179–81 sins are visited … canon … law … generation Constance does well to phrase things as the canon of the law (i.e. rule of the Old Testament) rather than ‘canon law’ (= Church law). The allusion is to the Second Commandment, Exodus, 20.5 (from the version in the Catechism and Communion service in BCP): ‘and visit the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me’ (Noble, 114).

  180 canon … law ‘canon = rule or decree of the Church; law = the system of divine commands contained in the Scriptures’ (Ard2) (see OED law n. 10 b). Ard2 refers to Holinshed’s life of John’s son and successor, Henry III: ‘neither shall the child (as the scripture teacheth vs) beare the iniquitie of his father’ (197).

  182 Removed removèd

  sin-conceiving womb i.e. Eleanor breeds sinful progeny (her son, John); recalling Psalms, 51.5, ‘In sinne hath my mother conceiued me’.

  183 Bedlam mad, crazed; from the residents or former residents only half-cured at the time of release from the ‘Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem, used as an asylum for the reception and treatment of the mentally ill’ (OED n. 2). It is possible, however, that this is an instance of consonantal metathesis, with the d and l reversed from putative MS ‘Beldam’ meaning virago (OED beldam 3, citing Philip Sidney’s Arcadia, ‘A beldame … accused for a witch’) or old woman (cf. 4.2.185).

  184–90 Herschel Baker (Riv2) summarizes the argument of this condensely expressed passage: ‘Arthur is being chastised for his grandmother’s wickedness, and she and John – himself the product of her sin – are sent to punish him unjustly.’ The passage has baffled many editors and its explication has been much debated (over four pages of commentary in Var). Dover Wilson has provided the clearest paraphrase: ‘God has employed her sin (John) and herself as the actual instruments of the punishment. He is punished for her sin and by her sin; he is injured by her wickedness, by the son of her “sin-conceiving womb”, who comes here to whip him with the scourge which should fall upon her back. Thus all her sins are visited upon this child, and all for her sake’ (Cam1). Whatever the exact sense, the frenetic verbal confusion of these lines is an emblem of Constance’s mental agitation.

  184 plagued plaguèd

  185 God … plague Cf. Exodus, 8.12.

  186 removed removèd

  187 her sin two senses: (1) moral wrong, and (2) sinful offspring, i.e. John (following sin-conceiving womb, 182); both senses seem to be contained in the following two lines (Johnson).

  188 beadle parish constable who metes out punishment, frequently to prostitutes and usually by whipping. OED 5 cites this line.

  191–2 I can … son King Richard had made Arthur his heir, but just before his death in 1199 he changed his testament; see Holinshed, 155b–156a: ‘he ordeined his testament, or rather reformed and added sundrie things vnto the same which he before had made, at the time of his going foorth towards the holie land. Vnto his brother Iohn he assigned the crowne of England, and all other his lands and dominions, causing the Nobles there present to sweare fealtie vnto him.’ The lines recall the contention over Sir Robert’s will (see 1.1.109–115 and 130–1).

  191 unadvised unadvisèd; of persons: imprudent, indiscreet, thoughtless, rash (OED a. 2), with an echo of the marriage service admonition in BCP, ‘and therefore is not to be enterprised nor taken in hand unadvisedly’, again suggesting that Constance is of dubious spousal fidelity.

  192 A will i.e. the testament of the dying Richard, who at the last made John his successor

  bars prevents and indicates illegitimacy, even as the bar sinister on a coat of arms indicated bastardy (OED v. I 5b, citing this line)

  193 Ay … that ironically delivered

  193–4 will Constance plays on various meanings: last testament; desire; determination; command; lust. The alliteration enhances her invective.

  194 A woman’s will Honigmann points out that according to Swinburne (sig. H3), women at that date ‘were not allowed to make wills for their lands, tenements, etc., if married, as the husband’s influence was feared. A “woman’s will” was proverbially an influenced will: Constance (reversing the process to emphasize Eleanor’s domination) suggests that Richard’s will was influenced by a woman.’ See Dent, W723, ‘Women will have their wills’; will could also mean vagina (Williams, ‘will’). Cf. 510–16.

  cankered malignant, envious. OED 6 cites this line. Also possible is a pun on ker/‘cur’: Eleanor is metaphorically a wicked bitch.

