Give him a little earth for charity!

So went to bed: where eagerly his fickness Purfu'd him ftill; and, three nights after this, About the hour of eight, (which he himself Foretold, fhould be his laft,) full of repentance Continual meditations, tears, and forrows,

He

gave his honours to the world again,

His bleffed part to heaven, and slept in peace. KATH. So may he reft; his faults lie gently on him!

Yet thus far, Griffith, give me leave to speak him,
And yet with charity,-He was a man

Of an unbounded ftomach," ever ranking
Himself with princes; one, that by fuggeftion
Ty'd all the kingdom: fimony was fair play;

6 Of an unbounded ftomach,] i. e. of unbounded pride, or haughtiness. So, Holinfhed, fpeaking of King Richard III: "Such a great audacitie and fuch a ftomach reigned in his bodie." STEEVENS.

7one, that by fuggeftion

Ty'd all the kingdom:] The word fuggeftion, fays the critick, [Dr. Warburton] is here ufed with great propriety and feeming knowledge of the Latin tongue: and he proceeds to fettle the fenfe of it from the late Roman writers and their gloffers. But Shakspeare's knowledge was from Holinfhed, whom he follows verbatim:

"This cardinal was of a great ftomach, for he compted himfelf equal with princes, and by craftie fuggeftion got into his hands innumerable treafure: he forced little on fimonie, and was not pitifull, and food affectionate in his own opinion: in open prefence he would lie and feie untruth, and was double both in fpeech and meaning; he would promife much and perform little he was vicious of his bodie, and gave the clergie euil example." Edit. 1587, p. 922.

Perhaps after this quotation, you may not think, that Sir Thomas Hanmer, who reads tyth'd-inftead of ty'd all the kingdom, deferves quite fo much of Dr. Warburton's feverity.-Indifputably the paffage, like every other in the fpeech, is intended to exprefs the meaning of the parallel one in the chronicle; it cannot therefore be credited, that any man, when the original was produced, should ftill choose to defend a cant acceptation, and inform us, perhaps,

His own opinion was his law: I'the prefence
He would fay untruths; and be ever double,

Seriously, that in gaming language, from I know not what practice, to tye is to equal! A fenfe of the word, as I have yet found, unknown to our old writers; and, if known, would not furely have been used in this place by our author.

But let us turn from conjecture to Shakspeare's authorities. Hall, from whom the above defcription is copied by Holinfhed, is very explicit in the demands of the cardinal: who having infolently told the lord mayor and aldermen, "For fothe I thinke, that halfe vour fubftance were too little," affures them by way of comfort at he end of his harangue, that upon an average the tythe fhould be fufficient; Sirs, fpeake not to breake that thyng that is concluded, for fome fhall not paie the tenth parte, and Jome more.". And again; "Thei faied, the cardinall by vifitacions, makyng of abbottes, probates of teftamentes, graunting of faculties, licences, and other pollyngs in his courtes legantines, had made his threafure egall with the kynges." Edit. 1548, p. 138, and 143.

66

FARMER. In Storer's Life and Death of Tho. Wolfey, a poem, 1599, the Cardinal fays:

"I car'd not for the gentrie, for I had
"Tithe-gentlemen, yong nobles of the land," &c.
STEEVENS.

Ty'd all the kingdom.] i. e. he was a man of an unbounded ftomach, or pride, ranking himfelf with princes, and by fuggeftion to the king and the pope, he ty'd, i. e. limited, circumfcribed, and fet bounds to the liberties and properties of all perfons in the kingdom. That he did fo, appears from various paffages in the play. Act II. fc. ii. "free us from his flavery,"" or this imperious man will work us all from princes into pages: all men's honours," &c. A& III. fc. ii. "You wrought to be a legate, by which power you maim'd the jurifdiction of all bishops." See alfo Act I. fc. i. and A&t III. fc. ii. This conftruction of the paffage may be fupported from D'Ewes's Journal of Queen Elizabeth's Parliaments, p. 644: " Far be it from me that the ftate and prerogative of the prince fhould be tied by me, or by the act of any other fubject."

Dr. Farmer has difplayed fuch eminent knowledge of Shakfpeare, that it is with the utmoft diffidence I diffent from the alteration which he would establish here. He would read yth'd, and refers to the authorities of Hall and Holinfhed about a tax of the tenth, or tythe of each man's fubftance, which is not taken notice of in the play. Let it be remarked that it is Queen Ka

Both in his words and meaning: He was never,
But where he meant to ruin, pitiful:

His promises were, as he then was, mighty;
But his performance, as he is now, nothing."
Of his own body he was ill, and gave
The clergy ill example.

tharine fpeaks here, who, in Act I. fc. ii. told the king it was a demand of the fixth part of each fubject's fubftance, that caused the rebellion. Would the afterwards fay that he, i. e. Wolfey, had tythed all the kingdom, when the knew he had almost doubletythed it? Still Dr. Farmer infifts that "the paffage, like every other in the fpeech, is intended to exprefs the meaning of the parallel one in the Chronicle:" i. e. The cardinal " by craftie fuggeftion got into his hands innumerable treafure." This paffage does not relate to a publick tax of the tenths, but to the cardinal's own private acquifitions. If in this fenfe I admitted the alteration, tyth'd, I would fuppofe that, as the queen is defcanting on the cardinal's own acquirements, the borrows her term from the principal emolument or payment due to priests; and means to intimate that the cardinal was not content with the tythes legally accruing to him from his own various pluralities, but that he extorted fomething equivalent to them throughout all the kingdom. So, Buckingham fays, Act I. fc. i: "No man's pie is freed from his ambitious finger." So, again, Surrey fays, Act III. fc. ult. "Yes, that goodness of gleaning all the land's wealth into one, into your own hands, cardinal, by extortion:" and ibidem, "You have fent innumerable fubftance (by what means got, I leave to your own confcience) to the mere undoing of all the kingdom." This extortion is fo frequently fpoken of, that perhaps our author purpofely avoided a repetition of it in the paffage under confideration, and therefore gave a different fentiment declarative of the confequence of his unbounded pride, that muft humble all others.

