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Sound on into the drowsy ear of night;

If this same were a churchyard where we stand, 40
And thou possessed with a thousand wrongs;

Or if that surly spirit, melancholy,

Had baked thy blood and made it heavy-thick,

Which else runs tickling up and down the veins,

Making that idiot, laughter, keep men's eyes
And strain their cheeks to idle merriment,
A passion hateful to my purposes;

Or if that thou couldst see me without eyes,
Hear me without thine ears, and make reply
Without a tongue, using conceit alone,

Without eyes, ears and harmful sound of words;
Then, in despite of brooded watchful day,

43. heavy-thick] Pope; heavy, thick Ff. conj.; tingling Collier MS.

39. ear] So printed by Dyce and Staunton after conjectures of Collier and Sidney Walker. The Folios have "race," which is therefore supposed to have been a misprint for "eare."

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For "on" Theobald printed "one." But as Vaughan pointed out the midnight bell does not sound one! Delius conjectured "on!" Wetherell "not" and Bulloch 'dong." Other emendations of the line have been proposed, but with the single alteration of " race to it gives perfectly good sense. 45. keep] occupy. Compare Love's Labour's Lost, IV. iii. 324: "Other slow arts entirely keep the brain.' Mr. P. A. Daniel points out that in The Puritan, III. vi. 592, we find "we 'll steep Our eyes in laughter."

"ear

50. conceit] in Elizabethan English often means imagination. Compare Richard II. II. ii. 33: ""Tis nothing but conceit, my gracious lady." Here it has a wider meaning, equivalent to "some intangible power of the mind."

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44. tickling] trickling Grey

52. brooded] Even though "brooded" be equivalent to "brooding," as Mr. Wright points out, it does not seem an apt epithet for

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day" in this connection. Cotgrave gives "Accouvé; brooded; set close on, crouded (crouched?) over; also covered, hidden, overshadowed," thus vouching for the form of the word in -ed, but proving the inapplicability of the meaning. The day cannot be proud, wanton and full of gawds, attended with the pleasures of the world, watchful and at the same time brooded. Pope reads "broad-ey'd," Collier MS. "the broad," Delius after a conj. of Mason's, "broodedwatchful." An anonymous conj. in Halliwell suggests "broody," while Vaughan has withdrawn his suggestion of "bruited." Perhaps the Delius-Mason reading is the least objectionable, taking "brooded" to be an epithet applied to watchful, the day being as watchful as a sitting bird; but even this is far from satisfactory.

I would unto thy bosom pour my thoughts:

But, ah, I will not! yet I love thee well;

And, by my troth, I think thou lovest me well. 55
Hub. So well, that what you bid me undertake,

Though that my death were adjunct to my act,
By heaven, I would do it.

K. John.

Hub.

Do not I know thou wouldst?

Good Hubert, Hubert, Hubert, throw thine eye

On yon young boy; I'll tell thee what, my friend, 60
He is a very serpent in my way;

And wheresoe'er this foot of mine doth tread,

He lies before me: dost thou understand me?
Thou art his keeper.

And I'll keep him so,
That he shall not offend your majesty.

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Well, I'll not say what I intend for thee:

Remember. Madam, fare you well:

I'll send those powers o'er to your majesty.

Eli. My blessing go with thee!

K. John.

70

For England, cousin, go:
Hubert shall be your man, attend on you
With all true duty. On toward Calais, ho!

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SCENE IV.—The same. The French King's tent.

Enter KING PHILIP, LEWIS, PANDULPH, and
Attendants.

K. Phi. So, by a roaring tempest on the flood,
A whole armado of convicted sail

Is scattered and disjoin'd from fellowship.

Pand. Courage and comfort! all shall yet go well.
K. Phi. What can go well, when we have run so ill? 5
Are we not beaten? Is not Angiers lost?

Arthur ta'en prisoner? divers dear friends slain?
And bloody England into England gone,
O'erbearing interruption, spite of France?

Lew. What he hath won, that hath he fortified:
So hot a speed with such advice disposed,
Such temperate order in so fierce a cause,
Doth want example: who hath read or heard
Of any kindred action like to this?

ΙΟ

K. Phi. Well could I bear that England had this praise 15 So we could find some pattern of our shame.

Pandulph] Pandulpho F 1; Pandupho Ff 2, 3, 4. 14. kindred action] hyphened in Ff.

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Enter CONSTANCE.

Look, who comes here! a grave unto a soul;
Holding the eternal spirit, against her will,

In the vile prison of afflicted breath.

I prithee, lady, go away with me.

Const. Lo, now! now see the issue of your peace.

20

K. Phi. Patience, good lady! comfort, gentle Constance !

Const. No, I defy all counsel, all redress,

But that which ends all counsel, true redress,

Death, death; O amiable lovely death!

25

Thou odoriferous stench! sound rottenness!

Arise forth from the couch of lasting night,
Thou hate and terror to prosperity,

And I will kiss thy detestable bones

And put my eyeballs in thy vaulty brows

30

And ring these fingers with thy household worms

And stop this gap of breath with fulsome dust

And be a carrion monster like thyself:

24, 25. redress, Death, death ;] Theobald; redresse: Death, death, Ff; redress, Death; death, Pope.

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1

Come, grin on me, and I will think thou smilest,
And buss thee as thy wife. Misery's love,
O, come to me!

O fair affliction, peace!

K. Phi.
Const. No, no, I will not, having breath to cry:

O, that my tongue were in the thunder's mouth!
Then with a passion would I shake the world;
And rouse from sleep that fell anatomy
Which cannot hear a lady's feeble voice,

Which scorns a modern invocation.

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Pand. Lady, you utter madness, and not sorrow.
Const. Thou art not holy to belie me so;

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I am not mad: this hair I tear is mine;
My name is Constance; I was Geffrey's wife;
Young Arthur is my son, and he is lost:
I am not mad: I would to heaven I were!
For then, 'tis like I should forget myself:
O, if I could, what grief should I forget!

39. would I] F 1; I would Ff 2, 3, 4.

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44. not holy] F 4; holy Ff 1, 2, 3.

42. modern] trite, commonplace. Compare All's Well that Ends Well, II. iii. 2: "To make modern and familiar things supernatural and causeless"; also As You Like It, II. vii. 156: "Full of wise saws and modern instances." Rowe, Knight and Collier MS. emend needlessly. See Prof. Case's note in Antony and Cleopatra (Arden Shakespeare).

44. not holy] This emendation by the fourth Folio is perhaps not so good as the "unholy" conjectured by Steevens, and adopted by Delius and Staunton; but it has the Folio authority.

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