SOURCE: Butler, George F. “Frozen with Fear: Virgil's Aeneid and Act 4, Scene 1 of Shakespeare's The Second Part of King Henry VI.” Philological Quarterly 79, no. 2 (spring 2000): 145-52.

[In the following essay, Butler asserts that Shakespeare relied on Virgil's Aeneid and its depiction of the dying Turnus in his portrayal of Suffolk's death in Henry VI, Part 2.]

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, had in mind certain phrases in Virgil, e.g. Aeneid, 6.54: “gelidus Teucris per dura cucurrit / ossa tremor,” “a cold shuddering ran through the hard bones of the Trojans.” Cf., Aeneid, 2.120. In Aeneid, 7.446, we find “subitus tremor occupat artus.” It needs a certain amount of scholarship to misquote in this way, for “timor” is as good (or nearly) as “pavor.”²

Shakespeare's editors have similarly noted the presence of Virgil, Lucan, or both in Suffolk's remark. In a gloss on the passage in the Arden edition, Andrew S. Cairncross says that Suffolk's words are “Possibly a confused and inaccurate recollection of Æneid, 7.446 (cf. 11.424): ‘subitus tremor occupat artus’ and Lucan, Pharsalia, 1.246: ‘gelidos pavor occupat artus.’ Cf. J. A. K. Thomson, Shakespeare and the Classics, 89-90.” And in The Norton Shakespeare, Stephen Greenblatt remarks: “Cold fear seizes my limbs almost entirely (perhaps alluding to Virgil, Aeneid 7.446; Lucan, Pharsalia 1.246; or both).”³ As Cairncross's reference and the paucity of commentary by other editors suggests, Thomson's brief discussion may be the most thorough exposition of the classical background of Suffolk's speech. While Thomson and Shakespeare's editors have pointed to the presence of Lucan and Virgil in 4.1.116 of The Second Part of King Henry VI, they have not fully explored the intertextual relationship between the passage from the play and the relevant lines from Virgil's Aeneid. A close examination shows that Shakespeare probably did not have Lucan's poem in mind, and that he deliberately echoes Virgil to compare Suffolk with Turnus.

In Book 7 of the Aeneid, the Fury Allecto assumes the form of Calybe, the elderly priestess of Juno. She then appears to Turnus in his sleep. She tells him to burn the Trojan ships that are anchored in the Tiber, so as to persuade King Latinus to give him Lavinia as a bride. But Turnus responds by rebuking her:

sed te victa situ verique effeta senectus,
o mater, curis nequiquam exercet, et arma
regum inter falsa vatem formidine ludit.
cura tibi divum effigies et templa tueri;
bella viri pacemque gerent, quis bella gerenda.

(Aen. 7.440-44)⁴

[But thee, O mother, old age, enfeebled by decay and barren of truth, frets with vain distress, and amid the feuds of kings mocks thy prophetic soul with false alarms. Thy charge it is to keep the gods' images and temples; war and peace men shall wield, whose work war is.]

Allecto then reveals her true identity:

Talibus Allecto dictis exarsit in iras.
at iuveni oranti subitus tremor occupat artus,
deriguere oculi: tot Erinys sibilat hydris
tantaque se facies aperit.

(Aen. 7.445-48)

[At such words Allecto blazed forth in fury. But even as the youth spoke, a sudden tremor seized his limbs, and his eyes were set in fear; so many are the Fury's hissing snakes, so monstrous the features that unfold themselves.]

She then triumphantly chastizes the fearful Turnus:

en ego victa situ, quam veri effeta senectus
arma inter regum falsa formidine ludit.
respice ad haec: adsum dirarum ab sede sororum,
bella manu letumque gero.

(Aen. 7.452-55)

[Behold me, enfeebled by decay, whom old age, barren of truth, amid the feuds of kings, mocks with vain alarm! Look on this! I am come from the home of the Dread Sisters, and in my hand I bear war and death.]

Allecto's speech is strikingly prophetic, for there will be war, and Turnus will taste death.

The exchange between Turnus and Allecto is part of the larger context of Suffolk's words to his captors. When he is taken hostage, he is every bit as insolent as Turnus. He says to the Lieutenant:

It is impossible that I should die
By such a lowly vassal as thyself.
Thy words move rage and not remorse in me.

(2 Hen. VI 4.1.109-11)

And like Allecto, the Lieutenant reminds him that he is powerless: “Ay, but my deeds shall stay thy fury soon” (2 Hen. VI 4.1.112). The Lieutenant is like a “Fury” who will conquer the “fury” of Suffolk, as the Fury Allecto subdues the wrath of Turnus. But Suffolk is especially afraid of Walter Whitmore, for Whitmore is the fulfillment of a prophecy. When Whitmore tells him his name, and thus exposes his identity, Suffolk becomes terrified:

Thy name affrights me, in whose sound is death.
A cunning man did calculate my birth,
And told me that by water I should die.

(2 Hen. VI 4.1.33-35)

Suffolk alludes to a prophecy given to Bolingbroke by a Spirit. When Bolingbroke asks the Spirit about Suffolk's fate, the Spirit replies: “By water shall he die and take his end” (2 Hen. VI 1.4.32). Bolingbroke then commands the Spirit to return to Hell, the home of the Furies: “Descend to darkness and the burning lake: / False fiend, avoid!” (2 Hen. VI 1.4.38-39). Thus the infernal Spirit who foretells Suffolk's death is like Allecto, who appears to Turnus in the guise of a seer. Whitmore, who reveals his name (“Walter,” pronounced “Water”) to the Duke, also plays a prophetic role. Moreover, he is linked to Hell, the home of Allecto, by his status as infernal ferryman: “Come, Suffolk, I must waft thee to thy death” (2 Hen. VI 4.1.115). Whitmore is Shakespeare's transformation of Charon. In being frozen with fear, the Duke of Suffolk is thus like Turnus, who is terrified of Allecto and who will ironically face death at the end of Virgil's epic.

Turnus is Virgil's epic antagonist. He is the mortal chiefly responsible for the troubles faced by Aeneas and the Trojans and for the warfare that takes place in the Aeneid. Within the world of The Second Part of King Henry VI, Suffolk plays a similar role. Before Suffolk is executed, the Lieutenant summarizes his evil deeds. Suffolk swallowed “the treasure of the realm” (2 Hen. VI 4.1.73); smiled “at good Duke Humphrey's death” (2 Hen. VI 4.1.75); has grown great “By devilish policy” (2 Hen. VI 4.1.82); and sold “Anjou and Maine … to France” (2 Hen. VI 4.1.85). And just as Turnus sought Lavinia, whom King Latinus offers as a bride to pius Aeneas (Aen. 7. 249-85), Suffolk romanced Queen Margaret, though she was married to saintly King Henry (2 Hen. VI 3.2.299-411). Thus the Lieutenant tells Suffolk, “Thy lips, that kiss'd the Queen, shall sweep the ground” (2 Hen. VI 4.1.74).⁵

The relationship between Suffolk and Turnus is further supported by Aeneid 11, where Turnus bombastically urges his troops to continue the war against Aeneas and the Trojans. When Drances suggests that the bloodshed is too high a price to pay for Turnus' personal gain, Turnus responds as follows:

sin et opes nobis et adhuc intacta iuventus
auxilioque urbes Italae populique supersunt,
sin et Troianis cum multo gloria venit
sanguine (sunt illis sua funera, parque per omnis
tempestas)—cur indecores in limine primo
deficimus? cur ante tubam tremor occupat artus?

(Aen. 11.419-24)

[But if we still have means, a manhood still unharmed, cities and nations of Italy still supporting us; but if even the Trojans have won glory at much bloodshed's cost (they too have their deaths, and the storm swept over all alike)—why faint we ignobly upon the threshold's edge? Why, ere the trumpet sounds, does trembling seize our limbs?]

As Cairncross has remarked, Turnus' words in Aeneid 11.424 resemble Suffolk's “Pene gelidus timor occupat artus” (2 Hen. VI 4.1.116). In the Aeneid, Turnus' speech to Drances recalls his earlier encounter with Allecto, where his limbs were frozen with fear for good reason. In Aeneid 11, when his limbs should again be frozen with fear, since his death at Aeneas' hands is imminent, he rashly rebukes Drances' caution. In doing so, his foolishness and pride match the attitude of Suffolk.

