No more to the crown but that. Lo, who comes here? Enter the Lord Chamberlain. Cham. Good morrow, ladies. What wer 't worth to know The secret of your conference? Anne. Cham. It was a gentle business, and becoming Anne. Now I pray God, amen! Cham. You bear a gentle mind, and heavenly blessings Follow such creatures. That you may, fair lady, Perceive I speak sincerely, and high note 's Ta'en of your many virtues, the king's majesty England beyond Wales, it being the farthest south and west county in the whole principality." Steevens You'd venture an emballing:] You would venture to be distinguished by the ball, the ensign of royalty. Johnson. Dr. Johnson's explanation cannot be right, because a queen-consort, such as Anne Bullen was, is not distinguished by the ball, the ensign of royalty, nor has the poet expressed that she was so distinguished Tollet Mr. Tollet's objection to Johnson's explanation is an hypercriticism. Shakspeare did not probably consider so curiously his distinction between a queen consort and a queen regent. Might we read You'd venture an empalling; M. Mason. i. e. being invested with the pall or robes of state? The word occurs in the old tragedy of King Edward III, 1596: "As with this armour I impall thy breast.” And, in Macbeth, the verb to pall is used in the sense of enrobe: "And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell." Malone. The word recommended by Mr. Malone occurs also in Chapman's version of the eighth Book of Homer's Odyssey: "such a radiance as doth round empall "Crown'd Cytherea,-" Steevens. Might we not read—an embalming? A queen consort is anointed at her coronation; and in King Richard II, the word is used in that sense: "With my own tears I wash away my balm." Dr. Johnson properly explains it, the oil of consecration. Whalley. The Old Lady's jocularity, I am afraid, carries her beyond the bounds of decorum; but her quibbling allusion is more easily comprehended than explained. Ritson." Commends his good opinion to you,' and Anne. 1 Commends his good opinion to you,] Thus the old copy, and subsequent editors. Mr. Malone reads: Commends his good opinion of you. Steevens. The words-to you, in the next line, must in construction be understood here. The old copy, indeed, reads: Commends his good opinion of you to you, and· but the metre shows that cannot be right. The words-to you were probably accidentally omitted by the compositor in the second line, and being marked by the corrector as out, (to speak technically) were inserted in the wrong place. The old error being again marked, the words that were wanting were properly inserted in the second line where they now stand, and the new error in the first was overlooked. In the printing-house this frequently happens. Malone. It is as probable that, in the present instance, a correction and the erasure that was designed to make room for it, have both been printed. The phrase I found in the text I have not disturbed, as it is supported by a passage in Antony and Cleopatra: “Commend unto his lips thy favouring hand.” Again, in King Lear: "I did commend your highness' letters to them." Steevens. 2 More than my all is nothing:] Not only my all is nothing, but if my all were more than it is, it were still nothing. Johnson. So, in Macbeth: 3 "More is thy due than more than all can pay." Steevens. nor my prayers Are not words duly hallow'd, &c.] It appears to me absolutely necessary, in order to make sense of this passage, to read: for my prayers Are not words duly hallow'd, &c. instead of “nor my prayers." Anne's argument is this: "More than my all is nothing, for my prayers and wishes are of no value, and yet prayers and wishes are all I have to return." M. Mason. The double negative, it has been already observed, was commonly used in our author's time. For my prayers, a reading introduced by Mr. Pope, even if Аа More worth than empty vanities; yet prayers, and wishes, Cham. Lady, [Aside. such arbitrary changes were allowable, ought not to be admitted here, this being a distinct proposition, not an illation from what has gone before. I know not, (says Anne) what external acts of duty and obeisance I ought to return for such unmerited favour. All I can do of that kind, and even more, if more were possible, would be insufficient: nor are any prayers that I can offer up for my benefactor sufficiently sanctified, nor any wishes that I can breathe for his happiness, of more value than the most worthless and empty vanities. Malone 4 I shall not fail &c ] I shall not omit to strengthen, by my commendation, the opinion which the King has formed. Johnson. 