153. God's blest mother, the Virgin Mary.

·

155. And a soul than which there is none better in my kingdom.'

158. Old lady. Steevens says, 'This, I suppose, is the same old cat that appears with Anne Boleyn,' II. iii.

165. Her. Johnson considered it doubtful whether 'her' refers to the queen or the girl; Malone believes it refers to the girl, as this play was calculated for the ear of Elizabeth; but Boswell thinks the humour of the passage consists in the talkative old lady, who had in her hurry said it was a boy, adding bless her' before she corrects her mistake.

167. Desires you to visit her and to make the acquaintance of the young stranger.' The second infinitive is somewhat ambiguous here. The passage requires the construction and (you) to be acquainted,' and thus corresponds to the ordinary Latin idiom of the accusative before the infinitive. See Abbott, section 356.

170. The coin called a mark was worth 13s. 4d.

172. Supply 'fit' after 'is.' Cf. Julius Cæsar, I. iii. 39: This disturbed sky is not to walk in.' Abbott observes that the modern distinction in such phrases as the above seems to be this: when the noun follows is, there is an ellipsis of 'fit,' 'worthy;' when the noun precedes is, there is an ellipsis of intended,' 'made.' Thus: this is a book to read,' means this is a book worthy to read;' but, this book is to read and not to tear,' means, 'this book is intended or made for the purpose of reading.' This distinction was not regarded by the Elizabethans. When we wish to express 'worthy' elliptically, we insert a: He is a man to respect,' or we use the passive form, and say, 'He is to be respected.' Shakespeare could have written He is to respect,' in this sense. The Elizabethans used the active in many cases where we should use the passive. Abbott, section 405.

8. Happily, opportunely.'

12. Sound, to fathom,' 'penetrate,' 'discover,' not 'to proclaim.'

'I had thought

14. Sought, 'did anything to earn.' 23. Pursuivants, 'state-messengers,' 'attendants on heralds.' 24. Footboys, 'lackeys.' 27. Parted, 'shared.' they had so much honesty among them.' 30. To dance attendance, to wait on a person without being admitted.' 31. Post, a postman.

33. Curtain, that is, the curtain of the balcony. The king and Dr Butts were standing at a window overlooking the lobby of the council-chamber. This window is represented in the present scene by means of the raised platform or balcony at the back of the stage, which was provided with curtains that could be drawn at pleasure when it was necessary to conceal the actors who were thereon. The Folio gives this direction: 'A council-table brought in with chairs and stools, and placed under the state. Enter Lord Chancellor, etc.'

This transaction, so far from occurring at the moment of the birth of Queen Elizabeth, did not occur till the year 1543, when Catherine Parr was Queen. According to Theobald, Sir Thomas Audley was then Chancellor, having succeeded Sir Thomas More, who held the great seal after Wolsey. Cromwell had been beheaded three years before.

43. At this present, at this present time.'

45. Capable of our flesh, 'subject to the temptations of our fleshly nature.'

56. Pace 'em not. 'Do not lead them about with a slack hand in order to make them gentle.'

58. Manage, 'government,' 'control (of a horse).'

63-65. Alluding,' says Grey, 'to the heresy of Thomas Münzer, which sprung up in Saxony in the years 1521 and 1522. Many violent disturbances arose owing to the immoderate and injudicious zeal of some of the early Reformers.- -The upper Germany, 'the people of Upper Germany.'- Can dearly witness, can witness to their

cost.'

72. A single heart, 'a heart free from duplicity.'

73. Nor is there a man that, both in his own conscience and in the exercise of his office, both hates and actually opposes destroyers of the public tranquillity more than I do.'

78. Cf. III. ii. 241': 'How eagerly ye follow my disgraces, as if it fed ye.'

82. Urge, press their accusations.' 84. By that virtue, by virtue of that office.'

93. Pass, 'be successful,' 'have its

way.

98. Modesty, 'moderation.'

99-100. That I shall clear myself with whatever weight of accusation you load my patience, I have as little doubt as you have few conscientious scruples in doing injustice daily.'

105. 'Those that understand you, under this painted gloss, this fair outside, discover your empty talk and your false reasoning' (Johnson).

107. Permit me, by your good favour, to say you are a little too sharp.'

110. Cf. III. ii. 331.

136. Reed says that in early times, before the regal power experienced the restraints of the law, it was a common thing that the temporary possession of a king's ring gave the holder for the time the same authority as the owner himself. The production of it was sufficient to suspend the execution of the law; it procured indemnity for offences committed, and imposed acquiescence and submission to whatever was done under its authority. The traditional story of the Earl of Essex, Queen Elizabeth, and the Countess of Nottingham is a wellknown instance.

