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though it has somewhat puzzled the commentators: 'I am now only the shadow of poor Buckingham, whose figure, formerly unobscured, this instant puts on a cloud, which shadows my clear sun."" Knight thus comments on the same reading:-"This passage is not easy to be understood. Is the comparison a single or a double one? Douce says it is double: Buckingham is first made to say that he is but a shadow; in other terms, a dead man. He then adverts to the sudden cloud of misfortune that overwhelms him, and, like a shadow, obscures his prosperity.' Johnson treats the comparison as single: I am the shadow of poor Buckingham, whose post and dignity is assumed by the cardinal that overclouds and oppresses me, and who gains my place by darkening my clear sun.' Offering another explanation, Johnson would read puts out; and Stevens inclines to pouts on. We think the comparison is continuous, though not exactly single: I am the shadow of poor Buckingham-Buckingham is no longer a reality; but even this figure of himself is absorbed, annihilated, by the instant cloud. The metaphor, however, forgets that

The shadow proves the substance true."

KNIGHT.

I cannot perceive that any satisfactory explanation of the old reading has been offered. Johnson, who also confessed the lines, as they stood, were to him "inexplicable," suggested that on was a misprint for "out,” which alteration Sir W. Blackstone adopts, and thus explains:-"By adopting Dr. Johnson's first conjecture, 'puts out' for 'puts on,' a tolerable sense may be given to these obscure lines: 'I am but the shadow of poor Buckingham;' and even the figure or outline of this shadow begins now to fade away, being extinguished by this impending cloud, which darkens (or interposes between me and) my clear sun; that is, the favour of my sovereign." Finding nothing so satisfactory as this conjecture, it has been adopted in the text, though with great reluctance to vary from the original edition.

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SCENE II.

"This tractable obedience is a slave
To each incensed will.”

The meaning (says Malone) appears to be, things are now in such a situation that resentment and indignation predominate, in every man's breast, over duty and allegiance."

"There is no primer BUSINESS"-The first impression of this play has "no primer baseness." The context seems clearly to show that the author wrote "primer business,"—i. e. no matter of state more requiring instant attention. Baseness, though it may give an intelligible sense, does not agree with the context; for the Queen does not assail Wolsey in this manner, but speaks of him in very guarded terms. Though baseness is retained by Knight, who brands the other as a feeble reading, I have, with most other editors, adopted the alteration which was first suggested by Warburton.

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By sick interpreters (ONCE weak ones")-i. e. By sick interpreters, who are sometimes weak ones. Once," for at some one time or other, is used by several of Shakespeare's contemporaries, as Drayton and Leicester, and by the author himself, in the MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR :-"I pray thee, once give my sweet Nan this ring."

"By a vain prophecy of Nicholas HENTON"-This is the name in the original text, which modern editors generally alter to "Nicholas Hopkins," which the chroniclers give as the monk's name. But it appears that Hopkins was sometimes styled Hinton, or Hintonensis, as being of the convent of Hinton, near Bristol. It is proper, therefore, to retain the name, as it shows that Shakespeare did not content himself with literally following the single volume of Hollingshed before him, as is assumed and argued upon by Malone and others, but read such histories bearing on his subject as he had

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- put his knife into him"-The materials for this scene, drawn originally from Hall, whether through his successor and copyist, Hollingshed, or directly from him, were derived from the official legal documents. and correspond precisely with the report of the Duke's trial, in the Year-book, (13 Henry VIII.) Hall, who was a lawyer, probably consulted the original manuscript, as the reports were not printed during his time. This particular charge is thus stated in the old law French:-" Donques autrefoits il dit, si le Roy morust sans issue male il voul' estre Roy; et auxi que il disoit, si le Roy avoit lui commis al' prison, donques il voul lui occire ove son dagger." After stating the Duke's confession and execution, the case concludes, in a fashion very unlike our modern reports, with a prayer for the Duke's soul, and a brief eulogy on his character:"Dieu à sa ame grant mercy-car il fuit tres noble prince et prudent et mirror de tout courtesie." It is worthy of notice, that this last phrase is also applied by the Poet to the Duke. In act ii. scene 1, the commons are said to call him, "bounteous Buckingham-the mirror of all courtesy."

