An untimely ague

Stay'd me a prisoner in my chamber, when
Those suns of glory,2 those two lights of men,
Met in the vale of Arde.
Nor.
"Twixt Guynes and Arde:
I was then present, saw them salute on horseback;
Beheld them, when they lighted, how they clung
In their embracement, as they grew together;
Which had they, what four thron'd ones could have
weigh'd

Such a compounded one?
Buck.

All the whole time
I was my chamber's prisoner.
Nor.

Then you lost
The view of earthly glory: Men might say,
Till this time, pomp was single; but now married
To one above itself. Each following day
Became the next day's master, till the last
Made former wonders it's: To-day, the French,
All clinquant, all in gold, like heathen gods,
Shone down the English: and, to-morrow, they
Made Britain, India: every man, that stood,
Show'd like a mine. Their dwarfish pages were
As cherubins, all gilt: the madams too,
Not us'd to toil, did almost sweat to bear
The pride upon them, that their very labour
Was to them as a painting: now this mask
Was cry'd incomparable; and the ensuing night
Made it a fool, and beggar. The two kings,
Equal in lustre, were now best, now worst,
As presence did present them; him in eye,
Still him in praise: and, being present both,
"Twas said, they saw but one; and no discerner
Durst wag his tongue in censure.' When these

1 George Nevill, who married Mary, daughter of Edward Stafford, duke of Buckingham.

2 Pope has borrowed this phrase in his Imitation of Horace's Epistle to Augustus, ver. 22:

Those suns of glory please not till they set.' Guynes then belonged to the English, and Arde (Ardres) to the French; they are towns of Picardy: the valley where Henry VIII. and Francis I. met lies between them.

4 As for as if

5 Dies diem docet. Every day learned something from the preceding, till the concluding day collected all the splendour of all the former shows.

6 i. e. glittering, shining.

7 i. e. in judgment, which had the noblest

ance.

Nor.

Surely, sir, There's in him stuff that puts him to these ends; For, being not propp'd by ancestry (whose grace Chalks successors their way,) nor call'd upon For high feats done to the crown; neither allied To eminent assistants, but, spider-like, Out of his self-drawing web, he gives us note, The force of his own merit makes his way; A gift that heaven gives for him, which buys A place next to the king.

Aber.
I cannot tell
What heaven hath given him, let some graver eye
Pierce into that; but I can see his pride
Peep through each part of him: Whence has he
that?

If not from hell, the devil is a niggard;
Or has given all before, and he begins
A new hell in himself.

Upon this French going-out, took he upon him,
Without the privity o' the king, to appoint
Who should attend on him? He makes up the file14
Of all the gentry; for the most part such
Too, whom as great a charge as little honour
He meant to lay upon; and his own letter,
The honourable board of council out,
Must fetch him in he papers.15

Aber.

I do know

Kinsmen of mine, three at the least, that have
By this so sicken'd their estates, that never
They shall abound as formerly.
Buck.
O, many
Have broke their backs with laving manors on them
For this great journey.16 What did this vanity,
But minister communication of
A most poor issue?

Nor.

Grievingly I think,

The peace between the French and us not values The cost that did conclude it.

8 The old romantic legend of Bevis of Hampton. This Bevis (or Beavois) a Saxon, was for his prowess created earl of Southampton by William the Conqueror. See Camden's Britannia.

9 The course of these triumphs, however well related, must lose in the description part of that spirit and energy which were expressed in the real action. The commission for regulating them was well executed, and gave exactly to every particular person and action the proper place

ii. Sc. 1.

14 List.

15 He papers, a verb; i. e. his own letter, by his own single authority, and without the concurrence of the council, must fetch him in whom he papers down Wolsey published a list of the several persons whom he had appointed to attend on the king at this interview, and addressed his letters to them.

16 In the ancient Interlude of Nature, blk. 1. no date, apparently printed in the reign of King Henry VIII. a similar stroke is aimed at this expensive expedition.

Bran. Your office, sergeant; execute it. Serg.

Sir,

Q. Kath.

Thank your majesty. That you would love yourself; and, in that love, Not unconsider'd leave your honour, nor

The dignity of your office, is the point

Of my petition.

K. Hen.

Lady mine, proceed.

