103. Line 31: Short BLISTER'D breeches.-Blister'd doubtless means puffed, and “describes," says Grant White, "with picturesque humour the appearance of the slashed breeches, covered as they were with little puffs of satin lining which thrust themselves out through the slashes." Compare with this passage, Beaumont and Fletcher's Queen of Corinth, ii. 4: Now you that trust in travel, And makes sharp beards and little breeches deities, Behold a model of your mind and actions. Halliwell gives a cut representing a dandy in blistered breeches, with "tall stockings drawn high above the knee, where they are cut into points, the breeches very short, and gathered into close rolls or blisters." 104. Line 34: WEAR away.-So F. 2; F. 1 has wee. 105. Line 48: Your COLT'S TOOTH is not cast yet.-Compare Massinger, The Guardian, i. 1, where Durazzo, an elderly person, having expressed some rather warm sentiments, Camillo cries "Out upon you," and Donato exclaims "The colt's tooth still in your mouth!" Boyer (French Dictionary) has "Colts-teeth, Dents de Lait, les premières Dents qui viennent aux Animals.” 107. The account of this banquet and masquerade is taken from Cavendish, Life of Wolsey. He says: "And when it pleased the king's majesty, for his recreation, to repair unto the cardinal's house, as he did divers times in the year, at which time there wanted no preparations or goodly furniture, with viands of the finest sort that might be provided for money or friendship. Such pleasures were then devised for the king's comfort and consolation as might be invented, or by man's wit imagined. The banquets were set forth, with masks and mummeries, in so gorgeous a sort and costly manner, that it was a heaven to behold. There wanted no dames or damsels meet or apt to dance with the maskers, or to garnish the place for the time, with other goodly disports. Then was there all kind of music and harmony set forth, with excellent voices both of men and children. I have seen the king suddenly come in thither in a mask, with a dozen of other maskers, all in garments like shepherds, made of fine cloth of gold, and fine crimson satin paned, and caps of the same, with visors of good proportion of visnomy, their hairs and beards either of fine gold wires or else of silver, and some being of black silk; having sixteen torchbearers, besides their drums, and other persons attending upon them, with visors, and clothed all in satin, of the same colours. And at his coming, and before he came into the hall, ye shall understand that he came by water to the water gate, without any noise; where' against his coming were laid charged many chambers, and at his landing they were all shot off, which made such a rumble in the air that it was like thunder. It made all the noblemen, gentlewomen and ladies to muse what it should mean, coming so suddenly, they sitting quietly at a solemn banquet; under this sort. First, ye shall perceive that the tables were set in the chamber of presence, banquet-wise covered, my Lord Cardinal sitting under the cloth of estate, and there having his service all alone; and then was there set a lady and a noblemen, or a gentleman and gentlewoman, throughout all the tables in the chamber on the one side, which were made and joined as it were but one table. All which order and device was done and devised by the Lord Sands, Lord Chamberlain to the king, and also by Sir Henry Guilford, Comptroller to the king. Then immediately after this great shot of guns the cardinal desired the Lord Chamberlain and Comptroller to look what this sudden shot should mean, as though he knew nothing of the matter. They, thereupon looking out of the windows into Thames, returned again, and showed him that it seemed to them there should be some noblemen and strangers arrived at his bridge, as ambassadors from some foreign prince. With that, quoth the cardinal, 'I shall desire you, because ye can speak French, to take the pains to go down into the hall to encounter and to receive them, according to their estates, and to conduct them into this chamber, where they shall see us, and all these noble personages sitting merrily at our banquet, desiring them to sit down with us, and to take part of our fare and pastime.' Then [they] went incontinent down into the hall, where they received them with twenty new torches, and conveyed them up into the chamber, with such a number of drums and fifes as I have seldom seen together at one time in any masque. At their arrival into the chamber, two