And thou shalt be canoniz'd, cardinal;
For, being not mad, but fenfible of grief,
My reasonable part produces reafon
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 thofe 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 serve to show, how difficult it is to maintain the pathetick long. JOHNSON.

7

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 defcription the hair of Apollo fupplies the office of wire. In the Inftructions to the commiffioners 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, Gafcoigne:

"First 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 wyars against the funre that shine.”

HENLEY.

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

CONST. To England, if you will.®

K. PHI.

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 these 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 prifoner.

And, father cardinal, I have heard you fay,
That we fhall 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."

8 To England, if you will.] Neither the French king nor Pandulph, has faid a word of England, fince the entry of Conftance. Perhaps therefore, in defpair, the means to addrefs the abfent 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.

9 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 stand 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 postures, lay children fleeping."

But now will canker forrow 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 fo he'll die; and, rifing fo 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 ftood 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, blushing of cheeks,-blanching and bleaching of teeth, that ever made an ould lady gracious by torch-light." MALONE.

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.

Grief fills the room up of my abfent child,]
"Perfruitur lachrymis, et amat pro conjuge luctum."

Lucan, Lib. IX.

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

4

[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:

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

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, seems to have had the 90th Pfalm in his thoughts: "For when thou art angry, all our days are gone, we bring our years to an end, as it were a tale that is told." So again, in Macbeth:

And bitter fhame hath spoil'd the fweet world's

tafte,"

That it yields naught, but shame, and bitterness.
PAND. Before the curing of a strong disease,
Even in the inftant of repair and health,
The fit is strongeft; evils, that take leave,
On their departure moft of all show evil :
What have you loft by losing of this day?

LEW. All days of glory, joy, and happiness.
PAND. If you had won it, certainly, you had.
No, no: when fortune means to men moft good,
She looks upon them with a threatening eye.
'Tis ftrange, to think how much king John hath loft
In this which he accounts fo clearly won:
Are not you griev'd, that Arthur is his prifoner?
LEW. As heartily, as he is glad he hath him.
PAND. Your mind is all as youthful as your blood.
Now hear me speak, with a prophetick spirit;
For even the breath of what I mean to speak
Shall blow each duft, each straw, each little rub,
Out of the path which fhall directly lead
Thy foot to England's throne; and, therefore, mark.

"the faweet world's tafte,] The old copy-weet word.

STEEVENS.

The fweet word is life; which, fays the fpeaker, is no longer fweet, yielding now nothing but shame and bitterness. Mr. Pope, with fome plaufibility, but certainly without neceffity, reads-the fweet world's tafte. MALONE.

I prefer Mr. Pope's reading, which is fufficiently justified by the following paffage in Hamlet:

"How weary, ftale, flat and unprofitable

"Seem to me all the ufes of this world!"

Our prefent rage for restoration from ancient copies, may induce fome of our readers to exclaim, with Othello, Chaos is come again." STEEVENS.