Imatges de pàgina
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Could not be wedg'd in more; and I am stifled ' With the mere rankness of their joy.

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queen

3. GENT. As well as I am able. The rich stream* Of lords, and ladies, having brought the To a prepar'd place in the choir, fell off A diftance from her; while her grace fat down To reft awhile, fome half an hour, or fo, In a rich chair of ftate, oppofing freely The beauty of her perfon to the people. Believe me, fir, fhe is the goodliest woman That ever lay by man: which when the people Had the full view of, fuch a noise arose As the fhrouds make at fea in a stiff tempeft, As loud, and to as many tunes: hats, cloaks, (Doublets, I think,) flew up; and had their faces. Been loofe, this day they had been loft. Such joy I never faw before. Great-belly'd women, That had not half a week to go,' like rams"

3 — and I am fifled-] And was introduced by Sir Thomas Hanmer, to complete the measure. STEEVENS.

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The rich stream &c.]

ingentem foribus domus alta fuperbis
"Mane falutantum totis vomit ædibus undam."

Virg. Georg. II. 461. MALONE.

So, in Timon of Athens, Act I. fc. i:

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this confluence, this great flood of visitors."

See Dr. Johnson's note on this paffage. STEEVENS.

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to go,] i. e. to continue in their pregnancy. So, after

the fruit fhe goes with

"I pray for heartily." STEEVENS.

In the old time of war, would shake the press, And make them reel before them. No man living Could fay, This is my wife, there; all were woven So ftrangely in one piece.

2. GENT.

But, 'pray, what follow'd?? 3. GENT. At length her grace rofe, and with mo

deft paces

Came to the altar; where she kneel'd, and, faint

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 Confeffor's crown,

The rod, and bird of peace, and all fuch emblems
Lay'd nobly on her: which perform'd, the choir,
With all the choiceft mufick of the kingdom,
Together fung Te Deum. So fhe parted,
And with the fame full ftate pac'd back again
To York-place, where the feaft is held.

Sir, you

I. GENT. Muft no more call it York-place, that is paft: For, fince the cardinal fell, that title's loft; 'Tis now the king's, and call'd-Whitehall. 3. GENT.

I know it;

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

2. GENT.

What two reverend bishops Were those that went on each fide of the queen?

6

like rams-] That is, like battering rams. JOHNSON. So, in Virgil, Eneid II:

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labat ariete crebro Janua." STEEVENS.

7 But, 'pray, what follow'd?] The word-'pray, was added, for the fake of the measure, by Sir Thomas Hanmer.

STEEVENS.

3.

GENT. Stokefly and Gardiner; the one, of
Winchester,

(Newly preferr'd from the king's fecretary,)
The other, London.

2. GENT.

He of Winchester

Is held no great good 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 fhrink from him.

2. GENT. Who may that be, I pray you?

3. GENT.

Thomas Cromwell; A man in much efteem with the king, and truly A worthy friend.-The king

Has made him mafter o'the jewel-house, And one, already, of the privy-council. 2. GENT. He will deferve more.

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

Bor.

You may command us, fir.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Kimbolton.

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

GRIF. How does your grace?

ΚΑΤΗ. 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'ft me, That the great child of honour, cardinal Wolfey, Was dead?

O, Griffith, fick to death:

8

GRIF. 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."

7 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 poifons, or precipices, without the help of romantick circumftances, without improbable fallies of poetical lamentation, and without any throes of tumultuous mifery. JOHNSON.

9

folio.

2

-child of honour,] So, in King Henry IV. Part I: "That this fame child of honour and renown

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STEEVENS.

I think,] Old copy-I thank. Corrected in the fecond MALONE.

be flepp'd before me, happily,

For my example.

Happily feems to mean on this occafion

GRIF.

Well, the voice goes,

madam:

For after the ftout earl Northumberland 3
Arrested him at York, and brought him forward
(As a man forely tainted,) to his answer,
He fell fick fuddenly, and grew fo ill,

He could not fit his mule.+

ΚΑΤΗ.

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 ftorms of state,
Is come to lay his weary bones among ye;

peradventure, haply. I have been more than once of this opinion, when I have met with the fame word thus fpelt in other paffages. STEEVENS.

Mr. M. Mason is of opinion that happily here means fortunately. Mr. Steevens's interpretation is, I think, right. So, in K. Henry VI. Part II:

3

Chafe:

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Thy fortune, York, hadft thou been regent there,

Might happily have prov'd far worse than his." MALONE. the ftout earl Northumberland -] So, in Chevy

"The ftout earl of Northumberland

"A vow to God did make" &c. STEEVENS.

4 He could not fit his mule.] In Cavendish's Life of Wolfey, 1641, it is faid that Wolfey poisoned himself; but the words" at which time it was apparent that he had poifoned himfelf," which appear in p. 108 of that work, were an interpolation, inferted by the publisher for fome finifter purpofe; not being found in the two manufcripts now preferved in the Museum. See a former note, P. 134. MALONE.

Cardinals generally rode on mules. "He rode like a cardinal, fumptuously upon his mule." Cavendish's Life of Wolfey. REED.

In the reprefentation of the Champ de Drap d'Or, published by the Society of Antiquaries, the Cardinal appears mounted on one of these animals very richly caparifoned. STEEVENS.

5 with easy roads,] i. e. by fhort ftages. STEEVENS.

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