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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:5 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.

BUCK.

Why the devil,

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 file
Of all the gentry; for the most part such

A gift that heaven gives; which buys for him
A place next to the king.

WARBURTON.

It is full as likely that Shakspeare wrote:

-gives to him,

which will save any greater alteration. JOHNSON.

I am too dull to perceive the necessity of any change. What he is unable to give himself, heaven gives or deposits for him, and that gift, or deposit, buys a place, &c. STEEVENS.

I

agree

with Johnson that we should read:

A gift that heaven gives to him:

for Abergavenny says in reply,

"I cannot tell

"What heaven hath given him."

which confirms the justness of this amendment. I should otherwise have thought Steevens's explanation right. M. MASON. -I can see his pride

Peep through each part of him:] So, in Troilus and Cressida :

6

66

-her wanton spirits look out

"At every joint and motive of her body." STEEVENS.

the file] That is, the list. Johnson.

So, in Measure for Measure: "The greater file of the subject held the duke for wise." Again, in Macbeth:

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-I have a file "Of all the gentry

99 STEEVENS.

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.8

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 laying manors on them For this great journey. What did this vanity,

7 -council out,] Council not then sitting. JOHNSON. The expression rather means, "all mention of the board of council being left out of his letter." STEEVENS.

That is, left out, omitted, unnoticed, unconsulted with.

RITSON.

It appears from Holinshed, that this expression is rightly explained by Mr. Pope in the next note: without the concurrence of the council. "The peers of the realme receiving letters to prepare themselves to attend the king in this journey, and no apparent necessarie cause expressed, why or wherefore, seemed to grudge that such a costly journey should be taken in handwithout consent of the whole boarde of the Counsaille."

MALONE.

• Must fetch him in he papers.] He papers, a verb; his own letter, by his own single authority, and without the concurrence of the council, must fetch him in whom he papers down. I don't understand it, unless this be the meaning.

POPE.

Wolsey published a list of the several persons whom he had appointed to attend on the King at this interview. See Hall's Chronicle, Rymer's Fœdera, Tom. XIII. &c. STEEvens.

9 Have broke their backs with laying manors on them

For this great journey.] In the ancient Interlude of Nature, bl. 1. no date, but apparently printed in the reign of King Henry VIII. there seems to have been a similar stroke aimed at this expensive expedition:

66

Pryde. I am unhappy, I se it well,

"For the expence of myne apparell

But minister communication of

A most poor issue?1

NOR.

Grievingly I think,

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

BUCK.

Every man,

After the hideous storm that follow'd,2 was

"Towardys this vyage

"What in horses and other aray

"Hath compelled me for to lay
"All my land to mortgage."

Chapman has introduced the same idea into his version of the second Iliad:

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Proud-girle-like, that doth ever beare her dowre upon her backe." STEEVENS.

So, in King John :

"Rash, inconsiderate, fiery voluntaries,

"Have sold their fortunes at their native homes,
"Bearing their birth-rights proudly on their backs,
"To make a hazard of new fortunes here."

Again, in Camden's Remains, 1605: "There was a nobleman merrily conceited, and riotously given, that having lately sold a mannor of an hundred tenements, came ruffling into the court, saying, am not I a mighty man, that beare an hundred houses on my backe?" MALONE.

See also Dodsley's Collection of Old Plays, edit. 1780, Vol. V. p. 26; Vol. XII. p. 395. REED.

So also Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy: ""Tis an ordinary thing to put a thousand oakes, or an hundred oxen, into a sute of apparell, to weare a whole manor on his back." Edit. 1634, p. 482. WHALLEY.

1 What did this vanity,

But minister &c.] What effect had this pompous show, but the production of a wretched conclusion. JOHNSON.

2

Every man,

After the hideous storm that follow'd, &c.] From Holinshed:"Monday the xviii. of June was such an hideous storme of wind and weather, that many conjectured it did prognosticate trouble and hatred shortly after to follow between princes."Dr. Warburton has quoted a similar passage from Hall, whom

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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.

ABER.

8

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 laying manors on them For this great journey. What did this vanity,

7-council out,] Council not then sitting. JOHNSON. The expression rather means, "all mention of the board of council being left out of his letter." STEEVENS.

That is, left out, omitted, unnoticed, unconsulted with.

RITSON.

It appears from Holinshed, that this expression is rightly explained by Mr. Pope in the next note: without the concurrence of the council. "The peers of the realme receiving letters to prepare themselves to attend the king in this journey, and no apparent necessarie cause expressed, why or wherefore, seemed to grudge that such a costly journey should be taken in handwithout consent of the whole boarde of the Counsaille."

MALONE.

• Must fetch him in he papers.] He papers, a verb; his own letter, by his own single authority, and without the concurrence of the council, must fetch him in whom he papers down. I don't understand it, unless this be the meaning.

POPE. Wolsey published a list of the several persons whom he had appointed to attend on the King at this interview. See Hall's Chronicle, Rymer's Fœdera, Tom. XIII. &c. STEEVENS.

9 Have broke their backs with laying manors on them

For this great journey.] In the ancient Interlude of Nature, bl. 1. no date, but apparently printed in the reign of King Henry VIII. there seems to have been a similar stroke aimed at this expensive expedition:

"Pryde. I am unhappy, I se it well,

"For the expence of myne apparell

But minister communication of

A most poor issue?1

NOR.

Grievingly I think,

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

BUCK.

Every man,

After the hideous storm that follow'd, was

"Towardys this vyage

"What in horses and other aray

"Hath compelled me for to lay
"All my land to mortgage."

Chapman has introduced the same idea into his version of the second Iliad:

"Proud-girle-like, that doth ever beare her dowre upon her backe." STEEVENS.

So, in King John :

Rash, inconsiderate, fiery voluntaries,

"Have sold their fortunes at their native homes,

66

Bearing their birth-rights proudly on their backs, "To make a hazard of new fortunes here.'

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Again, in Camden's Remains, 1605: "There was a nobleman merrily conceited, and riotously given, that having lately sold a mannor of an hundred tenements, came ruffling into the court, saying, am not I a mighty man, that beare an hundred houses on my backe?" MALONE.

See also Dodsley's Collection of Old Plays, edit. 1780, Vol. V. p. 26; Vol. XII. p. 395. REED.

So also Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy: ""Tis an ordinary thing to put a thousand oakes, or an hundred oxen, into a sute of apparell, to weare a whole manor on his back." Edit. 1634, p. 482. WHALLEY.

1 What did this vanity,

But minister &c.] What effect had this pompous show, but the production of a wretched conclusion. JOHNSON.

2

Every man,

After the hideous storm that follow'd, &c.] From Holinshed: Monday the xviii. of June was such an hideous storme of wind and weather, that many conjectured it did prognosticate trouble and hatred shortly after to follow between princes."Dr. Warburton has quoted a similar passage from Hall, whom

VOL. XV.

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