143. On 't, of it.'-My mind gave me, my mind misgave me,' 'I had my misgivings.'

147. Have at ye! See note to III. ii. 307.

152. Honour, 'respect.'

153. Dear respect, 'great respect.'
155. Her, that is, the church.'

160. To me (whom) you cannot reach you play the spaniel.' The relative is often omitted, especially where the antecedent clause is emphatic, and evidently incomplete. Abbott, section 244.

167. Than but once think you unworthy to fill this place.'

178. Groom, a mere menial.' 180. Mean, ' means,' 'the power.' Shakespeare uses the word in both the singular and plural forms, oftener in the Latter, however.

183. The succeeding passage stands thus in Foxe: And with that one or two of the chiefest of the counsaille, making their excuse, declared, that in requesting his indurance, it was rather ment for his triall and his purgation against the common fame and slander of the worlde, than

for any malice conceived against him. "Well, well, my lords" (quoth the king), "take him, and well use him, as hee is worthy to bee, and make no more ado." And with that every man caught him by the hand, and made faire weather of it altogethers, which might easilie be done with that man.'

195. Rolfe suggests that the difficulty in the government of the redundant object in the passage, may be explained by an ellipsis of 'to' after 'godfather,' and compares II. i. 47:

'Whoever the king favours, The cardinal instantly will find employment (for).'

Abbott, however, observes that Shakespeare frequently introduces before the dependent clause another object, so as to make the dependent clause a mere explanation of the object. Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar, section 414

200. You wish by your plea of poverty to be saved the expense of giving your spoons.' This is said playfully, of course. It was an ancient custom for the sponsors at a christening to present silver spoons as a gift to the child. Steevens observes that these spoons were called apostle spoons, because the figures of the apostles were carved on the tops of the handles. Such as were at once opulent and generous, gave the whole twelve; those who were either more moderately rich or liberal, escaped at the expense of the four evangelists; or even sometimes contented themselves with presenting one spoon only, which exhibited the figure of any saint, in honour of whom the child received its name.' 210. A shrewd turn, 'an evil turn.' 212. Made a Christian, that is, 'christened,' 'baptised.'

offered at christenings and other festive | occasions. Cf. Twelfth Night, II. iii. 124: Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?'

Our fore

12. May-day morning. fathers of all ranks used to go a-Maying' on the morning of the first of May. At an early hour they went out into the fields to gather flowers and hawthorn branches, which they brought home about sunrise, and fixed to all the doors and windows. The hawthorn-bloom was distinctively the May;' this ceremony was called 'bringing home the May,' and the expedition to the woods, 'going a-Maying.'

May-day held a wonderful charm over the sunny nature of Chaucer, and has been be-sung also by Spenser and Herrick, as well as by Mr Tennyson in his May-Queen, a poem of rare beauty and pathos.

13. Paul's, St Paul's Cathedral.

16. Four foot. Many nouns in the oldest English, originally neuter, and flexionless in the plural, have the same form for the singular and the plural, as winter, night, deer, folk, thing, horse, foot, etc. We still say a fortnight (= fourteen night), 'six foot high,' 'ten score, 'twelve stone weight.' Deer, sheep, swine, and neat still admit of no plural sign whatever; but these words have acquired a kind of collective sense; cf. the use of fish, fowl, fruit, gross, fathom, etc.

19. Samson, the great Jewish personification of physical strength. See Judges, chapters xiv.-xvi. -Sir Guy of Warwick was one of the most famous heroes of the old romances.- Colbrand was a Danish giant whom he slew at Winchester. The combat is described in Drayton's Polyolbion.

22. Chine, a piece of the backbone of a beast, with the adjoining parts, cut for cooking.

23. And I would rather lose a cow than not see a chine of beef again.' Meaningless exclamations, like 'My cow, God save her!' 'My mare, God save her!' were formerly in familiar use.

29. Moorfields. Here the trainbands of the city were exercised.

' under the

34. Brazier means a brassfounder, and a small portable furnace. Both senses are understood (Johnson). 36. Under the line, equator,' and therefore 'in great heat.' 37. Fire-drake, fiery dragon.' Hunter quotes from the Romance of Sir

Bevis, where mention is made of "The sword of Lancelot du Lake, wherewith he slew the fire-drake.' The name came also to be applied to the exhalation called ignis fatuus, or Will-o'-the-wisp, and for a particular kind of firework now called a fire-rocket (Cowden Clarke). 39. Mortar, 'a short and wide piece of ordnance.'

40. Pinked, 'pierced in small holes.' 41. Porringer, 'a cap looking like a porringer.'

43. Clubs! that is, 'Here, officers with staves!' the usual outcry for assistance upon any quarrel or tumult in the streets. Cf. Henry VI., Part I., I. iii. 84: 'I'll call for clubs, if you will not away.'