The similarity between other passages in the Aeneid and Suffolk's words before his death are more coincidental. In Aeneid 6, Aeneas and the Trojans meet the Sibyl of Cumae, who will reveal the depths of the lower world. Virgil notes that after the Sibyl speaks, “gelidus Teucris per dura cucurrit / ossa tremor, funditque preces rex pectore ab imo” (“A chill shudder ran through the Teucrians' sturdy frames, and their king pours forth prayers from inmost heart” [Aen. 6.54-55]). While Thomson points to this passage as possibly being related to Suffolk's words, Virgil is more likely suggesting that Aeneas will soon look upon the home of Allecto, and that he is filled with fear, much as Turnus will be when the Fury visits him in the form of the seer Calybe. In Aeneid 2, which Thomson also suggests may be related to Suffolk's words, Aeneas tells how Eurypylus consulted the oracle of Phoebus before the fall of Troy, and how the Trojans responded to his message:

… volgi quae vox ut venit ad auris,
obstipuere animi, gelidusque per ima cucurrit
osssa tremor. …

(Aen. 2.119-21)

[When this utterance came to the ears of the crowd, their hearts were dazed, and a cold shudder ran through their inmost marrow.]

Here the relation to Suffolk's speech is even more tenuous. The similarities in language between Virgil's words and Shakespeare's are minimal, though the Trojans respond to a prophecy proclaimed much as Suffolk responds to a prophecy soon to be fulfilled.

While Thomson and Cairncross mention Lucan as a possible source for Suffolk's words, and Thomson seems especially in favor of Lucan's influence, Shakespeare's use of Lucan in Suffolk's exclamation is unlikely. In the Pharsalia, Caesar crosses the Rubicon and marches from Gaul into Italy. His soldiers first reach the town of Ariminum, and their arrival startles the inhabitants:

Ut notae fulsere aquilae Romanaque signa
Et celsus medio conspectus in agmine Caesar,
Deriguere metu, gelidos pavor occupat artus,
Et tacito mutos volvunt in pectore questus.

(Phars. 1.244-47)⁶

[But when they recognised the glitter of the Roman eagles and standards and saw Caesar mounted in the midst of his army, they stood motionless with fear, terror seized their chilly limbs, and these unuttered complaints they turn over in their silent breasts.]

There is little reason for Shakespeare to equate Suffolk's fear with the terror of the people of Ariminum at the sight of Caesar, who is the villain of Lucan's epic. Unlike Caesar and Suffolk, the people of Ariminum do not seem particularly proud, nor is there any indication that they are about to suffer a tragic reversal of fate. And while the fear of the townspeople may be an internal allusion to Caesar's fright upon seeing a vision of Rome just before he crosses the Rubicon (Phars. 1.185-94), Lucan's language does not resemble Shakespeare's. The Latin poet writes:

Tum perculit horror
Membra ducis, riguere comae, gressumque coercens
Languor in extrema tenuit vestigia ripa.

(Phars. 1.192-94)

[Then trembling smote the leader's limbs, his hair stood on end, a faintness stopped his motion and fettered his feet on the edge of the river-bank.]

Any similarity in phrasing between the passages from The Second Part of King Henry VI and the fear of the Ariminum citizens in the Pharsalia is due to Lucan's imitation of Virgil. Prior to invading Ariminum, Caesar invokes the “Phrygiique penates / Gentis Iuleae” (“Trojan gods of the house of Iulus,” [Phars. 1.196-97]), and his invocation invites a comparison between the coming Roman civil war and both the fall of Troy and the battle between Aeneas and Turnus.⁷

