And his difciples only envy at,)

Ye blew the fire that burns ye: Now have at ye.

Enter King, frowning on them; takes his feat. Gar. Dread fovereign, how much are we bound to heaven In daily thanks, that gave us fuch a prince; Not only good and wife, but most religious: One that, in all obedience, makes the church The chief aim of his honour; and, to ftrengthen That holy duty, out of dear respect

His royal felf in judgment comes to hear

The caufe betwixt her and this great offender.
King. You were ever good at fudden commendations,
Bishop of Winchefter. But know, I come not
To hear fuch flattery now, and in my presence;
They are too thin and bafe to hide offences.
To me you cannot reach: You play the spaniel,
And think with wagging of your tongue to win me;
But, whatfoe'er thou tak'ft me for, I am fure,
Thou haft a cruel nature, and a bloody.-
Good man, [to Cranmer] fit down.

proudest

Now let me fee the

He, that dares moft, but wag his finger at thee:
By all that's holy, he had better starve,

Than but once think his place becomes thee not?.
Sur. May it please your grace,-

King. No, fir, it does not please me.

I had thought, I had men of fome understanding

5 They are to thin, &c.] i. e. the commendations above mentioned. Mr. Pope in the former line changed flattery to flatteries, and this unneceffary emendation has been adopted by all the fubfequent editors. I believe our author wrote-They are too thin and bare; and that the editor of the first folio, not understanding the word, changed it to bafe, as he did in K. Henry IV. P. I. See Vol. V. p. 136, n. 4. MALONE. 6 To me you cannot reach: you play, &c.] Mr. Whalley would read: To one you cannot reach, you play the fpaniel, "the relative zubom being understood." I think the old copy is right. MALONE.

7 Than but once think his place becomes thee not.] Who dares to fuppofe that the place or fituation in which he is, is not fuitable to thee alfo: who fuppofes that thou art not as fit for the office of a privy counsellor as he is.

Mr. Rowe and all the fubfequent editors read-this place, MALONE. And

And wifdom, of my council; but I find none.
Was it difcretion, lords, to let this man,
This good man, (few of you deferve that title,)
This honeft man, wait like a lowly foot-boy
At chamber door? and one as great as you are?
Why, what a fhame was this? Did my commission
Bid ye fo far forget yourselves? I gave ye
Power as he was a counsellor to try him,
Not as a groom: There's fome of ye, I fee,
More out of malice than integrity,

Would try him to the utmost, had ye mean;
Which ye shall never have, while I live.
Chan. Thus far,

My moft dread fovereign, may it like your grace
To let my tongue excufe all. What was purpos'd,
Concerning his imprisonment, was rather

(If there be faith in men) meant for his trial,
And fair purgation to the world, than malice;
1 am fure, in me.

King. Well, well, my lords, refpect him;
Take him, and ufe him well, he's worthy of it.
I will fay thus much for him, If a prince
May be beholding to a fubject, I

Am, for his love and fervice, fo to him.

Make me no more ado, but all embrace him;

Be friends, for fhame, my lords.-My lord of Canterbury,

I have a fuit which you must not deny me;

That is, a fair young maid that yet wants baptifm,
You must be godfather, and answer for her.

Cran. The greatest monarch now alive may glory

8 That is, &c.] My fuit is, that you would be godfather to a fair young maid, who is not yet chriftened. Mr. Rowe reads-There is, &c. and all the fubfequent editors have adopted this unneceflary alteration. The final word ber, we fhould now confider as fuperfluo s; but we have many inftances of a fimilar phrafeology in thefe plays :-or, the conftruction may be-A fair young maid, &c. you must be godfather [to], and anfwer for her. So, before in this play:

whoever the king favours,

"The cardinal inftantly will find employment [for],
"And far enough from court too."

Again, in the Merchant of Venice:

"How true a gentleman you fend relief [to]."

See alfo Vol. IV. p. 505, n. 5, MALONE.

În fuch an honour; How may I deserve it,

That am

poor and humble fubject to you?

King. Come, come, my lord, you'd spare your spoons 9; you shall have

Two

9-you'd spare your spoons:] It appears by this and another paffage in the next fcene, that the goflips gave fpoons. JOHNSON.

It was the custom, long before the time of Shakspeare, for the fponfors at chriftenings, to offer gilt fpoons as a prefent to the child. These spoons were called apoftie fpoons, because the figures of the apoftles were carved on the tops of the handles. Such as were at once opulent and generous, gave the whole twelve; thofe who were either more moderately rich or liberal, escaped at the expence of the four evangelifts; or even fometimes contented themselves with presenting one spoon only, which exhibited the figure of any faint, in honour of whom the child received its name.

Ben Jonfon, in his Bartbolomew Fair, mentions fpoons of this kind: and all this for the hope of a couple of apofile fpoons, and a cup to eat caudle in.” So, in Achafte Maid in Cheapfide, by Middleton, 1620: 2. Gof. What has he given her? what is it, goffip? 3. Gof. A faire high ftanding-cup, and two great poftle Spoons, one of them gilt. 1. Pur. Sure that was Judas then with the red beard."

Mr. Pegge, in his preface to A Forme of Cury, a Roll of ancient English Cookery, compiled about A. D. 1390, &c. obferves that "the general mode of eating muft either have been with the fpoon or the fin. gers; and this, perhaps, may have been the reason that fpoons became the ufual prefent from goffips to their god-children, at chriftenings."

STEEVENS.