and two together, they went directly before the Cardinal where he sat, saluting him very reverently: to whom the Lord Chamberlain for them said, 'Sir, forasmuch as they be strangers, and can speak no English, they have desired me to declare unto your grace thus: they, having understanding of this your triumphant banquet, where was assembled such a number of excellent fair dames, could do no less, under the supportation of your good Grace, but to repair hither to view as well their incomparable beauty, as for to accompany them at mumchance, and then after to dance with them, and so to have of them acquaintance. And, sir, they furthermore require of your Grace licence to accomplish the cause of their repair.' To whom the cardinal answered, that he was very well contented they should do so. Then the maskers went first, and saluted all the dames as they sat, and then returned to the most worthiest, and there opened a cup full of gold, with crowns and other pieces of coin, to whom they set divers pieces to cast at. Thus in this manner perusing all the ladies and gentlewomen, to some they lost, and of some they won. And thus done, they returned unto the cardinal, with great reverence, pouring down all the crowns in the cup, which was about two hundred crowns. 'At all!' quoth the Cardinal, and so cast the dice, and won them all at a cast; whereat was great joy made. Then quoth the Cardinal to my Lord Chamberlain, I pray you,' quoth he, 'show them that it seemeth me that there should be among them some nobleman, whom I suppose to be much more worthy of honour to sit and occupy this room and place than I; to whom I would most gladly, if I knew him, surrender my place according to my duty.' Then spake my Lord Chamberlain unto them in French, declaring my lord Cardinal's mind, and they rounding him again in the ear, my Lord Chamberlain said to my lord Cardinal, Sir, they confess,' quoth he, that among them there is such a noble personage, whom, if your Grace can appoint him from the other, he is contented to disclose himself, and to accept your place most worthily.' With that the Cardinal, taking a good advisement among them, at the last, quoth he, 'Me seemeth the gentleman with the black beard should be even he.' And with that he arose out of his chair, and offered the same to the gentleman in the black beard, with his cap in his hand. The person to whom he offered then his chair was Sir Edward Neville, a comely knight, of a goodly personage, that much more resembled the King's person in that mask than any other. The King, hearing and perceiving the Cardinal so deceived in his estimation and choice, could not forbear laughing; but plucked down his visor, and Master Neville's also, and dashed out with such a pleasant countenance and cheer, that all noble estates there assembled, seeing the king to be there amongst them, rejoiced very much. The Cardinal eftsoons desired his Highness to take the place of estate; to whom the King answered, that he would go first and shift his apparel; and so departed, and went straight into my Lord's bedchamber, where was a great fire made and prepared for him, and there new apparelled him with rich and princely garments. And, in the time of the King's absence, the dishes of the banquet were clean taken up, and the tables spread again with new and perfumed cloths; every man sitting still until the King and his maskers came in among them again, every man being newly apparelled. Then the King took his seat under the cloth of estate, commanding no man to remove, but to sit still as they did before. Then in came a new banquet before the King's majesty, and to all the rest through the tables, wherein, I suppose, were served two hundred dishes, or above, of wondrous costly meats and devices subtilly devised. Thus passed they forth the whole night with banqueting, dancing, and other triumphant devices, to the great comfort of the King, and pleasant regard of the nobility there assembled" (ed. Singer, vol. i. pp. 49-55). The incident really took place on January 3, 1527. For an authentic account see the letter of Spinelli, the Venetian secretary (No. 4 in Brown's Venetian Calendar). 108. Line 4: this noble BEVY.-This word was originally used of a company of roebucks or a flock of quails. Cole's Latin Dictionary has: "A Bevy [as of quails, &c.] grex, egis." Boyer gives under Bevy, "A Bevy of Quails," "A Bevy of Roe-bucks," " A Bevy of Gossips," and "A Bevy of Ladies, Un Cercle de Dames." The Imperial Dictionary states that the word bevy is given as the correct term for a company of ladies by Dame Juliana Berners, 1496. In Hamlet, v. 2. 