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...