Abusing better men than they can be,
Out of a foreign wisdom,) renouncing clean
The faith they have in tennis, and tall stockings,
Short blifter'd breeches, and those types of travel,
And understand again like honest men;

Or pack to their old playfellows: there, I take it,
They may, cum privilegio, wear away 3
The lag end of their lewdness, and be laugh'd at.
SANDS. 'Tis time to give them physick, their

diseases Are grown so catching.

CHAM.

What a lofs our ladies

: Will have of these trim vanities!

Lor. Ay, marry, There will be woe indeed, lords'; the fly whoresons Have got a speeding trick to lay down ladies; A French fong, and a fiddle, has no fellow.

SANDS. The devil fiddle them! I am glad, they're

going; (For, fure, there's no converting of them;) now An honeft country lord, as I am, beaten A long time out of play, may bring his plain-fong, And have an hour of hearing; and, by'r-lady,

Held current musick too.

CHAM.

Well faid, lord Sands;

Your colt's tooth is not cast yet.
SANDS.

No, my lord;

Nor shall not, while I have a stump.

*blifter'd breeches,] Thus the old copy; i. e. breeches puff'd, swell'd out like blisters. The modern editors read-bolfter'd breeches, which has the fame meaning. STEEVENS.

3

wear away-] Old copy-wee away. Corrected in

Lor.

To the cardinal's;

Your lordship is a guest too.

CHAM.

O, 'tis true:

This night he makes a supper, and a great one, To many lords and ladies; there will be

The beauty of this kingdom, I'll assure you.

Lor. That churchman bears a bounteous mind

indeed,

A hand as fruitful as the land that feeds us;

His dews fall every where.

Снам. No doubt, he's noble; He had a black mouth, that faid other of him.

SANDS. He may, my lord, he has wherewithal; in him, Sparing would show a worse sin than ill doctrine: Men of his way should be most liberal,

They are set here for examples.

Снам.

True, they are fo; But few now give so great ones. My barge stays;* Your lordship shall along:- Come, good fir Thomas, We shall be late else; which I would not be, For I was spoke to, with fir Henry Guildford, This night to be comptrollers.

4

SANDS.

- My barge stays;) The speaker is now in the king's palace at Bridewell, from which he is proceeding by water to Yorkplace, (Cardinal Wolfey's house,) now Whitehall. MALONE.

SCENE IV.

The Prefence-Chamber in York-Place.

Hautboys. A small table under a state for the Cardinal,
a longer table for the guests. Enter at one door,
ANNE BULLEN, and divers Lords, Ladies, and
Gentlewomen, as guests; at another door, enter Sir
HENRY GUILDFORD.

GUILD. Ladies, a general welcome from his grace
Salutes ye all: This night he dedicates
To fair content, and you: none here, he hopes,
In all this noble bevy, has brought with her
One care abroad; he would have all as merry
As first-good company, good wine, good welcome
Can make good people. O, my lord, you are

5

tardy;

noble bevy,] Milton has copied this word : "A bevy of fair dames." JOHNSON.

1

Spenfer had before Shakspeare employed this word in the fame

manner:

" And whither runs this bevy of ladies bright?"

Again, in his Faery Queene:

Shepheard's Calender. April.

" And in the midst thereof, upon the flowre,
"A lovely bevy of faire ladies fate."

The word bevy was originally applied to larks. See the Glossary to the Shepheard's Calender. MALONE.

6 As first-good company, &c.] As this passage has been all along pointed, [As first, good company,] Sir Harry Guildford is made to include all these under the first article; and then gives us the drop as to what should follow. The poet, I am perfuaded, wrote: As first-good company, good wine, good welcome, &c.

1

1

Enter Lord Chamberlain, Lord SANDS, and Sir
THOMAS LOVELL.

The very thought of this fair company
Clapp'd wings to me.

CHAM. You are young, fir Harry Guildford.

SANDS. Sir Thomas Lovell, had the cardinal
But half my lay-thoughts in him, some of these
Should find a running banquet ere they rested,
I think, would better please them: By my life,
They are a sweet society of fair ones.

i. e. he would have you as merry as these three things can make you, the best company in the land, of the best rank, good wine, &c. THEOBALD.

Sir T. Hanmer has mended it more elegantly, but with greater violence:

7

As first, good company, then good wine, &c. JOHNSON. - a running banquet-] A running banquet, literally speaking, is a hafty refreshment, as fet in oppofition to a regular and protracted meal. The former is the object of this rakish peer; the latter, perhaps he would have relinquished to those of more permanent defires. STEEVENS.

A running banquet seems to have meant a hafty banquet. "Queen Margaret and Prince Edward, (fays Habington in his History of King Edward IV.) though by the Earle recalled, found their fate and the winds so adverse, that they could not land in England, to tafte this running banquet to which fortune had invited them." The bafty banquet, that was in Lord Sands's thoughts, is too obvious to require explanation.

It should feem from the following lines in the prologue to a comedy called The Walks of Islington, 1657, that fome double meaning was couched under the phrafe, a running banquet:

"The gate unto his walks, through which you may
"Behold a pretty profpect of the play;
"A play of walks, or you may please to rank it
"With that which ladies love, a running banquet."

MALONE. i

Lor. O, that your lordship were but now con

feffor

To one or two of these!

SANDS.

I would, I were;

They should find easy penance.

Lov.
'Faith, how easy?
SANDS. As easy as a down-bed would afford it.
CHAM. Sweet ladies, will it please you fit? Sir

Harry,

Place you that fide, I'll take the charge of this:
His grace is ent'ring.-Nay, you must not freeze';
Two women plac'd together makes cold weather:-
My lord Sands, you are one will keep them waking;
Pray, fit between these ladies.

SANDS.

By my faith,

And thank your lordship.-By your leave, sweet

ladies:

[Seats himself between ANNE BULLEN and another
Lady.

If I chance to talk a little wild, forgive me;
I had it from my father.

ANNE.

Was he mad, fir?

SANDS. O, very mad, exceeding mad, in love too:
But he would bite none; just as I do now,
He would kiss you twenty with a breath.

CHAM.

[Kiffes her.

Well said, my lord.

So, now you are fairly feated:-Gentlemen,
The penance lies on you, if these fair ladies

Pass away frowning.

SANDS.

Let me alone.

For my little cure,