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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,
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.
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, O,
She is corrupted, changed and won from thee;

45. and sightless] unsightly Collier MS.

45. sightless] equivalent in meaning to the "unsightly" of Collier's corrector. Compare the opposite meaning of " 'sightly" (11. i. 143 supra).

46. swart] black. This was hideous in Elizabethan eyes. Compare Much Ado About Nothing, v. iv. 36: "I'll hold my mind were she an Ethiope."

46. prodigious] of the nature of a prodigy in the worst sense, therefore monstrous. Compare Richard III. 1. ii. 22: "If ever he have child, abortive be it, Prodigious..." Cotgrave has " Prodigieux: prodigious, wondrous, monstrous, most unnatural or out of course."

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53, 54. lilies rose] These flowers have been generally deemed the fairest by poets. It is interesting to remember in this connection that the lily is the flower of France, the rose that of England. There are many comparisons of the beauty of youths and maids to the beauty of lilies and roses to be found in Shakespeare and other Elizabethan literature. Compare A MidsummerNight's Dream, III. i. 96:—

"Most lily like in hue

Of colour like the red rose."
See also Tennyson's Maud, xxii. 9:-
Queen rose of the rosebud garden
of girls.

66

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.

*

Sal.

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.

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I may not go without you to the kings.

70

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
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.

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suspect "stoop " and perhaps "his owner." All the suggested emendations wrest some meaning out of the passage, but not one of them carries conviction with it. Perhaps "proud " is the corrupt word, which ought to be poor" (as suggested by H. A. C., Athen. 1867) or some such equivalent. This would make Constance say in effect, "I will,-in spite of my grief which is apt to bow me down and make me humble,-be proud in my sorrow and make kings come to me.'

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.

80

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

85

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,
Lest that their hopes prodigiously be cross'd:

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

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But on this day let seamen fear no wrack;

95

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! 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; 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,

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105

the forge or the mynt, currant by the stampe or counterfeit by the anvill."

100. touch'd and tried] tested by being rubbed on a touchstone. A touchstone was generally made of black jasper and the trained eye could tell the fineness of gold rubbed on it by the character of the streak left. Compare Richard III. v. ii. 8 :—

"Now do I play the touch,

To try if thou be current gold indeed."

102, 103. in arms] armed (line 102); in one another's arms (line 103). As Johnson said, "I am afraid here is a clinch intended."

105. cold] The inconsistency of the metaphor has led to many suggestions, most of them introducing other and equally great inconsistencies. It seems to me that the process of transforming vigour and a frown into amity may as well be expressed by "cooling" as by any other figure. I therefore see no reason to tamper with the text.

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Aust.

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,
Set armed discord 'twixt these perjured kings!
Hear me, O, hear me!

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!

Thou little valiant, great in villany!

Thou ever strong upon the stronger side!

115

120

Thou Fortune's champion, that dost never fight But when her humorous ladyship is by To teach thee safety! thou art perjured too, 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. stamp] to stamp F 4.

106. And our ... this league] and your oppression of us has joined you together.

114. O Lymoges! O Austria] An unwarrantable identification of the Duke of Austria and the Viscount of Limoges, two entirely different people. See Introduction.

115. bloody spoil] the lion's skin which had previously raised the ire of the Bastard.

119. humorous] i.e. full of different humours, capricious. Compare Love's Labour's Lost, III. i. 76:

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"I, that have been love's whip;
A very beadle to a humorous
sigh."

122. and

121. Soothest up] i.e. flatterest,
dost humour. The tendency so preva-
lent nowadays to add " 'up to verbs
without adding much to the sense,
except perhaps making the verb em-
phatic (e.g. "pay up," "" smash up"),
is to be detected in Elizabethan
English. Compare Spanish Tragedy,
III. X. 19: "Salve all suspicions, only
soothe me up"; and Friar Bacon
(1594), 1. iii. 21, 22:-

"This is a fairing, gentle sir,
indeed,

To soothe me up with such
smooth flatterie."

122. ramping] wildly gesticulating.
Cotgrave gives "grimpement: a

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