With the mere rankness of their joy. 2 Gent. You saw The ceremony? 3 Gent. That I did. I Gent. How was it? 3 Gent. Well worth the seeing. 2 Gent. Good sir, speak it to us, 3 Gent. As well as I am able. The rich stream? Of lords, and ladies, having brought the queen To a prepar'd place in the choir, fell off A distance from her; while her grace sat down To rest a while, some half an hour, or so, In a rich chair of state, opposing freely The beauty of her person to the people. Believe me, sir, she is the goodliest woman That ever lay by man: which when the people Had the full view of, such a noise arose As the shrouds make at sea in a stiff tempest, As loud, and to as many tunes: hats, cloaks, (Doublets, I think,) flew up; and had their faces Been loose, this day they had been lost. Such joy I never saw before. Great-bellied women, That had not half a week to go, 3 like rams4 In the old time of war, would shake the press, And make them reel before them. No man living Could say, This is my wife, there; all were woven The rich stream &c.] ingentem foribus domus alta superbis Virg. Georg. I1, 461. Malone. Again, in the second Thebaid of Statius, v. 223: foribus cum immissa superbis “ Unda fremit vulgi.” So, in Timon of Athens, Act I, sc. i: this confluence, this great flood of visitors." See Dr. Johnson's note on this passage. Steevens. 3 to go,] i. e. to continue in their pregnancy. So, after. wards: - the fruit she for heartily.” Steevens. like rams - ] That is, like battering rams. Fohnsoli. So, in Virgil, Æneid II: labat arieté crebro Janua Steevens. goes with " I pray Sir, you So strangely in one piece. 2 Gent. But, 'pray, what follow'd ?5 3 Gent. At length her grace rose, and with modest paces Came to the altar; where she kneel'd, and, saint like, Cast her fair eyes to heaven, and pray'd devoutly. Then rose again, and bow'd her to the people: When by the archbishop of Canterbury She had all the royal makings of a queen; As holy oil, Edward Confessor's crown, The rod, and bird of peace, and all such emblems Laid nobly on her: which perform’d, the choir, With all the choicest musick of the kingdom, Together sung Te Deum. So she parted, And with the same full state pac'd back again To York-place, where the feast is held. I Gent. Must no more call it York-place, that is past: For, since the cardinal fell, that title 's lost; 'Tis now the king's, and call'd—Whitehall. 3 Gent. I know it; But 'tis so lately alter'd, that the old name Is fresh about me. 2 Gent. What two reverend bishops Were those that went on each side of the queen ? 3 Gent. Stokesly and Gardiner; the one, of Winches ter, He of Winchester All the land knows that: However, yet there's no great breach; when it comes, Cranmer will find a friend will not shrink from him. 2 Gent. Who may that be, I pray you? 3 Gent. Thomas Cromwell; A man in much esteem with the king, and truly A worthy friend. The king Has made him master o' the jewel-house, 5 But, 'pray, what follow'd?] The word 'pray was added, for the sake of the measure, by Sir Thomas Hanmer. Steevens. And one, already, of the privy-council. 2 Gent. He will deserve more. Yes, without all doubt. You may command us, sir. [Exeunt. SCENE II.6 Kimbolton. Enter KATHARINE, Dowager, sick; led between GRIFFITH and PATIENCE. O, Griffith, sick to death: Grif. Yes, madam; but, I think, 8 your grace, Out of the pain you suffer’d, gave no ear to't. Kath. Pr'ythee, good Griffith, tell me how he died: If well, he stepp'd before me, happily, For my example. 