I was my chamber's prisoner.

NORF.

Then you lost
The view of earthly glory: men might say,
Till this time pomp was single, but now married
To one above itself. Each following day
Became the next day's master, till the last
Made former wonders its: to-day, the French,
All clinquant, all in gold, like heathen gods,
Shone down the English; and, to-morrow, they
Made Britain, India: every man that stood,
Show'd like a mine. Their dwarfish pages were
As cherubins, all gilt: the madams too,
Not us'd to toil, did almost sweat to bear
The pride upon them, that their very labour
Was to them as a painting: now this masque
Was cried incomparable; and the ensuing night
Made it a fool and beggar. The two kings,
Equal in lustre, were now best, now worst,
As presence did present them; him in eye,
Still him in praise: and, being present both,
'Twas said, they saw but one; and no discerner
Durst wag his tongue in censure. When these suns
(For so they phrase 'em) by their heralds challeng'd
The noble spirits to arms, they did perform
Beyond thought's compass; that former fabulous.
story,

Being now seen possible enough, got credit,
That Bevis was believ'd.(1)

Веск.

O, you go far.

NORF. As I belong to worship, and affect In honour honesty, the tract of every thing Would by a good discourser lose some life, Which action's self was tongue to. All was royal; To the disposing of it nought rebell'd,

a Andren.] So in the original, and so also in Holinghed, whom Shakespeare followed. The valley of Ardren lies between Guynes and Ardres; and, at the period alluded to, the former belonged to the English, and the latter to the French.

Durst wag his tongue in censure.] That is, in judging either superior to the other.

All was royal ;] These words and the remainder of the speech are in the old copies given to Buckingham.

d No element-] No rudimentary knowledge even.

e Keech-] See note (e), p. 530, Vol. I.

Out of his self drawing web,-he gives us note,-] The old text reads:

"Out of his Selfe-drawing Web. O gives us note," &c. Steevens surmised that the manuscript had, "A gives us note," which the compositor mistook for "O gives us note." This is not improbable; but the expression, self-drawing web," which every editor adopts without comment, appears to us an error likewise. The sense is better and more clearly expressed by omitting the hyphen.

A gift that heaven gives for him, &c.] This is a very doubt

Order gave each thing view; the office did Distinctly his full function.

BUCK.

Who did guide?

I mean, who set the body and the limbs
Of this great sport together, as you guess?
NORF. One, certes, that promises no element"
In such a business.

BUCK.
I pray you, who, my lord?
NORF. All this was order'd by the good
discretion

Of the right-reverend cardinal of York. [freed
BUCK. The devil speed him! no man's pie is
From his ambitious finger. What had he
To do in these fierce vanities? I wonder
That such a keech can with his very bulk
Take up the rays o' the beneficial sun,
And keep it from the earth.

NORF.

Surely, sir,

There's in him stuff that puts him to these ends :
For,-being not propp'd by ancestry, whose grace
Chalks successors their way; nor call'd upon
For high feats done to the crown; neither allied
To eminent assistants; but, spider-like,
Out of his self drawing web,-he gives us note,-f
The force of his own merit makes his way;
A gift that heaven gives for him, which buys
A place next to the king.

g

ABER.
I cannot tell
What heaven hath given him,-let some graver eye
Pierce into that ;-but I can see his pride
Peep through each part of him whence has he
that?

If not from hell, the devil is a niggard;
Or has given all before, and he begins
A new hell in himself.

Mr. Collier's annotator changes it to"A gift that heaven gives him, and which buys;" but if such licentious alterations were permissible, it would be easy to improve on this emendation.

h

44

and his own letter,

The honourable board of council out,
Must fetch him in, he papers.]

By "The honourable board of council out," is meant, without concurrence of the council; but what are we to understand by the expression in the last line,-"he papers?" In sheer despair, Pope threw out a suggestion that papers was here a verb.-" whom he papers down," and succeeding editors have been content with the explication; yet what thinking reader can ever believe this is what Shakespeare intended? From the context, see especially the two next speeches, it would seem that the sense requires a synonyme for the verb beggars,-"whom he beggars," or impoverishes; it is then possible that the meaningless papers is a misprint, and that we should read:

But minister communication of A most poor issue?]

Com

That is, But furnish discourse on the poverty of its result. munication in the sense of talk, or discourse, is found so repeatedly in writers of Shakespeare's time, that the passage would hardly have required explanation, if the commentators had not overlooked this meaning of the word, and Mr. Collier, in adopting "consummation,"-a reading of his annotator,-had not pronounced the old text "little better than nonsense."

b Like it your grace,-] Equivalent to "An it like your

grace.'

648

[SCENE I.

Ask God for temperance; that's the appliance

Which

only,

your disease requires.

Веск.

I read in's looks

Matter against me; and his eye revil'd
Me, as his abject object: at this instant
He bores me with some trick: he's gone to the

d

king;

I'll follow, and out-stare him.