197, Ff. have "nine [F.1 mine] more of the same Beauy," where Qq. print "many more of the same breed." 109. Lines 6, 7: As FAR'S good company, good wine, good welcome, Can make good people. This is Dyce's conjectural emendation of the reading of As first, good Company, good wine, good welcome, The Cambridge editors retain this reading (inserting a comma after "as"); Theobald joined "first-good” by a hyphen, and understood it to mean "the best in the land." Com 110. Line 12: a running banquet; i.e. a hasty refreshment. Banquet was frequently used for the dessert only. pare Massinger's Unnatural Combat, iii. 1: We'll dine in the great room; but let the music Malone quotes Habingdon's History of King Edward IV.: "Queen Margaret and Prince Edward, though by the Earle recalled, found their fate and the winds so adverse, that they could not land in England, to taste this running banquet to which fortune had invited them." 111. Line 41: I am BEHOLDING to you. We now say beholden, and so many editors print throughout Shakespeare, where the form is invariably beholding. Coles, in his Latin Dictionary, gives both forms, but in all the examples he uses beholden. I take from Rolfe (p. 169) a quotation from Butler's Grammar, 1633, given by Grant White, and imperfectly quoted by Boswell: " Beholding to one:-of to behold or regard: which, by a Synecdoche generis, signifyeth to respect and behold, or look upon with love and thanks for a benefit received. So that this English phrase, I am beholding to you, is as much as, I specially respect you for some special kindness: yet some, now-a-days, had rather write it Beholden, i.e., obliged, answering to that teneri et firmiter obligari: which conceipt would seeme the more probable, if to beholde did signifle to holde, as to bedek to dek, to besprinkle, to sprinkle. But indeed, neither is beholden English, neither are behold and hold any more all one, than become and come, or beseem and seem." 115. Lines 65, 66: Because they speak no English, thus they PRAY'D To tell your grace. So Ff.; Collier added me in his second edition on the strength of his MS. Corrector, and Dyce, supported by Walker's approval, also adopts it. 116. Lines 92, 93: An't please your grace, SIR THOMAS BULLEN's daughter,THE VISCOUNT ROCHFORD. Compare Cavendish, Life of Wolsey (ed. Singer, vol. i. p. 56): "This gentlewoman, the daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, being at that time but only a bachelor knight, the which after, for love of his daughter, was promoted to higher dignities. He bare at divers several times for the most part, all the rooms of estimation in the king's house, as comptroller, and treasurer, vice chamberlain and lord chamberlain. Then was he made Viscount Rochford; and at the last created Earl of Wiltshire, and knight of the noble order of the Garter, and, for his more increase of gain and honour, he was made Lord Privy Seal, and most chiefest of the king's privy council." 117. Lines 95, 96: I were unmannerly, to take you out, Steevens quotes Thomas Lovell, A Dialogue between But some reply, what foole would daunce, If that when daunce is doon, He may not have at ladyes lips I am unable to verify the quotation, as there is no copy of the book in the British Museum or the Bodleian. It is, according to Lowndes and Brunet, without date; but is entered in Stationers' Registers 23rd May, 1581. The connection of kissing and dancing is mentioned by Stubbes (Anatomy of Abuse, New Shakspere Society's ed. pp. 155, 165) and by Taylor (Works, Spenser Soc. ed. p. 258). A more distinct reference is found in John Northbrooke's Treatise wherein Dicing, Dancing, Vaine playes, or Enterludes, . . are reproved, &c. The book was entered at Stationers' Hall in 1577; a second edition was published in 1579; the -edition printed by Collier for the Old Shakespeare Society is undated. On p. 165 of this reprint occurs the following passage: "and when the minstrels doe make a signe to stinte, then, if thou doe not kiss hir that thou leading by the hande didst daunce withall, then thou shalt be taken for a rusticall, and as one without good maners and nurture." This passage, and others before it, are prefaced by the words "Erasmus sayth," and this side-note: "Erasm. Roter. in lib. de contemptu mundi cap. 7." I quote the sentence translated by Northbrooke, with its context, from Erasmus' Works (Lugd. Bat. 1704), vol. v. pp. 1249, 1250: "Cujus animus sic compositus, sic firmus, sic marmoreus est, quem lascivi illi motus, agitataque in numerum brachia, citharæ cantus, voces puellares, non corrumpant, non lebefactent, non emollient? At ubi choraules, cithara ex more tacta, quiescendi signum dedit, rusticus habeberis, ne eam cujus lævam complexus saltasti dissuaviatus fueris." 