Philological Quarterly, March 22nd, 2000
In Act 4 of Shakespeare's The Second Part of King Henry VI, the Duke of Suffolk is captured after a battle at sea. The Captain of the ship plans to execute him. As Suffolk prepares to die, he says to Walter Whitmore, "Pene gelidus timor occupat artus: / 'Tis thee I fear" (2 Hen. VI 4.1.116-17); or, "Frozen fear seizes my joints almost entirely." (1) In a study of the classical background of Shakespeare's plays, J. A. K. Thomson has commented on Suffolk's exclamation:
Apparently suggested by Lucan, 1.246: "gelidus pavor occupat artus." But it is possible that our poet, like Lucan himself, ha...
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