Fortuna Standing on Spherical Ball

From William Shakespeare’s Henry V:

PISTOL

Bardolph, a soldier, firm and sound of heart,

And of buxom valour, hath, by cruel fate,

And giddy Fortune’s furious fickle wheel,

That goddess blind,

That stands upon the rolling restless stone–

FLUELLEN

By your patience, Aunchient Pistol. Fortune is

painted blind, with a muffler afore her eyes, to

signify to you that Fortune is blind; and she is

painted also with a wheel, to signify to you, which

is the moral of it, that she is turning, and

inconstant, and mutability, and variation: and her

foot, look you, is fixed upon a spherical stone,

which rolls, and rolls, and rolls: in good truth,

the poet makes a most excellent description of it:

Fortune is an excellent moral.

PISTOL

Fortune is Bardolph’s foe, and frowns on him;

For he hath stolen a pax, and hanged must a’ be:

A damned death!

Let gallows gape for dog; let man go free

And let not hemp his wind-pipe suffocate:

But Exeter hath given the doom of death

For pax of little price.

Therefore, go speak: the duke will hear thy voice:

And let not Bardolph’s vital thread be cut

With edge of penny cord and vile reproach:

Speak, captain, for his life, and I will thee requite.