7 6 Scene 11.] This scene is above any other part of Shakspeare's' tragedies, and perhaps above any scene of any other poet, tender and pathetick, without gods, or furies, or poisons, or precipices, without the help of romantick circumstances, without improbable sallies of poetical lamentation, and without any throes of tumul. tuous misery Johnson. child of honour,] So, in King Henry IV, Part I: ." Steevens. · I think, ] Old copy-I thank. Corrected in the second folio. Malone. he stepp'd before me, happily, For my example. ] Happily seems to mean on this occasion peradventure, haply. I I have been more than once of this opinion, when I have met with the same word thus spelt in other passages. Steevens. Mr. M. Mason is of opinion that happily here means fortunately, 8 9 Grif. Well, the voice goes, madam: For after the stout earl Northumberland 1 Arrested him at York, and brought him forward (As a man sorely tainted) to his answer, He fell sick suddenly, and grew so ill, He could not sit his mule. Kath. Alas, poor man! Grif. At last, with easy roads, he came to Leicester, Lodg'd in the abbey; where the reverend abbot, With all his convent, honourably receiv'd him; To whom he gave these words,- father abbot, An old man, broken with the storms of state, Mr. Steevens's interpretation is, I think, right. So, in King “ Thy fortune, York, hadst thou been regent there, The stout earl of Northumberland 6 A vow to God did make” &c. Steevens. 2 He could not sit his mule. ] In Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, 1641, it is said that Wolsey poisoned himself; but the words—" at which time it was apparent that he had poisoned himself,” which appear in p. 108 of that work, were an interpolation, inserted by the pub. lisher for some sinister purpose; not being found in the two manu. scripts now preserved in the Museum. See a former note, p. 300. Malone. Cardinals generally rode on mules. “He rode like a cardinal, sumptuously upon his mule.” Cavendish's Life of Wolsey. Reed. In the representation of the Champ de Drap d'Or, published by the Society of Antiquaries, the Cardinal appears mounted on one of these animals very richly caparisoned. This circumstance also is much dwelt on in the ancient Satire quoted p. 259, n. 2: “ Wat. What yf he will the devils blisse? Fef. They regarde it no more be gisse “Then waggynge of his mule's tayle, « That to tell it is not possible.” Again: « Then foloweth my lorde on his mule “In every poynt most curiously.” Again: 6. The bosses of his mulis brydles " As farre as I coulde ever rede.” Steevens. 3 Is come to lay his weary bones among ye; his honours to the world again, Kath. So may he rest; his faults lie "gently" on him! lightly Yet thus far, Griffith, give me leave to speak him, And yet with charity,—He was a man Of an unbounded stomach,4 ever ranking Himself with princes; one, that by suggestion Ty'd all the kingdom:5 simony was fair play ; 5 4 of an unbounuled stomach,) i. e. of unbounded pride, or haugitiness. So, Holinshed, speaking of King Richard III: “Such a great audacitie and such a stomach reigned in his bodie." Steevens. one, that by suggestion Ty'd all the kingdom:] The word suggestion, says the critick, [Dr. Warburton] is here used with great propriety and seeming knowledge of the Latin tongue: and he proceeds to settle the sense of it from the late Roman writers and their glossers. But Shakspeare's knowledge was from Holinshed, whom he follows verbatim: “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 pitifull, and stood affectionate in his own opinion: in open presence he would lie and seie untruth, and was double both in speech and meaning; he would promise much and perform little: he was vicious of his bodie, and gave the clergie euil example.” Edit. 1587, p. 922. Perhaps, after this quotation, you may not think, that Sir Tho. mas Hanmer, who reads tyth'd-instead of ty'd all the kingdom, de. serves quite so much of Dr. Warburton's severity.-Indisputably the passage, like every other in the speech, is intended to express the meaning of the parallel one in the chronicle; it cannot therefore be credited, that any man, when the original was produced, should still choose to defend a cant acceptation, and inform us, perhaps, seriously, that in gaming language, from I know not what practice, to tye is to equal! A sense of the word, as I have yet found, unknown to our old writers; and, if known, would not surely have been used in this place by our author. But let us turn from conjecture to Shakspeare's authorities. Hall, from whom the above description is copied by Holinshed, |