His own opinion was his law: I' the presence Both Warburton,] is here ufed with great propriety, and feeming knowledge of the Latin tongue: and he proceeds to fettle the fenfe of it from the late Roman writers and their gloffers. But Shakspeare's knowledge was from Holinfhed, whom he follows verbatim; "This cardinal was of a great ftomach, for he compted himself equal with princes, and by craftie fuggeftion got into his hands innumerable treasure: he forced little on fimonie, and was not pitifull, and ftood affectionate in his owne opinion: in open prefence he would lie and feie untruth, and was double both in fpeach and meaning: he would promife much and perform little: he was vicious of his bodie, and gave the clergie euil example." Edit. 1587, p. 922. Perhaps after this quotation, you may not think, that fir Thomas Hanmer, who reads tytb'd-inftead of ty'd all the kingdom, deferves quite so much of Dr. Warburton's severity.-Indifputably the paffage, like every other in the speech, is intended to exprefs the meaning of the parallel one in the chronicle; it cannot therefore be credited, that any man, when the original was produced, should ftill chufe to defend a cant acceptation, and inform us, perhaps, feriously, that in gaming language, from I know not what practice, to tye is to equal! A sense of the word, as far as I have yet found, unknown to our old writers; and, if known, would not surely have been used in this place by our author. But let us turn from conjecture to Shakspeare's authorities. Hall, from whom the above defcription is copied by Holinfhed, is very explicit in the demands of the cardinal: wbo having infolently told the lord-mayor and aldermen, " For fothe I thinke, that balfe your subftance were too little," affures them by way of comfort at the end of his harangue, that upon an average, the tythe should be fufficient: "Sirs, fpeake not to breake that thyng that is concluded, for fome fhall not paie the tenth parte, and fome more."-And again; "Thei faied, the Cardinall by vifitacions, makyng of Abbottes, probates of teftaments, graunting of faculties, licences, and other pollyngs in his courtes le gantines, had made his threafure egall with the kynges." Edit. 1548, P. 138, and 143. FARMER. In Storer's Life and Death of Tho. Wolfey, a poem, 1599, the cardinal fays:" "I car'd not for the gentric, for I had "Tithe-gentlemen, yong nobles of the land," &c. STEEVENS. Ty'd all the kingdom:] i. e. He was a man of an unbounded ftomach, or pride, ranking himself with princes, and by fuggeftion to the king and the pope, he ty'd, i. e. limited, circumfcribed, and fet bounds to therties and properties of all perfons in the kingdom. That he did bears from various paffages in the play. Act II. fc. ii. "free us from his flavery," "or this imperious man will work us all from princes Both in his words and meaning: He was never, into pages: all men's honours," &c. A&t III. fc. ii. " You wrought to be a legate, by which power you maim'd the jurifdiction of all bishops." See alfo Act I. fc. i. and Act III. fc. ii. This conftruction of the paffage may be supported from D'Ewes's Journal of Queen Elizabeth's Parliaments, p. 644: "Far be it from me that the state and prerogative of the prince fhould be tied by me, or by the act of any other subject.” Dr. Farmer has difplayed fuch eminent knowledge of Shakspeare, that it is with the utmost diffidence I diffent from the alteration which he would eftablish here. He would read tytb'd, and refers to the authorities of Hall and Holinfhed about a tax of the tenth, or tythe, of each man's fubftance, which is not taken notice of in the play. Let it be remarked that it is queen Katharine speaks here, who, in A&t I. fc. ii. told the king it was a demand of the fixth part of each subject's fubftance, that caufed the rebellion. Would the afterwards fay that he, i. e. Wolfey, had tytbed all the kingdom, when the knew he had almoft double-tytbed it? Still Dr. Farmer infifts that "the paffage, like every other in the fpeech, is intended to exprefs the meaning of the parallel one in the Chronicle:" i. e. The cardinal" by craftie fuggeftion got into his hands innumerable treasure." This paffage does not relate to a publick tax of the tenths, but to the cardinal's own private acquifitions. If in this fenfe I admitted the alteration, tytb'd, I would fuppofe that, as the queen is defcanting on the cardinal's own acquirements, the borrows her term from the principal emolument or payment due to priests; and means to intimate that the cardinal was not content with the tythes legally accruing to him from his own various pluralities, but that he extorted fomething equivalent to them throughout all the kingdom. So Buckingham fays, Act I. fc. i. "No man's pye is freed from his ambitious finger." So, again, Surrey fays, A&. fc. ult. "Yes, that goodness of gleaning all the land's wealth into one, into your own hands, cardinal, by extortion:" and ibidem. "You have fent innumerable substance (by what means got, I leave to your own confcience)-to the mere undoing of all the kingdom." This extortion is fo frequently fpoken of, that perhaps our author purposely avoided a repetition of it in the passage under confideration, and therefore gave a different fentiment declarative of the confequence of his unbounded pride, that must humble all others. TOLLET. rence: 66 as he is now, nothing.] So, in Maffinger's Great Duke of Flo Great men "Till they have gain'd their ends, are giants in Of his own body he was ill7, and gave The clergy ill example. Grif. Noble madam, Men's evil manners live in brafs; their virtues Cath. Yes, good Griffith; I were malicious else. Grif. This cardinal, Though 7 Of bis own body be was ill,] A criminal connection with women was anciently called the vice of the body. So, in Holinfbed, p. 1258: he laboured by all means to cleare miftreffe Sanders of committing evill of bir bodie with him.' STEEVENS. So, the Protector fays of Jane Shore, Hall's Chronicle, Edw. VI. p. 16 : that he was naught of ber bodye." MALONE. 