118. Line 108: Let the music KNOCK IT.-Steevens compares Marston, Antonio and Mellida: Fla. Faith, the song will seem to come off hardly. Halliwell quotes Ravencroft's Briefe Discourse, 1614, in ACT II. SCENE 1. 119. The account of Buckingham's trial is found in Holinshed, iii. 661, 662 (copied almost verbatim from Hall). The play follows the chronicle very closely, and most of the significant expressions it contains are little more than copied. See lines 31-33 ("he sweat extremely"). Holinshed says: "The duke was brought to the barre sore chafing, and swet maruellouslie." Buckingham's dying speech owes much to the chronicler. With lines 97-103 compare Holinshed: "Then was the edge of the sword turned towards him, and he led into a barge. Sir Thomas Louell desired him to sit on the cushins and carpet ordeined for him. He said nay; for when I went to Westminster I was duke of Buckingham, now I am but Edward Bohune the most caitife of the world." 120. Line 18: have.-So F. 4; F. 1 has him. 121. Lines 40-44.-Compare Holinshed, iii. 645: “At length there was occasion offered him to compasse his purpose, by occasion of the earle of Kildare his comming out of Ireland. . . . Such accusations were framed against him when no bribes would come, that he was committed to prison, and then by the cardinals good preferment the earle of Surrie was sent into Ireland as the king's depute, in lieu of the said earle of Kildare, there to remaine rather as an exile, than as lieutenant to the king, euen at the cardinals pleasure, as he himselfe well perceiued." 122. Line 53: The mirror of all courtesy.-Steevens quotes from Henry VIII.'s Year Book, fol. 11 and 12, ed. 1597: "Dieu à sa ame grant mercy-car il fuit tres noble prince et prudent, et mirror de tout courtesie." 123. Line 54: Stage-direction. Enter . . . Sir William Sands.-Ff. print Sir Walter Sands, by an evident oversight or misprint, which there seems no real reason for retaining. The correction was made by Theobald. Holinshed, in his account of the trial of Buckingham, says: "Thus they landed at the Temple, where receiued him sir Nicholas Vawse & sir William Sands baronets." 124. Line 67: Nor build their EVILS on the graves of great men.-Compare Measure for Measure, ii. 2. 170-172: Having waste ground enough, and see note 88. 125. Line 78: o' God's name. -So Theobald; Ff. have a. 126. Line 81: now TO forgive me frankly. - Pope, whom some editors follow, omits to, and so very likely the author wrote. But the line as it stands is not beyond the limits of a possible license. Similarly in the fourth line from this one Dyce omits that. Ff. print make. The emendation adopted in the text was first introduced by Hanmer, after a conjecture of Warburton's. As Grant White very justly remarks, reference to envy making a grave, while expressive if used of another, can scarcely be applicable to the person who speaks, and for whom the grave is made. Steevens defends the reading of the Folio by interpreting it to mean: "No action expressive of malice shall conclude my life;" and again by suggesting that to make a grave means to close it. But surely either meaning is decidedly forced. 128. Line 89: till my soul FORSAKE.-Rowe, who is followed by many editors, adds me; but the expression seems more emphatic and significant if forsake is used absolutely. Schmidt compares the use of the German versagen. 129. Lines 102, 103: When I came hither, I was lord high constable And Duke of Buckingham; now, poor Edward BOHUN. The Duke of Buckingham's family name was Stafford (see note 7), but he was descended from the Bohuns, Earls of Hereford, whose name expired in 1372, and he is said to have affected the earlier surname. "His reason for this might be," says Tollet (Var. Ed. xix. 362), “because he was lord high constable of England by inheritance from the Bohuns; and as the poet has taken particular notice of his great office, does it not seem probable that he had fully considered of the duke's foundation for assuming the name of Bohun?" 130. Lines 126, 127: Where you are liberal of your loves and counsels Compare Othello, iii. 3. 