forrow eat my bud,

And chafe the native beauty from his cheek;
And he will look as hollow as a ghost;

As dim and meagre as an ague-fit;

And fo he'll die: and rifing fo again,

When I fhall meet him in the court of Heaven,
I fhall not know him; therefore, never, never,
Muit I behold my pretty Arthur more.

There is fomething very tender and affecting in her making use of the epithet pretty, in the last line. It has a better effect there than dearest, angel, or even lovely, (though this laft has a more comprehenfive fenfe) would have had in that place. I muft beg leave to refer to the Reader's own taste for

the

the juftness of this obfervation; for I own, I cannot explain why it strikes me in this manner myself.

The reason why we are apt to cherish grief in our breafts; that fpecies of it, I only mean, which may be diftinguished by the name of tender forrow from a peculiar fort of indulgence it is capable of affording us, is admirably well expreffed in the following paffage :

Pandulpho. You hold too heinous a respect of grief.
Conftance. He talks to me who never had a fon.

Philip. You feem as fond of grief, as of your child.
Conftance. Grief fills the room up of my abfent child;
Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me ;
Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words ;
Remembers me of all his gracious parts;
Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form;
Then have I reafon to be fond of grief.
Fare you well. Had you fuch a lofs as I,
I could give better comfort than you do.
I will not keep this form upon my head,,

[Tearing off her bead-drefs.

When there is fuch diforder in my wits.
O Lord, my boy, my Arthur, my fair fon!
My life, my joy, my food, my all the world!
My widow's comfort, and my forrow's cure.

These last three lines are almoft fuffocating. I believe no woman with a mother's feeling, could ever be able to pronounce them articulately, even in representation.

Doctor Johnson gives a good note on one of the paffages of the above fpeech:

"Had you fuch a lofs as I,

"I could give better comfort than

do." you

1.7 and 8.

"This is a fentiment which great forrow always dictates. Whoever cannot help himself, cafts his eyes on others for affiftance; and often mistakes their inability for coldnefs."

I remember a couple of French lines on this fubject of grief, which contain the fame thought that Conftance expreffes above:

"Mon deuil me plait, et doit toujours me plaire :
"Il me tient lieu de celui que je pleurs."

SCENE VIII.

Lewis. Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale,
Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.

This may be a juft image of life, to those who have exhausted its variety, and palled their fenfes with its pleasures. The speech might not have ill become his father, old Philip, then labouring under baffled hopes and disappointed wishes; who had just then fuffered the mortification of having loft a battle, in the heart of his own dominions, and whofe miftaken faith in heaven had obliged him to break' faith on earth, without effect too; but it was certainly rather too premature a fentence to have proceeded from the lips of a young prince, who had been but juft married to a woman he loved. Such an impropriety in the character of a speaker, hurts the effect of a thought or fentiment.

In the fame Scene, there is a ftrong defcription given of the fituation of a fovereign, with regard to the people, after he has forfeited their love, confidence, or esteem.

Pandulpho, speaking of John's keeping Arthur in prifon :

This act fo evilly born, fhall cool the hearts
Of all his people, and freeze up their zeal;
That no fo fmall advantage thall flep forth
To check his reign, but they will cherish it.
No natural exhalation in the sky,
No feape of Nature, no distempered day,
No common wind, no cullomed event,
But they will pluck away its natural caufe,
And call them meteors, prodigies, and figns,.
Abortives, and prefages, tongues of Heaven,
Plainly denouncing vengeance upon John...

See the note before, in tl is Play, on the word prodigious, in the first Seene

of this Act,

And