Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

SUF. The cardinal's letter to the pope miscarried,
And came to the eye o'the king: wherein was read,
How that the cardinal did entreat his holiness
To stay the judgment o'the divorce; For if
It did take place, I do, quoth he, perceive,
My king is tangled in affection to

A creature of the queen's, lady Anne Bullen.
SUR. Has the king this?

SUF.

SUR.

Believe it.

Will this work?

CHAM. The king in this perceives him, how he

coasts,

9

And hedges, his own way. But in this point
All his tricks founder, and he brings his physick
After his patient's death; the king already
Hath married the fair lady.

SUR.

'Would he had!

lord!

SUF. May you be happy in your wish, my For, I profess, you have it.

SUR.

Trace the conjunction!'

Now all my joy

And hedges, his own way.] To hedge, is to creep along by the hedge: not to take the direct and open path, but to steal covertly through circumvolutions. JOHNSON.

Hedging is by land, what coasting is by sea. M. MASON.

! Trace the conjunction!] To trace is to follow. JOHNSON. So, in Macbeth:

[blocks in formation]

SUF.

My amen to't!

NOR.

All men's.

SUF. There's order given for her coronation: Marry, this is yet but young,2 and may be left To some ears unrecounted.-But, my lords, She is a gallant creature, and complete

In mind and feature: I persuade me, from her Will fall some blessing to this land, which shall In it be memoriz'd.3

SUR.

But, will the king

Digest this letter of the cardinal's?

The lord forbid !

NOR.

SUF.

Marry, amen!

No, no;

There be more wasps that buz about his nose,
Will make this sting the sooner. Cardinal Campeius
Is stolen away to Rome; hath ta'en no leave;
Has left the cause o'the king unhandled; and
Is posted, as the agent of our cardinal,
To second all his plot. I do assure you
The king cry'd, ha! at this.

CHAM.

Now, God incense him,

And let him cry ha, louder!

The form of Surrey's wish has been anticipated by Richmond in King Richard III. sc. ult :

"Smile heaven upon this fair conjunction !"

STEEVENS.

--but young, The same phrase occurs again in Romeo

and Juliet, Act I. sc. i:

"Good morrow, cousin.

Is the day so young ?"

See note on this passage. STEEVEŃS.

In it be memoriz'd.] To memorize is to make memorable. The word has been already used in Macbeth, Act I. sc. ii.

STEEVENS.

Nor.

When returns Cranmer?

But, my lord,

SUF. He is return'd, in his opinions; which
Have satisfied the king for his divorce,
Together with all famous colleges

Almost in Christendom: shortly, I believe,
His second marriage shall be publish'd, and
Her coronation. Katharine no more
Shall be call'd, queen; but princess dowager,
And widow to prince Arthur.

NOR.

This same Cranmer's

A worthy fellow, and hath ta'en much pain
In the king's business.

[blocks in formation]

He is return'd, in his opinions; which
Have satisfied the king for his divorce,

Together with all famous colleges

Almost in Christendom:] Thus the old copy. The meaning is this: Cranmer, says Suffolk, is returned in his opinions, i. e. with the same sentiments which he entertained before he went abroad, which (sentiments) have satisfied the king, together with all the famous colleges referred to on the occasion.-Or, perhaps the passage (as Mr. Tyrwhitt observes) may mean He is return'd in effect, having sent his opinions, i. e. the opinions of divines, &c. collected by him. Mr. Rowe altered these lines as follows, and all succeeding editors have silently adopted his unnecessary change:

He is return'd with his opinions, which
Have satisfied the king for his divorce,
Gather'd from all the famous colleges
Almost in Christendom :-

STEEVENS.

NOR.

Enter WOLSEY and CROMWELL.

Observe, observe, he's moody. WOL. The packet, Cromwell, gave it you king?

the

CROM. To his own hand, in his bedchamber.5 WOL. Look'd he o'the inside of the paper? CROM.

Presently He did unseal them: and the first he view'd, He did it with a serious mind; a heed Was in his countenance: You, he bade Attend him here this morning.

WOL.

To come abroad?

CROM.

Is he ready

I think, by this he is.

WOL. Leave me a while. [Exit CROMWELL. It shall be to the duchess of Alençon,

The French king's sister: he shall marry her.-
Anne Bullen! No; I'll no Anne Bullens for him:
There is more in it than fair visage.-Bullen!
No, we'll no Bullens.-Speedily I wish

To hear from Rome.-The marchioness of Pembroke!

NOR. He's discontented.

SUF.

May be, he hears the king

Does whet his anger to him.

To his own hand, in his bedchamber.] Surely, both the syllable wanting in this line, and the respect due from the speaker to Wolsey, should authorize us to read:

To his own hand, sir, in his bedchamber.

And again, in Cromwell's next speech:

Was in his countenance: you, sir, he bade—.

or with Sir Thomas Hanmer :

and you he bade.

STEEVENS.

SUR.

Lord, for thy justice!

Sharp enough,

WOL. The late queen's gentlewoman; a knight's daughter,

To be her mistress' mistress! the queen's queen!
This candle burns not clear: 'tis I must snuff it;
Then, out it goes.-What though I know her vir-
tuous,

And well-deserving? yet I know her for
A spleeny Lutheran; and not wholesome to
Our cause, that she should lie i'the bosom of
Our hard-rul'd king. Again, there is sprung up
An heretick, an arch one, Cranmer; one

Hath crawl'd into the favour of the king,
And is his oracle.

NOR.

He is vex'd at something.

SUF. I would, 'twere something that would fret the string,

The master-cord of his heart!

Enter the King, reading a Schedule; and

SUF.

LOVELL.

The king, the king. K. HEN. What piles of wealth hath he accumu

lated

• Enter the King, reading a Schedule;] That the Cardinal gave the King an inventory of his own private wealth, by mistake, and thereby ruined himself, is a known variation from the truth of history. Shakspeare, however, has not injudiciously represented the fall of that great man as owing to an incident which he had once improved to the destruction of another. See Holinshed, pp. 796 and 797:

"Thomas Ruthall, bishop of Durham, was, after the death of King Henry VII. one of the privy council to Henry VIII. to

« AnteriorContinuar »