Q. Kath. I am solicited, not by a few, And those of true condition, that your subjects Are in great grievance: there have been commissions Sent down among them, which hath flaw'd the heart Of all their loyalties:wherein, although, My good lord cardinal, they vent reproaches Most bitterly on you, as putter on'

Of these exactions, yet the king our master
(Whose honour heaven shield from soil!) even he
escapes not

Language unmannerly, yea, such which breaks
The sides of loyalty, and almost appears
In loud rebellion.
Not almost appears,

Nor.

It doth appear; for, upon these taxations,
The clothiers all, not able to maintain
The many to them 'longing, have put off
The spinsters, carders, fullers, weavers, who,
Unfit for other life, compell'd by hunger
And lack of other means, in desperate manner

Buck.

So, so;

These are the limbs of the plot: no more, I hope. Bran. A monk o' the Chartreux.

O, Nicholas Hopkins?"

Buck. Bran. He. Buck. My surveyor is false, the o'ergreat cardinal Hath show'd him gold; my life is spann'd already: I am the shadow of poor Buckingham; Whose figure even this instant cloud puts out," By dark'ning my clear sun.-My lord, farewell.

[Exeunt.

And Danger serves among them.1°
K. Hen.

Taxation!
Wherein? and what taxation?-My lord cardinal,
You that are blam'd for it alike with us,
Know you of this taxation?

Wol.

Please you, sir, I know but of a single part, in aught Pertains to the state; and front but in that file 11 Where others tell steps with me. Q. Kath. No, my lord, You know no more than others: but you frame Things, which are known alike; which are not wholesome

K. Hen. My life itself, and the best heart of it,
Thanks you for this great care: I stood i'the levels
Of a full charg'd confederacy, and give thanks
To you that chok'd it.-Let be call'd before us
That gentleman of Buckingham's: in person
I'll hear him his confessions justify;

And point by point the treasons of his master
He shall again relate.

The King takes his state. The Lords of the Council
take their several places. The Cardinal places him-
self under the King's feet, on his right side.
A noise within, crying, Room for the Queen. En-
ter the Queen, ushered by the Dukes of NORFOLK
and SUFFOLK: she kneels. The King riseth from
his state, takes her up, kisses, and placeth her by him.
Q. Kath. Nay, we must longer kneel: I am a

2 I am sorry that I am obliged to be present, and an

eye witness of your loss of liberty.

Q. Kath.
In tempting of your patience; but am bolden'd
Under your promis'd pardon. The subject's grief
Comes through commissions, which compel from
each

The sixth part of his substance, to be levied
Without delay: and the pretence for this

Is nam'd, your wars in France: This makes bold mouths:

Tongues spit their duties out, and cold hearts freeze
Allegiance in them; their curses now
That tractable obedience is a slave
Live where their prayers did; and it's come to pass,

6. e, measured, the duration of it determined. Man's life is said in scripture to be but a span long.

7 The old copy reads 'this instant sun puts on.' 8 To stand in the level of a gun, is to stand in a line with its mouth, so as to be hit by the shot.

9 i. e. promoter or instigator.

4 The name of this monk of the Chartreux was John de la Car, alias de la Court. See Holinshed, p.

863.

5 Nicholas Hopkins, another monk of the same order, belonging to a religious house called Henton-beside Bristow.

11 He means to say that he is but one among many counsellors, who proceed in the same course with him in the business of the state. To this the queen replies, that he frames things, or they originate with him, which are afterwards known to the council and promulgated by them.

To each incensed will. 1 would, your highness
Would give it quick consideration, for
There is no primer business.2
K. Hen.

This is against our pleasure.

Wol.

By my life,

And for me,
I have no farther gone in this, than by
A single voice; and that not pass'd me, but
By learned approbation of the judges. If I am
Traduc'd by ignorant tongues, which neither know
My faculties, nor person, yet will be

The chronicles of my doing,-let me say,
"Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake3
That virtue must go through. We must not stint
Our necessary actions, in the fear

To cope malicious censurers; which ever,
As ravenous fishes, do a vessel follow
That is new trimm'd; but benefit no further
Than vainly longing. What we oft do best,
By sick interpreters, once weak ones, is
Not ours, or not allow'd; what worst, as oft,
Hitting a grosser quality, is cried up
For our best act. If we shall stand still,

In fear our motion will be mock'd or carp'd at,
We should take root here where we sit, or sit
State statues only.

