If not fill up the measure of her will, [Exeunt all but the Bastard.-The Citizens Bast. Mad world! mad kings! mad composition! And France (whose armour conscience buckled on; poor But the word maid,-cheats the maid of that; That smooth-faced gentleman, tickling commodity 26; Commodity, the bias of the world; So in 24 To part and depart were formerly synonymous. Cooper's Dictionary, v. 'communico, to communicate or departe a thing I have with another.' 25 To round or rown in the ear is to whisper; from the Saxon runian, susurrare. The word and its etymology is fully illustrated by Casaubon in his Treatise de Ling. Saxonica, and in a Letter by Sir H. Spelman, published in Wormius, Literatura Runica. Hafniæ, 1651, p. 4. 26 Commodity is interest, advantage. So Baret:- What fruite or commoditie had he by this his friendship?' Alvearie, letter C. 867. The construction of this passage, though harsh to modern ears, is-Commodity, he that wins of all,-he that cheats the poor maid of that only external thing she has to lose, namely the word maid, i. e. her chastity.' Henderson has adduced a passage from Cupid's Whirligig, 1607, which happily illustrates the word bias in this passage :'O, the world is like a byas bowle, and it runs All on the rich men's sides.' The world, who of itself is peised well, This bawd, this broker, this all-changing word, But for because he hath not woo'd me yet: Not that I have the power to clutch 27 my hand, 27 Clasp. 28 Coin. [Exit 30. 29 i. e. but cause. 30 In the old copy the second Act extends to the end of the speech of Lady Constance, in the next scene, at the conclusion of which she throws herself on the ground. The present division, which was made by Theobald, is certainly right, АСТ III. SCENE I. The same. The French King's Tent. Enter CONSTANCE, ARTHUR, and SALISBURY. Const. Gone to be married! gone to swear a peace! False blood to false blood join'd! Gone to be friends! Shall Lewis have Blanch? and Blanch those provinces ? It is not so; thou hast misspoke, misheard; And though thou now confess, thou didst but jest, 1 Capable is susceptible. So in Hamlet : His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones, 2 This seems to have been imitated by Marston, in his Insatiate Countess, 1603 : Then how much more in me, whose youthful veins Be these sad signs confirmers of thy words? Sal. As true, as, I believe, you think them false, That give you cause to prove my saying true. Const. O, if thou teach me to believe this sorrow, Teach thou this sorrow how to make me die; And let belief and life encounter so, As doth the fury of two desperate men, Const. Which harm within itself so heinous is, As it makes harmful all that speak of it. Arth. I do beseech you, madam, be content. Const. If thou, that bidd'st me be content, wert grim, 3 Ugly, and sland'rous to thy mother's womb, 3 Unsightly. 4 Swart is dark, dusky. See Comedy of Errors, Act iii. Sc. 2, p. 146. Prodigious is portentous, so deformed as to be taken for a foretoken of evil. Thus in The Revenger's Tragedy, 1607 :— 'Over whose roof hangs this prodigious comet?' She is corrupted, chang'd, and won from thee; I Sal. Pardon me, madam, may not go without you to the kings. Const. Thou may'st, thou shalt, I will not go with thee: I will instruct my sorrows to be proud; For grief is proud, and makes his owner stout 5. [She throws herself on the ground. 5 The old copy reads makes its owner stoop.' The emendation is Sir T. Hanmer's. We have in Daniel's Civil Wars, b. vi.:— 'Full with stout grief and with disdainful woe.' Malone has in an elaborate argument attempted a defence of the old reading; but, I think, without success. In Much Ado about Nothing the father of Hero, depressed by her disgrace, declares himself so subdued by grief that a thread may lead him. How is it that grief in Leonato and Lady Constance produces effects directly opposite, and yet both agreeable to nature? Sorrow softens the mind while it is yet warmed by hope, but hardens it when it is congealed by despair. Distress, while there remains any prospect of relief, is weak and flexible; but when no succour remains, is fearless and stubborn: angry alike at those that injure, and those that do not help; careless to please where nothing can be gained, and fearless to offend when there is nothing further to be dreaded. Such was this writer's knowledge of the passions.—Johnson, |