416, 417: There are a kind of men so loose of soul, That in their sleeps will mutter their affairs. 131. Line 168: We are too OPEN here to argue this. -Compare iii. 2. 405: This day was view'd in open as his queen. ACT II. SCENE 2. 132. Lines 31-33: a loss of her That, like a jewel, has hung twenty years About his neck, yet never lost her lustre. Compare Winter's Tale, i. 2. 307, 308: Why, he that wears her like her medal, hanging and see note 36 to that play. 133. Lines 42-44: Heaven will one day open The king's eyes, that so long have SLEPT UPON Compare Sonnet lxxxiii. 5: And therefore have I slept in your report. 134 Line 62: Stage-direction. Exit Lord Chamberlain. Norfolk opens a folding-door. The King is discovered sitting, and reading pensively. - Ff. print: "Exit Lord Chamberlaine, and the King drawes the Curtaine and sits reading pensiuely." The stage-direction in the text is Malone's, who says, in quoting the Ff.: "This stage-direction was calculated for, and ascertains precisely the state of the theatre in Shakspeare's time. When a person was to be discovered in a different apartment from that in which the original speakers in the scene are exhibited, the artless mode of our author's time was, to place such persons in the back part of the stage, behind the curtains, which were occasionally suspended across it. These the person who was to be discovered, (as Henry, in the present case,) drew back just at the proper time. Norfolk has just said-'Let's in,'-and therefore should himself do some act, in order to visit the king. This, indeed, in the simple state of the stage, was not attended to; the king very civilly discovering himself." 135. Line 70: business of ESTATE. Compare Richard III. ii. 2. 126, 127: Which would be so much the more dangerous 136. Lines, 78, 79: My good lord, have great care Steevens compares Richard III. i. 3. 350-352: Tut, tut, my lord, we will not stand to prate; We go to use our hands, and not our tongues. 137. Line 85: I'll venture ONE HAVE-AT-HIM.-So Dyce and Staunton; F. 1 prints Ile venture one; haue at him, which the editor of F. 2 distorted into Ile venture one heave at him. See iii. 2. 309: "Have at you!" and v. 2. 113: "now have at ye!" 138. Line 94: HAVE their free voices; i.e. have sent their free voices-a proleptic construction which is certainly awkward enough, but none the less likely to have been written by the author. Grant White reads Gave, which is as good as most conjectural emendations, and may quite possibly be right. 139. Line 107: unpartial.—Shakespeare's spelling of this word is invariably impartial. 140. Lines 116-130.--This follows Holinshed, who says: "About this time [1529] the king receiued into fauour doctor Stephan Gardiner, whose seruice he vsed in matters of great secrecie and weight, admitting him in the room of doctor Pace, the which being continuallie abroad in ambassages, and the same oftentimes not much necessarie, by the cardinals appointment, at length he took such gréefe therewith, that he fell out of his right wits" (iii. 737). 141. Lines 7-9: ACT II. SCENE 3. Still growing in ▲ majesty and pomp,—the which This is the arrangement of Ff. (several others have been proposed and adopted by various editors), and it follows them throughout in text except by the admission of Theobald's emendation-leave's in place of leave. Perhaps after all the addition is unnecessary; somewhat similar ellipses are certainly found in Shakespeare. 142. Line 9: after this PROCESS.-Compare Richard II. ii. 3. 12: The tediousness and process of my travel. 143. Lines 14-16: Yet, if that QUARREL, fortune, do divorce It is doubtful whether quarrel here means (as Warburton supposed) an arrow (an old word for which was quarrel), or whether (according to Johnson) the act is put for the agent, and quarrel stands for quarreller. Nares gives a number of examples of the word in the former sense, and Coles (Latin Dictionary) has "A quarrel of a Cross-bow, speculum quadratum." Pang is used in an active sense in Cymbeline, iii. 4. 97, 98: how thy memory Will then be pang'd by me. Compare with the whole passage, Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 13. 5, 6: The soul and body rive not more in parting and All's Well, ii. 1. 37: "I grow to you, and our parting is a tortured body." 144. Line 21: to be PERK'D UP in a glistering grief.-To "perk oneself up" is still a familiar expression in the country for a vain and conceited dressing-up. Coles, in his Latin Dictionary, gives "To perk up, sese erigere." 