For all the mud in Egypt2:-Have you heard it?
Anne. Come, you are pleasant.

Old L. With your theme, I could

O'er-mount the lark. The marchionefs of Pembroke!
A thousand pounds a year! for pure refpect;
No other obligation: By my life,

That promifes more thoufands: Honour's train
Is longer than his fore-fkirt. By this time,
I know, your back will bear a dutchess ;-Say,
Are you not ftronger than you were?

Anne. Good lady,

Make yourself mirth with your particular fancy,
And leave me out on't. 'Would I had no being,
If this falute my blood a jot; it faints me,

To think what follows.

The queen is comfortless, and we forgetful
In our long abfence: Pray, do not deliver
What here you have heard, to her.

Old L. What do you think me?

SCENE IV.

A Hall in Black-Fryars.

[Exeunt.

Trumpets, fennet 3, and cornets. Enter two Vergers, with fhort filver wands; next them, two Scribes, in the

habits

of Coneycatching: "-wagers laying, &c. forty pence gaged against a match of wrestling." Again, in The longer thou Liveft, the more Fool thou art, 1570: "I dare wage with any man forty pence." Again, in the Storye of King Darius, 1565, an interlude:

Nay, that I will not for fourty pence." STEEVENS. 2 For all the mud in Egypt:] The fertility of Egypt is derived from the mud and flime of the Nile. STEEVENS.

3-fennet,] Dr. Burney (whofe General Hiftory of Mufic has been fo highly and defervedly applauded) undertook to trace the etymology, and discover the certain meaning of this term, but without fuccefs. The following conjecture of his, thould not, however, be withheld from the publick.

Senné or fennie, de l'Allemand fen, qui fignifie affemblee. Di&t. de vieux Language:

"Senne affemblee a fon de cloche." Menage.

Perhaps, therefore, fays he, fennet may mean a flourish for the purpose of affembling chiefs, or apprizing the people of their approach. I have

like

babits of doctors; after them, the Archbishop of Can terbury alone; after him, the Bishops of Lincoln, Ely, Rochefter, and Saint Afaph; next them, with fome Small diftance, follows a gentleman bearing the purse, with the great feal, and a cardinal's hat; then two Priefts, bearing each a filver cross; then a gentleman-ufher barebeaded, accompanied with a Serjeant at arms, bearing a filver mace; then two Gentlemen, bearing two great filver pillars; after them, fide by fide, the two Cardinals WOLSEY and CAMPEIUS; two Noblemen with the fword and mace. Then enter the King and Queen, and their trains. The King takes place under the cloth of ftate; the two Cardinals fit under him, as judges. The Queen takes place, at fome distance from the King. The bishops place themselves on each fide the court, in manner of a confiftory; below them, the fcribes. The Lords fit next the Bishops. The Crier and the rest of the attendants ftand in convenient order about the ftage.

Wol. Whilft our commiffion from Rome is read, Let filence be commanded.

King. What's the need?

It

likewife been informed, (as is elsewhere noted) that fenefte is the name of an antiquated French tune. See Julius Cæfar. Act I. fc. ii. STEEV. In the fecond part of Marfton's Antonio and Mellida:

"Cornet found a cynet." FARMER.

A Sener appears to have fignified a short flourish on cornets. In K. Henry VI. P. III. after the king and the duke of York have entered into a compact in the parliament-houfe, we find this marginal direction: "Senet. Here they [the lords] come down [from their seats]." In that place a flourish must have been meant. The direction which has occafioned this note, should be, I believe, fennet on cornets. MALONE. 4-pillars;] Pillars were fome of the enfigns of dignity carried before cardinals. Sir Thomas More, when he was speaker to the commons, advifed them to admit Wolfey into the houfe with his maces and his pillars. More's Life of Sir T. More. JOHNSON.

Skelton, in his Satire against cardinal Wolfey, has these lines:
"With worldly pompe incredible,

"Before him rydeth two preftes stronge;
"And they bear two crofles right longe,
"Gapynge in every man's face:

"After them folowe two laye men fecular,

"And cache of theym holdyn a pillar,

"In their hondes iteade of a mace." STEEVENS

At

It hath already publickly been read.

And on all fides the authority allow'd;

You may then spare that time.

Wol. Be't fo:-Proceed.

Scribe. Say, Henry king of England, come into the

King. Here.

Scribe. Say, Catharine queen of England, come into

the court.

Crier. Catharine queen of England, &c.

[The Queen makes no answer, rifes out of her chair, goes about the court*, comes to the King, and kneels at his feet; then speaks.]