11 8 We write in water.] Beaumont and Fletcher have the fame thought in their Philafter: all your better deeds "Shall be in water writ, but this in marble." STEEVENS. This reflection bears a great refemblance to a paffage in fir Tho. More's Hift. of Richard III. whence Shakspeare undoubtedly formed his play on that fubject. Speaking of the ungrateful turns which Jane Shore experienced from thofe whom she had ferved in her profperity; More adds, "men ufe, if they have an evil turne, to write it in marble, and whofo doth us a good turne, we write it in dufte." More's Works, bl. l. 1557, P. 57. PERCY. So, (as an anonymous writer has observed,) in Harrington's Ariofis, 3591: "Men fay it, and we fee it come to pass, "Good turns in fand, fhrewd turns are writ in brass." MALONE 9 This cardinal, &c.] This fpeech is formed on the following paffage in Holinfhed: "This cardinal, (as Edmond Campion in his Hiftorie of Ireland defcribed him,) was a man undoubtedly born to honour; I think, (faith he) fome princes baftard, no butchers fonne; exceeding wife, faire-fpoken, high-minded, full of revenge, vitious of his bodie, loftie to his enemies, were they never fo bigge, to those that accepted and fought his friendship wonderful courteous; a ripe fchooleman, thrall to affections, brought a bed with flatterie; infaciable to get, and more princelie in bestowing, as appeareth by his two colleges at Ipfwich and Oxenford, the one overthrown with his fall, the other unfinished, and yet as it lyeth, for an house of studentes, (confidering all the appurtenances,) incomparable throughout Christendome.-He held and injoied at once the bishoprickes of Yorke, Dareíme, and Winchester, the dignities of Though from an humble ftock, undoubtedly The of Lord Cardinall, Legat, and Chancellor, the abbaie of St. Albons, diverfe priories, fundrie fat benefices in commendam; a great preferrer of his fervants, an advauncer of learning, ftoute in every quarrel, never happy till this his overthrow: wherein he fhewed fuch moderation, and ended fo perfectlie, that the houre of his death did him more honour than all the pomp of his life paffed." When Shakspeare fays that Wolfey was "a fcholar from his cradle," he had probably in his thoughts the account given by Cavendish, which Stowe has copied :-" Cardinal Wolfey was an honeft poor man's fonne -who, being but a child, was very apt to learne; wherefore by means of his parents and other his good friends he was maintained at the univerfity of Oxford, where in a fhort time he profpered fo well, that in a fmall time, (as he told me with his owne mouth,) he was made batchefour of arts, when he was but fifteen years of age, and was most commonly called the boy batchelour." See also Wolfey's Legend, Mirrour for Magiftrates, 1587. I have here followed the punctuation of the old copy, where there is a full point at honour, and From bis cradle begins a new fentence. This punctuation has likewife been adopted in the late editions. Mr. TheoBald, however, contends that we ought to point thus: "Was fathion'd to much honour from his cradle." And it must be owned that the words of Holinfhed, here thrown into verfe," This cardinal was a man undoubtedly BORN to bonour," strongly fupport his regulation. The reader has before him the arguments on each fide. I am by no means confident that I have decided rightly. MALONE. Unwilling to outlive the good that did it ;] Unwilling to furvive that virtue which was the caufe of its foundation: or perhaps the good" is licentiously used for the good man; the virtuous prelate who founded it. So, in the Winter's Tale: "a piece many years in doing." Mr. Pope and the fubfequent editors read-the good be did it; which appears to me unintelligible. The good be did it," was, laying the The other, though unfinish'd, yet so famous, Now in his afhes honour: Peace be with him!- Sad and folemn mufick. Grif. She is afleep: Good wench, let's fit down quiet, For fear we wake her ;-Softly, gentle Patience. The vifion. Enter, folemnly tripping one after another, fix perfonages, clad in white robes, wearing on their heads garlands of bays, and golden vizards on their faces; branches of bays, or palm, in their hands. They firft congee unto her, then dance; and, at certain changes, the first two hold a fpare garland over her head; at which, the foundation of the building and endowing it: if therefore we fuppofe the college unwilling to outlive the good he did it, we suppose it to expire inftantly after its birth. <<The college unwilling to live longer than its founder, or the goodnefs that gave rife to it," though certainly a conceit, is fufficiently intelligible. MALONE. 2 - - folemnly tripping one after another,] This whimsical ftage-direction is exactly taken from the old copy. STEEVENS. Of this ftage-direction I do not believe our author wrote one word. Catharine's next fpeech probably fuggefted this tripping dumb-fhew to the too busy reviver of this play. MALONE. the |