44. The hope of the Strand, the youthful heroes (that is, the apprentices) of that part of the Strand where she lived.

46. At length they came to the broomstaff. Schmidt explains, 'At length they came within a broom-staff's length of me.'

47. Loose shot, 'loose or random shooters.'

49. Win the work, 'carry the fortification.'

51. The apprentices_ used to be the terror of the actors. They frequented either the twopenny gallery or the sixpenny pit, the latter place being a yard, unseated, in the middle of the theatre, open to the sky, whence its occupiers were called groundlings' (Hunter).

Dr

52. Tribulation of Tower-Hill. Johnson supposed this to have been a puritanical meeting-house.—Limbs of Limehouse, he did not profess to understand. Warton observes that 'alliteration has given rise to many cant expressions, consisting of words paired together, and that here we have cant names for the inhabitants of those places, who were notorious Puritans, coined for the humour of the alliteration. In the meantime, it must not be forgotten, that "precious limbs" was a common phrase of contempt for the Puritans.' Steevens notes that Limehouse was the locality in London where were the residences of those who furnish ships' stores, and that the place has always been famous for the variety of its sects, and the turbulence of its inhabitants. He suggests, also, that it is not improbable that Shakespeare wrote 'the lambs of Limehouse.' Malone observes, that it appears, from Stowe's Survey, that the inhabitants of Tower-Hill were remarkably turbulent. Schmidt says that 'Tribulation' was a very common name among the Puritans,

and is here applied to the whole sect; but adds that this passage has not yet been satisfactorily explained.

54. In Limbo Patrum, 'in confinement.' Literally, 'in the purgatory of the Fathers,' Limbus Patrum being, in the language of churchmen, the place bordering on hell, where the saints of the Old Testament, 'the spirits in prison,' awaited the resurrection.

56. The running banquet, ‘a public whipping.'

60. Hand, 'business.'

61. Trim, 'smart,' spoken ironically. 65. So many, so many as we are, meaning 'so few.'

68. If the king blame me for it, I'll clap you all in the stocks.'

71. Baiting of bombards, 'tippling.' A bombard is a large leathern vessel to carry liquors.

76. 'I'll find a prison that shall keep you idle these two months.' The Marshalsea was a prison on the south side of the Thames, in a district called the Borough.

79. Camlet, 'hair-cloth.'

80. 'I shall throw you over the fence if you do not.'

SCENE 4.

The Palace here is that at Greenwich to which the procession was made to the church of the Friars.

Standing bowls, bowls elevated on feet or pedestals. The account of the christening ceremony closely follows Hall.

5. Partners, 'fellow-sponsors.' 13. Gossips, sponsors at baptism, now meaning merely a 'crony.' The word stands for god-sib, 'related in God.' M.E. forms gossib, godsib, from God, and sib, 'related,' from Old Northumbrian sibbo (pl.) 'relatives,' allied to Gothic sibja, relationship, German sippe, affinity, sippen, kinsmen. -Too prodigal, that is, in presents.

23. Princes living with her, 'her contemporaries.'

24. Saba, the form in the Vulgate for

'Sheba,' meaning the Queen of Sheba, who came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.'

31. Lov'd (by her friends), fear'd (by her enemies).

35. See Kings, iv. 25, and Micah, iv. 4.

40. This, and the next sixteen lines appear to have been added later, perhaps at some revisal of the play, in the reign of James I. Some attribute them to the hand of Ben Jonson. If they are taken out, it will be seen that line 57 follows naturally after line 39.

The

41. The maiden phoenix. phoenix was a fabulous Arabian bird which remained single, and rose again from its own ashes. The allusion here is to Elizabeth's dying a virgin, herself appointing, however, her successor on her throne.

43. Admiration, 'wonder.'

45. Steevens notes that this line shows the hand of Ben Jonson in its imitation of an expression in Lucan, a favourite poet of that dramatist's.

53. And make new nations. There is an allusion here to the comparatively recent discovery of America, and espe cially to the colonisation of Virginia. The first English settlement in North America was that of James Town, in 1607. In 1612, the year before the revival of this play, there was a lottery for the plantation of Virginia.

Cowden

57. An aged princess. Clarke remarks that these words could scarcely have been written during the reign of Elizabeth, who laid absurd pretensions to beauty and power of attraction, even at an advanced age.

66. All the good which I got before was nothing to this.'

67. Oracle of comfort, 'comforting prophecy.'

75. She will be very sick indeed if she does not see you.'

75, 76. Supply 'let' before 'no man think,' and 'he' before 'has business.'

For some remarks on the authorship of the Epilogue, see notes to Prologue. 10. Construction, 'interpretation.' Women, necessarily accented women. 11. For such a one we showed them in the person of Queen Katharine.'

Dr Johnson says that 'the meek sor

rows and virtuous distress of Katharine have furnished some scenes, which may be justly numbered among the greatest efforts of tragedy.' He goes on to add, however, with less truth, but the genius of Shakespeare comes in and goes out with Katharine.'