(With thee, and all thy best parts bound together,) Far from his fuccour, from the king, from all Abfolv'd him with an axe. Wol. This, and all else This talking lord can lay upon my credit, I answer, is moft falfe. The duke by law Found his deferts: how innocent I was From any private malice in his end, His noble jury and foul caufe can witness. Dare mate a founder man than Surrey can be, Sur. By my foul, Your long coat, prieft, protects you; thou should't feel My fword i'the life-blood of thee elfe.-My lords, Can ye endure to hear this arrogance? And from this fellow? If we live thus tamely, To be thus jaded by a piece of fcarlet, Is poifon to thy ftomach. Sur. Yes, that goodness Of gleaning all the land's wealth into one, To be thus jaded—] To be abufed and ill treated, like a worthless horfe: or perhaps to be ridden by a prieft ;—to have him mounted above us. MALONE. 7 And dare us with his cap, like larks.] It is well known that the hat of a cardinal is fcarlet; and the method of daring larks was by fmall mirrors faftened on fcarlet cloth, which engaged the attention of thefe birds while the fowler drew his net over them. The fame thought occurs in Skelton's Why come ye not to Court ? i. e. a fatire on Wolfey: "The red hat with his lure "Bringeth all things under cure." STEEVENS. G 4 Into Into your own hands, cardinal, by extortion; You writ to the pope against the king: your goodness, Who, if he live, will scarce be gentlemen,- Worfe than the facring bell, when the brown wench Wol. How much, methinks, I could defpife this man, But that I am bound in charity against it! Nor. Thofe articles, my lord, are in the king's hand; But, thus much, they are foul ones. Wol. So much fairer, And fpotlefs, fhall mine innocence arise, Sur. This cannot fave you : I thank my memory, I yet remember Wol. Speak on, fir; I dare your worst objections: if I blush, It is, to fee a nobleman want manners. Sur. I'd rather want thofe, than my head. Have at you, First, that, without the king's affent, or knowledge, You wrought to be a legate; by which power You maim'd the jurifdiction of all bithops. Nor. Then, that, in all you writ to kome, or else Who,-] Old Copy-Wbom. Corrected in the fecond folio. MALONE, Worse than the facring bell,-] The little bell, which is rung to give notice of the Hoft approaching when it is carried in proceffion, as alfo in other offices of the Romish church, is called the jacring or confecration bell; from the French word, facrer. THEOBALD. So, in Reginald Scott's Difcovery of Witchcraft, 1584: "He heard a little facring bell ring to the elevation of a to-morrow mafs." The now obfolete verb to facre, is ufed by P. Holland in his tranflation of Pliny's Nat. Hift. B. X. ch. vi. STEEVENS. To To foreign princes, Ego et Rex meus Was ftill infcrib'd; in which you brought the king Suf. Then, that, without the knowledge Sur. Item, you sent a large commiffion Without the king's will, or the ftate's allowance, Suf. That, out of mere ambition, you have caus'd Sur. Then, that you have fent innumerable fubftance, (By what means got, I leave to your own confcience,) To furnish Rome, and to prepare the ways You have for dignities; to the mere undoing? Of all the kingdom. Many more there are; Which, fince they are of you, and odious, I will not taint my mouth with. Cham. O my lord, Prefs not a falling man too far; 'tis virtue: His faults lie open to the laws; let them, Not you, correct him. My heart weeps to fee him Sur. I forgive him. Suf. Lord cardinal, the king's further pleasure is,- Out 9to the mere undoing-] Mere is abfolute. So, in the Honeft Man's Fortune, by B. and Fletcher: 15 - I am as happy "In my friend's good, as if 'twere merely mine." STEEEV. See Vol. I. p. 7, n. 3. MALONE. I-of a præmunire,] It is almost unneceffary to obferve that præmunire is a barbarous word ufed inftead of præmonere, STEEVENS. Chattels, and whatsoever,] The old copy has Cafles. The e mendation Out of the king's protection :-This is my charge. The king hall know it, and, no doubt, fhall thank you. mendation was made by Mr. Theobald, and is, I think, fully juftified by the pallage in Holinfhed's Chronicle on which this is founded; in which it is obfervable that the word chattels is fpelt cattels, which might have been easily confounded with caftles: "After this, in the kings bench his matter for the pramunire being called upon, two attornies which he had authorifed by his warrant figned with his own hand, confeiled the action, and fo had judgement to forfeit all his landes, tenements, goods, and cattels, and to be put out of the king's protection." CHRON. Vol. II. p. 909. MALONE. 3 This is the fate of man; To-day he puts forth The tender leaves of bope, &c.] So, in our author's 25th Sonnet: "Great princes' favourites their fair leaves Spread, 4 But as the marigold in the fun's eye; "And in themfelves their pride lies buried, - nips his root,] "As fpring-frofts are not injurious to the roots of fruit-trees," Dr. Warburton reads-foot. Such capricious alterations I am fometimes obliged to mention, merely to introduce the notes of thole, who, while they have fhewn them to be unnecessary, have illuftrated our author. MALONE. Vernal frofts indeed do not kill the root, but then to nip the boots does not kill the tree or make it fall. The metaphor will not in either reading correfpond exactly with nature. JOHNSON. I adhere to the old reading, which is countenanced by the following paffage in A. W's Commendation of Gascoigne and bis Poefies: And frofts fo nip the routes of vertuous-meaning minds." See Gafcoigne's Works, 1587. STLEVENS. Bu But far beyond my depth: my high-blown pride Enter CROMWELL, amazedly. Why, how now, Cromwell? Crom. I have no power to speak, fir. Wol. What, amaz'd At my misfortunes? can thy fpirit wonder, A great man fhould decline? Nay, an you weep, Crom. How does your grace? Wol. Why, well; Never fo truly happy, my good Cromwell. A peace above all earthly dignities, A till and quiet confcience. The king has cur'd me, A load would fink a navy, too much honour: and their ruin,] That is, their difpleasure, producing the downfall and ruin of him on whom it lights. So before: "He parted frowning from me, as if ruin 6 And when be falls, be falls like Lucifer,] So, in Churchyard's Legend of Cardinal Wolfey, MIRROUR FOR MAGISTRATES, 1587: "Your fault not hair fo great as was my pride, "For which offence fell Lucifer from the fkies." MALONE. In the Life and Death of Thomas Wolfey, &c. a poem, by Tho. Storer, ftudent of Chrift-church, in Oxford, 1599, the cardinal exprefies him felf in a manner fomewhat fimilar: "If once we fall, we fail Coloffus-like, "We fall at once like pillars of the funne," &c. STEEVENS. O, 'tis |