On his deathbed, John of Gaunt wields pathos in his attempt to convince King Richard II to heed his advice by respecting the ancestral rights of England’s noble families.
The pleasure that some fathers feed upon
Is my strict fast—I mean my children’s looks—
And, therein fasting, hast thou made me gaunt.
Gaunt am I for the grave, gaunt as a grave,
Whose hollow womb inherits naught but bones.
John of Gaunt understands that his final words, uttered as he is dying, have a gravity to them and are therefore more likely to be taken seriously by the King than any casual remarks. His sorrowful language reflects the pain that the King’s policies have inflicted upon his subjects. Punning on his own name, he insists that the King has in fact made him turn “gaunt as the grave,” leaving him in a state of despair over the exile of his son, Henry Bolingbroke. The King, he suggests, has robbed him of the pleasures owed to him as an elderly man, namely, the company of his children. If this is a “pleasure that some fathers feed upon,” then John of Gaunt has been forced to observe a “strict fast.”
His speech invokes pathos by highlighting the suffering that he has experienced at the end of his life. His goal here is to convince the king to put an end to his policy of breaking up families and dispossessing them of their ancestral property. His language emphasizes the emotional toll that the King’s policies have had on him personally at a point in his life when he should be able to relax and enjoy the comforts of family.
The Duchess of York wields pathos in her attempt to save the life of her son, the Duke of Aumerle, by seeking pardon from Henry Bolingbroke, now King Henry IV. Pleading before the new King on her knees, she states:
Not yet, I thee beseech.
Forever will I walk upon my knees
And never see day that the happy sees,
Till thou give joy, until thou bid me joy
By pardoning Rutland, my transgressing boy.
To kneel before another person is a gesture of respect and submission that would have been very familiar to audiences of Shakespeare’s time. The Duchess, an aged woman, assumes this uncomfortable position in acknowledgement of Henry’s status as King, signaling her obedience to his reign despite her son’s attempt at treason. Her emotional language emphasizes both her desperation to save her son and the deep pain that his execution would inflict upon her. She insists that she will walk on her knees for the rest of her life and “never see day that the happy sees” until Henry pardons the Duke for plotting murder. Her language evokes deep feelings of sorrow, suggesting that people who are happy and people who are in mourning live as if in different worlds, each experiencing the same day in a completely different manner.
Her language here uses pathos to manipulate the King, urging him to “give joy” and relieve her suffering by pardoning her “transgressing boy.” This description of the Duke portrays him as nothing more than a child who has unthinkingly broken some rule, and who deserves no serious punishment. Ultimately, her efforts are successful, despite her own husband’s attempt to lobby for the execution of their son.