As the following ftory, which is found in a collection of anecdotes, entitled Merry Paffages and Jeafts, Mis. Harl. 6395, contains an allufion to this custom, and has not, I believe, been published, it may not be an improper fupplement to this account of apoftle spoons. It fhews that our author and Ben Jonfon were once on terms of familiarity and friendship, however cold and jealous the latter might have been at a fubfequent period :

"Shakspeare was godfather to one of Ben Jonfon's children, and after the christening, being in deepe ftudy, Jonfon came to cheer him up, and afk'd him why he was fo melancholy: No 'faith, Ben, fays he, not I; but I have beene confidering a great while what should be the fitteft gift for me to Deftow upon my god-child, and I have refolv'd at laft. I pr'ythee, what? fays he.-I' faith, Ben, I'll give him a douzen good latten [Latin] Spoons, and thou shalt tranflate them."

The collector of thefe anecdotes appears to have been nephew to Sir Roger L'Estrange. He names Donne as the relater of this story.

The practice of fponfors giving spoons at christenings continued to the latter end of the last century, as appears from a pamphlet written against Dryden, entitled The Reasons of Mr. Bayes's Converfion, &c. p. 14. VOL. VII.

K

A

Two noble partners with you; the old dutchefs of Norfolk,
And lady marquifs Dorfet; Will these please you?
Once more, my lord of Winchester, I charge you,
Embrace, and love this man.

Gar. With a true heart, And brother-love, I do it. Cran. And let heaven

Witness, how dear I hold this confirmation.

King. Good man, those joyful tears fhew thy true heart'. The common voice, I fee, is verify'd

Of thee, which fays thus, Do my lord of Canterbury
A fhrewd turn, and he is your friend for ever.—
Come lords, we trifle time away; I long
To have this young one made a christian.
As I have made ye one, lords, one remain;
So I grow ftronger, you more honour gain.

SCENE III.

The Palace Yard.

[Exeunt.

Noife and tumult within: Enter Porter, and his Man. Port. You'll leave your noise anon, ye rascals: Do

At one period it was the mode to prefent gifts of a different kind. " At this time," [the first year of Queen Elizabeth,] fays the continuator of Stowe's Chronicle, "and for many yeeres before, it was not the ufe and cuftome, as now it is, [1631,] for godfathers and godmothers generally to give plate at the baptifm of children, (as fpoones, cups, and fuch like,) but only to give christening fpirts, with little hands and cuffs wrought either with filk or blew thread; the best of them for chief perfons weare edged with a small lace of black filke and golde; the highest price of which for great men's children were feldome above a noble, and the common fort, two, three, or four and five fhillings a piece."

Whether our author, when he speaks of apostle-fpoons, has, as ufual, attributed the practice of his own time to the reign of Henry VIII. Í have not been able to afcertain. Probably however he is here accurate; for we know that certain pieces of plate were on fome occafions then bestowed; Hall, who has written a minute account of the christening of Elizabeth, informing us, that the gifts prefented by her sponsors were a ftanding cup of gold, and fix gilt bowls, with covers. Chron. Henry VIII. fol. 218. MALONE.

1

- thy true heart.] Old Copy-bearts. Corrected by the editor of the fecond folio MALONE.

you

131

you take the court for Paris-garden2? ye rude flaves leave your gaping.

Within. Good master porter, I belong to the larder.

Port. Belong to the gallows, and be hang'd, you rogue, Is this a place to roar in?-Fetch me a dozen crab-tree ftaves, and ftrong ones; these are but switches to them. I'll fcratch your heads: You must be seeing christenings? Do you look for ale and cakes here, you rude rascals?

Man. Pray, fir, be patient; 'tis as much impoffible
(Unless we fweep them from the door with cannons,)
To scatter them, as 'tis to make them sleep
On May-day morning4; which will never be:
We may as well push against Paul's, as stir them.
Port. How got they in, and be hang'd?

Man. Alas, I know not; How gets the tide in ?
As much as one found cudgel of four foot

(You see the poor remainder) could diftribute, I made no spare, fir.

Port. You did nothing, fir.

Man. I am not Sampion, nor fir Guy, nor Colbrands,

to

2Paris-garden?] The bear-garden of that time. JOHNSON. This celebrated bear-garden on the Bank-fide was fo called from Robert de Paris, who had a house and garden there in the time of King Richard II. Rot. Claus. 16. R. II. dors. ii. Blount's GLOSSOGRA.

MALONE.

The Globe theatre, in which Shakspeare was a performer, stood on the fouthern fide of the river Thames, and was contiguous to this noted place of tumult and disorder. See a fouth view of London, (as it appeared in 1599) published by T. Wood, in Bishop's Court, in' Chancery-Lane in 1771. STEEVENS.

4 On May-day morning;] It was anciently the custom for all ranks of people to go out a maying on the first of May. It is on record that king Henry VIII. and queen Katharine partook of this diverfion. STEEV. Stow fays, that "in the month of May, namely on May-day in the morning, every man, except impediment, would walk into the fweet meadows and green woods, there to rejoice their spirits with the beauty and favour of sweet flowers, and with the noise [i. e. concert] of birds, praifing God in their kind." See alfo Brand's Obfervations on Popular Antiquities, 8vo. 1777, p. 255. REED.

5-fir Guy, nor Colbrand,] Of Guy of Warwick every one has heard. Colbrand was the Danish giant, whom Guy fubdued at Win

K 2

chefter.