  * * *

  187–8 plague … his] Cam1; plague her sinne: his F 193 that? A will –] Oxf1; that, a Will: F

  196 cry aim encourage, abet; an expression borrowed from archery to encourage archers when they were about to shoot (OED aim n. 3c, citing this line)

  200.1 Is Hubert on the walls, or is it a nameless citizen, or, following Braunmuller, are both present? For this edition, the strongest arguments suggest that the same actor played both Hubert and the Citizen, but that only the nameless citizen is on the walls of Angiers, in spite of the brilliance of Braunmuller’s attempt to solve the problem.

  201 warned called, summoned

  202 France, for England the King of France, on behalf of the King of England (i.e. Arthur)

  England for itself John responds that he, as King of England, can speak for himself.

  203 my loving subjects John rhetorically assumes what is to be determined.

  204 loving men of Angiers not only stichomythic, but perhaps paradoxical, with Angiers suggesting ‘anger’

  205 gentle parle peaceful conference; that not all such meetings were peaceful is shown in Horatio’s description of Hamlet Senior, who smote his pole-axe (or, in Malone’s reading, the ‘Polacks’) on the ice, ‘in an angry parle’ (Ham 1.1.61).

  * * *

  200.1 Citizens] Steevens; a Citizen F

  207–8 This speech continues the personification of the town begun at 38. A distinctive feature of the play is the extraordinary number of such personifications; Spurgeon says ‘the dominating symbol, which out-dominates all others in the play, is the body and bodily action’ (see Spurgeon, 245–53 and Chart VI: ‘King John has … a larger number of “body” images than any other play except Henry VIII’, noted by Honigmann).

  208 eye and prospect hendiadys for ‘close-up view’

  prospect range or scope of vision; cf. MA 4.1.229, ‘the eye and prospect of his soul’.

  209 endamagement injury, harm. OED cites as the first instance Nashe’s Four Letters Confuted (1592, misdated there 1593), a work well known to Shakespeare; Nashe’s ‘that unadvised endamagement I have done you’ may have affected the choice of unadvised at 191.

  210–12 Ard2 cites Greene’s (d. 1592) Alphonsus, King of Aragon (pub. 1599): ‘the roaring cannon shot / Spit forth the venome of their fiered panch’ (sig. G4).

  210 Of course, John’s death itself is the result of the poisoning of his bowels. The bowels were considered as the seat of pity and tenderness (Ard2): John reverses the image for destructive purposes. Cf. .1H6 1.1.129.

  211 mounted … spit forth A field-gun or other piece of ordnance was mounted or put on its carriage; cf. 381–2, ‘let France and England mount / Their battering cannon, charged to the mouths’.

  212 iron indignation OED indignation 2 cites this line as figurative use of the term: the cannon balls/stones are full of ‘righteous anger; the wrath of a superior’.

  215 winking gates i.e. shut gates, but soon to be open figuratively qualifying city’s eyes; cf. AYL 3.5.12–13, ‘That eyes … Who shut their coward gates on atomies’.

  217 girdle surround. Cf. ‘Spur to the rescue of the noble Talbot, / Who now is girdled with a waist of iron / And hemmed about with grim destruction’ (1H6 4.3.19–21, with Steevens’s reading ‘waist’; Ard3 prints ‘waste’).

  waist belt

  218 ordinance artillery, military equipment; in modern spelling ‘ordnance’ (OED n. 4c)

  219 fixed fixèd

  beds of lime mortar or cement used to hold stone blocks in place in a wall (OED lime n.1 2). Cf. Percy’s ‘King Richard lies / Within the limits of yon lime and stone’ (R2 3.3.25–6).

  * * *

  214 French] Rowe subst.; French. F 215 Confronts] Capell (Rowe); Comfort F your] F3; yours F 217 waist] F4; waste F

  220 dishabited dislodged, violently removed from their places (OED a. 1, ‘uninhabited; deserted of inhabitants’)

  wide havoc a large breach among the tumbled stones in the wall. John has accepted Chatillon’s prophecy and redirected it against Angiers.

  223 painfully diligently, with great effort

  expedient swift, speedy

  224 counter-check check or rebuke that arrests the course of anything (OED countercheck n. 2, citing this line); i.e. John and his forces have stopped the French from destroying the town.

