40.

Sal. What other harm have I, good lady, done,

But spoke the harm that is by others done ?
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 bid'st me be content, wert grim,

Ugly and slanderous to thy mother's womb,
Full of unpleasing blots and sightless stains, 45
Lame, foolish, crooked, swart, prodigious,
Patch'd with foul moles and eye-offending marks,
I would not care, I then would be content,
For then I should not love thee, no, nor thou
Become thy great birth nor deserve a crown. 50
But thou art fair, and at thy birth, dear boy,
Nature and Fortune join'd to make thee great:
Of Nature's gifts thou mayst with lilies boast
And with the half-blown rose. But Fortune, 0,
She is corrupted, changed and won from thee; 55

45. and sightless] unsightly Collier MS.

45. sightless) equivalent in mean- 53, 54. lilies ... rose] These ing to the “unsightly” of Collier's flowers have been generally deemed corrector. Compare the opposite the fairest by poets. It is interesting meaning of “sightly" (11. i. 143 to remember in this connection that supra).

the lily is the flower of France, the 46. swart] black. This was hide- rose that of England. There are ous in Elizabethan eyes. Compare many comparisons of the beauty of Much Ado About Nothing, v. iv. 36: youths and maids to the beauty of “I'll hold my mind were she an lilies and roses to be found in ShakeEthiope."

speare and other Elizabethan liter. 46. prodigious] of the nature of a ature. Compare A Midsummerprodigy in the worst sense, therefore Night's Dream, I. i. 96:monstrous. Compare Richard III. « Most lily like in hue 1. ii. 22: “If ever he have child, Of colour like the red rose." abortive be it, Prodigious ..." Cot- See also Tennyson's Maud, xxii. 9:grave has “ Prodigieux: prodigious, “ Queen rose of the rosebud garden wondrous, monstrous, most unnatural of girls . . : or out of course."

Queen lily and rose in one."

She adulterates hourly with thine uncle John,
And with her golden hand hath pluck'd on France
To tread down fair respect of sovereignty,
And made his majesty the bawd to theirs.
France is a bawd to Fortune and King John, 60
That strumpet Fortune, that usurping John!
Tell me, thou fellow, is not France forsworn ?
Envenom him with words, or get thee gone,
And leave those woes alone which I alone

Am bound to under-bear.
Sal.

Pardon me, madam, 65
I may not go without you to the kings.
Const. Thou mayst, thou shalt; I will not go with thee:

I will instruct my sorrows to be proud;
For grief is proud and makes his owner stoop.
To me and to the state of my great grief 70
Let kings assemble; for my grief's so great
That no supporter but the huge firm earth
Can hold it up: here I and sorrow sit;
Here is my throne, bid kings come bow to it.

[Seats herself on the ground. 64. those) these F 4.

Enter KING JOHN, KING PHILIP, LEWIS, BLANCH,

ELINOR, the BASTARD, AUSTRIA, and Attendants.
K. Phi. 'Tis true, fair daughter; and this blessed day 75

Ever in France shall be kept festival :
To solemnise this day the glorious sun
Stays in his course and plays the alchemist,
Turning with splendour of his precious eye
The meagre cloddy earth to glittering gold :
The yearly course that brings this day about

Shall never see it but a holiday.
Const. A wicked day, and not a holy day! [Rising.

What hath this day deserved ? what hath it done,
That it in golden letters should be set
Among the high tides in the calendar ?
Nay, rather turn this day out of the week,
This day of shame, oppression, perjury.
Or, if it must stand still, let wives with child
Pray that their burthens may not fall this day, 90
Lest that their hopes prodigiously be cross'd:

82. holiday] holy day Ff 1, 2, 3; holy-day F 4.'

77-80. To solemnise ... gold] Opening on Neptune with fair Compare Sonnet xxxiii. :

blessed beams, " Full many a glorious morning Turns into yellow gold his salt have I seen

green streams." Flatter the mountain tops with 85. golden letters] Probably a refersovereign eye,

ence to the “golden number" used in Kissing with golden face the calculating the feast days of the Church. meadows green,

86. tides] in the sense of time. ComGilding pale streams with pare “Time and tide wait for no man." heavenly alchemy."