NORF. And let

Stay, my lord, your reason with your choler question What 't is you go about: to climb steep hills, Requires slow pace at first: anger is like A full-hot horse, who being allow'd his Self-mettle tires him. Not a man in England Can advise me like you: be to yourself As you would to

your

friend,

way,

BUCK. I'll to the king; And from a mouth of honour quite cry down This Ipswich fellow's insolence; or proclaim There's difference in no persons.

NORF. Be advis'd; Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot That it do singe yourself: we may outrun, By violent swiftness, that which we run at, And lose by over-running. Know you not,

The fire that mounts the liquor till't run o'er,
In seeming to augment it wastes it? Be advis'd:
I say again, there is no English soul
More stronger to direct you than yourself,
If with the sap of reason you would quench,
Or but allay, the fire of passion.

BUCK. Sir, I am thankful to you; and I'll go along

By your prescription:-but this top-proud fellow, (Whom from the flow of gall I name not, but From sincere motions,) by intelligence,

And proofs as clear as founts in Júly, when
We see each grain of gravel, I do know
To be corrupt and treasonous.

Say not, treasonous.

NORF.
BUCK. To the king I'll say 't; and make my
Vouch as strong

As shore of rock. Attend. This holy fox,
Or wolf, or both, for he is equal ravenous
As he is subtle, and as prone to mischief
As able to perform 't; his mind and place
Infecting one another, yea, reciprocally,-
Only to show his pomp as well in France
As here at home, suggests the king our master
To this last costly treaty, the interview,

That swallow'd so much treasure, and like a glass

Did break i' the rinsing:- *

NORF.

Faith, and so it did. BUCK. Pray, give me favour, sir-this cunning cardinal

The articles o' the combination drew
As himself pleas'd; and they were ratified,
As he cried, Thus let be, to as much end

As give a crutch to the dead: but our count

cardinal

Has done this, and 'tis well; for worthy Wolsey,
Who cannot err, he did it. Now this follows,
(Which, as I take it, is a kind of puppy
To the old dam, treason,)—Charles the emperor,
Under pretence to see the queen his aunt,
(For 'twas indeed his colour; but he came
To whisper Wolsey,) here makes visitation :
His fears were, that the interview betwixt
England and France might, through their amity,
Breed him some prejudice; for from this league
Peep'd harms that menac'd him: het privily
Deals with our cardinal; and, as I trow,-
Which I do well, for, I am sure, the emperor
Paid ere he promis'd; whereby his suit was

granted

BRAN. A monk o' the Chartreux.

BUCK. BRAN.

(*) Old text, Councellour.

So, so; -no more, I

O, Nicholas Hopkins? He.

(†) Old text, Michaell.

see you deprived of liberty, that I am a witness of this business.

Not almost appears,

It doth appear; for, upon these taxations,
The clothiers all, not able to maintain
The many to them 'longing, have put off
The spinsters, carders, fullers, weavers, who,
Unfit for other life, compell'd by hunger
And lack of other means, in desperate manner
Daring the event to the teeth, are all in uproar,
And danger serves among them.

K. HEN.
Taxation!
Wherein? and what taxation ?-My lord cardinal,
You that are blam'd for it alike with us,
Know you of this taxation?

WOL.

Please you, sir, I know but of a single part, in aught Pertains to the state; and front but in that file Where others tell steps with me.

Q. KATH.

No, my lord, You know no more than others: but frame Things, that are known alike, which are not whole

some

you

To those which would not know them, and yet must Perforce be their acquaintance. These exactions, Whereof my sovereign would have note, they are Most pestilent to the hearing; and, to bear 'em, The back is sacrifice to the load. They say They are devis'd by you; or else suffer

Too hard an exclamation.

you

K. HEN.
Still exaction!
The nature of it? In what kind, let's know,
Is this exaction?

Q. KATH. I am much too venturous
In tempting of your patience; but am bolden'd
Under your promis'd pardon. The subjects' grief
Comes through commissions, which compel from

each

The sixth part of his substance, to be levied
Without delay; and the pretence for this
Is nam'd, your wars in France: this makes bold

mouths:

Tongues spit their duties out, and cold hearts freeze

affords an intelligible meaning. Our idea of it is, that by figure is meant his own form, and that the expression "cloud puts on, signities assumes obscurity; or possibly, is eclipsed by cloud. b Putter-on-] Contriver, deviser. So in "The Winter's

Tale," Act II. Sc. 1:

"You are abus'd, and by some putter-on."

Traduc'd by ignorant tongues, which neither know
My faculties nor person, yet will be

The chronicles of my doing,-let me say,
'Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake
That virtue must go through. We must not stint
Our necessary actions, in the fear

To cope malicious censurers; which ever,
As ravenous fishes, do a vessel follow
That is new trimm'd, but benefit no further
Than vainly longing. What we oft do best,
By sick interpreters, once weak ones, is
Not ours, or not allow'd; what worst, as oft,

"Their tractable obedience," &c.

b No primer business.] The old copies have "basenesse," which was corrected in Southern's copy of the fourth folio.