2. Cath. Sir, I defire you, do me right and juftices; And to bestow your pity on me: for

I am a most poor woman, and a stranger,
Born out of your dominions; having here
No judge indifferent, nor no more affurance
Of equal friendship and proceeding. Alas, fir,
In what have I offended you? what cause
Hath my behaviour given to your displeasure,
That thus you should proceed to put me off,

And take your good grace from me? Heaven witness,
I have been to you a true and humble wife,
At all times to your will conformable:

At the end of Fiddes's Life of Cardinal Wolfey, is a curious letter of Mr. Anftis's on the subject of the two filver pillars ufually borne before Cardinal Wolfey. This remarkable piece of pageantry did not efcape the notice of Shakspeare. PERCY.

Wolfey had "two great croffes of filver, the one of his archbishoprick the other of his legacy, borne before him whitherfoever he went or rode, by two of the tallest priests that he could get within the realm." This is from Vol. III. p. 920 of Holinfhed, and it feems from p. 837, that one of the pillars was a token of a cardinal, and perhaps he bore the other pillar as an archbishop. TOLLET.

-goes about the court-] "Becaufe (fays Cavendish,) fhe could not come to the king directlie, for the distance fevered between them." MALONE.

5 Sir, I defire you, do me right and juftice; &c.] This fpeech of the queen, and the king's reply, are taken from Holinfhed with the most trifling variations. STEEVENS.

Ever

Ever in fear to kindle your dislike,

Yea, fubject to your countenance; glad, or forry,
As I faw it inclin'd. When was the hour,
I ever contradicted your defire,

Or made it not mine too? Or which of your friends
Have I not strove to love, although I knew
He were mine enemy? what friend of mine,
That had to him deriv'd your anger, did I
Continue in my liking? nay, gave notice
He was from thence difcharg'd? Sir, call to mind
That I have been your wife, in this obedience,
Upward of twenty years, and have been bleft
With many children by you: If, in the course
And procefs of this time, you can report,
And prove it too, against mine honour aught,
My bond to wedlock, or my love and duty,
Against your facred perfon 7, in God's name,
Turn me away; and let the foul'ft contempt
Shut door upon me, and fo give me up
To the sharpest kind of juftice. Pleafe you, fir,
The king, your father, was reputed for
A prince most prudent, of an excellent
And unmatch'd wit and judgment: Ferdinand,
My father, king of Spain, was reckon❜d one
The wifeft prince, that there had reign'd by many
A year before: It is not to be question'd
That they had gather'd a wife council to them
Of every realm, that did debate this bufinefs,

Who deem'd our marriage lawful: Wherefore I humbly

6

- nay, gave notice-] In propriety Catharine fhould have faidnay, gave not notice, and fo Sir T. Hanmer reads; but our author is fo licentious in his conftruction that I fufpect no corruption. MALONE.

7 Against your facred perfon,] In the old copy there is not a comma in the preceding line after duty. Mr. Mafon has juftly obferved that with fuch a punctuation the fenfe requires Towards your facred perfon. A comma being placed at duty, the conftruction is-If you can report and prove aught against mine honour, my love and duty, or aught against your facred perfon, &c. but I doubt whether this was our author's intention; for fuch an arrangement feems to make a breach of her honour and matrimonial bond to be fomething diftinct from an offence against the king's perfon, which is not the cafe. Perhaps, however, by the latter words Shakspeare meant, againfi your life. MALONE.

Befeech

Befeech you, fir, to fpare me, till I may

Be by my friends in Spain advis'd; whofe counsel
I will implore: if not; i'the name of God,
Your pleasure be fulfill'd!

Wol. You have here, lady,

(And of your choice,) thefe reverend fathers; men Of fingular integrity and learning,

Yea, the elect of the land, who are affembled

To plead your caufe: It shall be therefore bootlefs,
That longer you defire the court; as well

For your own quiet, as to rectify

What is unfettled in the king.

Cam. His grace

Hath spoken well, and juftly: Therefore, madam,
It's fit this royal feffion do proceed;

And that, without delay, their arguments

Be now produc'd, and heard.

2. Cath. Lord cardinal,

To you I fpeak.

Wol. Your pleasure, madam? 2. Cath. Sir,

I am about to weep 9; but, thinking that

We are a queen, (or long have dream'd fo,) certain,
The daughter of a king, my drops of tears

I'll turn to fparks of fire.

Wol. Be patient yet.

2. Cath. I will, when you are humble; nay, before, Or God will punish me. I do believe,

Induc'd by potent circumftances, that

You are mine enemy; and make my challenge,

8 That longer you defire the court;] That you defire to protra the bufiness of the court; that you folicit a more diftant feffion and trial. To pray for a longer day, i. e. a more diftant one, when the trial or execution of criminals is agitated, is yet the language of the bar.-In the fourth folio, and all the modern editions, defer is fubftituted for defire. ! MALONE.

9 I am about to weep; &c.] Shakspeare has given almost a similar fentiment to Hermione in the Winter's Tale, on an almost similar occafion: "I am not prone to weeping, as our fex "Commonly are, &c.-but I have

"That honourable grief lodg'd here, which burns

Worfe than tears drown;" &c. STEEVENS.

You