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O that these hands could so redeem my son,
5 As they have given these 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 say,

10 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,

To him that did but yesterday suspire,

There was not such a gracious creature born.

15 But now will canker sorrow eat my bud,
And chase 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 so he 'll die; and, rising so again,

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

Pandulph. You hold too heinous a respect of grief.
Const. He talks to me that never had a son.

25 K. Phi.
Const. Grief fills the room up of my absent child,
Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,
Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
30 Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form;
Then, have I reason to be fond of grief.
Fare you well: had you such a loss as I,
I could give better comfort than you do.-
I will not keep this form upon my head,

You are as fond of grief as of your child.

6. Envy at, bear envy to. Besides its ordinary meaning envy often signifies hatred in Shakespeare.

13. Suspire, breathe.

14. Gracious, full of graces and attractions.

15. Canker, a caterpillar; as in"The canker galls the infants of the

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35 When there is such disorder 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 sorrows' cure!

K. Rich.

From KING RICHARD II.

56. Richard's Despair.-Act III. Sc. 2.
Of comfort no man speak;
Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;
Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes

Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth.
5 Let's choose executors, and talk of wills:
And yet not so,-for what can we bequeath,
Save our deposed bodies to the ground?
Our lands, our lives, and all, are Bolingbroke's,
And nothing can we call our own but death;
10 And that small model of the barren earth,

Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.
For heaven's sake, let us sit upon the ground,
And tell sad stories of the death of kings:-
How some have been depos'd, some slain in war,
15 Some haunted by the ghosts they have depos'd,
Some poison'd by their wives, some sleeping kill'd;
All murther'd :-For within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king,

Keeps Death his court; and there the antic sits, 20 Scoffing his state, and grinning at his pomp,Allowing him a breath, a little scene

To monarchize, be fear'd, and kill with looks;
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,—

10. Model, or module (Lat. modulus), had a general diminutive force in Shakespeare; a small portion, though always with a sort of comparison to something greater. Here it is taken by some to mean mould or pattern, either that what encloses the body itself or the raised

heap of earth which makes the grave. 15. The ghosts of those they have deposed.

18. Rounds, surrounds, encompasses. "Our little life," says Prospero in The Tempest, "is rounded with a sleep."

As if this flesh, which walls about our life,
25 Were brass impregnable,-and, humoured thus,
Comes at the last, and with a little pin

Bores through his castle walls, and-farewell king!
Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and blood
With solemn reverence; throw away respect,
30 Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty,

For you have but mistook me all this while :
I live with bread like you, feel want, taste grief,
Need friends :-Subjected thus,

How can you say to me-I am a king?

25. Humoured thus. A remarkable instance of the absolute case. It means,

while he (the king) is in this humour or state of mind.

From KING HENRY V.

57. King Henry's Address before Harfleur.-Act III. Sc. 1.

K. Hen. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:

5 But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;

Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;

10 Let it pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.

8. Hard-favour'd. See not 4, extract 24, p. 38.

10. Portage, port-holes, outlet for the sight, fr. Lat. porta, a door.

11. Cannon, It. cannone, is primarily a thick cylinder, fr. Lat. canna, a reed. 13. Jutty, project out beyond; another

form of the more familiar jetty, which is an embankment thrown out into the sea fr. Lat. jactum, as ditty fr. dictum.

Confounded, worn or wasted by the constant dashing of the waves. 14. Swill'd, washed abundantly.

15 Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English,
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,

20 Have in these parts from morn to even fought
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest

That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,

25 And teach them how to war. And you, good yeomen,.
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear

That you are worth your breeding, which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
30 That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand, like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry "God for Harry, England, and St. George!"

18. Fet, old part. of fetch, as pight of pitch, raught of reach.

21. Argument, a subject, or quarrel'to fight about.

24. For explanation of copy, see

"Manual of English Language," p. 305. 31. Greyhounds: the grey of this word is supposed to be the Norse grey, a bitch. Others, improbably, say canis Graius, a Grecian dog.

From KING HENRY VIII.

58. Wolsey and Cromwell.-Act III. Sc. 2.

Wol. Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness!
This is the state of man: To-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hopes, to-morrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him :
5 The third day comes a frost, a killing frost;
And,-when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a ripening,-nips his root,

7. A ripening. See note 8, extract 25.

And then he falls, as I do. I have ventur'd, Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders 10 This many summers in a sea of glory;

But far beyond my depth: my high-blown pride
At length broke under me; and now has left me,
Weary, and old with service, to the mercy

Of a rude stream, that must for ever hide me.
15 Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye;
I feel my heart new open'd: O, how wretched
Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favours!
There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to,
That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin,
20 More pangs and fears than wars or women have;
And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,
Never to hope again.-

*

*

*

*

* * Why, how now, Cromwell? Crom. I have no power to speak, sir.

Wol.

What, amaz'd

25 At my misfortunes? can thy spirit wonder
A great man should decline? Nay, an you weep,
I am fallen indeed.

Crom.

Wol.

How does your grace?

Why, well;

Never so truly happy, my good Cromwell.

30 I know myself now; and I feel within me

A peace above all earthly dignities,

A still and quiet conscience. The king has cur'd me,
I humbly thank his grace; and from these shoulders,
These ruin'd pillars, out of pity, taken

35 A load would sink a navy, too much honour :

O, 't is a burden, Cromwell, 't is a burden,
Too heavy for a man that hopes for heaven.

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it were a single word, expressive of a single notion, and accordingly takes the sing. pron. this.

19. Their ruin, the ruin they cause; their being here the subjective genitive. 24. Amazed, thrown into a maze or state of bewilderment.

26. An, if.

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