145. Lines 22, 23: Our content Is our best HAVING. Compare iii. 2. 159: "par'd my present havings;" and Twelfth Night, iii. 4. 379: “my having is not much." 146. Line 31: Saving your MINCING.-Compare Lear, iv. 6. 122, 123: That minces virtue, and does shake the head To hear of pleasure's name. 147. Line 32: your soft CHEVERIL CONSCIENCE.-Cheveril kid (peau de chèvre). A cheveril conscience was a proverbial expression. See note 160 to Twelfth Night, and compare also Dekker, Old Fortunatus, i. 2: "T was never merry world with us, since purses and boys were invented, for now men set lime-twigs to catch wealth: and gold, which riseth like the sun out of the East Indies, to shine upon every one, is like a cony taken napping in a pursenet, and suffers his glistering yellow-faced deity to be lapped up in lambskins, as if the innocency of those leather prisons should dispense with the cheveril consciences of the iron-hearted gaolors." Halliwell quotes, among others, "Proverbiale est, he hath a conscience like a cheveril's skin, i.e., it will stretch" (Upton's MS. additions to Junius). 148. Line 36: a THREE-PENCE BOW'D would hire me.Halliwell gives the following note of Fairholt: "This allusion to the old custom of ratifying an agreement by a bent coin (one particularly affected by love-lorn countryfolks) here involves an anachronism. No three-pences were coined by Henry 8, nor was the coin known in England until the close of the reign of Edward 6. They are very rare, and appear to have been scarcely issued, except as pattern-pieces. Mary did not attempt their issue. The first large and regular coinage of three-pences took place VOL. VIII. in the reign of Elizabeth. In 1561 was the first issued ; it may be detected from the coins it nearly resembles in weight by the rose behind the Queen's head." 149. Line 37: to queen it.-Compare Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 460: "I'll queen it no inch farther." 150. Line 61: Commends his good opinion TO YOU.-This is Pope's reading; Capell prints of you. Ff. have of you, to you, which is an obvious misprint, and leaves an open choice between the two forms of speech. 151. Lines 78, 79: from this lady may proceed a GEM TO LIGHTEN all this isle. Johnson supposes this to be an allusion to the carbuncle and its imagined quality of giving light in the dark. Steevens compares Titus Andronicus ii. 3. 226-230: Upon his bloody finger he doth wear A precious ring, that lightens all the hole, Doth shine upon the dead man's earthly cheeks, Holt White quotes from Amadis de Gaule, ed. 1619, b. iv. p. 5: "In the roofe of a chamber hung two lamps of gold, at the bottomes whereof were enchased two carbuncles, which gave so bright a splendour round about the roome, that there was no neede of any other light." 152. Line 87: This CÓMPELL'D fortune; i.e. a fortune forced upon one, coming involuntarily. Compare Hamlet, iv. 6. 16-18: " Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valour, and .. boarded them." 153. Line 89: How tastes it? is it bitter? FORTY PENCE, no. That is, "I wager forty pence, no." Forty pence was a conventional sum-half a noble--as its modern equivalent, three and fourpence, still is in law offices. Steevens quotes a comedy of 1570, The Longer Thou Livest, the More Fool Thou Art: "I dare wage with any man forty pence;" and an interlude of 1565, The Storye of King Darius: "Nay, that I will not for forty pence." The expression, in this form, does not occur elsewhere in Shakespeare, but in other terms, "ten groats," it is found in All's Well, ii. 2. 22, 23: "As fit as ten groats is for the hand of an attorney;" and in Richard II. v. 5. 68. The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear. Forty was also a conventional term, used for an indefinite number. 154. Line 92: For all the mud in Egypt.-Compare Antony and Cleopatra, i. 5. 24, 25: He's speaking now, Or murmuring, "Where's my serpent of old Nile!" 155. Lines 97, 98: honour's train Is longer than his foreskirt. "This line," says Fairholt in Halliwell's Folio Shakespeare, "is capable of a more literal explanation than at first sight appears. At the close of the 15th century, the superfluous use of cloth, and the vast expenses incurred at the funerals of the nobility and gentry, led to the enactment of sumptuary laws, by which the length of the train was regulated by the rank of the wearer. Margaret, Countess of Richmond, undertook in the eighth year of the reign of her son Henry VII., to regulate those of the 241 207 |