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We make him lord of. Call the Lady Constance;

Some speedy messenger bid her repair

555

To our solemnity: I trust we shall,
If not fill up the measure of her will,
Yet in some measure satisfy her so
That we shall stop her exclamation.
Go we, as well as haste will suffer us,
To this unlook'd for, unprepared pomp.
[Exeunt all but the Bastard.

560

Bast. Mad world! mad kings! mad composition!

John, to stop Arthur's title in the whole,
Hath willingly departed with a part:

And France, whose armour conscience buckled on,
Whom zeal and charity brought to the field

As God's own soldier, rounded in the ear
With that some purpose-changer, that sly devil,
That broker, that still breaks the pate of faith,
That daily break-vow, he that wins of all,

565

Of kings, of beggars, old men, young men, maids, 570
Who, having no external thing to lose

555. solemnity] the marriage of the Dauphin and Blanch.

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561. composition] agreement. Compare 'compound," line 281 supra.

563. departed with] parted with. 566. God's own soldier] Compare Macbeth, v. viii. 45:

"Siw. Had he his hurts before?
Ross. Ay, on the front.

Siw. Why then, God's soldier
be he!"

566. rounded] whispered. Compare The Winter's Tale, 1. ii. 217: "They're here with me already, whispering, rounding 'Sicilia is a so

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forth." Mr. Wright points out that the proper form of the word is "rouned," from A.S. rúnian, and quotes Piers Plowman (B text), iv. 13: "And ritt rizte to resoun, and rowneth in his ere.' Compare also Gosson's Apology of the Schoole of Abuse (ed. Arber, p. 74): "for his Pypers were ready too rounde him in the eare, what he should speake."

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568. broker] agent. The Bastard harps upon the connection of breaking with the sound of "broker."

571, 572. Who obvious anacoluthon.

cheats] An

But the word "maid," cheats the poor maid of that,
That smooth-faced gentleman, tickling Commodity,
Commodity, the bias of the world,

The world, who of itself is peised well,
Made to run even upon even ground,
Till this advantage, this vile-drawing bias,
This sway of motion, this Commodity,
Makes it take head from all indifferency,
From all direction, purpose, course, intent:
And this same bias, this Commodity,

575

580

This bawd, this broker, this all-changing word,
Clapp'd on the outward eye of fickle France,

Hath drawn him from his own determined aid,

From a resolved and honourable war,

585

To a most base and vile-concluded peace.

And why rail I on this Commodity ?

But for because he hath not woo'd me yet:

Not that I have the power to clutch my hand,

When his fair angels would salute my palm; But for my hand, as unattempted yet, Like a poor beggar, raileth on the rich. Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail 573. tickling] flattering. We still speak of tickling a man's pride. Compare Coriolanus, 1. i. 263 :—

66 Such a nature, Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow

Which he treads on at noon." Vaughan would read "tickling as a trisyllable.

574-580. Commodity intent] The Bastard compares Commodity, i.e. Expediency or Self-interest, to the leaden weight inserted in the side of a bowl to give it "bias," the power

590

of running out of the straight. Peised: poised, balanced. To "take head from all indifferency" is to leave impartiality, to become biased. The " 'eye," according to Staunton, was the aperture in the bowl where the leaden weight, also called the "bias," was fixed.

590. angels] the angel was a gold coin worth ten shillings in Elizabeth's time. 591. But yet] because my hand has been untempted as yet.

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And say there is no sin but to be rich;
And being rich, my virtue then shall be
To say there is no vice but beggary.
Since kings break faith upon commodity,
Gain, be my lord, for I will worship thee.

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ACT III

SCENE I.-The French King's Pavilion.

Enter CONSTANCE, ARTHUR, and SALISBURY. Const. Gone to be married! gone to swear a peace! False blood to false blood join'd! gone to be friends! Shall Lewis have Blanch, and Blanch those provinces ?

It is not so; thou hast misspoke, misheard;

Be well advised, tell o'er thy tale again:

5

It cannot be; thou dost but say 'tis so:

I trust I may not trust thee; for thy word
Is but the vain breath of a common man:
Believe me, I do not believe thee, man;

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For I am sick and capable of fears,

Oppress'd with wrongs and therefore full of fears,
A widow, husbandless, subject to fears,
A woman, naturally born to fears;

Act III.] Actus Secundus in the
Folios, ending at line 74.

12. capable of fears] susceptible to fears. Compare II. i. 476 supra, and Greene's Never Too Late (1600), p. 95: "Mirimadas eares were not capable of any amorous persuasion."

15

14. widow] This is not historically correct. At this time Constance was married to a third husband, Guido, brother to the Viscount of Touars. She had been divorced from her second husband, Ranulph, Earl of Chester.

And though thou now confess thou didst but jest,
With my vex'd spirits I cannot take a truce,
But they will quake and tremble all this day.
What dost thou mean by shaking of thy head?
Why dost thou look so sadly on my son?
What means that hand upon that breast of thine?
Why holds thine eye that lamentable rheum,

20

Like a proud river peering o'er his bounds?

Be these sad signs confirmers of thy words?
Then speak again; not all thy former tale,
But this one word, whether thy tale be true.
Sal. As true as I believe you think them false

That give you cause to prove my saying true.
Const. O, if thou teach me to believe this sorrow,
Teach thou this sorrow how to make me die,
And let belief and life encounter so
As doth the fury of two desperate men
Which in the very meeting fall and die.

25

30

Lewis marry Blanch! O boy, then where art thou?
France friend with England, what becomes of me? 35
Fellow, be gone: I cannot brook thy sight:

This news hath made thee a most ugly man.

16, 17. And . . . truce] So Rowe; And . truce Ff. 24. signs] sighs Warburton.

17. cannot] Pope printed "can't " in order to regularise the line. But "spirits" is often a monosyllable, and the accentuation of the line indicates that it is so here.

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jest with

spirits, 27. you] you'll Keightley. "Have every pelting river made so proud

That they have overborne their continents".

exactly the continenti ripa of Horace.

27, 28. As true . . . saying true] Rather a roundabout asseveration, but quite in the vein of early Shakespeare. 36, 37. Fellow, be gone. ugly man] Compare this with Cleopatra's reception of bad news about Antony (Antony and Cleopatra, II. v.).

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