Things done well,

K. Hen. And with a care, exempt themselves from fear; Things done without example, in their issue Are to be fear'd. Have you a precedent Of this commission? I believe, not any. We must not rend our subjects from our laws, And stick them in our will. Sixth part of each? A trembling contribution! Why, we take, From every tree, lop, bark, and part o'the timber; And, though we leave it with a root, thus hack'd, The air will drink the sap. To every county, Where this is question'd, send our letters, with Free pardon to each man that has denied The force of this commission; Pray, look to't; I put it to your care. Wol.

A word with you. [To the Secretary. Let there be letters writ to every shire, Of the king's grace and pardon. The griev'd commons Hardly conceive of me; let it be nois'd, That, through our intercession, this revokement And pardon comes: I shall anon advise you Further in the proceeding. [Exit Secretary.

Enter Surveyor. Q. Kath. I am sorry, that the duke of Buckingham Is run in your displeasure.

K. Hen.

It grieves many: The gentleman is learn'd, and a most rare speaker,9 To nature none more bound; his training such, That he may furnish and instruct great teachers, And never seek for aid out of himself, 10 Yet see

When these so noble benefits shall

prove

Not well dispos'd," the mind growing once corrupt,
They turn to vicious forms, ten times more ugly
Than ever they were fair. This man so complete,
Who was enroll'd 'mongst wonders, and when we,
Almost with ravish'd list'ning, could not find
His hour of speech a minute; he, my lady,
Hath into monstrous habits put the graces
That once were his, and is become as black
As if besmear'd in hell. Sit by us; you shall hear

1 The meaning (says Malone) appears to be, things are now in such a situation that resentment and indig. nation predominate in every man's breast over duty and allegiance.

2 The old copy reads There is no primer baseness. Warburton made the alteration, which Steevens seems to think unnecessary, though he has retained it in his text. 3 Thicket of thorns.

4 To stint is to stop or retard.

bi. e. to engage with, to encounter.

6 Once is not unfrequently used for sometime or at one time or other.

7 i. e. approved.

you,

Most like a careful subject, have collected Out of the Duke of Buckingham.

K. Henry.

Speak freely. Surv. First, it was usual with him, every day It would infect his speech, That if the king Should without issue die, he'd carry12 it so To make the sceptre his: These very words I have heard him utter to his son-in-law, Lord Aberga'ny; to whom by oath he menac'd Revenge upon the cardinal. Wol. Please your highness, note This dangerous conception in this point. Not friended by his wish, to your high person His will is most malignant; and it stretches Beyond you, to your friends.

Q. Kath. Deliver all with charity.

K. Hen.

My learn'd lord cardinal,

Speak on:

How grounded he his title to the crown, Upon our fail? to this point hast thou heard him any time speak aught?

At

Surv.

He was brought to this

By a vain prophecy of Nicholas Hopkins."
K. Hen. What was that Hopkins?
Surv.

His confessor; who fed him
With words of sovereignty.
K. Hen.

Sir, a Chartreux friar, every minute

How know'st thou this? Surv. Not long before your highness sped to

France,

The duke being at the Rose,13 within the parish
Saint Lawrence Poultney, did of me demand
What was the speech amongst the Londoners
Concerning the French journey: I replied,
Men fear'd the French would prove perfidious,
To the king's danger. Presently the duke
Said, 'Twas the fear indeed; and that he doubted,
"Twould prove the verity of certain words
Spoke by a holy monk: That oft, says he,
Hath sent to me, wishing me to permit
John de la Court, my chaplain, a choice hour
To hear from him a matter of some moment :
Whom after under the confession's seal 14
He solemnly had sworn, that, what he spoke,
My chaplain to no creature living, but

To me, should utter, with demure confidence
This pausingly ensued,-Neither the king, nor his
heirs
(Tell you the duke,) shall,
bid him strive
prosper:
To gain the love of the commonalty; the duke
Shall govern England.
Q. Kath.
If I know you well,
You were the duke's surveyor, and lost
your
You charge not in your spleen a noble
On the complaint o' the tenants: Take good heed
And spoil your nobler soul! I say, take heed;
Yes, heartily beseech you.