"By day and night"-Stevens doubts whether this is an oath, or merely means "always, at all times;" like Falstaff's Thine own true knight-By day or night." But the context shows that it is evidently an adjuration, like Hamlet's

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By day and night, but this is wondrous strange.

SCENE III.

"one would take it, That never saw 'em pace before, the spavin AND springhalt reign'd among them.'

The old editions thus print the last two lines:the spavin,

A springhalt reign'd among them. This the modern editors all retain. The only sense of these words, and that strangely expressed, is that the 'spavin," which is a "springhalt," reigned among them. But the spavin and the springhalt (the old name for what, in modern veterinary phrase, is the string-halt) are two diseases so different, not only in nature but in external effect, that they would not be confounded by any one who used the terms at all, much less by one so well skilled in horse-flesh as Shakespeare often proves himself to have been. The spavin is of two sorts, both radical diseases amounting to unsoundness, in jockey law and usage. The bog or blood-sparin is an enlarge ment, in different stages of disease, of the bag containing a mucous substance on the inside of the horse's hock at its bending. The bone-spavin is a more serious affection of the bones of the hock-joint; and all the forms of spavin produce lameness in different degrees. The springhalt of the old farriers, or the stringhalt of modern veterinary science, is a peculiar involuntary twitching of one or both of the hind-legs, caused by a convulsive motion of the muscles that move them. The seat and cause of the disease have not been well ascertained. It has been pronounced by high authority to be "an irreg ular action of nervous energy," but does not amount to unsoundness; for, though unpleasant to a rider, it is generally connected with more than ordinary strength and endurance. Now, it would seem that Shakespeare meant that his satirical old lord should sneer at the seve ral affectations of walk and manner among the mimics of foreign fashion, by likening them to different forms of horse disease, some having the lameness and stiff gait of spavined horses; others, the jerking and twitching nervousness of those affected with the spring halt.

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Of fool, and feather"-The text may receive illustration from Nashe's "Life of Jack Wilton," (1594) "At that time (viz. in the court of King Henry VIII.) I was no common squire, no undertrodden torchbearer; I had my feather in my cap as big as a flag in the foretop, my French doublet gelte in my belly, as though (lyke a pig readie to be spitted) all my guts had beene pluckt ont, a paire of side paned hose that hung down like two scales filled with Holland cheeses, my long stock that sate close to my dock,-my rapier pendant, like a round sticke, etc., my blacke cloake of cloth, overspreading my backe like a thornbacke or an elephant's eare; and in consummation of my curiositie, my handes without gloves, all a mode French," etc. Douce observes that Sir Thomas Lovell's is an allusion to the feathers which were formerly worn by fools in their caps, as may be seen in a print of Jordan's after Voert; and which is alluded to in the ballad of "News and no News:"

And feathers wagging in a fool's cap.

"Short BLISTER'D breeches"-i. e. Breeches puffed or swelled out like blisters. Some editors have thought it should be "bolster'd breeches,"-i. e. stuffed out like bolsters.

SCENE IV.

—all this noble BEVY"-So Spenser, in the "Fairy Queen:"

A lovely bevy of fair ladies sat.

Drayton, and Milton, ("a bevy of fair dames,") with other poets, having thus employed the word in this connection, "bevy" has come to signify a company of ladies; but its original application was to flocks of birds; and it is still the technical sporting phrase for a flock of quails.

"As first, good company"-We retain the old punctuation, which has been altered into "first good," and understood to mean, what we should now call "firstrate company." On the contrary, the author made Guildford mention "good company" first, and "good wine" and "good welcome" as second and third, omitting the formal enumeration. Collier rightly remarks, "It would not be easy to point out an instance where first good' is used in the sense of the best."

"if I make my play"—i. e. If I may choose my game and my partner, at my own fancy.

"-CHAMBERS discharged"—"Chambers" were short pieces of ordnance, used on joyous occasions, contrived to carry a large charge of powder, and make a loud report.

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fire made and prepared for him, and there new apparelled him with rich and princely garments. And in the time of the King's absence the dishes of the banquet were clean taken up, and the table spread again with new and sweet perfumed cloths, every man sitting still until the King and his maskers came in among them again, every man being newly apparelled. Then the King took his seat under the cloth of estate, commanding no man to remove, but sit still as they did before. Then in came a new banquet before the King's majesty and to all the rest through the tables; wherein I suppose were served two hundred dishes or above, of wondrous costly meats and devices subtilly devised.Thus passed they forth the whole night with banquetting, dancing, and other triumphant devices, to the great comfort of the King, and pleasant regard of the nobility

there assembled."

"Let the music KNOCK IT"-i. e. Let the music play. "Knock it" seems to have been derived from beating time, or perhaps from beating the drum.

ACT II.-SCENE I.

"-build their EVILS on the graves of great men”— As in MEASURE FOR MEASURE, (act ii. scene 2,)" evils" is used in its ancient and now obsolete sense, for forica. "Gainst me, that I cannot take peace with: No black envy shall make my grave." These short lines are not introduced without a meaning. With those pauses in the delivery that properly belong to one speaking under such circumstances, they add to the pathos. They are ordinarily printed after the uniform metrical fashion of the modern editors:-'Gainst me I can't take peace with: no black envy Shall make my grave. Commend me to his grace. "-till my soul forsake"-Rowe here stuck in me"till my soul forsake me.' It is not difficult to see that Shakespeare had a different metaphysical notion from that of his editors: the me places the individuality in the body alone.-KNIGHT.

"When I came hither, I was lord high constable,

And duke of Buckingham; now, poor Edward Bohun."

The Duke of Buckingham's name was Stafford by descent from his personal ancestors, and Bagot on the female side; but he is said to have affected the surname of Bohun, because he was lord high constable by inheritance of tenure from that family.

SCENE II.

"From princes into pages"-" This may allude to the retinue of the Cardinal, who had several of the nobility among his menial servants."-JOHNSON.

"The King is discovered sitting, and reading pensively""-"The old stage-direction shows the simplicity of contrivance in our old theatres; for according to it, the Lord Chamberlain having gone out, the King himself drew the traverse curtain across the back of the stage, and exhibited himself to Norfolk and Suffolk, sitting, and reading pensively. The words are, Exit Lord Chamberlain, and the King draws the curtain, and sits reading pensively.'"-COLLIER.

"I be not found a talker"-The meaning appears to be, "Let care be taken that my promise be performed, that my professions of welcome be not found empty talk."

"I'll venture one have at him"-The first edition has "I'll venture one; have at him." The next old edition in folio has "I venture one heave at him," which last is the reading preferred by Stevens, and commonly adopted. It gives a good sense, and may be right; but as "have at him" is idiomatic old English, not yet absolete, for to attack, and is used in this very connection in act iii. scene 2, where Seymour begins his charge upon Wolsey with "Have at you," I rather think that the

author here used the compound phrase as a noun. Knight, as usual, adheres to the first folio, and thus explains its words::- It appears to us that Norfolk means by I'll venture one,' I'll risk myself; and that Suffolk is ready to encounter the same danger-I another.'"

"Have their free voices"-Malone asserts that the word "sent," in the next line, is understood after "have," in this passage. To say that all the learned clerks "have their free voices" is sufficiently intelligible; and in the folio (1623) "voices" is followed by a period, the sense being complete.

"Kept him a foreign man still; which so griev'd him, That he ran mad, and died."

That is, kept him in foreign parts. The fact is from Hollingshed, who says, "Aboute this time the King received into favour Doctor Stephen Gardiner, whose service he used in matters of great secrecie and weight, admitting him in the room of Dr. Pace, the which being continually abroad in ambassades, and the same oftentymes not much necessarie, by the Cardinalles appointment, at length he toke such greefe therwith, that he fell out of his right wittes."

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SCENE III.

"if that QUARREL, fortune, do divorce"-This is the old reading: Hanmer substituted quarreller, which does not improve the meaning. Warburton understood 'quarrel" as an arrow, from her "striking so deeply and suddenly." A "quarrel" was the name of the large arrow, with a square head, (whence the name,) used in cross-bows. Fairfax, Spenser, and other poets, use the word. Yet "quarrel" is not elsewhere thus used by our Poet, nor does it in that sense well apply here. I am satisfied that it is used for quarreller-" the act for the agent," (as Johnson says.) Stevens thinks we should read, "If that quarrel fortune to divorce,"— taking fortune" as a verb:-" If any quarrel chance to separate pomp from its bearer." One serious objection to this is, that in the old copies "fortune" is printed with a capital, as a noun, after the old mode.

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"She's a stranger now again”—i. e. The revocation of her husband's love has reduced her to the condition of an unfriended stranger.

your soft CHEVERIL conscience"-" Cheveril" is leather made of kid-skin, and easily stretched. The allusion was common. Stevens quotes from the "Histriomastix," (1610,)—

The cheveril conscience of corrupted law.

- Pluck OFF a little"-Johnson would read, " Pluck up a little;" but the explanation of Stevens seems the true one-viz. "descend a little." Anne declares she would not be a queen, nor a duchess; and the old lady. then proceeds to "pluck off a little" from rank, and to assert that Anne would consent to be a countess, if she had the opportunity.

"You'd venture an EMBALLING"-The word "emballing" has occasioned dispute: Stevens would read empalling, and Whalley embalming, in reference to the balm or oil of consecration. "Emballing" seems, as Johnson suggested, to have reference to the ball, one of the ensigns of royalty.

"Would for Carnarvonshire"—Anne would not be a queen "for all the world;" but you would (says the old lady) "for little England;"-I would "for Carnarvonshire"-for one Welsh county.

"-and high NOTE'S"-In the original, "high notes." We understand it "that high note is taken," etc.

"from this lady may proceed a gem To lighten all this isle ?"

The carbuncle was supposed to have intrinsic light, and to shine in the dark. In the description of a palace in "Amadis de Gaule," (1619,) it is said, "In the roof of a chamber hung two lamps of gold, at the bottoms

whereof were enchased two carbuncles, which gave so bright a splendour round about the room that there was no need of any other light."

"-forty pence"-"Forty pence' was, in those days, the proverbial expression of a small wager. Money was then reckoned by pounds, marks, and nobles. 'Forty pence,' or three-and-fourpence, is half a noble, and is still an established legal fee."-STEVENS.

SCENE IV.

"Enter two Vergers, with short Silver Wands”— This minute stage-direction is given as it appears in the old editions, and its costume, etc., are supported by the contemporary authorities. The "two great silver pillars," borne by gentlemen, and the "two priests, bearing each a silver cross," were both of them regular parts of Wolsey's pomp; one of them being symbolic of his archbishopric, the other of his authority as cardinallegate. The " Treatous," a contemporary satire, by Roy, thus described his pomp:

With worldly pompe incredible,
Before him rideth two prestes stronge;
And they bear two crosses right longe,
Gapynge in every man's face:

After them folowe two laye men secular,
And each of theym holdyn a pillar,

In their hondes steade of a mace

"The Queen makes no answer, rises out of her chair, goes about the court, comes to the King," etc.

"Because she could not come directly to the King, for the distance which severed them, she took pain to go about unto the King, kneeling down at his feet," etc. -CAVENDISH'S Life of Wolsey.

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- against mine honour AUGHT, My bond to wedlock, or my love and duty, Against your sacred person,” etc.

There is a license of construction here-one of the

many elliptical expressions with which the play abounds. Aught" is required to be repeated-"Aught against your sacred person."

"Beseech you, sir, to spare me, till I may

Be by my friends in Spain advis'd," etc. Cavendish states that, at the close of this speech, Kath arine "rose up, making a low court'sey to the King, and so departed from thence. Many supposed that she would have resorted again to her former place; but she took her way straight out of the house, leaning, as she was wont always to do, upon the arm of her general receiver, called Master Griffith. And the King being advertised of her departure, commanded the crier to call her again, who called her by the name of Katharine, Queen of England, come into the court,' etc. With that quoth Master Griffith, Madam, ye be called again.'-On, on, (quoth she,) it maketh no matter; for it is no indifferent court for me; therefore I will not tarry. Go on your ways.'-And thus she departed out of that court, without any further answer at that time or at any other, nor would never appear at any other court after."

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Mrs. Siddons, in her famous personation of the Queen, here introduced an ingenious refinement, which was so effective on the stage, that it has since become identified with the scene, being not only adopted by her successors in the part, but has been spread widely beyond the walls of the theatre, by critical eulogy, (Campbell's "Life of Siddons, and Boaden's "Life,") and has been perpetuated by the pencil and the graver. I think it is evident that the Poet only meant a strong and direct appeal to Wolsey, such as could not be mistaken by him or others for a moment. The innovation-it may almost be called an interpolation of Mrs. Siddons-was a thought that might deserve to have been in the author's intent, though I do not think it was. It is thus described,

in a criticism on Mrs. Siddons, by the late Mr. Terry. After dwelling upon her majesty of deportment in the trial-scene, and her "clear and intelligent harmony of unlaboured elocution, which unravels all the intricacies of language, illuminates obscurity, and points and unfolds the precise truth of meaning to every apprehension," he thus proceeds:-" But we dwell with the strongest admiration upon the extraordinary sublimity of her feelings and expressions, when Wolsey opposes her request of delay. Vexed to the uttermost by the artifices with which her ruin is prosecuted, and touched with indignation at the meanness and injustice of the proceeding, she interrupts Campeius, with the intention of accusing Wolsey, and of refusing him for her judge; and calls, in a resistless tone of command, Lord Cardinal! Campeius, who had been urging immediate trial, imagines it addressed to him, and comes forward as if to answer. Here Mrs. Siddons exhibited one of those unequalled pieces of acting, by which she assists the barrenness of the text, and fills up the meaning of the scene. Those who have seen it will never forget it; but to those who have not, we feel it impossible to describe the majestic self-correction of the petulance and vexation which, in her perturbed state of mind, she feels at the misapprehension of Campeius, and the intelligent expression of countenance and gracious dignity of gesture with which she intimates to him his mistake, and dismisses him again to his seat. And no language can convey a picture of her immediate re-assumption of the fulness of majesty, glowing with scorn, contempt, anger, and the terrific pride of innocence, when she turns round to Wolsey, and exclaims, ' To you I speak!' Her form seemed to expand, and her eyes to burn beyond human. Wolsey obeys the summons, and requests to know her pleasure; and she proceeds to make the charge, and her refusal."

"I utterly ABHOR, yea, from my soul,
REFUSE you for my judge," etc.

These are not mere words of passion, but technical terms in the canon law. "Detestor and Recuso;-the former, in the language of canonists, signifies no more than I protest against."—(Blackstone.) The words are Hollingshed's:-" and therefore openly protested that she did utterly abhor, refuse, and forsake such a judge." Just before, the Queen has said to Wolsey

You are mine enemy, and make my challenge,which, it is worthy of remark, is again in the technical language of the common law, in objecting to a juryman.

"You SIGN your place and calling"-"Sign" is here used in the sense of denote, or show. He gave the external signs of his holy order and rank in outward meekness, while his heart was full of pride.

"Where powers are your retainers; and your wORDS, Domestics to you, serve your will," etc.

"You have now got power at your beck, following in your retinue; and words, therefore, are degraded to the servile state of performing any office which you shall give them. In humbler and more common terms:Having now got power, you do not regard your word.".

JOHNSON.

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shown in the last scene of the next act, where Cromwell mentions his return. Some of the editors of the last century, not noticing this, supposed that Cranmer had been present, and was called back as he was going; and add, without authority, "The King speaks to Cranmer."

ACT III.-SCENE I.

"Take thy lute, wench: my soul grows sad with troubles; Sing, and disperse them, if thou canst. Leave working." The relation of the interesting interview between Wolsey, Campeius, and Katharine, is founded originally on the narrative of Cavendish, who says that the Queen "came out of her privy chamber with a skein of white thread about her neck, into the chamber of presence." This excellent biographer was present at the early part of the meeting; for he subsequently, after the principals had withdrawn, says, "We in the other chamber might sometime hear the Queen speak very loud; but what it was, we could not understand."

— in the presence"-i. e. In the chamber of royal audience. "They should be good men, their affairs as righteous; But all hoods make not monks.”

"Being churchmen they should be virtuous, and every business they undertake as righteous as their sacred office; but all hoods make not monks:" in allusion to the Latin proverb, Cucullus non facit monachum; to which Chaucer also alludes:

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This is obscurely expressed, but seems to mean," If your business is with me, and relates to the question of my marriage, out with it boldly."

"They that must WEIGH OUT my afflictions," etc.

The commentators here say that "weigh out" is for outweigh, as in MACBETH "overcome" is put for come over. I do not perceive the fitness of this sense in this place, if indeed "weigh out" is ever thus used. I understand it to mean deliberate upon, ponder over. she expects from her distant friends, to whom she looks for counsel, which she cannot hope from any English

man.

This

"The more shame for ye! holy men I thought ye," etc. "If I mistake you, it is by your fault, not mine; for I thought you good. The distress of Katharine might have kept her from the quibble to which she is irresistibly tempted by the word cardinal.”—JOHNSON.

SCENE II.

"-how he COASTS,

And HEDGES, his own way."

"To coast is to hover about, to pursue a sidelong course about a thing. To hedge is to creep along by the hedge,—not to take the direct and open path, but to steal covertly through circumvolutions."

"He is return'd, in his opinions, which

Have satisfied the king for his divorce," etc. These words are of doubtful sense, and may be taken in either of two ways. Stevens interprets them thus:"Suffolk means to say Cranmer is returned in his opinions, (i. e. with the same sentiments which he entertained before he went abroad,) which [sentiments] have satisfied the King, together with all the famous colleges referred to on the occasion. Or perhaps the passage (as Tyrwhitt observes) may mean, He is returned in effect, having sent his opinions, (i. e. the opinions of divines, etc., collected by him.")

"Enter the King, reading a Schedule"-That the Cardinal gave the King an inventory of his own private wealth, by mistake, and thereby ruined himself, is a known variation from the truth of history. Shakespeare, however, has not injudiciously represented the fall of that great man as owing to an incident which he had once improved to the destruction of another. (See the story related of Thomas Ruthall, Bishop of Durham, in Hollingshed.)

"Yet FIL'D with my abilities”—i. e. "My endeavours, though less than my desires, have fil'd (that is, have gone an equal pace with) my abilities."-JOHNSON. So in a preceding scene:

front but in that file

Where others tell steps with me.

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"Had I but serv'd my God with half the zeal
I serv'd my king, he would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies."

This was actually said by the Cardinal, when on his death-bed, in a conversation with Sir William Kingston; the whole of which is very interesting:-" Well, well, Master Kingston, (quoth he,) I see the matter against me how it is framed, but if I had served my God as diligently as I have served my king, he would not have given me over in my grey hairs. Howbeit this is the just reward that I must receive for my worldly diligence and pains that I have had to do him service; only to satisfy his vain pleasure, not regarding my godly duty." When Samrah, deputy-governor of Bassorah, was deposed by Moawiyah, the sixth caliph, he is reported to have ex

The folios have "fill'd with my abilities," an obvious pressed himself in the same manner:-" If I had served misprint, though adhered to by Collier.

"-notwithstanding that your bond of duty,

As 'twere in love's particular," etc.

"Besides the general bond of duty, by which you are obliged to be a loyal and obedient subject, you owe a particular devotion of yourself to me, as your particular benefactor."-JOHNSON.

"More than mine own: that am, have, and will be," etc.

Here the commentators are at loss. Knight's usual ingenuity, in finding a meaning for the original text, is baffled, and he allows that "there is certainly some corruption in this passage, for no ellipsis can have taken this obscure form." Collier says, "We can do no more than reprint exactly the old text, with the old punctuation; as if Wolsey, following that am, have, and will be' by a long parenthesis, had forgotten how he commenced his sentence. Something may have been lost, which would have completed the meaning; and the instances have been frequent where lines, necessary to the sense, have been recovered from the quarto impressions. Here we have no quarto impressions to resort to, and the later folios afford us no assistance, as they reprint the passage as it stands in the folio, (1623,) excepting that the two latest end the parenthesis at 'break.'"

"the CHIDING flood"-Tochide, in its earlier sense, was to brawl, to make a sharp or loud noise. Thus, in the MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM-"Never did I hear such gallant chiding,”—i. e. such a cry of the hounds.

"Dare MATE a sounder man than Surrey”—i. e. Dare match myself as an equal.

"To be thus JADED"-i. e. Overcrowed, overmastered. The force of this term may be best understood from a proverb given by Cotgrave, in v. Rosse, a jade :—“ Il n'est si bon cheval qui n'en deviendroit rosse: It would anger a saint, or crestfall the best man living, to be so used."

"DARE us with his cap, like LARKS"-"It is well known (says Stevens) that the hat of a cardinal is scarlet; and that one of the methods of daring larks was by small mirrors fastened on scarlet cloth, which engaged the attention of these birds while the fowler drew his net over them." This practice of daring larks by mirrors is still pursued, in order to attract them to the gun.

"the SACRING bell"-The "sacring" bell, in the Roman Catholic Church, is the small bell sounded on the elevation, or at the approach, of the Host, and during other ceremonies.

"May have a tomb of orphans' tears wept on 'em!" This refers to the general power of the chancellor as guardian of infants, one of the most ancient portions of his jurisdiction. "A tomb of tears (says Johnson) is very harsh." Stevens has adduced an Epigram of Martial, in which the Heliades are said to " weep a tomb of tears" over a viper. (V. Lib. iv. Epig. 59.) Drummond, in his 46 Teares for the Death of Moeliades," has the same conceit :

The Muses, Phoebus, Love, have raised of their teares
A crystal tomb to him, through which his worth appears.

God so well as I served him, he would never have condemned me to all eternity." A similar sentiment also occurs in the "Earl of Murton's Tragedie," by Churchyard, (1593.) Antonio Perez, the disgraced favourite. made the same complaint. Mr. Douce has also pointed out a remarkable passage in Pitscottie's "History of Scotland," in which there is a great resemblance to these pathetic words of the Cardinal. James V. imagined that Sir James Hamilton addressed him thus in a dream:-"Though I was a sinner against God, I failed not to thee. Had I been as good a servant to the Lord my God as I was to thee, I had not died that death."

ACT IV. SCENE I.

["Exit Procession, with a great flourish of Trum pets"]-The stage-direction, respecting the exit of the procession, in the old copy immediately follows the description of the procession itself; but it is clear that it passes over the stage while the two gentlemen are conversing about it. In the folio it runs thus:-"Exeunt, first passing over the stage in order and state, and then a great flourish of trumpets."

SCENE II.

"O, Griffith! sick to death: My legs, like loaden branches, bow to the earth, Willing to leave their burden."

"This scene is above any other part of Shakespeare's tragedies, and perhaps above any scene of any other poet, tender and pathetic, without gods or furies, or poisons or precipices; without the help of romantic circumstances, without improbable sallies of poetical lamentation, and without any throes of tumultuous misery."JOHNSON.

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- he stepp'd before me, HAPPILY”—“ Happily,” though of old used as we now use it, was also taken sometimes for perhaps, haply-a confusion of senses that might have originally arisen from carelessness. It seems used in this last sense here.

"He could not sit his mule"-Cardinals generally rode on mules, as a mark perhaps of humility. Cavendish says that Wolsey "rode like a cardinal sumptuously upon his mule, trapped altogether in crimson velvet and gilt stirrups." The rich caparisons of his mule seem to have made a great impression on the public mind, as the contemporary satires are full of allusions to their splendour.

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Of an unbounded STOMACH"-" Stomach" is here used for pride, or haughtiness. The following character of Wolsey, from Hollingshed, shows how nearly Shakespeare followed the very words of his original:"This Cardinal was of a great stomach, for he computed himself equal with princes, and by craftie suggestions got into his hands innumerable treasure: he forced little on simonie, and was not pitiful, and stood affectionate in his own opinion: in open presence he would lie and saie untruth, and was double both in speech and mean

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