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 paffion would I fhake the world;
And rouse from fleep that fell anatomy,
Which cannot hear a lady's feeble voice,
Which fcorns a modern invocation.*

PAND. Lady, you utter madness, and not for

row.

CONST. Thou art not holy to belie me fo;
I am not mad: this hair I tear, is mine;
My name is Conftance; I was Geffrey's wife;
Young Arthur is my fon, and he is loft:
I am not mad;-I would to heaven, I were!
For then, 'tis like I fhould forget myself:
O, if I could, what grief fhould I forget!—
Preach fome philofophy to make me mad,

Again, Stanyhurft the tranflator of Virgil, 1582, renders ofcula libavit natæ

"Buft his prittye parrat prating," &c. STEEVENS. 2 Mifery's love, &c.] Thou, death, who art courted by Mifery to come to his relief, O come to me. So before:

"Thou hate and terror to prosperity." MALONE.

modern invocation.] It is hard to fay what Shakspeare means by modern: it is not oppofed to ancient. In All's well that ends well, fpeaking of a girl in contempt, he uses this word: "her modern grace." It apparently means fomething flight and inconfiderable. JOHNSON.

Modern, is trite, ordinary, common.

So, in As you Like it:

Full of wife faws, and modern instances.”

Again, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"As we greet modern friends withal.” STEEVENS.

5 Thou art not holy-] The word not, which is not in the old copy, (evidently omitted by the careleffnefs of the tranfcriber, or compofitor,) was inferted in the fourth folio. MALONE.

And thou shalt be canoniz'd, cardinal;
For, being not mad, but fenfible of grief,
My reasonable part produces reason
How I may be deliver'd of these woes,
And teaches me to kill or hang myself:
If I were mad, I fhould forget my fon;
Or madly think, a babe of clouts were he:
I am not mad; too well, too well I feel
The different plague of each calamity.

K. PHI. Bind up thofe treffes: O, what love I

note

In the fair multitude of those her hairs!
Where but by chance a filver drop hath fallen,
Even to that drop ten thousand wiry friends"
Do glew themselves in fociable grief;

• Bind up thofe treffes:] It was neceffary that Conftance should be interrupted, becaufe a paffion fo violent cannot be borne long. I wish the following fpeeches had been equally happy; but they only ferve to fhow, how difficult it is to maintain the pathetick long. JOHNSON.

wiry friends-] The old copy reads-wiry fiends. Wiry is an adjective ufed by Heywood, in his Silver Age, 1613: "My vaffal furies, with their wiery ftrings,

"Shall lafh thee hence." STEEVENS.

Mr. Pope made the emendation. MALONE.

Fiends is obviously a typographical error. As the epithet wiry is here attributed to hair; fo, in another description the hair of Apollo fupplies the office of wire. In the Inftructions to the commifioners for the choice of a wife for Prince Arthur, it is directed "to note the eye-browes" of the young Queen of Naples (who, after the death of Arthur, was married to Henry VIII. and divorced by him for the fake of Anna Bulloygn). They answer, Her browes are of a browne heare, very small, like a wyre of beare." Thus alfo, Gascoigne :

"Firft for her head, the hairs were not of gold,
"But of fome other mettall farre more fine,

"Wherof each crinet feemed to behold,

"Like gliftring uyars against the funne that shine."

HENLEY.

Like true, infeparable, faithful loves,
Sticking together in calamity.

CONST. To England, if you will.
K. PHI.

8

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 thefe hands could fo redeem my fon,
As they have given thefe hairs their liberty!
But now I envy at their liberty,

And will again commit them to their bonds,
Because my poor child is a prisoner.

And, father cardinal, I have heard you fay,
That we shall fee and know our friends in heaven:
If that be true, I fhall fee my boy again;

For, fince the birth of Cain, the firft male child,
To him that did but yesterday fufpire,"

There was not such a gracious creature born.*

To England, if you will.] Neither the French king nor Pandulph, has faid a word of England, fince the entry of Constance. Perhaps therefore, in defpair, the means to address the absent King John: "Take my fon to England, if you will;"-now that he is in your power, I have no profpect of feeing him again. It is therefore of no confequence to me where he is. MALONE.

but yesterday fufpire,] To fufpire in Shakspeare, I believe, only means to breathe. So, in K. Henry IV. Part II:

"Did he fufpire, that light and weightless down

"Perforce muft move.'

"

Again, in a Copy of Verfes prefixed to Thomas Powell's Paf fionate Poet, 1601:

2

"Beleeve it, I fufpire no fresher aire,

"Than are my hopes of thee, and they ftand faire."

STEEVENS.

a gracious creature born.] Gracious, i. e. graceful. So,

in Albion's Triumph, a Masque, 1631:

on the which (the freeze) were feftoons of feveral fruits in their natural colours, on which, in gracious poftures, lay children fleeping."

But now will canker forrow eat my bud,
And chafe the native beauty from his cheek,
And he will look as hollow as a ghost;

As dim and meagre as an ague's fit;

And fo he'll die; and, rising so again,

When I fhall meet him in the court of heaven
I fhall not know him: therefore never, never
Muft I behold my pretty Arthur more.

PAND. You hold too heinous a refpect of grief. CONST. He talks to me, that never had a fon.' K. PHI. You are as fond of grief, as of your child.

CONST. Grief fills the room up of my abfent child,+

Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me;

Again, in the fame piece:

they stood about him, not in fet ranks, but in feveral gracious poftures." STEEVENS.

A paffage quoted by Mr. Steevens from Marfton's Malcontent, 1604, induces me to think that gracious likewife in our author's time included the idea of beauty: he is the most exquifite in forging of veins, fpright'ning of eyes,-fleeking of skinnes, blufhing of cheeks,-blanching and bleaching of teeth, that ever made an ould lady gracious by torch-light." MALONE.

3 He talks to me, that never had a fon.] To the fame purpose Macduff obferves

"He has no children."

This thought occurs alfo in King Henry VI. Part III.

STEEVENS.

3 Grief fills the room up of my absent child,]
Perfruitur lachrymis, et amat pro conjuge luctum.”

Maynard, a French poet, has the fame thought:
"Qui me confole, excite ma colere,
"Et le repos eft un bien que je crains:

Lucan, Lib. IX.

"Mon deuil me plaît, et me doit toujours plaire,
"Il me tient lieu de celle que je plains.'

MALONE.

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 fuch a lofs as I,
I could give better comfort than you do.-
I will not keep this form upon my head,

[Tearing off her head-drefs.
When there is fuch diforder 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 forrows' cure!

[Exit.

K. PHI. I fear fome outrage, and I'll follow her.

[Exit.

LEW. There's nothing in this world, can make

me joy: s

Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale,"
Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man;

had you fuch a lofs as I,

I could give better comfort-] This is a fentiment which great forrow always dictates. Whoever cannot help himself cafts his eyes on others for affistance, and often mistakes their inability for coldnefs. JOHNSON.

5 There's nothing in this, &c.] The young prince feels his defeat with more fenfibility than his father. Shame operates most strongly in the earlier years; and when can difgrace be less welcome than when a man is going to his bride? JOHNSON.

6 Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale,] Our author, here and in another play, feems to have had the 90th Pfalm in his thoughts: "For when thou art angry, all our days are gone, we bring years to an end, as it were a tale that is told." So again, in Macbeth:

"Life's but a walking fhadow;

it is a tale

our