Arthur ta'en prisoner? divers dear friends slain? 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! Const. No, I defy all counsel, all redress, Come, grin on me; and I will think thou smil'st, O, come to me! 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; h defy-] This word anciently signified to refuse. Misery's love, &c.] Thou, death, who art courted by misery, to come to his relief, O come to me.-. -MALONE. And rouse from sleep that fell anatomy, Pand. Lady, you utter madness, and not sorrow. 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, Even to that drop ten thousand wiry friends Like true, inseparable, faithful loves, Const. To England, if you will. 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, As they have given these hairs their liberty! And will again commit them to their bonds, modern-] i. e. Common, trivial. 1 Bind up those tresses:] It was necessary that Constance should be interrupted, because a passion so violent cannot be borne long. I wish the following speeches had been equally happy; but they only serve to shew how difficult it is to maintain the pathetick long.-JOHNSON. Because my poor child is a prisoner. And, father cardinal, I have heard you say, That we shall see and know our friends in heaven: If that be true, I shall see my boy again; For, since the birth of Cain, the first male child, There was not such a gracious" 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. [Tearing off her head-dress. When there is such disorder in my wit. My life, my joy, my food, my all the world! My widow-comfort, and my sorrows' cure! [Exit. [Exit. ། m Lew. There's nothing in this world, can make me joy :P suspire,] i. e. draw breath. had such a loss as I, you n · gracious—] i. e. Graceful. I could give you better comfort-] This is a sentiment which great sorrow always dictates. Whoever cannot help himself casts his eyes on others før assistance, and often mistakes their inability for coldness.-JOHNSON. P There's nothing in this, &c.] The young prince feels his defeat with more 1 Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale, Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man; And bitter shame hath spoil'd the sweet world's taste, Lew. All days of glory, joy, and happiness. 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. sensibility than his father. Shame operates most strongly in the earlier years; and when can disgrace be less welcome than when a man is going to his bride?-JOHNSON. 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 distemper'd day, No common wind, no customed event, But they will pluck away his natural cause, And call them meteors, prodigies, and signs, Abortives, présages, 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, If that young Arthur be not gone already, Even at that news he dies; and then the hearts Of all his people shall revolt from him, Anon becomes a mountain. O noble Dauphin, 9- in true blood,] i. e. In the blood of him that has the just claim. JOHNSON. No scape of nature,] The author very finely calls a monstrous birth an escape of nature, as if it were produced while she was intent upon some other thing. WARBURTON. |