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King. Speak on:

How grounded he his title to the crown,

Upon our fail? to this point haft thou heard him

At any time speak aught?

Surv. He was brought to this

By a vain prophecy of Nicholas Hopkins".

King. What was that Hopkins?

Surv. Sir, a Chartreux friar,

His confeffor; who fed him every minute
With words of fovereignty.

King. How know'st thou this?

Surv. Not long before your highnefs fped to France,
The duke being at the Rofe*, within the parish
Saint Lawrence Poultney, did of me demand
What was the fpeech among the Londoners
Concerning the French journey: I reply'd,
Men fear'd, the French would prove perfidious,
To the king's danger. Presently the duke
Said, 'Twas the fear, indeed; and that he doubted,
'Twould prove the verity of certain words
Spoke by a holy monk; that oft, fays he,
Hath fent to me, wishing me to permit
John de la Court, my chaplain, a choice bour
To hear from him a matter of fome moment:
Whom after under the confeffion's feal
He folemnly bad fworn, that, what he spoke,
My chaplain to no creature living, but

S Nicholas Hopkins.-] The old copy has here and in the next line-Nicholas Henton. The correction was made by Mr. Theobald. The mistake was probably Shakspeare's own, and he might have been led into it by inadvertently referring the words, "called Henton," in the paffage already quoted from Holinihed, (p. 18, n. 8.) not to the monaftery, but to the monk. MALONE.

- at the Rofe, &c.] This houfe was purchased about the year 1561, by Richard Hill, fometime mafter of the Merchant Taylors' company, and is now the Merchant Taylors' fchool in Suffolk lane WHALLEY,

6-under the confeffion's feal] The old copy reads the commiffion's feal. Mr. Theobald made the emendation, and fupports it by the following paffage in Holinfhed's Chronicle: "The duke in talk told the monk, that he had done very well to bind his chaplain, John de la Court, under the feal of confeffion, to keep fecret fuch matter." Holinfbed, p. 863. MALONE.

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To me, fhould utter, with demure confidence

This paufingly enju'd,-Neither the king nor his heirs,
(Tell you the duke) fhall profper: bid him ftrive

To gain the love of the commonalty; the duke
Shall govern England.

2. Cath. If I know you well,

You were the duke's furveyor, and loft your office

On the complaint o' the tenants: Take good heed,
You charge not in your fpleen a noble perfon,

And fpoil your nobler foul!

Yes, hearti, efeech you.

King. Let him on :

Go forward.

take heed;

Surv. On my foul, I'll fpeak but truth.

I told my lord the duke, By the devil's illufions The monk might be deceiv'd; and that 'twas dang'rous for him *

To ruminate on this fo far, until

It forg'd him fome defign, which, being believ'd,
It was much like to do: He anfwer'd, Tuh!

It can do me no damage: adding further,

That, had the king in his laft fick nefs fail'd,
The cardinal's and fir Thomas Lovel's heads

Should have gone off.

King. Ha! what, fo rank? Ah, ha!

There's mischief in this man :-Canft thou say further? Surv. I can, my liege.

King. Proceed.

Surv. Being at Greenwich,

After your highness had reprov'd the duke

7 To gain the love of the commonalty ;] For the infertion of the word gain, I am answerable. From the corresponding paffage in Holinfhed, it appears evidently to have been omitted through the careleffnefs of the compofitor: "The faid monke told to De la Court, neither the king nor his heirs fhould profper, and that I should endeavour to purchase the good wills of the commonalty of England."

Since I wrote the above, I find this correction had been made by the editor of the fourth folio. MALONE.

-for him-]Old Copy-for this. Corrected by Mr. Rowe.MALONE. 8 fo rank?] Rank weeds, are weeds that are grown up to great height and strength. What, fays the king, was be advanced to this pitch? JOHNSON.

About

About fir William Blomer,

King. I remember

Of fuch a time:-Being my fworn fervant,

The duke retain'd him his.-But on; What hence?
Surv. If, quoth he, I for this had been committed,
As, to the Tower, I thought,-I would have play'd
The part my father meant to act upon

The ufurper Richard: who, being at Salisbury,
Made fuit to come in his p

he of...

; which if granted,

As be made femblance of duty, would

...

Have put his knife into him.
King. A giant traitor!

dvi

Wol. Now, madam, may his highnefs live in freedom, And this man out of prison?

Queen. God mend all!

King. There's fomething more would out of thee;
What fay'ft?

Surv. After the duke his father, with the knife,-
He ftretch'd him, and, with one hand on his dagger,
Another spread on his breast, mounting his eyes,
He did discharge a horrible oath; whofe tenour
Was,-Were he evil us'd, he would out-go
His father, by as much as a performance
Does an irrefolute purpose.

King. There's his period,

To fheath his knife in us. He is attach'd;
Call him to prefent trial: if he may
Find mercy in the law, 'tis his; if none,
Let him not feek't of us: By day and night,'
He's traitor to the height.

SCENE III.

A Room in the Palace.

[Exeunt.

Enter the Lord Chamberlain, and Lord Sands. Cham. Is it poffible, the fpells of France fhould juggle

Men

9- Being my fworn fervant, &c.] Sir William Blomer (Holinshed calls him Bulmer) was reprimanded by the king in the ftar-chamber, for that, being his fworn fervant, he had left the king's fervice for the duke of Buckingham's. Edwards's MSS. STEEVENS.

Lord Chamberlain,] Shakspeare has placed this fcene in 1521. Charles Earl of Worcester was then Lord Chamberlain; but when the

king,

Men into fuch ftrange mysteries 2?

Sands. New customs,

Though they be never fo ridiculous,

Nay, let them be unmanly, yet are follow'd.
Cham. As far as I fee, all the good our English
Have got by the late voyage, is but merely

A fit or two o'the face 3; but they are fhrewd ones;
For when they hold them, you would fwear directly,
Their very nofes had been counsellors

To Pepin, or Clotharius, they keep ftate fo,

Sands. They have all new legs, and lame ones; one would take it,

4

That never faw them + pace before, the spavin,
A fpringhalt reign'd among them 5.

Cham. Death! my lord,

Their cloaths are after fuch a pagan cut too,

That, fure, they have worn out christendom. How now? What news, fir Thomas Lovel?

king in fact went in mafquerade to Cardinal Wolfey's houfe, Lord Sands, who is here introduced as going thither with the Chamberlain, himself poffefied that office. MALONE.

2 Is it poffible, the fpells of France should juggle

Men into fuch firange myfteries?] Myfteries were allegorical fhews, which the mummers of thofe times exhibited in odd and fantastic habits. Myfteries are ufed, by an easy figure, for those that exhibited mysteries; and the fenfe is only, that the travelled Englishman were metamorphofed, by foreign fashions, into fuch an uncouth appearance, that they looked like mummers in a mystery. JOHNSON.

3 Afit or two o' the face;-] A fit of the face feems to be what we now term a grimace, an artificial caft of the countenance. JOHNSON. Fletcher has more plainly expreffed the fame thought in The Elder Brother:

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"To vary bis face as feamen to their compafs." STEEVENS. 4 That never faw them-] Old Copy-fee 'em. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

A fpringhalt reign'd among them.] The fringbalt, or fpringhalt, (as the old copy reads) is a difeafe incident to horfes, which gives them a convulfive motion in their paces. So, in Muleaffes the Turk, 1610: by reafon of a general Spring-balt and debility in their hams." Again, in Ben Jonfon's Bartholomero-Fair:

"Poor foul, he has had a ftringbalt." STEEVENS. Mr. Pope and the fubfequent editors, without any necellity, I think, for Afpringhalt, read-And springhalt. MALONE.

--- cut too,] Old Copy-cut to't.

Corrected in the fourth folio.

MALONE.

Enter

Enter Sir Thomas Lovel.

Lov. 'Faith, my lord,

I hear of none, but the new proclamation

That's clapp'd upon the court gate.

Cham. What is't for?

Lov. The reformation of our travell'd gallants, That fill the court with quarrels, talk, and tailors.

Cham. I am glad, 'tis there; now I would pray our monfieurs

To think an English courtier may be wife,
And never see the Louvre.

Lov. They muft either

(For fo run the conditions) leave these remnants
Of fool, and feather, that they got in France,
With all their honourable points of ignorance
Pertaining thereunto, (as fights, and fire-works;
Abufing better men than they can be,

Out of a foreign wifdom,) renouncing clean
The faith they have in tennis, and tall stockings,
Short blifter'd breeches", and thofe types of travel,
And understand again like honeft men;

Or pack to their old play-fellows: there, I take it,
They may, cum privilegio, wear away 9

The lag end of their lewdnefs, and be laugh'd at.

7- leave those remnants

Of fool and feather,] This does not allude to the feathers anciently worn in the hats and caps of our countrymen, (a circumftance to which no ridicule could juftly belong,) but to an effeminate fashion recorded in Greene's Farewell to Folly, 1617; from whence it appears that even young gentlemen carried fans of feathers in their hands: "we strive to be counted womanish, by keeping of beauty, by curling the hair, by caring plumes of feathers in our bands, which in wars, our ancestors wore on their heads." Again, in his Quip for an upftart Courtier, 1620: "Then our young courtiers strove to exceed one another in vertue, not in bravery; they rode not with fannes to ward their faces from the wind, &c." Again, in Lingua, &c. 1607, Phantaftes, who is a male character, is equipped with a fan. STEEVENS.

—blifter'd breecbes,] Thus the old copy, i. e. breeches puff'd, fwell'd out like blifters. The modern editors read-bolfer'd breeches, which has the fame meaning. STEEVENS.

9-wear away-] Old copy-wee away. Corrected in the fecond folio. MALONE.

Sands.

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