It would be foolish to attempt to trace the trajectory of pity through Shakespeare's works; the term occurs, as one might expect, many times, and in many different contexts. Indeed, as with so many other terms, we might say that Shakespeare almost defines the term; although it occurs, of course, always in a complexity of more or less strict historical contexts, it participates also in what we might call a ‘flow of aphorism’ which has all that illusory, ‘literary’ appearance of transcending history.

We might begin from King Henry's musings towards the end of Henry the Sixth, Part Three (1591). He has despatched his supporters on various military errands, and is left alone with Exeter, who fears the worst; there may be something of a match between the powers of the opposing parties, but, Exeter suspects, Edward ‘will seduce the rest’. Henry cannot, it seems, see why or how this should be so: