Where but by chance a silver drop hath fallen,

Even to that drop ten thousand wiry friends

Do glue themselves in sociable grief, 65

Like true, inseparable, faithful loves,

Sticking together in calamity.

CONSTANCE

To England, if you will.

KING PHILIP Bind up your hairs.

CONSTANCE

Yes, that I will. And wherefore will I do it?

I tore them from their bonds, and cried aloud,

‘O that these hands could so redeem my son,

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. 75

She binds up her hair

And Father Cardinal, I have heard you say

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, 80

There was not such a gracious creature born.

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,

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.

PANDOLF

You hold too heinous a respect of grief.

CONSTANCE

He talks to me that never had a son.

KING PHILIP

You are as fond of grief as of your child.

CONSTANCE

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,

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. 100

⌈She unbinds her hair⌉

I will not keep this form upon my head

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, 104

My widow-comfort, and my sorrow’s cure! Exit

KING PHILIP

I fear some outrage, and I’ll follow her. Exit ⌈attended⌉

LOUIS THE DAUPHIN

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 drowsy man;

And bitter shame hath spoiled the sweet world’s taste,

That it yields naught but shame and bitterness. 111

PANDOLF

Before the curing of a strong disease,

Even in the instant of repair and health,

The fit is strongest. Evils that take leave,

On their departure most of all show evil. 115

What have you lost by losing of this day?

LOUIS THE DAUPHIN

All days of glory, joy, and happiness.

PANDOLF

If you had won it, certainly you had.

No, no; when Fortune means to men most good,

She looks upon them with a threat‘ning eye.

’Tis strange to think how much King John hath lost

In this which he accounts so clearly won.

Are not you grieved that Arthur is his prisoner?

LOUIS THE DAUPHIN

As heartily as he is glad he hath him.

PANDOLF

Your mind is all as youthful as your blood. 125

Now hear me speak with a prophetic spirit,

For even the breath of what I mean to speak

Shall blow each dust, each straw, each little rub,

Out of the path which shall directly lead

Thy foot to England’s throne. And therefore mark.

John hath seized Arthur, and it cannot be

That whiles warm life plays in that infant’s veins

The misplaced John should entertain an hour,

One minute, nay, one quiet breath of rest.

A sceptre snatched with an unruly hand

Must be as boisterously maintained as gained;

And he that stands upon a slipp’ry place

Makes nice of no vile hold to stay him up.

That John may stand, then Arthur needs must fall;

So be it, for it cannot be but so.

LOUIS THE DAUPHIN

But what shall I gain by young Arthur’s fall?

PANDOLF

You, in the right of Lady Blanche your wife,

May then make all the claim that Arthur did.

LOUIS THE DAUPHIN

And lose it, life and all, as Arthur did.

PANDOLF

How green you are, and fresh in this old world 145

John lays you plots; the times conspire with you;

For he that steeps his safety in true blood

Shall find but bloody safety and untrue.

This act, so vilely born, shall cool the hearts

Of all his people, and freeze up their zeal,

That none so small advantage shall step forth

To check his reign but they will cherish it;

No natural exhalation in the sky,

No scope of nature, no distempered day,

No common wind, no customèd event, 155

But they will pluck away his natural cause,

And call them meteors, prodigies, and signs,

Abortives, presages, and tongues of heaven

Plainly denouncing vengeance upon John.

LOUIS THE DAUPHIN

Maybe he will not touch young Arthur’s life,

But hold himself safe in his prisonment.

PANDOLF

O sir, when he shall hear of your approach,