3 Gent. As well as I am able. The rich stream2
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
"Mane salutantum totis vomit ædibus undam.”

Virg. Georg. II, 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:

4

like rams-] That is, like battering rams. Johnson. So, in Virgil, Æneid II:

labat ariete crebro

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.

1 Gent.

Sir, you

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.

But 'tis so lately alter'd, that the old name
Is fresh about me.

2 Gent.

I know it;

What two reverend bishops

Were those that went on each side of the queen?

3 Gent. Stokesly and Gardiner; the one, of Winches

ter,

(Newly preferr'd from the king's secretary)

The other, London.

2 Gent.

He of Winchester

Is held no great lover of the archbishop's,
The virtuous Cranmer.

3 Gent.

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.
3 Gent.

Yes, without all doubt.
Come, gentlemen, ye shall go my way, which
Is to the court, and there ye shall be my guests;
Something I can command. As I walk thither,
I'll tell ye more.

Both.

You may command us, sir. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.6

Kimbolton.

Enter KATHARINE, Dowager, sick; led between
GRIFFITH and PATIENCE.

Grif. How does your grace?

O, Griffith, sick to death:

Kath.
My legs, like loaden branches, bow to the earth,
Willing to leave their burden: Reach a chair;-
So, now, methinks, I feel a little ease.

Didst thou not tell me, Griffith, as thou led'st me,
That the great child of honour, cardinal Wolsey,
Was dead?

Grif.

8

Yes, madam; but, I think, 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.9

6 Scene II.] 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 tumultuous misery. Johnson.

7-- child of honour,] So, in King Henry IV, Part I:

8

"That this same child of honour and renown -" Steevens. Corrected in the second

I think,] Old copy-I thank.

folio. Malone.

9

he stepp'd before me, happily,

For my example.] Happily seems to mean on this occasionperadventure, haply. I have been more than once of this opinion, when I have met with the same word thus spelt in other pas sages. Steevens.

Mr. M. Mason is of opinion that happily here means fortunately,

Grif.

Well, the voice goes, madam:

For after the stout earl Northumberland1

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.2

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,-O father abbot, An old man, broken with the storms of state,

Mr. Steevens's interpretation is, I think, right. So, in King Henry VI, Part II:

Thy fortune, York, hadst thou been regent there,

"Might happily have prov'd far worse than his." Malone.

the stout earl Northumberland—] So, in Chevy Chase : "The stout earl of Northumberland

"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 publisher for some sinister purpose; not being found in the two manuscripts 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?

Again:

Again:

Jef. They regarde it no more be gisse
"Then waggynge of his mule's tayle,
"Wat. Doth he then use on mule's to ryde?
Jef. Ye, and that with so shamful pryde
That to tell it is not possible."

"Then foloweth my lorde on his mule
"Trapped with golde under her cule
"In every poynt most curiously."

"The bosses of his mulis brydles
"Myght bye Christ and his disciples
"As farre as I coulde ever rede."

Steevens.

3 with easy roads,] i. e. by short stages. Steevens.

Is come to lay his weary bones among ye;
Give him a little earth for charity!

So went to bed: where eagerly his sickness
Pursu'd him still; and, three nights after this,
About the hour of eight, (which he himself
Foretold, should be his last,) full of repentance,
Continual meditations, tears, and sorrows,
He gave his honours to the world again,
His blessed part to heaven, and slept in peace.

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, ever ranking
Himself with princes; one, that by suggestion
Ty'd all the kingdom:5 simony was fair play;

4 Of an unbounded stomach,] i. e. of unbounded pride, or haugh tiness. So, Holinshed, speaking of King Richard III:

"Such a great audacitie and such a stomach reigned in his bodie." Steevens.

5

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 Thomas Hanmer, who reads tyth'd-instead of ty'd all the kingdom, deserves 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,