Malicious Men.
(12)

-Men that make
Envy and crooked malice nourishment,
Dare bite the best..

A Church-Man.

-Love and meekness, Lord,
Become a church-man better than ambition :
Win straying fouls with modelty again;
Cast none away.

Inhumanity.
(13) "Tis a cruelty
To load a falling man.
SCENE VIII. Archbishop Cranmer's Prophecy.

--Let me speak, Sir ; (For heav'n now bids nie) and the words I utter,

Let

(12) Men, &c.] In Paftor Fido, there is a fine sentiment not unlike this. Act 5. Sc. i.

Who now can boast of earth's felicity.

When envy treads on virtue's heel? S. R. Fanshaw. (13) 'Tis, &c.] The poet, in the former part of the play, ves us the same humane and tender sentiment.

-O my lord,
Press not a falling man too far; 'tis virtue.

Act. 3. S. 6. Nothing can afford us a better idea of the author's excellent mind; and we are assured, from the account we have of his character, he was remarkable for his humanity, benevolence, and

many virtues.

Look

I et none think flatt'ry, for they'll find 'em truth.
This royal infant, (heav'n still move about her)
Tho' in a cradle, yet now promises
Upon this land a thousand, thousand blessings,
Which time shall bring to ripeness. She shall be
(But few now living can behold that goodness)
A pattern to all princes living with her,
And all that shall succeed. Shoba was never
More covetous of wisdom and fair virtue,
Than this blest soul shall be. All princely graces,
That mould up such a mighty piece as this,
With all the virtues that attend the good,
Shall still be doubled on her. Truth shall nurse her:
Holy and heav'nly thoughts still counsel her:
She shall be lov'd and fear'd. Her own fhall bleft

her :
Her foes shake like a field of beaten corn,
And hang their heads with sorrow. Good grows with

her.
(14) In her days, ev'ry man fhall eat in safety,
Under his own vine, what he plants ; and fing
The merry songs of peace to all his neighbours.
God shall be truly known, and those about her,
From her shall read the perfect ways of honour,
And claim by those their goodness, not by blood.

Nor

Look how the father's face, (says Ben Fohnfond
Lives in his issue, even fo the race
Of Shakespar's mind and manners brightly shines,

In his well-torned, and true filed lines.
(14) In, &c.] The poet's excellence in so beautifully keeping
up the propriety of his characters, can never be sufficiently ad-
mired ; no expreflions could have so well become the mouth of
an archbishop as scripture ones; and we may observe, what
fraces this elegant compliment to his princess gains from thence;
the blessings of Solomon's reign are set forth in the first of Kings,
Ch. iv. where particularly 'tis said, “ Every man dwelt fafely
under his vine;" and fo in the prophet Micah, “ They shall fit
every man under his vine, and under his fig-tree: and none shalt
make them afraid ; for all people will walk every one in the
name of his God, &c. See Ch. iv. Ver. 4.

Nor shall this peace feep with her; but as wher
The bird of wonder dies, the maiden phænix,
Her ashes new create another heir,
As great in admiration as herself;
So shall the leave her blessedness to one,
(15) (When heav'n fhall call her from this cloud of

darkness)
Who from the facred ashes of her honour
Shall star-like rise, as great in fame as she was,
And so stand fix'd. Peace, plenty, love, truth, terror,
That were the servants to this chosen infant,
Shall then be his, and like a vine grow to him :
Wherever the bright sun of heav'n fall shine,
His honour and the greatness of his name
Shall le, and make new nations. He shall flourish,
And like a mountain cedar, reach his branches
To all the plains about him; children's children
Shall see this, and bless heav'n.

(15) This cloud of darkness.] Milton in his Comus, at the begin. ning, thus speaks in contempt of the earth :

Above the smoak and stir of this dim spot,
Which men call earth, and with low-thoughted care
Confin'd, and pester'd in this pinfold here,
Strive to keep up a frail and feverith being,
Vnnindful of the crown that virtue gives.

General Observations.

The historical facts (says Mrs. Lenox) upon which this play is founded, are all extracted from Holing sixd; the characters generally drawn closely after this historian, and many of the speeches copied almost literally from him.

The accusation, trial, and death of the Duke of Buckingłam, makes a very affecting incident in this play.

Sbatfpar has been exactly just to historical truth, in making Cardinal Volley the sole contriver of this nobleman's fall; whose character as it is summed up by King Henry, is perfectly agreeable to that given him by Holing bed.

Thod

Tho' the character of King Henry is drawn after this historian, get Shakespear has placed it in the most advantageous light; in this play he represents him as greatly displeased with the grievances of his subjects and ordering them to be relieved, tender and obliging to his queen, grateful to the Cardinal, and in the case of Cranmer, capable of distinguishing and rewarding true merit. If, in the latter part of the play, he endeavours to cast the disagreeable parts of this Prince's character as much into shade as poffible, it is not to be wondered at. Shakespear wrote in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, a princess who inherited more of the ambition of her father Henry, than of the tenderness and delicacy of her mother Anne Bullen : and however sensible she might be of the injuries her mother endured, would not have suffered her father's character to have been drawn in the worst colours, either by an historian or a poet. Shakespear has exerted an equal degree of complaisance towards Queen Elizabeth, by the amiable lights he Thews ber mother in, in this play.

Anne Bullen is represented as affected with the most tender concern for the suffering of her mistress, Queen Catharine ; receiving the honour the King confers on her, by making her Marchioness of Pembroke, with a graceful humility; and more anxious to conceal her advancement from the Queen, left it should aggravate her sorrows, than folicitous to penetrate into the meaning of so extraordinary a favour, or of indulging herfelf in the flattering prospect of future royalty.

The

The Life and Death of King

JOHN (1).

ACT I.

SCENE III.

New Titles.

Go

VOOD-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 unfociable For your conversing. Now your traveller, He and his tooth-pick at my worship’s meis : And when my knightly stomach is suffic'd, Why then, I suck my teeth, and catechise

(2) My

(1) King John.] The style all thro' this excellent play is grand and equal, and it abounds with a great variety of fine topics and affecting passages : Shakespear seems to have had a particular respect for Falconbridge, whose character is well maintained, as is that of the king, than whom pone could have been a more proper person for tragedy ; I know not by what singular good fortune too it has happened, that the text is remarkably.correct, and free from that multitude of mistakes, wherewith most of our author's works so unhappily abound.