Hautboys. Enter Cardinal WOLSEY, attended; and takes his state. WoL. You are welcome, my fair guests; that noble lady, Or gentleman, that is not freely merry, And to you all good health. SANDS. [Drinks. Your grace is noble: Let me have such a bowl may hold my thanks, And save me so much talking. WOL. My lord Sands, I am beholden to you: cheer your neighbours. Ladies, you are not merry;-Gentlemen, Whose fault is this? SANDS. The red wine first must rife In their fair cheeks, my lord; then we shall have Yes, if I make my play. 8 Here's to your ladyship: and pledge it, madam, For 'tis to fuch a thing, ANNE. You cannot show me. * if I make my play.] i. e. if I make my party. Rather, if I may choose my game. RITSON. STEEVENS. As the measure, in this place, requires an additional fyllable, we may, commodiously enough, read with Sir Thomas Hanmer: Yes, if I may make my play. STEEVENS. SANDS. I told your grace, they would talk anon. [Drum and trumpets within: chambers discharged. What's that? WOL. WOL. [Exit a Servant. What warlike voice? And to what end is this?-Nay, ladies, fear not; Re-enter Servant. CHAM. How now? what is't? SERV. A noble troop of strangers; For so they feem: they have left their barge, and landed; And hither make, as great ambassadors From foreign princes. WOL. Good lord chamberlain, Go, give them welcome, you can speak the French tongue; And, pray, receive them nobly, and conduct them, 9-chambers discharged.] A chamber is a gun which stands erect on its breech. Such are used only on occafions of rejoicing, and are so contrived as to carry great charges, and thereby to make a noise more than proportioned to their bulk. They are called chambers because they are mere chambers to lodge powder; a chamber being the technical term for that cavity in a piece of ordnance which contains the combustibles. Some of them are still fired in the Park, and at the places oppofite to the parliamenthouse when the king goes thither. Camden enumerates them among other guns, as follows: - cannons, demi-cannons, chambers, arquebuse, musquet." Again, in A New Trick to cheat the Devil, 1636: they have left their barge,] See p. 47, n. 4. MALONE. 1 ! Into our prefence, where this heaven of beauty Shall shine at full upon them:-Some attend him. [Exit Chamberlain, attended. All arife, and You have now a broken banquet; but we'll mend it. Hautboys. Enter the King, and twelve others, as Maskers, habited like Shepherds, with fixteen torchbearers; usher'd by the Lord Chamberlain. They pass directly before the Cardinal, and gracefully Salute bim. A noble company! What are their pleasures ? CHAM. Because they speak no English, thus they pray'd To tell your grace; -That, having heard by fame Of this fo noble and fo fair assembly This night to meet here, they could do no less, 3 Enter the King, and twelve others, as Maskers,] For an account of this masquerade see Holinshed, Vol. II. p. 921. STEEVENS. The account of this masquerade was first given by Cavendish, in his Life of Wolfey, which was written in the time of Queen Mary; from which Stowe and Holinshed copied it. Cavendish was himself prefent. Before the king, &c. began to dance, they requested leave (fays Cavendish) to accompany the ladies at mumchance. Leave being granted, " then went the masquers, and first saluted all the dames, and then returned to the most worthiest, and then opened the great cup of gold filled with crownes, and other pieces to cast at. Thus perusing all the gentlewomen, of some they wonne, and to some they loft. And having viewed all the ladies they returned to the Cardinal with great reverence, pouring downe all their gold, which was above two hundred crownes. At all, quoth the Cardinal, and cafting the die, he wonne it; whereat was made great joy." Life of Wolfey, p. 22, edit. 1641. MALONE. Out of the great respect they bear to beauty, An hour of revels with them. WOL. Say, lord chamberlain, They have done my poor house grace; for which I pay them A thousand thanks, and pray them take their pleafures. [Ladies chofen for the dance. The King chooses ANNE BULLEN. K. HEN. The fairest hand I ever touch'd! O, beauty, Till now I never knew thee. WOL. My lord, CHAM. [Musick. Dance. Your grace? WOL. Pray, tell them thus much from me: There should be one amongst them, by his person, More worthy this place than myself; to whom, If I but knew him, with my love and duty I would furrender it. [Cham. goes to the company, and returns. WOL. What say they? Such a one, they all confefs, There is, indeed; which they would have your grace Find out, and he will take it.4 WOL. Let me fee then. [Comes from his state. By all your good leaves, gentlemen;-Here I'll make My royal choice. 4-take it.] That is, take the chief place. JOHNSON. K. HEN. You have found him, cardinal: [Unmasking. You hold a fair assembly; you do well, lord: You are a churchman, or, I'll tell you, cardinal, I should judge now unhappily. WOL. Your grace is grown so pleasant. I am glad, My lord chamberlain, Pr'ythee, come hither: What fair lady's that? CHAM. An't please your grace, fir Thomas Bullen's daughter, The viscount Rochford, one of her highness' women. K. HEN. By heaven, she is a dainty one. -Sweet heart, I were unmannerly, to take you out, $ You have found him, cardinal:) Holinshed says the Cardinal mistook, and pitched upon fir Edward Neville; upon which the king laughed, and pulled off both his own mask and fir Edward's. Edwards's MSS. STEEVENS. 6 - unhappily.] That is, unluckily, mischievously. JOHNSON. So, in A merye Feste of a Man called Howleglas, bl. 1. no date: "-in such manner colde he cloke and hyde his unhappinesse and falsnesse." STEEVENS. See Vol. IV. p. 440, n. 9. MALONE. 1 I were unmannerly, to take you out, And not to kiss you.] A kiss was anciently the established fee of a lady's partner. So, in A Dialogue between Custom and Veritie, concerning the Ufe and Abuse of Dauncing and Minstrelfie, bl. 1. no date, " Imprinted at London, at the long shop adjoining unto faint Mildred's church in the Pultrie, by John Allde:" "But fome reply, what foole would daunce, "He may not have at ladyes lips "That which in daunce he woon?" STEEVENS. See Vol. III. p. 41, n. 6. MALONE. |