The Aeneid was widely read during the sixteenth century, and Shakespeare's familiarity with Virgil has been discussed at length, often in comparison to his greater use of Ovid and with special reference to The Tempest and Antony and Cleopatra.⁸ But his knowledge of Lucan has been less readily granted, with some scholars pointing to several allusions and conjecturing that he may have read Christopher Marlowe's translation of the first book of the Pharsalia, which was posthumously published in 1600.⁹ Given the greater prominence of the Aeneid and the close intertextual relationship between Virgil's poem and Shakespeare's play, it seems far more likely that Suffolk's speech before his death is meant to evoke the Aeneid rather than the Pharsalia, so that the figure of Turnus comments on Shakespeare's villainous Duke. The Duke of Suffolk emerges, then, as a threat to the political order of the monarchy, much as Turnus is the enemy of Rome. The similarities between Suffolk's speech and the fear and pride of Turnus reinforce the larger intertextual relationship between the Aeneid and The Second Part of King Henry VI, so that the political lessons of Virgil's epic inform Shakespeare's view of English history. Thus Suffolk's reminiscence of Virgil adds to the mythic quality of Shakespeare's play and places it within the larger context of the classical tradition.

Notes

1. Shakespeare's text is cited parenthetically by act, scene, and line number from The Second Part of King Henry VI, ed. Andrew S. Cairncross, The Arden Edition of the Works of William Shakespeare (London and New York: Routledge, 1962).

2. J. A. K. Thomson, Shakespeare and the Classics (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1952), p. 90.

3. The Norton Shakespeare: Based on the Oxford Edition, ed. Stephen Greenblatt (New York and London: Norton, 1997). The Riverside Shakespeare, ed. G. Blakemore Evans, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1997), merely provides a translation of Suffolk's Latin, as does David Bevington in The Complete Works of Shakespeare, updated 4th ed. (New York: Longman, 1997).

4. Virgil's poetry is cited parenthetically by book and line number from Virgil, with an English trans. by H. Rushton Fairclough, rev. ed., 2 vols. (Harvard U. Press, 1934-1935).

5. For a brief comparison of the historical Duke of Suffolk with Shakespeare's character, see Peter Saccio, Shakespeare's English Kings: History, Chronicle, and Drama (Oxford U. Press, 1977), pp. 120-24.

6. Lucan's poetry is cited parenthetically by book and line number from Lucan, with an English trans. by J. D. Duff (Harvard U. Press, 1928).

7. For discussions of similarities between Virgil's Aeneas and Lucan's Caesar in Pharsalia 1, see Jamie Masters, Poetry and Civil War in Lucan's “Bellum Civile” (Cambridge U. Press, 1992), pp. 4-5; F. M. Ahl, Lucan: An Introduction (Cornell U. Press, 1976), pp. 202, 209; Charles A. Martindale, “The Politician Lucan,” Greece and Rome 31 (1984): 64-79.

8. Gilbert Highet, The Classical Tradition: Greek and Roman Influences on Western Literature (Oxford U. Press, 1949), pp. 203, 216-17; Douglas Bush, Mythology and the Renaissance Tradition in English Poetry (1932; rpt. New York: Pageant, 1957), pp. 150-51; Stanley Wells, Shakespeare: A Life in Drama (New York and London: Norton, 1995), pp. 12, 33, 360; Heather James, Shakespeare's Troy: Drama, Politics, and Translation of Empire (Cambridge U. Press, 1997); Barbara J. Bono, Literary Transvaluation: From Vergilian Epic to Shakespearean Tragicomedy (U. of California Press, 1984); Charles and Michelle Martindale, Shakespeare and the Uses of Antiquity (London and New York: Routledge, 1990), pp. 76, 88, 144; Robert S. Miola, “Vergil in Shakespeare: From Allusion to Imitation,” in Vergil at 2000: Commemorative Essays on the Poet and his Influence, ed. John D. Bernard (New York: AMS, 1986), pp. 241-58; Robert Wiltenburg, “The Aeneid and The Tempest,” Shakespeare Survey 39 (1987): 159-68; Donna B. Hamilton, Virgil and “The Tempest”: The Politics of Imitation (Ohio State U. Press, 1990); Jonathan Bate, Shakespeare and Ovid (Oxford U. Press, 1993).

9. O. A. W. Dilke, “Lucan and English Literature,” in Neronians and Flavians: Silver Latin I, ed. D. R. Dudley (London and Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972), pp. 94-95; Highet, The Classical Tradition, p. 217; Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare, ed. Geoffrey Bullough, 8 vols. (Columbia U. Press, 1957-1975), 5:12; Emrys Jones, The Origins of Shakespeare (Oxford U. Press, 1977), pp. 273-77.