Made to run even, upon even ground, This bawd, this broker, this all-changing word, But for because he hath not woo'd me yet: [Exit. sense is, that "commodity," i. e. expediency, convenience, or interest, throws the world off its balance, and makes it run unevenly, like a bowl with a bias. See vol. ii. p. 520. 3 Not that I have the power to clutch my hand, When his fair angels would salute my palm ;] The sense would perhaps be clearer if we read, "Not but I have the power to clutch my hand;" or, with as slight a change, "Not that I have not power to clutch my hand;" though the meaning of the poet is sufficiently explained by what follows in the sentence the Bastard says that he has the power to clutch or close his hand, but that he has yet had no temptation to do so. ACT III. SCENE I. The Same. The French King's Tent. Enter CONSTANCE, ARTHUR, and SALISBURY. Const. Gone to be married? gone to swear a peace? False blood to false blood join'd! vinces ? Gone to be friends? Blanch those pro It is not so; thou hast misspoke, misheard: Oppress'd with wrongs, and therefore full of fears; And though thou now confess, thou didst but jest 4 Act iii. sc. 1.] In the folios the second act ends at the line p. 41, "Here is my throne, bid kings come bow to it ;" but it is a decided error, set right by Theobald: the two Kings, &c. enter while Constance is seated on the ground, and there is no change of place, and no interruption of the action. 5 A widow,] This was not the fact. "Constance," says Malone, "was at this time married to a third husband, Guido, brother to the Viscount of Touars. She had been divorced from her second husband, Ranulph, Earl of Chester." In the old "King John," Constance speaks of herself as a widow : "If any power will hear a widow's plaint," &c. What means that hand upon that breast of thine? Sal. As true, as, I believe, you think them false, 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.— Lewis marry Blanch! O, boy! then where art thou? Sal. What other harm have I, good lady, done, As it makes harmful all that speak of it. Arth. I do beseech you, madam, be content. Const. If thou, that bidd'st me be content, wert grim, Ugly, and slanderous to thy mother's womb, Full of unpleasing blots, and sightless stains, 6 - swart,] i. e. brown, inclining to black. In "Henry VI." pt. i. Act i. sc. 2, we meet with the word again. "And whereas I was black and swart before." In the "Comedy of Errors," vol. ii. p. 144, we have "Swart like my shoe, but her face nothing so clean kept." Of nature's gifts thou may'st with lilies boast, Sal. Pardon me, madam, I may not go without you to the kings. Const. Thou may'st, 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, Enter King JOHN, King PHILIP, Lewis, Blanch, K. Phi. 'Tis true, fair daughter; and this blessed day, Ever in France shall be kept festival: 7 For grief is proud, and makes HIS Owner STOOP.] This old and sufficiently intelligible reading has been misunderstood and perverted by most modern editors: Sir Thomas Hanmer, and others after him, substituted stout for "stoop," and Malone, who adheres to "stoop," prints its for "his." The meaning seems to be that grief (which the poet personifies) is proud even while he compels his owner to stoop, as Constance did to the earth, to receive the homage of monarchs. To solemnize this day, the glorious sun Const. A wicked day, and not a holy day! [Rising. K. Phi. By heaven, lady, you shall have no cause Const. You have beguil'd me with a counterfeit, And our oppression hath made up this league.— Let not the hours of this ungodly day 8 - high tides,] i. e. solemn seasons, times to be observed above others. We now say, high days and holy days. 9 BUT on this day, &c.] i. e. Except on this day. |