TOLLET.

— as he is now, nothing.] So, in Maffinger's Great Duke of

Florence:

8

Great men

"Till they have gain'd their ends, are giants in

"Their promifes; but those obtain'd, weak pygmies
"In their performance." STEEVENS.

Of his own body he was ill,] A criminal connection with women was anciently called the vice of the body. So, in Holinshed,

GRIF.

Noble madam,

Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues We write in water. May it please your highness To hear me speak his good now?

ΚΑΤΗ.

I were malicious elfe.

66

Yes, good Griffith;

P. 1258: he laboured by all meanes to cleare mistresse Sanders of committing evill of her bodie with him." STEEVENS. So, the Protector fays of Jane Shore, Hall's Chronicle, Edw. IV. p. 16: "She was naught of her bodye." MALONE.

9

their virtues

We write in water.] Beaumont and Fletcher have the fame thought in their Philafter:

all your better deeds

"Shall be in water writ, but this in marble."

STEEVENS.

This reflection bears a great refemblance to a paffage in fir Tho. More's Hiftory of Richard III. whence Shakspeare undoubtedly formed his play on that fubject. Speaking of the ungrateful turns which Jane Shore experienced from thofe whom he had ferved in her profperity; More adds, "Men ufe, if they have an evil turne, to write it in marble, and whofo doth us a good turne, we write it in dufte." More's Works, bl. 1. 1557, P. 59.

PERCY. In Whitney's Emblemes, printed at Leyden, 4to. 1586, p. 183, is the following:

"Scribit in marmore læfus.

"In marble harde our harmes wee alwayes grave,
"Because, wee ftill will beare the fame in minde:
"In dufte wee write the benefittes we have,
"Where they are foone defaced with the winde.

"So, wronges wee houlde, and never will forgive;
"And foone forget, that still with us fhoulde live.”
Again, as Mr. Ritfon quotes from Harrington's Ariofto:
"Men fay it, and we fee it come to pass,

"Good turns in fand, fhrewd turns are writ in brass." To avoid an unneceffary multiplication of inftances, I fhall juft obferve, that the fame fentiment is found in Maffinger's Maid of Honour, A&t V. fc. ii. and Marston's Malecontent, Act II. fc. iii.

REED.

GRIF.

This cardinal,'

Though from an humble ftock, undoubtedly

9 This cardinal, &c.] This fpeech is formed on the following paffage in Holinfhed: "This cardinal, (as Edmond Campion in his Hiftorie of Ireland defcribed him,) was a man undoubtedly born to honour; I think, (faith he) fome prince's baftard, no butcher's fonne; exceeding wife, faire-fpoken, high-minded, full of revenge, vitious of his bodie, loftie to his enemies, were they never fo bigge, to thofe that accepted and fought his friendship wonderful courteous; a ripe fchooleman, thrall to affections, brought a bed with flatterie; infaciable to get, and more princelie in beftowing, as appeareth by his two colleges at Ipfwich and Oxenford, the one overthrown with his fall, the other unfinished, and yet as it lyeth, for an houfe of ftudentes, (confidering all the appurtenances,) incomparable throughout Chriftendome. He held and injoied at once the bishoprickes of Yorke, Durefme, and Winchefter, the dignities of Lord Cardinall, Legat, and Chancellor, the abbaie of St. Albons, diverfe priories, fundrie fat benefices in commendam ; a great preferrer of his fervants, an advauncer of learning, ftoute in every quarrel, never happy till this his overthrow: wherein he fhewed fuch moderation, and ended fo perfectlie, that the houre of his death did him more honour than all the pomp of his life paffed.".

When Shakspeare fays that Wolfey was "a fcholar from his cradle," he had probably in his thoughts the account given by Cavendish, which Stowe has copied :-Cardinal Wolfey was an honeft, poor man's fonne-who, being but a child, was very apt to learne; wherefore by means of his parents and other his good friends he was maintained at the univerfity of Oxford, where in a fhort time he profpered fo well, that in a small time, (as he told me with his owne mouth,) he was made bachelour of arts, when he was but fifteen years of age, and was most commonly called the boy batchelour." See alfo Wolfey's Legend, Mirrour for Magiftrates, 1587.

I have here followed the punctuation of the old copy, where there is a full point at honour, and From his cradle begins a new fentence. This punctuation has likewife been adopted in the late editions. Mr. Theobald, however, contends that we ought to point thus:

"Was fafhion'd to much honour from his cradle." And it must be owned that the words of Holinthed, here thrown

"Became him like the leaving it;-." STEEVENS.