  227 wrapped in fire a common phrase; Braunmuller compares Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta 2.2.54, ‘Wee’ll send thee bullets wrapt in smoake and fire’. A possible other instance of Kydian anticipation/influence is found in Spanish Tragedy, 3.11.1.45–6, ‘violence … / wrapped in a ball of fire’.

  228 shaking fever disease characterized by tremulous shaking of the head and limbs (probably Parkinson’s disease) (OED ppl. a. b, citing this line as a figurative usage)

  229 words … smoke words hiding behind obscurity (deceit) (see OED smoke n. I 4e, ‘a clouding or obscuring medium or influence’, here hot air or talk), with a play on wrapped in fire (227); cf. LLL 3.1.60–4, ‘Sweet smoke of rhetoric! / He reputes me a cannon; and the bullet, that’s he’, and Luc 1027, ‘This helpless smoke of words doth me no right.’

  231 trust accordingly i.e. distrust

  233 Fore-wearied already tired (by marching to Angiers in time to raise the siege)

  234 harbourage shelter, lodging. OED n. 1 cites this line.

  * * *

  235 SP] Ard2; France. F 236 SD] this edn

  237 divinely ‘in a holy or pious manner’. OED adv. 3 cites this line.

  upon the right to uphold the rightful claims (with a verbal play on right hand, 236)

  238 young Plantagenet Arthur

  241 downtrodden equity justice, i.e. Arthur’s right, crushed down by oppression or tyranny (OED downtrodden ppl. a. 2, citing this line)

  tread with a play on downtrodden

  244 constraint necessity

  hospitable hòspitable; ‘extending a generous hospitality to guests and visitors’, i.e. to Arthur, his guest. OED 1b cites this line.

  245 oppressed oppressèd

  child Today this word suggests such a young age for Arthur that we need to remember that the term was often used in the sixteenth century to indicate a young man.

  246 Religiously provokes requires as a Christian duty

  pleased pleasèd

  248 owes owns; has a right to (Riv2)

  249 arms … muzzled bear Beaurline cites the parallel suggestion of a contemporary allusion from Leicester’s Commonwealth, first known as ‘The Copie of a letter … of the Earle of Leicester’ (1584): ‘You know the Bears love [the Dudley family, Leicester’s, had as a heraldic badge a “muzzled bear rampant tied to a rough post”] … which is all for his own paunch, and so this Bear-whelp turneth all to his own commodity and for greediness there of will over turn all if he be not stopped or muzzled in time’ (sig. BI, quoted in Cam2).

  bear There maybe a subtextual association with Arthur, whose name etymologically means ‘bear’.

  250 Save in aspect The phrase refers to arms (249,) which will be controlled as is a muzzled bear, but the likeness does not extend to physical appearance.

  251 malice power to harm, harmful effect (OED n. 2, citing this example)

  vainly … spent will be expended without effect, i.e. the cannons will be shot into the air rather than aimed at the walls of Angiers.

  * * *

  252 th’invulnerable] F2; th’inuoluerable F

  253 blessed blessèd; because unwounded (hidden pun on Fr. blessé = wounded)

  unvexed retire peaceful withdrawal

  254 helmets all unbruised Cf. Spenser, Shepheardes Calender, ‘October’, l. 42, ‘And helms unbruized uneven dalie browne’, and Richard of Gloucester’s ‘Our bruised arms hung up for monuments’ (R3 1.1.6).

  255 lusty vigorous, valiant

  256 spout King Philip again imagines with curious vividness the death of his own soldiers, spouting their blood against the walls of Angiers: cf. 412n.

  259 roundure circumference, circle, hence circumference in 262

  old-faced ancient; also recalling the similar construction half-face, used to describe the unattractive Robert Faulconbridge (1.1.92)

  261 discipline military skill and experience (OED n. 3b spec.); see 39n.

  264 In … which ‘on behalf of him for whom’ (Riv2); i.e. on Arthur’s behalf and in respect to his claim

  267 SP CITIZEN not to be identified with Hubert

  267 King … subjects As the territory of Anjou is an English possession, the citizens of Angiers are subjects of the English king.

  * * *

  267 subjects:] Theobald subst.; subiects F

  274 witnesses i.e. his army. In legal language John is using a ‘mode of proof’ by producing witnesses who will testify (hence verify in 277) on behalf of John’s title (see Pollock & Maitland, 2.601).

