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 King. How know'st thou this? Surv. Not long before your highnefs fped to France, 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. Το To me, fhould utter, with demure confidence This paufingly enju'd,-Neither the king nor his heirs, To gain the love of the commonalty; the duke 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, 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 can do me no damage: adding further, That, had the king in his laft fick nefs fail'd, 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? The ufurper Richard: who, being at Salisbury, he of... ; which if granted, As be made femblance of duty, would ... Have put his knife into him. 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; Surv. After the duke his father, with the knife,- King. There's his period, To fheath his knife in us. He is attach'd; 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. A fit or two o'the face 3; but they are fhrewd ones; 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, 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: learnt new tongues "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, Lov. They muft either (For fo run the conditions) leave these remnants Out of a foreign wifdom,) renouncing clean Or pack to their old play-fellows: there, I take it, 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. |