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 of convicted 2 sail Is scattered and disjoined 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? Lew. What he hath won, that hath he fortified. 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. Const. Lo, now! now see the issue of your peace! K. Phi. Patience, good lady! comfort, gentle Con stance! 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. 3 A fierce cause is a cause conducted with precipitation. 4 66. the vile prison of afflicted breath" is the body; the same vile prison in which the breath is confined. Const. No, I defy1 all counsel, all redress, But that which ends all counsel, true redress, Death, death.-O amiable, lovely death! Thou odoriferous stench! sound rottenness! Arise forth from the couch of lasting night, Thou hate and terror to prosperity, And I will kiss thy détestable bones; And put my eyeballs in thy vaulty brows; And ring these fingers with thy household worms; 1 And stop this gap of breath with fulsome dust, And be a carrion monster like thyself. 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.— Which cannot hear a lady's feeble voice, Pand. Lady, you utter madness, and not sorrow. I am not mad: this hair I tear is mine; I am not mad;-I would to Heaven I were! 1 To defy formerly signified to refuse, to reject. Or madly think a babe of clouts were he. 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, Like true, inseparable, faithful loves, Const. To England, if you will.1 Bind up your hairs. Const. Yes, that I will; and wherefore will I do it? I tore them from their bonds; and cried aloud, O that these hands could so redeem my son, And will again commit them to their bonds, And, father cardinal, I have heard you say, For, since the birth of Cain, the first male child, There was not such a gracious 3 creature born. And so he'll die; and, rising so again, When I shall meet him in the court of heaven Pand. You hold too heinous a respect of grief. 1 Probably Constance, in despair, means to apostrophize the absent king John: "Take my son to England if you will." 2 To suspire, Shakspeare uses for to breathe. 3 Gracious is used by Shakspeare often in the sense of beautiful, comely, graceful. K. Phi. You are as fond of grief, as of your child. Const. Grief fills the room up of my absent 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 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. [Exit. 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, Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man; And bitter shame hath spoiled the sweet world's1 taste, Even in the instant of repair and health, Lew. All days of glory, joy, and happiness. 1 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. For even the breath of what I mean to speak Thy foot to England's throne; and, therefore, mark. Lew. But what shall I gain by young Arthur's fall? Pand. You, in the right of lady Blanch, your wife, May then make all the claim that Arthur did. Lew. And lose it, life and all, as Arthur did. Pand. How green are you, and fresh in this old world! John lays you plots; the times conspire with you; For he that steeps his safety in true blood, Shall find but bloody safety, and untrue. This act, so evilly born, shall cool the hearts Of all his people, and freeze up their zeal ; That none so small advantage shall step forth, To check his reign, but they will cherish it ; No natural exhalation in the sky, No scape of nature, no distempered day, No common wind, no customed event, But they will pluck away his natural cause, And call them meteors, prodigies, and signs, Abortives, presages, and tongues of Heaven, Plainly denouncing vengeance upon John. Lew. May be, he will not touch young Arthur's life, But hold himself safe in his prisonment. Pand. O, sir, when he shall hear of your approach, 1 "John lays you plots." A similar phrase occurs in the First Part of King Henry VI.: "He writes, me here." 2 The old copy reads scope. The emendation is Pope's. |