SCENE IV. The same. The French King's Tent. Enter KING PHILIP, LEWIS, PANDULPH, and Attendants. K. Phi. So, by a roaring tempest on the flood, A whole armado 1 of convicted 2 sail 1 Is scatter'd and disjoin'd from fellowship. Pand. Courage and comfort! all shall yet go well. K. Phi. What can go well, when we have run so ill? Are we not beaten? Is not Angiers lost? Arthur ta'en prisoner? divers dear friends slain? And bloody England into England gone, O'erbearing interruption, spite of France? Lew. What he hath won, that hath he fortified: So hot a speed with such advice dispos'd, Such temperate order in so fierce a cause3, Doth want example; Who hath read, or heard, Of any kindred action like to this? K. Phi. Well could I bear that England had this praise, So we could find some pattern of our shame. Enter CONSTANCE. Look, who comes here! a grave unto a soul; I pr'ythee, lady, go away with me. 1 Armado is a fleet of war; the word is adopted from the Spanish, and the recent defeat of the Spanish armado had made it familiar. 2 Convicted is vanquished, overcome. To convince and convict were synonymous. See Macbeth, Act i, Sc. 7, and Act iii, Sc. 4. 3 A fierce cause is a cause conducted with precipitation. Fierce wretchedness in Timon of Athens is hasty, sudden misery. 4 6 the vile prison of afflicted breath' is the body; the same vile prison in which the breath is confined. Const. Lo, now! now see the issue of your peace! K. Phi. Patience, good lady! comfort, gentle Constance! Const. No, I defy5 all counsel, all redress, Come, grin on me; and I will think thou smil'st, K. Phi. O fair affliction, peace. Const. No, no, I will not, having breath to cry:O, that my tongue were in the thunder's mouth! Then with a passion would I shake the world; And rouse from sleep that fell anatomy, Which cannot hear a lady's feeble voice, Which scorns a modern invocation. Pand. Lady, you utter madness, and not sorrow. 5 To defy formerly signified to refuse, to reject. And thou shalt be canoniz'd, cardinal: K. Phi. Bind up those tresses; O, what love I note In the fair multitude of those her hairs! Where but by chance a silver drop hath fallen, Const. To England, if you will3. K. Phi. Bind up your hairs. Const. Yes, that I will; and wherefore will I do it? And will again commit them to their bonds, And, father cardinal, I have heard you say, 8 Probably Constance in despair means to apostrophize the absent King John:- Take my son to England if you will.' 9 To suspire Shakspeare uses for to breathe. Thus in King Henry IV. Part II : 'Did he suspire, that light and weightless down Perforce must move.' In Bullokar's Expositor, 1616, we have suspiration, a breathing or sighing. 10 There was not such a gracious 1o creature born, 12 Pand. You hold too heinous a respect of grief. Const. He talks to me, that never had a son 11. K. Phi. You are as fond of grief, as of your child. Const. Grief fills the room up of my absent child 1o, 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 reason to be fond of grief. Fare you well: had you such a loss as I, I could give better comfort than you do.I will not keep this form upon my head, [Tearing off her head-dress. When there is such disorder in my wit. O lord, my boy, my Arthur, my fair son! My life, my joy, my food, my all the world! My widow-comfort, and my sorrow's cure! [Exit. 10 Gracious is used by Shakspeare often in the sense of beautiful, comely, graceful. Florio, in his Italian Dictionary, shows that this was no uncommon signification; he explains gratioso, graceful, gracious, also comely, fine, well-favoured, gentle. 11 To the same purpose Macduff observes: 12 'He has no children. The thought occurs again in King Henry VI. Part III. 'Perfruitur lachrymis, et amat pro conjuge luctum.' Lucan, l. ix. Maynard, a French poet, has the same thought : Qui me console excite ma colere, Et le repos est un bien que je crains: K. Phi. I fear some outrage, and I'll follow her. [Exit. Lew. There's nothing in this world can make me joy; Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale 13, Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man; And bitter shame hath spoil'd the sweet world's 1* taste, That it yields nought, but shame, and bitterness. Lew. All days of glory, joy, and happiness. 13 For when thou art angry, all our days are gone, we bring our years to an end, as it were a tale that is told.' Psalm xc. Thus also in Macbeth : 'Life's but a walking shadow,— it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 14 The old copy reads word's. The alteration was made by Pope. Malone thinks that it is unnecessary; and that by the sweet word, life is meant. Steevens prefers Pope's emendation, which is countenanced by Hamlet's 'How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable |