Richard II (excerpts): Oh, who can hold a fire in his hand
Richard II (excerpts): Oh, who can hold a fire in his hand
Original Text
Mr William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (London: Printed by Isaac Jaggard and Ed. Blount, 1623): sig. C2. STC (2nd ed.) 22273
4By bare imagination of a feast?
5Or wallow naked in December snow
7Oh no, the apprehension of the good
8Gives but the greater feeling to the worse;
10Than when it bites but lanceth not the sore.
Notes
1] Henry Bolingbroke responds to John of Gaunt's suggestion that imagination can reconfigure suffering in Act 1, scene 3. Back to Line
2] Caucasus: high mountain range connecting Europe and Asia. Back to Line
3] cloy: to satiate, but also in this case to "obstruct or impede" (OED v.6) appetite's "hungry," or encroaching, "edge." Back to Line
6] fantastic: merely imagined. Back to Line
9] Fell sorrow's tooth ... the sore: the bite of sadness will "rankle" (become infected) and an imaginative denial of reality will not heal the wound. Back to Line
RPO poem Editors
Christopher Matusiak
RPO Edition
2012
Form