5 •I have perus'd her well;] From the many artful strokes of address the poet has thrown in upon Queen Elizabeth and her mother, it should seem that this play was written and performed in his royal mistress's time: if so, some lines were added by him in the last scene, after the accession of her successor, King James. Theobald. To lighten all this isle?] Perhaps alluding to the carbuncle, a gem supposed to have intrinsick light, and to shine in the dark: any other gem may reflect light, but cannot give it. Johnson. So, in Titus Andronicus: "A precious ring, that lightens all the hole." Steevens. Thus, in a palace described in Amadis de Gaule, Trans. 1619, fol. B. IV, p 5: "In the roofe of a chamber hung two lampes of gold, at the bottomes whereof were enchased two carbuncles, which gave so bright a splendour round about the roome, that there was no neede of any other light." With a reference to this notion, I imagine, Milton, speaking of the orb of the sun, says: "If stone, carbuncle most or chrysolite." Paradise Lost, B. III, v. 596. And that we have in Antony and Cleopatra: were it carbuncled "Like holy Phabus' car." H. White. My honour'd lord. [Exit Ld. Cham. And say, I spoke with you. Anne. Old L. Why, this it is; see, see! I have been begging sixteen years in court, This compell'd fortune!) have your mouth fill'd up, Anne. Old L. How tastes it? is it bitter? forty pence, no. There was a lady once, ('tis an old story) That would not be a queen, that would she not, Old L. With your theme, I could O'ermount the lark. The marchioness of Pembroke! A thousand pounds a year! for pure respect; No other obligation: By my life, That promises more thousands: Honour's train I know, your back will bear a duchess ;—Say, 7 is it bitter? forty pence, no.] Mr. Roderick, in his appen. dix to Mr. Edwards's book, proposes to read: for two-pence, The old reading may, however, stand. Forty pence was, in those days, the proverbial expression of a small wager, or a small sum. Money was then reckoned by pounds, marks, and nobles. Forty pence is half a noble, or the sixth part of a pound. Forty pence, or three and four pence, still remains, in many offices, the legal and established fee. So, in King Richard II, Act V, sc. v: "The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear." Again in All's Well that Ends Well, Act II, the Clown says: "As fit as ten groats for the hand of an attorney." Again, in Green's Groundwork of Coneycatching: "- wagers laying, &c. forty pence gaged against a match of wrestling.' Again, in The longer thou livest the more Fool thou art, 1570: “I dare wage with any man forty pence." Again, in The Storye of King Darius, 1565, an interlude : • Nay, that I will not for fourty pence." Steevens. "For all the mud in Egypt:] The fertility of Egypt is derived from the mud and slime of the Nile. Steevens. Are you not stronger than you were? Anne. Good lady, The queen is comfortless, and we forgetful Old L. What do you think me? [Exeunt. SCENE IV. A Hall in Black-Fryars. Trumpets, Sennet, and Cornets. Enter Two Vergers, with short Silver Wands; next them, Two Scribes, Sennet,] Dr. Burney (whose General History of Musick has been so highly and deservedly applauded) undertook to trace the etymology, and discover the certain meaning of this term, but without success. The following conjecture of his should not, however, be withheld from the publick: "Senné or sennie, de l'Allemand sen, qui signifie assemblee. Dict. de vieux Language: "Senne, assemblee a son de cloche." Menage. Perhaps, therefore, (says he,) sennet may mean a flourish for the purpose of assembling chiefs, or apprizing the people of their approach. I have likewise been informed, (as is elsewhere noted) that seneste is the name of an antiquated French tune." See JuHius Cesar, Act I, sc. ii. Steevens. In the second part of Marston's Antonio and Mellida "Cornets sound a cynet." Farmer. A senet appears to have signified a short flourish on cornets. In King Henry VI, P. III, after the King and the Duke of York have entered into a compact in the parliament-house, we find this marginal direction: "Senet. Here they [the lords] come down [from their seats]." In that place a flourish must have been meant. The direction which has occasioned this note should be, I believe, sennet on cornets. In Marlowe's King Edward II, we find "Cornets sound a signate." Senet or signate was undoubtedly nothing more than a flourish or sounding. The Italian Sonata formerly signified nothing more. See Florio's Italian Dict. 1611, in v. That senet was merely the corrupt pronunciation of signate, is ascertained by the following entry in the folio MS. of Mr. Henslowe, who appears to have spelt entirely by the ear: |