  276 else otherwise (OED adv. 1c, citing this line). The Bastard’s interjection subverts the sense of men of proper descent (breed, 275), and likewise his interjection at 279 qualifies well-born bloods in 278.

  280 Stand The legal as well as the literal sense is implied: as John has brought witnesses (274) to verify his title, so too King Philip has brought his own to Stand as counter-witnesses or judges; to stand (in judgement), said of the judge or court; to hold session (OED v. 11b).

  281 compound settle (OED v. II 6), come to terms by mutual concession (OED v. II 11); but with the secondary sexual sense which reminds the audience of just where all those bastards cited by the Bastard have come from. Cf. Edmund the Bastard’s ironic comment, ‘My father compounded with my mother under the dragon’s tail … so that it follows I am rough and lecherous’ (KL 1.2.128–31).

  285 fleet pass away (i.e. from their bodies), qualifying souls in 283 (hence said of dying men; see OED v. 10b)

  288 Saint George patron saint of England, whose feast was celebrated on 23 April, the day often suggested as the birthday of Shakespeare. Oxf1 cites J.L. Brereton’s interpretation of George Chapman’s allusion in The Gentleman Usher, ‘the English sign of great Saint George’ (1.2.93) as a reference ‘to some London sign-board of particular notoriety’ (MLR, 3 (1907–8), 398); and rightly adds, ‘the Bastard’s reference may insinuate the bawdy jokes of the following lines to Austria’.

  swinged thrashed; Saint George slew the dragon, but note that dragons are usually depicted with tails that ‘swinge’ (= lash, whip).

  289 on’s on his

  290 fence swordsmanship, art of fencing (OED n. 2); also means or method of defence; protection, security (OED n. 3), as in Leonardo’s comment on Claudio’s skill, ‘Despite his nice fence and his active practice’ (MA 5.1.75)

  290 SD The Bastard continues his insults.

  291 den … lioness The Bastard attacks Austria’s pretensions to the lion’s skin; lioness is Austria’s wife, but also slang for whore (Williams, ‘lion’).

  292–3set … monster place the horns of the ox on your head (i.e. make you a cuckold) and thereby create a double monster by combining the ox and the lion as well as a man and a beast; see Dent, C876.2, ‘A cuckold is a beast (monster)’, and cf. Oth 4.1.62, ‘A horned man’s a monster, and a beast.’

  * * *

  287 chevaliers! to] Capell (Rowe); Cheualiers to F 290 SD] Pope

  299 rest (1) remainder; (2) those at rest

  stand Cf. 2H4 4.1.226–8, ‘JOHN … wherefore stands our army still? / WESTMORLAND The leaders, having charge from you to stand, / Will not go off until they hear you speak.’

  God … right! perhaps deliberate use of the English royal motto and battle cry (Dieu et mon droit) inasmuch as Philip is fighting for Arthur

  301 Duke of Britain Britain = Brittany. For Arthur’s titles see 551–2n.

  306 discoloured stained (with blood). Cf. Henry V’s threat: ‘if we be hindered, / We shall your tawny ground with your red blood / Discolour’ (H5 3.6.159–61).

  * * *

  299 SD on … above] this edn 299.2 Trumpeters] Smallwood; Trumpets F 306 earth] F2; earrh F 311.1 Trumpeter] this edn; Trumpet F; Trumpeters / Smallwood

  312 Rejoice … Angiers Ard2 notes another Marlovian echo from 1 Tamb, 4.1.1.

  316 gilt gilded, covered in gold (an antithesis of silver bright in 315); the ‘gilt’ which covers the English armours is French blood (the colour of gold was associated with blood, cf. Mac 2.2.56–8, ‘If he do bleed, / I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal, / For it must seem their guilt’, and 2.3.113, ‘His silver skin laced with his golden blood’).

  318 removed removèd

  319 colours … hands i.e. the English banners have not been captured by the French; to lose one’s colours was a military disgrace.

  322 lusty vigorous; valiant; cf. 255.

  purpled reddened; an allusion to the hunting practice of dipping the hands into the entrails of the slaughtered deer. See Antony’s address to the conspirators: ‘Now, whilst your purpled hands do reek and smoke’ (JC 3.1.158), and his subsequent description of Caesar as a slain deer whose killers are like hunters: ‘Signed in thy spoil and crimsoned in thy lethe’ (206).