* High tides” would mean festivalCompare also A Midsummer-Night's days, e.g. Whitsun-tide, Shrove-tide. Dream, III. ii. 390:

90. fall? Whether this means "fall “[I] like a forester, the groves due” or “ to fall” literally is not may tread

quite clear. Even till the eastern gate, all91. prodigiously] Compare line 46 fiery-red,

But on this day let seamen fear no wrack;
No bargains break that are not this day made:
This day, all things begun come to ill end,

Yea, faith itself to hollow falsehood change! 95 K. Phi. By heaven, lady, you shall have no cause

To curse the fair proceedings of this day:

Have I not pawn'd to you my majesty ?
Const. You have beguiled me with a counterfeit

Resembling majesty, which, being touch'd and tried,
Proves valueless : you are forsworn, forsworn; 101
You came in arms to spill mine enemies' blood,
But now in arms you strengthen it with yours:
The grappling vigour and rough frown of war
Is cold in amity and painted peace,

105

92. on this day] For some inscrut- the forge or the mynt, currant by the able reason the Folios put “on this stampe or counterfeit by the anvill.” day" within brackets. Mr. Craig has 100. touch'd and tried] tested by suggested that brackets sometimes being rubbed on a touchstone. A played the part of commas in F 1. touchstone was generally made of See Cymbeline, 1. i. 120:

black jasper and the trained eye could “As I (my poor selfe) did ex. tell the fineness of gold rubbed on it change."

by the character of the streak left. “ But” here means “except,” which Compare Richard III. iv. ii. 8:Pope printed.

“Now do I play the touch, 92. wrack] I keep the old form, To try if thou be current gold which indicates the pronunciation.

indeed.” 93-95. break ... come ... 102, 103. in arms] armed (line 102); change] These verbs here are in the in one another's arms (line 103). subjunctive mood expressing a wish. As Johnson said, “I am afraid here

99. Counterfeit] i.e. a counterfeit is a clinch intended." coin. Cf. Ben Jonson, Magnetic 105. cold] The inconsistency of the Lady, iii. 1 (Routledge, p. 453 a) :- metaphor has led to many suggestions,

“had the slip slurr'd on me most of them introducing other and A counterfeit.”

equally great inconsistencies. It Compare also Lyly, Alexander and seems to me that the process of transCampaspe (1584), Prologue at Court: forming vigour and a frown into amity “As yet we cannot tell what we may as well be expressed by “coolshould tearme our labours, iron or ing" as by any other figure. I bullion; only it belongeth to your therefore see no reason to tamper Majestie to make them fit either for with the text.

IIO

And our oppression have made up this league.
Arm, arm, you heavens, against these perjured kings!
A widow cries; be husband to me, heavens !
Let not the hours of this ungodly day
Wear out the day in peace; but, ere sunset, 110
Set armed discord 'twixt these perjured kings !

Hear me, O, hear me!
Aust.

Lady Constance, peace!
Const. War! war! no peace! peace is to me a war.

O Lymoges ! O Austria! thou dost shame
That bloody spoil : thou slave, thou wretch, thou
coward !

115
Thou little valiant, great in villany!
Thou ever strong upon the stronger side!
Thou Fortune's champion, that dost never fight
But when her humorous ladyship is by
To teach thee safety! thou art perjured too, : 120
And soothest up greatness. What a fool art thou,

A ramping fool, to brag and stamp and swear 110. day] So Theobald; daies F 1; dayes F 2; days Ff 3, 4. 122. and stamp) to stamp F 4.

106. And our ... this league) and 121. Soothest up] i.e. flatterest, your oppression of us has joined you dost humour. The tendency so prevatogether.

lent nowadays to add “up” to verbs 114. O Lymoges ! O Austria] An without adding much to the sense, unwarrantable identification of the except perhaps making the verb emDuke of Austria and the Viscount phatic (e.g. “ pay up," smash up"), of Limoges, two entirely different is to be detected in Elizabethan people. See Introduction.

English. Compare Spanish Tragedy, 115. bloody spoil] the lion's skin III. X. 19: “Salve all suspicions, only which had previously raised the ire soothe me up"; and Friar Bacon of the Bastard.

(1594), 1. iii. 21, 22:119. humorous] i.e. full of differ- “This is a fairing, gentle sir, ent humours, capricious. Compare

indeed, Love's Labour's Lost, 111. i. 76:

To soothe me up with such “ I, that have been love's whip;

smooth flatterie.” A very beadle to a humorous 122. ramping) wildly gesticulating. sigh.”

Cotgrave gives “grimpement: a