14 The old copy has commission's seal,'

1 Rank weeds are weeds grown up to great height and strength. What, (says the king,) was he advanced to this pitch?

2 Sir William Blomer (Holinshed calls him Bulmer) was reprimanded by the king in the Star Chamber, for that, being his sworn servant, he had left the king's service for the duke of Buckingham's.

3 The accuracy of Holinshed, from whom Shakspeare took his account of the accusations and punishment, together with the qualities of the duke of Buckingham, is proved in the most authentic manner by a very curious report of his case in East. Term. 13 Hen. VIII. in the year books published by authority, edit. 1597, f. 11, 12.

4 Steevens takes unnecessary pains to explain this phrase. I wonder he could doubt that it was an adjura

tion.

5 Shakspeare has placed this scene in 1521. Charles earl of Worcester was then lord chamberlain, and continued in the office until his death, in 1526. But Cavendish, from whom this was originally taken, places this event at a later period, when Lord Sands himself was chamberlain. Sir William Sands, of the Vine, near Basingstoke, Hants, was created a peer in 1524. He succeeded the earl of Worcester as chamberlain.

6 Mysteries are arts, and here artificial fashions. 7 A fit of the face seems to be a grimace, an artificial cast of the countenance.

R

Have got by the late voyage, is but merely

A fit or two o' the face; but they are shrewd ones; For when they hold them, you would swear directly, Their very noses had been counsellors

To Pepin, or Clotharius, they keep state so.
Sands. They have all new legs, and lame ones;
one would take it,

That never saw them pace before, the spavin,
A springhalt reign'd among them.
Cham.
Death! my lord,
Their clothes are after such a pagan cut too,
That, sure, they have worn out christendom. How
now?
What news, Sir Thomas Lovell?

To think an English courtier may be wise,
And never see the Louvre.

Lov.
They must either
(For so run the conditions) leave these remnants
Of fool and feather," that they got in France,
With all their honourable points of igorance,
Pertaining thereunto (as fights, and fireworks;
Abusing better men than they can be,
Out of a foreign wisdom,) renouncing clean
The faith they have in tennis, and tall stockings,
Short blister'd breeches,1° 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
The lag end of their lewdness, and be laugh'd at.
Sands. 'Tis time to give them physic, their dis-

eases

Are grown so catching.

Cham.

What a loss our ladies Will have of these trim vanities! Lov. Ay, marry, There will be woe indeed, lords; the sly whoresons Have got a speeding trick to lay down ladies; A French song, and a fiddle, has no fellow.

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

(For, sure, there's no converting of them:) now
An honest country lord, as I am, beaten
A long time out of play, may bring his plain-song,
And have an hour of hearing; and, by'r lady,
Held current music too.

Cham.

Well said, Lord Sands Your colt's tooth is not cast yet.

8 The springhult or stringhalt is a disease incident to horses, which makes them limp in their paces. It is a humorous comparison of the mincing gait of the Frenchified courtiers to this convulsive motion. Jonson, in his Bartholomew Fair, uses it :

Poor soul, she has had a stringhalt.

Ben

9 The text may receive illustration from Nashe's Life of Jacke Wilton, 1594:-'At that time (viz. in the court of King Henry VIII.) I was no common squire, no un dertrodden torchbearer, I had my feather in my cap as big as a flag in the fore top, my French doublet gefte in the belly, as though, (lyke a pig readie to be spitted,) all my guts had beene pluckt out, a paire of side paned hose that hung down like two scales filled with Holland cheeses, my long stock that sate close to my dock,-my rapier pendant, like a round sticke, &c. my blacke cloake of cloth, overspreading my backe lyke a thorn backe or an elephant's eare; and in consummation of my curiositie, my handes without gloves, all a more French,' &c. Mr. Douce justly observes that Sir Tho mas Lovell's is an allusion to the feathers which ware formerly worn by fools in their caps, as may be seen in a print of Jordan's after Voert; and which is alluded to in the Ballad of News and no News:

'And feathers wagging in a fool's cap.

10 i. e. breeches puffed or swelled out like blisters. 11 The late edition of Mr. Boswell reads hold, noticing that held is the reading of the first folio.